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Cornell University Business School : Professor Will Cong

Cornell University Business School : Professor Will Cong

Cornell University Business School : Lin William Cong is the Rudd Family Professor of Management and Associate Professor of Finance at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University SC Johnson College of Business. He is also the founding faculty director for the FinTech Initiative at Cornell. Prior to joining Cornell, he was an assistant professor of Finance and Ph.D. advisor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and faculty member at the Center for East Asian Studies. He is a a Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellow, a Poets & Quants World Best Business School Professor, a former doctoral fellow at the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies, and a former George Shultz Scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Cong serves as associate editor for Management Science, Journal of Corporate Finance, and the Journal of Banking and Finance, advises FinTech organizations such as the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (non-profit), was consulted for regulators’ lawsuits against KIN/Kik and Telegram’s TON regarding their ICOs, as well as for the incubation of Dfinity. Cong is a member of multiple professional organizations such as the American Economic Association, European Finance Association, and the Econometric Society. 

   Cong researches on financial economics, information economics, FinTech and Economic Data Science, Entrepreneurship, and China. His academic interests include financial innovation, mechanism and information design, blockchains, cryptocurrencies, real options, financial policy and markets in China, RegTech, machine learning, AI, and alternative data. His recent work has focused on the intersection of technology, data science, and finance. His research has been featured in top academic journals and media such as Bloomberg and VOX, and has been recognized with a number of accolades such as the AAM-CAMRI-CFA Institute Prize in Asset Management, the CME Best paper Award, Shmuel Kandel Award in Financial Economics, and Finance Theory Group Paper Award. He has also been invited to speak and teach at hundreds of world-renowned universities, venture funds, technology firms, investment and trading shops, and government agencies such as IMF, Asset Management Association of China, Ant Financial, SEC, and federal reserve banks.  

   Cong earned a Ph.D. in Finance and a MS in Statistics from Stanford University, where he served as the president of Ph.D. students association, received the Asian American Award for Graduate Leadership, and was recognized with the Lieberman Fellowship for outstanding contributions in research, teaching, and university service. While at Stanford, he advised venture funds and FinTech startups, which helped him delve into the emerging industry and exchange ideas with practitioners and regulators, and ultimately formulate the research framework for blockchains, tokenomics, unstructured data analytics, among other issues concerning finance and technology. He also holds dual degrees from Harvard University where he graduated summa cum laude and top in the Physics department, with an A.M. in Physics, an A.B. in Math & Physics, a minor in Economics, and a language citation in French.
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   Cong is a native of Shenyang, China, and has lived in Singapore and sojourned in Japan and the UK. Cong enjoys Chinese calligraphy, reading, sports, fitness, guitar, as well as learning French and Japanese. Cong is also passionate about education, China-U.S. relations, technology innovations, and integrating fundamental valuation, quantitative investing, and financial technology in asset management, for which he created the course “Quantimental Investment” while at the University of Chicago.

Selected Publications

Recent Courses

  • NBA 5600 – Demystifying Big Data and FinTech
  • NBAE 5600 – Introduction to FinTech, Finnovation and Finalytics
  • NCC 5060/LAW 6652/NCCY 5060 – Managerial Finance

Academic Degrees

  • PhD Stanford University, 2014
  • MS Stanford University, 2013
  • MA Harvard University, 2009
  • BA Harvard University, 2009

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