ROBERT PARRINO A member of the faculty at University of Texas since 1992, Dr. Parrino teaches courses in regular degree and executive education programs at the University of Texas, as well as in customized executive education courses for industrial, financial, and professional firms. He has also taught at the University of Chicago, University of Rochester, and IMADEC University in Vienna. Dr. Parrino has received numerous awards for teaching excellence at University of Texas from students, faculty, and the Texas Ex’s (alumni association).

Dr. Parrino has been involved in advancing financial education outside of the classroom in a variety of ways. As a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder he has been very active with the CFA Institute, having been a member of the candidate curriculum committee, served as a regular speaker at the annual Financial Analysts Seminar, spoken at over 20 Financial Analyst Society meetings, and as a past member of the planning committee for the CFA Institute’s Annual Meeting. In addition, Dr. Parrino is the founding director of the Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Center for Private Equity Finance at the University of Texas.

Dr. Parrino was Vice President for Financial Education of the Financial Management Association (FMA) from 2008 to 2010 and has been elected to serve as an academic director of the FMA from 2011–2013.

Dr. Parrino is also co–founder of the Financial Research Association and is Associate Editor of the Journal of Corporate Finance and the Journal of Financial Research. Dr. Parrino’s research includes work on corporate governance, financial policies, restructuring, and mergers and acquisitions, as well as research on private equity markets. He has published his research in a number of journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Portfolio Management, and Financial Management. Dr. Parrino has won a number of awards for his research.

Dr. Parrino has experience in the application of corporate finance concepts in a variety of business situations. Since entering the academic profession he has been retained as an advisor on valuation issues concerning businesses with enterprise values ranging to more than $1 billion and has consulted in areas such as corporate financing, compensation, and corporate governance. Dr. Parrino is currently on the advisory council of Virgo capital, a private equity firm, and was previously President of Sprigg Lane Financial, Inc., a financial consulting firm with offices in Charlottesville, Virginia and New York City..

Dr. Parrino holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Lehigh University, an MBA degree from The College of William and Mary, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in applied economics and finance, respectively, from University of Rochester.

DAVID S. KIDWELL Dr. Kidwell has over 30 years experience in financial education, as a teacher, researcher, and administrator. He has served as Dean of the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota and of the School of Business Administration at the University of Connecticut. Prior to joining the University of Connecticut, Dr. Kidwell held endowed chairs in banking and finance at Tulane University, the University of Tennessee, and Texas Tech University. He was also on the faculty at the Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University where he was twice voted the outstanding undergraduate teacher of the year.

An expert on the U.S. financial system, Dr. Kidwell is the author of more than 80 articles dealing with the U.S. financial system and capital markets. He has published his research in the leading journals, including Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Financial Management, and Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking.

Dr. Kidwell has also participated in a number of research grants funded by the National Science Foundation to study the efficiency of U.S. capital markets, and to study the impact of government regulations upon the delivery of consumer financial Services. Dr. Kidwell has been a management consultant for Coopers & Lybrand and a sales engineer for Bethlehem Steel Corporation. He currently serves on the Board of Directors and is the Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Schwan Food Company.

Dr. Kidwell is the past Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of Directors of AACSB, the International Association for Management Education and is a past ember of the Boards of the Minnesota Council for Quality, the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, and Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility. Dr. Kidwell has also served as an Examiner for the 1995 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, on the Board of Directors of the Juran Center for Leadership in Qualityand on the Board of the Minnesota Life Insurance Company.

Dr. Kidwell holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from California State University at San Diego, an MBA with a concentration in finance from California State University at San Francisco, and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Oregon.

THOMAS W. BATES Dr. Bates is the Chair of the Department of Finance and Dean’s Council of 100 Distinguished Scholar at the W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. He has also taught courses in finance at the University of Delaware, the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Arizona where he received the Scrivner teaching award.

During his career as an educator, Professor Bates has taught corporate finance to students in undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and Ph.D. programs, as well as in custom corporate educational courses. Professor Bates is a regular contributor to the academic finance literature in such journals as The Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Financial Management.

His research addresses a variety of issues in corporate finance including the contracting environment in mergers and acquisitions, corporate liquidity decisions and cash holdings, and the governance of corporations. In practice, Dr. Bates has worked with companies and legal firms as an advisor on issues related to the valuation of companies and corporate governance.

Dr. Bates received a B.A. in Economics from Guilford College and his doctorate in finance from the University of Pittsburgh.