About the Author#
Dr. Cinder Zhang is an award-winning finance professor, curriculum architect, and pioneer in AI-integrated finance education. Dr. Zhang has earned national recognition for his teaching innovation, receiving both the Financial Management Association (FMA) Teaching Innovation Award and the University of Arkansas Teaching Innovation Award. He is currently a finance faculty at the Purdue University.
He is the creator of the DRIVER Framework, a comprehensive methodology that transforms how financial management is taught and learned. This framework empowers students to systematically approach finance problems by Defining & Discovering the core issues and knowledge gaps, Representing them clearly, Implementing solutions with code, Validating results rigorously, Evolving their understanding, and Reflecting on their learning.
Dr. Zhang previously led the development of the Financial Analytics major at the University of Arkansas and served as founding advisor of the Arkansas AI Foundry student organization. His innovative approach to teaching financial management has resonated deeply with both finance majors and students from other disciplines, particularly those in computer science and data analytics.
His graduates have gone on to thrive in roles at Goldman Sachs, State Street, JPMorgan, Mastercard, EY, Walmart Global Tech, Tyson Foods, and FinTech startups, often citing his courses as transformative in their careers. The principles in this textbook reflect the same methodologies that have helped these students succeed in the real world.
Outside the classroom, Dr. Zhang is passionate about helping students become better thinkers, not just better calculators—so they can navigate an increasingly complex and AI-powered financial world with clarity, confidence, and integrity.
Acknowledgments#
This book would not exist without the students who challenged me with their questions, their skepticism, and their breakthroughs. You are the reason this framework was created—not to make things easier, but to make your learning more meaningful and applicable in an AI-transformed workplace.
I also thank my teaching assistants, colleagues, and early adopters who tested, critiqued, and improved this methodology. Special thanks to the AI platforms (OpenAI and Anthropic in particular) and open-source communities whose tools made this new model of finance education possible.
A special thanks to the co-creator, Leo Zhang, who tested all the sections thoroughly and provided invaluable feedback from a student perspective. Your insights helped ensure this textbook works for its intended audience.
Finally, to my family and mentors who supported this journey to reimagine financial education: your patience and encouragement made all the difference.
From the Author: Why This Book Exists#
As a recipient of the Financial Management Association Teaching Innovation Award and the University of Arkansas Teaching Innovation Award, I’ve watched the finance industry transform at breakneck speed. What earned me these awards—teaching students to analyze better—is no longer enough. Analysis is now a commodity. Building is the only differentiator.
The DRIVER framework isn’t just another teaching methodology—it’s a survival system. It transforms passive learners into active builders who ship real solutions. This isn’t education; it’s career chemotherapy, designed to kill the parts of traditional learning that will make students obsolete.
DRIVER was battle-tested with students who thought they’d become analysts, researchers, and report writers. Then they watched AI do all those jobs better. The survivors? Those who learned to BUILD. They now ship financial innovations at Goldman Sachs, create new tools at JPMorgan, and launch FinTech startups. Not because they analyze better than AI, but because they build what AI cannot.
This book acknowledges a brutal truth: traditional financial analysis jobs are dying. Every semester, more “entry-level analyst” positions disappear. But every semester, more “financial engineer” and “product builder” roles emerge. We’re training students for the jobs that will exist, not the ones that are vanishing.
If you’re here to help students memorize formulas and write reports, you’re in the wrong place. If you’re here to help them build the future of finance, welcome to the resistance.
Let’s stop training students to compete with AI. Let’s train them to create with it.
To Students: Your Wake-Up Call#
Here’s what nobody else will tell you: That finance degree you’re pursuing? It’s training you for jobs that won’t exist when you graduate. While you’re learning to calculate ratios, AI is already doing it better. While you’re writing analysis reports, AI is generating them instantly. While you’re building Excel models, AI is coding them in seconds.
But here’s what AI can’t do: Ship a working financial tool that solves a real human problem. Create something new that doesn’t exist yet. Build the bridge between what’s theoretically possible and what actually works.
This book won’t teach you to be a better analyst than GPT-4. That’s a losing game. Instead, it teaches you to BUILD—to create financial tools and solutions that showcase skills AI cannot replicate.
You’ll still learn the fundamentals—time value of money, valuation, risk analysis. But instead of just analyzing, you’ll build tools that apply these concepts. Instead of writing reports, you’ll ship working applications. Instead of competing with AI, you’ll create with it.
By the end, you’ll have what actually matters: a portfolio of things you’ve built. Not grades. Not test scores. Not perfectly formatted reports. Working innovations that prove you can create value.
The choice is yours: spend four years training for obsolescence, or start building your irreplaceable future today.
Warning: This path is harder. Shipping working code is scarier than writing reports. Building in public risks failure. But it’s the only path to a career that AI can’t destroy.
Ready to stop preparing for the past and start building the future?
You can find more about the author and the DRIVER framework on his LinkedIn.