Mark Williams

Mark T. Williams is a risk-management practitioner, academic and financial author with three decades of experience. His expertise includes risk management in banks, hedge funds, energy trading and utility companies. Specific focus areas include Fed monetary policy; corporate governance; business ethics; banking trading fraud and compensation practices; fraud detection and prevention, pension investments and return assessment; energy commodities risk measurement and precious metals trading. Current research has focused on financial literacy, financial inclusion and Fintech, including virtual currencies and blockchain.

Since 2002, he has been on the Finance Faculty at Boston University, teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and currently holds the James E. Freeman Lecturer in Management Chair with the academic rank of Master Lecturer. Previously, he worked as a senior trading floor executive, a bank trust officer and as a bank examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank.

His expertise is called on frequently by national media and he has been a guest columnist for Financial Times, New York Times, Forbes.com, Reuters.com, Business Insider, Foreign Policy Magazine, Bloomberg and the Boston Globe. In 2014 he provided Congressional testimony on the risks associated with virtual currencies. Similar presentations were also made in 2015 at The World Bank and The Bretton Woods Committee.

In 2010 he published Uncontrolled Risk (McGraw Hill), a book examining the root causes of the financial crisis and the rise and fall of investment banking giant Lehman Brothers. A second edition of this book was published in Chinese. In 2013, he co-authored Longwood Covered Courts and the Rise of American Tennis, which won the Best Reference Book Award at the 2014 New England Book Show.

Outside of academics, he conducts risk management seminars, has provided consulting for various Fortune 500 companies and hedge funds. He serves on the advisory board of Appleton Partners, Boston-based wealth-management firm, is a senior advisor at the Brattle Group, and is on the Standard & Poor’s Academic Advisory Council. He co-founded FitMoney, a nonprofit focused on elevating financial literacy in U.S. public schools for kindergarten through 12th grade.

Williams holds a BSBA in Finance from the University of Delaware and a MBA from Boston University. He is a founding board member of the Boston Chapter of the Global Association of Risk Professional, a member of the Boston Analyst Security Association and International Association of Financial Engineers. He also services on the Executive Committee of the Boston Economic Club.

EDUCATION

MBA, Boston University School of Business, 1993 BS, University of Delaware, 1985

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Williams, M. (2019). "World Series Umpires Did Not Have World-Class Performances This Year Players and fans deserve better behind home plate", BU Today
• Williams, M. (2019). "Student Debt Is Hurting Our Wallets and Our Health",
• Williams, M. (2019). "MLB Umpires Missed 34,294 Ball-Strike Calls in 2018. Bring on Robo-umps?",
• Williams, M. (2019). "An analysis of nearly 4 million pitches shows just how many mistakes umpires make",
• Williams, M. (2019). "How to finally address the US's out-of-control student-loan crisis, according to a finance professor", Business Insider
• Williams, M. (2019). "MBTA Pension Crisis should be a priority", Boston Globe
• Williams, M. (2018). "Investing in Cryptocurrency:Do or Don't", BU Today
• Williams, M. (2017). "Trump's Failed Economic Policy Could Push the US Back into Recession by 2018", Business Insider
• Williams, M. (2017). "There are Signs Trump is Preparing a Hostile Takeover of the Fed", Business Insider
• Williams, M. (2013). "Longwood Covered Courts and the Rise of American Tennis",
• Williams, M. (2010). "Uncontrolled Risk: Lessons of Lehman Brothers and How Systemic Risk Can Still Bring Down the World Financial System", McGraw Hill Professional
• Williams, M."Winning Is Great—but at What Cost?", BU Today

SELECTED RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

• Williams, M. Lehman Brothers; 10 Years Later & The Lessons Still not Learned, Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA), Boston, MA, 2018
• Williams, M. FinTech, Cryptocurrency and Blockchain, Angel Capital Association Conference on FinTech, Boston, MA, 2018
• Williams, M. Future of FinTech, State Street Bank, Boston, 2018
• AWARDS AND HONORS
• 2019, Hall of Fame Inductee, Sussex Central High School
• 2019, Questrom Undergraduate Commencement Speaker, Questrom
• 2018, James E. Freeman Lecturer Chair, Boston University
• 2014, New England Book Show Best Reference Book 2014, New England Book Show
• 2008, Beckwith Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Boston University