Dr. Chao Chen is the Founding Director of the Center for China Finance and Business Research (CCFBR). Professor Chen received his B.S. in Statistics and his Master of Commerce from National Chengchi University in Taipei in 1976 and 1980, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1988. His research interests include corporate finance (capital structure, IPO, M&A, corporate restructuring, and corporate governance), investments (asset pricing and asset management), emerging markets, and derivatives (options, futures, and risk management). In addition to books and professional journals, Dr. Chen has published a large number of academic journal articles related to finance. Dr. Chen was a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in 2000-2008 and has been an adjunct doctoral student supervisor at Nankai University since 2005. He has served as a dissertation co-chair for several doctoral students at Peking University and Tsinghua University. Dr. Chen has served as an overseas expert for the Natural National Science Foundation in China from 2001 to 2003. Dr. Chen has given more than 40 presentations at academic and professional conferences in recent years. He has served as an invited guest speaker or keynote speaker of 2004 Wharton School’s China Business Forum, 2004 International Conference on Empirical Research in Accounting in Tianjin, 2005 Shanghai Forum, 2006 Global and Chinese Consumer Conference in New York. Dr. Chen served as the program chair of 2003 Global Finance Association Annual Conference at Peking University and 2006 CCFBR Forum on “Globalization and China’s Financial Services Industry” in Beijing.  Since 1996, he has lectured at Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, Beijing Normal University, Jilin University, Xiamen University, Central South University in Changsa, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Jiangxi University Finance and Economics, and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu. Moreover, he frequently attended conferences at National Taiwan University and National Chengchi University. Dr Chen also serves as a consultant of Gerson Lehrman Group. After 20-year full time services at CSUN and  as a tenured full professor in Finance, he decided to take early retirement in May 2008 but would continue to explore his research interests in China finance and economics.