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                               Jim Nolen                            

Distinguished Senior Lecturer

Department of Finance 

	Office: GSB 4.126G	Phone: (512) 471-5798
	Campus mail code: B6600	Fax: (512) 471-5073
	Office Hours: TTH 11:00-12:15, 2:00-3:00	Email: james.nolen@mccombs.utexas.edu

    

Jim Nolen received his B.B.A. and M.B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin. He has taught multiple sections of both the undergraduate and graduate small business finance classes since 1980. Current classes include three sections of the graduate Fin 394.4 Financial Management of the Small Firm course each semester.    His research and teaching interests include corporate finance, business valuation, mergers and acquisitions, entrepreneurship and capital formation for private enterprises. He lectures regularly in Executive Education and Management Development Programs on financial topics for companies such as Texas Instruments, Dell, Motorola, Shell Oil, MD Anderson, HB Zachary, Vought Aircraft, FedEx-Kinkos, Essilor International, PetSmart and State Farm Insurance. Jim brings practical business experience from operating his own businesses, providing financial consulting services to privately held companies and serving on the board of directors of small and middle-market firms. He served as Associate Director of The Center for Small And Middle-Sized Enterprises and The Community Minority Business Advancement Program for over 10 years.  Jim serves as the faculty advisor for the graduate Entrepreneurs Society and the Venture Fellows Program.  Jim also teaches in the Executive MBA degree program in Mexico City and  has taught in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Executive MBA program, the Turku Finland School of Economics and the IMADEC University Executive MBA program in Vienna, Austria. 

Jim is the recipient of numerous teaching awards including the Hank and Mary Harkins Foundation Teaching Award, a two-time recipient of the Mary and Vijay Mahajan Teaching Award in Executive Education, a eight consecutive time recipient of the Graduate Business Council’s Teaching Award for Best Ability to Link Academics to Business Practice and a Faculty Honor Roll member for 16 consecutive semesters. 

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Description of Classes Taught

Fin 394.4  - Financial Management of the Small Firm 

Beginning the fall semester 2006, Jim combined his Small Business Finance and Entrepreneurial Harvest sections of FIN 394.4.  The course remains part of the entrepreneurship specialization.  This case-based course includes topics such as legal forms of organization, sources of capital, asset forecasting and external funds requirements, capital structure policy, cost of capital, business valuation and exit strategies.   Harvesting cases include merger and acquisition, IPO, roll-ups, recapitalizations, bankruptcy, and leveraged buyouts.  In lieu of a case based written final, students are given the option of doing a team-based consulting project with a privately-held company.    Case discussion and class participation accounts for 30% of the student's grade.  The written midterm case is 25% of the student's grade and homework exercises and quizzes account for 20% of the grade.  The final 25% of the student's grade is comprised of the option for the written case final or the semester long consulting project. 

Students enrolled in the class can access course documents,  view links to databases and valuation sources and access electronic versions of the cases on BlackBoard using their EID and password.