Our Speakers

Professor of Sustainable Finance at the Department of Finance of the University of Zurich (UZH) and a senior chair at the Swiss Finance Institute (SFI)

Zacharias Sautner is Professor of Sustainable Finance at the Department of Finance of the University of Zurich (UZH) and a senior chair at the Swiss Finance Institute (SFI). Through his research on ESG topics such as climate change or biodiversity, he provides insights on how finance can contribute to a more sustainable future.

His research was published in leading international journals, and he was ranked #23 globally across 12,000 business authors in a ranking based on SSRN research paper downloads (January 2023, calculated over the past 12 months). Two of his papers were ranked #3 and #4 in a Financial Times ranking of “Business School Sustainability Research: What is Read Most?” (July 2023). His research has been cited more than 8,000 times according to Google Scholar and downloaded more than 100,000 times on SSRN, and his expertise is referenced in newspapers such as Wall Street Journal, New York Times, or Financial Times, and in reports by the IMF, ECB, or European Commission as well as in speeches by central bankers.

Sautner acts as Associate Editor at the Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Banking & Finance, and Journal of Corporate Finance. He is a Research Consultant (Regular Research Visitor) at the ECB, Director of the European Finance Association, and advisor of institutional investors and stock exchanges on ESG issues.

He is the proud father of three daughters (born 2017, 2019, 2021), making him intrinsically motivated to work hard for a sustainable future.