Mitchell Petersen is the Glen Vasel Professor of Finance. He has published widely in finance and economics. Professor Petersen's research is in the area of empirical corporate finance: the questions of how firms evaluate potential investment projects and how they fund such projects. His recent writing focuses on how the cost of information, technology, competition, and taxes affect how firms raise capital and fund their projects. He was awarded the Smith-Breeden Prize for Outstanding Paper in the Journal of Finance in 1995 (for his paper "The Benefits of Lending Relationships: Evidence from Small Business Data") and the Michael Brennan Award for Best Paper in the Review of Financial Studies in 1998 (for his paper "Trade Credit: Theories and Evidence") and 2013 (for his paper "Investment and Capital Constraints: Repatriations Under the American Jobs Creation Act"). He was runner-up for the Brennan Award in 2008 (for his paper "Does the Source of Capital Affect Capital Structure") and 2010 (for his paper "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches").

He has been a member of the editorial board of various journals, including the Journal of Finance, Financial Management, Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial Intermediation. He is also a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), served on the board of the American Finance Associations, and has been a member of Moody's Academic Advisory and Research Committee.

Professor Petersen was awarded the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award in 1996, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, and 2012 and was voted the Kellogg Professor of the Year in 2000, the Executive MBA Outstanding Professor in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2and Kellogg Alumni Professor of the Year in 2010. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Empirical corporate finance including how firms large and small are financed, how financial frictions (including taxes and changes in technology) affect firm's financing, risk management, and investments. 

• PhD, 1990, Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• AB, 1986, Economics, Princeton University, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa

• Director of Heizer Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
• Glen E. Vasel Professor of Finance, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
• Glen E. Vasel Associate Professor of Finance, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 8/31/2005
• Assistant Professor of Finance, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, 8/31/1997
• Assistant Professor of Finance, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, 8/31/1994

• Board of Directors, American Finance Association, 2017-2020
• Strategic Advisor, OCA Ventures, 2014-present
• Program Chair - Corporate Finance and Risk Management, FDIC Center for Financial Research, 2005-2016
• Academic Advisory Board, Moody's Investor Services, 2003-2012
• Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2002-present

• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Executive MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management, Cohort 128, 130
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Executive MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management, Cohort 124, 127
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Executive MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management, EMBA 121, 122, 123
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, Executive MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Executive MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management
• Editors Choice Award, Review of Corporate Finance Studies
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Executive MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Executive MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Executive MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Executive MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Executive MBA Program, Kellogg School of Management
• BGI - Michael Brennan Award - Best Paper, Review of Financial Studies
• Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Kellogg School of Management
• Kellogg Alumni Professor of the Year Award, Kellogg School of Managment, 2010
• Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Management, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2003, 2001, 1999, 1996
• Editor's Choice Award, Review of Financial Studies, 2010
• Michael Brennan Award (runner-up), Barclays Global Investors, 2010
• Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Business and Management, 2003
• Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Business and Management, 2001
• L.G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, Kellogg School of Management, 2000
• Outstanding Professor of the Year, Kellogg School of Business and Management, 2000
• Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Business and Management, 1999
• Michael Brennan Award, Barclays Global Investors, 1998
• Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award, Kellogg School of Business and Management, 1996
• Smith Breeden Distinguished Paper Award, American Finance Association, 1995
• Sloan Fellowship, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 1989-1990
• National Science Foundation Fellowship, National Science Foundation, 1986-1989

• Associate Editor, Journal of Finance, 2004-2013
• Associate Editor, Financial Management, 2002-2009
• Editor, Journal of Financial Management, 1998-2002
• Associate Editor, Journal of Finanicial Intermediation, 1995-1997
• Associate Editor, Review of Financial Studies, 1995-1997

Corporate finance (valuation, capital structure, and dividend policy), tax strategy, and real options

Business for Scientists and Engineers

For practitioners and academics in science and engineering, this highly focused program provides a solid grounding in business concepts, industry-specific tools and practical frameworks for developing the business acumen you need to advance your life’s work.

