Professor Peter Ritchken keeps coming back

Most of the year, Honorary Professor Peter Ritchken is based in the Department of Banking and Finance at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. But he seems to be in the AIFMRM offices. A lot.  

When he is asked why he is always coming back to AIFMRM, Professor Peter Ritchken says the answer is simple. “Well, firstly,” he says, “it’s in Cape Town, the most beautiful city in the world!” From his office here, he does have a remarkable view of Table Mountain, which may make travelling thousands of kilometres worthwhile, especially for someone who spends a lot of time working.

During his career, Peter has written several textbooks on derivatives and has published articles on risk management and derivatives in prestigious journals. He consults, conducts research programmes and is a scholar for the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland. He is also the founder and the initial director of the Weatherhead School of Management’s Master of Science in Management-Finance (MSM-Finance) at Case Western Reserve University, and he teaches in a number of programmes. He holds the Mario Gabelli Distinguished Professor in Finance chair in the Department of Banking and Finance.

While he is based in the US most of the year, he says it doesn’t feel like it. “Even when I’m there, I’m here,” he says. “Tom and I are always working on something.” That would be AIFMRM’s Adjunct Professor Tom McWalter. They share an office, and anyone walking by might think they hear them arguing, but it’s probably a heated discussion about some issue lurking at the intersection between mathematical and corporate finance—a particular point of interest for Peter. 

The two of them have published internationally acclaimed papers on topics such as Black Economic Empowerment and stock-based loans, and they’re working on something now, as can be evidenced by equations covering the whiteboard in their office.

To the question of whether they enjoy working with each other, Peter says definitively, “Yes. I would call Tom one of my closest friends.”

Tom responds with a wry, “You’re going to make me start crying.” Theirs is a genuine friendship based on professional collegiality and mutual interest and appreciation for their subject matter. Colleagues like Tom are part of the reason that Peter has been able to publish 110 research papers throughout his career. Since 1981, he has been tenured at Case Western. For many professors, tenure might mean slowing down on the research. But not for Peter.

“He is like a dog,” says Tom. “A dog with very sharp teeth. He will go at a problem until it is solved. He is very single-minded and focused.” But to Peter, it is the challenge of building a problem and trying to solve it. He loves solving mathematical riddles. “Maybe I’m weird,” he says with a chuckle.

He fits in at AIFMRM, though, which is no ordinary institute, attracting many of the top minds in their area of expertise globally. “I don’t know any other institution in the world where a department would get a bunch of researchers together, send them to a house in Kommetjie, and let them just talk about research for four days,” Peter says. “It’s unheard of!”

In addition, he believes the quality of teaching at AIFMRM is exceptional. “The graduates coming out of this institute are unbelievable. I’d stack them up against any programme in the world, and I would be disappointed if they didn’t rank right at the top.”

Peter tells the story of how he was once giving a seminar at the University of Chicago. “I was standing at the podium, and the person who introduced me to the audience said: ‘By the way, that podium you’re standing at? That is the podium from which Einstein delivered one of his most important seminars.’ It was the most impressive podium I’ve ever been on!”

Peter is still immensely focused, delighted, and curious about applications of mathematics. to problems in finance. For him, there are always more questions to be answered, and he will pursue them—for as long as he has a desk to work on—especially if it has a great view.