Rohan Williamson

Rohan Williamson is the interim dean of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, as well as professor of finance and the Bolton Sullivan and Thomas A. Dean Chair of International Business. A member of the McDonough faculty for nearly 20 years, Williamson has played an integral role in the growth and development of the school, serving as a member of the Academic Leadership Council, as area coordinator for finance for two terms over eight years, and as chair of the MBA Curriculum Design Committee and the McDonough School of Business Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. Additionally, Williamson has served on numerous university committees, including the McDonough Committee on Rank and Tenure, the McDonough School of Business Dean Search Committee, the Graduate School Dean Search Committee, the University Mid-Career Working Group, and on the university-wide Diversity Committee, which published the motivating document for Georgetown’s diversity initiatives. As a tenured faculty member, Williamson specializes in risk management, corporate governance, corporate investment decisions, and corporate liquidity. His research has appeared top academic journals, as well as practitioner-oriented publications. Williamson also has written several book chapters and presented his work at conferences and seminars around the world. Williamson was the recipient of the 1999 Michael Jensen Prize for the best paper published in the Journal of Financial Economics in the areas of Corporate Finance and Organizations and the 2003 William Sharpe Best Paper Award in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. His research is widely read and highly influential, as evidenced by his number of citations, ranking 169th of over 300,000 authors listed on the Social Science Research Network. He has received the Georgetown University Junior Faculty Research Fellowship, the McDonough School of Business Research Award, and has been a Dean’s Research Fellow since 2003. Additionally, during his tenure leading the Finance Area, Georgetown was recognized as the number one undergraduate business school for finance by Bloomberg Businessweek. Active in his community, Williamson is the founder and chairman of the board of UNITY Youth Development, Inc., a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that has impacted the lives of more than 1,000 youth through scholastic, cultural, and recreational activities in Silver Spring, Maryland, and surrounding communities. He also is the chairman of the board of Zion Community Enterprise, Inc., a nonprofit community development corporation focusing on the Washington metropolitan area. Williamson serves on the Board of Directors of TIAA-CREF Trust Company, FSB, where he is chair of the Risk Management Committee. He formerly was employed at Chrysler Corporation as an analyst in the office of the Chief Financial OFficer and Chrysler Financial Corporation, where he advised on matters relating to capital structure, investment analysis, business financial planning, and financial services. Williamson earned a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton, an MBA from Clark-Atlanta University, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. He also is the parent of a current Georgetown student and a 2014 graduate.

Education

• Ohio State University-Main Campus - Ph.D.
• Ohio State University-Main Campus - M.A.
• Clark Atlanta University - M.B.A

Publications

Articles in Journals (15) Lee Pinkowitz, René M. Stulz, and Rohan Williamson. "Do U.S. Firms Hold more Cash than Foreign Firms." Review of Financial Studies (2015): Forthcoming.

Bernadette A. Minton, Jérôme Ph. A. Taillard, and Rohan Williamson. "Financial Expertise of the Board, Risk Taking and Performance: Evidence from Bank Holding Companies." Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 49 (2014): 351-380.

Lee Pinkowitz, Jason Sturgess, and Rohan Williamson. "Do Cash Stockpiles Fuel Cash Acquistions?." Journal of Corporate Finance 23 (2013): 128-149.

Reena Aggarwal, Isil Erel, René M. Stulz, and Rohan Williamson. "Differences in Governance Practices between U.S. and Foreign Firms: Measurement, Causes, and Consequences." Review of Financial Studies, 22, 8 (2009): 3131 - 3169.

Bernadette A. Minton, René M. Stulz, Rohan Williamson. "How Much Do Banks Use Credit Derivatives to Hedge Loans?." Journal of Financial Services Research, 35, 1 (2009): 1.

Lee Pinkowitz, René M. Stulz, and Rohan Williamson. "Cash Holdings Dividend Policy and Corporate Governance: A Cross-country Analysis." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 19, 1 (2007): 81-86.

Lee Pinkowitz and Rohan Williamson. "The Market Value of Cash." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 19, 3 (2007): 74-81.

Lee Pinkowitz, René M. Stulz and Rohan Williamson. "Does the Contribution of Corporate Cash Holdings and Dividends to Firm Value Depend on Governance? A cross-country analysis." Journal of Finance, 61 (2006): 2725-2753.

Craig Doidge, John Griffin and Rohan Williamson. "Measuring the Economic Importance of Exchange Rate Exposure?." Journal of Empirical Finance (2005)

Magnus Dahlquist, Lee Pinkowitz, René M. Stulz and Rohan Williamson. "Corporate Governance, and the Home Bias." Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 38 (2003): 87-110.

René M. Stulz and Rohan Williamson. "Culture, Openness, and Finance." Journal of Financial Economics, 70 (2003): 313-349.

Rohan Williamson. "'Exchange Rate Exposure and Competition: Evidence from the Automotive Industry'." Journal of Financial Economics, 59 (2001): 441-475.

Lee Pinkowitz and Rohan Williamson. "Bank Power and Cash Holdings: Evidence from Japan." Review of Financial Studies, 14 (2001): 1059-1082.

Tim Opler, Lee Pinkowitz, René Stulz and Rohan Williamson. "Corporate Cash Holdings." Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 14 (2001): 8-19.

Tim Opler, Lee Pinkowitz, René Stulz and Rohan Williamson. "The Determinants and Implications of Corporate Cash Holdings." Journal of Financial Economics, 52 (1999): 3-46.