Carol Alexander is Professor of Risk Management and Director of Research at the ISMA Centre, UK and Chair of the Academic Advisory Council of PRMIA. She is well known for her interest in bridging the academic-practitioner divide, bringing relevant research in quantitative finance to a broad practitioner audience. She is the editor and author of 14 books on mathematics and finance, including: 'Market Models' (Wileys, 2001) and 'Operational Risk: Regulation, Analysis and Management' (FT-Prentice Hall, 2003). Carol is well known for her research on cointegration strategies for fund management and for her innovative approach to volatility analysis, recently specializing in normal mixture models.

The main focus of her current research is the unified theory of volatility in discrete and continuous time. She also consults on the design and development of commercial software for hedge funds, operational risk, high frequency pricing and so forth.

Elizabeth Sheedy is an Associate Professor at the Macquarie Applied Finance Centre in Sydney, home of the popular Master of Applied Finance degree program. She teaches courses in “Financial Risk Management” and “Modelling Financial Risk” and conducts research in these areas. Her research has included the use of GARCH models for measuring risk in the funds management industry. She is also on PRMIA's Academic Advisory Committee. Prior to joining the university in 1993, Elizabeth worked in the finance industry for institutions including  Macquarie  Bank and Westpac. Her past experience in

structuring derivative products, funds management and corporate risk management has guided her research and teaching interests. She chose to be involved in the PRMIA Handbook because she is passionate about the importance of clearly explaining the complex concepts of financial risk management to practitioner audiences.