Dr. Manjeevan Singh Seera is currently serving as the Deputy Head of School (Research) as well as an Associate Professor in Business Analytics at the School of Business at Monash University Malaysia. He graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Computational Intelligence from Universiti Sains Malaysia. He is the author of over 55 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers. He has worked in both the academic world and the business world for over 17 years. Before he was promoted to his current role, he held the job of Data Analytics Manager at the Central Bank of Malaysia. In addition, he has vast expertise working in the electronic manufacturing industry, including with companies such as Intel and Flextronics. The primary focus of Dr. Manjeevan's research is on the fundamentals of machine learning and its applications in the fields of finance and engineering. His latest research has focused on the design and implementation of advanced machine learning models for use in Fintech applications, namely the identification and prediction of fraudulent financial transactions.

Title of Speech: Machine Learning in Financial Fraud Detection

Dr. Natthinee Thampanya, a distinguished academic in the field of Finance, currently serves as a Senior Lecturer in Corporate Finance at Oxford Brookes Business School. She earned an MSc in Finance and Investment from the University of Greenwich, UK, and culminated with a Ph.D. in Finance from Leeds Beckett University, UK.

Natthinee's research interests are reflected in her publications, notably addressing climate risk, sustainability, and the dynamics of financial markets in the digital age. Her work, such as the study on carbon neutrality and financial development, and the hedging effectiveness of gold & cryptocurrencies, showcases her innovative approach to finance. Her teaching career spans over a decade before her current role. In addition to academia, she has practical experience in banking and finance. Her contributions to finance education and research are further recognised by awards for her insightful doctoral thesis and academic papers.

Title of Speech: Climate change and investors' behaviour: Assessing a new type of systematic risk

Javier Cifuentes-Faura works in the Department of Financial Economics and Accounting at the University of Murcia (Spain). He graduated in Business Administration and Management from the University of Murcia with the Extraordinary End of Degree Award and the best grade of the promotion. He has completed postgraduate studies such as the Master in Business Administration MBA and the Master in Commercial and Marketing Management at the European Business School of Barcelona, both with Cum Laude recognition for academic excellence. He has been awarded the "Economics and Business 2018" prize by the Official Association of Economists. His lines of research include those related to public administration and economics, business, education, and those related to sustainability and environment. He is a member of the work plan of the EDINSOST2 project: Integration of sustainable development objectives in sustainability education in Spanish university degrees. He has published in JCR and Scopus impact journals, such as Educational Review, Social Indicators Research, Evaluation Review or Journal of Policy Modeling. He has participated in several international conferences, being invited to some of them as keynote speaker.

Title of Speech: New Challenges in Economics after the Ukraine-Russia War: Transparency and Accountability

An Nguyen is a full-time lecturer in the Department of Management and Human Resource at Coventry University London Campus. An Nguyen completed her PhD in Higher Education at the Open University UK, MA in Education at UCL, and BSc in Social Science at LSE.

An Nguyen's teaching and research interests revolve around three key areas: the internationalisation of higher education, graduate employability, and human resource and leadership development. She has gained considerable expertise in these fields through her extensive work experience and industry connections with various organisations.

Prior to joining Coventry University London, An Nguyen taught and supervised students' dissertations at University of Glasgow and designed e-learning materials at UCL Institute of Education. She also worked at corporations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), educational technology companies (ed-tech), and universities in India, China, Vietnam, and the UK.

An Nguyen possesses expertise in mixed-methods research, with a strong background in quantitative approaches such as online surveys, learning analytics, and statistical analyses. She is also skilled in qualitative methods such as observations, interviews, focus groups, and systematic reviews. In addition, she is proficient in computer-assisted techniques, including text-mining, topic modelling, and social network analysis.

Title of Speech: Human Capital Management in a Post-Covid World

Shima Amini is Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at Leeds University Business School. Her research is focused on Entrepreneurial Finance, Initial Public Offering, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Corporate Finance, Behavioural Finance, and Market Microstructure. She has a sustained record of publications in peer-reviewed journals (ABS 4 and ABS 3). She is an editorial board member for the International Review of economics and Finance and the Global Finance Journals and has acted as a reviewer for a number of highly ranked journals including Entrepreneurship, Theory and Practice Journal (ABS, 4) and The British Journal of Management (ABS, 4).

Kevin McMeeking is a Professor of Accounting at Brunel University and a Visiting Professor at the University of Exeter. Prior to joining Brunel, Kevin completed his undergraduate degree in Accounting and Financial Analysis at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, a PhD in Accounting at Lancaster University and researched and taught at the University of Exeter from 1998-2020. His research interests are interdisciplinary in nature and seek to use financial analysis, financial reporting and non-financial reporting to secure effective sustainable corporate governance. His teaching specialisms lie in financial accounting - at the undergraduate, postgraduate and executive levels.

Dr. Naser Makarem is an assistant professor in accounting at the University of Aberdeen, UK. He is the leader of MSc Accounting and Finance programme and Partnerships Programmes Director at Aberdeen Business School. Dr. Makarem teaches several courses in the area of financial accounting both in the UK and at overseas partners in China and Qatar. He supervises PhD students and has research interests in the broad area of financial reporting and particularly earnings management.

