Long-Time Finance Prof Named Interim Dean At Stanford GSB

Peter DeMarzo will serve on an interim basis as dean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business beginning August 1 as the search begins for Jonathan Levin’s replacement. Levin becomes the university’s president that day. Stanford photo

The dean’s office at Stanford Graduate School of Business is moving from economics to finance. As Jonathan Levin, an econ prof and GSB dean since 2016, prepares to move up to the university presidency in August, the B-school has named an interim successor: long-time finance professor Peter DeMarzo.

DeMarzo, Stanford’s John G. McDonald professor of finance who has taught at the B-school altogether for more than a quarter century, assumes the deanship August 1 and will keep it until a permanent successor to Levin is named.

“Peter will provide important continuity for the school during this transition, and we are grateful to him for being willing to accept this responsibility,” Stanford Provost Jenny Martinez says in a news release.

DeMARZO TEACHES CORPORATE FINANCE & FINANCIAL MODELING

Like Levin, DeMarzo also has an economics background: He earned his Ph.D. in economics, as well as a master’s in operations research, from Stanford in the 1980s.

DeMarzo taught at the school for two years in the 1990s, then returned for good in 2000. He teaches MBA and Ph.D. courses in corporate finance and financial modeling; he also founded and serves as faculty co-director of the Stanford LEAD Online Business Program.

Before joining Stanford for good in 2000, DeMarzo was on the faculty of both UC-Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, the latter for eight years; he was also a national fellow at the Hoover Institution.

DeMarzo’s research is in the areas of corporate finance, asset securitization, financial contracting, and regulation. According to his online bio, “He is co-author of Corporate Finance and Fundamentals of Corporate Finance” and “has served as president of the Western Finance Association and the American Finance Association. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Finance Association, and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.”

LEVIN LOOKS ‘TO STANFORD’S FUTURE’

Stanford on April 4 announced that Levin, dean of its business school since 2016, will become president of the university on Aug. 1.

Named Dean of the Year by Poets&Quants in 2022 for his success in bringing stability to a school that had been wracked by scandal, Levin’s more important achievements include putting Stanford in the lead of all business schools on diversity and inclusion, making the GSB the first major institution to publish an annual report on its diversity progress.

 “As I look to Stanford’s future, I’m excited to strengthen our commitment to academic excellence and freedom; to foster the principles of openness, curiosity, and mutual respect; and to lead our faculty and students as they advance knowledge and seek to contribute in meaningful ways to the world,” the 51-year-old Levin said in a statement in April.

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