Professor Whose Research Has Impacted Stock Market to Come to USU

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He Will Become a Jon M. Huntsman Visiting Professor

LOGAN, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A professor known for financial market research that has led to key changes in trading on the New York Stock Exchange has agreed to become a Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Visiting Professor.

Hank Bessembinder is the A. Blaine Huntsman Chaired Presidential Professor at the Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. He will make the first of several visits to the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University Oct. 26. Bessembinder plans to conduct seminars for students and faculty in October, November, January and February. A public lecture is planned for April 2012.

Some of Bessembinder’s research has focused on the way stocks are traded and led to the adoption of a more precise way of valuing stocks. Prior to 2000, stocks traded on the multiples of an eighth or a sixteenth of a dollar. In response to research by Bessembinder and others, the NYSE and NASDAQ markets reduced the multiples at which stocks trade to $0.01. His research has also shown that the markets performed better after the changes they recommended were implemented.

Bessembinder, who graduated from the Huntsman School of Business in 1977 with a business major and an economics minor, serves as managing editor or associate editor for three of the top four journals in his field. A recent study showed him to be one of the most prolific authors in the top seven finance journals over the last 50 years, according to Tyler Bowles, the head of the economics and finance department at the Huntsman School of Business.

Bessembinder said while he has never marketed his services as a consultant, he has been hired by major corporate and government entities such as Goldman Sachs, the New York Stock Exchange, the United States Department of Justice, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the Attorney General of the State of New York.

In 2009, Utah philanthropist Jon M. Huntsman announced he would fund two presidential chairs at the Huntsman School of Business. Well-known author, consultant and professor Stephen R. Covey became the first Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair in Leadership in February 2010, and he continues today in that role as a research professor.