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Stuart C. Gilson  

Steven R. Fenster Professor of Business Administration

Stuart Gilson has been a Professor of Finance at the Harvard Business School since 1991. He is an expert in valuation, corporate finance, and corporate restructuring. He has written on a broad range of topics, including corporate bankruptcy and debt workouts, tracking stock, equity spin-offs, corporate downsizing, bank mergers, and employee buyouts. His current research focuses on techniques for valuing bankrupt and distressed companies, and on strategies for investing in distressed company securities. In previous research he has investigated the determinants of financial leverage and capital structure in highly leveraged or distressed companies. He has also studied how distressed firms hire, fire, and compensate their senior managers and directors.

Gilson's research has been published by leading academic journals, including the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, Financial Analysts Journal, Harvard Business Review, and the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance. His research has also been cited in a number of national news and business periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Institutional Investor, Business Week, The Economist, and U.S. News and World Report. He has been interviewed about bankruptcy issues by National Public Radio. In 1996 he won the prestigious Graham and Dodd Award for his article "Investing in Distressed Situations: A Market Survey." For each of the last five years he has been named one of the nation's top bankruptcy academics by Turnarounds & Workouts magazine. He is listed in Who's Who in Economics.

Recently a book of his case studies on corporate restructuring was published by John-Wiley & Sons, entitled Creating Value Through Corporate Restructuring: Case Studies in Bankruptcies, Buyouts, and Breakups.

Gilson has served as a consultant and taught executive programs for a variety of organizations and companies. He has served as an advisor to the Unsecured Creditors Committee in a large Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, and serves as a testifying expert on corporate finance, bankruptcy, and restructuring matters. He serves on the academic advisory board of The Turnaround Management Association.

Gilson has taught MBA and executive courses in corporate restructuring, corporate finance, financial analysis, mergers and acquisitions, and investment banking. At Harvard he currently teaches the course Creating Value through Corporate Restructuring in the School's MBA program. He also chairs and/or teaches in a number of senior Executive Education programs at Harvard, including Corporate Restructuring, Mergers & Acquisitions, Finance For Senior Executives, and the Advanced Management Program.

Gilson holds a BA in economics from the University of Manitoba, a Master's in Economics from the University of British Columbia, and a Masters of Science and Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Rochester. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty he was a professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin.

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