About the Foundation

Our leadership

The Foundation is managed by an Executive Board supported by a Scientific Advisory Board and a non-executive Research Director.

Executive Board

Dr. Gabriele Luculli, Chairman

Gabriele Luculli obtained a computer engineering degree (‘Dottore in Ingegneria’) summa cum laude from the University of Pisa, Italy; a PhD in electrical, computer and telecommunication engineering at the Scuola Superiore S. Anna at the University of Pisa, and an MBA in International Finance from the Graduate School of Business in Grenoble, France. After initial experience as industrial visiting researcher at Stanford University in 2000, he decided to move into industry full time. He worked in France, Italy and the USA for several years in advanced hardware/software architectures and signal processing in the semiconductors industry. He then moved into finance as consultant for strategic investments in high-tech companies for the Vista Department of Standard & Poor’s. He has authored 12 papers in international conferences and three patents in Europe and USA.

Brant Emery, Secretary

Brant Emery graduated with a 1st class BA (Hons) in Publishing Studies from The Robert Gordon University, Scotland, and a Master of Science in Marketing from Aberdeen Business School. His primary role is to manage the daily operations of the Foundation, and he is the first point of contact for all queries regarding the Foundation and its activities.

Non-executive Board member

Prof. Dr. Michel H. Vellekoop, Research Director

Professor of Actuarial Science, University of Amsterdam

Michel Vellekoop is a full professor in Actuarial Sciences in the Department of Quantitative Economics at the University of Amsterdam. He studied Applied Mathematics at the University of Twente and obtained his PhD in 1998 at Imperial College in London for research on non-linear filtering problems for stochastic

processes. Since then, he has focused on applications in mathematical finance, both as assistant and associate professor at the University of Twente and as Research Director for the Derivatives Technology Foundation. His main research interests are valuation and risk management problems for contingent claims in complete as well as incomplete markets, with a focus on optimal stopping problems that arise due to early exercise features.

Scientific Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Arunabha Bagchi

Head, FElab, University of Twente, Professor of Applied Mathematics and Chair in Stochastic Systems and Signals

Arun Bagchi graduated in 1969 from the University of Calcutta in Applied Mathematics. One year later he graduated in electrical engineering from UCLA in Los Angeles. By invitation of Prof. H. Kwakernaak, he went to the University of Twente in 1974 as a researcher, initially for one year, but stayed on to become Dean of the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences in 1994. Whilst on sabbatical in New York, he saw how maths was being applied in finance and came back to Twente to found the Financial Engineering department (the FElab). Gaining support from Bert Bruggink, CFO at Rabobank and former student, he was also made Chair of Financial Risk Management at Twente. With support from industry and academia, by 2001 he was able to realise his vision of a multidisciplinary course that taught both financial management and applied mathematics.

Dr. J.W. Hans Nieuwenhuis

Associate Professor of Operations, University of Groningen

Hans Nieuwenhuis studied Quantitative Economics at the University of Groningen, graduating in 1971. His thesis at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences examined the duality of the results in mathematical programming. During the 70s, he conducted research into the mathematics of operations research, followed by systems and control theory in the 80s and 90s. In 1998, he became interested in mathematical finance, financial engineering and stochastic processes, working together with Michel Vellekoop on these subjects. He teaches in the Department of Econometrics and the Department of Economics at the University of Groningen.