Professor Les A. Balzer
Positions Held
Professor of Finance, School of Banking & Finance,
University of NSW
Head of Research, Hedge Funds of Australia Limited
Prizes, Honours & Recognition
1999 Elevated to Fellowship of Securities Institute of
Aust in “recognition of … contribution to raising
standards in the [investment & finance] industry”
1999- Nominee of Investment & Financial Services Assoc
to Aust. Stock Exchange Index Advisory Panel.
1998 Only practising investment manager in world invited
to Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge
for two week Nonlinear Econometric & Financial Time
Series Workshop.
1995-97 President, Q-Group (Australia)
1995 Outstanding Paper of the Year award from Journal
of Investing, New York, NY, for extensive paper on measuring
investment risk.
1982 David Garrick Halmstad Memorial Award from American
Actuarial Education & Research Foundation for best contribution
to international actuarial research.
Professional Memberships*
Fellow, Securities Institute of Australia
Fellow, Australian Institute of Company Directors
Fellow, Inst of Mathematics & Its Applications, UK
Fellow, Institution of Engineers, Australia
Associate Fellow, Australian Institute of Management
Chartered Mathematician, by Royal Charter HM QE II
Member, American Finance Association
Licensed, Sydney Futures Exchange
Proper Authority, Aust. Securities & Investment Comn
Employment
2003- Professor of Finance, School of Banking & Finance,
University of New South Wales
2000-2003 Principal & Senior Portfolio Manager, State
Street Global Advisors Inc, largest manager of institutional
investments in world.
2000-2003 Director, ASTC, subsidiary of Australian Stock Exchange
Ltd.
1991-2000 Investment Manager, Lend Lease/MLC Investment Management.
1990-91 Executive Director, John Ford & Associates, consultants
in actuarial & financial mathematics.
1989-90 Principal, William M Mercer, Inc., largest firm of
actuaries & financial asset consultants in world.
1988-89 Chairman, Crestwin Corporation, listed coy.
1988-89 Deputy Chairman, Flexible Automation P/L.
1986-89 Corporate Finance Executive, Pring Dean & Co,
stockbrokers.
1985-86 Dean, Faculty of Engineering, RMIT.
1983-85 Manager, Advanced Technology Centre, NSW Dept of Industrial
Development.
1976-83 Chair, Manufacturing & Management Group; Senior
Lecturer, Univ. Technology Sydney.
1962-76 Senior Development Officer, etc., CSR Ltd
1970-73 CSR doctoral scholar at Univ. of Cambridge.
Research Interests
Financial risk measurement & control; dynamics, & stochastic modelling of financial markets; investment management, especially equities; application of control theory to finance.
Selected Professional Activities*
Managed share portfolios up to $3.5 billion with above average
return & below average risk.
SIA: National Task Force on Futures Trading.
IFAC (Intl Federation of Automatic Control):
Aust. Member, Technical Ctee on Economic & Management
Systems, and Technical Ctee on Mathematics of Control.
Asian Oceanian Computing Industry Org., Aust. Sec
IEAust: Member, various National Ctees & Board.
NSW State Ctee of CSIRO.
ARC grant assessor.
NSW Higher Education Brd., Panel of Chairpersons.
Various government committees & working parties.
Expert witness in various jurisdictions.
UN Industrial Development Org, Rstd Consultant.
Selected Publications & Addresses
- Occasional Address to Graduation Ceremony, Faculty of Commerce & Economics, UNSW, 2002.
- Invited chapter, “Investment Risk: A unified approach to upside & downside returns”, in Managing Downside Risk in Financial Markets: Theory, Practice & Implementation, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, Eds Sortino & Satchell, 2001.
- Invited address, Measuring Investment Risk, 19th Annual Congress, European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies, Barcelona, Spain, 1996.
- Best Paper Award, “Advanced Measures of Risk”, Q-Group Annual Colloquium, 1995.
- Invited Opening Address, US Center for Investment Research conference Is Variance Dead?, 1994.
- Invited address, “Of Rocket Scientists & Other Financial Animals”, at launch of report on National Review of Mathematics in Australia, 1996.
- “Artificial Neural Networks: Cerebrally smart, but lamentably dumb”, J. Investing, New York, 1995.
- “Snail Trails: Measuring fund manager risk/return performance over time”, J. Investing, NY, 1995.
- “Finding an Indicative Price for the Day: A maximum likelihood & order statistics approach”, JASSA, 1994
- “Risk/Return Histories; Measuring fund manager performance dynamically”, 4th AFIR Colloquium on Financial Risks, Intl Actuarial Assoc, USA, 1994.
- “Bespoke Performance Attribution”, JASSA, 1994.
- “Term Structure of Volatility in Financial Markets”, 1st AFIR International Colloquium on an Actuarial Approach to Financial Risks, International Actuarial Association, Paris, France, 1990.