Dr. Makarem's research mainly focuses on factors influencing corporate financial reporting. In particular, he studies how social, economic and political factors affect earnings management. He is also interested in changes in earnings management behaviour over time as well as the impact of regulatory environment and political and economic factors on such changes. He also studies how earnings manipulation is restricted by factors such as external audit and corporate governance. More recently, he has started some projects on the impact of corporate social and environmental responsibility on financial reporting and non-financial disclosures, particularly corporate human rights disclosures.

Alina Cristina Nuţă is Full Professor Dr. Habil. in Finance at Danubius University of Galati, Romania, with over 17 years of teaching and research experience. She has a double bachelor's degree in Finance and Insurance and in Public Administration and a master's degree in Financial and Banking Management from "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi. She attended the Doctoral School of Economics and Business Administration at "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, defending the thesis entitled "Economic and social implication of fiscal and budgetary policy" in 2009. Starting with 2014, she is coordinating the Open, Online, and Distance Learning Department at Danubius University, Galati. In February 2022, she defended her habilitation thesis at the University of Craiova, Romania, titled "Scientific contributions regarding fiscal and budgetary stimulus for promoting sustainable and equitable economic growth," receiving the Habilitation Order from the Ministry of Education on June 2022.

Her scientific research is carried out in the following fields: Finance, Public finance, Taxation, Public Spending, Fiscal and budgetary policies, Social policy, Green finance, Energy economics, Environmental economics, FinTech, Stock market, Online and Distance learning, and Public economics. During the 17 years of academic career, she was involved in numerous editorial initiatives as editor or member of the international scientific committee for several scientific journals and international conferences, conducting over 500 peer-reviews.

Arman Eshraghi is a Professor of Finance and Chair of Finance and Investment at Cardiff Business School, UK. His academic research spans finance, accounting and psychology with interests including behavioural finance, financial technology and corporate governance. His work is published in some of the leading journals of the field, cited in the media including the Financial Times, Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Forbes and Bloomberg, and contributed to handbooks published by Cambridge University, Wiley, Springer and Routledge.

Professor Eshraghi is an Editor of International Review of Economics and Finance, Senior Editor of Finance Research Letters, Shimomura Fellow of the Development Bank of Japan, Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Decision-Making Uncertainty at UCL, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Director of the Cardiff Fintech Research Group, and an Advisory Board Member of Fintech Wales. He has advised a number of UK fintech and investment firms in recent years.

Title of Speech: Examining the Role of Culture in Finance

Giovanni Calice is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Finance in the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University. He has previously taught (as tenured faculty member) at the University of Birmingham and at the University of Southampton. He obtained a PhD in Economics from the University of Bath.

He has spent time as a visiting scholar at a number of public institutions and central banks, such as the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, the European Central Bank, the European Commission, the Banque de France and the Bank of Finland. He is a regular speaker at numerous university and practitioner seminars and international conferences and has been invited by macroprudential and regulatory authorities to present his research.

Giovanni's research spans several areas, including financial markets and institutions, financial innovation, asset pricing and financial stability. He has written extensively on systemic risk and is a leading expert on credit derivatives markets. His work has been published in world's leading academic journals in finance and economics.

Title of Speech: Sovereign-Momentum Currency Return

Dr. Dang is a Lecturer in Economics (Assistant Professor) at the Department of Economics, King's Business School, King's College London. He is also an academic supervisor at the Institute of Finance and Technology, University College of London, and a chief examiner for the University of London International Programme (Econometrics). Before joining King's, he lectured and conducted research at the London School of Economics as an LSE Fellow in Economics, and at the University of Warwick as a postdoctoral fellow (in Economics). He completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Nottingham in 2018. He uses both theory and data to answer questions at the intersection of economics and public policies. His research interests include Development Economics, Public Economics, and Applied Econometrics. His current research focuses on the economics of nonprofit organisations, financial data, public good provision (housing, security, preferential tax treatment, and public procurement), and innovation. Recently, he has published at the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and the Economic Development and Culture Change.

Title of Speech: Why do NGOs diversify: Evidence from Uganda

Dr. Chinny Nzekwe-Excel is an Academic Lead, Consultant and Research Expert in the broad areas of Management Development Initiatives & Repositioning Strategies, International Business, Leadership Concepts, Operations Management Research, Teaching & Learning Innovations, and Construction Management. She is also a Statistics Expert,a Senior Fellow of the Advance Higher Education, UK,a Certified Management & Business Educator, and a Leadership and Management Professional.

Chinny is the Academic Director of the International Masters of Business Administration, and the Program Director of the International Masters of Business Administration with Professional Practice at the University of Wolverhampton, UK. She has strategic involvements with wider & global higher education platforms and has published over 50 research outputs in leading academic journals & conference / scholarly networks.

Chinny's research outputs have continued to gain wide attention and international recognitions including the Highly Commended Emeralds Literati Networks award. She serves as an editor and a reviewer in several peer-reviewed journals including the Built Environment, Project & Asset Management; Innovations in Education and Teaching Journal; International Journal of Learning; Research & Development, Science Publishing Group.

