Douglas Skinner is a leading expert in corporate disclosure practices, corporate financial reporting, and corporate finance, with a focus on payout policy. His research addresses (1) the causes and capital market effects of managers' corporate disclosure choices (especially forward-looking information, including earnings forecasts, earnings pre-announcements, and guidance, corporate conference calls, etc.); (2) how the legal and regulatory environment affects managers’ corporate disclosures; (3) managers' incentives to use their discretion in the financial reporting process to manage reported accounting earnings ("earnings management"); (4) how stock prices respond to earning releases, especially for high growth companies ("earnings torpedoes"); and (5) the determinants of firms' payout policies, including whether and how much firms should pay out, the form of payout (dividends versus stock repurchases), etc. Professor Skinner also has research interests in Japanese accounting, auditing, and corporate governance practices.

Professor Skinner’s research is published in prominent accounting and finance journals, including The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Finance, and the Journal of Financial Economics. He is co-editor of the Journal of Accounting Research, and was previously co-editor of the Journal of Accounting and Economics.

Professor Skinner’s research has been prominently featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Economist, The New York Times, and BusinessWeek.

In 2010, Professor Skinner was named one of the top business school professors in the world in the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings. His teaching has included courses taught to undergraduate upper-classmen, full-time and part-time MBA students, executive MBA students, executives, consultants, and Ph.D. students. His teaching covers topics that include introductory financial accounting, intermediate financial accounting, corporate financial reporting and analysis, financial statement analysis, managerial accounting, corporate finance, and empirical methods in accounting research.

Prior to his appointment at Chicago in 2005, he was KPMG Professor of Accounting at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, where he had been on the faculty since 1989.

He holds a bachelor's degree in Economics with first class honors in Accounting and Finance from Macquarie University in Sydney and a master's degree and PhD in Applied Economics: Accounting and Finance from the University of Rochester. He has been a tenured full professor at Chicago Booth.

Amir Sufi is the Bruce Lindsay Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He serves as an associate editor for the American Economic Review, the Journal of Finance, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Professor Sufi was awarded the 2017 Fischer Black Prize by the American Finance Association, given biennially to the top financial economics scholar under the age of 40.

Professor Sufi's research focuses on finance and macroeconomics. His research on household debt and the economy forms the basis of his book co-authored with Atif Mian: House of Debt: How They (and You) Caused the Great Recession and How We Can Prevent It from Happening Again, which was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2014. He earned a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was awarded the Solow Endowment Prize for Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching and Research. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2005.

Since 1982, Scott Meadow has been a principal investor in the private equity industry. He is the 2011 recipient of the Richard J. Daley Award. The Daley Medal acknowledges a single individual who has given direct and extraordinary support to the state of Illinois by participating in or being an advocate for the venture capital and private equity industry.

Professor Meadow has held the position of Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business since 2000. He was awarded the 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 Phoenix Prize and The Faculty Excellence Award in 2010. He was designated by Business Week's "Guide to the Best Business Schools" (2003, 8th edition) and (2005, 9th edition) as one of the outstanding entrepreneurial professors in the country. Professor Meadow has taught 10000 students at Chicago Booth, in Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity, Commercializing Innovation (which he created), Introduction to Venture Capital (which he created), Entrepreneurial Finance & Venture Capital, and the New Venture Challenge, and is the faculty advisor for the Venture Capital Investment Competition. Scott is also on the Advisory Board and Steering Committee of the Innovation Fund at the University of Chicago.

Scott has over 30 years’ experience as a general partner with four venture capital and private equity firms including William Blair Venture Partners, The Frontenac Company, The Sprout Group, and most recently with the Edgewater Funds, where he remains an Associate Partner. Over the course of his career, Scott has approved hundreds of equity financings, been active in fundraising and has personally led, originated or created more than sixty investments including two dozen healthcare services companies, over a dozen consumer services and retail companies, as well as biotech companies and companies enhanced by the Internet and social media. Scott has been recognized by Venture One as one of the outstanding healthcare investors in the industry, and is a testifying expert witness in a broad range of commercial disputes involving entrepreneurship.

Representative investments include Coventry Corporation, HEALTHSOUTH, Sunrise Assisted Living, Sunrise International, Managed Health Network, Aspen Education Services, Seurat Therapeutics, Pathology Partners, Heritage Healthcare, MedPartners, The Sports Authority, CompUSA and Staples. Scott recently served on the board of directors of National Equipment Services (NASDAQ: NLEQ) during its emergence from Chapter 11 and Barrier Safe Systems. He has served on the Advisory Board of Invenergy, GenerationOne, Dais Corporation and Anka Associates, a private equity firm focused on Turkey.

Professor Meadow earned his A.B. Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Laura M. Born held the title of Managing Director in Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan Chase until 2007. Over her 16-year tenure, she worked in the Equity Capital Markets, Leveraged Finance and Investment Banking Coverage departments. During her career, she focused on consumer clients and financial institutions. Her transaction experience includes mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, initial public offerings, secondary equity offerings, convertible bond offerings, leveraged finance bank and bond transactions, investment grade bond transactions, and interest rate swaps and derivatives. Additionally, she provided advice on company valuations, strategic direction, capital structure, shareholder payout decisions, rating agency process, equity road shows, and conducted seminars for clients.

She currently serves as the Chair of the Trustees for the Columbia Acorn Trust and the Wanger Advisors Trust (small and mid-capitalization equity mutual funds), a member of the Board of Directors of Carlson Inc. (largest business to business travel management company and private equity platform) where she is also the Chair of the Audit Committee. In addition, Born serves as a member of the Advisory Board of Directors of Driehaus Capital Management. Closer to home, Born is a long time board member of the Infant Welfare Society of Evanston since 2007. She has been involved in public education initiatives in her public school district, having served as: a Co-Chair of the 21st Century Learning Sub-Committee, a member of the Central School Improvement Plan Committee and a delegate to the New Trier High School Board of Education Caucus.

Born earned a bachelor's degree in economics and political science from Duke University in 1987. She received an MBA in finance and accounting with Honors from Chicago Booth in 1991.

She enjoys Italy, traveling, art history, yoga, hiking, and downhill skiing.

Greg Bunch draws on a wealth of experience as an entrepreneur, manager, consultant, alderman, and teacher. He is the founder of Masterplan International Corporation, a strategy consulting firm. He was also a partner at Brandtrust, a brand strategy consultancy. Greg co-founded a healthcare software start-up in the Bay Area. He has served on corporate boards for financial services, healthcare, retail, franchising and marketing firms.

He works with Fortune 50 companies, family businesses and start-ups in the areas of innovation and strategy. He has worked with a broad array of companies including Abbott Labs, American Express, Danaher, Dover, ETS, Harley-Davidson, Hewlett-Packard, Kimberly-Clark, McDonalds, PepsiCo, State Farm and Yum! Brands.

Greg was an alderman in the City of West Chicago, serving on the infrastructure, public safety and development committees.

Greg has lectured nationally and internationally on topics related to strategy, creating customers, and innovation. He earned a bachelor's degree from Wheaton College in philosophy and an MDiv from Harvard University.