VCU Professor Appointed to Research Position at Geneva Association

By Tom Gresham

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Etti Baranoff, Ph.D., associate professor of insurance and finance at Virginia Commonwealth University, has been appointed as the research director of the insurance and finance program for the Geneva Association, the leading international association dedicated to the study of insurance economics.

Baranoff, who will keep her post in the VCU School of Business, will be a key independent expert for the Geneva Association on all fundamental and theoretical work in the area of insurance and finance. She will be responsible for original research work, particularly advancing research activities and publications in relation to the recent global financial crisis and the Geneva Association’s work in the area of systemic risk and financial issues on behalf of the global insurance industry. In addition, Baranoff will serve as the editor of the Geneva Association’s “Insurance and Finance Newsletter.”

Baranoff, a former insurance regulator in Texas, has been working in insurance and risk management for more than 30 years. She is a five-time winner of the Research Paper Award from the International Insurance Society, including most recently for her timely paper, “The Impact of Mortgage-Backed Securities on Capital Requirements of Life Insurers in the Financial Crisis of 2007-08.” She teaches in the Department of Finance, Insurance and Real Estate at VCU.

Baranoff has been a member of the prestigious Risk Theory Seminar and has authored or co-authored more than 50 papers relating to risk management and insurance. She has been serving on the editorial board of the “The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance.” In addition, she has authored or co-authored two textbooks, including “Risk Management for the Enterprise and Individuals,” which was published in 2009.

Baranoff’s research subjects have included solvency detection models, capital and risk relationship, risk financing, enterprise risk management, asset allocation models and market discipline.