Steven Kaplan

Steven N. Kaplan is the Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Booth). He joined the faculty in 1988. Professor Kaplan is also the faculty director of Booth’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship.

Professor Kaplan is one of the world’s top researchers on private equity, venture capital and corporate governance. His papers on LBOs and private equity are the standard references in the field. He has testified to U.S. Senate and U.S. House Committees about his research. His findings and opinions regularly appear in prominent business media. Professor Kaplan is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Finance and the Journal of Financial Economics.

Professor Kaplan teaches advanced M.B.A. and executive courses in entrepreneurial finance and private equity, corporate financial management, corporate governance, and wealth management. His course in entrepreneurial finance and private equity is consistently among the most popular in the school.

Kaplan co-founded the entrepreneurship program at Booth. With his students, he helped start Booth’s business plan competition, the New Venture Challenge, which has spawned over sixty companies that have raised over $200 million. Professor Kaplan serves on the board or advisory board of Accretive Health, Columbia Acorn Funds, Morningstar and Sandbox Industries. He also serves on the board of the Kauffman Fellows Program, an educational program that trains emerging leaders in venture capital and high-growth companies.

He earned his Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University. He received his A.B.,summa cum laude, in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Harvard College.He and his wife, Carol Rubin, live in Chicago with their two sons.