Kenan Institute names UNC professor as director of research

CHAPEL HILL — UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Finance Professor and Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Scholar Camelia Kuhnen has been named director of research for the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.

Kuhnen, who is also faculty director for NCGrowth, officially assumed her new role Aug. 21. She has been a member of the UNC Kenan-Flagler faculty since 2014.

Cameia Kuhnen (UNC photo)

She will facilitate connections between the Kenan Institute and the research faculty at UNC Kenan Flagler as well as continue to produce research-backed pieces that will appear as Kenan Insights and commentaries on the institute’s website.

“The Kenan Institute is a great conduit for interactions and partnerships between academics, the business sector and policymakers,” Kuhnen said. “I am very much looking forward to strengthening these partnerships, and to working with the terrific staff at the institute, as well as the faculty at KFBS and UNC.”

Kuhnen succeeded Paige Ouimet, UNC Kenan-Flagler finance professor and associate dean of the Ph.D. program, as research director when Ouimet became the institute’s executive director in August.

UNC’s Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise names new director

“Cami, as one of the world’s leading scholars on how people make economic choices, will bring valuable expertise to help drive the research mission of the Kenan Institute. We are excited to have her join our team,” Ouimet said.

Kuhnen is an expert in neuroeconomics, behavioral finance and corporate finance. Her work has an interdisciplinary nature, with the overarching theme of trying to understand how people make financial and economic choices that concern them as individuals or as decision makers in firms.

Before joining the faculty at UNC Kenan-Flagler, Kuhnen served on the faculty of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

She received a Ph.D. in finance from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and two bachelor’s degrees – in finance and neuroscience – from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

(C) UNC-CH