2008 Headlines
Professor Maureen O'Hara made president-elect of the Financial Management Association International (FMA), the largest professional finance organization
March 28, 2008 | Ithaca, NY | Professor Maureen O'Hara is the first person to serve as president of each of the top-three professional organizations in finance. She served as president of the American Finance Association, from 2002 to 2003, and president of the Western Finance Association, from 1997 to 1998.
O'Hara will assume the presidency of the FMA following its 2009 annual meeting. As president, she will be its chief spokesperson and preside at all meetings of its membership, board of directors, and executive committee.
"This honor is the latest among Maureen O'Hara's many contributions to the Johnson School, as a researcher, teacher, and colleague," said Mark Nelson, associate dean for academic affairs, the Eleanora and George Landew Professor of Management, and professor of accounting. "Her election to president of each of the top-three finance organizations reflects her outstanding research achievements as well as her extraordinary commitment to serving her discipline."
O'Hara is the Robert W. Purcell Professor of Management and professor of Finance. She is an award-winning teacher and researcher, who has served the Johnson School with distinction since 1979. In fall 2008, she kicked off the school's Distinguished Speaker Series. Her talk "Market Chaos: what is going on out there?" drew a crowd of several hundred that spilled out of the lecture venue.
She also made news in fall 2007, when she was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of Investment Technology Group, Inc. (NYSE: ITG), a specialized agency brokerage and technology firm. She has been a director since January 2003 and lead director since January 2005. Earlier in 2007, O'Hara received a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Facultés Universitaires Catholiques à Mons (FUCAM) Belgium.
O'Hara is an expert in market microstructure theory, and authored a text book by that name. Her most recent research has focused on the role of underwriters in the aftermarket trading of IPOs, the impact of transparency on trading system performance, listing and delisting issues in securities markets, designing markets for developing markets, and the role of liquidity and information risk in asset pricing.
She is a three-time winner of the Smith-Breeden Prize for Distinguished Paper published in the Journal of Finance, as well as best paper honors from the Western Finance Association and Journal of Financial Intermediation. O'Hara is a prolific researcher, with numerous projects currently in progress. These include "Taking Stock in Stock Markets: The changing governance of exchanges;" "Competition in Investment Banking;" How Noise Trading Affects Markets;" and "Firm Characteristics and Informed Trading: implications for asset pricing."
At the Johnson School, O'Hara teaches the popular second-year course "Financial Markets and Institutions," as well as doctoral-level courses. She received an Outstanding Teacher Award in 1992 and the Stephen Russell Distinguished Teaching Award in 1993 and 2001.
O'Hara was the first female president of the American Finance Association, and she is a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences.
