Teaching

Assistant Professor (2024-) in Mergers and Acquisitions (Master in Finance) @ Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá

The objective of the course is to provide the student with an integral vision of the activities and key aspects in the different phases of the M&A process of a company. The course is developed so that the student understands the different actors involved in this process and the key factors to consider in order to create value in each part of the process through the use of business cases with a practical approach. Topics related to negotiation scenarios, deal design, valuation of synergies or leveraged buyouts are presented in order for the student to understand the opportunities and risks of these practices. The course also relies on the participation of different external guests, who have been involved in different parts of the M&A process, to give the student first-hand knowledge of the main quantitative and qualitative aspects in this type of transactions. Students are asked to read a case before each class and are assessed with a quiz at the beginning of the class. Each class is structured with a reminder of the theory, application through business cases and ends with a more dynamic part such as a debate or a guest speaker. In the final exam, students present a company of their choice and explain why it would be a good buying opportunity. Each presentation is evaluated by an expert from the industry, the professor and the audience of students. 

Assistant Professor (2024-) in Mergers and Acquisitions (undergraduate) @ Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá

This course deals with mergers, acquisitions and other corporate restructuring activities in an international context. The course focuses on the motives and strategic aspects of acquisitions and restructurings, the valuation of companies involved in acquisitions, the role of agency conflicts (between a company's management and shareholders) in acquisitions, the effect of acquisitions and restructurings on shareholder value, and the practical aspects of the acquisition process. It presents the key principles and techniques of successful mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and leveraged buyouts. Compared to the postgraduate version, this class is more oriented towards merger theory and valuation techniques. Methodologies such as the event study, discounted cash flow, Monte Carlo simulation and the Black-Scholes model are presented in this class.

Assistant Professor (2023-) in Corporate Finance (undergraduate) @ Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá

This course is designed to familiarize students with the principles of financial management. The class focuses on the investment decision part of the corporate finance topic (financing and dividend decisions are covered in other classes). Special emphasis is placed on investment selection criteria, the risk/return ratio, the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), and the assessment of the cost of capital (WACC). At the end of the class I use a business case to apply the theory and exercises to a real management problem. In groups of five, students are asked to estimate the value of a company with the discounted cash flow model by applying the CAPM and calculating the WACC. The class ends with students presenting their enterprise valuation.  (Last available students' evaluation: 4.9/5)

Master Thesis Supervision (2022-2023) in the Master of Science and Investments in Finance @ Erasmus University Rotterdam

The thesis trajectory at Erasmus University consists in four different stages, the topic selection (orientation), the research skills, the master thesis proposal and the master thesis. I am involved in the two last part of the trajectory. From the thesis proposal to the master thesis the students have four meetings (plus one optional) with their supervisor about, the research idea, a draft proposal, a thesis draft and the final document of the thesis. The topics I have to supervise are mostly related to corporate finance and political connections. For example, they vary from the impact of lobbying on R&D expenditures to firms’ abnormal returns when they have politicians on their board. (Last available students' evaluation: 4.75/5)

Topics 2022-2023 :

• The effect of lobbying on innovation: The moderating role of subsidies

• Corporate bond yield: The effect of political connections

• Political Connections of GPs & Private Equity Fund performance

• Corporate lobbying and M&A performance

• The benefits of being wealthy and well-connected during the coronavirus pandemic

• Cross-Sectional Event Study into the presence- and sources of US politicians’ Abnormal Returns

Teaching Assistant (2020-2023) in Business Game - 3rd year Bachelor degree in Economics @ UCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels

Students are assigned, in groups of 3 to 5 students, to manage a (virtual) company that has just suffered a fire for a period of two years. The managers will have to make a wide range of decisions (finance, marketing, operational management or human resources) in order to ensure the sustainability of their firm. In this regard, the management team will have to interact with many actors (banker, union, board of directors) and will be led to justify its decisions by e-mails, reports, advertising campaign... This course is structured around a presentation session of the simulation, 8 decisions (8 quarters) that the students have to make independently and an oral defense session of their management. (Last available students' evaluation: 4.6/5)

Teaching Assistant (2016-2023) in Economics I - 2nd year Bachelor degree in Law and Literature @ UCLouvain Saint-Louis Brussels

The objective of this course is to provide students with a general knowledge and basic understanding of fundamental economic issues and mechanisms. At the end of this course, students will be able to explain why people in some countries enjoy better living conditions than others; to understand how a market economy works, its advantages and disadvantages, and the role that the state can play in it; and to develop an argument based on empirical and theoretical elements to evaluate public policies. The course emphasizes an intuitive understanding of theory through applications to major societal challenges and an analysis of current debates. Students will learn to put the concepts developed in the course into perspective during practice sessions and through further reading.