Todd T Milbourn
Hubert C. and Dorothy R. Moog Professor of Finance
Olin Business School
Washington University in St. Louis
(Alpamayo
2018: RIP mountaineers E.L., J.F., and
P.B. My thoughts and prayers will always
remain with you, your loved ones, and especially my dear friend, M….)
(An interview on the role of
faculty in Executive MBA programs here)
(January 2018 Thought
Leadership Talk and climbing a frozen waterfall just outside of Ouray, Colorado
in February 2018, with my buddy, David B)
(view from the summit ridge
of the 6,000-meter peak Artesonraju in Peru, July
2017)
(above
pictures: old trips with my children to
Cabo and Colorado)
(above
picture: standing by a monster crevasse
and waving on the descent from the summit of Mt. Rainier)
(above
picture: doing something a little more
on the professional side for CNBC)
Leadership CV: Todd Milbourn’s Leadership
CV
E-Mail: milbourn@wustl.edu
Ph.D.
in Finance, December 1995, Indiana University at
Bloomington, School of Business, Bloomington, Indiana
B.A.
in Economics, Mathematics, and Finance, May 1991, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois
Academic Experience:
Hubert
C. and Dorothy R. Moog Professor of Finance, Washington University in St. Louis,
2010-present
Professor
of Finance, Washington University in St.
Louis, 2007-2010
Associate
Professor of Finance (with tenure), Washington
University in St. Louis, 2003-2007
Visiting
Associate Professor of Finance, University
of Chicago, Spring Quarter 2005
Assistant
Professor of Finance, Washington
University in St. Louis, 2000-2003
Visiting
Assistant Professor of Finance, University
of Chicago, 1999-2000
Assistant
Professor of Finance, London Business School,
1996-1999
University
Administrative Experience:
Deputy
Dean, OIin
Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, 2022-2023
Vice
Dean of Faculty & Research, OIin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis,
2017-2022
Senior
Associate Dean of Programs, OIin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis,
2016-2017
Senior
Associate Dean of Faculty & Research, OIin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis,
2013-2017
Finance
Area Coordinator (~ Department Chair), OIin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis,
2005-2013
Academic
Director, MS in
Finance Program Corporate Finance
& Investments Track, OIin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis,
2011-2013
Academic
Director, Corporate Finance &
Investments MBA Platform, OIin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis,
2010-2014
Academic
Director, MS in
Finance Program, OIin
Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, 2005-2008
Had responsibility for the design,
development, and implementation of this new full-time MS in Finance Program.
Board Experience:
Independent
Director, The Xanthus Fund,
Oppenheimer Asset Management, 2015-present
·
Chairman
of the Audit Committee for this long-short hedge fund
Independent
Director, Constellation of Mountain Crest
Acquisition Corporation SPACS (I – V), 2020-present
·
Chairman
of the Audit Committee for all five
·
MC
I, II and III have de-SPAC-ed as of 2023
Independent
Director, The Chartist Fund, Oppenheimer
Asset Management, 2011-2013
·
Chairman
of the Audit Committee
Member,
Standard & Poor’s Academic Council, 2004-present
Board
Member, St. Louis Military Officer
Support Foundation, 2008-2012
Research Interests:
Corporate finance, executive compensation, credit ratings, and managerial career concerns
Research and Honorary
Appointments:
Fellow,
Center for Financial
Research, FDIC, 2004-2005
Marcile
and James Reid Teaching Chair, Washington
University in St. Louis, 2002-2003
Working Papers:
1. 
“CECL
and Bank CEO Compensation”
(joint with Ilona Babenko, Benjamin Bennett and Gauri Bhat), 2024.
2. “Does
Litigation Uncertainty Improve Investment Efficiency?” (joint with
Benjamin Bennett, Todd Milbourn, and Zexi Wang), 2024, under revision for
second round at Management Science.
3. “Dividend yield, dividend payers and cross-sectional
return prediction”, (joint with Seong Jin Ahn, Charles G. Ham, and Zachary R.
Kaplan), working paper, 2024.
