Joel Bessis (Paris, France) graduated as an Engineer from Ecole Centrale in Paris, earned a Master in Business Administration at Columbia University in New York, and received a Ph. D. in Finance at the University of Paris Dauphine. Since 1980, he has been working as a Professor of Finance at Group HEC, the leading French business school. As an academic, Joel Bessis published various papers and books in the fields of corporate finance, industrial economics, and financial markets. He is a frequent speaker at professional conferences. Joel Bessis developed a dual expertise, as an academic and as a practitioner, holding permanent consulting assignments in corporations and, later, in banks. Joel Bessis worked over 15 years in this area for financial institutions. Joel Bessis has acquired experience in bank wide risk management in many well-known financial institutions. He has been a consultant to risk departments of several banking institutions in Europe. He held a permanent consultancy position for 7 years at Banque Paribas in the Risk Department and for two years at the European Bank for Development (EIB). On leave of absence from HEC Paris from 2000, he was Director of Research at FitchRatings in 2000-2001, Head of Validation at the Risk Department of Ixis, a Paris-based Investment Bank, and held the same position at Groupe Caisse d'Epargne, one the major French banks, until 2006. He is now Professor at HEC Paris and maintains consultancy assignments in Banks. He conducts executive training in risk management in Eastern Europe, US and Asia.
