Top Three Most Influential Academics in the Institutional Investing World

Academic Financial professionals have always influenced the markets. Financial institutions  have always needed bright, individuals and found a plentiful supply of young graduates from the top business schools. But what about the people that mentor, influence and actually teach them?. The Professors list, Asset International’s Chief Investment Officer publishing’s first list of 2013, introduces the top 10 academics influencing the institutional investing industry. What aiCIO did is examined the 25 most influential investment consults and introduced the top 10 academics in the list. Which top three of the most influential academics did I pick?.  Read further.

The three influential Academics (institutional investing) that attracted my attention are:

Keith Ambachtsheer – Director, Rotman International Centre for Pension Management, University of Toronto (Toronto, Canada)

Keith Ambachtsheer is Director of the Rotman International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM), an Adjunct Professor of Finance, Academic Director of the Rotman-ICPM Board Effectiveness Program, and Publisher and Editor of the Rotman International Journal of Pension Management.

His firm, KPA Advisory Services Ltd. provides advice to governments, industry associations, pension-plan sponsors, foundations and other institutional investors since 1985. He is the co-founder of CEM Benchmarking Inc. which monitors the performance of 300 pensions worldwide. Ambachtsheer has written three books on pension management and has received many industry awards.

 

Antoinette Schoar – Michael Koerner ’49 Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

Antoinette Schoar is the Michael M. Koerner (1949) Professor of Entrepreneurship and a Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Schoar is an expert in corporate finance, entrepreneurship, and organizational economics. Her research is on venture capital, entrepreneurial finance, corporate diversification, governance, and capital budgeting decisions in firms. She has received the Fellowship of the George Stigler Center, 1997–1999, and the ERP Doctoral Scholarship of the German Ministry of Trade, 1995–1997.

 

Josh Lerner – Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard Business School (Boston, Massachusetts)

Josh Lerner is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the Finance and the Entrepreneurial Management Units.

Lerner graduated from Yale College with a Special Divisional Major which combined physics with the history of technology. He worked for several years on issues concerning technological innovation and public policy, at the Brookings Institution, for a public-private task force in Chicago, and on Capitol Hill. He then earned a Ph.D. from Harvard’s Economics Department.

Lerner’s research focuses on the structure and role of venture capital and private equity organizations.

You can refer to the article Time100 List Of Most Influential Companies In The World for information about influential companies.

Academics academics have always had strong and positive influences on the development of financial services, and can make a powerful difference going forward. A good example of this is a new report that offers academic insight to improve gender equality in the financial services sector, by the University of Exeter and the Financial Services Knowledge Transfer Network (FS KTN). The report, which includes case studies from Credit Suisse and UBS, recommends that companies respond to such obstacles with a range of initiatives to help address the gender imbalance. The report emphasises that changing business culture requires action, not just words or good intentions. The FS KTN offers financial services companies the opportunity to work with academics so that action is based on a firm foundation of rigorous research.