Rate My Professor Shane Lavagna-Slater

Dr. Shane Lavagna-Slater is an academic and finance professional affiliated with the University of Western Australia Business School. He served as Lecturer from January 2018 to December 2021 and acts as Unit Coordinator for FINA5602 Strategic Corporate Finance in the MBA program, according to the 2025 timetable. In 2024, he was a joint recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award from the UWA Business School. His prior academic appointments include Head of Department for Accounting, Economics, and Finance at Milpark Business School from August 2012 to April 2014. Since January 2011, he has undertaken sessional academic roles at institutions including University of the Witwatersrand Business School, University of Johannesburg, Varsity College, Independent Institute of Education, Educor, and Regenesys Business School, facilitating, assessing, moderating, supervising, and authoring courses from school leavers to Master's level. He has supervised 23 MBA dissertations and continues to work with students on research projects.

Lavagna-Slater holds a PhD in Business Management from the University of Pretoria (2016), with dissertation "Investigating Peer-to-Peer lending as a solution to unsecured lending in an unbalanced credit market," examining microfinance sustainability in South Africa and proposing solutions for low-income credit access. Additional qualifications comprise MCom Financial Management (2010, University of Pretoria), BCom Honours Financial Management (2007, University of Johannesburg), BCom Investment Management (2005, University of Pretoria), and executive education certificate in Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance (2016, Harvard Business School). His key publication is "Fintech and responsibility: Buy-now-pay-later arrangements," co-authored with Paul Gerrans and Dirk G. Baur, published in Australian Journal of Management (2022), analyzing BNPL regulatory interplay, responsible spending, and financial literacy among young adults. His career encompasses extensive financial services experience in South Africa and Africa, including New Business Manager Africa at Izwe Africa Holdings (September 2014-September 2017), Interim Chief Executive Officer at GoLoans (May-August 2014), Manager Low Income Banking and Leadership Development Program Manager at Standard Bank of South Africa (November 2009-November 2011), and Senior Consultant at LTR Ltd (November 2005-October 2009). He currently holds the position of General Manager, Financial Products at Rent.com.au.