Tian Xuan took office as the Dean of Peking University Guanghua School of Management, having previously served as Vice Dean of Tsinghua University PBC School of Finance.

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On April 3, a reporter from The Paper learned from relevant sources that Tian Xuan, a Boya Distinguished Professor at Peking University, has taken office as Dean of the Guanghua School of Management, Peking University.

Media reports earlier this January showed that Tian Xuan had transferred from Tsinghua University’s PBC School of Finance to Peking University, where he became a Boya Distinguished Professor.

Tian Xuan graduated from Peking University in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. In 2003, he earned a master’s degree in economics from the University of Washington in the United States. In 2008, he obtained a Ph.D. in finance from Boston College in the United States.

After graduation, from 2008 to 2016, Tian Xuan taught at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in the United States, and in 2014 he officially obtained a tenured professorship at Indiana University.

In 2014, Tian Xuan returned to China to join Tsinghua University’s PBC School of Finance as a Chair Professor of Finance and a doctoral supervisor. He has served as the school’s Deputy Dean since 2018. From 2021 to 2024, Tian Xuan served as Deputy Director of the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University, and starting in 2024 he was promoted to Dean.

Tian Xuan is a delegate to the 14th National People’s Congress, a Boya-appointed “Changjiang Scholar” Distinguished Professor of the Ministry of Education. He has also served as a member of the CSRC’s Listed Company Mergers and Acquisitions Committee, a member of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s first ChiNext Listing Committee, and a member of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s first ChiNext Mergers and Acquisitions Committee, among other roles.

Public information shows that Tian Xuan has devoted himself to the financial field for many years. His main research areas include corporate finance, venture capital investment, corporate innovation, and mergers and acquisitions. He has chaired national projects including the National Natural Science Foundation’s Outstanding Youth Science Fund project (and received the first batch of follow-up funding) as well as major projects. His research findings have been published multiple times in top international and domestic academic journals. He has been consecutively listed on Clarivate Analytics’ “Global Highly Cited Researchers” list, on Stanford’s rankings of the top 2% global scientists for “Career Impact” and “Annual Impact,” and on Elsevier’s “China Highly Cited Researchers” list.

During this year’s National Two Sessions, Tian Xuan, in an exclusive interview with a reporter from The Paper, said that from the “14th Five-Year Plan” to the “15th Five-Year Plan,” the relationship between science and finance has undergone a fundamental change. Previously, we placed more emphasis on financial technology, whereas in the construction of a strong financial country and the “15th Five-Year Plan,” the focus has shifted to technological finance. The core of financial technology is finance: it emphasizes using technological means such as artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain to empower finance, support innovation in financial institutions, improve operational efficiency, and serve long-tail customers. At its essence, it is technology serving the financial industry. The core of technological finance, however, has shifted to technology: it emphasizes enabling the entire process of technological innovation with financial instruments, financial systems, and financial markets. At its essence, it is a service-oriented orientation in which financial resources tilt toward the technology sector. Looking to the next five years of the “15th Five-Year Plan,” it is necessary to further play the role of finance, with a focus on supporting technological innovation—especially promoting deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation—so that we can truly achieve “begins with technology, thrives through finance, and flourishes through industry,” thereby building a virtuous cycle and a closed-loop “iron triangle” among technology, finance, and industry.

Before Tian Xuan took office, the Dean of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University was Liu Qiao. He holds a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics for economics from Renmin University of China, a master’s degree in international finance from the Financial Research Institute of the People’s Bank of China, and a Ph.D. in economics from ( UCLA ). Liu Qiao previously worked at McKinsey & Company and has also taught at The University of Hong Kong, where he was granted a tenured position. He joined the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University as a professor in 2010 and was promoted to Dean in 2017.