VanHorne is The A.P. Giannini Professor of Banking and Finance, Emeritus, having come to Stanford in 1965. He has taught MBA courses in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, money and capital markets, fixed-income securities, and government and nonprofit debt financing. He was the first recipient of the distinguished teaching award by MBA students, and recipient again in 1997. He is the past president of the American Finance Association and of the Western Finance Association, and has been an active member of the Financial Economists Roundtable. He also has served as associate editor of several leading finance journals.

He received his BA from DePauw University and MBA and PhD degrees from Northwestern University. In the mid-1970s, he served as deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury, and has served on several federal and State of California commissions and advisory groups. VanHorne has served on seven corporate boards and four nonprofit boards. His research involves such things as capital budgeting, the effect of inflation, interest rate theory and behavior, corporate finance, and financial innovation.