4. “Seeking
EPS Improvements Through Mergers”, (joint with Thomas Bates, Gerald T.
Garvey, Anushri Jain, and James Linck), 2024.
5. “Does the Religious Affiliation of
Directors’ Tertiary Institutions Matter for the Outcomes of their Active Board
Oversight?”, (joint with Kingsley Wabara), July 2023.
6. “The Role of Stock Price Informativeness
in Compensation Complexity”, (joint with Benjamin Bennett, Gerald Garvey, and
Zexi Wang).
7. “Why Do Firms Use Equity-based Pay? Managerial
Compensation and Stock Price Informativeness”, joint with Benjamin Bennett,
Gerald Garvey, and Zexi Wang).
- “How Well Do Investors Process
(More Subtle) Information? The Case of Employee Stock Options”, (joint
with Jian Cai and Gerald Garvey), 2008 (permanent working paper).
- “The Optimal and Actual Use of
Economic Value Added in Incentive Compensation”, (joint with Gerald
Garvey), 2005 (permanent working paper)
Publications:
1. “Product Market Peers and Relative Performance
Evaluation”, (joint with Sudarshan Jayaraman, Florian Peters, and Hojun Seo), The Accounting Review, 96(4), 341-366,
2021.
2. “Targets that Work”, (joint with John
Horn and Radhakrishnan Gopalan), Harvard
Business Review, September-October, Volume 95, Number 5, pp. 102 – 107,
2017.
3. “Compensation Goals and Firm
Performance”, (joint with Benjamin Bennett, J. Carr Bettis ,
and Radhakrishnan Gopalan), Journal of
Financial Economics 124-2, 307-330, May 2017.
·
Winner
of the 2016 "Olin Award: Recognizing Research that Transforms Business"
4. “Which Skills Matter in the Market for
CEOs? Evidence from Pay for CEO Credentials” (joint with Antonio Falato and Dan
Li), Management Science 61-12,
December 2015.
5. “The Effect of Auditor Expertise on
Executive Compensation”, (joint with Sudarshan Jayaraman), The Accounting Review 90-1, February 2015.
6. “Duration of Executive Compensation”,
(joint with Radhakrishnan Gopalan, Fenghua Song, and Anjan V. Thakor), Journal
of Finance 59-6, 2014
·
Winner
of the 2011 "Olin Award: Recognizing Research that Transforms
Business" – video summary
·
St. Louis Business Journal article in
regards to the award
·
St. Louis Post-Dispatch article related
to our work
- “CEO Compensation and Corporate
Risk: Evidence from a Natural Experiment”, (joint with Todd A. Gormely and
David A. Matsa), Journal of Accounting and
Economics 56, 79-101, December 2013.
·
Executive
Summary from Knowledge@Wharton: “The Making of a Daredevil CEO: Why
Stock Options Lead to More Risk Taking”
- “The Role of Stock Liquidity in
Executive Compensation”, (joint with Sudarshan Jayaraman), The
Accounting Review 87-2,
537-564, March 2012.
- “How did increased competition
affect credit ratings?”, (joint with Bo Becker), Journal of Financial
Economics (lead article) 101-3,
493-514, September 2011.
NBER Working Paper No. w16404
FT Link and discussion: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/10/06/361846/rating-agency-multiplicity/
Presented at the 2010 NBER
Workshop on Credit Rating Agencies
My coauthor, Bo Becker, gave
an interesting interview about this paper here.
- “Compensation and Risk Incentives
in Banking and Finance”, (joint with Jian Cai and Kent Cherny), in Economic
Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, September 14, 2010.
- “Bank Executive Pay”, (joint with
Jian Cai) In Economic Trends at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland,
July 30, 2010.
- “Strategic Flexibility and the
Optimality of Pay for Sector Performance”, (joint with Radhakrishnan
Gopalan and Fenghua Song), Review of Financial Studies
23-5, 2060-2098, 2010.
