Lauren Cohen

Lauren Cohen is the L.E. Simmons Professor in the Finance & Entrepreneurial Management Units at Harvard Business School and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is an Editor of the Review of Financial Studies, along with being a past Editor of Management Science, and serving on the editorial board of the Review of Asset Pricing Studies.

Professor Cohen teaches in the MBA Program, Executive Education Program, Doctoral Program, and Special Custom Programs at the Harvard Business School. He is the Faculty Co-Chair and Designer of the HarvardX Fintech course, and the Faculty Co-Chair and Designer of the HBS Executive Education course Building a Legacy: Family Office Wealth Management.

His award-winning research has been published in the top journals in Finance and Economics. It is also frequently profiled in various media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, and Forbes. It has been recognized by numerous National Science Foundation (NSF) Awards, including a National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for his research agenda on Relationships in Finance. He was named a 2008 Pensions & Investments “Cutting Edge Academic,” a Top 40 Under 40 Business School Professor in 2017 by Poets & Quants, and a top teacher at Harvard by CNBC.

Dr. Cohen frequently advises government organizations in the US and abroad, including the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, United States Patent & Trademark Office, testifying before the United States Congress, and advising governments throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia on matters of innovation, ESG, FinTech, government spending, and family offices.

Through his applied work, Dr. Cohen has consulted with top hedge funds in the industry, and has been awarded numerous practitioner research prizes. He has also appeared as an expert witness in high profile innovation-, insider trading-, and investment-related litigation cases, including those involving trillion dollar asset management firms.

Dr. Cohen received a PhD in finance and an MBA from the University of Chicago in 2005. He earned dual undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania - a BSE from the Wharton School and a BA in economics from the College of Arts & Sciences in 2001. He has also served on the Advisory Boards of Oppenheimer Funds (acquired by Invesco Investment Management Ltd.), Cake Financial (acquired by E*Trade*) and Quadriserv, Inc. (acquired by EquiLend Holdings - an industry consortium comprised of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Bank of America, UBS, JPMorgan, Northern Trust, Blackrock and State Street).

Professor Cohen currently resides in Belmont, MA with his wife - Dr. Nicole Cohen - and their six children. In his spare time, Professor Cohen is a competitive powerlifter and strongman.

AREAS OF INTEREST

• asset pricing
• behavioral finance
• investment management
• investor behavior
• mutual funds