Essentials of Finance

Academic Director: Professor Michael Roberts

Michael R. Roberts is the William H. Lawrence Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and an affiliate of the Institute for Law and Economics and the Wharton Financial Institutions Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He also founded and heads the Wharton Financial Analytics Initiative. Professor Roberts’ research spans corporate finance, banking, and asset pricing. Recent work has examined equity pricing anomalies, collateralized loan obligation (CLO) performance, and the effect of interest rates on bank lending. His research has received several awards including two Brattle Prizes for Distinguished Paper published in the Journal of Finance, a Jensen Prize for best paper on Corporate Finance and Organizations published in the Journal of Financial Economics, and Best Paper awards from the Financial Management Association, Southwestern Finance Association, and Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.  

Professor Roberts earned his B.A. in Economics from the University of California at San Diego, and his M.A. in Statistics and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.  

Program Leader: Wayne Williams

Dr. Wayne W. Williams is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at Temple University’s Fox School of Business. He is also the Faculty Advisor for the National Association of Black Accountants. 

Williams worked in several roles as an accounting and tax professional, financial advisor and administrative leader in private industry and government prior to joining academia.   

He joined the Fox School from the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), where he had served since 2004 as a faculty member and as the Department Chair for Business Administration before becoming the Director of Education Services for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program, an entrepreneurship education program that was CCP’s largest grant award to date. He was appointed to Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s Task Force on Tax Policy and Economic Competitiveness in 2009. He is currently a member of the Philadelphia Department of Revenue Commissioner’s Tax Advisory Committee and concurrently serves on the City of Philadelphia’s Tax Reform Working Group, 2021-2022.  

Williams earned his Doctor of Education in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Master of Science in Taxation and Financial Planning from Widener University, and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the Fox School.  He is also an IRS Enrolled Agent and Certified Financial Planner™. 

Instructor: TBA

Teaching Assistants

Teaching Assistants consist of both undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Pennsylvania. TAs facilitate small-group discussions, ensure student understanding, assist with final project development, and hold office hours to answer student questions and share their Penn and Wharton experiences.