Thibault Lair, PhD (EDHEC, 2021) at the Spring Seminar 2023 of Inquire Europe
"EDHEC Business School’s initiative to become the first academic member of Inquire Europe is another step towards sharing knowledge between academics and professionals"
As part of the EDHEC membership of Inquire Europe, Thibault Lair, PhD (EDHEC 2021) shares his experience following his participation to the Spring Seminar 2023 of Inquire Europe.
"EDHEC Business School’s initiative to become the first academic member of Inquire Europe is another step towards sharing knowledge between academics and professionals"
THIBAULT LAIR
EDHEC PhD in Finance Graduate (2021), and Senior Quantitative Researcher at Robeco, Netherlands
As PhD programme ambassador, you attended the Inquire Europe Spring Conference in Malta. Could you please describe your experience briefly?
The Inquire conferences are well-known amongst investment professionals for their quality. It is a great opportunity to exchange views on the latest trends within the finance industry and to discuss very topical and relevant research from lead academics. The EDHEC Business School’s initiative to become the first academic member of Inquire Europe is another step towards sharing knowledge between academics and professionals. It was an honour to represent the program with Dr Jurczenko. In discussions with participants, this initiative sparked interest in the EDHEC Business School and revealed a demand in the finance industry for programs such as the PhD in Finance programme. I had the pleasure to share my positive experience within the programme with some attendees considering their career’s next development step. It was especially interesting to exchange on the role such programs have to play at the individual level and within the broader finance industry as a whole.
Holding a PhD degree (EDHEC 2021), and as a practitioner, how do you apprehend now the academic research and more particularly the quantitative finance research presented at such conference? How can it have a positive impact on your work?
Overall, the Inquire Europe Conference in Malta was very pleasant, well organized and filled with great content. As a practitioner, the interactions with leading institutions’ representatives and the presenters allowed to reflect on our own work and gather ideas for future research directions. The table discussions on the presented papers are a fruitful mean to share views and perspectives on the content and its implications. What such conferences offer, and especially the Inquire conferences, is the ability to informally discuss one-on-one with the presenters on their research, which is a way to get more insights on their work on sometimes very specific topics. As a PhD holder, I am looking forward for such exchanges to continuously challenge my understanding of financial markets and their participants. Through all those interactions, this unique setup fosters one’s critical mindset and allows to further develop what in my opinion is one of the biggest contributions of undertaking PhD studies.
