Rabih Moussawi, PhD, Named Katherine M. and Richard J. Salisbury Jr. Endowed Professor in VSB

Villanova, Pa., August 1, 2022 - Rabih Moussawi, PhD, associate professor, Finance & Real Estate, has been named the Katherine M. and Richard J. Salisbury Jr. Endowed Professor in Finance. This professorship, named in honor of Richard J. Salisbury, Jr. '58 VSB and his mother, Katherine, enhances the quality of scholarship within the Villanova School of Business (VSB).

“I am deeply humbled to be named the Salisbury Endowed Professor in Finance and I appreciate all the support I have received from my colleagues,” said Dr. Moussawi. “It is a great honor and I look forward to using this recognition to make positive, real-world impact in honor of the Salisbury family.”

“Dr. Moussawi is an excellent fit for the Salisbury Endowed Professor, and we are thrilled that he will assume this position,” said Joyce E. A. Russell, PhD, the Helen and William O’Toole Dean of the Villanova School of Business. “With his outstanding research reputation and excellent teaching and service at VSB, I am confident that his work in this role will positively impact our academic community.”

Dr. Moussawi’s research focuses on the areas of institutional investors, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), hedge funds, and corporate governance. The overarching theme of his research is to understand the unintended consequences of financial innovation on our society, particularly the frictions and costs associated with ETFs, Target Date Funds, and the increased concentration of the asset management industry. His research has been published in multiple journals including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, and Journal of Corporate Finance, and featured in mainstream media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Reuters, Forbes, and the New York Times.

Dr. Moussawi received his Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas, and an MBA and BA in Economics, with distinction, from the American University of Beirut. He is teaching Equity Markets & Valuation and the Applied Quantitative Finance capstone class at the undergraduate level, and has taught Quantitative Finance and Advanced Business Applications in VSB’s Master of Science in Finance and Analytics programs. He also contributes to the Business Scholars Seminar class and has been supervising the research of several undergraduate Financial Research Associate students.

Since joining VSB in 2014, Dr. Moussawi has been the recipient of multiple research awards. Before that, he was a research director at Wharton Research Data Services of the Wharton School, and prior to that, a quantitative researcher at the hedge fund unit of Barclays Global Investors (now BlackRock).

Before Richard Salisbury's passing in 2002, he had made arrangements for an estate gift to VSB. Salisbury spent most of his career with Shearson Lehman, serving as vice president and financial consultant. He later served as vice president of Investments with Solomon Smith Barney until 2000. He was very involved with his alma mater, Christian Brothers Academy, served on the Board of Advisors, and was elected to the Board of Trustees.

The Villanova School of Business (VSB) undergraduate program is top-ranked among business schools in the nation. Its online graduate business programs are ranked #3, and its online MBA program is ranked #9 by U.S. News and World Report. VSB has been at the forefront of business education since it was founded in 1922. Serving over 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students, VSB is home to five Centers of Excellence – the Daniel M. DiLella Center for Real Estate, the Elenore and Robert F. Moran Sr. Center for Global Leadership, the Center for Business Analytics, the Center for Marketing & Consumer Insights and the Center for Church Management – with each designed to foster innovative, cross-disciplinary research and applied opportunities for students. VSB is known for academic rigor; creativity and innovation; hands-on and service-learning opportunities; a firm grounding in ethics; and an applied education that prepares students to become outstanding leaders and global citizens within the ever-changing, complex, and fast-paced world of business. For more, visit business.villanova.edu.