Wanli Zhao is currently a professor of accounting at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, after working as a financial economist at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. Previously he was a professor of finance at the Hanqing Advanced Institute of Economics and Finance of the Renmin University of China in Beijing. Before that, he was a tenure associate professor of finance in the College of Business at the Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL. He began his career as an assistant professor of finance at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. He got his PhD from the Fox School of Business at Temple University in Philadelphia.

His research focuses on governance-related topics and has been cross-disciplinary in finance, accounting, and economics. His publications appear in Journal of Finance, Journal of Accounting & Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, the Accounting Review, Management Science, Journal of Law & Economics, Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis, Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Financial Management. His research awards include “Best Paper in Corporate Finance” at 2014 FMA and his research has appeared in media such as Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, Yahoo!Finance, and SEC.gov. He was awarded “Outstanding Researcher of the Year” by the CoB of SIU in 2015.

He has been teaching undergraduate, master’s and doctoral level courses in finance and accounting topics. He was awarded for “Cherry-Hill Business Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award” in 2017 by SIU College of Business.

He has also engaged in a variety of university services, including academic committees at the department, college, and university level. He has served as program committee member for multiple academic conferences, as well as the reviewer, discussant, and session chair. He has been external reviewer for multiple academic journals and grant organizations. He has presented his research in multiple conferences and universities in the US, Europe, and Asia.

Wanli Zhao（赵万里）

Department of Accounting

Bocconi University

Via Roentgen, 1 (5th floor) 20136

Milano, Italy
E-Mail: wanli.zhao@unibocconi.it; zhaowl@msn.com