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The following is a list of biographies of the academics and financial economists working with and for Dimensional Fund Advisors and leading the way in terms of understanding the risks and rewards associated with todays capital markets. It is reproduced with the kind permission of Dimensional Fund Advisors.
Professor |
Affiliation |
Expertise |
George M. Constantinides,
University of Chicago |
Board Member of Dimensional's US Mutual Funds |
Asset Pricing, Capital Markets Research |
Eugene F. Fama,
University of Chicago |
Board Member of Dimensional Fund Advisors, Consultant for Dimensional's Fixed Income and Value Strategies |
Efficient Markets Hypothesis, Random Walk Hypothesis, Capital Markets Research, Multifactor Model, Definitive Finance Text, Tax Research |
Kenneth R. French,
Dartmouth College |
Board Member of Dimensional Fund Advisors, Consultant and Head of Investment Policy |
Capital Markets Research, Multifactor Model, Tax Research |
John P. Gould,
University of Chicago |
Board Member of Dimensional's US Mutual Funds |
Applied Price Theory, Former Dean of University of Chicago Graduate School of Business |
Roger G. Ibbotson,
Yale University |
Board Member of Dimensional's US Mutual Funds |
Capital Markets Research, Comprehensive "SBBI" Database (with Sinquefield), Data Consultant Firm |
Donald B. Keim,
University of Pennsylvania |
Consultant for Dimensional's Real Estate Securities Strategy and Trading Cost Studies |
Capital Markets Research, Real Estate Securities, Small Stock "January Effect" |
Robert C. Merton,
Harvard University |
Board Member of Dimensional's US Mutual Funds |
Asset Pricing Theory, Valuation of Derivative Securities |
Myron S. Scholes,
Stanford University |
Board Member of Dimensional's US Mutual Funds |
Capital Markets Research, Options Pricing Model |
Abbie J. Smith,
University of Chicago |
Board Member of Dimensional's US Mutual Funds |
Capital Markets Research, Financial Accounting Information, Corporate Restructuring, Corporate Governance |
Marvin Zonis,
University of Chicago |
Consultant for International Economics |
Capital Markets Research, World Political Affairs, Foreign Policy Analysis |
George M. Constantinides - Director and Trustee Dimensional US Mutual Funds
A member of Dimensional's boards of directors of the US mutual funds, George M. Constantinides is the Leo Melamed Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He is a leader of academic finance, an expert in portfolio theory, asset pricing, and capital markets behavior. Widely published and a frequent speaker and editor, Professor Constantinides is former president of the American Finance Association and the Society for Financial Studies, among many other professional affiliations. A graduate of Oxford University in England and Indiana University, he has also taught at Harvard and Carnegie Mellon Universities.
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Eugene F. Fama - Director and Consultant Dimensional Fund Advisors
Eugene F. Fama is the central scholar whose groundbreaking work inspired the founding of the firm. The author of the efficient markets hypothesis that underlies all of Dimensional's products, Professor Fama helped develop the firm's process, continues to supply key research, and helps keep the firm abreast of research in academia. Widely perceived as the "father of modern finance," he has brought an empirical and scientific rigor to the field of investment management, transforming the way finance is viewed and conducted.
Professor Fama remains involved in the operations of the firm by serving on the board of directors of Dimensional Fund Advisors. He is also a member of its Investment Policy Committee, and in this capacity continues to advise on many of the firm's strategies. He is also a frequent speaker at Dimensional conferences and seminars.
The author of two books and numerous articles, Professor Fama is among the most prolific and cited of America's researchers. He focuses much of his study on market prices and implications for portfolio management. He is also an advisory editor of the Journal of Financial Economics and a fellow of the Econometric Society in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Awarded the Chaire Francqui (Belgian National Science Prize) in 1982, Professor Fama was also granted honorary law degrees by the University of Rochester and DePaul University. An active windsurfer and mountain biker, he was recently inducted into the Malden (Mass.) Catholic High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
The Robert R. McCormick Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, Professor Fama received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1964. He also holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from Tufts University.
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Kenneth R. French - Director, Consultant and Head of Investment Policy Dimensional Fund Advisors
Kenneth R. French is the Carl E. and Catherine M. Heidt Professor of Finance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is an expert on the behavior of security prices and investment strategies. He and co-author Eugene F. Fama are well known for their research into the value effect and the three-factor model, including articles such as "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns" and "Common Risk Factors in the Returns on Stocks and Bonds." His recent research focuses on tests of asset pricing, the tradeoff between risk and return in domestic and international financial markets, and the relation between capital structure and firm value.
As a Dimensional director and consultant, Professor French is head of investment policy for Dimensional Fund Advisors, is chairman of the Investment Policy Committee, and sits on the firm's board of directors. Along with Professor Fama, he designed Dimensional's value and tax-managed strategies. He is a regular speaker at Dimensional conferences and seminars and a contributor to the Research group.
Professor French is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, an advisory editor of the Journal of Financial Economics, a former associate editor of the Journal of Finance and the Review of Financial Studies, and a past director of the American Finance Association.
