Who we are

Alexander Groh is Professor of Finance, in particular Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity Markets at LUISS Business School in Rome, Italy. He has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Business Venturing, Research Policy, the Journal of Corporate Finance, the Journal of Banking and Finance, the European Economic Review, the Journal of International Money and Finance, the European Financial Management Journal, Small Business Economics, the Journal of Alternative Investments, the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, the Emerging Markets Review, and in Venture Capital, among others. Previously, he held positions as Professor of Finance at EMLYON Business School, France, and as Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, at IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain, and at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France.

Alexander Groh was born in Frankfurt, Germany. He received a joint master’s degree of Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration from Darmstadt University of Technology, where he also gained his PhD in financial economics.

He teaches general Corporate Finance courses, and in specialized Entrepreneurial Finance and Private Equity Market related programs.

Armin Schwienbacher is a full professor of finance at SKEMA Business School since 2010. He previously worked at the Université Lille 2 (France), Louvain School of Management (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium) and Universiteit van Amsterdam (the Netherlands), and as guest lecturer at Duisenberg School of Finance (the Netherlands), Rotterdam School of Management (the Netherlands) and the European School of Management and Technology (Germany). He obtained his PhD in 2003 at the University of Namur (Belgium) on exit strategies of venture capital funds. He was a visiting scholar at the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley, USA) in 2001-2002 and visiting professor at Schulich School of Business (York University, Canada) in 2014-2015. Mr. Schwienbacher regularly teaches courses in corporate finance and entrepreneurial finance.

He has presented his research on crowdfunding, venture capital and various other topics in corporate finance and entrepreneurial finance at many universities, financial institutions and international conferences, and his work was published in a wide range of international academic journals.

He was the Director of the Research Center FAIRR in finance and accounting at SKEMA from 2016-2022. He is further co-Editor of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, a leading academic journal in entrepreneurship.

Christina Guenther holds the Chair of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises at WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, Germany. She also serves as editor-in-chief at Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal (SBEJ) and editor at Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice (ETP), two internationally renowned journals in the field of entrepreneurship, small businesses and family firms.

Her research has appeared in such publications as the Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Small Business Economics, Organization Studies, Family Business Review and the Journal of Economic Geography.

Moreover, she was a member of the Academy of Management’s Entrepreneurship Division’s executive board and holds several advisory board positions.

Silvio Vismara is Vice-Chancellor for Research and Professor of Corporate Finance at the University of Bergamo (Italy). He is also a Research Fellow at Indiana University (USA) and adjunct professor at the University of Augsburg (Germany).

In addition, he has held prior visiting appointments at Ghent University (Belgium), Manchester Business School (UK), Cass Business School (UK), University of Florida (USA), and University of La Laguna (Spain).

Silvio is editor of the Journal of Technology Transfer and of Small Business Economics, co-founder and executive editor of the Review of Corporate Finance, associate editor of the British Journal of Management, Financial Review, Management Review Quarterly, and an editorial board member of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Corporate Governance: An International Review, Venture Capital and Journal of Industrial and Business Economics. He has furthermore served as guest editor of special issues for the British Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Corporate Governance: An International Review, Small Business Economics, Journal of Technology Transfer, Journal of International Financial Management & Accounting, Review of Corporate Finance, Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, and Eurasian Business Review.

His research interests are in entrepreneurial finance and focus mainly on IPOs, equity crowdfunding and ICOs. His research has been published in journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and Journal of Corporate Finance, Research Policy.

His research activities have benefitted from his experience as a scientific consultant for the Italian Stock Exchange; as a member of the board of directors of the University of Bergamo; as well as a founder of its first academic spin-off company (Universoft).

Professor Vismara's research has been covered in media outlets around the world, including The Economist and The Financial Times.

Wen is Professor of Corporate Finance at the University of Edinburgh Business School; a member of Academia Europaea, and joint-editor of the British Accounting Review.

His research interests cover corporate finance and financial development, and he has published studies in the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Corporate Finance, European Journal of Operation Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory and Energy Economics, among others.

