Thierry Foucault

Thierry Foucault is HEC Foundation Chaired Professor of Finance at HEC Paris. He studies how technologies like AI and big data transform financial markets. His research reveals how these shifts impact trading, asset management, and investment decisions - helping market professionals and policy makers navigate a rapidly evolving landscape.

Thierry Foucault explores how tech reshapes finance. For instance, his latest work shows AI boosts short-term market forecasts but makes long-term ones less reliable - potentially hurting long-term investment. He also studies how trading algorithms change how markets work and what risks they create.

He is a recognized expert on the functioning of securities markets and their impact on firms’ decisions, with numerous publications in top-tier academic journals in finance, such as the Journal of Finance or the Review of Financial Studies. He is the first European based co-editor of the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, one of the oldest peer-reviewed journals in financial economics. His work has also been published by medias such as The Conversation and VoxEU.

His courses at HEC Paris draw extensively on insights from his research, and his long-standing teaching experience in international institutions, including Carnegie Mellon (U.S.), Oxford (U.K.), Pompeu Fabra (Spain), and UNSW (Australia), reaching a wide range of students across MSc, MBA, Executive Education, and Ph.D. programs.

His research informs both policy and practice. He has collaborated with policy makers and central banks, and currently chairs the scientific committee of the Norges Bank Academic Program.

Recently, he was awarded an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to study how big data and AI impact financial information and asset management. Across all his work, he brings sharp analytical insight to the real-world challenges facing investors, firms, and regulators.