Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school at attend, but the educational experience itself is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Each Wednesday, we profile a standout professor as identified by students. Today, we profile Edward Altman from New York University’s (NYU’s) Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
Named to NYU Stern’s Max L. Heine endowed professorship in 1988, Edward Altman (“Corporate Finance” and “Bankruptcy and Reorganization”) is also the director of research in credit and debt markets at the Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions. Considered an expert on credit risk analysis, distressed debt and corporate bankruptcy, Altman earned both his MBA and his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2005, Treasury and Risk magazine named Altman one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance.” “Bankruptcy and Reorganization” is a course he has taught for more than 30 years at Stern, and he notes in the course syllabus that the class “has evolved in an interesting way.” Through case studies, lectures and guest speakers, students study the valuation and analysis of distressed firms. A second year noted in a November 2011 Stern student blog post, “I took ‘Bankruptcy’ with Professor Edward Altman, who was obviously impressive. He brought in incredible speakers that he knows from the industry.” New York University has honored Altman with Special Teaching Awards in 1980, 2001, 2003 and 2011.
For more information about NYU Stern and 15 other top-ranked business schools, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.