Dr. Wanli Zhao, graduated from Fox School in 2007 with a PhD degree in international finance, is currently a professor of finance at Hanqing Advanced Institute of Economics and Finance at the Renmin University of China in Beijing. Before that, he was a tenured associate professor at Southern Illinois University and an assistant professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

His research focuses on corporate governance issues such as insider trading, ownership structure, financial reporting, disclosure, R&D and innovation, as well as political economy. His cross-disciplinary work appear in Journal of Finance, The Accounting Review, Management Science, Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Journal of Law & Economics. His most recent research uses machine learning to explore various issues.