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Guest Speakers | Executive MBA Finance | WU Executive Academy

Executive MBA Finance | Guest Speakers

Insights from experts

In terms of timing and topic, special emphasis is put on ensuring that there is a thematic link between the guest lecture (and, thus, the distinguished guest speaker's sphere of activity) and the subjects covered in class. The purpose of these events is to help our students realize the practical relevance and significance of what they have learned. They get to know organizations from a wide range of industries, and the real-world insights and best practices that the distinguished guest speakers share with them perfectly complement the solid academic foundation of the Executive MBA Finance. A lecture lasts about 90 minutes and is typically followed by an informal cocktail reception, meaning there is plenty of opportunity to ask questions and engage in a lively exchange of ideas and opinions with the distinguished guest speaker. In the past, our students received not only valuable subject-matter input but also many useful career tips on these occasions.

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Portrait Nandu Nayar

Nandu Nayar

  • Professor of Finance | Lehigh University | U.S.A.

A fireplace chat is a huge opportunity for students to listen and indeed to participate in a discussion to see that the real world outcomes are influenced by theory but there are twists along the way. Students will benefit in a way that no normal classroom lecture can provide because students see concepts discussed in a conversational manner which makes the concepts more meaningful and easier to relate to. I enjoyed having a stimulating conversation with the industry speaker and the students.

List of distinguished guest speakers

As the following list shows, we have been privileged to welcome distinguished guest speakers from a varied range of industries, positions and countries to the Executive MBA Finance:

