Keynote Speakers

Professor Tapan K. Sarker is an author, media commentator, and Professor of Finance at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He received his PhD from the ANU College of Business and Economics, specialising in sustainable and climate finance. He is ranked among the top 5% of scholars globally in sustainability research by ScholarGPS. Professor Sarker serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals and is a regular contributor to major media outlets, including ABC, Sky News, SBS, and The Conversation. His research has been published in leading international journals such as Business Strategy and the Environment, Resources Policy, Global Finance Journal, Economic Modelling, and the International Review of Economics and Finance. He has secured $3.7 million in external research funding (including over $1.5 million as Chief Investigator) and has supervised 16 PhD completions, with eight candidates currently under supervision. He is also an assessor for prestigious grant schemes such as the Australian Research Council (ARC) and a sought-after PhD thesis examiner in Business and Management. Professor Sarker has held visiting academic appointments at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, and is a partner at Antarpath Impact Consulting, a strategy consulting firm supporting business growth and impact.

Professor Moinak Maiti holds the FirstRand Foundation Chair in Financial Data Science at the Wits School of Economics and Finance. The Chair drives innovation and excellence in finance, data science, and business, collaborating with industry and mentoring future leaders. He is a Fellow of the Machine Intelligence & Neural Discovery Institute (MIND), Editor of the Investment Analysts Journal (Taylor & Francis), Associate Editor of Research in Globalization (Elsevier), and Associate Editor of Business Strategy and Development (Wiley).