John C. Heaton studies asset pricing, portfolio allocation, and time-series econometrics. He first became drawn to this area because he was "intrigued by the idea of understanding economic phenomena both to guide policy and to help people make better decisions." His research in these areas has earned him numerous fellowships, including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship from 1993 to 1995, and a National Science Foundation Fellowship from 1993 to 1998.

Prior to joining the Chicago Booth faculty in 2000, Heaton was the Nathan S. and Mary P. Sharp Distinguished Professor of Finance at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He also has held positions at MIT's Sloan School of Management and at the Hoover Institution. Heaton is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. The practical problems investors and institutions face are a key component of his teaching.

Originally from Canada, Heaton earned a bachelor's degree in commerce at the University of Windsor in 1982, a master's degree in economics from the University of Western Ontario in 1984, and a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1989. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 2000. Outside of academia, Heaton enjoys music, skiing, and sailing.

Steven Neil Kaplan conducts research on issues in private equity, venture capital, entrepreneurial finance, corporate governance and corporate finance. He has published papers in a number of academic and business journals. Kaplan is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Economics.

He is the co-creator of the Kaplan-Schoar PME (Public Market Equivalent) private equity benchmarking approach. A Fortune Magazine article referred to him as "probably the foremost private equity scholar in the galaxy.”

Kaplan teaches advanced MBA and executive courses in entrepreneurial finance and private equity, corporate finance, corporate governance, and wealth management. BusinessWeek named him one of the top 12 business school teachers in the country.

Professor Kaplan co-founded the entrepreneurship program at Booth. With his students, he helped start Booth’s business plan competition, the New Venture Challenge (NVC), which has included over 800 companies that have raised almost $1 billion and created over $8 billion in value including GrubHub, Braintree/Venmo and Simple Mills.

Kaplan serves on the board of Morningstar and several fund and company advisory boards. He has been a member of the faculty since 1988.

He received his AB, summa cum laude, in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Harvard College and earned a PhD in Business Economics from Harvard University.

Stuart founded Wealth Strategist Partners (WSP) as the successor to his family's investment platform, where he was co-Chief Investment Officer for many years following the sale of Carnation Company, the business founded by his great-grandfather. The family remains a client of WSP.

Stuart has been an investment professional for over 35 years, and serves as WSP's CIO. In addition to his duties with WSP, Stuart is Chairman of the Investment Committee of National Public Radio and is a board member of the National Public Radio Foundation.

Stuart designed and leads the University of Chicago Booth School of Business's Private Wealth Management continuing education program, which has served over 500 individuals and families in the 12 to 14 years since the course’s inception. His book, Wealth: Grow It and Protect It (FT Press), has been published on three continents. He is the author of numerous articles on investing and wealth management, most recently "The 50% Rule" and "Pick Your Battles" (Journal of Wealth Management), co-authored with Alejandro Sanz. His latest book, "The Taxable Investor's Manifesto" (Wiley), will be published in early 2020.

Previously, Stuart was the Senior Managing Director of the Ultra-High Net Worth Group within Private Client Services at Bank One (now JP Morgan Chase), director of a multi-family investment office in Paris, France; General Manager of European operations of Wellington Management Company in London, England; and Assistant Portfolio Manager of a Forbes Honor Roll mutual fund.

He has a B.A. with honors from Dartmouth College, an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Kathleen Fitzgerald is known at the University of Chicago as a superb educator. She brings a remarkably wide array of experience as an educator and a practitioner to the classroom. She has taught courses in Investments, Corporate Finance, Financial Accounting, Money and Banking, International Finance and Financial Management.

She is currently teaching for the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the University of Chicago Law School. Her past experience includes the University of Massachusetts, Rochester Institute of Technology, and several Universities in Barcelona, Spain.

Kathleen also holds the position of Director of Academic Support at the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business in Chicago, London and Hong Kong in which she prepares students of Chicago Booth Executive MBA program for the rigors of Chicago’s quantitative approach to finance, economics, statistics, and marketing.

