HEC Paris appoints Olivier Darmouni as Pierre Andurand Chair in Climate & Sustainability
A financial economist specializing in credit markets and the energy transition, Darmouni brings cutting-edge expertise on how financing shapes real-economy decarbonization.
Created thanks to a €3M philanthropic gift from alumnus Pierre Andurand (MS.00), the chair strengthens HEC Paris’ research capacity in areas critical to climate action and sustainable growth. The donation was made to foster world-class scholarship and teaching in health or climate, supporting HEC’s long-term commitment to sustainability.
Olivier Darmouni’s research examines how firms, investors, and public authorities mobilize capital for the energy transition. This is particularly the case where frictions in credit and project finance determine which technologies scale and at what pace. The Associate Professor of Finance’s recent research scrutinizes who owns coal-fired power assets in Europe, and how quickly societies can retire from these assets. Darmouni also studies the implication for the effectiveness of “green finance” when governments prioritize energy security. “The energy sector is highly capital-intensive,however, and financing plays a decisive role,” he noted during a ceremony in which he was awarded the 2025 IEF/SCOR Foundation Best Young Researcher in Finance and Insurance. This honored the originality and impact of his work on financial frictions, market stability, and the mechanisms for financing the energy transition. The award highlights the relevance of this financial economist’s research into global challenges at the intersection of credit markets and climate policy. Before joining HEC Paris, Darmouni was a faculty member at Columbia Business School and earned his PhD in Economics from Princeton University.
His research orientation squarely matches the ambition of the Pierre Andurand Chair in Climate & Sustainability, which recognizes the highly productive and impactful work the HEC faculty is producing. At the business school, Darmouni will contribute to interdisciplinary work on the financing barriers to decarbonization and on scaling green investment in capital-intensive sectors such as electricity. The chair will also reinforce the school’s teaching portfolio, with courses on the energy transition, new energy finance, and the business environment of climate change to equip students and executives to deploy sustainable investment at scale.
Darmouni’s appointment underscores HEC’s strategic focus on climate finance and the translation of rigorous research into practice and policy. By convening scholarship, teaching, and partnership under the Pierre Andurand Chair, HEC Paris aims to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis: identifying the right instruments to mobilize private and public capital, testing how macroeconomic conditions affect renewable project pipelines, and informing investors and decision-makers with evidence that can move markets and emissions at scale.