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MFE Culture

 
We are excited that you are considering the UCLA Anderson MFE program as the next step in your journey! Here are some of the best parts of being a student at UCLA Anderson.

UCLA Anderson culture: The vibe here is similar to that of the many companies our students join: collaborative, innovative and impact-oriented. These attributes are reflected in our three pillars:

We Share Success

We believe the best route to success is through collaboration.

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We Think Fearlessly

Here you will be encouraged to push past the expected with your thinking.

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We Drive Change

Our students, faculty and alumni are committed to questioning the status quo and making an impact.

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A Commitment to Diversity

Diversity isn't a buzzword at UCLA Anderson, it's a way of life. No matter your background, gender, culture, or ideas, we believe diversity leads to a more educated and inclusive community.


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The UCLA Anderson experience
 
Your learning experience will be nested in a top-notch business school! That means you will be exposed daily to the broader world of business, in addition to the world of financial engineering. Our centers and programs offer a connection to the larger world of business, including the Fink Center for Finance and our Venture Accelerator. And there are many student experiences to amplify your journey, including the Quant Finance Fink Fellowship and various case competitions.

You will learn from top-ranked finance faculty, hear from forward-thinking speakers and have access to exclusive UCLA Anderson events.
Patrick Augustin

Visiting Professor

Patrick Augustin is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Macrofinance and Derivatives and is an Associate Fellow at the Canadian Derivatives Institute. He holds a PhD degree in Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics, and held visiting research positions at the New York University Stern School of Business, the Stockholm School of Economics, the University of Sydney, and the Luxembourg School of Finance. He is certified as Financial Risk Manager by the Global Association of Risk Professionals, and served as a Fellow at the Global Future Councils of the World Economic Forum. Before joining academia, he worked as a structured credit officer at Dexia and as attaché to the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Patrick’s research interests lie at the intersection of macroeconomics and financial markets with a focus on sovereign credit risk, firm fundamentals and credit risk with a focus on credit derivatives, and law and finance with a focus on insider trading. His work has been published in the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, Management Science, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, among others. His work has been widely covered in the financial press, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fortune, and The Globe and Mail.

Mikhail Chernov
Professor of Finance; Faculty Director of the Master of Financial Engineering Program; Warren C. Cordner Chair in Money and Financial Markets
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Alex Dill
Lecturer in Law

Alexander Dill teaches Financial Market Regulation in UCLA’s Anderson School of Management’s Master of Financial Engineering program and Financial Institution Compliance at the UCLA School of Law. He also teaches financial regulation, risk management, and compliance in the University of Chicago’s Financial Mathematics program. He worked in the finance industry since 1986, leaving it in 2015 to begin a career in academia. He spent most of his career at Moody’s Investors Service, where he held a number of positions, which included Head of Global Covenant Research, Senior Credit Officer in Moody’s Structured Finance Group, and Moody’s Global Ratings Compliance Officer for Structured Finance. He helped design and implement a first-of-its-kind ratings compliance system to address conflicts in the credit ratings process in the aftermath of the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals. Prior to Moody’s, he was a Branch Chief in Trading Practices at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. He began his law career in New York, specializing in secured lending, bankruptcy issues, and bank regulatory matters.

He has published numerous articles on financial regulation, compliance, and risk management.  He has been interviewed by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal and has published an op-ed in the Financial Times. His two books are Anti-Money Laundering Regulation and Compliance: Key Issues and Problem Areas (Edward Elgar: 2021) and Bank Regulation, Risk Management, and Compliance: Theory, Key Issues, and Problem Areas (Routledge: 2019).

Andrea Eisfeldt
Professor of Finance; Laurence D. and Lori W. Fink Endowed Chair in Finance
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Valentin Haddad
Associate Professor of Finance
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Bernard Herskovic
Assistant Professor
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Mark Kim

Assistant Professor of Accounting

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Lars Lochstoer
Associate Professor of Finance
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Francis Longstaff
Allstate Chair in Insurance and Finance
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John O'Brien
Visiting Professor
Stavros Panageas
Professor of Finance
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Ehud Peleg
Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance
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Peter Rossi
Collins Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Economics and Statistics
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Avanidhar Subrahmanyam
Distinguished Professor of Finance; Goldyne and Irwin Hearsh Chair in Money and Banking
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Ben Tsai
Lecturer

Benjamin Tsai (MBA '01) is the Co-Founder, President & Managing Partner at Wave Financial, an SEC registered investment advisor focused on blockchain and cryptocurrencies with over $1B assets under management. Based in Los Angeles, he serves as the creator and portfolio manager to Wave's Kentucky Whiskey Fund, Select 5 Crypto Fund, BTC Income & Growth Fund, and other strategies for wealth management.

