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Dr. George Athanassakos is a Professor of Finance and the Ben Graham Chair in Value Investing at the Ivey Business School, which he joined in July 2004. He is also the Founder and Managing Director of The Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing, which he launched in 2006, and the Founder and Managing Director of the Center for the Advancement of Value Investing Education, which he launched in 2008. Prior to joining Ivey, Dr. Athanassakos spent a number of years at various research-related positions with banking and trust companies in Canada and Greece, and taught at York University and Wilfrid Laurier University, where he was professor of Finance and Founder & Director of Laurier’s Financial Planning Program. He has a BA in Economics and Business Administration from The School of Industrial Studies of Thessalonica, Greece, and an MA in Economics, an MBA and a PhD in Finance from York University. The Financial Planning Standards Council has bestowed Dr. Athanassakos with the FP Canada^TM Fellow distinction for his outstanding contribution to furthering FPSC's mission and for advancing the financial planning profession. Dr. Athanassakos is also a Fellow of the Quality Shareholder Initiative at the Law School of George Washington University in Washington, DC. He is the only Canadian to receive this distinction. Dr. Athanassakos' contribution to value investing was honoured by Woxsen University which has established the George Athanassakos Chair in Value Investing.

Dr. Athanassakos has been ranked among the top 10 researchers in Canada by research published in Financial Management and among the top 10 Canadian professors by the Globe and Mail. He has researched extensively the institutional attributes of the Canadian capital markets, the effect institutional trading and analysts’ forecasts have on stock market performance, stock and bond market anomalies and bond and equity valuation issues. He has prepared studies on the Canadian capital markets and industry analyses for Greece and Canada. His cases have been published in Canadian Cases in Financial Accounting, Cases in Hospitality Management and Case Research Journal.

Dr. Athanassakos has offered seminars on traditional valuation and/or value investing valuation to Canadian and US valuator societies, and in Australia, Austria, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Finland, Greece, Italy, Liechtenstein, South Africa, Spain and United Kingdom. He is recipient of teaching awards, such as the Ivey's Teaching Innovation Award and Western University's USC Teaching Honour Roll, and of numerous research grants from University and Government departments, as well as winner of numerous first prize awards for best research papers, including three times winner (1991, 1994, and 2003) of the Toronto Society of Financial Analysts’ Best Research Paper Award Competition. Dr. Athanassakos has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Financial Planners Standards Council of Canada, a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute of Financial Planners, a member of the Editorial Board of the Canadian Investment Review, a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Canadian Securities Institute and Clarica Financial Services Research Center, and the VP-Membership and President of the Multinational Finance Society. He has also been in the Program Committees of the Eastern Finance Association, European Financial Management Association, Midwest Finance Association, Multinational Finance Association, Northern Finance Association and Southern Finance Association conferences, among others and served as the Chair and Organizer of the 1999 Multinational Finance Conference in Toronto, Ontario, the Ben Graham Centre's Symposium on Intelligent Investing (since 2007) in Toronto, Ontario, Greece and London, Ontario and the Ben Graham Centre's Value Investing Conferences (since 2012) in Toronto, Ontario. He is currently an editor-in-chief of the Journal of Business and Financial Affairs, an Editor of the Multinational Finance Journal, an editor of the International Journal of Economics and Business Administration, a member of the Editorial Board of the European Research Studies Journal, a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Financial Planners Standards Council and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Multinational Finance Society.

Dr. Athanassakos has published in numerous journals including Journal of Banking and Finance, Applied Financial Economics, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Journal of Financial Research, Financial Analysts’ Journal, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, Journal of Economics and Business, Review of Financial Economics, Multinational Finance Journal, Advances in Futures and Options Research and others. His books include Derivatives Fundamentals (available through the Canadian Securities Institute), Equity Valuation: A Guide to Discounted Cash Flow and Relative Valuation Methods and Value Investing: From Theory to Practice – A Guide to the Value Investing Process. Dr. Athanassakos has also written articles for the Financial Post and MoneySense magazine and currently writes, as a guest columnist, about investments and economic and financial topics in The Globe and Mail, Canada's largest daily newspaper, and the Canadian Investment Review.

For more information about Dr. Athanassakos click here.

Gary Kim joined the Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing at the Ivey Business School in May 2024 as the Centre Coordinator.  He earned a BA (Honours) and MA in Anthropology, both from Western University.  As a student, Gary was the recipient of numerous awards and honours such as Dean’s Honour List designations, the Department of Anthropology’s Gold Medal, Ontario Graduate Scholarship and Canada Graduate Scholarship (from SSHRC).  During that time, he also published an article in The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology.

Since 2006, Gary has worked at various faculties and departments across Western University.  He started off as an Invigilator at Services for Students with Disabilities (now Accessible Education) from 2006 to 2007 but quickly moved up to become the department’s Exam Coordinator Assistant from 2007 to 2008.  From 2008 to 2018, Gary worked as an Undergraduate Assistant at the Office of the Registrar where he was responsible for coordinating the administration of 26,000 exams per year both on and off-campus.  During that time, his dedication to service was recognized with a nomination for the Western Award of Excellence in 2016.  From 2018 to 2022, Gary worked as the Undergraduate Program Coordinator at Western University’s Department of Economics.  In 2021, his work ethic, attention to detail and problem-solving skills were rewarded with another nomination for the Western Award of Excellence. 

Before joining the Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing, Gary worked as the HBA2 Program Coordinator at the Ivey Business School from 2022 to 2024.  Now as the Centre Coordinator for the Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing, he is looking forward to honing his skills in event planning, marketing, outreach and financial management.