Karim Pakravan
Karim Pakravan capped a 25-year career in international banking in 2007, subsequently returning to a full-time academic career with an 8-year stint as a member of the Finance Department at DePaul University. Pakravan retired from academia in mid-2016, but is continuing as an Adjunct Professor at both DePaul University and Loyola University Chicago, lecturing on Finance and Economics topics.
During his international banking career, which started at First Chicago and ended three mergers later at JPMorgan Chase, Pakravan specialized in international financial research—22 years in Country Risk Management, of which ten as Department Head; 3 years as Vice President/Senior Economist in Foreign Exchange/Emerging Markets advisory.
Since rejoining academia, Pakravan had lectured extensively on corporate finance, money and banking, financial management, international finance, private equity, macroeconomics and quantitative methods in finance. He has also been teaching a case-based private equity class since 2011. In addition at DePaul, Pakravan has had international teaching engagements: Visiting Professor at Hong Kong University and short courses at Wirtschaft Universitaet (Vienna), Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance, and EAN Business School (Bogota). Pakravan’s research has focused on global financial markets and macro-financial markets and financial regulation. In the past few years, he has published several articles on the 2008 financial crisis and global financial architecture, as well as on the topic of bank regulation, Basel capital rules and banking stress testing.
Pakravan has leveraged his academic background and business experience in consulting, and is currently Economic Advisor and member of the Investment Committee of Advocacy Investing, a small Chicago-based wealth management advisor.
Pakravan holds B.S in Economics from the University of Geneva, an M.Sc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Four conclusions can be drawn from our analysis about the shortcomings of the global financial architecture. First, uncoordinated monetary policies in advanced countries are contributing to global financial volatility. Second, exchange rate movements are increasingly divorced from economic fundamentals. Third, the current system of MLFIs cannot constrain the buildup and transmission of international financial imbalances. Finally, the new global financial architecture cannot be built without the participation of China and other major emerging market countries.
