Julian Franks
Emeritus Professor of Finance
BA (Sheffield) MBA (Columbia) PhD (London)
Julian Franks is Emeritus Professor of Finance at London Business School. An expert in corporate finance, his research focuses on bankruptcy and financial distress, corporate ownership and control, shareholder activism by both hedge funds and active asset managers, cost of capital, and regulation. His work has been published in leading finance journals, and his research on ownership and control (with Colin Mayer and Stefano Rossi) has won two international prizes. Two further papers have won best paper awards from the Journal of Financial Intermediation.
Julian has served as Academic Director of London Business School's Centre for Corporate Governance and has held Visiting Professor positions at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Julian has extensive advisory and policy experience. He was formerly an adviser to the Competition and Markets Authority and a partner at the consulting firm OXERA. He previously advised Ofcom for more than 15 years, acting as an expert in three appeals to the Competition Authority, and has served as adviser to the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, as a member of the advisory board of ORR, and as a member of an appeals panel for the New Zealand Commerce Commission. He has also served on the DTI–Treasury committee reviewing the UK's insolvency code, on the Company Law Review's committees on corporate governance, and on the Breedon committee on non-bank sources of finance.
- jfranks@london.edu
- +44 (0)20 7000 8261
- Julian Franks CV
See all content by Julian
Academic and Professional Experience
Emeritus Professor of Finance, London Business School
Partner, OXERA Consulting
Adviser, Competition and Markets Authority
Editor, Journal of Law, Finance and Accounting (former)
Associate Editor, various finance journals (former)
Academic Director, Centre for Corporate Governance, London Business School (former)
Adviser, Ofcom (former, more than 15 years)
Member, Advisory Board, ORR — regulator for Network Rail (former)
Member, Appeals Panel, New Zealand Commerce Commission (former)
Adviser, Water Industry Commission for Scotland (former)
Member, Breedon Committee on non-bank sources of finance (former)
Member, Company Law Review committees on corporate governance (former)
Member, DTI–Treasury Committee reviewing the UK's insolvency code (former)
Adviser (with Professor Brealey), Office of Constitutional Affairs — outside equity for law firms (former)
Adviser, Treasury Committee chaired by Paul Myners — review of governance of mutuals (former)
Visiting Professor, University of California, Berkeley (former)
Visiting Professor, University of California, Los Angeles (former)
Visiting Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (former)
Awards and Honours
Winner of the Best Working Paper Competition sponsored by the ECGI for the paper entitled ‘Ownership, Evolution and Regulation’, joint with Colin Mayer and Stefano Rossi.
Winner of the Clinical Paper Competition sponsored by the Journal of Financial Economics and the ECGI for the paper entitled ‘Ownership, Evolution and Regulation’, joint with Colin Mayer and Stefano Rossi.
Winner of Best Paper Prize (2006) awarded by the Journal of Financial Intermediation, for the paper entitled ‘Financial Innovations and Corporate Insolvency’, 2005, joint with Oren Sussman.
Winner of Best Paper Prize (2001) awarded by the Journal of Financial Intermediation, for the paper entitled ‘Who disciplines management of poorly performing companies’, 2001, joint with Colin Mayer and Luc Renneboog.
Nominated for the Best Research Paper Prize in 2005 by the Review of Finance (top 3 nominations) for ‘Financial distress and bank restructuring of small to medium size UK companies’, joint with Oren Sussman.
Award for "Best Teacher", Senior Executive Programme, 1989.
Teaching portfolio
Our teaching offering is updated annually. Faculty and programme material are subject to change.