Harry Vadalkar

Harry Vadalkar is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Finance at the Pamplin College of Business, teaching across Financial Planning, Finance, and Financial Technology.

Professor Vadalkar brings a rare blend of industry, entrepreneurship, and academic experience to the classroom.

On the industry side, he began his career at ICICI Securities, one of India's leading financial services firms, where he managed a team delivering investor education programs that reached over 200,000 investors and trained employees to clear regulatory and professional certifications such as the CFA and CFP. His team also created and delivered STOCKMind, a financial literacy drive that secured a Limca Book of Records entry as the world's largest stock market competition. He later served as an AI researcher for LH Opportunity Group, building models to evaluate investment opportunities across stocks and cryptocurrency, and as Head of Research at Phoenix DeFi Investments, leading research reports, code audits, and tokenomics analysis in decentralized finance.

As an entrepreneur, he co-founded BitBox, an early Bitcoin trading and mining company, and later co-founded EduFinWizards and Vitta Finance Academy, financial education platforms that together have reached over 35,000 learners worldwide through online courses on Kajabi, Udemy, and YouTube.

On the academic side, Professor Vadalkar brings nearly a decade of university teaching experience from Canada, holding faculty appointments at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) School of Business, Mount Royal University, and Thompson Rivers University. At SAIT, he designed and launched Canada's first bachelor 's-level FinTech and Innovation degree program and contributed to the school's Financial Planning and CFA programs, including securing CFA Institute University Affiliation. Earlier in his career, he worked with the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB), where he was part of the team that developed the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (CFP) certification examination and trained faculty who, in turn, trained students and candidates enrolled in the CFP Certification Program.

Professor Vadalkar is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds his own CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (CFP®) certification through FPSB .

He is currently completing his Ph.D. at Texas Tech University, where his research explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, financial advice, wealth management, financial planning, behavioral finance, and financial literacy.

Education

• Ph.D. (in progress), Texas Tech University
• Master of Business Administration, Finance, Savitribai Phule Pune University
• Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Engineering, Savitribai Phule Pune University

Research Interests

Personal financial planning; artificial intelligence in financial decision-making; behavioral finance; financial technology; digital assets and decentralized finance; retirement planning.