Kausar Abbas holds a PhD in Islamic Banking and Finance from International Islamic University Malaysia. She teaches Islamic Banking and Finance, E-commerce, Risk Management, Corporate Finance, Quantitative Research, and supervises dissertations at the Postgraduate level. Dr. Abbas has experience teaching undergraduate and postgraduate business and management courses since 2015 in Pakistan and Dubai. Dr. Abbas has presented multiple papers related to Islamic Banking and Finance at the national and international level and has organized global forums, seminars, workshops and training sessions on Islamic Banking and Finance for different sectors since 2014. She has more than 18 papers published in refereed academic journals to her credit.

Title of Speech: The Growing Trend in Usage of Digital Financial Services

Dr M. Asif (PhD Management Sciences) is currently working as Associate Professor and Head of Management Sciences Department in City University of Science and Information Technology, Peshawar, Pakistan. He is well versed in research having quality publication in well reputed research journals.

Along with teaching and administration Dr. Asif is also working as managing editor of 2 research journals and member of reviewer's panel in different research journals. His area of interest is Islamic Banking and Finance.

Title of Speech: Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)

Dr. Muhammad Hashim is an Associate Professor in Faisalabad Business School of National Textile University. HEC (Higher Education Commission) recognized Hashim for his expertise and contributions in promoting the research culture in Pakistan. Currently, working as a Program Director BS (TMM), Team Leader: Business Analytics and Decision Research Group. He has been Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator in multiple projects granted by HEC (NRPU), NTU and has awarded with excellent paper awards in international conference held in Kanazawa University Japan (2018) and Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey (2023). His mainly interest include Marketing, Operations and supply chain management, sustainability, circular economy and Lean Manufacturing.

Waseem Ahmad is working as Associate Professor, at the Institute of Business Management Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Dr. Ahmad earned Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, Canada in 2013. He has more than 15 years of working experience in teaching and research. His research interests areas are policy development, project management, agribusiness strategy development, and retailing. He has completed several research projects funded by national and international funding agencies. He has published many research papers in internationally abstracted journals and presented his work in more than 75 national and international conferences. Dr. Ahmad also served as In-charge of the Business Incubation Center at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. As the head of an incubation center, he has taken various initiatives to improve the capabilities of the students to become a successful entrepreneur.

Title of Speech: Role of professional education on entrepreneurial intention in a developing country

Dr. Muhammad Jamil is a Professor of Economics at Ghulam Ishaq Khan Memorial Chair (SBP), Kashmir Institute of Economics, The University of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. Dr. Jamil is also serving as managing editor of Kashmir Economic Review since March 2020. He obtained a BSc from the University of Punjab with the first position in college. He took his MSc in Economics degree with a gold medal (2004) and M.Phil in Economics (2009) from Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) in Islamabad, Pakistan. Dr. Jamil received his Ph.D. in Economics (2011) from the University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria, under the supervision of the late Professor Erich W. Streissler and Professor Robert M. Kunst. Soon after his Ph.D., he was appointed to the School of Economics at QAU in May 2011 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2019 at QAU. He joined his current position in March 2020.

His areas of research and expertise are Financial Economics, Welfare Economics, Econometrics, and Public Economics. He has published his research in reputed journals. Till to date, he has supervised 4 Ph.D. and 56 M.Phil. theses. He acted as the focal person and resource person in many workshops related to the use of software in academic research. He has completed several projects funded by HEC-Pakistan, QAU, and CPEC-Center of Excellence.

Dr. Siyang Tian is currently a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the Finance Department at the University of Greenwich and also a visiting researcher at the Mergers and Acquisitions Research Centre at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass). He earned his Ph.D. in Finance at Bayes Business School. He was previously an Assistant Professor of Financial Management at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and a visiting scholar at the University of Washington. In addition, he is a CFA charter holder.

He is interested in topics related to empirical corporate finance, such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and venture capital/private equity. Particularly, he utilizes multidisciplinary research methods to investigate the new determinants of takeovers and entrepreneurial financing, as well as the real economic consequences of variation in the market for corporate control.

Title of Speech: Labelling in the Financial Markets

Dr. Muhammad Saeed Meo is an Assistant Professor at Xiamen University Malaysia. He holds a Ph.D. (Financial Analysis and Policy) from the Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business at Universiti Utara Malaysia (AACSB). He has extensive experience with publications and reviews in reputable publishers (including Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Sage Publications, Inderscience Publishers, Emerald). He has over 70 research papers to his credit, including (WOS, Scopus Q1, ABS, ABDC (A)). His H-index is 22, and his total citations exceed 1218. He is currently review editor of Cities in the Global South (Frontiers, ESCI), handling editor of Frontiers in Public Health, review editor of Frontiers in Environmental Sciences, guest editor of Sustainability (MDPI), and associate editor of International Journal of Management Research and Emerging Sciences (HEC Y-Category). He delivered numerous public lectures and keynote speeches around the globe.