Bio and Mission Statement

Damodaran Online has been online since 1998 and I had avoided putting a bio or a mission statement online during much of this period, partly due to laziness and partly because I have always wanted the site to stand on its content. I have added a very short bio for two reasons. The first is that some users of the site, for some weird reason, seem to want to know who I am and why I maintain this site. The second and more important one is that I am tired of getting emails addressed to Mr. Adamodar (there is no such person even though my email address may start with those letters), asking that the personnel that run this site fix this or update that. Since I am the sole personnel of this site and my name is not adamodar, I decided to fill in the blanks.

My bio

My name is Aswath Damodaran. I am a Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. I teach the corporate finance and valuation courses in the MBA program as well as occassional short-term classes around the world on both topics. I received my MBA and Ph.D degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles. My research interests lie in valuation, portfolio management and applied corporate finance. My papers have been published in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics and the Review of Financial Studies, though I am sure that the list of people who have read these articles is a short one.

I do like to write. I have written four books on equity valuation (Damodaran on Valuation, Investment Valuation, The Dark Side of Valuation, The Little Book of Valuation) and two on corporate finance (Corporate Finance: Theory and Practice, Applied Corporate Finance: A User’s Manual). I also co-edited a book on investment management with Peter Bernstein (Investment Management) and I have two books on portfolio management - one on investment philosophies (Investment Philosophies).and one titled Investment Fables. I also have a book, titled Strategic Risk Taking, which is an exploration of how we think about risk and the implications for risk management.

If you asked me to describe what I do, I am first and foremost a teacher - not an academic, a professor or an authority on any topic. I learned to teach when I was a visiting lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1984 to 1986, where I received the Earl Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award in 1985. I have been at NYU since 1986, received the Stern School of Business Excellence in Teaching Award (awarded by the graduating class) in 1988, 1991, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2007 and 2008, and was the youngest winner of the University-wide Distinguished Teaching Award (in 1990). I was profiled in Business Week as one of the top twelve business school professors in the United States in 1994, a testimonial to weak competition. Not recognizing the error of their ways, Business Week did a poll of MBAsin 2011 that named me the most popular business school professor in the country (globe, universe.. who knows?). Needless to say, I love teaching and I hope it shows.

Mission

I am lucky enough to be in a field where a little knowledge and a dose of common sense goes a long way, and achieving guru status seems relatively simple. What I do know is neither profound nor earth shattering, but I would like to share it on this site. In that pursuit, I have attempted to keep almost the entire site open and accessible, with the only shut-off portions representing powerpoint slides used by instructors (who use my books). Everything that I learn, do or write in the field of finance will be on this site sooner or later. I hope that you find the content useful and that you will share it with others. Good luck!