Professor Chendi Zhang

Chendi Zhang is a Professor of Finance and the founding Director of Exeter Sustainable Finance Centre at the University of Exeter Business School. His research focuses on sustainable investing, corporate finance, and behavioural finance. He is currently Director and Treasurer of Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment, which comprises 15 leading universities worldwide, and Vice Chair of the research committee for the UK's Chartered Association of Business Schools. Previously, he served as Associate Dean for the Business School for four years with responsibility for Research & Impact, including faculty development activities.

He has over 20 years of research experience in sustainable finance and investment, with his work receiving over 10,000 citations and featured in media such as the Economist, Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. He has published in leading journals including Management Science, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Corporate Finance, Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, and Journal of Banking and Finance. His research has been awarded funding from the Bank of New York Mellon, British Academy, Royal Bank of Canada, UKRI Natural Environment Research Council, and World Bank. He is currently a project co-lead for the UKRI-funded Critical Minerals Challenge Centre for Accelerating the Green Economy. 

He began his career working in investment banking after completing an undergraduate degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. After his PhD from Tilburg University in the Netherlands, he worked as a consultant for the Latin America and Caribbean region of the World Bank in Washington DC. Before joining Exeter, he had been on the faculty of Warwick Business School for over a decade. He has also held teaching and research appointments at Cambridge, Sheffield, and Tilburg universities, and is currently an external examiner for Imperial College London.