News Archive

Faculty Spotlight: Leo Chen

By Jamie Boyle

ST. PETERSBURG (March 8, 2021) -- Leo Chen earned a PhD in business administration, finance from the University of South Florida in 2015. He taught at the University of Southern Mississippi for two years before returning to teach at his alma mater in 2017. Chen also works as a consultant for Sarasota-based Cumberland Advisors, an active partner with the USF community, which has made donations to the Bloomberg Center in Sarasota and funded a student scholarship. Chen also works with the firm to organize events including a financial literacy day on the Sarasota campus.

Chen’s research is industry focused. He uses quantitative methods to examine market returns and underlying volatilities. He has been quoted in Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, US News, MarketWatch, among others.

Chen is the director of the Applied Security Analysis Program, a two-semester course in which student analysts manage a portfolio of assets donated to the USF Foundation for this specific purpose. Students also present and defend stock selections to an advisory board of professional investors and advisers. In the past four years, the student managed investment fund has doubled in value. Chen’s goal is to get the fund to $1 million by 2022.

Growing the alumni network within the program is also rewarding for Chen. He is proud to report that as older ASA program alum become established in their industry, they are reaching out to newer alum and connecting them to future job opportunities. Not only are ASA graduates experiencing success in the industry, but several of them are going on top master’s programs.

Chen is also a travel bug. During his time at school, he studied abroad and spent a year and a half in Europe. Another reason he loves his role with Cumberland Advisors is that he gets to travel around the country, visiting different cities for presentations.