Department of
Management Studies

Faculty Profile

Dr. Thenmozhi M

Professor

Ph.D. (1988) — University of Madras

M.Phil. (1984) — University of Madras

M.Com. (1983) — University of Madras

B.Com. (1981) — University of Madras

mtm[at]iitm[.]ac[.]in +91-44-2257 4562 Office: DoMS 203 Brief Profile

Brief Profile

Contact: mtm@zmail.iitm.ac.in, mtm.iitm@gmail.com, cifil@imail.iitm.ac.in | Mobile: 9840133732

Homepage: https://doms.iitm.ac.in/index.php/mtm

Prof. (Ms.) M.Thenmozhi is a Professor in Finance at Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai and currently, Head, CAMS-IITM Fintech Innovation Lab, Coordinator, IITM Nodal Centre, GURUSETU-National Initiative for Capacity Building of Faculty(NICBF), Programme Coordinator for Executive MBA in Strategic Leadership and Public Policy and Programme Co-coordinator for MBA in Digital Maritime and Supply Chain.

She was heading the Department of Management Studies at IIT Madras for a period of three years. She was previously, the Director of National Institute of Securities Markets, Mumbai.

She has rich experience of more than three decades and is well known for her contributions in the domain of financial markets, financial modeling, corporate finance and governance. She is known for her contributions in using AI based models in financial market prediction for more than 25 years. Her recent work includes development of a framework for unclaimed funds in banks and mutual funds, AI based model for predicting frauds, developing a Fintech Index, developing ESG index, carbon risk mitigation, Developing a robo advisory model for investments, Impact of Digital Payments and Banking and Prediction models for credit risk management for banks.

She actively engages with industry and offers skill development programmes at various levels. Recently, she also did a data analytics programme for senior accounts officers at Tamilnadu government. She was leading the team at IIT Madras in developing the Vision document for Tamilnadu@100 along with CII, Chennai in 2024-25.

She has set up a CAMS IITM Fintech Innovation Lab to develop solutions on unsolved issues in the area of fintech applications, particularly in banking and finance sector and develop and mentor startups in fintech domain. https://cifil.iitm.ac.in/

She is a distinguished alumnus of Ethiraj College for Women, Chennai (2024) and a rank holder of University of Madras. She has been ranked in top 100 women in finance in India in 2019 and 2020 by AIWMA. She is an Executive Endeavour fellow of the Australian Government and a recipient of Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Lecturer Fellowship and European Union Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. She is a National Award winner for developing the best manufacturing policy draft for India from the former Prime Minister Shri. Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the National Manufacturing Sector Policy Competition organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and We Think for India(WTI) Forum. She is a recipient of EXIM Bank Chair Professorship in finance offered by Indian Council for Cultural relations, Ministry of External affairs, Government of India. She has international teaching/research experience with UPM, Madrid, University of Passau, Germany, Lagos Business School, Nigeria, QUT, Brisbane and San Diego State University, US.

She has several publications and has won several best research paper awards for her research work both at the national and international level. She received the Best researcher Award in Commerce (2020) from the K.P. Muraleedharan Endowment Trust, Calicut University. Her pioneering work includes Financial market price discovery models, hybrid AI and Support Vector Machine based prediction models for stock market trading and investing, models to test information transmission between markets, policy implications of family and promoter driven firm’s governance and country level determinants of FDI and Cross border acquisitions. She has published papers in journals like Pacific Basin Journal of Finance, Emerging Market Review, Research in International Business and Finance, Neural Computing and Applications, Management Decision, International Journal of Banking, Accounting and Finance, International Journal of Emerging Markets, Decision, IIMB Management Review and Journal of Emerging Market Finance.

Academic Experience

Professor: Dept of Management Studies, IIT Madras (From 9.6.2006 till now)
Director: National Institute of Securities Markets, Navi Mumbai (April 2018-Aug.2019, on deputation)
Associate Professor: IIT Madras (26.09.2000 to 08.06.2006)
Assistant Professor: IIT Madras (16.09.1998 to 25.09.2000)
Assistant Professor: Anna University, Madras (08.07.1993 to 15.09.1998)
Lecturer: Anna University, Madras (12.12.1989 to 07.07.1993)
Visiting Faculty: Anna University (30.11.1988 to 11.12.1989)

Visiting Appointments & Sabbaticals

Visiting EXIM Bank ICCR Chair Professor, Lagos Business School, Nigeria (Sept-Oct 2016)
Fulbright Visiting Professor, San Diego State University, US (Jan-May 2011)
Visiting Scholar, UPM, Madrid, Spain (Nov-Dec 2009)
Visiting Professor, University of Passau, Germany (June 2010)
Visiting Fellow, QUT, Brisbane, Australia (Nov-Dec 2007)
Industry Sabbatical: Cognizant Technology Solutions (July 2012)
Research Sabbatical: Tata Consultancy Services (March 2012)

