By Lacie Blankenship
Jung Hoon Lee
Jung Hoon Lee, Senior Lecturer in Finance, is one of 6 additions to the Vanderbilt Business faculty for this academic year.
Lee brings an investigative approach to his work. “I have always wanted to find my own answers to my questions and have found that the best way to do that is to research the problems that I am interested in for a deeper understanding,” he says.
His research focuses on mutual funds; more specifically, he studies mutual fund manager contracting, the trading and investment behavior of mutual funds, and the effects of different mutual fund scenarios.
Originally from Korea, Lee had the opportunity to study as an exchange student at the University of Oklahoma while completing his undergraduate degree in finance. Shortly after graduation, Lee moved to Michigan, where he obtained his master’s degree in applied statistics before pursuing his doctorate in finance from Indiana University. Lee spent the last 7 years as an Assistant Professor of Finance at Tulane.
While at the University of Oklahoma, Lee found a starting point in his career path as a result of an influential professor’s open-door policy.
“When I was an exchange student at the University of Oklahoma, I met a great professor; I often went to office hours with that professor to discuss my interests in finance, and one day they asked, ‘why don’t you pursue your PhD?’ It was a starting point for me,” says Lee.
Lee, a visiting professor at Vanderbilt Business, intends to continue in a role as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) after COVID-19 travel restrictions are lifted.
For the time being, Lee is thrilled with the opportunity to be part of the Vanderbilt Business faculty and is looking forward to working alongside professors. “I’m a big fan of their research,” he notes.
“To me, this is a great opportunity, because I will get to know and interact with the faculty,” says Lee. He is “motivated to build more insight about [his] research areas and hope[s] to develop some projects together.”
Lee will be teaching Derivatives and Investments in the daytime MBA and MSF programs, where he is excited to break down finance topics and uphold his own open-door policy for his students.
Lee wants his students to take advantage of his open-door policy and hopes to build personalized connections with each of his students.
“I enjoy meeting with students, I will even meet them during the weekend,” says Lee. “We can talk about anything from concerns to professional goals; I have an open-door policy because I have benefited a lot from open-door policies, especially when it comes to topics like finance, which can be intimidating.”
