Finance Division

Letter From the Chair

Finance is at the core of making informed business decisions. Columbia GSB’s finance division provides a complete finance training with a carefully integrated core curriculum and over 100 elective courses to train students to manage their own finances as well as for career success in asset management, investment banking, real estate, financial technology firms, management consulting, and for roles in central banks and government.

Taught by award-winning faculty from all areas of finance, our professors bring a combination of research-based insights, theoretical frameworks, and practice-based understanding to the classroom. The curriculum focuses on merging the theory and practice of finance along three dimensions: understanding finance principles, an ability to use state-of-the-art data-analytical tools, and a deep knowledge of financial markets and institutions. The core curriculum provides the foundation, and then expansive electives provide more advanced and concentrated courses in the main areas of finance: investment management, investment banking, private equity, venture capital, and real estate.

Central to Columbia GSB’s finance training are Centers and Programs that curate the curriculum, connect students with alumni and industry, and mentor students along their career journeys. These include the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center, Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing, and Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate, which anchor our training in entrepreneurial finance, value investing, and real estate, respectively. These programs host many conference and events, and offer significant executive education, connecting our alumni and industry practitioners with new developments and insights.

Together, our program has a long track record of producing transformative business leaders, with Warren Buffett and Henry Kravis as two leading examples who’ve revolutionized the asset management and private equity industries. Our goal is to teach and mentor the next generation of business leaders in finance.

Michael Johannes

Ann F. Kaplan Professor of Business
Chair of Finance Division

In the Media

Forbes

May 17, 2025

The Overhead Question

Highlighted by Columbia Business School, this media piece showcases Topics and Areas of Expertise about our esteemed faculty. The content is specifically curated from the publication that showcased the mentioned faculty and/or research, emphasizing its contributions in various fields. The featured Topics and Areas of Expertise reflects the school's commitment to sharing valuable insights and knowledge.

Mentioned Faculty

Shivaram Rajgopal

Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing; Chair of the Accounting Division: Accounting Division

Chartered Accountancy: 1987

Lex Blog

May 1, 2025

The Partisan Divide over Value and Values in State Pension Funds

Mentioned Faculty

Shivaram Rajgopal

Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing; Chair of the Accounting Division: Accounting Division

Chartered Accountancy: 1987

NPR

April 30, 2025

How stable is Stablecoin?

Stablecoins are the latest digital asset to grab headlines. Congress is considering legislation around cryptocurrency, and a Trump family-affiliated company is preparing to launch its own Stablecoin. But does this digital currency live up to its own name? Will Ma of Columbia Business School discussed his work on Stablecoins on a NPR Planet Money Podcast.

Mentioned Faculty

Will (Wei) Ma

Roderick H. Cushman Associate Professor of Business: Decision, Risk, and Operations Division

Fast Company

April 22, 2025

Elon Musk Made Tesla a Household Name. Now His Presence Is Tanking the Company

Mentioned Faculty

Bruce Greenwald

Robert Heilbrunn Professor Emeritus of Asset Management and Finance: Accounting Division

Barron's

March 18, 2025

Trump Fires 2 Democratic Commissioners at FTC

Mentioned Faculty

Shivaram Rajgopal

Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing; Chair of the Accounting Division: Accounting Division

Chartered Accountancy: 1987

Forbes

March 14, 2025

Taxing Universities

Mentioned Faculty

Shivaram Rajgopal

Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing; Chair of the Accounting Division: Accounting Division

Chartered Accountancy: 1987

Research

New Tools, New Rules: A Practical Guide to Effective and Responsible GenAI Use for Surveys and Experiments Research

Authors: Simon Blanchard, Nofar Duani, Aaron Garvey, Oded Netzer , and Travis Oh

Date: Forthcoming

Format: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of Marketing

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools based on Large Language Models (LLMs) are quickly reshaping how researchers conduct surveys and experiments. From reviewing the literature and designing instruments, to administering studies, coding data, and interpreting results, these tools offer substantial opportunities to improve research productivity and advance methodology. Yet with this potential comes a critical challenge: researchers often use these systems without fully understanding how they work.

Authors: Jennifer J Sun and Michel Tuan Pham

Date: Forthcoming

Format: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of Consumer Research

This paper addresses a simple theoretical question of high substantive relevance: What makes a consumption experience special in a consumer’s mind?

Authors: Olivier Toubia

Date: Forthcoming

Format: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of Marketing

We aim to stimulate discussion on how innovation research within marketing can use a better world (BW) perspective to help innovation become a driver of positive change in the world. In this "Challenging the Boundaries" series paper, we hope to provide purposeful research opportunities for scholars seeking to bridge innovation research with the BW movement. We frame our discussion with four areas of innovation research in marketing that are particularly relevant to BW objectives.

Authors: Isaac Baley and Laura Veldkamp

Date: Forthcoming

Format: Book

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Data is the new oil. It is the fuel for AI, a firm asset, a strategic advantage, information for prediction, a productivity booster, a privacy concern, a by-product of transactions, and a means of payment. How can we update traditional economic and finance frameworks to include a role for data and use these updated frameworks to measures it economic impact?

Authors: Eva Ascarza, Oded Netzer , and Julian Runge

Date: Forthcoming

Format: Journal Article

Journal: International Journal of Research in Marketing

One of the most crucial aspects and significant levers that gaming companies possess in designing digital games is setting the level of difficulty, which essentially regulates the user’s ability to progress within the game. This aspect is particularly significant in free-to-play (F2P) games, where the paid version often aims to enhance the player’s experience and to facilitate faster progression.

Ideas

Finance

Date: May 14, 2024

Finance

Alan Patricof's '57 Latest Venture Fund Embraces the Future of Longevity Tech

The pioneering venture capitalist talks co-founding Primetime Partners, as well as the School's role in his successful career.

Read more about Alan Patricof's '57 Latest Venture Fund Embraces the Future of Longevity Tech about Alan Patricof's '57 Latest Venture Fund Embraces the Future of Longevity Tech

Economics and Policy

Entrepreneurship

Innovation

Type: Columbia Business
Date: October 12, 2022

Economics and Policy

Entrepreneurship

Innovation

5 Questions About Value Investing and Finance

Tano Santos, the Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Asset Management and Finance and Director of Columbia Business School’s Heilbrunn Center for Graham and Dodd Investing, discusses the school’s approach to value investing and finance.