Imperial seeks founding director of major new finance centre

Imperial College London is searching worldwide for an exceptional individual to become the founding director of the Brevan Howard Centre for Finance.

The new centre, which will spearhead cutting-edge research in financial market behaviour, will be funded by a transformational gift of £20.1 million from Brevan Howard, Europe’s most successful hedge fund, which was established by Imperial alumnus Alan Howard (MEng Chemical Engineering & Chemical Technology 1986).

The Brevan Howard Centre for Finance will dramatically enhance the Imperial College Business School’s expertise in financial economics and strengthen ties with other disciplines including engineering and computational finance. A key objective of the new initiative will be to disseminate rigorous, world-class research to reach and engage business practitioners, policy-makers, legislators and the wider public, as well as other academic experts. The new Centre will serve as a bridge between the Business School and the world of business, aiming to develop a greater understanding and more efficient management of risk, and to promote investment and productivity.

Sir Keith O’Nions, President & Rector of Imperial, said:
“Our ambition is for the Brevan Howard Centre for Finance to build a reputation on a par with Imperial’s world-class work in science, medicine and engineering. We are searching for an outstanding individual to drive the Centre’s pioneering mission, drawing on the spirit and strengths of inquiry already found at Imperial.

“Brevan Howard’s extraordinary generosity and vision will help transform Imperial College Business School into a global leader in financial economics. 

“This gift will enable us to make a profound contribution to advancing the economic understanding of financial market behaviour while improving policymaking around this crucial field.”