News > 2020 > An article by Georges Dionne recognized

An article by Georges Dionne recognized

Best article award from the American Risk and Insurance Association

July 7, 2020

The American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA) presented this year’s RMIR Award to Professor Georges Dionne of HEC Montréal for his article, The Governance of Risk Management: The Importance of Directors’ Independence and Financial Knowledge, published in 2019 in the Risk Management and Insurance Review.

Professor Dionne shared the award with two co-authors, both graduates of the School’s PhD program: Olfa Maalaoui-Chun, now with Bloomberg, and Thouraya Triki, with the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The winning article was chosen by an expert committee from all the articles published in the ARIA’s Review in the previous year, and its decision was endorsed by the Association’s Board of Directors.

The ARIA’s 2020 winners will be honoured in early August at the World Risk and Insurance Economics Congress, to be held virtually this year.

A brief summary of the article

This study shows that board directors’ financial knowledge increases the value of gold-mining firms through better risk management, an effect strengthened by the independence of the directors on the board and on the audit committee. The authors also found that, following unexpected shocks to gold prices, firms with financially educated directors are more effective in hedging. Firms that hedge more also attract highly educated directors. These results suggest that the experience and education dimensions should be added alongside the need for directors’ independence to stock exchange requirements regarding risk management, for better governance.

About Georges Dionne

Georges Dionne is a Professor of Finance, and holds the Canada Research Chair in Risk Management at HEC Montréal. In 2019, he was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Economics Association. His book entitled Corporate Risk Management : Theories and Applications won the Roger Charbonneau Award.