Research & Innovation

Stevens School of Business Hosts Prestigious SFS Cavalcade

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A woman stands on stage behind a podium in front of a slide with the SFS Cavalcade logo.

Conference brings leading academics and industry professionals from around the world to Hoboken

More than 300 leaders in financial research, representing 30 states and more than 12 countries visited the Stevens campus from May 19-22 for the Society for Financial Studies Cavalcade North America. The prestigious annual event featured 144 presentations across 24 different topics.

“The conference is one of the three largest conferences in finance for academics,” said Stefano Bonini, associate professor of finance and the Stevens School of Business director of international partnerships. “The Cavalcade is ranked number one out of these three conferences for the papers presented, meaning that roughly 60% end up in one of the top three financial journals. It's a conference that brings the best people in academia from around the world, and the level of conversations and interactions is extremely high.”

Bonini served as the co-faculty sponsor with Suman Banerjee, associate professor of finance and the director of Stevens doctoral program.

The conference stands out because of both its format and quality. Each day was divided into eight distinct tracks, with six papers presented in each category. More than 100 institutions were represented, including eight Ivy League schools and 24 of the top 25 ranked business schools in the United States. The conference also featured participants from the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C., several Federal Reserve banks and regulatory agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

In addition to this event, the SFS hosts an annual Asia-Pacific Cavalcade. It also owns the Review of Financial Studies, one of the 50 academic and practitioner journals that the Financial Times uses to rank faculty research in their MBA, Executive MBA and online MBA rankings, the Review of Asset Pricing Studies and the Review of Corporate Finance Studies.

Stevens was also represented by Sean Hanlon, Co-Founder and Wealth Manager with VestGen Wealth Partners, a member of the Stevens Board of Trustees, and the Chairman of the Advisory Board of SSB’s Hanlon Financial Systems Center.

“The Cavalcade has earned a reputation as one of the most dynamic conferences in our field, an open, inclusive forum for top tier academic work that also reflects the real-world complexities of finance,” he told the audience at Tuesday’s luncheon. “This year's program continues that tradition, showcasing research that not only advances theory but also has the potential to transform how we think, act and serve. I want to highlight a theme that I believe is both timely and foundational — the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in wealth management. We're standing at the edge of a new era, one in which AI will play a central role in how we understand risk, construct portfolios, personalized advice and serve clients with greater empathy and precision.”

Stevens joins a prestigious list of past hosts, including MIT, Yale, Virginia, Michigan, UT-Austin, Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Indiana and Georgetown. The next two Cavalcades are scheduled for Virginia and Notre Dame.

“The most important thing is that the host is eager to be a good host and dedicated to doing it with high quality and reliability so that the conference goes off without a hitch,” said Laura Veldkamp, conference chair and the Leon G. Cooperman Professor of Finance & Economics at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business. “Stevens benefits because they get to bring a whole bunch of the best academics in the field here. And they have students, so they might recommend Stevens to them because it's top of mind, having just been there and seeing that it was a beautiful place with good facilities and excellent faculty. The Stevens’ faculty who will be around, either on the program, chairing sessions or just attending and being part of the conversation helps in getting to know Stevens as an institution, and I think that will really benefit them going forward.”

“I would like people to go home with the understanding that the Stevens School of Business is a reputable institution with strong academics and with faculty members who do research at an incredibly high level,” Bonini said. “The important thing is that when they receive a paper for the next conference, the next journal article or the next invitation to a faculty seminar, they look at it with a different eye and remember, ‘Oh, yeah. these guys are good.’”

2025 SFS Cavalcade North America Presentation Topics

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Beliefs, Disagreement and Asset Prices

