School of Accounting and Finance

Dr Amir Armanious is a subject coordinator and lecturer in finance at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Business School, with around two decades of academic experience spanning undergraduate, Master’s, MBA, and PhD programs. He has taught at local, regional, and international universities, bringing a wealth of cross-cultural and interdisciplinary teaching expertise.

Dr Armanious holds two PhDs in Applied Finance and Financial Economics, complemented by three Master’s degrees in Finance, Economics, and Strategic Planning, as well as three graduate certificates. His extensive academic qualifications underpin his research and teaching excellence.

Dr Armanious is a researcher in financial literacy, financial abuse, and financial fraud, integrating academic scholarship with industry practice. He played a central role in designing and coordinating the subject 25400 Financial Literacy. He contributes to the Financial Inclusion Action Plan (FIAP) and develops tailored financial literacy modules to enhance the knowledge and employability of UTS students.

His research adopts an interdisciplinary and impact-oriented approach, extending to entrepreneurship, responsible innovation, education, social impact, and future-focused teaching. He is particularly engaged in advancing student engagement, Generative AI applications in higher education, and assessment design, with an emphasis on preparing students for lifelong learning and leadership.

Dr Armanious has made significant contributions to student transition and success as the First and Further Year Experience (FFYE) Student Transition Coordinator, where he supports both students and staff and coordinates FFYE Forums. His impact has been recognised through prestigious awards, including:

• Runner-up for the Best Educator Award at the 2026 Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards (MAIAs).
• UTS Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Excellence Award in 2025.
• UTS Business School Achievement Award for Education and Student Experience in 2024.
• UTS Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Excellence Award in 2018.
• 2017 SIBT Learning and Teaching Excellence Award.
• Top Teaching awards for 2024, 2019, and 2018.

As a committed higher education leader, Dr Armanious is a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and serves as a mentor and reviewer within the UTS Educational Fellowship Program (EFP), supporting colleagues in achieving Advance HE recognition in fellowship and senior fellowship categories. He also contributes through committee service, including the Finance Department Education Committee and External Engagement and Student Engagement initiatives, as well as collaborations with UTS Startups.

Dr Armanious is the Academic Engagement Coordinator at the Centre for Business Intelligence and Data Analytics (BIDA). He also serves as Associate Editor of the Advances in Economics Education journal, regularly reviews for international journals, and coordinates academic conferences, shaping the next generation of researchers and industry leaders. He is a frequent keynote speaker at international conferences, workshops, and symposiums.

As a doctoral supervisor, Dr Armanious plays a vital role in mentoring and guiding emerging scholars, fostering the development of future industry leaders and researchers, and contributing to the advancement of knowledge and practice in finance and entrepreneurship.

In addition to his academic career, Dr Armanious has extensive professional experience as a financial consultant for the United Nations, government institutions, multinational corporations, and startups, bridging academic research with practical global impact.

Anna is an Associate Professor in the Accounting Discipline Group. Her research focuses on corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions and innovation. She has published in a number of peer reviewed journals and her research has been widely circulated in major media publications such as Forbes, SMH, and AFR. She has previously been a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Bocconi University.

Anna lectures in both undergraduate and postgraduate subjects on corporate business acquisitions and business analytics. She has consistently been voted in the Top 20 lecturers lists. She has previously received the Postgraduate Business Prize for Excellence in Teaching Award (2018 and 2019), the Undergraduate Business Prize for Excellence in Teaching Award (2011 and 2019) and a Teaching Citation in 2018. 

In addition to her research and teaching, Anna is passionate about widening participation and increasing student engagement. Anna is a board member of ActivateUTS and the Treasurer of Financial Research Network (FIRN). Prior to joining as a full time member, Anna completed her Honours degree with 1st class Honours and completed her PhD on the implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

David Bedford is a Professor at UTS Business School in the Accounting Discipline. David is internationally recognized as a leading researcher in the field of management accounting and control. His research focuses on the design of performance measurement systems in firms pursuing different types of innovation, how combinations of management controls are designed to align to strategic objectives, the use of management controls in supporting organizational sustainability, and the role of accounting in deliverying public healthcare. 

David has published his research in leading academic journals, including Accounting Organizations and Society, Management Accounting Research, and Journal of Management Accounting Research. David is an Associate Editor at the British Accounting Review and Journal of Management Control, and is an editorial board member of Accounting, Organizations and Society, Management Accounting Research, and European Accounting Review.

David is actively engaged with practice, having experience in collaborative projects with a range of government, industry, professional, and social enterprises, including ANZ, Telstra, Acciona, CPA Australia, NSW Health, the Independent Health Pricing Authority (IHPA), and the Cleaning Accountability Framework (CAF). He is an invited speaker at academic and industry conferences and is highly regarded in delivering tailored executive education and specialist training, covering topics such as performance management, data literacy, data informed decision-making, and cost management.

