The late J. Chris Leach was professor of finance, the W.W. Reynolds Capital Market Program Chair and formerly Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Professor in Entrepreneurship at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. He received a finance Ph.D. from Cornell University, began his teaching career at the Wharton School and was a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon, the Indian School of Business and the Stockholm Institute for Financial Research (at the Stockholm School of Economics). His teaching experience included courses for undergraduates, MBAs, Ph.D. students and executives. He was recognized as Graduate Professor of the Year and received multiple awards for MBA Teaching Excellence. His research on a variety of topics was published in The Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Business, Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Review of Economic Dynamics and Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, among other journals. Chris’s business background included various startups, dating back to his early teens in the 1970s. During his transition to the University of Colorado, he was the chairman of a New Mexico startup and later, as an investor and advisor, participated in a late 1990s Silicon Valley startup that subsequently merged into a public company. His consulting activities included business and strategic planning advising, valuation and deal structure for early-stage and small businesses. He was a faculty advisor for the Deming Center Venture Fund. MBA teams Chris advised qualified for 12 international championships of the Venture Capital Investment Competition. Ronald W. Melicher is professor emeritus of finance in the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder. He earned his undergraduate, MBA and doctoral degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. While at the University of Colorado, he received several distinguished teaching awards and was designated as a university-wide President’s Teaching Scholar. He also has held the William H. Baugh Distinguished Scholar faculty position, served three multi-year terms as chair of the Finance Division, served as the faculty director of the Boulder Campus MBA Program and twice was the academic chair of the three-campus executive MBA Program. Ron is a former president of the Financial Management Association. Ron has taught entrepreneurial finance at both the MBA and undergraduate levels, corporate finance and financial strategy in the MBA and Executive MBA programs and investment banking to undergraduate students. While on sabbatical leave from the University of Colorado, Ron taught at the INSEAD Graduate School of Business in Fontainebleau, France, and at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland. He has delivered numerous university-offered executive education noncredit courses and has taught in-house finance education materials for IBM and other firms. He has given expert witness testimony on cost of capital in regulatory proceedings and provided consulting expertise in the areas of financial management and firm valuation. Ron’s research interests focus on mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings and the financing and valuation of early-stage firms. His previous research has been published in major finance journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and Financial Management. He is the co-author of "Introduction to Finance: Markets, Investments, and Financial Management," 17th Edition (John Wiley & Sons, 2020).
