NEW YORK, Nov. 1, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Charles & Agnes Kazarian Foundation (the Kazarian Foundation) is collaborating with Columbia Business School to launch a new Sovereign Risk Initiative.  The Sovereign Risk Initiative has the potential to radically improve the analysis of sovereign risk and public financial management. 

The Sovereign Risk Initiative recognizes the importance of analyzing consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with internationally agreed-upon public sector accounting standards, audit standards, and the best practices of a full system of public financial management. 

Shivaram Rajgopal, the Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing, will oversee the Initiative for Columbia Business School.  Paul B. Kazarian, Chairman and CEO of the Kazarian Foundation and Japonica Partners, will support the Initiative as an adjunct professor in the sector of public financial management.

The analysis of sovereign credit risk, as advanced via the four pillars of the Initiative, will include an analysis of both quantitative and qualitative information related to consolidated financial statements.  The Initiative will connect credit analysis of sovereign risk to insights into comparative credit quality rankings and merit-based sovereign credit ratings. 

The Sovereign Risk Initiative has four pillars:

1. Development of business school case studies related to sovereign risk course content;
2. Creation of multi-disciplinary professional publications;
3. Launch of MBA coursework focused on understanding sovereign risk by analyzing government financial statements; and,
4. Convening of a public symposium comprised of thought leaders in the area of sovereign risk and public financial management.

"Columbia Business School is excited to be the pioneer in this new field of assessing sovereign risk using financial statements and to extend our core competency as an international leader in the sectors of accounting and value investing," stated Professor Rajgopal.

"We are honored to team up with Columbia Business School in a visionary initiative that will change the landscape of assessing sovereign risk by smartly integrating select tools of value investing and public financial management," stated Paul B. Kazarian.

Columbia Business School is the only world-class, Ivy League business school that delivers a learning experience where academic excellence meets with real-time exposure to the pulse of global business. Led by Dean Glenn Hubbard, the School's transformative curriculum bridges academic theory with unparalleled exposure to real-world business practice, equipping students with an entrepreneurial mindset that allows them to recognize, capture, and create opportunity in any business environment. The thought leadership of the School's faculty and staff, combined with the accomplishments of its distinguished alumni and position in the center of global business, means that the School's efforts have an immediate, measurable impact on the forces shaping business every day. To learn more about Columbia Business School's position at the very center of business, please visit www.gsb.columbia.edu.

The Charles & Agnes Kazarian Foundation is a private operating foundation established in 1998 by Paul B. Kazarian.  The Foundation is a philanthropic foundation whose technical expertise includes strengthening government financial transparency, accountability, and performance.  The Foundation focuses primarily on economic development and education initiatives to empower great aspirations in the whole human family.  The Foundation recently established the Kazarian Center for Public Financial Management in Lisbon, Portugal to support research into and implementation of public financial management systems to improve government financial management, performance, and reporting.

For further information contact:
Columbia Business School:  Chris Cashman, cmc2318[@]gsb.columbia.edu
Kazarian Foundation:  Christopher Magarian, cmagarian[@]kazarianfoundation.org

SOURCE Charles & Agnes Kazarian Foundation