Sanjai Bhagat
Professor
University of Colorado Boulder
Sanjai Bhagat is professor of finance at the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder.
His research focuses on corporate governance, value-creating acquisitions, initial public offering valuation, new-venture finance, executive compensation, environmental, social, and governance issues, capitalism, and the rule of law. He also serves as an independent director on corporate boards and advises government agencies on corporate finance and corporate governance.
Before joining the University of Colorado Boulder, Bhagat was a visiting professor of economics at Princeton University, a visiting associate professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an associate professor of finance at the University of Utah, a visiting assistant professor of finance at the University of Washington, and an economic fellow at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
At the Leeds School of Business, Bhagat was the founding director of the Burridge Center for Securities Analysis & Valuation. He also founded TiE-Rockies, a professional group for technology entrepreneurs in Colorado.
Bhagat is the author of “Financial Crisis, Corporate Governance, and Bank Capital.” His paper “Corporate Governance and Corporate Performance” received the Journal of Corporate Finance Decade Award as the journal’s most impactful paper from 2008 to 2018. “The Promise and Perils of Corporate Governance Indices” received the De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek Law Prize from the European Corporate Governance Institute and was selected among the “10 Best Corporate and Securities Articles” by Corporate Practice Commentator.
His other honors include the Leeds Distinguished Service Award, the Guiney Research Award, the Frascona Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award, the Best Corporate Finance Paper Award, Graduate Professor of the Year, and MBA Educator of Distinction Award Finalist recognition. He has also received research support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance, the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute, the Marketing Science Institute, and the Association for Investment Management and Research.
Bhagat earned a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Washington, an M.B.A. in finance and applied economics from the University of Rochester, and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
