Theo Vermaelen

Biography

Theo Vermaelen is UBS professor of Investment Banking in honor of Henry Grunfeld at INSEAD and visiting Professor of Finance at Chicago Booth.

Although he conducts research on a variety of topics in corporate finance such as mergers and acquisitions, CoCo bonds, floating priced convertibles, dividend policy and equity issues, he has mostly focused on share buybacks and has published more than 10 articles on the topic, including articles in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, The Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Based on his research insights he launched the first buyback fund in the world in 1998 in cooperation with KBC Bank. Since 2011 he is co-manager of the PV Buyback USA fund.

In addition to teaching at the University of Chicago and INSEAD, he also taught at the University of British Columbia, the Catholic University of Leuven and the London Business School.

Vermaelen earned an undergraduate degree as commercial engineer from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1975 as well as an MBA in 1976 and a Ph.D. in 1980 from the University of Chicago.

Research Interests

Share buybacks; death spiral convertibles; mergers and acquisitions; initial public offerings.

Academic Areas

• Finance