Her professional experience includes auditing and tax consulting at Ernst & Young, LLP and forensic accounting consulting at Chicago Partners.

Kathleen graduated from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst with a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics in 1990 and a MBA in 1994. She passed the Unified C.P.A. examination in 1994 and holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Chicago.

Sara Hamilton is the Founder and CEO of Family Office Exchange (FOX), the definitive source of information and best practices associated with the business of managing family wealth across generations. The strength of the FOX network is derived from the collective knowledge and experience of over 500 globally-minded family enterprises based in 26 countries.

Since 1989, FOX has made solutions accessible to financial families by fostering dialogue among wealth owners, family office executives and wealth advisors. In 2014, FOX celebrated its 25th anniversary of service, and remains true to its founding mission of objectivity in wealth management, member education and shared knowledge across a sophisticated, global network of families and leading wealth advisors.

Sara is the co-author of Family Legacy and Leadership: Preserving True Family Wealth in Challenging Times, © 2010, Wiley & Sons.  

For three years running, Sara was named as one of the "Top 50 Women in Wealth Management" by Wealth Manager. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Wealth Management and Trusts and Estates as well as a Founding Board Member of the Chicago Global Donors Network.  

Prior to founding FOX, Sara worked in marketing and strategy at Harris Bank and AT&T Information Systems. She holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the University of North Florida.

Howard M. Helsinger is a partner in the Chicago law firm of Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Helsinger, LLP, and taught courses on trusts and estates at the University of Chicago Law School from 1997 to 2016. He is a member of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a past chair of the Chicago Bar Association Probate Practice Committee, and a frequent lecturer for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education and other state and national bar associations. He concentrates his practice in estate planning, estate administration, probate, charitable planning, and trust and estate related litigation.

He was a member of the committee that drafted the Illinois Uniform Transfers to Minors Act. He served as a planned giving advisor for the National Humanities Center, and the Newberry Library. He has also taught at the Northwestern University School of Law, and in the graduate tax program at IIT-Chicago Kent College of Law.

He has a B.A. in English from Haverford College, a Ph.D. in English Literature from Princeton University, and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School (1978). Before law school he taught English Literature at Boston University, and after law school he clerked for two years in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Stephen R. Quazzo is Co-Founder and CEO of Pearlmark, a Chicago–based private equity real estate investment firm that pursues domestic, value-added strategies through a series of institutional and high net worth investment vehicles. Since its inception in 1996, the firm has made more than 530 office, industrial, retail, multifamily and mezzanine loan investments nationwide, representing a gross investment of over $13.2 billion. Currently the firm oversees an approximately $1.5 billion portfolio of U.S. real estate investments.

From 1991 to 1996, Mr. Quazzo served as President of Equity Institutional Investors, Inc., a subsidiary of investor Sam Zell’s private holding company, Equity Group Investments, Inc. Mr. Quazzo was responsible for raising equity capital and performing various portfolio management services in connection with the firm’s real estate investments, including institutional opportunity funds and public REITs. Prior to joining the Zell organization, Mr. Quazzo was in the Real Estate Department of Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he was a Vice President responsible for the firm’s real estate investment banking activities in the Midwest.

Mr. Quazzo holds undergraduate and MBA degrees from Harvard University, where he serves as a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors for the business school. He is a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Trustee and immediate past Chairman of the ULI Foundation, a member of the Pension Real Estate Association, and a licensed real estate broker in Illinois. Mr. Quazzo is a public company director of Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp. (NYSE: VAC) and Phillips Edison & Company. For 22 years (1994-2016), he also served as a director of Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: HOT), which in 2016 merged with Marriott International (NYSE: MAR). Mr. Quazzo serves on a number of non-profit boards, including: Rush University Medical Center, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Endowment, the Chicago Parks Foundation, Deerfield Academy, and City Year Chicago.