Fundamental analysis, equity valuation, behavioral finance, and market microstructure. Broadly speaking, I am interested in the effect of human cognitive constraints on markets, as well as factors that affect the efficiency with which prices incorporate information.

Charles M. C. Lee is the Joseph McDonald Professor of Accounting and the Graduate School of Business (GSB) Trust Faculty Fellow for 2012-13 at Stanford University.  He is also a Senior Academic Fellow of the Asian Bureau of Financial and Economic Research (ABFER), and Co-Founder of Nipun Capital, LLC, a boutique asset management firm focused on Asian equities.

Professor Lee’s research interests span financial analysis, equity valuation, behavioral finance, and market microstructure. His research on market efficiency and informational arbitrage has won numerous awards, and is widely published in leading academic journals in Accounting and Finance.  His teaching honors include eight school-wide Teaching Excellence Awards (at Michigan, Cornell, and Stanford).  Most recently his interests have encompassed the investment environment in China and regulatory oversight of Chinese security markets.

From 2004 to July 2008, Dr. Lee was Managing Director at Barclays Global Investors (BGI; now Blackrock).  As the firm’s Global Head of Equity Research and Co-Head of North America Active Equities, he led BGI’s world-wide active equity research team and was jointly responsible for its North American active equity business.  During his tenure, the firm had over $300 Billion USD in active equity strategies.  He joined Stanford GSB as a Visiting Professor in July 2008 while serving as a Senior Consultant to BGI, and became a full-time faculty member in July 2009. 

Professor Lee is currently Co-Editor at the Accounting Review.  He is a former Editor or Associate Editor of the Journal of Finance, Management Science, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Review of Accounting Studies, and the Financial Analysts Journal. 

Professor Lee received his PhD from Cornell University in 1990.  He has been a faculty member at the Michigan Business School (1990-95) and the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University (1996-2004).  From 1995-96 he was Visiting Economist at the New York Stock Exchange.  At Cornell he held the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professorship in Management and was Director of the Parker Center for Investment Research. 

Prior to entering academic life, he spent five years in public accounting, the last three in the National Research Department of KPMG, Toronto, Canada. He holds a Certificate in Biblical Studies from Ontario Theological Seminary, and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.