Center for Analytics and Transformative Technologies

Kumar Muthuraman is the H. Timothy (Tim) Harkins Centennial Professor in the Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management and the Department of Finance. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Dr. Muthuraman’s research focuses on decision making under uncertainty. Application areas of interest to him are quantitative finance, operations management and health care.

Dr. Mitchell is a visiting assistant professor.  Dr. Mitchell’s research focuses on financial analytics and applications of network optimization.  He was previously an assistant professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design, and the University of Minnesota, and was a visiting scholar at the US Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research. He received a PhD from McCombs in 2014, a masters in math from New York University in 2009, and a bachelors in math from the University of Texas in 2007.

Ben Fauber is a senior data scientist at Dell Technologies in Austin, Texas, where he leads applied research strategic alliances and maintains an active internal research program. He earned his B.Sc. from Colorado State University and Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining Dell Technologies, he held various scientific and leadership positions at Stanley Black & Decker, Genentech/Roche, and AstraZeneca. He is a co-inventor and author on more than 70 patents and peer-reviewed publications, including publications in the journals Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cesare joined the Finance Faculty at the McCombs School of Business in 2009. His primary research interest is in the area of corporate finance and fintech. His research includes work on corporate governance, executive compensation, credit rating agencies, small business financing, and the effects of social networks and cultural preferences on financial policies. His articles have been published in the top Finance journals, such as the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. He teaches Financial Technology and Corporate Valuation in the MBA program, and Empirical Methods in Corporate Finance in the PhD program.

Cesare holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano (Italy), and an MBA and PhD in Finance from UCLA Anderson. He was a visiting professor at the Wharton School in 2012/2013. Before his PhD, he worked as strategic management consultant at Booz Allen and Roland Berger in Italy, and as summer intern at the United Nations in New York.