Balasingham Balachandran is a Professor of Finance at Monash University Malaysia.  He is also serving as an Honorary Professor at La Trobe University. Prior to this, he worked at La Trobe University, Monash University-Australia, Victoria University of Wellington, and the University of Jaffna. He received a Master of Social Science and PhD in Finance from the University of Birmingham and a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from the University of Jaffna. He has published several research papers in high-quality journals (A* journals based on the Australian Business Deans Council): Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Markets, European Accounting Review, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, and Australian Tax Forum. Bala has played a significant role in his time at La Trobe University to achieve Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) ratings of 4 (above world standard) and 5 (well above world standard) for its Finance Discipline in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

     Bala has led many successful research grant applications. Most notably, he led teams of international researchers and secured funding for his three discovery projects from Australian Research Council in 2006 (DP0664368 - Asset Pricing, Signal Type and Overconfident Investors), 2012 (DP120101620 - An international study of seasoned equity offerings: long term returns, earnings management, liquidity, ownership structure, and financial crisis), and 2014 (DP140102918 - An international study into corporate payout policy, short selling, long-term market impact and earnings management).

     Bala’s insights into the empirical applications of corporate finance are evidenced by the media interest in his work and his expert opinion in the Supreme Court proceedings. Bala initiated and organized an international conference on Financial Markets and Corporate Governance (FMCG) in 2010. The conference is now held annually with significant success. Bala received an award in appreciation of “Outstanding Initiative and Work in Bringing the FMCG Conference into Being and Success” at the 4th FMCG Conference held in New Zealand in 2013. Bala also received Founders Award at the 10th FMCG conference in Sydney in 2019 for "Founding the FMCG Conference in 2010 and Outstanding Contributions to Research Mentorship and Developing Research Culture Over the Past 10 years in Australia and New Zealand".

He has successfully supervised 17 PhD students.  Nine of them have published papers at A* journals. In recognition of his HDR supervision, he was awarded the La Trobe Business School Research Excellence Award for Excellence in Higher Degree Supervision in 2019. Bala serves on the editorial boards of the Pacific Basin Finance Journal and Pacific Accounting Review.

      His research focuses on corporate finance and corporate governance issues, including dividend policy, equity issuance, the effect of taxes on dividend policy, cash holdings, stock price crash risk, mergers and acquisitions, CEO power, executive compensation, earnings quality, audit fees, and carbon risk.