Achilleas Zapranis was born in Drama in 1965. He received his first degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1989. After serving in the military as a reserve officer, he continued his studies in the United Kingdom. In 1992 he received his MSc in Computer Science, with Distinction, from University College London. His MSc Thesis findings, on equity return forecasting with Neural Networks and conducted for National Westminster Bank (NatWest), were published in the prestigious academic journal Neural Networks and have been a reference point for similar studies ever since.
In 1993 he began his doctoral dissertation at London Business School as part of a know-how transfer NCTT program under the auspices of the Department of Trade and Industry, UK. The program provided full financial support to the selected PhDs and postdoctoral candidates involved and was dedicated to researching the applications of Artificial Intelligence in Money and Capital Markets. The corporate members of this program were Barclays-BZW, Citibank International, Mars Group, Postel Investment Management, Sabre Fund Management, and Société Générale. As a PhD candidate he successfully attended and passed all the required courses for the London Business School MSc in Finance.
His research focused on the identification of neural network models and their practical applications, in particular Tactical Asset Allocation, developed for Postel Investment Management (today known as Hermes Investment Management). After receiving his PhD in Decision Science from London Business School in 1997, with Distinction, the main findings of his research were published in his first monograph published by Springer-Verlag in 1999. Since then, his research interests were steadily focused on Financial Engineering and financial applications of Neural Networks and he has consulted for several financial firms, most notably for the London branch of Dallas based hedge fund, Ackerman Capital Management. In total, four of his monographs were published by Wiley and Springer-Verlag in the subjects of Weather Derivatives, Neural Model Identification, Wavelet Neural Networks, Technical Analysis for Algorithmic Pattern Recognition, and one by Kleidarithmos in the subject of Financial Applications of Neural Networks.
In 1998 he was elected Lecturer at the University of Macedonia. Since 2014 he is a Professor of Finance and Neural Systems in the Department of Accounting and Finance of the same University, where as a Professor has successfully supervised three doctoral theses. Research papers have appeared in such journals as IEEE Trans on Neural Networks, Neural Networks, Neural Computing & Applications, Neurocomputing, Defence Economics, Journal of Forecasting, Int. Journal of Forecasting, Journal of Int. Financial Markets, etc. His research on financial engineering and neural network design methodology, model identification, and estimation procedures is cited regularly for a number of years - currently over 1,300 citations in Google Scholar.
Teaching interests include neural networks, financial mathematics, and computational finance. His classes include BSc, MBA, Masters in Finance and PhD students at University of Macedonia as well as MSc at Athens University of Economics, in the past.
He held the positions of Rector and Vice-Rector of Economic Planning and Development and Chairman of the Research Committee of the University of Macedonia, Board Member of the Alexandria Innovation Zone SA and General Manager, Member of the Board of Directors of North Hellenic Stock Brokerage SA, Director of the Executive MSc in Accounting and Financial Management (University of Lancaster, University of Macedonia). Member of the Coordinating Committee of a) the MSc in Strategic Accounting & Financial Management (Executive), b) MSc Applied Accounting & Auditing, c) MSc in Accounting & Finance of the Department of Accounting & Finance and member of the Interdepartmental Committee of the MSc in Information Systems of the University of Macedonia.