Lorenzo Schönleber appointed Professor at Frankfurt School

• The economist will join the Finance Department in January 2027 as Professor of Practice in Financial Technology
• The new professorship is funded by financial data and news provider WM Gruppe
• Lorenzo Schönleber will contribute to further developing Frankfurt School’s Centre for Digital Economics and degree programmes

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management has appointed Lorenzo Schönleber as Professor of Practice in Financial Technology. The new professorship is funded by financial data and news provider WM Gruppe.

Starting 2 January 2027, Lorenzo will join Frankfurt School’s Finance Department, as well as the Centre for Digital Economics (C4DE) alongside Co-Pierre Georg, Professor of Practice in Digital Finance and Technology, and Ulrich Bindseil, Professor of Practice in Financial Infrastructure.

Digital assets, decentralised markets, artificial intelligence and new forms of financial infrastructure are transforming business models, market structures and regulation. Frankfurt School of Finance & Management addresses the field in research, teaching and knowledge transfer. Through its Centre for Digital Economics, Frankfurt School brings together academic expertise and industry perspectives to analyse these developments, generate practice-oriented insights and prepare students and executives to shape the future of financial services.

Lorenzo Schönleber

Before joining Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Lorenzo Schönleber was an Assistant Professor at Collegio Carlo Alberto and the University of Turin. He was also affiliated with the Fintech & Digital Finance Chair at Paris Dauphine University. His research lies at the intersection of asset pricing, derivatives, and decentralised finance (DeFi), with a particular focus on extracting information from option prices and applying insights from traditional derivatives markets to digital assets and decentralised financial markets. His recent work examines topics including decentralised liquidity provision, crypto derivatives, tokenised money market funds, and the efficiency of prediction markets. Lorenzo Schönleber obtained his PhD in Finance from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management in 2020. In March 2026, he was awarded the Philipp Sandner Memorial Award in Digital Finance Research. Lorenzo Schönleber and his co-authors analyse in their paper “The Implied Impermanent Loss in Decentralized Liquidity Provision”, how the risk of so-called impermanent losses for liquidity providers on decentralised crypto exchanges can be quantified using derivatives. The study documents the existence of an impermanent loss premium, which captures the compensation liquidity providers receive for bearing this risk.

Professor Lorenzo Schönleber explains: “Frankfurt School has played an important role in my academic career, as I completed my PhD there. I am therefore particularly pleased to return as a Professor of Practice and to contribute to the Centre for Digital Economics. With its strong combination of academic excellence, close links to industry, and focus on innovation, Frankfurt School provides an ideal environment for advancing research, education, and knowledge transfer in digital finance and decentralised markets.”

Professor Co-Pierre Georg says: "With his deep understanding of the digital asset industry and decentralised financial markets, Lorenzo brings an ambitious research agenda to Frankfurt School and its Centre for Digital Economics. Bridging academic excellence and practical relevance is the core of what the C4DE does, and Lorenzo perfectly combines these two worlds, further strengthening the Centre's role as a thought leader in financial technology."

“Lorenzo Schönleber combines academic excellence with a deep understanding of how technology is transforming financial markets. Frankfurt needs this kind of bridge-builder. Technology will influence financial markets even more in the years ahead. Anyone who wants to shape them must understand both. It is a logical step for Frankfurt School, as a pioneer in this field, to establish a dedicated professorship. We are delighted to support this as a donor – strengthening research, talent, and Frankfurt as a financial centre alike,” adds Joachim Lauterbach, CEO of WM Gruppe. As Germany's National Numbering Agency, WM Gruppe enables the financial industry with data and provides decision-makers with news and analysis through Börsen-Zeitung.