Corporate Finance

Learn how you can create greater shareholder value by valuing investments more accurately, making more informed financial decisions and designing a more consistent, cohesive corporate investment and finance strategy.

Empowering Women: From the Poker Table to a Seat at the Executive Leadership Table

Kellogg is partnering with Poker Power to offer a unique and highly innovative program that will provide women across all levels of their companies with an opportunity to develop key leadership skills in an educational, supportive, engaging and entertaining environment.

Family Enterprise Boards

Family businesses are uniquely complex enterprises. This program empowers current and future directors of family-owned businesses to navigate the challenges posed by those organizations while learning to design, engage and lead boards that leverage their companies’ strategic advantages.

Private Equity

Participants in this highly interactive program, master the processes and tools required to unleash the potential in individuals, energize their teams, and empower people to achieve consistently higher levels of performance and deliver better bottom-line results.

Strategic Capabilities for Emerging Business Leaders

This highly interactive, live virtual program positions the high-performing, emerging leader to make bold career moves, laying the foundation for general management and leadership of the broader business. Through an exploration of strategic business functions with some of Kellogg’s leading faculty, you will immerse yourself in how to lead in a complex, competitive, global market.

The PHYSICIAN CEO™ Program
Women's Senior Leadership Program

Kellogg created this special leadership program for women executives to equip top women talent to break through the barriers that have historically impeded their career development and empower them to take their place at the highest levels of corporate leadership.

Capstone Course (STRTX-470-0)


Strategic Financial Management (FINCX-442-0)
Strategic Financial Management examines financial management theory and cases. Students use valuation skills to determine the cost of capital, financing and operating issues faced by the firm.

Managerial Finance II (FINCX-441-0)
Managerial Finance II analyzes corporate financial decisions. Topics include market efficiency, capital structure, dividend and stock repurchase policy, and firms’ use of options and convertible securities.

Field Study (FINC-498-0)
Field Studies include those opportunities outside of the regular curriculum in which a student is working with an outside company or non-profit organization to address a real-world business challenge for course credit under the oversight of a faculty member.

Financial Strategy and Tax (FINC-447-0)
Taxes are a crucial component of the most investor's asset allocation decision. After tax-returns are the portion investors keep. Taxes are also a crucial component of firm's investment and financing decisions. Unfortunately, knowledge of how taxes work is often left to the experts. This means that many opportunities for creating value for firms and investors are missed. This course will not make you a tax expert. You will still need to hire a tax expert. Instead the objective is to teach you enough of the structure of tax codes (past, current, and future; US and non-US) so that you can ask intelligent tax, business, and finance questions before it is too late. The class is designed to fill the gap between an MBA who is well trained in finance and the tax experts that you will rely on in your career. This is a rare and thus valuable position to be in. We will first develop a set of fundamental tax and finance concepts. We then will apply this to a wide range of investment, financing, and risk management applications. Derivatives is recommended but not required. I will have a tutorial/refresher for those who want it. Ask if you have questions. Course web site.

Accelerated Corporate Finance (FINC-440-0)
Corporate finance covers the financial knowledge you need to run a firm, whether the firm is a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate or a three-person start up. Accelerated Corporate Finance will combine the material from Finance 1 and Finance 2 in an intensive one-quarter course. We will cover valuation (discounted cash flow, multiples, and real options), capital structure (how firms finance themselves and how they manage risk), and payout policy (should firms return capital to investors and if so how). For more details, you should read the descriptions of Finance 1 and Finance 2. The logical concepts will be covered in class, technical skills and intuition will be developed in class and through online exercises, and then the logic and tools will be applied to a set of valuation, financing, risk management, and payout cases. Given the pace of the course, students are expected to be prepared to put in the extra effort in class and outside of class. Basic finance knowledge (discounting) and accounting is assumed

Prerequisite: Business Analytics I (DECS-430-5)

Corequisite/Prerequisite: Accounting for Decision Making (ACCT-430) and Business Analytics II (DECS 431-0)