Winner of
Citigroup Award for the best paper at the 2009 Summer Research Conference
hosted by The Centre for Analytical Finance (CAF) at the Indian School of
Business (ISB)
- “Asymmetric Benchmarking in Compensation: Executives are Rewarded for Good Luck But Not Penalized for Bad”, (joint with Gerald Garvey), Journal of Financial Economics 82-1, 197-226, October 2006.
- “Credit Ratings as Coordination
Mechanisms”, (joint with Arnoud Boot and Anjolein
Schmeits), Review of Financial Studies
19-1, 81-118, Spring 2006.
- "Sunflower Management and
Capital Budgeting", (joint with Arnoud Boot and Anjan Thakor) Journal
of Business 78-2,
501-527, (March) 2005.
- “Incentive Compensation When
Executives Can Hedge the Market:
Evidence of Relative Performance Evaluation in the Cross-Section”,
(joint with Gerald Garvey), Journal of Finance 58-4,
1557-1582, August 2003.
- "CEO Reputation and
Stock-Based Compensation", Journal of Financial Economics
68-2, 233-262, 2003.
- "Managerial Career Concerns
and Investments in Information", (joint with Richard Shockley and
Anjan Thakor), Rand Journal of Economics 32-2, 334-351,
2001.
- “EVA versus Earnings: Does it Matter Which is More Highly
Correlated with Stock Returns”, (joint with Gerald Garvey), Journal
of Accounting Research 38, 209-245, 2000.
- “Regulation and the Evolution of
the Financial Services Industry”, (joint with Arnoud Boot and Silva
Dezelan), in Topics in Corporate Finance: Perspectives on the Regulation of the
Financial Services Industry, ed. by Arnoud Boot and Jeroen Ligterink, Amsterdam
Center for Corporate Finance Number 2, 25-41, 2000.
- “The Theory of Security Design”,
(joint with Arnoud W.A. Boot and Anjan V. Thakor), in The Handbook
of Equity Derivatives, Second Edition, ed. by Jack Francis,
William Toy and J. Gregg Whittaker, Irwin Professional Publishers665-687
(appeared in First Edition as well), 2000.
- “Megamergers and Expanded
Scope: Theories of Bank Size and
Activity Diversity”, (joint with Arnoud Boot and Anjan Thakor), Journal
of Banking and Finance 23 (lead
article), 195-214, 1999.
- “Regulatory Distortions in a
Competitive Financial Services Industry”, (joint with Arnoud Boot and
Silva Dezelan), Journal of Financial Services Research
16-2/3, 249-259, 1999.
- “The Search for the Best Financial
Performance Measure: Yes, Basics
are Better – If You Understand Them”, (joint with Jeff Bacidore,
John Boquist, and Anjan V. Thakor), Financial
Analysts Journal, 1999.
- “The Winner-Takes-All: An Alternative View of CEO Incentives”
(comment on three papers), in Executive Compensation and Shareholder
Value: Theory and Evidence,
ed. by Jennifer Carpenter and David Yermack, Kluwer Academic Publishers,
47-52, 1999.
- “How Do You Win the Capital
Allocation Game?”, (joint with John Boquist and Anjan Thakor), Sloan
Management Review 39-2, 1998, 59-71.
- “Comment on Colin Mayer’s
‘Financial Systems and Corporate Governance’ ”, Journal of
Institutional and Theoretical Economics 154-1, pp. 170-176, 1998.
- “EVA’s Charm as a Performance
Measure”, in Mastering Finance, ed. by George Bickerstaffe,
FT Pitman Publishing, 133-138, 1998.
- “The Search for the Best Financial
Performance Measure”, (joint with Jeff Bacidore,
John Boquist, and Anjan V. Thakor), Financial
Analysts Journal (lead
article), May-June 1997, 11-20.
- “EVA and Total Quality Management”,
(joint with Jeff Bacidore, John Boquist, and Anjan Thakor), Journal of Applied
Corporate Finance, Summer 1997, 81-89.
Books:
·
The Value Sphere: The Corporate Executive’s Handbook for
Creating & Retaining Shareholder Wealth,
4th edition, (written jointly with John A. Boquist and Anjan V.
Thakor), World Scientific Publishing,
2009
