Professor Puri Selected as Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow

Associate finance professor Manju Puri has focused on financial intermediation, particularly related to banking and more recently to venture capital.

March 15, 2002

Manju Puri, associate professor of finance at the Graduate School of Business, has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, an honor that carries a grant of $40,000 to be applied in an unrestricted manner toward any research interest of the recipient’s choosing. Puri’s scholarly work has focused on financial intermediation, particularly related to banking and more recently to venture capital.

Sloan Research Fellowships, awarded for two-year terms, recognize young scientists who show outstanding promise of making fundamental contributions to new knowledge in the fields of chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, economics, and neuroscience. Sloan Research Fellows must have completed their PhD in these fields within six years of their nomination for selection, must be members of the regular faculty of a college or university in the United States or Canada, and must be nominated by senior scholars or department heads.

Puri’s research in banking has centered on the conflicts of interest banks face in serving as both securities underwriters and lenders to companies, and how their role compares to that of investment banking firms, which serve only as underwriters. Her papers on universal banking and the implications for the Glass-Steagall Banking Act have received numerous awards, including a Western Finance Association best paper award, a National Science Foundation award, and the best paper prize in Journal of Financial Economics. Puri’s recent research in banking examines implications for the firm when banks act as debtor-in-possession financiers, as sellers of loans, and as participants in venture capital.

Puri has co-authored several papers on the subject of venture capital, including its role in the professionalization of start-up firms, and its role in the product market. Along with Stanford Business School colleague Thomas Hellmann, she recently has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant to investigate the economic foundations of venture capital.

Appointed last year to the National Bureau of Economic Research, she also serves on the editorial boards of such scholarly publications as Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Money Credit and Banking, and Journal of Banking and Finance.

Puri joined the Stanford business school faculty in 1995, developing new elective courses in banking and venture capital. She earned her 1995 PhD in finance at New York University after working at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. She received her MBA in finance and strategy from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, India, and her undergraduate degree, with honors, in economics from Delhi University.

Originally awarded to 22 scholars when the program was established in 1955, Sloan Research Fellowships are now awarded annually to 104 young scientists of outstanding promise; 24 Sloan Fellows have later won Nobel Prizes in their careers.

By Helen Chang

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