Lead Practitioner: Karen Wruck P’24

Course Overview: The course introduces students to key concepts in corporate finance and management, including the time value of money, capital budgeting, cost of capital, capital structure, valuation, private equity, and M&A. The course covers financial economics theory as well as empirical evidence and applications. It is intended for students aspiring to careers in business, consulting, or finance. As a result, standards in the class will be consistent with standards expected of excellent analysts in business, consulting, or finance.
Students will need to have access to Microsoft Excel and a basic understanding of how to work with Excel spreadsheets. Students will also need to have access to PowerPoint or an equivalent presentation software and an understanding of how to create an effective presentation. (the Center for Purposeful Work will assist those students who do not have access) Finally, many of the readings have an interactive component and the course contains some instructional videos, so students will need to have access to a computer to get the full benefits of these materials.

Class meeting times: Mon/Wed/Thurs 1-4pm

Learning Goals:

• Navigate corporate financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement) and evaluate a company’s health by financial statement analysis
• Become facile with how private equity firms make decisions to purchase companies, and how such purchases are structured
• Build and use valuation tools such as discounted cash flows and internal rates of return
• Be able to find, understand and analyze outside sources of data to evaluate a company
• Build and manipulate a set of financial projections using varying assumptions

Instructor bio: Karen Hopper Wruck is Dean’s Distinguished Professor and Professor of Finance at the Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University. Prior to her appointment at Ohio State, Wruck served on the faculty of the Harvard Business School. Her research and teaching are in the fields of financial and organizational economics, with special emphasis on corporate finance, restructuring, financial distress, governance, and management compensation. She has published numerous articles in leading academic journals and developed highly successful courses for delivery to MBAs and executives. In addition, her work and opinions have been highlighted in business periodicals. Professor Wruck has served as an associate editor of the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Financial Research and European Financial Management and she serves as an ad hoc referee for many other academic journals. She has also served as an academic director of the Financial Management Association and the Turnaround Management Association, a consultant to major corporations and has worked on high-profile corporate litigation projects as a subject matter expert.
During her time at Ohio State, Professor Wruck has served in senior leadership positions at the Fisher College of Business, including Associate Dean and Senior Associate Dean with responsibility for all Fisher’s degree granting academic programs and major operating units within the College. In addition, as a senior leader of the College, she worked on significant issues including strategy, centers of excellence, fund raising and donor plans, AACSB reaccreditation, curriculum design, semester conversion, new minors and degree granting programs, budget, faculty appointments, compensation, workload and a variety of special projects and initiatives. In recognition of her leadership and service, Professor Wruck received Ohio State’s Mary Ann Williams Award, which recognizes a woman exhibiting extraordinary leadership, and Fisher’s Bostick-Georges Pacesetter Service Award, which recognizes exceptional leadership and service to the College of Business. In addition, Professor Wruck has on multiple occasions been selected as outstanding professor by Ohio State’s full-time and executive MBA programs. Professor Wruck holds an A.B. from Davidson College, Phi Beta Kappa, in Economics, and both an M.S. in Applied Economics and a Ph.D. in Finance and Accounting from the University of Rochester.