2025 Applied Finance Conference 

Monday, 19 May 2025 | St. John's University, New York, NY

The Thirteenth Annual FMA Applied Finance Conference will be hosted at the Peter J. Tobin College of Business at St. John’s University’s  Manhattan campus (101 Astor Place, New York, NY 10003) located in the heart of New York City’s most vibrant neighborhoods. 

The Conference is much smaller and more focused than the FMA’s traditional meetings and includes a relatively small number of papers to provide ample opportunity for presentations and discussion by participants. FMA seeks high-quality papers from scholars and practitioners in the fields of finance and accounting that:

• Inform practice and advance the frontiers of academic research in directions relevant to practice.
• Address issues that are relevant to contemporary issues globally and for policy formation and assessment.
• Introduce new hypotheses that have the potential to stimulate additional research.

Program Co-Chairs

Mikael Bergbrant,  Associate Professor of Finance Reed-McDermott Professor
St. John's University

Jason Berkowitz, Associate Dean of Faculty and Professor of Finance
St. John's University

Betty Simkins, Regents Professor of Finance, Head, Department of Finance, Williams Companies Chair of Business & Professor of Finance
Oklahoma State University

Paper Submissions

The paper submission deadline is Monday, 3 February 2025. Submission fees are $50 (FMA member) and $60 (non-member).

Click here to submit your paper!

The editors of Financial Management (FM), the flagship journal of FMA International, will be apprised by the conference program committee of papers that the committee assesses to be of particularly high-quality.  In select cases, the editors will “lightly solicit” papers for submission to FM by offering fast-turnaround, high-quality reviews, waived initial submission fees, and enhanced marketing of papers that are eventually accepted through this submission route. Referees for “lightly-solicited” papers will be made aware that the paper was invited for submission by the editors.  While these invitations do not promise eventual publication of papers in FM, the invitations are only offered to a small number of papers each year that the respective FMA conference program committees identify as likeliest to clear the bar for publication in FM without major revisions.  

Click here to read the Call For Papers.

Other Program Participation

Program Committee Applications: Application Deadline: Monday, 3 February 2025 - CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Session Chair/Discussant Applications: Application Deadline: 10 March 2025 - CLICK HERE TO APPLY

Conference Program

Featuring Keynote Speaker Seth Vance, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer  
Everest Group 

Seth is an Executive Vice President and the Everest Group Chief Investment Officer.  As such he is responsible for managing the internal and external Investments, Risk, & Asset Management of the Everest $40B+ portfolio. Seth Joined Everest in 2019. 

Before Everest

From 2008 until 2019 Seth was the Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of a group of companies including Beneficial Life and DMBA (portfolios included Pension, Life, Annuity, Media/Telecom, Health Care and Endowment portfolios with assets exceeding $40B).  Seth did this role from Park City Utah. 

Prior to 2008 Seth had a 20-year Investment Banking career. Over his Investment Banking career, Seth was a Managing Director with Salomon Brothers Inc, Deustche Bank, and a Principal with Morgan Stanley & Co.  He started his career doing Financial Institution M&A and completed his banking career living in London for 5 years where he ran the Global Structured Bond business. 

From 1996-2000, Seth left Wall Street to work for Charles Koch at Koch Industries Inc. (KII).  Seth was primarily responsible for the global financial and commodity trading businesses and was one of 12 Directors and Officers of KII.  At KII, Seth managed Singapore, London, Houston, New York and Rotterdam, and was the head of all trading and the COO of Koch Petroleum (the second largest business after trading at KII).  Seth left KII in 2000 to rejoin Salomon Brothers Inc in London England as a Managing Director.

Education: MBA from The Harvard Business School/ Accounting, Business undergraduate Bachelor of Science Degree from BYU

Licenses: CPA, Securities Licenses:  Series 24 (Principal), 3(Commodities Futures), 7(Securities Agent) and 63(Commodities Futures and Options)

Hobbies:  Skiing, Horses, Biking

Interesting things to know about Seth:  Worked on a cattle ranch in the summers from age 6 to age 16.  Seth grew up in Albuquerque New Mexico and Manassa Colorado.

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