Dr. Kurtay is the Director of Undergraduate Studies & Research and Director of Asset
Management Academy in the department of finance at Louisiana State University. Previously,
he was an Assistant Professor of Finance in the College of Business and the Director
of the MS in Finance program at Texas A&M University - Commerce. At the University
of Texas at Dallas, he was the Associate Director of the International Center for
Decision and Risk Analysis (ICDRiA), where he worked with Prof. Alain Bensoussan,
the former Chairman of European Space Agency and one of the most respected applied
mathematicians in the world.
Dr. Kurtay was the recipient of the 2019 Tiger Athletic Foundation Teaching Excellence
Award at LSU and the 2010 Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Award by the Texas A&M
University System as well as the first prize in the PIMCO International Investing
essay contest and a research grant from the BSI Gamma Foundation in Lugano, Switzerland.
His research has been published in Journal of Financial Transformation, Journal of
Investment Consulting, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, International
Review of Financial Analysis, Journal of Behavioral Finance, Investments and Pensions
Europe, Global Pensions, and Handbook of Corporate Governance.
Moreover, Dr. Kurtay has been working in the public and private sectors over the last
three decades, most recently as the Senior Investment Officer for Risk Management
and Asset Allocation in the Mayor’s Office for Pensions and Investments at the New
York City Retirement System with assets under management of over $100 billion. Before
he moved to the Dallas area in 2005, Dr. Kurtay was a Senior Researcher and Consultant
at Watson Wyatt & Company (now Willis Towers Watson) in Washington, DC for five years.
Between 1994 and 2000, he worked for the LSU Foundation and Office of the Vice Chancellor
for Finance at Louisiana State University as a Quantitative Analyst and later as the
Investment Manager for the university endowment.
“Disappointment in the Delegation of Currency Hedging Decision,” forthcoming in Journal
of Investment Consulting
“Inflation Linked Bonds for Strategic Asset Allocation,” Journal of Investment Consulting,
17/2, 2016, p. 59-68, co-authored with Asli Ogunc; this research appeared on USA Today
“Flexibility Theory as a Corporate Governance Mechanism,” Journal of Investment Consulting,
15/1, 2014, p. 67-75
“Strategic Flexibility for Transformative Growth,” Journal of Financial Transformation,
April 2014, p. 17-26
“Decisive Risk Management for Corporate Governance” A Handbook of Corporate Governance
and Social Responsibility, eds. G. Aras and D. Crowther, 2010 (March), p. 249-264,
Gower Publishing
“Behavioral Currency Hedging for International Portfolios” International Review of
Financial Analysis, 2008 (September), 17/4, p. 716-727
“Spending Rules for Endowment Funds: A Dynamic Model with Subsistence Levels” Review
of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, 2006 (August), 27/1, p. 93-107 (with Isabelle
Bajeux-Besnainou)
“The Fund-Of-Funds Route” Global Pensions, June 2004
“Categorical Thinking in Stock Portfolio Management: A Puzzle?” Journal of Behavioral
Finance, 2003, 4/3, p. 118-120 (with Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou)
“Putting the Case Beyond Doubt: Active Currency Management” Investments & Pensions
Europe, September 2001, p. 59-60
“Designing Portable Alpha Engines” Investments & Pensions Europe, October 2000, p.
54-55
Classification of Stocks during Market Corrections using Machine Learning Methods
Volatility Modelling of Financial Time Series in the Generalized Pearson Setting
Bayesian Failure Modeling for Multi-Manager Portfolios
Hedge Fund Investing for Institutional Investors: Diversified vs. Specialized Fund-of-Funds
International Correlation Structure among Financial Markets: The Time Series Logistics
Model
Forecasting the Price Changes of Mortgage-Backed Securities via Treasury Based Derivatives:
An Error Correction Model
Teaching Interests: Business Finance, Financial Management, Investments, Portfolio
Management, Derivatives, International Finance
Research Interests: Asset Allocation, Risk Management, Overlay Strategies, Alternative
Investments, Behavioral Finance
- TAF Excellence in Teaching Award, Louisiana State University - TAF, 2019
- Research Honorarium, Investment Management Consultants Association, 2014
- Teaching Excellence Award, Texas A&M University System, 2010
- First Prize in Investing Globally Essay Contest, PIMCO, 2001
Newspaper; USA Today; My research on Inflation Linked Bonds was discussed by Robert
Powell on a piece entitled "Inflation-linked bonds give retirees diversification and
hedge against inflation"; 2017
