THE ROBERT T. LECLAIR FINANCE DEPARTMENT SEMINAR SERIES

The Robert T. LeClair Finance Department Seminar Series extends the curriculum by inviting leading scholars to speak with VSB students on leading issues within the finance industry. Past topics have included responsible investing and investment decision-making; the costs and benefits of Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) for university endowments; and the pitfalls of central clearing in the derivatives markets. 

FALL 2024 SEMINAR SERIES

Seminars are held on Fridays at 1:45 p.m. in Bartley 2010.

PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES

Wenyu Wang is the Professor of Finance, Peterson Chair in Investment Banking, and Associate Chairperson of the Finance Department at the ​Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. His research interests are corporate control and restructuring, corporate governance, and structural estimation. His recent papers study the existence of frictions in mergers and acquisitions motivated by innovation acquisition, and frictions in corporate bankruptcy in the U.S. 

Professor Wang has published in the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, Journal of Accounting Research, and other leading finance and economics journals. He earned a Ph.D. in Finance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.S. in Computer Engineering at Tsinghua University.

David Brown is an Associate Professor of Finance, the Brian and Clara Franke Endowed Chair in Finance at the Eller College of Management, University of Arizona. He joined the Eller College of Management in 2014 after earning his PhD in Business Administration (Finance) from the University of Colorado Boulder. His areas of research include institutional investors, asset management, price feedback and price informativeness, early-stage financing and IPOs, taxes and retirement planning. Prior to joining academia, he worked in high-frequency algorithmic trading and private student lending where he was involved in several fundraising efforts, ranging from $300,000 to $75 million. Professor Brown has published in top finance journals such as the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Finance. 

Vyacheslav (Slava) Fos is a Professor of Finance and the Hillenbrand Family Faculty Fellow in the Finance Department at the Carroll School of Management, Boston College. He is also the coordinator of the Ph.D. in Finance program. Professor Fos’s research interests are in the areas of financial markets, corporate governance, and corporate finance. His research studies information transmission in financial markets, insider trading, boards of directors, the role of activist shareholders in corporate governance, the role of stock liquidity in corporate governance, and investment and employment consequences of share repurchases. His research has appeared in leading academic journals, including the Econometrica, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and Management Science. Professor Fos’s teaching interests focus on corporate finance. He has taught courses in corporate finance at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He currently serves as an associate editor for Journal of Banking and Finance and Financial Management.