Honorary Staff - Durham University Business School

Department of Finance

Honorary Staff Member	Short Biography
Yang Song Honorary Fellow	Yang Song founded property business PDI Capital Ltd, a company specializing in property development and investment in the UK. Prior to this he held a senior sales and marketing role at Hutchinson Europe.
Ian Baggett Professor-In-Practice	Ian Baggett is the Founder CEO of Adderstone Group, one of the largest privately owned companies in the Northeast of England. This Professor in Practice post is joint between the Department of Finance and the Department of Management & Marketing at Durham University Business School.
John French Professor-In-Practice	A respected specialist in sustainability and renewables with a diverse range of biological and environmental science, academic, business and real estate experience with a strong track record in infrastructure funding and venture capital.
Sarah Pritchard Professor-In-Practice	Sarah Pritchard is the Executive Director for Markets and International at the Financial Conduct Authority. She has considerable experience in financial markets, regulation, and policy.
Stephen Withnell Professor-In-Practice	Stephen Withnell's background is as an investment banker working across a range of asset classes. A large proportion of Stephen’s career was at Goldman Sachs working in commodities and the financing of commodity firms. At present Stephen runs his own financial intermediation firm.
Abdullah Al Shami Visiting Fellow	Dr Al Shami has over ten years of experience and expertise in the field of Economics and Finance. Since obtaining his PhD in Finance from Durham University in 2018, he has had key roles within academia and industry. He is currently Director General of Arabic Planning Institute and CEO at Cavaliere Consulting. He is also Head of the Auditing and Risk Committee at the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and is a Board member and Investment Committee member at the same institution.
Issam Z Al Tawari Visiting Fellow	Dr Al Tawari is a knowledgeable finance professional, with over thirty years of experience in the banking industry, who since 2015 has been focussed in his current role on giving investment banking advice to financial institutions in the GCC and providing infrastructure support to SME’s in Kuwait.
Alex Buditskiy Senior Visiting Fellow	Dr Alex Buditskiy is a practitioner-educator with over 15 years experience in finance, behavioural economics, and business valuation. His work bridges academia and industry, with a focus on private equity, real estate investment, and venture-backed businesses. He has held executive roles as CFO and COO in private equity real estate ventures and served as Chief Analytical Consultant on £160 million in development projects in Prime Central London. He is also a founder and advisor to several early-stage companies across Europe. Dr Buditskiy previously served on the MBA Advisory Board at Durham University Business School and contributed to its Boardroom Simulation programme. He was a member of the Executive Expert Board of the European Commission's Horizon Europe initiative, and is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of International Bankers. He holds a PhD in Behavioural Economics and and MBA in Finance (Distinction), and has published on valuation, corporate finance, and strategic management. His teaching includes MBA and MSc-level masterclasses in venture capital, valuation, and AI's economic impact on emerging markets.
Parik Chandra Visiting Fellow	Parik Chandra is a knowledgeable finance professional, with over twenty years of banking and finance experience, specialising in real estate finance. Currently a Partner at a fund management business but with broad experience working for banks and marketplace lending platforms also.
Allan Malz Visiting Fellow	Professor Malz spent the majority of his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with the last three (2011 to 2014) as the Vice President and Senior Advisor in the Markets Group. From 2017 onwards he split his time between running an $8 Billion investment portfolio for a “Family Office” and as an adjunct professor at Columbia University in New York. His expertise lies in the areas of financial risk management; central banking; derivatives and securization, alternative investments; and foreign exchange.
Geoff Robinson Visiting Fellow	A seasoned investment professional, Geoff Robinson excels in building and revolutionising businesses within the investment management sector.
Matthew Sekerke Visiting Fellow	Economist and applied mathematician with nearly two decades of experience designing, executing, and interpreting economic research and data analyses for diverse audiences in the financial services sector. Strong modeling and hands-on programming experience in statistics, econometrics, and ML/AI applications. Subject-matter expertise in economics, financial engineering, and multiple financial asset classes.
Keith White-Hunt Visiting Fellow	With a career spanning 50 years, Professor White-Hunt has held senior posts in academia, business and government in the Asia-Pacific Region; Middle East & Africa; and USA; as well as in the UK & EU. Extensive research experience with over 100 personal publications, as well as in the supervision of individual postgraduates and management of team-based research projects. While having broad interests, his field of expertise converges around the theme of Strategic, Change and Crises Management, whether driven by technology; environmental; regulatory; QA; domestic or international market competition; and political and security factors.