As of 1 August 2021, Pablo Koch Medina took over from Marc Chesney as Head of the Department of Banking and Finance. Koch Medina has been an Associate Professor of Finance and Insurance in Department since 2016. The new Directorate is completed by Thorsten Hens (Deputy) and Per Östberg.

In a brief interview, Pablo Koch Medina explains his motivation for the new role and what his vision is for the Department:

What interested you in the role as Head of the Department?

For any professor the willingness to contribute to his or her department by taking a leadership position should be a given. This is part of university life and just plain good «corporate citizenship». At the same time, this type of engagement is also highly rewarding; it gives you the possibility to help your department grow towards a shared objective. I see it as a big challenge and responsibility and feel much honored by the trust my colleagues have placed on me.

What is your vision for the Department?

The world is undergoing a period of high-paced change that is also affecting academic institutions in substantive ways. Some of these changes come in the form of new emerging research topics, such as sustainability and the impact of digitalization, changing societal needs, for instance in terms of the types of skills expected from our graduates, or new expectations about the way we deliver educational content. One of my goals is to put the Department in a position to deal with these and other potential future changes in an adaptive way so as to continue to contribute to research excellence at UZH. In addition, I would like to continue to explore, together with the Department, the possibility of making insurance, next to banking and finance, a core topic of the Department.

We congratulate him warmly and wish him much success in his new role.

Pablo Koch Medina replaces Prof. Marc Chesney in his position as Head of the Department. Since 2015, Marc Chesney has shaped and contributed to the direction of the Department. His effort led to the anchoring of responsibility and sustainability aspects in the curricula of the study programs in Banking and Finance. The celebration of the Department’s 50th anniversary and the founding of the UZH Center of Competence for Sustainable Finance at the beginning of 2020 will be remembered as significant events. Marc Chesney stays a valuable member of the Department as Professor of Quantitative Finance and Chair of the Center of Competence for Sustainable Finance. We thank him sincerely for his commitment and dedication as head of the Department over the last six years.