William Mann

Biography

Assistant Professor of Finance William Mann joined the UCLA Anderson faculty in 2014. He conducts primarily empirical research, focusing on the financing of corporate investment and the real effects of collateral constraints. Mann’s goal in teaching is to help students think logically, using economic principles, when confronted with complex data or terminology.

Mann always knew he would seek a career that allowed him to apply rigorous quantitative techniques to issues of social importance — “being able to put numbers on things that matter,” as he says. “I’m in a numbers-focused field, but finance is also human-focused, in that it reflects people interacting to create wealth, save for the future, and provide for self and family.”

One of his papers investigates companies that use their patent portfolios as collateral to raise debt financing. Mann used data from the U.S. Patent Office to demonstrate that the phenomenon is more common than previously recognized, and the Patent Office subsequently cited this work in a white paper supporting its initiative to make its data more easily accessible. “The Patent Office is very visible, so this recognition was extremely encouraging,” says Mann, who was glad to see his work having an impact outside his specific academic field. Other current projects explore the structure of venture debt contracts, and how government financial aid affects college tuition.

Mann has received research awards from the Western Finance Association and the Wells Fargo Advisors Center for Finance and Accounting Research. He teaches corporate finance in the MBA, FEMBA, and Ph.D. programs at UCLA Anderson.

Education

Ph.D. Finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

M.S. Finance, Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University

B.S. Mathematics and Economics, University of Georgia