  • "Treasury Management" | Module "Investment Management"
    Gerald Reidinger | Head of Finance and Investor Relations | EVN AG, Maria Enzersdorf | 09/2013
  • "Developments in Interest Rate Derivatives Trading since 2008" | Module "Financial Risk Management and Financial Innovation in Global Financial Markets"
    Wolfgang Pammer | Head of Non-Linear Trading in Europe | Morgan Stanley, London | 11/2013
  • "Business Valuation – Art or Science?" | Module "Business Valuation and Creating Value by Corporate Restructuring"
    Andreas Wosol | Senior Portfolio Manager & Senior Vice President (European Value Stock Porfolios) | Pioneer Investments, Dublin | 03/2014
  • "Behavioral Biases in Individual Financial Decision-Making" | Module "Behavioral Finance"
    Brigitte Madrian | Aetna Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management | Harvard Kennedy School of Government | 05/2014
  • "Bank Capital and the Low Risk Anomaly" | Module "Behavioral Finance"
    Malcolm Baker | Robert G. Kirby Professor of Business Administration, Unit Head, Finance | Harvard Business School | 05/2014
  • "The European Financial and Economic Crisis - from the Perspective of the USA" | Gala dinner speech
    Jeffry Frieden | Professor of Government, Harvard University | 05/2014
  • "The Role of the Federal Reserve in the US Financial System" | José L. Fillat | Senior Financial Economist | Federal Reserve Bank of Boston | 05/2014
  • "Monetary Policy and the Financial Crisis" | Joe Peek | Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston | 05/2014
  • "Issues in Assessing the U.S. Outlook" | Giovanni Olivei | Vice President and Economist | Federal Reserve Bank of Boston | 05/2014
  • "Introducing S&P Capital IQ" | Brian Withka | Director | S&P Capital IQ | 05/2014
  • "Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services: An Introduction" | Kurt Forsgren | Managing Director - Boston Office Head | Standard & Poors Ratings Services | 05/2014
  • "Mathematical Modeling in Energy Trading: A Practical Overview" | Module "Financial Risk Management and Financial Innovation in Global Financial Markets"
    Gerold Petritsch | Quantitative Analyst, Research & Analysis Department | e&t Energie, Vienna | 11/2014
  • "Will Capital Market Products Be Able to Substitute Bank Loans?" | Module "Corporate Finance"
    Gottfried Ransmayr | Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets | UniCredit Bank Austria AG, Vienna | 01/2015
  • "Corporate Valuation beyond Basic Valuation Models" | Module "Business Valuation and Creating Value by Corporate Restructuring"
    Alexander Knourek | CFO and Executive Vice President Finance & Administration | EVVA Sicherheitstechnologie GmbH, Vienna | 03/2015
  • "A Trend in Financial Markets: Risk Premia Investing" | Module "Financial Risk Management and Financial Innovation in Global Financial Markets"
    Thomas Weitz | Associate in Macro Structuring, Goldman Sachs, London | 09/2015
  • "Enterprise Risk Management" | Module "Financial Risk Management and Financial Innovation in Global Financial Markets"
    Harald Hauer, MBA | Head of Insurance | VERBUND AG, Vienna | 11/2015
  • "From Red Line to Blue Line Management. Views on Value Creation and an Integrated Approach to Corporate Finance." | Module "Corporate Finance"
    Peter Zydek, MBA | Group Director Shared Services | Telekom Austria, Vienna | 01/2016
  • Fireside Chat: "Mergers and Acquisitions at Western Union, Private Equity Financing" | Module "Business Valuation and Creating Value through Corporate Restructuring"
    Jan Hillered | Managing Partner | Round2 Capital Partners, Vienna
    Christian Czernich | Managing Director | carpima GmbH, Vienna | 03/2016
  • "The Fed and the Economy"
    Slavik Sheremirov | Economist | Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston | 05/2016
  • "MSCI Index Summary", "MSCI Analytics", "MSCI ESG Rating: The Next Generation of ESG Ratings: More Data, More Context, Better Decisions."
    various representatives of MSCI incl. Paul Riccardella | Executive Director | MSCI, Boston | 05/2016
  • "Pension Finance"
    Luis Viceira | Harvard Business School, USA | 05/2016
  • "Banking and Financial Regulation"
    David Scharfstein | Harvard Business School, USA | 05/2016
  • “Balanced Scorecard: Why Businesses Need Non-financial Metrics to Measure Performance" | Gala dinner speech
    Robert Kaplan | Harvard Business School, USA| 05/2016
  • "Insurance Investing - Challenges in the Current Environment" | Module "Selected Topics of Investment Management"
    Martin Bruckner | CEO/CIO | Allianz Investmentbank AG, Vienna | 09/2016
  • "Corporate Risk Management as Essential Part of Corporate Finance" | Module "Corporate Finance"
    Harald Hauer | Head of Insurance | Verbund AG, Vienna | 01/2017
  • "The Tool Kit of Corporate Finance with an Integrated View of the Real Estate Business in Western and Eastern Europe" | Module "Business Valuation and Creating Value by Corporate Restructuring"
    Oliver Schumy | CEO | Immofinanz AG, Vienna | 03/2017
  • "Behavioural Corporate Finance & Kapsch TrafficCom" | Module "Behavioral Corporate Finance"
    Ulrike Klemm-Pöttinger | Executive VP Finance | Kapsch TrafficCom AG, Vienna | 05/2017
  • "Selected Topics of Investment Management" | Module " Selected Topics of Investment Management"
    Walter Hausner | Head of Risk Management | Flick Family Office, Vienna | 09/2017
  • Fireside Chat: "Credit Risk: Measurement and Management" | Module "Financial Risk Management and Financial Innovation in Global Financial Markets"
    Gerhard Winkler | Head of the Supervisory Statistics, Models and Credit Quality Assessment Division | Austrian National Bank, Vienna & Michael Hanke | Chair | Institute of Finance | University of Liechtenstein | 11/2017
  • "Venture Capital Investing: How VCs assess, value and invest in startup-companies" | Module "Business Valuation and Creating Value by Corporate Restructuring"
    Arno Langwieser | Constantia Industries AG, New Business, Vienna | 03/2018
  • Fireside Chat: "Behavioral Corporate Finance – Theory Meets Practice" | Module "Behavioral Corporate Finance"
    Oliver Schumy | CEO | Immofinanz AG, Vienna & Manfred Frühwirth | Academic Director | Professional MBA Finance | WU Vienna | 05/2018
  • "The Business of Goldman Sachs"
    Dan Berglund | Managing Director, Securities Division and Jordan Davidson | Associate, Securities Division | Goldman Sachs, Boston | 05/2018
  • "The Fundamental Investment Process at Amundi Pioneer”
    Craig Sterling | Director of Core Equity and Head of Equity Research | Amundi Pioneer Asset Management, Boston | 05/2018
  • "Blackrock Factor ETFs" | Module "Selected Topics of Investment Management"
    Bahram Sadighian | Head of iShares Austria & Eastern Europe, together with Zohra Asef, Julia Resch and Omid Alimohammadi | BlackRock, Vienna | 09/2018
  • "Risk Management at OMV" | Module "Financial Risk Management and Financial Innovation in Global Financial Markets"
    Katharina Binder-Pöchacker | Head of Treasury & Risk Management | OMV AG, Vienna | 11/2018
  • Fireside Chat: "Theory Meets Practice in Corporate Finance" | Module "Corporate Finance"
    Gottfried Ransmayr | Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets | Unicredit Bank Austria, Vienna & Nandu Nayar | Professor of Finance and Hans Julius Bär Endowed Chair | Lehigh University | 01/2019
  • "Trading Strategies in Global Rate Markets" | Module "Selected Topics of Investment Management"
    Paval Wadhwa | Managing Director | JPMorgan, New York | 08/2019
  • "Foreign Exchange Risk Premia" | Module "Financial Risk Management"
    Georg Cejnek | Head of Research | ZZ Vermögensverwaltung GmbH, Vienna | 11/2019
  • "Valuation" | Module "Business Valuation 1"
    Nikolay Dinev | Senior Investment Manager | CUDOS Group, Vienna | 03/2020
  • "Tax Aspects of Cross-border Financing Transactions" | Module "Business Valuation 2"
    Christian Schmidt |  Director/Senior Tax Specialist | Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG, Munich | 03/2020
    Alumnus Professional MBA Finance 2017
  • "Corporate Restructuring" | Module "Behavioral Corporate Finance"
    Eduard Zehetner | Former CEO | Immofinanz AG, Vienna | 05/2020

Claudio Srepel

  • Area Optimization Lead | Vår Energi | Norway

The distinguished guest speaker events of the MBA Finance are key: at these events, I can see how the theory taught in the modules is used in practice, and that is what is most interesting for the MBA students.

Stephan Schuster

  • Senior Associate Real Estate Special Situations | Raiffeisen Bank International AG | Austria

The distinguished guest speaker events of the MBA Finance provide the very rare opportunity to learn directly from renowned business leaders. The areas covered by the guest speakers are aligned to the curriculum of the MBA, ensuring an excellent transfer from theory into practice. In addition, the receptions after the guest speaker presentations are outstanding opportunities to ask related questions to the guest speakers and expand one´s personal business network.

Andrey Korablev, MBA

  • Senior Manager | ZAO PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit | Russia

Thank you for your very structured program and distinguished tutors and guest speakers. You did great efforts to make our program practical, interesting and memorable. I am happy I have chosen the MBA Finance of WU Executive Academy.

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