Administrative Experience (Selected)

Director, National Institute of Securities Markets, Mumbai (2018-2019)
Member, Senate, IIT Madras (From 2006 till now)
Member, Senate, IISER, Trivandrum (2018-2020)
President, All India IIT Faculty Federation (2009-2011)
President, Faculty Association, IIT Madras (2006-2010)
Head - Chairperson, Finance Group, DoMS, IIT Madras (13 years)
Director (Non-executive), Yrs Intuition Consulting Pvt. Ltd (IITM Incubated Co.)
Member, Board of Directors, Equity Derivatives Governing Council, Madras Stock Exchange (2012)
Member, Research Advisory Committee (RAC), SEBI (2019)
Member, Board of International and Alumni Relations, IIT Madras (2014-18)
Coordinator (Chairperson), MBA programme, DoMS, IIT Madras (2014-2016)
Coordinator (Chairperson), Research programme at DoMS, IIT Madras (2012-2014)
Chairperson, Curriculum Revision Committee, DoMS, IIT Madras
Expert Committee Member – Tamilnadu State fee Revision committee for engineering colleges (1998)

Areas of Interest

Specialisation: Corporate Finance and Strategy, Financial Markets and Institutions, Market Microstructure, Computational Finance, Forecasting and Time Series Modeling, Stock and Commodity Derivatives.

Courses Offered

Core Courses: Financial Accounting, Financial Analysis and Applications, Finance and Accounting for Engineers, Cost Accounting, Financial Management, Working Capital Management, Strategic Management.

Elective Courses: Financial Institutions and Markets, Treasury Management, Computational Finance, Fixed Income Securities: Trading and Strategy, Derivatives and Risk management, Investment Management, Financial Services, International Finance.

Research Level Courses: Empirical Research in Finance-I & II, Financial Modeling and Analysis, Corporate Governance, Internal control and Risk management, Dynamics of Family Businesses, Financial Institutions and Management, IT Strategy in Financial Institutions.

Current Research Areas

Impact of Promoter blockholdings in R&D
SEBI regulations on Governance and Practice - case study
CSR, Ownership and Firm value
Digitilsation, Innovation and FDI – developed and developing economies
Liquidity in commodity markets
Arbitrage, Hedging and Speculation in Crude oil futures market
RPT, Women Director and Audit committee -Impact on Firm value
Ownership Pattern and Board Characteristics Impact on CSR Spending: Emerging Economies
Gender Diversity Impact on Corporate Social Responsibility: Emerging Economies
Family Firms and CSR spending on Community, Environmental and Education activities: Emerging Economies

Research Guidance

Completed: Ph.D. (22) | M.S. (9) | Post Doc (3)

Current Scholars (Ph.D):

Lalitha Sitaraman - Credit Risk Management in Banks (2023)
Revathi T - Climate Finance (2023)
Priya - Fintech (2022)
Harshita Mongia - Corporate Strategy (2021)
Anushree Mishra - Sustainability and governance (2020)
Alphin T Kallany - Corporate governance (2021)

Post Doc - Completed:

Haritha P Haridas (2024) - Spillover between Crypto currency and Global Financial Assets
Abhijeet Chandra (2012-14) - Investor sentiment and asset pricing
Lakshmi, P. (2015-17) - Determinants of Aggregate Fund flows of US Private and Non-finance firms

Ph.D. Completed (Selected):

Vijaya C (2024) - Smart Beta Investing
Shruti R (2024) - Role of Promoters and Institutional investors on IFRS Impact
V. Vijayagopal (2024) - Family firms, Risk Propensity
Sharon Christina Tensingh (2023) - Liquidity and Market efficiency in Commodity Market
Kameswari Vissa (2022) - Impact of Home Country Macro Determinants on M&A
Anuja Sethiya (2020) - Impact of Blockholder Promoters
Aghila Sasidharan (2020) - Board Composition and Audit Committee
Shyaam Prasadh R. (2020) - Cross- Border Acquisition
Shashank Bansal (2019) - Ownership Structure and Related Party Transactions
Narend, S. (2017) - Exchange Traded funds
Shipra Maurya (2017) - Cross-Commodity Price Transmission
Lalita Anand (2015) - Cash Holdings
Narayanan, P.C. (2013) - Cross-border Acquisitions (Emerald/EFMD Award Winner)
Manish Kumar (2011) - Forecasting and Modeling Financial Time Series

