Overview

Dr. David S. Kidwellis Professor of Finance and Dean Emeritus at the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University o Minnesota. He holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from California State University at San Diego, an MBA from California Sate University at San Francisco, and a PhD in finance from the University o Oregon.Before joining the University of Minnesota, Dr. Kidwell was Dean of the School of Business Administration at the University of Connecticut. Prior to joining the University of Connecticut, he held endowed chairs in banking and finance at Tulane University, the University of Tennessee, and Texas tech University. He was also on the faculty at the Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University, where he was twice voted the outstanding undergraduate teacher of the year. Dr. Kidwell has published research in the leading journals, including Journals of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Financial Management, and Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking.Dr. Kidwell has been a management consultant for Coopers & Lybrand and a sales engineer for Bethlehem Steel Corporation. He is an expert on the U.S. financial system and is the author of more than 80 articles dealing with the U.S. financial system and capital markets. Dr. Kidwell has participated in a number of research grants funded by the National Science Foundation to study the efficiency of U.S. capital markets, and to study the impact of government regulation upon the delivery of consumer financial services.Dr. Kidwell currently serves on the Board of the Schwan Food Company. He is the past Secretary-Treasurer of the Board of Directors of AACSB, the International Association for Management Education. he is a past member of the Boards of the Minnesota Council for Quality, the Stonier Graduate School of Banking, and the Minnesota Center for Corporate responsibility. he has also served as an Examiner for the 1995 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, on the Board of Directors of the Juran Center for Leadership in Quality and on the Board of the Minnesota Life Insurance Company.Dr. David W. Blackwellis the James W. Aston/Republic Bank Professor of Finance and Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at Texas A&M, Dr. Blackwell worked several years as a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and KPMG LLP. before his stint in the Big 4, Dr. Blackwell served on the Faculties of the University of Georgia, the University of Houston, and Emory University. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Rochester.Dr. Blackwell's areas of expertise include corporate finance, commercial bank management, and executive compensation. His publications have appeared in the leading scholarly journals of finance and accounting such as Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial Quantitative Analysis, Financial Management, Journal of Financial Research, Journal of Accounting research, and Journal of Accounting and Economics.While in the Big 4, Dr. Blackwell consulted on a brad range of litigation matters including securities, breach of contract, and intellectual property infringement cases. He also consulted on matters involving securities and business valuation, corporate governance, and executive compensation.In addition, Dr. Blackwell has delivered executive education seminars in corporate finance and management of financial institutions for IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Chemical bank, Southwire Company, Georgia Bankers Association, Warsaw Institute of Banking, Bratislava Institute of Banking, and the people's Construction bank of China (PRC).Dr. Blackwell earned his PhD in Finance in 1986 and his BS in Economics in 1981, both from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is a past president of the Southern Fiance Association, and a former Associate Editor of the Journal of Financial Research.Dr. David A. Whidbeeis an Associate Professor of Finance and the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Research in the College of Business at Washington State University. He received his PhD in Finance from the University of Georgia and his MVA and BS in Finance from Auburn University. After receiving his MBA, he worked as a financial analyst in the Chief Economist's Office at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and, subsequently, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). While on the staff at these regulatory agencies, he performed research and analysis on the thrift industry and prepared congressional testimony concerning the problems the industry faced in the late 1980s.In 1990, Dr. Whidbee left the OTS to begin the PhD program in Finance at the University of Georgia, where he wrote his dissertation on corporate governance in the banking industry and began teaching financial markets and institutions. His other teaching interests are in the areas of commercial banking, financial institutions, and corporate finance. Upon completing the PhD program, he joined the faculty at California State University, Sacramento, where her taught commercial banking and financial markets and institutions. In 1997, he left Cal State Sacramento to join the faculty at Washington State University, where he continues to teach commercial banking and financial markets and institutions.Dr. Whidbee's research interests are in the areas of financial institutions and corporate governance. His work has been published in several outlets, including the Journal of Business, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Banking and Financial Services Research. In addition, he has presented his research at numerous academic and regulatory conferences.Dr. Richard L. Petersonis Professor of Finance Emeritus at Texas Tech University. Dr. Peterson was the "High Scholarship Graduate in Economics" from Iowa State University in 1962, and received a PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1966. Subsequently, he taught economics tat Southern Methodist University, was a financial economist on the staff of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and served as the Associate Director of Purdue University's Credit research Center before Joining Texas Tech University in 1982 as a Professor of Finance and holder of the I. Wylie and Elizabeth Briscoe Chair of Bank Management. He has taught at numerous schools in the United States and abroad for domestic and international financial institution executives  and has consulted for Dun & Bradstreet, Chemical Bank, Citicorp, and the National Second Mortgage Association. He has served as an expert witness for law firms representing the FDIC in savings and loan litigation, in New York Stock Exchange arbitration hearings, and in other matters.Dr. Peterson has also written a book title The REAL Social Security Problem and has published numerous papers. His papers have appeared in the Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking; Journal of Finance; Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis; Journal of Financial Research; Journal of Financial Services Research; Journal of Futures Markets; Bell Journal of Economics; Quarterly Journal of Economics; Journal of Macroeconomics; American Banker; Banker's Magazine; and numerous other publications. he also has presented papers at numerous academic meetings and at conferences sponsored by Federal Reserve Banks and Federal Home Loan Banks and he participated in the American Assembly's s comprehensive study of the U.S. financial system and its regulation.He received Texas Tech's President's excellence in Teaching Award in 1989 and its Academic Achievement Award in 1992. Dr. Peterson remains active in practical fiance as a writer of tracts on financial and economics policy issues and as a n investor in real estate, stocks, bonds, futures, and options.