Lorenzo Casavecchia is Associate Professor of Finance and Associate Head (Industry Engagement) at the UTS Business School. His research in funds management, liquidity risk and financial regulation bridges theory and practice, informing policy at international regulatory bodies and shaping reform initiatives in Australia. Backed by multiple HERDC Category 3 industry-funded grants, his work explores systemic and liquidity risk, performance evaluation and attribution, and fee policies in investment funds—offering practical insights for institutional investors and data-driven guidance for policymakers.

His research has received multiple Best Paper awards and has been featured in the Financial Times, Australian Associated Press, Australian Financial Review, and The Australian. He is frequently called as an academic expert witness, having testified in financial arbitrations, class actions, and Supreme Court proceedings.

In education, Lorenzo leads innovative, industry-embedded programs. He coordinates the UTS Student Managed Fund and oversees the Anchor Investment Fund—a flagship undergraduate subject co-designed and co-delivered with investment professionals from firms including BlackRock, Coolabah Capital Investments, Rest, Blackwattle, and SSgA. The Fund has been a transformative experience for students, many of whom have gone on to secure competitive roles at leading financial institutions. His teaching has been recognised with multiple awards including Top Teaching and Top Subject citations, the UTS Business School Productive Partnerships Award, and a national nomination for Outstanding Industry Engagement for Student Learning.

Lorenzo holds a PhD from UTS and a BSc (Honours) from Bocconi University. He has completed executive programs in Artificial Intelligence at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and CSAIL, and in Financial Engineering and Risk Management at Columbia University. Prior to entering academia, he worked as a quantitative analyst and corporate bond trader.

Rina is a qualified chartered accountant and holds the position of Senior Lecturer within the Accounting Discipline Group of the UTS Business School.

Rina has 10 years of teaching and research experience at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), University of New South Wales (UNSW) and University of Sydney (USyd). She holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of New South Wales, with research publications in international accounting journals.

Rina also has 8 years of accounting and auditing experience, including business development and management accounting experience in a Singaporean SME, Big 4 audit experience in Deloitte Sydney and Ernst & Young Singapore.

Ester is a Senior Lecturer of Finance at the University of Technology Sydney since July 2019, and a Research Fellow (seconded) at the Digital Finance Co-operative Research Centre (DFCRC) since 2023, where she works at the intersection of academia, industry, and government on the future of digital and decentralised finance (DeFi).

Ester is also the course director and coordinator of the Digital Finance major of the MBA, where she has led the development and launch of Australia’s first postgraduate program dedicated to this emerging field, building connections with industry partners through the DFCRC.

Her research interests centre on financial markets: market design and "market microstructure",  Digital Finance including DeFi and decentralised markets, and forensic finance including market manipulation, insider trading, and fraud. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Finance, the Financial Review and the Journal of Accounting & Finance and her research on Insider Trading in Cryptocurrency Markets has been featured by global media outlets including Bloomberg. Ester has also held visiting positions at the Fisher College of Business - the Ohio State University, in USA, the Stockholm Business School in Sweden, and at the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden.

Ester is an effective educator who has consistently earned strong recognition for her teaching in postgraduate subjects related to digital finance, financial management and capital markets, with SFS scores consistently above targets. 

Ester is committed to academic service and leadership within the university and the broader research community. She currently serves as a member of the Recruitment Committee and of the Research Committee in the Finance discipline group. She is also the chair and principal organiser of the Market Microstructure and Digital Finance Conference since 2023, an international conference co-hosted by the DFCRC, FIRN and UTS.

Ester has also won honours and awards for her research in various conferences, and within the UTS Business School as recognition for her work developing and co-creating the Business School's mentoring program for female Early Career Researchers (2023 UTS Leadership award). Her work is also supported by competitive grants from the UTS Business School (2022 UTS Business Research Grant Scheme) and the DFCRC (2023 - present: i) DFCRC Secondment for Research fellowship and ii) DFCRC scholarships for industry PhD students at UTS) and her excellence in teaching by i) the Top Subject Postgraduate Award (Spring 2022) and ii) Top Teaching Award (2022).

Andrew Ferguson is a Professor of Financial Accounting at UTS. His research has been published in leading journals both nationally and internationally including The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Review of Corporate Finance Studies, European Accounting Review, Auditing, A Journal of Practice and Theory, Pacific Basin Finance Journal, Energy Economics, The Energy Journal, Accounting and Finance, Industrial and Corporate Change; Australian Journal of Management and Abacus.