Selected Journal Publications

2024

Choudhary, P., & Thenmozhi, M. (2024). Fintech and financial sector: ADO analysis and future research agenda. International Review of Financial Analysis.
Choudhary, P., Ghosh, C., & Thenmozhi, M. (2024). Impact of Fintech and Financial Inclusion on Sustainable Development Goals. Finance Research Letters.
Vijaya, C., & Thenmozhi, M. (2024). Spillover and leverage effect in Smart Beta Exchange Traded Funds. Decision.
Vijaya, C., Hati, K., & Thenmozhi, M. (2024). Developing a Security Risk Assessment based Smart Beta Portfolio Model for Robo Advising. Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal.
Shruti, R., & Thenmozhi, M. (2024). Foreign institutional ownership stability and stock price crash risk. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money.

2023

Vijayagopal, V., & Thenmozhi, M. (2023). Does Concentrated Shareholding Impact Family Firm Internationalisation?. Indian Journal of Corporate Governance.
Tensingh, S. C., & Thenmozhi, M. (2023). Revenue Potential and Trading Volume Impact of Commodity Transaction Tax. Finance India.
Shruti, R., & Thenmozhi, M. (2023). Founder ownership and value relevance of IFRS convergence. Pacific-Basin Finance Journal.
Anuja, S. (2023). Does product market competition moderate the impact of promoter ownership on firm value?. Managerial Finance.

2022 - 2020

Vissa, S. K., & Thenmozhi, M. (2022). What determines mergers and acquisitions in BRICS countries. Research in International Business and Finance.
Chinmoy Ghosh, Narayan P.C., Shyaam Prasad, M. Thenmozhi (2022). Does corruption distance affect cross-border acquisitions? European Financial Management.
Siva Kameswari Vissa and M. Thenmozhi (2021). Do home country stability factors matter for domestic and cross border mergers and acquisitions? Finance Research Letters.
Bansal, Shashank and Thenmozhi M. (2021). Does CEO duality affect board independence? IIMB Management Review.
Shashank Bansal and Thenmozhi (2020). Does Concentrated Founder Ownership affect Board Independence. Pacific Basin Finance Journal.
Shashank Bansal and Thenmozhi (2020). Does Concentrated Founder Ownership Affect Related Party Transactions? Research in International Business and Finance.
Prasadh, S., Thenmozhi, M. & Hu, M. (2020). Does economic freedom distance affect long-run post-acquisition performance. Decision.

Selected Older Highlights

Shyaam Prasadh and M. Thenmozhi (2019). Does religion affect cross-border acquisitions? Finance Research Letters.
P.N. and Thenmozhi.M. (2018). Does Quality of Innovation, Culture and Governance Drive FDI? Emerging Markets Review.
Thenmozhi, M. and Chand, Sarath (2016). Forecasting Stock Returns... using Support Vector Machines. Neural Computing and Applications.
Thenmozhi, M. and Narayanan, P.C (2016). Rule of Law or Country Level Corporate Governance. Research in International Business and Finance.
Narayanan, P.C. and Thenmozhi, M. (2014). Do Cross-border Acquisitions involving Emerging Market Firms Create Value. Management Decision.
Kumar, M. and M. Thenmozhi (2013). Forecasting Stock Index Returns using ARIMA-SVM... International Journal of Banking, Accounting and Finance.

International Exposure

Assignments:

Visiting Fellow, QUT, Brisbane (2007)
Visiting Scholar, UPM, Madrid (2009)
Fulbright Visiting Professor, San Diego State University (2011)
Visiting Professor, University of Passau (2010)
Visiting EXIM Bank ICCR Chair Professor, Lagos Business School (2016)

Selected Seminars/Talks:

Keynote: Regulations and Trends in Financial Market, Muscat, Oman (2019).
Talk on Digital and Cultural Integration Skills, Koblenz University, Germany (2017).
Public lecture on "Path Towards Robust Financial Sector", Lagos, Nigeria (2016).
Seminar talks at San Diego State University, California State University, Grand Valley State University (2011).

Conference Papers

International Conferences (Selected)

2024: Shruti, R., et al. "Role of Institutional Investors in Pledging Risk", FMA Annual Meeting, Texas, USA.
2024: Hati, K., et al. "ESG Robo Advising", 14th FMCG Conference, Malaysia.
2024: Kallany, A. T., & Thenmozhi, M. "Does State Ownership Affect Related Party Transactions?", Global Finance Conference, Italy.
2023: Shruti, R., et al. "Ownership Dynamics and Pledging Risk", World Finance Conference, Norway.
2022: Shruti, R., & Thenmozhi, M. "Does origin affect the monitoring incentives...", 1st ISAFE, Vietnam.
2021: Sasidharan, A., et al. "Does audit committee moderate...", FMCG Conference, Melbourne.
2019: Aghila Sasidharan & M. Thenmozhi, "Does Gender Diversity have any impact on CSR?", JFIFM- CCPF, Taiyun, China.
2018: Anuja Sethiya & M. Thenmozhi, "Do the type of Blockholder Promoters’ impact R&D...", JIFMIM, Tanzania.
2017: Prasadh, S. & Thenmozhi, M., "Us Versus them: Does religious distance affect Cross-border acquisitions", JIFMIM, Thailand.

