Brockman named Lehigh’s second Joseph R. Perella and Amy M. Perella Chair

	Paul Brockman

During his tenure on Wall Street, Joseph Perella ’64 has helped engineer many of the financial community’s largest and most complex mergers. He is widely heralded as an investment pioneer who has been responsible for billions of dollars of M&A (Merger and Acquisition) activity throughout his long career.
It goes without saying that ROI (Return on Investment) is a concept that he understands better than most. Not only has it served him well in the corridors of Wall Street, but also here at Lehigh, where he’s established the coveted Joseph R. Perella and Amy M. Perella Chairs in the College of Business and Economics.
“The university is building for the future with a unique blend of strengths and solid leadership,” says Perella, chairman of Perella Weinberg Partners. “It has been, and will continue to be, a force for positive change.”
Paul Brockman agrees. Currently the Matteson Professor of Financial Services at the University of Missouri’s Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business, Brockman will join the ranks of Lehigh’s faculty this July, when he becomes the second full professor to hold a Joseph R. Perella and Amy M. Perella Chair.
Designed to help the college attract and retain leading faculty, the Perella Chairs are awarded to faculty who can add to the publication and research exposure of the college, as well as create innovative academic offerings and enhance faculty leadership.
Brockman fits the mold. Known for his research in the areas of corporate finance, investments, capital markets, and market microstructure, Brockman brings a fine-tuned pedigree to the position that includes an impressive publication record. In the past five years alone, his research has appeared three times in the Journal of Financial Economics, recognized as the pre-eminent journal of its kind in the world.
It’s a stellar research record that will extend into Lehigh’s classrooms, where Brockman will provide an insightful perspective on the use of derivatives within the financial marketplace. Recruiting faculty who excel at both conducting research and teaching within the area of derivatives and risk management is extremely difficult, not only due to competition among universities, but also within business, says Rick Kish, chair of the Perella Department of Finance.
A profile-raising researcher
“Paul’s demonstrated a strong commitment to teaching and built a good rapport with our students when he was interviewing for the position,” says Kish. “He also has an excellent publication record, having appeared in our field’s most prominent journals. Paul’s research will help raise our profile and boost the reputation of the Perella Department of Finance, the College of Business and Economics, and Lehigh University.”
Brockman brings an international perspective to Lehigh, having spent more than 10 years at the University of Manitoba (Canada) and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He’s spent two of the last three summers teaching abroad in Bergamo, Italy.

	Gopal Krishnan

Though he will be a member of Lehigh’s newest incoming faculty class, Brockman’s path has already intersected on a few occasions with soon-to-be colleague Gopal Krishnan, the most recent college holder of a Joseph R. Perella and Amy M. Perella Chair.
Krishnan joined Lehigh in 2007 after a 16-year career at George Mason University. Like Brockman, the Perella Chairs were an attractive incentive for the accounting professor.
“My years at George Mason were an incredibly rewarding experience,” says Krishnan. “But Lehigh was clearly able to demonstrate its commitment to its faculty and its future, and enthusiastically support my ongoing professional development and research activities.”
Krishnan holds four professional certifications in accounting and his work on audit committee effectiveness, predicting financial statement fraud, and earnings quality has appeared in premier accounting journals, such as The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies, and Contemporary Accounting Research.
Like his Perella Chair peer, Krishnan brings highly-desirable international experience to the college. He previously served at the City University of Hong Kong and at the University of Manitoba, and had visiting appointments at both Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
“We’re very fortunate and honored to have such accomplished faculty hold two of our Joseph R. Perella and Amy M. Perella Chairs,” says Paul R. Brown, dean of the College of Business and Economics. Filling the Perella Chairs is a key part of Brown’s multi-year faculty recruiting campaign, which seeks to grow the college’s faculty ranks by 25%.
“Lehigh is in a great position to attract top-notch faculty to our program, and the Perella Chairs are critical to that effort,” Brown says. “The Perella Chairs best represent what our college is all about—strong research, dynamic teaching, contemporary programming—and both Krishnan and Brockman bring that to life.”
--Tom Yencho