HANOVER, NH, June 28, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Bjorn Espen Eckbo, PhD, has been inducted into Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
An internationally renowned scholar in the areas of corporate finance and governance, Dr. Eckbo has dedicated his career to the study of major corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, how firms raise capital to fund investments and capital structure choice. Born and raised in Norway, Dr. Eckbo obtained a Bachelor of Science in economics and a Master of Science in economics from the NHH Norwegian School of Economics in 1975 and 1977 respectively. He then moved to upstate New York where he earned a PhD in financial economics at the University of Rochester in 1981.
Through his PhD thesis, Dr. Eckbo developed a new methodology for empirically identifying whether large mergers between firms in the same industry (horizontal mergers) might violate antitrust restrictions on merger activity (Section 7 of the U.S. Clayton Act) by increasing the industry's market power at the expense of consumers. This methodological innovation has since been adopted by antitrust authorities in both the U.S. and in Europe as it helps to avoid making the mistake of blocking efficient corporate combinations and not just anticompetitive ones.
Dr. Eckbo followed up his pathbreaking work with an award-winning research contributions in the areas of corporate finance, investment, and governance. He received the prestigious Batterymarch fellowship in 1987 (awarded to young researchers in financial economics in a world-wide competition), and he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctuer Honoris Causa) from the NHH Norwegian School of Economics in 2011. The honorary doctorate-award quoted, in addition to his many research accomplishments, Dr. Eckbo's work with the Norway's oil-based sovereign wealth find to create and educate the fund's newly established corporate governance group in the fall of 2005. Today, this fund, which invests exclusively in listed stocks and bonds outside of Norway, is the largest single equity-investor in the world (with a fund-portfolio in excess of $1 trillion).
Following his graduation with a PhD, Dr. Eckbo's full-time (tenured) faculty positions include at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada), The Norwegian School of Management, the Stockholm School of Economics and, since 1998, at Dartmouth College (New Hampshire, USA) where he holds the Tuck Centennial Chair in Financial Economics at the Tuck School of Business. He has also held visiting professorships at MIT, UCLA, and INSEAD (France), and he has been guest-teaching doctoral students at the Norwegian School of Economics since the early 1990s.
Dr. Eckbo's professional service also includes associate editorship of several top academic journals (such as the Journal of Financial Economics and the Review of Financial Studies), and he was a founding editor of the journal of the European Finance Association (Review of Finance). Moreover, he serves as an editor of the prestigious Handbook of Economics' newly created series on corporate finance. He is a frequent keynote and seminar speaker and he testified before the United States Congress in 2009 on issues concerning the role of the United States government's large equity ownership positions in companies rescued under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
He attributes his success to a creative gene coupled with hard work and discipline (the latter also made him a top gymnast in Norway during his teens). He has also been inspired by his many academic co-authors and university colleagues. Moreover, his three children, Camilla, Claua and Hannah Eckbo, who are themselves highly professional individuals today, have been a constant inspiration since the first-borne (Camilla) in 1975.
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Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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