Jonathan Berk

Professor Jonathan Berk

Jonathan Berk is the A.P. Giannini Professor of Finance in the Graduate School of Business (GSB) at Stanford University. His research is primarily theoretical in nature and covers a broad range of topics in finance.

Professor Berk has co-authored two leading corporate finance textbooks, his research is internationally recognized and he has won numerous international awards. He served as an associate editor of the Journal of Finance from 2000-2008, is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Portfolio Management and The Review of Finance, and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is has served on the board of directors of the American Finance Association and Financial Management Association.

Professor Berk received his PhD in finance from Yale University. Before joining Stanford he was the Sylvan Coleman Professor of Finance in Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He was born and grew up in Johannesburg, and was a student at King David High School Linksfield from 1975 to 1979.

On his time at King David, Jonathan Says, “My interest in science and research was born at King David in science class.   Dr Simpson, was an excellent teacher.  I loved history class with Mr Lowry, and his unwillingness to accept dogma contributed greatly to how I approach learning today. I have come to understand that not everybody “gets me” but the people that do can sometimes greatly impact my life.  The two teachers at King David that did that were Mrs Bame and Mrs Barkley.   They were wonderful people.”

As far as hobbies are concerned, he is an avid skier and biker.  Notable achievements in those arenas include ski descents of Mnt Rainier, Mnt Shasta and skiing the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt.  He has completed the oldest bike race in the world twice: Paris-Brest-Paris, and is the father of Hannah and Natasha.  He lives in San Francisco, California.