I am a Master of Research student in the Accounting Discipline at the University of Technology Sydney. My research focuses on understanding how governance mechanisms shape corporate behaviour and accountability. I am particularly interested in empirical research that combines corporate data with regulatory and institutional contexts to provide insights into contemporary governance challenges. I aim to pursue an academic career that contributes to evidence-based discussions in corporate governance and financial reporting.

Kristoffer is an experienced cross-disciplinary researcher at the intersection of finance, statistics, and mathematics. He is dedicated to developing novel analytical tools that address critical questions about financial markets and that contribute to positive societal impact. His research interests span the areas of financial economics, dynamic corporate finance, derivative pricing, and quantitative portfolio management and his research has been published in many leading finance and mathematics journals. 

Kristoffer is a CFA charterholder (Chartered Financial Analyst designation) and member of CFA Institute and CFA Societies Australia. He is also a certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM). In the UTS Business School, Kristoffer currently serves as the PhD Coordinator for the Finance Department, the CFA University Affiliation Program Director, and the CAIA Academic Partnership Director for the UTS Business School.

Paulo entered the PhD Program in April 2024 under Supervisors Professor Dr. Andrew Ferguson, Dr. Peter Lam, and Dr. Gabriel Pündrich (University of Florida). Thesis title: Mandatory long-term management forecast and legal institutional risk: evidence from mining feasibility studies. Paulo is a certified accountant in Brazil, researching and teaching in the areas of accounting and finance. Currently, he’s a research affiliate at Fucape Business School and a partner at Intelethos Ltd., a consultancy firm specializing in firm valuation and accounting. He has multiple publications in Brazilian and in International journals. His current Ph.D. at UTS explores corporate reporting, i.e., feasibility studies, in the mining industry.

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The focus of Gerhard's career is on educating and influencing the finance profession to procure the effective integration of ethics within it. Gerhard's teaching excellence has been recognised through student feedback and through university and government prizes and awards. His research aims to raise awareness for pertinent ethical and social justice issues (eg insider trading; gender equity on corporate boards). Following the successful delivery of the Finance department's external engagement strategy, as Deputy Associate Dean (International Engagement) he now supports the university through overseas engagement activities for UTS International.

Gerhard’s research focuses on solutions to problems caused by unethical conduct in the finance industry, and the broader impact of human behaviour in capital market settings. His ethics research raises awareness for finance related ethical and social justice issues, and his finance research fosters increased understanding of the way that human behaviour can influence investment outcomes.

Publications include: studies on gender equity on corporate boards (Applied Network Science), consideration of the impact of ‘perceptions’ of wrongdoing in respect of different types of insider trading (Journal of Investing), analysis of the relative efficacy of ethics electives in contrast to mandatory ethics education (Journal of Financial Education), research on the impact of analyst forecast errors on fundamental indexation (Journal of Asset Management), momentum in sovereign bonds (Journal of Fixed Income), and leveraged investments and agency conflicts (Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control).

Gerhard is a highly engaging speaker and a top-tier UTS teacher. His excellence in teaching has been recognised through several prestigious teaching awards and prizes, including from the Australian government, the university and the business faculty.

As Deputy Associate Dean (International Engagement), Gerhard supports current and potential international students and related stakeholders. This includes facilitation of finance-related exchange program applications and consideration of potential prior learning recognition. Gerhard also works with partner organisations at UTS and overseas to help potential students identify suitable UTS study opportunities through workshops and presentations.

Prior to his work for UTS International, as Associate Head (External Engagement), Gerhard managed industry engagement for the UTS finance faculty transforming external engagement into a significant vehicle for stakeholder interaction, knowledge dispersion and reputation building. Core activities included strategy development, relationship building, honorary network management, and development of a highly successful series of industry engagement events.

Gerhard is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), CFA charterholder (Chartered Financial Analyst designation) and member of CFA Institute, CFA Societies Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. As a member of the Advocacy Council of CFA Societies Australia & New Zealand he supports the development of financial reform related submissions to Australian Government departments such as the Treasury and Australian Securities & Investments Commission. 

Before joining the UTS Business School, Gerhard completed his PhD at the University of Wyoming (USA). Gerhard also holds an MBA from the University of Wyoming (USA), and Master degrees from the Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany) and the EM Strasbourg Business School (France). His financial industry experience includes supporting a large funds-of-funds private equity portfolio managed in Frankfurt (Germany) and a middle-market buyout fund managed in Chicago, IL (USA).

Yolanda is an experienced researcher at the UTS Ageing Research Collaborative and an educator at the UTS Business School. She holds a Bachelor of Business (Honours) and a PhD in Accounting from UTS Business School. Prior to joining UTS, Yolanda worked as an in-house business consultant for large multinational companies. She also holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Political, Economic and Social Sciences from the University of Sydney.

