The Twenty-fourth Session of Academic Forum of Excellence 2023 of the Business School for the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Establishment of the Business School and the MBA Education Center Successfully Organized

On the afternoon of October 30, 2023, the Business School held the Twenty-fourth Session of Academic Forum of Excellence 2023 of the lecture series of the Business School for the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Establishment of the Business School and the MBA Education Center in Conference Room A28 of the MBA Education Center of the Xueyuan South Road Campus of Central University of Finance and Economics. The lecture featured Edward Altman, the Max L. Heine Emeritus Professor of Finance at the Stern Business School, New York University, as the guest speaker. More than twenty people, including faculty, doctoral students, master students, and undergraduates, participated in this event.

The lecture was chaired by Associate Professor Yao Xiao from the Business School. Yao introduced Edward Altman's background. Edward Altman is the Max L. Heine Emeritus Professor of Finance at the Stern Business School, New York University, and Director of the Credit and Debt Markets Research Program at the Salomon Center. He was the Director of the MBA program at the Stern Business School for 12 years. Professor Altman developed the Z-score model in 1968 to predict corporate bankruptcy, which was recognized as one of the top 10 most-cited papers in the Journal of Finance by the AFA. His research interests include corporate bankruptcy, high-yield bonds, distressed debt, and credit risk, and he is well-known internationally. He has published 24 papers in the top three financial journals and over 160 other papers, and he has co-edited and authored 24 books, including “Corporate Financial Distress and Bankruptcy.” Moreover, Professor Altman is the editor of several academic journals, the initiator of the International Risk Management Conference (IRMC), and a strong supporter of the Credit Scoring and Credit Rating Conference (CSCR). He was inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society Hall of Fame in 2001, served as the President of the Financial Management Association (FMA), and was elected a Fellow of the FMA in 2004. In 2005, he was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance” by the magazine Financial and Risk Management.

The theme of Professor Altman's lecture was “Credit Cycles and Zombie Firms.” The study initially focused on the global phenomenon of zombie firms and the current credit cycle, delving into corporate and national debt issues. Then, by analyzing the fluctuations of the credit cycle, it detailed the impact of these fluctuations on global financial health and economic dynamics, and positioned the current stage of the credit cycle. Finally, it explored the essence of the global zombie firm phenomenon, pointing out its challenges to economic stability and resource allocation.

Following the presentation, teachers and students engaged in an active discussion and in-depth exchange on topics such as climate transition risk, ESG, and geopolitics, related to Professor Altman's lecture theme.

The “Academic Forum of Excellence” is an academic exchange platform established by the Business School to fulfill its mission of "contributing new knowledge to management.” It focuses on cutting-edge theoretical issues and organizational development challenges in the discipline of business administration and Chinese enterprise management practices. By aggregating cutting-edge thoughts and innovative viewpoints from both domestic and international sources, it seeks to explore Chinese solutions for the social and economic development of China.