OLA BENGTSSON

Welcome to my homepage!

Since 2006, I have been on the faculty of the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. Prior to this I did an MBA and a PhD in finance at the University of Chicago. My dissertation focused on why serial founders choose to have repeated financing relationships with Venture Capitalists. My current research focuses on how venture capitalists select, contract with and compensate entrepreneurs. I study these questions by applying statistical methods to large datasets of U.S. venture capital investments. My papers can be downloaded from this page (click on "Papers" in the menu) or from SSRN. I am an ad-hoc referee for Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Intermediation and Journal of Business Venturing. I am an Affiliated Researcher with the Institute for Financial Research (SIFR) in Sweden.

I teach three different electives in entrepreneurial finance, all of which target 2nd year MBA students who are either interested in a career as venture capitalists, buyout managers or entrepreneurs, or just want to learn more about how financial decisions are made in private equity markets. All courses are taught during the fall semester. The syllabi can be downloaded from this page (click on "Course Syllabi" in the menu). I am also faculty advisor to the student-run BR Incubator, in which about 40 MBA students each year help companies to develop business plans and grow their operations.

I was born and raised in southern Sweden where my family still lives. Prior to entering Stockholm School of Economics for undergraduate studies, I served in the Swedish military as an Human Intelligence officer specialized on the Russian Armed Forces. Following my military service I worked one year at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow, Russia. I am fluent in Swedish and English and have high proficiency in Russian and German. I am married and since December 2007 a proud father of Ellen. I enjoy hiking and running, both of which are easy to do in and around Ithaca where I live. In my spare time I like to watch movies, read books and drink smoothies.