Yolanda brings extensive experience in interdisciplinary research projects that employ both quantitative and qualitative methods. Her research on regulation and compliance related issues in Australian aged care sector has lead to a range of industry reports and submissions to the Commonwealth Government of Australia, including the widely cited biannual Australia’s Aged Care Sector report series. In addition to industry engagement, Yolanda published peer-reviewed research in leading health and accounting journals on topics related to regulation and compliance, corporate governance and management accounting.  

Le (Hayley) Ma is a Senior Lecturer at Accounting Discipline Group at the University of Technology Sydney Business School. She is a member of the Methodological and Empirical Advances in Financial Analysis Research Group at University of Sydney, a member of Financial Research Network in Australia and a member of Accounting & Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand.

Prior to joining UTS in 2016, Hayley was a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School. Hayley has a PhD in accounting from University of Sydney, which studies the management and economic impact of intangible assets. Hayley was a visiting scholar at ESSEC Business School, Singapore and Renmin University, China in 2023, Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management, US, in 2020, and a visiting scholar at the Smeal College of Business Pennsylvania State University, US, in 2014. 

Hayley's main research expertise is in corporate investment decisions in innovation, their impact on firm performance and value, and how innovation activities are reported and disclosed by firms. She also has extensive research experience in the information environment of capital markets, financial reporting and disclosure, advancing our understanding of investors’ investment decisions and business valuations. Hayley's research is transdisciplinary in nature, integrating knowledge of different disciplines to obtain comprehensive understanding of real business issues and provide practical solutions. Her research has been published in international and national leading journals including Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, International Journal of Production Economics, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Abacus, Accounting and Finance.

Hayley received the UTS Business School Early Career Research Achievement Award in 2021 because of her impact on corporate innovation research and contribution in enhancing the University’s research excellence through international research networks. She has also received internal and external competitive research grants such as Accounting & Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand Developing Researcher Grant and UTS Business Research Grants.

Hayley teaches financial statement and business analysis at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at UTS. She has written three Harvard Case Studies with colleague at Harvard Business School. Hayley has supervised five Accounting Honours students since 2017, and has provided mentoring to the Higher Degree Research students at Accounting Discipline Group at the UTS Business School.

Apart from research and teaching, Hayley is also actively engaged with industry partners and government agencies. She has been invited to present her research at various stakeholder events including IP Australia, Australian Accounting Standards Board Research Forum, Oceania Stata Users Group Meeting.

Dr. Nelson Ma is an Associate Professor in Accounting at the UTS Business School. His research interests are in audit, corporate governance and aged care with a focus on understanding how to improve decision making and information disclosures in organisations to provide better outcomes to their stakeholders and society. Nelson has published widely in peer-reviewed academic journals in management, health, finance and accounting including Contemporary Accounting Research, Australian Journal of Management and Pacific-Basin Finance Journal.

He is co-lead of the Business and Strategy Theme in the UTS Ageing Research Collaborative (UARC) and a co-author of UARC's bi-annual Australia Aged Care Sector Report. His has been involved in over $500,000 in external research funding from government and industry organisations. This research and industry reports havee featured in Government policy documents and media outlets including ABC News, Forbes Magazine, the Australian Financial Review, the Guardian and the Sydney Morning Herald. His efforts in research engagement have been recognised with 2023 UTS Business School Achievement Award in External Engagement. 

Nelson has taught at the postgraduate and undergraduate level in financial accounting, management accounting, auditing, corporate consolidation and business valuation featuring in the Business School's top teachers lists in 2023 and 2024. His contributions to student learning extend beyond the classroom with a focus on extra-curricular student development. Between 2018 and 2023, Nelson was faculty advisor of UTS Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, a accounting, finance and IT honours society that focus on community service and professional development. During his tenure, the UTS Chapter was internationally the most awarded chapter from over 320 other universities in Australia, New Zealand and the United States,. 

Since 2019, Nelson has been program director of the UTS Case Team, an internationally awarded program for UTS Business School students competing in case solving. The UTS Case Team has placed 1st in six international case competitions since 2019. The initiative includes the UTS Global Case Competiiton, UTS Case Cup and UTS Leadership insights interview series, and partners with ASX companies including Macquarie Group and QBE Insurance. For his work on engaging students across the university through the UTS Case Team, Nelson was awarded the 2024 UTS Vice-Chancellors Learning and Teaching award for student engagement. 

From 2020 to 2023, Nelson was Deputy Head (Staff) in the UTS Accounting Discipline Group, and currently serves on the Editorial Board of Pacific Accounting Review.