Previously, Ben served as the Head of Alternative Investments Asia Pacific at AllianceBernstein for 3 years. His finance career started at (Bank of America) Merrill Lynch, where he spent 12 years stationed in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore, running derivative products desks for both equity and fixed income, subsequently the commodities desk. He has a BS from UC Berkeley, MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA.

Honors/Awards: TADS Best in Class Asset Backed Token Award for Wave Kentucky Whiskey 2020 Digital Fund

Current and past securities licenses:

  • US FINRA Series 3, 7, 65
  • Hong Kong SFC Type 1, 2, 4, 9
  • JSDA Level I, II, Internal Administrator
  • Singapore MAS Registered Representative
  • Taiwan SITCA Registered Representative
Jinyuan Zhang

Assistant Professor of Finance

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Outside the Classroom

Your entire journey is an experience, but there are endless possibilities within it.
 None of them will disappoint.

UCLA Athletics

Discounted student single-day and season tickets to UCLA Football and Men’s Basketball and student tickets to all other sports.

Visit UCLABruins.com

Dining

Take advantage of dining facilities throughout campus as well as Westwood Village which offers outstanding restaurants.

Where to Eat at UCLA

Melnitz Movies

Free screenings to new and classic films, plus Q&As with directors, actors, and producers at the film school.

Melnitz Movies Information

Fitness & Recreation

Access to all UCLA Fitness and recreation facilities such as the Wooden Center, Sunset Canyon Recreation Center, and Kinross Recreation Center for $50 per quarter.

Visit UCLA Recreation

CES (January)

Coming into its fourth year, CES at UCLA Anderson is an exclusive event that gives you exclusive access to leading-edge tech. You'll learn from progressive startups from L.A., Silicon Beach and the UCLA Anderson community, see groundbreaking technologies and prototypes from labs across UCLA, and interact with key exhibitors from the annual CES in Las Vegas.

PULSE (February)

UCLA Anderson’s Pulse Entertainment, Sports & Technology Conference brings together more than 400 MBA students, alumni and leading industry executives to share insights and perspectives on the what’s impacting the ever-changing entertainment and sports industries. Past speakers include: Mike Hopkins (’01), CEO of Hulu; and Peter Guber, co-owner of the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Dodgers.

CREATE - Entrepreneurship Conference (March)

Our annual CREATE Conference welcomes an audience of more than 400 students, alumni, faculty, entrepreneurs and professionals to share valuable insights on current topics in entrepreneurship, critical business skills and emerging opportunities. It also includes ample opportunity to network with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, developers and UCLA Anderson faculty and students

Real Impressions of MFE Culture
 

Mina's Takes: Culture

Mina Yuan (MFE ’20), Amazon Web Services business operations analyst and vlogger extraordinaire, came to UCLA Anderson from her home town of Toronto to find that Los Angeles was, in her words, “dreamy.” Despite the pandemic, she and her classmates bonded over every California experience.

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UCLA Anderson Financial Engineers Collaborate to Solve Problems

Michelle Katzen (MFE ’10), managing director of HCR Wealth Advisors, remembers her experiences with her classmates — the collaboration, the problem-solving, the time hanging out — and how they influece her more than a decade later.

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Signature Events
 
As a UCLA Anderson MFE student, you will gain access to industry leaders in a variety of contexts. Whether through conferences, events, guest speaker series or visiting faculty, you’ve never been more connected to the leading thinkers and practitioners in business.

Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series

Renowned business leaders share insights into their professional journeys and perspectives on current business issues.

CES@UCLA Anderson

The preeminent technology and innovation conference and exhibition.

Fink Investing Conference

Finance executives share investing insights and career advice accumulated over years in the industry.

Woo Greater China Business Conference

U.S. and China business leaders convene to share their thoughts and perspectives on the changing dynamics, implications and future of U.S.-China relations.

UCLA Anderson Forecast

Quarterly economic forecast for the nation, California and Los Angeles.