Morten Bennedsen

Short presentation

Morten Bennedsen is Niels Bohr Professor at the University of Copenhagen and André and Rosalie Hoffmann Chaired Professor of Family Enterprise at INSEAD and the Academic Director of the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise INSEAD.

He obtained his PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1998, a Master’s degree with distinction from London School of Economics, and a Bachelor Degree from the University of Copenhagen. His area of teaching includes family business governance, corporate governance, applied microeconomics, and firm theory.

Morten Bennedsen’s main research area is the governance of family firms and other closely held corporations in a global context. His work has been published in top finance and economics journals, such as Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Political Economics and Quarterly Journals of Economics and he is the author of the book “The Family Business Map: Assets and Roadblocks in Longterm Planning”. Morten Bennedsen has won a number of research and teaching prices including the biggest Danish individual research price from the Ministry of Science.

Morten Bennedsen’s research is frequently discussed in global media outlets such as BBC Radio 1, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, and newspapers, radios and television in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, India, France, Germany, Nederland, Portugal, Norway and Denmark. He writes regularly columns for China Family Business Review and South China Morning Post.

He has served as an advisor The Danish Ministry of Business, The Danish and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, private equity funds and the World Bank. He consults and work with many families in Europe, in Asia and in the rest of the world. He frequently gives talks to family firms, corporate finance institutions, investment banks, and private equity funds on governance of family firms and the economic consequences of succession.

CV

Full CV (pdf) 

Education

Harvard University, 1994 - 1998
- Ph.D. in Economics 

London School of Economics, 1992 - 1993
- Master of Science in Advanced Mathematical Economics and Econometric with Distinction

University of Conpenhagen, Denmark, 1987 - 1990 and 1993 - 1994
- Ph.D. student in Economics 
- Bachelor of Arts in Economics, June 1990

Work Experience

• Niels Bohr Professor, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, from January 1st 2017 to December 31st 2021. 
• Andre and Roslie Hofmann Charired Professor of Family Enterprise and Professor in Economics, INSEAD. August 2009 to present.
• Professor in Economics, Institute of Economics, Copenhagen Business School. November 2002 to August 2009. 

Honorary Positions 

• Honorary Professor at Hasselt University, May 30th 2017 
• Honorary Visiting Researcher, China Academy of Corporate Governance, September 6th, 2013

Editional Work 

• Editor of Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 2008 - 2010
• Guest Editor Special Issue on Family Firms, September 6th 2013

Affiliations

• Academic Director INSEAD Family Business Group, June 2010 to present 
• Academic Director Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise (WICFE), June 2010 to present 
• Co-Derector of Hofmann Research Fond in Family Enterprise, INSEAD
• Member of CEPR
• Research Director Centre of Economic and Business REsearch (CEBR), 2005 to 2009
• Member of Centre for Industrial Economics, CIE
• Member of and Chairman of the board of Centre for Corporate Governance, at Copenhagen Business School

Fields of interest

• Ownermanaged Firms, Family Business and Corporate Governance: The governance of closely held corporations; value of top management; succession; bequest motives, performance; ownership design; the role and the organization of the corporate board; capital structures; state owned enterprises and privatization; family firms in emerging markets.