Alex Edmans

Alex Edmans is a professor of finance at London Business School, recognized for his work at the intersection of corporate finance, responsible business, and behavioral economics. After graduating from Oxford University, Edmans worked for Morgan Stanley in investment banking in London and in fixed income sales and trading in New York. He earned a Ph.D. in finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar, joined Wharton, and was tenured before moving to London Business School.

Edmans’s research on corporate governance, executive pay, the real effects of financial markets, and behavioral finance has been cited extensively. His primary research explores the business case for responsible business, demonstrating that responsibility can create both financial and social value. His studies include papers showing that companies with high employee satisfaction delivered shareholder returns that outperformed their peers over extended periods.

Edmans is the author of "Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit," which was featured in Financial Times Best Business Books and received the Financial Times Award for Excellence in Sustainable Finance Education. The book has been translated into multiple languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish. He also authored "May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do About It" and is a co-author of the 14th edition of "Principles of Corporate Finance" with Brealey, Myers, and Allen.

Edmans’s ideas reach audiences beyond academia. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and delivered the TED talk "What to Trust in a Post-Truth World" and TEDx talks "The Pie-Growing Mindset" and "The Social Responsibility of Business," with a combined 3 million views. He has contributed to Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, and World Economic Forum, and has been interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports. The UK government appointed him, jointly with PwC, to study the alleged misuse of share buybacks and the link between executive pay and investment.

In addition to his research and writing, Edmans holds leadership roles in the academic and financial communities. He is a director of the American Finance Association, president-elect of the Western Finance Association, and a fellow, director, and chair of the Ethics Committee of the Financial Management Association. He is also a fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences. Edmans served as managing editor of Review of Finance, increasing its impact factor significantly. He is a non-executive director of The Investor Forum and serves on advisory boards and councils for Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing, Novo Nordisk’s Sustainability Advisory Council, and Royal London Asset Management’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee. Edmans has received multiple teaching awards and has been recognized by Thinkers50 Radar and Poets & Quants as Professor of the Year.