Bhagat
Professor
Finance

Koelbel - 402G

Biography

Whether advising Fortune 500 companies or using his work experience at the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission to illustrate a point in class, Professor Sanjai Bhagat is easily able to explain complicated financial theories to students.

Throughout his more than 20-year teaching career, Bhagat has been recognized for excellence in education. He was the Graduate Professor of the Year and winner of the Frascona Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award and an Educator of Distinction Award Finalist.

In addition to teaching finance at the Leeds School of Business, Bhagat is also connected to the start-up community in Colorado and is the founding director of TiE-Rockies (The Indus Entrepreneurs)-a professional group for technology entrepreneurs.

His paper, "Corporate Governance and Corporate Performance," was awarded the Paper of the Decade Award for being the most impactful paper in the Journal of Corporate Finance during 2008-2018. His work "The Promise and Perils of Corporate Governance Indices," was selected as one of the "Best Corporate and Securities Articles" by the Vanderbilt Law School publication Corporate Practice Commentator. The European Corporate Governance Institute also awarded the article the De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek Law Prize for best paper.

During the past decade Dr. Bhagat has made invited public presentations to a variety of professional audiences:

  • June 2022. Invited speaker to a group of U.S. Court of Appeals, and U.S. District Court judges on “ESG, Purpose of the Corporation, and Economic Growth.” Bar Harbor, Maine.
  • June 2022. Invited to speak to a group of CEOs and corporate directors on how to be an effective director. Private Directors Association annual summit, Washington DC.
  • October 2021. Served on panel on Purpose of the Corporation with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, Alex Holmes (CEO, Moneygram), and Scott Howe (CEO, LiveRamp).
  • August 2021. Invited speaker to a group of U.S. District Court, and State Supreme Court judges on “ESG, Income Inequality, and Economic Growth.” Greenbrier, West Virginia.
  • June 2021. Invited speaker to a group of U.S. Court of Appeals, and U.S. District Court judges on “ESG, Rule of Law and Economic Growth.” Beaver Creek, Colorado.
  • January 2021. Plenary speaker, Do the Big Issues of the 21st Century Require a Change in Shareholder Capitalism, at online international finance conference.
  • February 2020. Keynote speech, “ESG, Stakeholders, and Shareholders,” at international corporate governance conference in Boca Raton, Florida.
  • November 2019. Presentation on bank capital and executive compensation to central bankers of the major countries in Financial Stability Board, Bank of International Settlements, Basel, Switzerland.
  • November 2018. Presentation to BlackRock executives on executive compensation, board governance, and say-on-pay, in New York, NY
  • October 2018. Presentation on board governance and executive compensation to 250+ pension fund managers and mutual fund managers at the Council of Institutional Investors annual meeting in New York, NY
  • October 2018. Presentation on Director Compensation and Executive Compensation to 200+ board-members and CEOs at the National Association of Corporate Directors annual summit, Washington DC
  • October 2018. Presentation on Bank Capital and Bank Governance to economists and attorneys at the U.S. Federal Reserve Board in Washington DC
  • July 2018. Presentation on Today's Capital Raising Challenges to 150+ board-members and CEOs at the National Association of Corporate Directors entrepreneurship forum, San Francisco CA
  • June 2018. Presentation on Technology and Finance (FinTech) to 150+ board-members and CEOs at the National Association of Corporate Directors conference, Austin TX
  • April 2017. Participant at the White House Initiative, "Core Principles for Regulating the United States Financial System" at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Washington DC
  • April 2017. Presentation on "Financial Crisis, Corporate Governance, and Bank Capital" to economists and attorneys at the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Washington DC
  • November 2016. Presentation on executive and director compensation reform. U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, Washington DC
  • June 2016. Presentation on M&A strategies for the mid-size companies. TiE-Rockies, Denver CO
  • December 2014. Presentation on valuation and governance. To venture capitalists and CEOs of high-tech companies. Mumbai, India
  • April 2014. Presentation on valuation of high-tech startups. Society of Physician Entrepreneurs 
  • March 2014, Submission of amici curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in EPJ Fund, Inc., et al. v Halliburton, et al
  • October 2012. Executive and director compensation reform. Council of Institutional Investors annual meeting in Seattle, WA
  • October 2008. Plenary session speaker on executive compensation reform at the National Association of Corporate Directors annual meeting. Washington DC

Publications

Rule of Law and Purpose of the Corporation
Corporate Governance International Review, pp. 1– 17, with Glenn Hubbard, 2021

Why Executive Compensation Clawbacks Don’t Work 
Harvard Business Review, with Charles Elson, 2021

Economic Growth, Income Inequality, and the Rule of Law
Harvard Business Law Review, November 2020

A Text-Based Analysis of Corporate Innovation 
Management Sciencewith G. Bellstam and J. A. Tony Cookson, September 2020

Employment, Corporate Investment and Cash Flow Uncertainty
Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis 54; pp 1855-1898, with S. Alnahdeh and I. Obreja, 2019

Corporate Governance and Firm Performance: The Sequel
Journal of Corporate Finance 58, pp 142-168, with B. Bolton, 2019

IPO Valuation: The International Evidence
The Oxford Handbook of IPO Valuation, Oxford University Press, 2018

Financial Crisis, Corporate Governance, and Bank Capital
Cambridge University Press, 2017

Employment, Corporate Investment, and Cash Flow Uncertainty
Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis, 2017

Size, Leverage, and Risk-Taking of Financial Institutions
Journal of Banking and Finance 59, 2015

Bank Executive Compensation And Capital Requirements Reform
Journal of Corporate Finance, 2014

Director Ownership, Governance and Performance
Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis, 2013

Why Do Venture Capitalists Use Such High Discount Rates?
Journal of Risk Finance, 2014