Prior to joining Dartmouth College, Professor French was the NTU Professor of Finance at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and managing director of the International Center for Finance at Yale University School of Management. Before receiving his Ph.D. in finance from the University of Rochester in 1983, Professor French earned an M.S. and an MBA from the University of Rochester and a B.S. from Lehigh University. In addition to teaching and doing research, he enjoys bicycling, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, swimming, in-line skating, and embarrassing his three children.
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John P. Gould - Director and Trustee Dimensional US Mutual Funds
John P. Gould serves on the boards of directors of the US mutual funds Dimensional advises, and is a specialist in the economics of information, microeconomic theory, industrial organization, strategy, law, and economics. A member of the faculty of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business since 1965, Professor Gould was dean of the school from 1983-1993 and is now Steven G. Rothmeier Professor and Distinguished Service Professor of Economics. A busy editor, trustee, and director, he holds a B.S. with highest distinction from Northwestern University, and an MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
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Roger G. Ibbotson - Director and Trustee Dimensional US Mutual Funds
Roger G. Ibbotson is an expert on capital market returns, cost of capital, and international investing. He is chairman and founder of Ibbotson Associates in Chicago, New York, and Tokyo, which provides consulting services, software, data, and financial publishing for financial institutions and investment advisors. His book with Rex A. Sinquefield, Stocks, Bonds, Bills and Inflation, updated annually, serves as the standard reference for information on investment market returns. He is a regular contributor and editorial board member to both trade and academic journals, and is the recipient of many awards including Graham and Dodd Awards of Excellence in 1979, 1982, 1984, and 2000, and AIMR's James R. Vertin Award in 2001. A professor of finance at Yale School of Management, Professor Ibbotson received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, an MBA from Indiana University, and a B.S. from Purdue University.
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Donald B. Keim - Consultant Dimensional Fund Advisors
The originator of the January Effect, one of the seminal pieces of small cap research, Donald B. Keim consults with the firm primarily in the areas of real estate research and trading costs. Professor Keim has executed and maintains substantial research into Dimensional's trading strategy and how it adds value by transacting large blocks in the US at a discount, thereby reducing trading costs. He documents this regularly on behalf of Dimensional as a service to its clients.
Professor Keim's research has dealt with the relation between stock returns and predetermined variables (dividend yields, market capitalization, earnings/price ratios, and calendar turning points), tests of asset pricing models, the junk bond market, the behavior of real estate related common stocks, and market microstructure issues relating to institutional investor equity trading. Currently the John B. Neff Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, he received his Ph.D. in finance and economics from the University of Chicago.
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Robert C. Merton - Director and Trustee Dimensional US Mutual Funds
Robert C. Merton is currently the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at the Harvard Business School. Prior to joining the faculty of Harvard in 1988, he served on the finance faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management for eighteen years. He is a co-founder and chief science officer of Integrated Finance Limited, a specialized investment bank. In 1993, he co-founded Long-Term Capital Management and served as a principal for six years. He is a past president of the American Finance Association and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Merton has been frequently recognized for his achievements in translating financial science into practice. In 1997, Professor Merton received the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with Myron Scholes for a new method to determine the value of derivatives.
Professor Merton obtained a B.S. in engineering mathematics from Columbia University in 1966, an M.S. in applied mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1967, and a Ph.D. in economics from MIT in 1970. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Chicago and five universities outside the US.
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Myron S. Scholes - Director and Trustee Dimensional US Mutual Funds
A Frank E. Buck Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Myron S. Scholes is widely known for his seminal work in options pricing, capital markets, tax policy, and the financial services industry. He is co-originator of the Black-Scholes options pricing model, which is the basis of the pricing and risk-management technology that is used to value and manage the risk of financial instruments around the world. For this work, he received the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1997.
An expert in finance and tax law, Professor Scholes is chairman of Oak Hill Platinum Partners, and a managing partner in the private and public investment groups of the Robert M. Bass organization. Oak Hill Platinum Partners, a hedge fund, specializes in providing inventory services in G7 fixed-income markets to the global banking and dealer communities. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he went on to serve as the Edward Eagle Brown Professor of Finance, and has also taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.
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Abbie J. Smith - Director and Trustee Dimensional US Mutual Funds
Abbie J. Smith is the Boris and Irene Stern Professor of Accounting at the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago. She joined their faculty in 1980 upon completion of her Ph.D. at Cornell University. The primary focus of her research is corporate restructuring, transparency, and corporate governance. Professor Smith is a co-editor of the Journal of Accounting Research and chair of the WorldatWork Academic Research Committee. She spent academic year 1994-95 at Hewitt Associates, served as a member of the board of directors and audit committee of Helene Curtis Industries from 1990-96, and was a Marvin Bower Fellow at the Harvard Business School for academic year 2001-02.
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Marvin Zonis - Consultant Dimensional Fund Advisors
An expert in international policy and economics, Marvin Zonis consults with foreign governments, is a regular media resource about public affairs, and is an acknowledged authority on the Middle East. A professor at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, he is an enthralling speaker who has enlivened many of Dimensional's conferences with his observations about international markets. His research activities have focused on global political and economic development, quantifying political risk, emerging markets, Middle Eastern politics, Russian domestic politics and economics, US foreign policy, and US strategic relations. A frequent expert witness and consultant to the US Department of State's Policy Planning Council and the US National Security Council, Professor Zonis was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., political science, 1968) and Yale University (A.B., politics and economics, 1958).
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