See Our Chicago Minds in Action: Profile of Professor Steven Neil Kaplan
- September 08, 2026
- Chicago Minds Campaign
The Chicago Minds campaign at the University of Chicago is a multi-year initiative that aims to expand the university’s impact through investments in research and education. At Chicago Booth, the campaign will help the school to advance groundbreaking research, expand student support, promote faculty excellence, and more deeply engage our global community. In this video, learn about Professor Kaplan’s research interests, as well as how he thinks about his impact on Booth students.
Steven Neil Kaplan:
I've been at Booth since 1988. This was the best place in the country for corporate finance. I was very interested in how do you make companies run better, so I started doing research on venture capital and top executive talent. Having impact on policy or practice is awesome, but what's really important is the impact on the students and what they do.
At Booth, we help students want to be entrepreneurs or investors or executives. I still try to do research that is practical, giving the student some tools that will help make them more successful.
The New Venture Challenge is I think the best business accelerator program in the country. It's very tough, but it's very constructive.
The progress and the learning is immense. We've had some big successes like Grubhub, Simple Mills, Tovala. The only good thing about getting older is your former students get more successful.
The Booth students are special because they come here and they actually want to learn something. They get up in the morning and it's like, I can't wait to get to work.
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