Carol Alexander

Carol Alexander is a British professor, consultant, researcher and author in the fields of mathematics, finance, and economics. She currently serves as a Professor of Finance at the University of Sussex, a Visiting Professor at Peking University HSBC Business School, and Co-Editor of the Journal of Banking and Finance (Elsevier). She has edited many books on Finance, and she is the author of several books including the best-selling four-volume textbook series “Market Risk Analysis” (Wiley, 2008).
Carol is known for her public speaking and research contributions to financial econometrics, mathematical finance, financial derivatives, and most recently to cryptocurrency markets and the metaverse. She has also designed and implemented numerous mathematical models for pricing, trading, hedging and risk assessment for a variety of asset management, banking, centralised exchange, software and data clients including the New York Stock Exchange, the Intercontinental Exchange, Credit Agricole, CryptoCompare and the FTX US exchange.
==Education==
Carol holds a BSc in Mathematics with Experimental Psychology and a PhD in Algebraic Number Theory from the University of Sussex, and an MSc in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
==Career==
===Academic Career===
Carol started her academic life as a teaching and research assistant at the London School of Economics and Political Science, then at the University of Sussex as a Lecturer in Mathematics and Economics. In 1999 she took a Chair in Finance at the ICMA Centre of the University of Reading where she served for thirteen years. In 2012, she returned to the University of Sussex as Professor of Finance in the Business School. She also took up a Visiting Professorship at Peking University HSBC Business School in 2019.
===Industry Career===
Carol’s first, full-time industry role was as a bond analyst for London-based stockbroker Phillips and Drew (later UBS Asset Management). In 1990 she began her consultancy work with Hill Samuel Bank to implement the first generation GARCH models and with Equitable House Investments, advising the CEO on volatility trading models. In 1994, she designed the cointegration arbitrage software for Pennoyer Capital Management alongside working in various consulting capacities for Royal Dutch Shell, EDF Man, and Robert Fleming & Co. She then worked half-time as the Academic Director of Algorithmics Inc., where she designed software and training courses for clients. She also founded the first virtual academic journal on financial risk management, “Net Exposure”.
In 1998, Carol left academia entirely to become a Director and Head of Market Risk Modelling at Nikko Asset Management, London. During this period, she also wrote her first textbook “Market Models” and then she returned to full-time academic life at the University of Reading. During this period her consultancy work included: patenting her design of several models for active exchange traded funds with NYSE; acting as an expert witness for London law firm Richard’s Butler; Risk Research Advisor for SAS software; and risk model design for Credit Agricole CIB.
Carol also volunteered to develop the Professional Risk Manager’s International Association (PRMIA) over a period of ten years. First as Academic Director, she conceived and co-edited the three-volume Professional Risk Manager’s Handbook which underpins the PRM qualification, she founded and edited the industry journal “Intelligent Risk” and during the last two years she was Chair of the Board.
Returning to the University of Sussex in 2012, Carol’s industry career continued with several consultancy roles, including: the margin model validation for ICE Clear Europe; advising the DTSL on real option models; expert witness consultancy for Fideres, UK and for White and Case, US; and designing the first bitcoin volatility index for CryptoCompare, UK. She was also the lead margin model architect in the FTX US application for a CFTC license in 2022.
==References==
==External links==
* Official website
* 
* 
* 
* ‪Carol Alexander‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬
Category:1955 births
Category:British researchers
Category:Alumni of the University of Sussex
Category:Cryptocurrencies Expert
Category:British writers