NEW YORK – Hellenic American Association for Professionals in Finance (HABA) celebrated its 38th anniversary and honored Dr. Costis Maglaras as 2022 Executive of the Year at a cocktail and networking reception on June 8 in Manhattan.

Dr. Maglaras is the 16th Dean of Columbia Business School and the David and Lyn Silfen Professor of Business at Columbia University. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, London, in 1990, and his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1991 and 1998, respectively. He joined Columbia Business School in 1998, when he joined the Decision, Risk and Operations Division. Prior to becoming dean he served as chair of the Decision, Risk & Operations division at the Business School, Director of the School’s doctoral program, and was a member of the executive committee of the University’s Data Science Institute. He is a Fellow of INFORMS, an Honorary Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, and a Member of the Economic Club of New York.

His research lies on the interface between applied mathematics, economics and engineering, with emphasis on stochastic networks, financial engineering, and algorithmic pricing and revenue management. Recent work has focused on market microstructure of electronic (financial) limit order book markets; the diffusion of information over social networks; the economics and control of queueing networks with strategic agents, such as the ones encountered in ride-hailing; and the application of algorithmic pricing in the residential real-estate market. His work has been recognized through several research awards. and he has advised 20 doctoral students that have gone to academia and industry.

Maglaras teaches courses in the MBA and PhD programs, and he has also received the Dean’s award at Columbia Business School for teaching excellence for the core course Managerial Statistics, and the Dean’s award for Teaching Innovation for his work on the Technology and Analytics curriculum in Columbia’s MBA and EMBA programs.

Outside of the Business School, his experience has been focused in financial technology, asset management and markets, and in digital technology. In 2007, Dean Maglaras helped found Mismi Inc., a venture-backed financial technology firm that introduced quantitative trading algorithms and transaction analytics tools to the equities market. Mismi was a broker dealer and an Alternative Trading System (ATS; dark pool). At Mismi he was chief scientist that co-developed all the firm’s IP, built and directed the quantitative research and engineering teams, and served as President of the firm until 2014. In the last decade he has worked with major financial institutions and hedge funds, and currently has a long-standing collaboration with Goldman Sachs’ Global Markets Division focusing on quantitative research and equity trading. From 1991 to 1993 he served as a research scientist at Canon Research Center America, working on image processing and optical character recognition (back when this was novel).

Maglaras is married to Niki Kouri and they have three daughters.

Costas Kellas, HABA Treasurer, gave the welcoming remarks, thanking all those present and especially the event sponsors- Daniel S. Janis III, Columbia University, Jonathan Lavine (Bain Capital), Raptor Trading Systems, Red Apple Group, James P. Gerkis (Proskauer), Objecutive, Inc., Panagiota and Arvind Mahendru (Scalar Group Holdings Inc.), Atlantic Bank, a division of New York Community Bank – Member FDIC, Fanny Trataros, Maria Pappas, and Michael and Robin Psaros.

He then introduced HABA President Robert Savage who noted that he has been with the organization for 15 years as a philhellene and how “inclusiveness makes us strong.” He pointed out that the honoree was chosen three years ago, and Maglaras is “the standout person that we want to venerate as somebody who has been successful in America, leads by example, and has really carried all those things that are the heart and soul of Greece that we want to see in the world.”

Maria Vassalou, Co-Chief Investment Officer, Multi-Asset Solutions, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, introduced Dr. Maglaras, her friend and colleague.

In his remarks, Dr. Maglaras expressed his gratitude for the honor and spoke about his life and career journey so far. He shared insights on his research and the future of business in society. Maglaras thanked his wife for her support through the years, noting that she is also his best friend.

Following his speech, attendees, including his students from Columbia University, congratulated Maglaras and posed for commemorative photos before returning to the networking reception