Bert Scholtens appointed as Professor Sustainable Banking and Finance

Bert Scholtens has been appointed as Professor of Sustainable Banking and Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen as of 1 March. He has been working as an honorary professor in Economics of Sustainability and Econometrics and Finance. In his new position Scholtens will develop and coordinate educational programs in which Economics, Finance and Sustainability come together. He will also participate in the regular SOM research program Economics, Econometrics & Finance.

“This promotion is a recognition of the education and research track I set up myself. The University of Groningen is a good environment to continue developing this”, says Scholtens. “My aim is to analyze sustainability in financing and banking in a critical and systematic way. I want to involve students with this topic by making them study sustainability via projects and by supervising theses.”

Mutual influence

For his research within the research program Economics, Econometrics and Finance (EEF) Scholtens will predominantly focus on the interaction between financing or investing on the one hand and climate, environment and the social relations on the other hand. “The focus is on mutual influence on performance and risks. Do a company’s financial performances and risks determine those in the area of sustainability or is it the other way around? Financial performances are for example measured in gains on assets, corporate risks and market risks, while sustainability is for instance measured in emission, pollution and use of resources.”

Curriculum Vitae

Bert Scholtens (Loppersum, 1959) studied Economics at the University of Groningen and gained a PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 1994 with a thesis entitled ‘Towards a theory of international financial intermediation’. He has lectured at the University of Groningen since 1999, and became professor of Sustainability and Financial Institutions in 2004. In 2010 he became professor by special appointment in The Economics of Sustainability to the J.L. Bouma Chair. Scholtens is also Professor of Banking and Finance at the University of St Andrews School of Management (Scotland) since 2012.

More information

Contact: prof. dr. Bert Scholtens

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