School of Business

Bio

Naomi E. Boyd, Ph.D.
Dean, VCU School of Business

Naomi E. Boyd, Ph.D., joined Virginia Commonwealth University in 2022 as the seventh dean of the VCU School of Business. With a background that spans academia, government and industry, Dr. Boyd is passionate about building programs that connect these worlds and create meaningful, synergistic relationships between them.

Dr. Boyd received her Ph.D. in Finance and Quantitative Methods from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Before beginning her university career full-time, she spent eight years in the finance industry as a Financial Analyst and Consultant to the Office of the Chief Economist at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington D.C. At the CFTC, Dr. Boyd worked for the chief regulator of derivative markets on topics relating to market manipulation, structural shifts in the market, electronification of financial markets and the role of speculation in liquid and illiquid asset classes.

Prior to VCU, Dr. Boyd served as associate dean for innovation, outreach and engagement and as department chair of finance, professor and held the Fred T. Tattersall Chair of Finance in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics Department of Finance at West Virginia University. In her 13 years at WVU, Dr. Boyd developed the Center for Financial Literacy and Education, which houses programs in wealth management, banking and insurance; creates research opportunities for faculty; and supports community outreach. She also created the West Virginia University Student-Managed Investment Fund, which operates as an investment management firm and provides students with real experience as analysts and portfolio managers.

Dr. Boyd's extensive research involves the behavior of traders, the characterization of competitive market making, strategic and tactical asset allocation decisions, the integration of markets and market participants, price discovery and other issues relating to market microstructure, investments and personal financial planning. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Futures Markets, The Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Managerial Finance, the Journal of Commodity Markets and Journal of Applied Statistics, among others. Dr. Boyd currently serves as the associate editor of Financial Statistics; on the review board of the American Journal of Business; and on the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance and Managerial Finance.

The intersection of business and creativity is where Dr. Boyd thrives. A former professional ballerina with a B.F.A. in dance, she draws a number of unexpected similarities between the arts and business. In her role as dean at VCU, she seeks to harness her creative background and build the next generation of business leaders who are good corporate citizens, well versed in emerging technologies, with strong entrepreneurial roots.

Dr. Boyd received a B.F.A in dance from the University of Texas at Austin, a M.B.A in finance from Texas Tech University and a Ph.D. in finance and quantitative methods from The George Washington University. She lives in Richmond with her three children, Jack (age 17), Lucy (age 15), and Gwen (age 10) and her husband, Jonathan, who is a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the VCU School of Medicine.


Published Intellectual Contributions

REFEREED PUBLICATIONS

“Trader Networks and Option Risk Management,” Coauthored with Li Sun and Peter Locke, The Journal of Futures Markets, 40 (7), 1031-1048 (2020). (Lead Article and Semi-finalist for the Market Microstructure Best Paper Award at Financial Management Association 2016 Meetings)

“Modelling and Prediction of Financial Trading Networks: A Case Study in the NYMEX Natural Gas Futures Market,” Coauthored with Brenda Betancourt and Abel Rodriguez, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C, 69 (1), 195-218 (2019).

“Value Added: West Virginia University’s Approach to Experiential Learning,” Coauthored with Gulnara Zaynutdinova, Michael Burdette, and Nathan Burks, Managerial Finance, 46 (5), 599-609 (2019).

“An Update on Speculation and Financialization in Commodity Markets,” Coauthored with Jeffrey Harris and Bingxin Li, Journal of Commodity Markets, 10, 91-104 (2018).

“Investigating Competition in Financial Markets: A Sparse Autologistic Model for Dynamic Network Data,” Coauthored with Brenda Betancourt and Abel Rodriguez. Journal of Applied Statistics, 45 (7), 1157-1172 (2018).

“Bayesian Infused Lasso Regression for Dynamic Binary Networks,” Coauthored with Brenda Betancourt and Abel Rodriguez. The Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, Vol.1, No. 1 1-11 (Lead Article) (2017).

“The Prevalence, Sources, and Effects of Herding,” Coauthored with Bahattin Buyuksahin, Michael Haigh, and Jeffrey Harris. Journal of Futures Markets, Vol. 36 (7), 671-694 (2016).

“Market Making and Risk Management in Options Markets,” Review of Derivatives Research, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1-27 (2015) (Lead Article).

“The Changing Landscape of Retirement Rules of Thumb,” Coauthored with David Cervone, Adolph Neidermeyer and Presha Neidermeyer. Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, Vol. 23 (2), 106 – 114 (2015).
*Highly Commended Paper in the 2016 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence

“Price Discovery in Futures Options Markets: A Transactions Based Approach,” Coauthored with Peter Locke, Journal of Futures Markets, Vol. 34, No. 9 853-867 (2014).

“Accounting Irregularities and Failure to Deliver: An Examination of the Relationship between Naked Short Sales and Restatements,” Coauthored with Ann Marie Hibbert and Ivelina Pavlova, Managerial Finance, Vol. 40, No. 8 (2014),
*Highly Commended Paper in the 2015 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence

“PMI: Mortgage Backstop from the Alger Report to Dodd-Frank,” Coauthored with Adolph Neidermeyer and Presha Neidermeyer, Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, Vol. 22, No. 1, 43-48 (2014).

“Trader Survival in Financial Markets: Evidence from the Move from Pit to Electronic Futures Trading,” Coauthored with Alex Kurov, Journal of Futures Markets, 32, 809-836 (2012). (Lead Article).

“The Role of Speculators During Periods of Financial Distress,” Coauthored with Jeffrey Harris and Arek Novak, Journal of Alternative Investments, Vol. 14, No. 1, (2011). (Lead Article, Invited).

“Gains from Active Bond Portfolio Management Strategies,” Coauthored with Jeffrey Mercer, Journal of Fixed Income, Vol. 19, No. 4 (2010). Abstracted in The CFA Digest 40 (August 2010).

BOOK CONTRIBUTIONS

Financial Planning Competency Handbook. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2013).