Conferences Held in India

Anuja Sethiya & Thenmozhi M. - "Which type of Blockholder Promoters prefer more Leverage?" (ICFMCF 2017, IIT Kharagpur).
Prasadh, S. & Thenmozhi, M. - "Us Versus them: Does religious distance affect Cross-border acquisitions" (ICFMCF 2017).
Sharon Christina T & Thenmozhi M. - "Commodity Transaction Tax and Indian Commodity Futures Market Efficiency" (ICFMCF 2017).
Vijayagopal, V. & Thenmozhi M. - "The Internationalization of Indian Family Firms" (AIB India 2016, IIM Indore).
Thenmozhi.M, Nikhil Varaiya, P.Lakshmi - "Evolution of aggregate cash holdings of US firms" (DoMS Symposium 2016).
Shashank Bansal & Thenmozhi M. - "Does Controlled Ownership affect Board composition?" (ICFMCF 2016, IIT Madras).

Skill Development & Consulting

Industry Sponsored Projects (51 Projects - Selective List):

Web Enabled Management training Program for Chennai Petroleum Corporation LTD (2020).
Strategic Leadership Programme, Neyveli Lignite Corporation (2020).
Project Leadership and Management Development Program (PLMDP), L&T (2017-2019).
Fundamentals of research in Management & Engineering, FLSmidth Private Limited (2009-2019).
Executive Programme in Business Administration, GMMCO and others (2015-2020).
Management training for Headmasters of Chennai schools (2010, 2012).
Design and Development of Internal Customer Satisfaction index, Bharat Petroleum (2002).

Sponsored Research Projects (16 Projects):

Financial Risk Governance structure in India, ICAI ARF (2012-13).
Study and evaluation of nonperforming assets of HUDCO (2012-13).
Corporate liquidity and Flow of funds, San Diego State University (2011).
Risk Management- Crude Oil and Forward Rate forecasting, TCS (2012).
India VIX and Risk management, NSE (2012-13).
Dynamic Interaction among Mutual Fund Flows, NSE (2009).
Futures Trading and Spot Price Volatility of Nifty Index Futures, NSE (2002).

Faculty Development Programmes:

Workshop on Business Groups and Governance in Emerging Market (2017).
Workshop on Practical Approaches to stock market Investing (2015).
Summer School on Financial engineering and Analytics (2015).
FDP on Multivariate Data Analysis (2013).
SIDBI Small Industries Management Programme (2003-2005).

Awards & Achievements

Top 100 Women in Finance: Listed in India’s Top 100 Women in Finance- 2019 by AIWMI.
National Award: Best Manufacturing Policy Draft for India from former PM Shri. Atal Bihari Vajpayee (2003).
EXIM Bank ICCR Chair Professor 2016.
Fellowships: U.S. Fulbright-Nehru Visiting Lecturer (2010-11), European Union Erasmus Mundus (2009-10), Australian Government Endeavour Executive Award (2007).
Best Researcher Award: Commerce (2020) from K.P. Muraleedharan Endowment Trust.
Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Award (2013): Awarded to doctoral student P.C. Narayan.
Best Research Paper Awards:
- CRISIL Doctoral Symposium (2018)
- 5th PAN-IIM World Management Conference (2017)
- 18th World Business Research Conference, San Francisco (2017)
- Emerald Best Research Paper, ICFMCF (2017)
- DoMS Research Symposium (2016)
- IABPAD Orlando (2016)
Academic Ranks: Fourth Rank of University of Madras (M.Com), First Rank All India Level (AIMA PGDM subjects).

Gallery Highlights

Received the National Award for developing the best manufacturing policy draft for India from the former Prime Minister Shri. Atal Bihari Vajpayee (2003).
Executive Programme in Business Administration (Batch 2014 - 2016).
Inaugural ceremony of ICFMCF 2017 & 2016.
Project leadership and Managerial development programme 2017 for L&T.
Seminar on Liquidity and Asset Prices by Prof. Yakov Amihud, NYU.
Workshop on Business Groups and Governance in Emerging Markets by Prof. Radhakrishnan Gopalan.