Ayako Yasuda is Professor of Finance at the Graduate School of Management, University of California, Davis, Fellow of the Muir Institute for the Environment, and Fellow of the Private Equity Research Consortium. She earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford in 2001, and a B.A. in Quantitative Economics (Dean’s Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa) from Stanford in 1993. She previously held academic positions at Wharton and UC Berkeley, an independent director position at the Japan Investment Corporation, and was an analyst at Goldman Sachs. She co-authored an acclaimed MBA textbook Venture Capital and the Finance of Innovation (now in 3rd edition).