Karen Wruck is an expert in financial and organizational economics, with special emphasis on corporate finance, valuation, restructuring, financial distress, corporate governance, and management compensation.
Professor Wruck has been retained as an expert witness in numerous matters and has testified at deposition. Her experience spans matters related to valuation, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), financial distress/bankruptcy, fraudulent conveyance, and damages, including damages related to alleged wrongful termination, breach of contract, and discrimination. She has addressed issues pertaining to executive compensation, insider trading, corporate governance, and corporate control.
Professor Wruck has published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and the Journal of Corporate Finance. Her work has also been cited in the press and has appeared in practitioner-oriented journals such as the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance. Two of her publications, one on private equity and the other on management turnover, were named by the Journal of Financial Economics as being among its most highly cited “all-star” papers. She has also served as associate editor for top finance and accounting journals.
At the Fisher College of Business, Professor Wruck teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in corporate finance, international finance, M&A, and corporate restructuring. Students in the M.B.A. and executive M.B.A. programs have repeatedly named her as an outstanding professor. Professor Wruck received Fisher College’s Bostic-Georges Faculty Service Award and the Mary Ann Williams Leadership Award, which recognize extraordinary service and leadership at Ohio State.
Professor Wruck consults to corporations and has served as an academic director of the Turnaround Management Association, an organization focused on corporate restructuring and enterprise value. Previously, she was a member of the Harvard Business School faculty.