Lemma Senbet

Lemma W. Senbet is the William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance at the University of Maryland, College Park, and former Founding Director of Center for Financial Policy. While on an extended leave from the University, Professor Senbet served as Executive Director/CEO of African Economic Research Consortium (AERC: www.aercafrica.org), 2013-2018, the largest and oldest economic research and training network in Africa. Prior to Maryland and AERC, he was a distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin and held the Charles Albright Endowed Chair.

Prof Senbet has achieved global recognition for his extensive and widely cited contributions to corporate and international finance, which have appeared in such premier journals as Journal of Finance and Review of Financial Studies. He has received numerous recognitions for his impact on the profession. He has been elected twice as director of the American Finance Association and is a past president of the Western Finance Association (WFA).

In 2000, Prof Senbet was inducted into the Financial Economists Roundtable (FER), a distinguished group of world-wide financial economists who have made significant contributions to finance and apply research to current policy debates. In 2006, he was inducted Fellow of the Financial Management Association (FMA) International in recognition of his career-long distinguished scholarship. In 2005, Prof Senbet was awarded an honorary doctorate by Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia's flagship university. In 2012, he was awarded the Ethiopian Diaspora (SEED) award for exemplary lifetime achievements and community service.

Prof Senbet has also been appointed to over a dozen journal editorial boards, including premier finance journals (e.g., Journal of Finance). Hehas supervised numerous doctoral students who have become professors at leading institutions, such as Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Minnesota, etc. Two of his former doctoral students are now Dean at Carnegie Mellon and former Chief Economist of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Prof Senbet has advised the World Bank, the IMF, the UN, AfDB, and various agencies in USA, Canada, and Africa on such issues as financial sector reforms.

Regarding board appointments, Prof Senbet was a director of Fotris Funds and is currently an independent director for the Hartford Funds. He also served as a board member (ex-officio; full voting rights) of African Economic Research Consortium, 2013-2018. In 2018, Prof Senbet was appointed by the Ethiopian Prime Minister to the Advisory Council of the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund. He was also appointed to the Distinguished Advisory Board of Brookings Africa Growth Initiative and to the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) Advisory Panel.