Professor Dimitris Petmezas is a Professor of Finance in his second tenure at Durham University Business School as he also held the position of Lecturer in Finance over the period 2005-2007. Prior to taking up the current position he was a Professor, Reader and Senior Lecturer in Finance at Surrey Business School. Professor Petmezas was also a Visiting Scholar at University of Chicago Booth School of Business and New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business. He was educated at Aristotle University (BA in Economics) and Durham University (MSc in Finance and Investment with Distinction, and PhD in Finance). He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a visiting-academic in several European Business Schools teaching in EMBA, MBA and MSc programmes. Additionally, he is an independent M&A advisor and has also worked as an investment analyst.
Professor Petmezas’ main research interests lie in the area of Corporate Finance and, more specifically, in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As), corporate governance, corporate innovation and CSR. He is also interested in issues related with CEO characteristics, as well as cash holdings, asset sales, financial misconduct, and working capital management (WCM). Professor Petmezas has published extensively in leading international journals including the Journal of Finance, Management Science, Review of Finance, Research Policy, and Journal of Corporate Finance. His paper titled “When It Pays to Pay Your Investment Banker: New Evidence on the Role of Financial Advisors in M&As” was the 3rd most-read article in 2012 in the Journal of Finance among all articles that have ever been published in the Journal of Finance. Professor Petmezas has also been invited to deliver speeches and present his research at more than 50 Universities in the USA, Canada, Europe and China. Additionally, his research has been featured on the programs of more than 70 high profile international conferences, such as the American Finance Association (AFA) Conference, the European Finance Association (EFA) Conference, the Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (AEA), and the American Accounting Association (AAA) Conference, receiving awards, such as the best paper award in International Finance at the Southwestern Finance Association (SWFA) Conference in 2009, and quoted in widely read international media, such as the Financial Times, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, and Management Today. Professor Petmezas serves as an ad-hoc referee in several academic journals and research grants’ bodies and also acts as an external examiner in a number of academic institutions.