Kaplan, Steven N.

views updated

Kaplan, Steven N.

PERSONAL:

Married Carol Rubin; children: Sam and Alec. Education: Harvard College, A.B. (summa cum laude), 1981; M.A., 1987; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1988.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Chicago, IL. Office—University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 5807 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago, IL 60637. E-mail—steven.kaplan@chicagogsb.edu; skaplan@uchicago.edu.

CAREER:

Educator, writer, and editor. Kidder, Peabody & Co. Inc., New York, NY, analyst in Corporate Finance Department, 1981-83; Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc., New York, NY, summer associate consultant in corporate strategy, 1984; University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business, Chicago, IL, assistant professor, 1988-92, associate professor, 1992-95, professor of finance, 1995-97, Leon Carroll Marshall professor of finance, 1997-99, faculty director of Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship, 1997—, Neubauer Family Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, 1999—; INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France, visiting professor, 2001. National Bureau of Economic Research, research fellow, 1990-95, research associate, 1995—. Also director of the Illinois Venture Capital Association, the Kauffman Fellows Program, and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Member of the board of directors of Accretive Health, Columbia Acorn Funds, and Morningstar, and member of advisory board of Sterling Capital Partners and Soft Sheen Products.

MEMBER:

American Finance Association (director, 1997-99).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Class of 1997 Phoenix Award, University of Chicago, for exhibiting exceptional dedication to the MBA Class of 1997; Smith Breeden Prize, 1998, for best paper in Journal of Finance; Class of 1999 Phoenix Award, for exhibiting exceptional dedication to the MBA Class of 1999; McKinsey Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Graduate School of Business, 1998; Arthur L. Kelly Faculty Prize, 1999, for exceptional service beyond teaching and research; NASDAQ Award, 2004, for best paper on capital formation, Western Finance Association meetings; Addison-Wesley Prize, for Second-Best Paper in autumn, 2002, to summer, 2004, issues of Financial Management.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and contributor) Mergers and Productivity, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2000.

(With Berk A. Sensoy and Per Stromberg) What Are Firms? Evolution from Birth to Public Companies, National Bureau of Economic Research, (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

Contributor to professional journals, including Journal of Finance, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Industrial Economics, and Journal of Financial Economics. Also served on the editorial boards of Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Corporate Finance and Financial Management.

SIDELIGHTS:

Steven N. Kaplan is a business professor whose interests include private equity and entrepreneurial finance issues, corporate governance and finance, e-commerce, and mergers and acquisitions. As editor of the book Mergers and Productivity, Kaplan presents six case studies focusing on high-profile mergers in various industries. The contributing authors examine the various contingencies and factors that must be considered in mergers, objectives of mergers, and the resulting benefits. All is discussed within the wider range of an entire industry. The author's own contribution to the book, written with others, focuses on two mergers between manufacturing and/or service companies. "These papers capture the richness, the complexity, and the economic intangibles inherent in contemporary merger activity," wrote a NBER Reporter contributor. Other critics also praised the book, including John E. Kwoka, Jr., who wrote in the Journal of Economic Literature: "All six of the chapters in this volume are well-researched and thorough, and there is something to be learned from each." The reviewer also commented that "this book has done a good job of identifying some factors that may condition the outcome of mergers and thus be candidates for further research." Writing later in the same article, Kwoka commented that the book "ought to be closely read by researchers in the field" of business mergers.