Professional Faculty
Finance
About
Ananth Madhavan, a member of the professional faculty and executive director of the Master of Financial Engineering Program at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Ananth has extensive practical and academic experience, with a focus on market microstructure, trading, asset management, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He is the author of an Oxford University Press book on ETFs and Index Investing and has published over 60 articles in leading academic and practitioner journals.
His practical experience includes a variety of senior research roles as a Managing Director at BlackRock (2009-2024), Barclays Global Investors (2003-2009), and Investment Technology Group (2000-2003) where he was a member of the firm’s management and executive committees. Prior to moving to industry, Ananth was the Charles B. Thorton Professor of Finance at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and the W. P. Carey Term Assistant Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Ananth earned a BA degree from the University of Delhi, MA degree from Boston University, and a PhD in economics from Cornell University.
Expertise and Research Interests
- Financial Innovation
- Trading and Markets
- ETFs
- “What Happens with More Funds Than Stocks” with Aleksander Sobczyk and Andrew Ang, Journal of Investment Management, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2021. Winner of the 2022 Harry Markowitz Award for Best Paper.
- “Click or call? Auction versus Search in the Over-the- Counter Market,” with Terrence Hendershott, Journal of Finance, 2015, 70 (1), 419-445.
- “Portfolio Construction and Tail Risk,” with Christopher Downing, Ajit Singh, and Alexander Ulitsky, 2015. Journal of Portfolio Management, 42(1): 85-102.
- “Equity ETFs vs. Index Futures: A Comparison for the Fully-Funded Investor.” with Ursula Marchioni, Wei Li and Daphne Du, 2014. Journal of Index Investing 5(2), 66-75.
At Haas since 2016
- Dec 2024 – present, Executive Director, MFE Haas School of Business
- 2016 – present, Lecturer, Haas School of Business
- 2022 – 2024, BlackRock Inc. Managing Director, Head of Academic Engagement
- 2013 – 2022, BlackRock Inc. Managing Director, Global Head of Research for ETFs and Index Investing
- 2009 – 2013, BlackRock Inc., Managing Director, Global Head of Trading Research & Global Head of Transition Management
- 2003 – 2009, Barclays Global Investors (acquired by BlackRock) Managing Director, Global Head of Trading Research
- 2000 – 2003, ITG Inc. Managing Director, Research
- 1994 – 2000, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Charles B. Thorton Professor of Finance
- 1993 – 1994, New York Stock Exchange, Inc., Visiting Economist
- 1988 – 1994, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, W. P. Carey Term Assistant Professor of Finance
- 2013 – 2015, Board of Directors, NQuotient LLC
- 2011 – present, Advisory Board, UCLA Anderson School of Management MFE program
- 2011 – 2021, Advisory Board, NYU Courant Institute Mathematical Finance program
- 2006 – 2013, Advisory Board of Journal of Investment Management (JOIM)
- 1992 − present, Program Committee Member, Western Finance Association Meetings
● Member of several academic and industry boards including NASD Economic Advisory Board, AIMR Task Force on Best Execution, Advisory Committee to the Center for the Study of Securities Markets, American Finance Association Program Committee
● Graham and Dodd Award for Best Article (2012): CFA Institute
● Graham and Dodd Award of Excellence (1998, 2003)