Dr. Murat Kizildag is an Associate Professor and Academic Program Review Coordinator at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. He holds a Ph.D. in Hospitality Business Administration with a concentration in Finance, an MBA with an emphasis in Finance, and an M.S. in Restaurant, Hotel, and Institutional Management—all from Texas Tech University. During his doctoral studies, he completed the Bloomberg Essentials Training Program Certification in Equity, Fixed-Income, Foreign Exchange (FX), and Commodity markets through Bloomberg University.
Dr. Kizildag’s scholarly work is driven by a deep fascination with financial research and analytics. His expertise spans security valuation, risk and investment analytics, financial modeling and forecasting, portfolio optimization, and advanced time-series analysis. He has produced approximately 65 publications across mainstream business finance journals and leading outlets in hospitality business and management. His research achievements have been recognized with the Excellence in Research Fellow Award from the University of Central Florida (2024) and multiple best paper awards, including three from the International Association of Hospitality Financial Management Educators (iAHFME), a First Place Research Award from the ICHRIE Research Competition, and the Best Research Poster Award from the EuroCHRIE Conference. His externally-supported work includes contributions to the Curaçao Tourist Board’s Strategic Economic Development Master Plan (2015–2020), a project totaling $300,000.
A committed academic leader, Dr. Kizildag serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hospitality Financial Management (JHFM) and Managing Editor of the International Journal of Hospitality Management (IJHM)—one of the field’s premier SSCI journals. He also holds Associate Editor roles with the Journal of Food Business Research (JFBR) and Heliyon.
Dr. Kizildag is an active contributor to the global academic and professional community. He has delivered keynote and panel presentations at numerous conferences and industry events, including ISTTE, ARDA World Annual Convention, the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP) joint meetings, the Florida Institute of CPAs (FICPA) Mega CPE Conference, and the Service and Management Innovation Seminar Series hosted by Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Colombia.
At UCF, Dr. Kizildag teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in financial management, managerial accounting, and financial analysis for hospitality enterprises. He is a recipient of the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, Excellence in Professional Service Award, and the Faculty Member of the Year Award from UCF. He is also a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Fellow at UCF.