Biographical Information for:

William L. Megginson

Bill Megginson is Professor and Rainbolt Chair in Finance at the University of Oklahoma’s Michael F. Price College of Business. He is also a voting member of the Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance’s Global Advisory Committee on Privatization and Scientific Advisor for the Privatization Barometer. Professor Megginson's research interest has focused in recent years on the privatization of state-owned enterprises, especially those privatizations executed through public share offerings.

He has published refereed articles in several top academic journals, including the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and Foreign Policy. His co-authored study documenting significant performance improvements in recently privatized companies received one of two Smith Breeden Distinguished Paper Awards for outstanding research published in the Journal of Finance during 1994. He is author or co-author of seven textbooks.

Professor Megginson’s research has been frequently cited in academic and professional publications. His articles have been downloaded over 15,000 times from the Social Sciences Research Network, making him the 84^th most downloaded author (out of 56,000). His articles have been cited almost 600 times in published academic research.

Professor Megginson is the Vice-President for Financial Education of the Financial Management Association, the largest academic finance professional association, and he is also a member of the Executive Committee of the European Finance Association. He is associate editor for four academic journals, and has served as a privatization consultant for the New York Stock Exchange, the OECD, the IMF, the World Federation of Exchanges, and the World Bank. He has visited 61 countries during his lifetime, and has lived in Spain, Pakistan, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, in addition to the United States.

Dr. Megginson has a B.S. degree in chemistry from Mississippi College, an MBA from Louisiana State University, and a Ph.D. in finance from Florida State University. Prior to entering academia in 1986, he worked for five years as a petroleum chemist at the world's largest styrene monomer plant and at the largest independent petroleum refinery in the United States. Professor Megginson taught at the University of Georgia for 12 years before joining OU in 1998, and he has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Zurich, the University of Amsterdam and Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.

He lives in Norman with his family, and serves on the Board of McFarlin United Methodist Church’s McFarlin Foundation.

January 25, 2006

Norman, Oklahoma USA