About our authors Sheridan Titman is the McAllister Centennial Chair in Financial Services at the University of Texas at Austin and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Texas, he was a Professor at UCLA, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Boston College. In addition to his academic experience, Sheridan spent the 1988 to 89 academic year in Washington, DC as the special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and has done occasional consulting with financial institutions. His research covers a broad range of topics and has been recognized by a number of awards, including the Smith-Breeden best paper award for the Journal of Finance, the GSAM best paper award for the Review of Finance, and the Wharton-Jacobs Levy Prize for Quantitative Financial Innovation. Sheridan has been active in the leading academic associations, having served as President of the Western Finance Association, the American Finance Association and the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, as well as a Director of the American Finance Association, the Western Finance Association, the Financial Management Association and the Asia Pacific Finance Association.Arthur J. Keown is an Alumni Distinguished Professor and the R. B. Pamplin Professor of Finance at Virginia Tech. He received his bachelor's degree from Ohio Wesleyan University, his MBA from the University of Michigan, and his doctorate from Indiana University. An award-winning teacher, he is a member of the Academy of Teaching Excellence at Virginia Tech. He has received 5 certificates of Teaching Excellence, the W.E. Wine Award for Teaching Excellence, and the Alumni Teaching Excellence Award. In 1999, he received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State of Virginia. Professor Keown is widely published in academic journals. His work has appeared in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Financial Research, Journal of Banking and Finance, Financial Management, Journal of Portfolio Management, and many others. Two of his books, Foundations of Finance: The Logic and Practice of Financial Management, and Personal Finance: Turning Money into Wealth, are widely used in college finance classes all over the country. Professor Keown is a Fellow in the Decision Sciences Institute, and has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Financial Management Association. In addition, he has served as the co-editor of both the Journal of Financial Research and the Financial Management Association's Survey and Synthesis Series. He was recently inducted into Ohio Wesleyan's Athletic Hall of Fame for wrestling. He has 2 children, 3 granddaughters and lives with his wife in Blacksburg, Virginia, where he collects original art from Mad Magazine.John D. Martin is professor emeritus at Baylor University where he was the Carr P. Collins Chair of finance and is also a retired professor of finance from the University of Texas at Austin where he held the Margaret and Eugene McDermott Professorship in Finance. He now lives on a ranch near Crawford, TX where he and his wife raise Braunvieh-Angus cattle, bale hay and enjoy a pastoral life. In his prior life as a finance professor John taught for almost a half century earning a number of teaching awards, published over 90 articles in the leading finance journals, and coauthored 10 books including Financial Management: Principles and Practice (14th edition, Pearson), Foundations of Finance (10th edition Pearson), Valuation: The Art and Science of Corporate Investment Decisions (3rd edition, Pearson) and Value Based Management with Social Responsibility (2nd edition, Oxford University Press). When not involved in farming and ranching John feeds his learning habit by remaining an active researcher and writer. His current research interests focus on America’s energy dependence problem as it relates to the economics of unconventional energy sources, examining the growing importance of water issues in his home state of Texas, educating entrepreneurs concerning the cost of venture funding, investigating the economic factors underlying differences in the capital costs in developed and emerging economies, and researching the securitized corporate loan market. Finally, John’s abiding passion is to create a book series that focuses on needs of the next generation of finance professionals.