Sofia Johan, LL.B (University of Liverpool), LL.M. in International Economic Law (University of Warwick), Ph.D. in Law and Economics (Tilburg University), is Associate Professor of Finance and Fellow of the Phil Smith Center for Free Enterprise at Florida Atlantic University, USA. She is also Visiting Professor at University of Vaasa, Finland and the Extramural Research Fellow at the Tilburg Law and Economics Centre (TILEC) in The Netherlands.

She is Co-Editor of Venture Capital: An International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance and an Associate Editor of the British Journal of Management; British Accounting Review and International Journal of Finance and Economics. She is on the Editorial Boards of Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal, Emerging Markets Review and Finance Research Letters.

Her research is focused on law and finance, market surveillance, corporate governance, alternative investments (including but not limited to hedge funds, venture capital, private equity, real estate investment trusts and IPOs) and alternative finance (including but not limited to crowdfunding, peer to peer lending and cryptocurrencies).

Her research has been published in the American Law and Economics Review, Journal of Financial Economics, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Banking and Finance, European Financial Management, European Economic Review, and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, among other journals. She has co-authored the books titled Crowdfunding: Fundamental Cases, Facts and Insights; Venture Capital and Private Equity Contracting: An International Perspective; and Hedge Fund Structure, Regulation and Performance Around the World. She has co-edited the books Handbook of IPOs, published by Oxford University Press and Handbook of Hedge Funds, also published by Oxford University Press. She has also consulted for a variety of governmental and private organizations in Canada, Australasia and Europe and is on the advisory boards of a select few start-up firms.

Douglas Cumming, J.D., Ph.D., CFA, is the DeSantis Distinguished Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship at the College of Business, Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida. Douglas is also a Visiting Professor of Finance at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK. Previously, Douglas was a Professor and the Ontario Research Chair at the Schulich School of Business, York University, in Toronto, Canada from 2007-2018. He has held prior visiting appointments at Essex Business School, Kobe University, EMLyon, RMIT, and University of Bergamo, among others.

Douglas has published over 200 articles in leading refereed academic journals (including 40 in Financial Times top 50 journals) in finance, management and law and economics, such as the Academy of Management Journal, Economic Journal, Journal of Business, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of International Business Studies and the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.

In November 2022, Douglas was listed by Clarivate as one of the top 92 most cited researchers in the world in the business and economics category.  Douglas' work has been cited over 24,000 times according to Google Scholar.

Douglas is the managing editor-in-chief of the Review of Corporate Finance (2021-current). He is a co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Industrial and Business Economics (2021-current).  Previously, he was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Corporate Finance (2018-2020) and the British Journal of Management (2020-2022).

Douglas has published 21 academic books. He is the co-author of Venture Capital and Private Equity Contracting (Elsevier Academic Press, 2nd Edition, 2013) and Hedge Fund Structure, Regulation and Performance around the World (Oxford University Press, 2013) and Crowdfunding: Fundamental Cases, Facts, and Insights (Elsevier Academic Press, 2019). He is the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurial Finance (Oxford University Press, 2013), the Oxford Handbook of Private Equity (Oxford University Press, 2013), the Oxford Handbook of Venture Capital (Oxford University Press, 2013), the Oxford Handbook of Sovereign Wealth Funds (Oxford University Press, 2017), the Oxford Handbook of IPOs (Oxford University Press, 2018), and the Oxford Handbook of Hedge Funds (Oxford University Press, 2021), among others.

Douglas’ work has been reviewed in numerous media outlets, including The Economist, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, Canadian Business, the National Post, and The New Yorker.

Ge Wu is an Assistant Professor of Finance in the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond. He received a PhD in Finance from Rutgers University, an MS in Financial Engineering from Columbia University, an MS in Actuarial Science from University of Central Florida and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Tsinghua University.

He has published his research in leading finance journals (e.g. Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money; Financial Markets, Institutions and Instruments; and Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting). His work has also been cited in the popular press, including Harvard Law School’s Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation. He teaches Principles of Financial Management and Investments at the University of Richmond. Before his academic career, he worked as a derivative trader and a quantitative analyst for six years.