Xinran Li

Biography

MEng Concentration: Financial Engineering
Anticipated Graduation Date: December 2014
Areas of Interest: Consulting, Financial Services/Planning, Investment Banking, Risk Management

Within only three years, Xinran (Elsa) Li received her dual degrees of Bachelor of Science in Accountancy and Finance with a minor in Applied Math from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She graduated with the Highest Honor.

In May 2014, Elsa passed the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) exam part I at her first try. During summer 2014, Elsa worked as a Summer Analyst at Credit Risk Analytics in Citigroup. She applied her programing skills in SAS and R to check data quality and improve data processing models. She also learned LGD modeling techniques through memos and SAS code. Throughout her last year as an undergraduate, Elsa worked as the research assistant of Professor James Gentry. She utilized STATA to analyze financial data of more than 2000 firms over the past 22 years from COMPUSTAT and explore the relationship between a firm’s credit rating and cash flows.

Elsa has enhanced her quantitative skills through the Financial Engineering program. She is looking for a career in credit risk, market risk, asset management, consulting and equity research.

In her spare time, Elsa enjoys travelling and video shooting & editing.