2026 Best 40-Under-40 Business Professors: Christoph Herpfer, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

Christoph Herpfer
Darden School of Business
University of Virginia 

“Christoph is an extremely passionate and talented professor. He blends finance, data analytics, and strategy for a holistic teaching approach. His passion is infectious. He does an excellent job at teaching FY finance, but I appreciate his impact in healthcare at Darden. He leads Darden’s Healthcare Initiative, which is doing a lot of work to advance the healthcare offerings and community at Darden. He created and launched a wonderful new course, healthcare finance, that is exposing students to healthcare concepts they’ve never encountered before and is an excellent class.” – Tom Aiello

Christoph Herpfer, 39, is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the finance area at UVA’s Darden Business School. He cofounded and co-chairs Darden’s Healthcare Initiative and developed and teaches Darden’s first Healthcare Finance course. He teaches Healthcare and Corporate Finance across Darden’s full time and executive programs.

His research examines how incentives, information, and regulation shape outcomes in healthcare and financial markets. His work includes applying big data methods to detect fraud in Medicare and using legal variations to study differences in behavior between for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals.

His research has been published in leading academic journals across a range of business disciplines, including the Journal of Finance and Management Science. It has been covered by numerous news sources such as the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and the Financial Times, as well as a range of TV and radio programs. He actively partners with industry to translate his research into real world practice.

Before joining Darden, Herpfer taught and researched at Emory’s Goizueta Business School and obtained a PhD at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland where he received various awards for his teaching in the Master of Financial Engineering.

In 2024, he received Darden’s Frederick S. Morton Faculty Leadership Award for his work on the Darden Healthcare Initiative.

BACKGROUND 

At current institution since what year? 2023 

Education: PhD: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
BSc (Economics) and MSc (Financial Economics) London School of Economics 

List of MBA/graduate business courses you currently teach:  Healthcare Finance 

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR 

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when …  I was always really into finance but enjoyed both the classroom and practice a lot. After some experiences in Investment Banking and M&A, I was offered a position at a private equity shop in London. When I had the contract lying in front of me, it suddenly hit me that I wanted to spend more time thinking deeply about finance before making the final decision. Once I started the PhD, I got hooked. That being said, until today I work closely with practitioners to translate my research into actionable insights. 

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? I am applying data science methods to finance questions, particularly healthcare finance. In one of my recent projects, we use the universe of Medicare claims and come up with a new method to detect suspicious billing patterns. We identify roughly $1 billion of suspicious payments annually which are not currently caught by the systems in place. These claims are concentrated within a relatively small cohort of repeat offenders, while the overwhelming majority of providers plays it clean.  

Part of why I think this work is so important is that the small group of bad apples is making it necessary to have all sorts of strict policing safeguards in place that make life harder for the majority of actors that play it fair. 

If I weren’t a business school professor…   I probably would have taken that PE job, or maybe would have worked my family’s farm. 

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor?  I actually went through very much the same recruiting pipeline as our students and have a bit more real-world experience than the typical Business School professor. My students tell me they enjoy this and my enthusiasm for the topic. 

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor:  It’s all-consuming. Being a professor is like being an entrepreneur. No boss, no external deadlines, full autonomy over your work, both its direction and workflow. It is tough to set boundaries. 

Professor I most admire and why:  My PhD Advisor Rüdiger Fahlenbrach who modelled for me so many exceptional traits to aspire to. 

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students?  They challenge you! In Darden’s case method driven classrooms in particular, students don’t just take your word for gospel. Many have real world experience, and they will push back hard if they disagree.   

What is most challenging?  Designing a class that is valuable to everyone. Students arrive with very different levels of experience and backgrounds. It is tricky to balance going over the foundational stuff so everyone can have the same baseline, with in-depth discussions with someone that has spent 5 years of their life in a specific job. 

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… Tough but fair.  

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM 

What are your hobbies? Chasing my dog through the forest. 

How will you spend your summer? Summertime is when research takes over.  

Favorite place(s) to vacation:  Anywhere with a forest and a mountain. 

Favorite book(s):  Not sure about all-time favorites but right now I am reading “The River War,” Churchill’s account of British campaign in Sudan. It’s humbling to see how persistent the structural issues he describes have been in this region for 130 years. 

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much?  Movie: Anchorman. Series: Reacher.  

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? I’m listening to a lot of Worakls, a very unique combination of classical instrumentation with electronic music.  

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS 

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this…  Business schools should leverage the potential of personalized AI tutoring. I would have them design a fully integrated AI agent that’s acting as a note taker in the background through classes, study sessions and interview. The agent would autonomously give students feedback on their work and participation, analyzes their study habits and progress, and monitor their interactions for areas of improvement to provide essentially one on one tutoring and career guidance.  

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at…  Meaningfully integrate AI in their on the ground workflow, particularly on the factory floor. 

 I’m grateful for…  My family. 

DON’T MISS: THE ENTIRE 2026 ROSTER OF THE WORLD’S BEST 40-UNDER-40 GRADUATE BUSINESS PROFESSORS 

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