Always on the lookout for new opportunities, hedge fund GLG Partners has reportedly gone to an unorthodox source for new ideas. The London-based firm has hired the Scottish historian Niall Ferguson as a consultant.

Ferguson, a history professor at Harvard University, also teaches at Harvard Business School and specializes in economic and financial history. In addition to his academic duties, Ferguson is a widely-known commentator and columnist, especially for his defense of the Iraq war. A proponent of counterfactual, or “what-if”, history, Ferguson also generated controversy for his alleged defense of British imperialism. Ferguson has also taught at the University of Oxford and New York University.