Teaching

MAF BBQ 2017

Teaching Philosophy

I teach at different levels and with different course objectives, but in all courses. I incorporate the common themes of frequent assessments, critical analysis, and the application of finance and economics to the world outside the classroom. Because procrastination is the mortal enemy of learning, I provide frequent assessments. I seek to have my students critically examine what they learn. For example, when teaching applied finance, I require students to compare the output from Excel functions with their own Excel code. The students quickly discover that it is very important to examine Excel documentation to understand exactly what is programmed in Excel. I apply and extend course ideas using real-world examples. Because I teach in New Zealand, I often include material relevant to New Zealand. In addition, I have been fortunate to have many international students who bring interesting experiences into the classroom. This is particularly true of New Zealand scholarship students. Overall, I aspire that my students leave my courses with a greater knowledge of the subject matter as well as an improved ability to critically analyze, interpret and apply financial and economic concepts to the real world.

CURRENTLY TEACHING

FINA 306 Financial Economics (2011, 2012, 2021-2022)

  • Financial economics bridges the gap between undergraduate and honors-level study in economics and finance.

  • The course reinforces and extends the theoretical basis of decision-making as it applies to asset pricing and corporate finance. Topics include the utility, risk aversion, Arrow-Debreau Securities, the stochastic discount factor, Pareto efficiency, and the equity premium puzzle.

FINA 319 Entrepreneurial Finance (2020-2022)

    • Developed a new course which was first offered in Trimester 3 of 2020

    • Topics include both the financial tools to manage a new venture as well as the study of the valuation and security design approaches used by Venture Capitalists.

FINA 402 Current Topics in Corporate Finance (2011-2022)

  • FINA 402 is an intensive examination of modern research in corporate finance. Each class contains both a lecture and student presentations of journal articles. Some of the lectures are theory-based with much of the content drawn from Jean Tirole's Theory of Corporate Finance. Students present critical reviews of empirical papers from top finance journals. I encourage class discussion.

  • I thank Alex Butler for modeling how to organize a class in this fashion.

OTHER COURSES TAUGHT

MMAF 502 Corporate Finance (2010-2014, 2016-2020)

  • Corporate Finance is an in-depth review of the interface between corporate finance and the markets, from the vantage point of the corporate treasurer. Cash flow analysis, discounting in various forms, the cost of capital, the process of setting risk premiums, and internal use of capital. Principles of corporate value, the role of debt and taxation, the valuation of cash flows and companies. Other topics include long-term financing, mergers and acquisitions, options, and initial public offerings.

  • The course is taught in a block-release format with each block consisting of lectures, case study discussion, and lab work.

MMAF 531 Entrepreneurial Finance (2019-2020)

  • An in-depth review of the financing of early-stage companies from the vantage point of both the entrepreneur and the financier (e.g. venture capitalist or angel investor).

  • Operational financial management including Pro-forma financial statements, cash to cash cycles, and working capital needs.

  • Evaluate early-stage investments using multiple investment criteria. Financing methods such as multiple rounds, convertible notes, and hybrids

FINA 201 Introduction to Corporate Finance (2015-2016)

    • Core corporate finance class for all finance majors

    • Textbook: Corporate Finance tenth edition by Ross, Westerfield, and Jaffe

    • To prepare students for upper division courses, I created a number of more formal questions. For example, students derive and take the derivative of the variance of ROE, when ROA is a random variable. This example question shows how the variance of ROE increases with debt.

FINA 211 Corporate Finance for Accounting and Business (2013-2016)

    • Developed an application-oriented curriculum for accounting students to meet finance coursework required to gain Chartered Accountancy.

    • Textbook: Corporate Finance tenth edition by Ross, Westerfield, and Jaffe

    • Added frequent assessments, which in-part helped raised pass rates (relative to prior courses)

FINA 201 Introduction to Corporate Finance (2014-2015)

    • Moderated FINA 201 course taught at the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City

    • Provided syllabus, lecture notes, and assessments and collaborated with the instructor on course delivery

    • See program description for more information about the VUW program in Vietnam

FINA 203 Applied Finance (2011, 2013-2014)

  • Applied finance uses Excel to analyze a broad range of personal, investment, and corporate finance questions.

  • Course delivery includes both a weekly lecture and lab.