Simi Kedia, the Albert R. Gamper Jr. Endowed Chair in Business

Simi Kedia’s highly regarded research on corporate governance and fraud has been widely disseminated in both academic journals and popular media. Her research centers on corporate finance and financial misconduct, credit ratings, proxy voting, accounting, ethics, and law. Her work has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Forbes, Fortune, Financial Times, CNBC, and NPR’s Marketplace.

In addition to conducting her own research as a faculty member at Rutgers Business School–Newark and New Brunswick, Kedia works closely with doctoral students to help them sharpen their research skills.

She holds a doctorate in finance and international business from New York University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta. Her honors include the 2009 Brennan Award for the Best Paper published in Review of Financial Studies; the Rutgers Business School Dean’s Meritorious Research Award in 2016, 2013, and 2011; the Review of Financial Studies’ Distinguished Referee Award in 2012; and the 2012 Glen McLaughlin Prize for Research in Accounting Ethics.

She has been an associate editor for Management Science, Review of Financial Studies, and Financial Management and a board member of the Financial Management Association. She is a member of the American Finance Association’s Ethics Committee. Kedia joined the Rutgers Business School faculty in 2004 and became a full professor in 2012. Kedia is the first woman to hold an endowed professorship at Rutgers Business School and the second professor to hold the Gamper Chair, which is named for Albert Gamper, a 1966 graduate of Rutgers University–Newark. Gamper is the retired chairman and chief executive of CIT Group, a former chair of Rutgers’ Board of Governors, and a member of the Rutgers Hall of Distinguished Alumni.

In the Professor’s Own Words

What inspired you to work on corporate governance?

Corporate governance spans many disciplines. My research on corporate governance has not only given me an appreciation of its implications for firm value, but has also increased my understanding of how financial reporting, regulatory framework, media, and capital markets interact to create incentives and pressures for firms.

What aspects of your work are most personally fulfilling?

An understanding of issues that emerges as a research project concludes is very satisfying. These moments of clarity, rare and fleeting, amid a perpetual stream of questions, are what motivate me to keep going. Equally satisfying is when I see a look of understanding on a student’s face in class.

Is there a particular achievement you are proudest of?

I think achievement is a function both of the effort you put in and the cards life deals out to you. I am proud of the effort I have put in irrespective of the achievement it has produced.

This story is part of Rutgers University Foundation’s Endowed Chairs Impact series. Supporting professorships and research helps spark innovation and creativity here in New Jersey and beyond.