Ludovic Phalippou is Lecturer in Finance at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He specialises in private equity funds and his research in this area has been published in leading academic and practitioner journals such as the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. His work has also had a strong impact within the private equity industry.

Phalippou focuses on the areas of private equity funds that are of interest to investors and potential investors in that asset class, such as risk management, liquidity and measurement of returns.

As well as speaking at practitioner conferences, he writes reports with a particular focus on the mechanisms of private equity. He has strong links with senior practitioners in the industry and brings his deep interest in the concerns facing professionals across the world into his teaching and research.

His activities include international consultancy, global speaking engagements, presentations at universities academic seminars, and appearances at leading academic conferences. His work has been picked up by the media internationally.

He worked at the University of Amsterdam from 2004 to 2010, first as Assistant Professor then as Associate Professor of Finance. Phalippou joined Saïd Business School in 2011.

Phalippou achieved a degree in Economics from Toulouse School of Economics in 1998; a Masters degree in Economics in 1999 and a further Masters in Mathematical Finance in 2000, both from the University of Southern California. He then went on to a PhD in Finance from INSEAD which he completed in 2004.

The focus of Phalippou’s research is private equity funds and the measurement of their performance, especially the measurement of risk and returns. His work in this area has been published in leading journals and presented at key international academic conferences. His thinking also attracts the attention of the professional investment communities.

Phalippou’s research is extremely applied. He seeks to answer the questions asked in every-day practice, so he is driven by the relevance to practitioners. He has a deep knowledge of practice and this – combined with his strong academic background – means he can bring innovative solutions to the issues that confront practitioners. An example of this is his paper entitled ‘A new method to estimate risk and return of non-traded assets from cash flows’ which will be published during 2012 in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.

Journals
Private equity performance and liquidity risk, 2012, with F. Franzoni and E. Novak, Journal of Finance forthcoming.
A new approach to regulating private equity, 2012, with P. Morris, Journal of Corporate Law Studies.
A new method to estimate risk and return of non-traded assets from cash flows: The case of private equity funds, 2012, with T.C. Lin and J. Driessen, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis forthcoming.
Venture capital funds: Performance persistence and flow-performance relation, 2010, Journal of Banking and Finance 34, 568-577
The performance of private equity funds, 2009, with O. Gottschalg, Review of Financial Studies 22(4): 1747-1776
Beware when venturing into private equity, 2009, Journal of Economic Perspectives 23(1): 147–66
Why private equity is less attractive than it looks, 2007, with O. Gottschalg, Harvard Business Review, December issue
Can recent risk-based explanations explain the value premium?, 2007, Review of Finance 11(2): 143-166

Books
Why is evidence on private equity performance so confusing?, 2012, Chapter in Private Equity Performance Measurement. Private Equity International.
Regulating Private Equity, 2010, Amsterdam Center for Corporate Finance book series. Editor: A. Boot.
Private Equity Funds Performance, Risk and Selection, 2010, Chapter 10 in Elgar’s Research Handbook on Hedge Funds, Private Equity and Alternative Investments. Editor: P. Athanassiou.
Risk and Return of Private Equity Investments: An overview, 2009, Chapter 12 in Wiley/Blackwell's Companion to Private Equity. Editor: D. Cumming.
Measuring Private Equity Performance: A closer Look, 2009, Chapter 1 in Private Equity Mathematics, Private Equity International. Editor: O. Gottschalg.

Phalippou is ranked in the top 5 from all faculty members at UK business schools by SSRN.com for the number of downloads of his articles.  

Phalippou has an informal and provocative approach to teaching, yet deeply tied to academic research. He challenges students to think deeply and question their preconceptions. It is a pragmatic approach that draws on his extensive experience of practice, to shake up expectations and stimulate the students with memorable ideas.

Phalippou uses recent newspaper articles and real case studies to focus his teaching on the developments and issues that confront practitioners. He also brings in guest speakers who are experienced professionals and reflect the broad spectrum of perspectives. His teaching approach is therefore dynamic and very much applied to practice.

Many of his classes include question-and-answer sessions because he provokes searching questions from students which he addresses by drawing on his deep understanding of practice.

Phalippou teaches the following courses at Saïd Business School:
• Private Equity for the MFE and MBA programmes
• Asset Management for the MFE and MBA programmes
• Private Equity for the EMBA programme.

Phalippou’s thinking attracts the attention of the professional investment communities.  He is engaged actively in the professional world of asset management and his work is deeply rooted in practice to be of relevance to the people working in the profession. He regularly connects with practitioners, using the development of theory and practice in order to impact upon practice in the industry.

International consultancy is a key aspect of Phalippou’s work. Recent projects include advising:
• PGGM and APG ¬– Dutch Pension Fund managers with $100 billion and $300 billion assets under management respectively.
• Norway’s sovereign wealth fund – Government Pension Fund Global – which has $570 billion assets under management.

Phalippou is a selected member of the Speaker Retainer Program of the CFA Institute and, over the last decade, he has received nearly 40 invitations to present at university seminars, including in the United States, Canada, Europe and the UK. His papers have been selected for presentation at leading academic conferences, including those run by the Western Finance Association, the American Finance Association and the European Finance Association.

He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Financial Analyst Journal and referees for a number of professional and academic journals, including American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Financial Economics, Management Science, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Financial Studies and Review of Finance.

His research has been cited in a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, the Financial Times, The Economist, Pensions and Investments, Euromoney, the Wall Street Journal and BBC World radio