Welcome Warrington’s New Faculty for 2020-21
In addition to welcoming Dr. Saby Mitra as dean, the Warrington College of Business also welcomes five new faculty members during the 2020-21 academic year. Learn more about these outstanding faculty members who will continue to strength Warrington’s reputation.
Dr. Hosseininasab comes to Warrington as an assistant professor in the marketing department. He received his Ph.D. in operations research with a minor in machine learning from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in 2020. He has master’s degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Waterloo and received his bachelor’s degree from Amirkabir University of Technology.
“It is my utmost pleasure to be joining the marketing department at the Warrington College of Business,” Dr Hosseininasab said. “I look forward to collaborating with its esteemed faculty, becoming a part of its collegial environment, and contributing to the analytical drive of the department.”
His research interests include interpretable machine learning, integration of supervised and unsupervised learning, mathematical programming, dynamic programming, game theory, data-driven decision making, sequential decision making, E-commerce, decision support systems, financial markets, and healthcare operations.
Dr. Hughes is the Executive Director of Applied Real Estate Research in the Kelley A. Bergstrom Real Estate Center at Warrington. He joins the UF faculty after 15 years at UBS Global Asset Management where he was most recently Global Head of Real Estate Research & Strategy, responsible for coordinating regional research and strategies, working closely with the research teams, portfolio managers, acquisitions and asset management groups. He directly led the US team, providing economic, capital market, and real estate market analyses, as well as developing investment strategies and conducting portfolio analysis. He was Chairman of the US Strategy Team and a member of the US Investment Committee. He is also the Immediate Past-Chair of the Board of Directors for the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF).
“I am really happy to return to a college campus with such a high level or intellectual energy,” said Hughes, who previously served as an assistant professor at Louisiana State University. “Warrington is the perfect place for me to engage world-class faculty and a vibrant business community.”
Dr. Hughes received his Ph.D. in Real Estate and MBA from the University of Georgia and a BIE from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dr. Jiang joins Warrington as an assistant professor of finance. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago in 2020. She also has degrees from the University of Hong Kong and participated in the exchange program at the University of California Berkeley.
“I am thrilled to join Warrington College of Business,” Dr. Jiang said. “When I did my flyout during the job market, I found the Finance Department of Warrington College of Business such a great fit with my research. There are so many people here working on corporate finance, banking and emerging market. I cannot find a better environment than here at Warrington. Just walking down the corridor of my office and talking with my colleagues could generate great thoughts and research ideas.”
Dr. Jiang’s primary research field is financial economics, specifically corporate finance, international finance, banking, and monetary economics. Her secondary fields of interest are macroeconomics and applied macroeconomics.
“Besides the research fitness at Warrington, I am excited that I will be teaching undergraduate students and masters students, not only MBAs,” Dr. Jiang said. “I have always loved the idea of a high-quality public university where students from all backgrounds can learn things equally and chase their dream jobs after graduation. Warrington’s dedication to teaching also attracts me a lot.”
Dr. Pundrich joins Warrington as an assistant professor in accounting. He is in charge of teaching classes and developing research in the area of big data and data analytics for the accounting discipline. The course that will be covered is ACG 3401: Accounting Information Systems. It provides students with a basic understanding of well-controlled information systems in a variety of technological environments with an added emphasis on the collection, processing, and reporting of accounting information.
“I am excited to be at Warrington because of its high-quality faculty dedicated to academic excellence, and the environment of collegiality that supports the achievement of continuous improvement,” Dr. Pundrich said.
He previously served as an assistant professor at Bocconi University in Italy. He has also served as a guest lecturer at the Harvard Business School, a visiting scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a visiting scholar at the London Business School. His research focuses on financial reporting quality, auditing, natural language processing, data analytics, big data and machine learning.
Dr. Pundrich received his Ph.D. at University of Technology, Sydney. He also has a master’s degree from Politecnico di Milano in Italy and a bachelor’s degree from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.
Dr. Xu joins Warrington as an assistant professor of finance. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago in 2020. He also holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Nanjing University.
“Before I came to UF to give my job talk in February, my advisor told me: ‘as a researcher specialized in corporate finance and banking, it would be very hard for you to find a place better than Warrington.’ During my visit, it didn’t take long for me to feel his correctness,” Dr. Xu said. “My conversations with many faculty members at Warrington went incredibly smoothly — our research interests largely coincide, and we speak the same “research language.” I feel extremely fortunate and excited to be one of this fantastic group, and I cannot wait to contribute to it.”
Dr. Xu’s primary field of research interest is financial economics, including corporate finance, banking, international finance, and frictions in financial markets. His secondary fields are macroeconomics, applied microeconomics and industrial organization.
