Robert Neal
Associate Professor of Finance
"Academics are driven by the power of ideas and how to make sense out of the world. The challenge for researchers in business schools today is finding topics and issues that are both interesting to fellow academic researchers and relevant to policy. Taking what we know and making it accessible to a broader audience is something we all should be better about doing."
As an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank, Robert Neal first became interested in understanding how the economy and other factors influenced corporate profits. Today, as a professor of finance at the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, he has expanded his areas of business expertise to include risk management, derivatives and investment management.
In addition to assessing how companies measure and manage their risk exposures, Neal also investigates how firms can make sensible risk and return tradeoffs for strategic and operational decisions.
"My research is all about looking closely at the kinds of risks companies are exposed to, and whether they are compensated for bearing those risks," explains Neal. "In the area of risk management, it's vital for companies to determine which types of risks they should assume, and which ones they should hedge. Because many companies don't have a good sense of this tradeoff, this makes for an interesting area of research."
A member of the Kelley Indianapolis faculty since 1996, Neal believes the Kelley school is one of the best places in the nation for research, primarily due to its size and emphasis on and encouragement of cross-disciplinary research projects.
"Undertaking interdisciplinary research here at Kelley is relatively easy, and that is very attractive to some researchers," says Neal. "I'm not aware of too many other schools that have made cross-disciplinary research such a strong focus of their program."
Neal has served as a consultant for a variety of firms and organizations, including Bank One Financial Services, the Hoosier Lottery, RiskMetrics Group, the CFA Society of Indianapolis, and the Jakarta Stock Exchange.
