Personal statement

Mark Cummins is Professor of Financial Technology at the Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. As part of his role, he leads the FinTech Cluster, one of the University’s seven strategic clusters. The clusters are central to the University’s Technology and Innovation Zone, an ambitious initiative promoting collaboration between researchers, academics, and industry to develop solutions to key industrial challenges. The Technology and Innovation Zone sits within the Glasgow City Innovation District - Scotland’s first innovation district and a global hub for entrepreneurship, innovation, and collaboration. It builds on Strathclyde’s successful ‘industry-led cluster’ model, serving as the focal point for cluster activity and the University’s primary mechanism for industry engagement. The initiative provides access to both internal and external academic and commercial expertise and contributes to a vibrant and interconnected innovation ecosystem.

Mark is Lead Investigator at the University of Strathclyde for the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), a partnership between the University of Strathclyde, FinTech Scotland, and the University of Glasgow. FRIL is an industry-led collaborative research and innovation programme focused on leveraging emerging technologies to shape the future regulatory landscape in the UK and internationally. It offers a trusted environment for participants to engage with regulatory challenges, experiment with new technologies, and build confidence in innovative solutions that meet global standards. The University of Strathclyde leads on the actionable research and skills and education programmes, while overseeing the innovation calls governance and supporting knowledge exchange.

Mark has been associated with research and innovation funding totalling approximately £4.5 million, of which around £4 million has been awarded with him as Principal Investigator. This funding has been secured from a diverse range of national and international bodies, including Innovate UK, the Irish Research Council, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, and the Horizon 2020 programme. In addition, he has overseen the award of doctoral scholarships exceeding £300,000 through schemes such as the University of Strathclyde Research Excellence Award Studentship, the Dublin City University Business School Scholarship, and the Dublin City University O’Hare Scholarship.

Mark previously held the posts of Professor of Finance at Dublin City University Business School and Director of the Irish Institute of Digital Business. He holds a PhD in Quantitative Finance, and his research focuses on quantitative modelling, including model development, application, testing, selection, and model risk. A core element of his work is the development of statistically robust correction techniques to address multiple comparisons bias in hypothesis testing. His latest publications and active research lie in frontier AI topics including Multimodal Generative AI, Explainable AI, and Agentic AI. He also conducts research at the intersection of Earth Intelligence (i.e. Earth observation and geospatial data and technology) and AI and is developing expertise in quantum finance. Additional research areas include open banking and the market impact of cybersecurity breaches.

To date, Mark has published in excess of 60 publication outputs, of which over 40 are peer-reviewed journal articles in leading international discipline journals such as: European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Markets, Journal of Empirical Finance, Quantitative Finance, Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, International Review of Financial Analysis, and European Journal of Finance. He has also published in highly ranked international field journals such as: Energy Economics, Applied Energy, Energy Policy, European Review of Agricultural Economics, Resources Policy, and Land Use Policy. Mark is co-editor of the open access Palgrave title Disrupting Finance: FinTech and Strategy in the 21st Century (with Theo Lynn, John Mooney, and Pierangelo Rosati). He is also co-author of the Wiley Finance title Handbook of Multi-Commodity Markets and Products: Structuring, Trading and Risk Management (with Andrea Roncoroni and Gianluca Fusai).

He has a strong track record in capacity building, particularly in FinTech, in response to the evolving financial services landscape. His publications and active research also support outreach activities, including co-leading the development of Dublin City University’s first microcredential course FinTech – Financial Innovation, delivered in partnership with FutureLearn, and running a successful quarterly symposium series, Capital Markets and FinTech, over a three-year period.

In the area of sustainable energy finance, he led the creation of a new MSc in Sustainable Energy Finance and a related Springboard Graduate Certificate aimed at upskilling unemployed professionals. He also developed an associated industry seminar series and contributed multiple publications in the domain. He supervised a PhD on sentiment effects in emissions markets and secured ~€220,000 in Irish Research Council New Horizons Interdisciplinary funding to lead a project on real options analysis for CO₂ recycling investment.

Earlier in his career, Mark worked as a Quantitative Analyst (Model Validation) in the Global Risk Function at BP Oil International Ltd., based in Canary Wharf, London. There, he was responsible for derivatives and price curve model validation and development across BP’s oil, gas, power, commodities, and emissions activities. Leveraging this experience, he has built a strong international research reputation, reflected in his invitation to join a European H2020 consortium on mathematical modelling for energy markets, his role as Associate Contributor at the Energy and Commodity Finance Centre (ESSEC Business School), his prior appointment as Associate Editor (Energy Finance and Energy Markets) at Finance Research Letters, and multiple invitations to speak at international conferences and workshops on model risk.