Advisory Board

   

    (In Alphabetical Order)   

Brian R. Bruce, CFA, CAIA

Brian is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer at Hillcrest Asset Management and oversees all business and investment activities at the firm. He is also a professor and founding Director of the ENCAP Investments & LCM Group Alternative Asset Management Center at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business. Before founding Hillcrest, Brian was Chief Investment Officer in charge of equity management and research at PanAgora Asset Management. Previously, Brian was President and Chief Investment Officer of InterCoast Capital and worked at State Street Global Advisors, the Northern Trust Company and Stein Roe & Farnham.Brian received his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, M.S. in Computer Science from DePaul University, and a B.S. in Business Administration from Illinois State University. He is a member of the Illinois State University College of Business Hall of Fame, is a recipient of the University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business CEO Award, and was awarded the SMU Cox Media Expert of the Year Award. Brian has published numerous scholarly articles and books including Analysts, Lies, and Statistics which he co-authored with Harvard Business School professor Mark Bradshaw. He is also the Editor of Journal of Investing, the Journal of Behavioral Finance and the Journal of Trading. 


K. C. Chen, Ph.D, CFA

Dr. Chen received his M.B.A. and Ph.D in Finance from the Ohio State University in 1982. Currently, he is the Theodore F. Brix Endowed Chair in Finance and the chairman of the Department of Finance and Business Law at California State University, Fresno. His research publications include Journal of Finance,Financial Management, Journal of Futures Markets, Journal of Financial Engineering, Journal of Financial Research, Financial Review, etc. Currently, he teaches student-managed investment fund class with a $1.1 million portfolio. He has been the editor of International Journal of Business since 1996 and has also served as associate editor for 11 journals. From 2006 to 2008 he served as an outside board member for City of Fresno’s Fire and Police Retirement Board overseeing 2 billion retirement funds and he is currently serving as an advisor for GB Positive Delta Asset Management and Premier Consulting Group. He received his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 1999. 


Scott E. Hein, Ph.D

Dr. Hein received his Ph.D in Economics from Purdue University in 1979. He has taught at Southwest Graduate School of Banking at SMU and the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado, and has been a Visiting Scholar at Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Currently, he is the Robert C. Brown Chair of Finance at the Texas Tech University and the Director of Texas Tech University School of Community Bank Management. Dr. Hein is considered one of the nation’s leading authorities in the relationship between monetary policy and financial markets. He has published in this area extensively at Journal of Business, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Monetary Economics, Journal of Banking and Finance, and Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. He was also the Chief Economist and Managing Partner for Islay Opportunity Fund.


K. C. Ma, Ph.D, CFA

K.C. Ma received his M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1983. Currently, he is the Roland & Sarah George Chair of Applied Investments at Roland George Investments Institute, Stetson University. Under this capacity, the student-managed portfolios of the Roland George Investment Program have received 7 First-Place and 3 Second-Place Awards, in performance, for the last 10-year national RISE competitions. Dr. Ma specializes in equity valuations, quantitative modeling, and most recently, social value investing. He has published more than 80 refereed articles and was ranked the top 50 finance authors. Dr. Ma is also a money manager and has worked at Investment Research Company Chicago, Ned Davis Research, and George Weiss Associates between 1990 and 2001. His investment company, KCM Asset Management, has been the managers for many top ranked hedge funds.


Daniel Pace, Ph.D

Dr. Pace received his BA is from Furman University, his MBA from Emory University, and his PhD from Florida State University. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of West Florida and runs a real estate investment company. Dr. Pace’s research publications (selected) include The Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of Futures Markets, The Journal of Investing, Financial Services Review, Journal of Agricultural Economics, Global Finance Journal, Financial Practice and Education, International Journal of Business and The Journal of Small Business Finance. He has received the prestigious University Teaching and Research Awards.


Ramesh P. Rao, Ph.D 

Dr. Ramesh P. Rao is a professor and holds the Paul C. Wise Chair of Finance in the William S. Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University. He earned a B.S. at the University of the Philippines, M.B.A. from the Asian Institute of Management and Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. He has coauthored over 60 journal articles in publications such as Journal of Business, Journal of Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Financial Management,Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Journal of Financial Research, Journal of Empirical Finance, and Financial Review. Rao’s research interests focus on mainstream corporate finance issues including compensation and board structure, corporate control, capital and ownership structure, information signaling and related areas. Rao has also coauthored the textbook, Contemporary Financial Management Fundamentals, published by South-Western Cengage Learning. He is also the coeditor of the Journal of Applied Finance. Rao was former program chair and president of the Southwestern Finance Association. He is a director of the Asian Finance Association. Rao has been recognized for his teaching and research excellence including the following awards: 2009 Southwestern Finance Association Best Paper in Corporate Finance Award, Richard W. Poole Research Excellence Award (2008-2009), Chandler-Frates& Reitz Teaching Excellence Award-MBA Program (OSU-Tulsa campus, 2008), Regents Distinguished Research Award (2007), Thomson-Southwestern Finance Association Outstanding Educator of the Year Award (2007), Merrick Foundation Teaching Award (2003), and MBA Outstanding Faculty Award (2003).