Staff profile

Stavros A. Zenios is a Professor of Operations Management and Finance on leave from the University of Cyprus. He is a Member of Academia Europaea, a Founding Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts of Cyprus, and a Non-resident Fellow of Bruegel in Brussels. 

He is the author of two books and more than 130 scholarly articles in leading international journals in risk management, financial engineering, and management science. He is currently working on sovereign debt sustainability issues, including the effects of climate change and the pricing of political risks. His work on personal financial planning received the EURO Excellence in Practice Award, and he also received awards for his work on the performance of financial institutions. He was awarded two Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellowships by the European Commission. His work on financial modeling and robust optimization is cited extensively, with more than 13,000 citations (h-index 58, i-10index 144). His book Practical Financial Optimization: Decision Making for Financial Engineers (Blackwell-Wiley Finance) is used in advanced classes in European and North American Universities. His book with Patrick Harker on the Performance of Financial Institutions (Cambridge University Press) was translated into Chinese. His book with Yair Censor Parallel Optimization (Oxford University Press) received the INFORMS Prize for Computing. 

He served two terms as Rector of the University of Cyprus, where he was the first Dean of the School of Economics and Management and as President of UNICA-Universities of the European Capitals. He was Vice-chairman of the Cyprus Council of Economic Advisors and on the Board of Central Bank of Cyprus. 

He consulted extensively with international institutions and businesses, such as the World Bank, the European Stability Mechanism, the Bank for International Settlements, Union Bank of Switzerland, METLIFE Insurance, and BSI, among others, and governments, including the Finnish Ministry of Finance and the Cyprus Auditor General. 

 

• - Keywords: Political risk in businesses and the markets; AI for political risk management; Sovereign debt sustainability; Climate effects on debt; Portfolio optimization; Robust optimization under ambiguity.
• - PhD supervision interests: I welcome PhD student applications on the model-based data-driven resarch themes below. Prospective applicants are encouraged to consult recent working papers co-authored with current or recent past PhD students on SSRN or Google Scholar.
• 1. Political risk in businesses and the financial markets: Develop novel metrics of political risk, cutomize them to the specific circumstances of firms, and use them in pricing on political risk hedging applications. The use of innovate AI tools is part of this agenda.
• 2. Robust optimization under ambiguity: Develop novel models for dealing with uncertainty using advances in robust optimization and planning unser uncertainty.
• 3. Machine learning for political risk measurement: Aggregate disparate data sources to get better estimates of political risk., reconcile differences of opinions, understand ths sources of uncertainty, and uncoklver the stylized facts of political risk, such as regime swithces.
• 4. LLMs for political risk: An early stage project involved with topic modeling of a broad litearture to identify interesting resaerch directions.

• 2025: Member, Academia Europaea:
• 2021: Life-long Achievement Award, Financial Engineering and Banking Society:
• 2021: Bank for International Settlements project on the ECB pandemic emergency purhcase programs:
• 2019: Finnish Treasury consultant on sovereign debt:
• 2019: Founding Member, Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts:
• 2018: European Stability Mechanism project on debt sustainability:
• 2017 - 2019: Marie Skłodowska Curie fellowship:
• 2014 - 2015: Governing Board, Central Bank of Cyprus: Member of the Governing Board of the Central Bank of Cyprus.
• 2013 - 2014: Vice-Chairman, Council of Economic Advisors to President of Cyprus: Vice-chairman advising the President of the Republic of Cyprus.
• 2007 - 2015: President, UNICA-Universities of European Capitals: President of the network of universities from the capital cities of Europe.
• 2002 - 2010: Rector, University of Cyprus: Served two terms as Rector of the University of Cyprus. First Dean of the School of Economics and Management.
• 2001: EURO Excellence in Practice Award for scenario optimization modeling of personal financial planning: For work on personal financial planning.
• 2000 - 2001: Marie Skłodowska Curie fellowship:
• 1997: INFORMS Computer Science Section Prize for the book Parallel Optimization with Yair Censor, Oxford University Press: For the book Parallel Optimization: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications (with Yair Censor, Oxford University Press).

Chapter in book

• Robust Optimization
  
  Goei Loke, G., Lotfi, S., & Zenios, S. A. (2024). Robust Optimization. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54621-2_570-1
• Sovereign Debt Risk Management
  
  Consiglio, A., & Zenios, S. A. (2024). Sovereign Debt Risk Management. In P. M. Pardalos & O. A. Prokopyev (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Optimization (pp. 1-13). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54621-2_905-1

Journal Article

• Are sovereign debts sustainable under energy transition?
  
  Mammetti, V., Zenios, S. A., & Morelli, G. (2026). Are sovereign debts sustainable under energy transition? Energy Economics, 157, Article 109230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2026.109230
• Debt sustainability analysis with conventional and unconventional monetary policy
  
  Alberola, E., Cheng, G., Consiglio, A., & Zenios, S. A. (2025). Debt sustainability analysis with conventional and unconventional monetary policy. Annals of Operations Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-025-06723-4
• Financial education and spillover effects
  
  Kallenos, T., Milidonis, A., Nishiotis, G., & Zenios, S. (2025). Financial education and spillover effects. Empirica, 52, 243–271. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10663-025-09647-1
• Hedging political risk in international portfolios
  
  Lotfi, S., Pagliardi, G., Paparoditis, E., & Zenios, S. A. (2025). Hedging political risk in international portfolios. European Journal of Operational Research, 322(2), 629-646. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2024.10.017
• Do green bonds provide diversification benefits? The need for tax incentives
  
  Papavassiliou, E., Topaloglou, N., & Zenios, S. A. (2025). Do green bonds provide diversification benefits? The need for tax incentives. Annals of Operations Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-025-06501-2
• GDP-linked bonds as a new asset class
  
  Papavassiliou, E., Topaloglou, N., & Zenios, S. A. (2024). GDP-linked bonds as a new asset class. Quantitative Finance, 24(8), 1177-1195. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697688.2024.2386323
• Robust mean-to-CVaR optimization under ambiguity in distributions means and covariance
  
  Lotfi, S., & Zenios, S. A. (2024). Robust mean-to-CVaR optimization under ambiguity in distributions means and covariance. Review of Managerial Science, 18(7), 2115-2140. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11846-023-00715-z
• The climate-sovereign debt doom loop: what does the literature suggest?
  
  Zenios, S. A. (2024). The climate-sovereign debt doom loop: what does the literature suggest? Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 67, Article 101414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2024.101414
• Mispricing of debt expansion in the eurozone sovereign credit market
  
  Lotfi, S., Milidonis, A., & Zenios, S. A. (2024). Mispricing of debt expansion in the eurozone sovereign credit market. Journal of Financial Stability, 70, Article 101215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfs.2023.101215