Skip to main content

Experience Stern | NYU Stern Dean: Raghu Sundaram

Raghu Sundaram standing in front of Kaufman Management Center

Raghu Sundaram

Dean, Leonard N. Stern School of Business


Raghu Sundaram is Dean and the Edward I. Altman Professor of Credit and Debt Markets at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. He was appointed Dean on January 1, 2018, having previously served as Vice Dean for MBA Programs and Online Learning from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2017.

As Dean, and previously Vice Dean, Dean Sundaram has led Stern to historic annual fundraising levels and increases in financial aid; record incoming class metrics and job placement statistics; the launch of many new degree programs and the expansion of Stern’s global footprint; Stern’s entry into online education; and the establishment of several new, high-profile initiatives, particularly at the intersection of business, entrepreneurship, and technology. He also established the School’s first Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Dean Sundaram’s academic work in finance spans a number of areas including agency problems, executive compensation, corporate finance, derivatives pricing, and credit risk and credit derivatives. He has also published extensively in mathematical economics, decision theory, and game theory. His research has appeared in leading academic journals in finance and economics, as well as in several practitioner-oriented journals. He is the author of two books: A First Course in Optimization Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1996) and Derivatives: Principles and Practice (McGraw-Hill, 2010).

Dean Sundaram has taught courses across Stern’s Undergraduate, MBA, PhD, and Executive Education programs. Of all the awards he has received over the years, he is most proud of being the inaugural recipient of Stern’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2007. He has a long record of service to the School and the University, including as chair of the Tenured and Tenure-track Faculty Senators Council and as a member of NYU’s Presidential Search Committee in both 2014 and 2023. Dean Sundaram currently serves as a member of the Academic Council of Krea University and Advisory Council of Shiv Nadar University Delhi-NCR, both in India, and the Advisory Board of the Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Beijing, China.

Prior to joining NYU Stern in 1996, Dean Sundaram was on the faculty of the University of Rochester from 1988-96. He received a bachelor of arts degree in economics from the University of Madras, India, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a PhD in economics from Cornell University.

Academic Background

Ph.D., Economics, 1988 Cornell University
M.A., Economics, 1987 Cornell University
M.B.A., 1984 Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India
B.A., Economics, 1982 University of Madras, India


Areas of Research

Derivatives
Derivatives: equity, interest-rate, & credit-risk
Executive Compensation
Agency & executive compensation
Corporate Finance
Corporate finance
Dynamic & Stochastic Games
Dynamic & stochastic games
Bandit Problems
Optimal learning & bandit problems
Economics
Game theory, economics, & dynamic programming

Selected Papers

Underwriting Government Debt Auctions: Auction Choice and Information Production

July 27, 2020
Read Paper

Understanding Government Debt Options

October 25, 2016
Read Paper

CDS Auctions and Informative Biases in CDS Recovery Rates

August 2012
Read Paper

First-Purchase Rights: Rights of First Refusal and Rights of First Offer

October 10, 2012
Read Paper

Derivatives in Financial Market Development

February 2013
Read Paper

Cross-Country Variations in Capital Structure: The Role of Bankruptcy Codes

February 17, 2010
Read Paper

An Integrated Model for Hybrid Securities

2007
Read Paper

Books

A First Course in Optimization Theory

A First Course in Optimization Theory

This book introduces students to optimization theory and its use in economics and allied disciplines. The first of its three parts examines the existence of solutions to optimization problems in Rn, and how these solutions may be identified. The second part explores how solutions to optimization problems change with changes in the underlying parameters, and the last part provides an extensive description of the fundamental principles of finite- and infinite-horizon dynamic programming. A preliminary chapter and three appendices are designed to keep the book mathematically self-contained.
Derivates: Principles & Pracitces

Derivatives

It has been the authors' experience that the overwhelming majority of students in MBA derivatives courses go on to careers where a deep conceptual, rather than solely mathematical, understanding of products and models is required. The first edition of Derivatives looks to create precisely such a blended approach, one that is formal and rigorous, yet intuitive and accessible.