Skip navigation Jump to main navigation Jump to main navigation

Applications for 2024 Columbia Summer Session programs are now open!

Close alert

ERM Lecturer Owen Lau Wins the AAPI Research Analyst of the Year

With his abundant experience and extraordinary expertise in the financial technology industry, Enterprise Risk Management Lecturer Owen Lau has been named AAPI Research Analyst of the Year by Wealth Solutions Report (WSR). This award is part of WSR’s Pathfinder Awards, which honor prominent senior executives who are Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, with the goal of improving the diversity of the wealth management industry by including insiders of underrepresented backgrounds.

Years of dedication to the industry have brought Lau a distinguished reputation. Having worked in Oppenheimer & Co. as the Executive Director for seven years, Lau gained a wide professional experience in equity research coverage on exchanges, information analysis, and digital asset management. He belonged to the team that ranked as the Number Two Stock Picker in Consumer Finance in 2014, Number One in 2015, and Number Two Stock Picker in Banks in 2018 by Thomson Reuters. In 2021, Lau was named the Fourteenth Top Performing Analyst by TipRanks, another highlight of his career. 

While advancing his own professional development, Lau also believes in his responsibility to share knowledge with the next generation to help them at the start of their career paths. In 2016, Lau returned to Columbia University as an alumnus and also a faculty member at the School of Professional Studies. “I sit at the intersection of emerging technologies, new asset classes, and changing regulations,” says Lau, and “successful equity researchers need strengths in fundamental analysis, communications skills, and the ability to present compelling ideas under pressure.” In lecturing master’s level finance courses, Lau brings a perspective of both the theoretical aspect of finance and the professional perspective, with his observations as an industry insider. Professionally and personally, Lau serves as a role model for ERM students in pursuing their career goals in the finance industry.

Learn more about Columbia University’s M.S. in Enterprise Risk Management program.