Biography

Thomas Walker holds a BSc in Management Information Systems (US-equivalent) from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, and an MBA and PhD degree in Finance from Washington State University. Dr. Walker joined Concordia University in 2001. Prior to his academic career, he worked for several years in the German consulting and industrial sector at such firms as Mercedes Benz, Utility Consultants International, Lahmeyer International, Telenet, and KPMG Peat Marwick.

His research interests are in risk management, corporate finance, venture capital, sustainability & climate change, fintech, corporate governance, securities regulation and litigation, insider trading, and institutional ownership, and he has published over seventy articles, book chapters, and edited books in these areas. Among others, his articles have been published in the Journal of Corporate Finance (5x), the Journal of Banking and Finance, Contemporary Accounting Research, Financial Management, the Journal of Financial Markets (2x), European Financial Management, Information Systems Frontiers, the Risk Management & Insurance Review, the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions, and Money, the Journal of Financial Stability, the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences (2x), and the working paper series of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is the lead editor of five books on sustainable financial systems, sustainable real estate, sustainable aviation, environmental policy, and emerging risk management. He has acted as a referee for numerous journals and has served on the peer-review committees of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN-PRI) Academic Network.

Dr. Walker currently serves as the principal investigator on research grants by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Autorité des marchés financiers, and the Global Risk Institute. In the past five years, he raised over $500,000 for various projects in the areas of corporate finance, investments, and emerging risk management (career total of managed/co-managed funds: approximately $2.5 million). In 2018, he founded the Emerging Risks Information Center (ERIC) which conducts targeted research on environmental, technological, and societal risks that affect our world today. Since its inception, the Center has employed over twenty Ph.D., Master’s, and undergraduate students who serve as research assistants and co-editors/co-authors on various research projects.

Dr. Walker has held numerous administrative and research positions at Concordia University. For instance, he served as Laurentian Bank Professor in Integrated Risk Management (2010-2015), Chair of the Finance Department (2011-2014), Director/Co-director of the David O’Brien Centre for Sustainable Enterprise (2015-2017), and as Associate Dean, Research and Research Programs (2016-2017). In addition, he has been an active member of various advisory boards and steering committees including the human resources group of Finance Montréal, the steering committee of the Montreal chapter of the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA), the academic advisory board of the MMI/Morningstar Sustainable Investing Initiative, the advisory board for Palgrave Macmillan’s Future Earth book series on sustainability, the advisory board of Concordia’s Institute of Aerospace Design & Innovation (CIADI), the advisory board of Concordia’s Institute for Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems (CIWESS), and the advisory board and scientific committee of the CN Centre for Sustainable Supply Chain Management.

Areas of expertise

• Risk Management
• Corporate Governance
• Securities Litigation & Regulation
• Insider Trading
• Corporate Sustainability
• Responsible Investing
• Climate Finance
• Initial Public Offerings
• Institutional Ownership
• Venture Capital

Edited book collections (part 1)