Nathan Delacrétaz, Ph.D.

Head of Research, Quanthome | Research Fellow, HEC Lausanne | Economics, FinTech & Applied AI | ESG, Sustainability, Risk & Real Estate Analytics

Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland

About

Head of Research at Quanthome. Research Fellow at HEC Lausanne's CRML. PhD in economics. I work at the intersection of agentic AI systems, real estate analytics, and sustainable finance. On one side, I architect long-duration AI harnesses and open-source tools that enable autonomous coding and research workflows. On the other, I develop ESG scores, pricing models, and sustainability metrics for the Swiss real estate market, and translate this research for industry, media, and academic audiences. My path went from carpentry to political science to a PhD in economics focused on climate, development, and environmental policy. That trajectory shaped how I approach problems: start with the material, understand the system, model it, then build the tools that operationalize the model. I write and speak across four domains: - Agentic AI & software architecture: harness design, memory systems, context engineering, open-source development - Real estate, finance & ESG: sustainability scoring, asset pricing, risk analytics, sustainable investment - Environmental & climate economics: development economics, climate shocks, resource economics - FinTech & applied AI: building AI systems for low-tech industries and non-AI-native teams My work appears in academic journals, white papers, French and Swiss media (Le Temps, BCV, Allnews, Immoday), and on my website (nathan-delacretaz.com), where I publish blogs, conference talks, and sources that shaped my thinking.

Experience

  • Quanthome (Lausanne, Vaud, Suisse)
    • Head of Research
      Jul 2025 - Present · 1 yr

      - Architect long-duration agentic AI harnesses for deep agents and implement full company AI automation solutions. - Develop metrics and strategies for real estate actors to advance toward sustainability goals - Deploy machine learning pipelines for predicting real estate asset prices and returns - Implement AI agents for real estate professionals and optimize internal AI-assisted workflows

    • Senior Researcher
      Jan 2025 - Jun 2025 · 6 mos

  • Research Fellow - Associate Researcher at HEC Lausanne - La Faculté des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de l'Université de Lausanne
    Oct 2022 - Present · 3 yrs 9 mos

    Center for Risk Management, Lausanne (CRML) - Development of ESG Swiss real estate scores and index. - Management of research projects and creation of innovative solutions for sustainable financial evaluation. - Communication of complex research findings to non-academic audiences. - Fine-tuning LLMs on HPC infrastructure for financial applications and researching AI adoption patterns

  • PhD Candidate SNSF at Université de Neuchâtel
    Feb 2019 - Jan 2023 · 4 yrs

    Institute of Economic Research - Leadership of research projects focused on in-depth analysis and quantitative methods. - Application and development of critical thinking skills. - Simplification and communication of complex information.

  • Collaborateur scientifique at Université de Neuchâtel
    Sep 2018 - Dec 2018 · 4 mos

    CREST - Contribution to research project development and data management.

  • Student-assistant in Microeconomics at Université de Neuchâtel
    Aug 2017 - Jan 2018 · 6 mos

    Faculty of Economics and Business - Organization of classes, sharing of knowledge, and coordination of student projects. - Enhancement of student learning through effective teaching methods