George Kester Emeritus Professor of Finance

Huntley 302A
540-458-8613
kesterg@wlu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

George W. Kester

George Kester joined the Williams School of Commerce, Economics and Politics faculty in 2000 as the Mamie Fox Twyman Martel Professor of Finance and Head of the Management Department, now Business Administration. He previously held the William H. Dunkak Endowed Chair in Finance at Bucknell University and was on the faculty of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.

Since 1995, he has traveled each summer to Slovenia to teach at the University of Ljubljana and from 2001 to 2015 to Australia to teach the capstone case course in the Master of Finance program at The University of Melbourne. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Hawai’i, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, National University of Ireland Galway, University of the South Pacific, University of Malaya, and National University of Singapore.

Professor Kester has been extensively involved in executive education. He has led seminars and taught in management development programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the U.S. He has been a member of the faculty of the Pennsylvania Bankers Association School of Commercial Lending since 1987 and has led programs for the Jakarta Stock Exchange, Singapore Institute of Management, UniCredit Bank, Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Singapore Airlines, Monash South Africa, and other organizations. His travels have also taken him to South America and Antarctica.

His has published two books and numerous articles appearing in academic and practitioner journals. His research focuses on applied corporate finance and financial education. He has worked with researchers in the Asia-Pacific region to survey executives of listed companies regarding their companies’ financial practices and their perceptions of various issues related to dividends, capital structure policy, financing decisions, capital investment analysis, and cost of capital. His research also includes empirical studies of market timing investment asset-mix decisions.

During his academic career, his highest priority and passion has always been teaching, especially using the case method to teach finance. He has written journal articles describing his approaches to teaching and led faculty teaching workshops at various universities and academic conferences. A recipient of teaching and conference paper awards, he was honored in 2018 by the Financial Education Association with the inaugural Jean L. Heck Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Financial Education.

Prior to his academic career, he was president of Financial Analysis Systems, Inc., a computer software and consulting company. He has also been a data services marketing representative with The Service Bureau Company and held various positions in management accounting, credit analysis, and commercial lending with First Union National Bank, now Wells Fargo.

Over the years, George and his family have enjoyed backpacking, white water canoeing, skiing, scuba diving, and international travel. He and his wife Karen have two sons, Brian and Ben, and two grandchildren, Beth and Adam. Karen, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is a retired commercial and residential interior designer and an award-winning photographer.

Education

D.B.A., Darden School of Business, University of Virginia
M.B.A., University of North Carolina at Charlotte
B.B.A., Wake Forest University

Research

Applied Corporate Finance
Financial Education

Teaching

Managerial Finance
Cases in Corporate Finance
Corporate Mergers, Leveraged Buyouts & Divestitures