Jan Bena

Background

About Jan Bena

Jan Bena is an Associate Professor in the Finance Division at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia (UBC). Following an entrepreneurial stint and Ph.D. studies in economics at the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education – Economics Institute (CERGE-EI) in Prague, Jan earned his Ph.D. in finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Jan joined the UBC Sauder School in 2009. At UBC Sauder, Jan served as the director of the Ph.D. program in Finance from 2017 to 2020 and as the Chair of the Finance Division from 2020 to 2025. He was the Program Chair for the 2019 Northern Finance Association (NFA) Annual Conference and later served as the President of the NFA. Since 2021, Jan has held the position of Academic Director at the Portfolio Management Foundation (PMF), and he is an Advisor to both the UBC Sauder Women+ in Finance Training (SWIFT). Jan’s research spans corporate R&D and innovation, private equity, entrepreneurship, M&A, and the labor and finance. His research was published in top finance journals such as Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, and Review of Asset Pricing Studies. Since 2021, Jan has served as Associate Editor of the Review of Corporate Finance Studies. Jan has been a referee for the top academic journals in economics and finance. Jan received more than 30 awards and grants. Jan’s papers were presented by him or his coauthors at more than 200 seminars and conferences worldwide. Jan has been a member of conference program committees, session chair, or discussant in more than 100 international conferences. Jan has taught various finance courses to students in the Bachelor of Commerce (BCom), Master of Management (MM), MBA, International MBA (IMBA), Professional MBA (PMBA), and Ph.D. programs at UBC Sauder, as well as in the Bachelor of International Economics (BIE) program offered by UBC Vancouver School of Economics (VSE). In his courses, Jan focuses on enabling students to apply key finance concepts and theory in real-world situations in both investment and corporate finance contexts. In 2021, he was honored with the UBC Sauder Alumni Talking Stick Award for significant pedagogical innovation. Additionally, Jan taught Capital Markets and Financial Derivatives courses at Donau-Universität Krems, Austria, from 2011 to 2015. During his Ph.D. studies, he taught a range of courses as a Tutorial Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) from 2005 to 2009.