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Dr. Ramesh K.S. Rao
Dr. Ramesh K.S. Rao
Eugene and Margaret McDermott Professor of Finance, Department of Finance
Director, McCombs Wealth Management Center, University of Texas at Austin
- DBA., Indiana University
- MBA, Indiana University
- B Tech, Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India
Ramesh K.S. Rao is the McDermott Centennial Professor of Banking and Finance at the McCombs School of Business. His research interests include asset pricing, informational asymmetry, and the interface between finance and both marketing and operations management.
Dr. Rao has published in the American Economic Review, the Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and the Journal of Marketing, among others. He is the author of Financial Management: Concepts and Applications, 3rd ed., Fundamentals of Financial Management, and A Theory of the Firm’s Cost of Capital (with E. Stevens). His book (with V. Agrawal) titled Corporate Financial Decisions Under Informational Asymmetry is forthcoming in 2015. He has received the Outstanding Professor Award, the Joe Beasley Award, the Jack G. Taylor Teaching Excellence Award, Outstanding Professor Award in the Executive MBA Program, the Excellence in Education Award and the Regents Award at The University of Texas. He also served as Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Director of the Texas MBA Program from 1997-1999. More recently, Dr. Rao was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers.
In addition to his academic background, Dr. Rao has had extensive consulting experience in the areas of bankruptcy, corporate restructuring, corporate valuation corporate litigation and executive education. He has testified as expert in, among others, American Express vs. Visa et al. , The State of Alaska v. Veco Corporation, and Boone v. CIGNA. He was appointed the sole valuation expert in the bankruptcy restructuring of First City Corporation. His clients include the Federal Home Loan Banks, Intel Corporation, Burlington Northern, Deutsche Bank and Fidelity Investments. He has served on the Boards of Directors of companies and has testified as an expert witness in the Federal Bankruptcy Courts. In addition to conducting seminars for IBM, Arthur Young, Chase Banks, Texas Instruments, Motorola, Phillips Petroleum, and Halliburton, Dr. Rao has participated in several executive development programs in the U.S. and abroad.
Dima Yazji Shamoun, Ph.D.
Dima Yazji Shamoun, Ph.D.
Dima Shamoun is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Finance and the Assistant Director of the Wealth Management Center at the McCombs School of Business, where she teaches economics in the MBA and BBA programs. Dima has been with UT Austin since she joined the Department of Economics as a Lecturer and the Center for Politics & Governance as the Associate Director of Research in May of 2016. She has been teaching both graduate and undergraduate students in introductory and advanced courses since spring 2011. She also serves on the MBA Programs Committee and the Wealth Management Student Recruiting and Placement Committee.
Prior to joining UT, she held the positions of a Graduate Lecturer at George Mason University (GMU), Research Fellow at the GMU Mercatus Center, and a part-time Assistant Professor of Economics at Southwestern University.
Dima was born in Damascus, Syria, and earned her BA in mathematics and economics, and her Ph.D. in economics, from GMU in Virginia. Her research focus is in law and economics, political economy, and risk assessment and she has published articles in the Journal of Public Choice, the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology, Health Physics, the Journal of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, and she is a co-editor of a two-volume anthology of Macroeconomics.
William Way
William J. Way
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- Associate Chair, Department of Finance
- Professor of Instruction
- Program Advisor, McCombs Real Estate Program
- Academic Coordinator, McCombs Wealth Management Program
MBA, The University of Texas at Austin, 1989
BA, The University of Texas at Austin, 1980
William Way is the Associate Chair of the Department of Finance and a Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches corporate finance. Professor Way also serves as the Program Advisor for the Texas McCombs Real Estate Program and the Academic Coordinator for the Texas McCombs Wealth Management Program.
Prior to joining the UT faculty in 2004, Professor Way held teaching positions at Austin Community College, Southwestern University, and St. Edward’s University. In addition to his academic background, he has over 30 years of experience in the corporate sector and currently serves as the Chairman and CFO of Vista-Scape, Inc., a landscape contracting and service company.
Professor Way is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Financial Planner®. In addition, he holds the industry designations of Accredited Asset Management Specialist, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and Chartered Mutual Fund Counselor.
Professor Way was the Finance Department Nominee for the Hank and Mary Harkins Foundation Teaching Excellence Award for 2008-2009 and 2016-2017. He was recognized as a member of the McCombs School Faculty Honor Roll in 2006, 2007, and 2020. Professor Way received the Outstanding Adjunct Award from St. Edward’s University Graduate Programs in 2000.
Professor Way was voted the Favorite Faculty Member of the McCombs School of Business Class of 2009. In 2011, he was recognized by Delta Sigma Pi, an academic fraternity, for his outstanding service and contribution to The University of Texas. During the fall 2018 semester, Professor Way completed the University of Texas Executive Management and Leadership Program (UTEMLP).
