Josef Zechner is Senior Professor of Finance and Investments at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), and serves as speaker of the PhD program at the Vienna Graduate School of Finance (VGSF). His research spans corporate finance, banking, and asset management with a particular focus on unifying asset-pricing theory with corporate finance, corporate debt and capital structure, governance and ownership structure, debt-maturity, bond valuation under default risk, and the influence of social preferences (e.g. ESG considerations) on asset prices and corporate investment. He has published extensively in top-tier finance and economics journals, including The Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, The Review of Financial Studies, and The Journal of Political Economy. In terms of academic leadership and service, He currently serves as Chair of the European Finance Association (EFA). He is a past president of the Western Finance Association (WFA) and the German Finance Association (DGF). From 2003 to 2012, he served as Managing Editor of Review of Finance.

Punit Arora is Associate Professor of Strategy, Sustainability and Entrepreneurship at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, City College of New York (CUNY). His research focuses on the evolving “business–society compact,” with particular emphasis on sustainability, corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate governance, institutional economics, international business, and entrepreneurship. His work has been published in several top-tier peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Management, Global Strategy Journal, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Venturing, and Business & Society. In addition to his scholarly contributions, he holds important editorial and leadership roles in the academic community: he is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Business & Society and currently serves as Program Chair (2025–2026) of the Social Issues in Management division of the Academy of Management.