Information and the Data Economy

Asset Pricing

Climate Finance

Institutional Investors and Financial Intermediation

Governance, Organization and Ownership

Data, AI and Digital Governance: Markets and Policy

Monetary Policy, Fiscal Policy and Asset Prices

Corporate Finance and Contracts

Consumer Credit, Subprime Lending and Debt Relief

New Frontiers in Corporate Investment

Credit and Banking

Monetary Policy

Private Credit and Corporate Debt

Housing and Household Consumption

Mortgages & Real Estate

Real Estate

International Finance

Stakeholders, Politics and Firm Behavior

Risk, Return and Asset Pricing

Liquidity and Price Informativeness

Venture Capital and Innovation

Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship

Macro-finance

Hanlon Financial Systems CenterBack to School of Business News

The 2025 SFS Cavalcade North America

Two professional conference attendees pose together in a modern glass-walled venue.
Three men pose together at a conference networking event in a modern glass-walled venue.
A presenter in casual attire speaks from a podium to an audience seated in modern tiered lecture hall seating. The bright room features large windows, white walls, and attendees in business attire listening to the presentation.
A presenter in glasses and suit jacket speaks to students in a lecture hall, gesturing toward a projected slide. Attendees sit at curved tiered desks with laptops, listening to the academic presentation in the modern classroom.
Three professionals network at a conference, with a smiling man in a dark suit and red tie holding a water bottle at the center, flanked by two women in dark attire, all wearing conference badges in a modern venue.
Conference networking reception in a glass-walled venue with Manhattan skyline views. Attendees mingle around red-clothed cocktail tables, eating and socializing in the bright modern space overlooking the city and greenery.
Five professionals pose at an awards ceremony, with two women holding certificates flanking three men in suits. Behind them is a projection screen showing "Best Paper in Corporate Finance" with an SFS logo in a modern conference room.
Four professionals pose for an award ceremony photo in a modern conference room. A woman in a navy dress with white stripes stands beside three men in dark business suits, with one holding a certificate, all smiling at the camera.
Four professionals pose at an academic award ceremony. A woman in a striped dress holds a microphone while three men in business suits stand beside her, with one holding a certificate, against a projection screen in a conference room.
Two professional conference attendees pose together in a modern glass-walled venue.
Three men pose together at a conference networking event in a modern glass-walled venue.
A presenter in casual attire speaks from a podium to an audience seated in modern tiered lecture hall seating. The bright room features large windows, white walls, and attendees in business attire listening to the presentation.
A presenter in glasses and suit jacket speaks to students in a lecture hall, gesturing toward a projected slide. Attendees sit at curved tiered desks with laptops, listening to the academic presentation in the modern classroom.
Three professionals network at a conference, with a smiling man in a dark suit and red tie holding a water bottle at the center, flanked by two women in dark attire, all wearing conference badges in a modern venue.
Conference networking reception in a glass-walled venue with Manhattan skyline views. Attendees mingle around red-clothed cocktail tables, eating and socializing in the bright modern space overlooking the city and greenery.
Five professionals pose at an awards ceremony, with two women holding certificates flanking three men in suits. Behind them is a projection screen showing "Best Paper in Corporate Finance" with an SFS logo in a modern conference room.
Four professionals pose for an award ceremony photo in a modern conference room. A woman in a navy dress with white stripes stands beside three men in dark business suits, with one holding a certificate, all smiling at the camera.
Four professionals pose at an academic award ceremony. A woman in a striped dress holds a microphone while three men in business suits stand beside her, with one holding a certificate, against a projection screen in a conference room.
Two professional conference attendees pose together in a modern glass-walled venue.
Three men pose together at a conference networking event in a modern glass-walled venue.
A presenter in casual attire speaks from a podium to an audience seated in modern tiered lecture hall seating. The bright room features large windows, white walls, and attendees in business attire listening to the presentation.
A presenter in glasses and suit jacket speaks to students in a lecture hall, gesturing toward a projected slide. Attendees sit at curved tiered desks with laptops, listening to the academic presentation in the modern classroom.
Three professionals network at a conference, with a smiling man in a dark suit and red tie holding a water bottle at the center, flanked by two women in dark attire, all wearing conference badges in a modern venue.
Conference networking reception in a glass-walled venue with Manhattan skyline views. Attendees mingle around red-clothed cocktail tables, eating and socializing in the bright modern space overlooking the city and greenery.
Five professionals pose at an awards ceremony, with two women holding certificates flanking three men in suits. Behind them is a projection screen showing "Best Paper in Corporate Finance" with an SFS logo in a modern conference room.
Four professionals pose for an award ceremony photo in a modern conference room. A woman in a navy dress with white stripes stands beside three men in dark business suits, with one holding a certificate, all smiling at the camera.
Four professionals pose at an academic award ceremony. A woman in a striped dress holds a microphone while three men in business suits stand beside her, with one holding a certificate, against a projection screen in a conference room.