Department of Mathematics & Statistics, Texas Tech University, Texas, USA;
Svetlozar (Zari) Rachev is Professor of Mathematics & Statistics at Texas Tech University. A scholar in rational finance, he works at the interface of probability, financial econometrics, asset pricing, and portfolio optimization. He previously held the Frey Family Foundation Chair of Quantitative Finance at Stony Brook University and an endowed chair in Econometrics and Mathematical Finance at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and he served as Professor and Chair at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Prof. Rachev has authored 300+ research articles and 25+ books/handbooks, including works on heavy-tailed distributions, risk measures, and financial econometrics. His research has influenced both academia and industry (including several U.S. patents). He has supervised dozens of PhD students and remains an advocate for rigorous, empirically validated models in finance.

Department of International Studies (Global Studies), University of San Francisco, San Francisco, USA;
John Zarobell is Professor of Global Studies at the University of San Francisco, and was formerly a curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and SFMOMA. His first book, Empire of Landscape, focused upon visual culture in colonial Algeria and was published in 2010. Art and the Global Economy, published in 2017, analyzes major changes in the art world as a result of globalization. He is currently working on a long-term research project on Asian Megacities and the role of arts in urban development. In 2025, he was named Reviewer of the Year by the MDPI journal Arts.