Philippe Jorion

Philippe Jorion (1955—2025)^[1] was an author, professor and risk manager. He was the author of more than 100 publications on the topic of risk management and international finance,^[2] and is credited with pioneering the Value at Risk approach to risk management.^[3]

Jorion's works include Financial Risk Manager Handbook and Value at Risk: The New Benchmark for Managing Financial Risk. He served as the Chancellor’s Professor of Finance at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California at Irvine^[4] and was a managing director at investment firm PAAMCO where he headed the Risk Management group.^[5] In 1995, he wrote the book Big Bets Gone Bad on the bankruptcy of Orange County, California, hoping to push voters towards supporting a proposed upcoming tax increase in the region, but the work's publication date was pushed past the special election.^[6]

Jorion received several awards honoring excellence in research and financial writing, including two from the CFA Institute.^[7] He held an MBA and a PhD from the University of Chicago and a degree in engineering from ULB Brussels.^[5]