Professor Hillier is Associate Principal and Executive Dean of the University of Strathclyde Business School. He is responsible for managing resources to provide teaching, learning, research and knowledge transfer activities in the Strathclyde Business School (SBS).

A Professor of Finance, David is the author of the largest franchise of Finance textbooks outside of the US and is a visiting professor at Politecnico di Milano. David is recognised as being in the top 3% of the most prolific finance researchers in the world over the past fifty years (Heck and Cooley, 2009) and appears regularly in the media as a business commentator. His YouTube channel of Finance lectures (professordavidhillier) has attracted more than 250,000 views worldwide.

David gained his PhD at the University of Strathclyde in 2000 and was appointed to full professor in 2002 at the age of 32. Between 2005 and 2010, David held the Ziff Centenary Chair in Financial Markets at the University of Leeds where he was Head of Accounting & Finance. He has acted as a World Bank consultant and provided consultancy advice to the NHS and several international stock exchanges. His executive clients include the Wise Group, Weir Group, Babcock, Wm Grant & Sons, Iberdrola, and David Brown Gears. He has taught in many international environments including China, Greece, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Oman, and Romania. 

David’s research has been funded by a number of international organisations including the Italian and Spanish governments, the Thai Stock Exchange, Thai Securities and Exchange Commission, Thai Government Pension Fund, Australian Research Council, The Actuarial Profession, Rotman International Centre for Pension Management, and the Central Bank of Tanzania. Since 2000, his research has attracted more than £650,000 in funding.

David sits on the CBI Scotland regional council and the MCR Pathways National Advisory Council.  He is also a trustee of Mainstay Trust.  David has won a number of industry and academic awards, including the Institute of Directors Scotland Public Sector Director of the Year.

David is currently an editor of the Journal of Economics & Business and sits on the editorial board of many international journals.

Professor Hillier publishes in the area of Corporate Finance and Corporate Governance.  His PhD research is related to Corporate Insider Trading and this is an area in which he is still very active.

Potential PhD supervision areas are Corporate Insider Trading and any area of Corporate Governance.  Professor Hillier has access to a large number of databases in this area that are made available to his PhD students.

Professor Hillier teaches across the full suite of finance topics.  His prior consultancy work relates to asset valuation, corporate risk management, corporate governance advice, equity and bond valuation, regulatory compliance, short term capital management, treasury management, and investing. He has worked as an independent assessor for a number of private and public organisations.