About Alan R Jung

My formal post-secondary education began at UC Berkeley, where I earned a BS and MS in electrical engineering. Upon graduation, I joined Varian Associates, as an engineer working on military radar systems, in particular, traveling wave tubes. Two years later, I began San Francisco State University (SFSU), College of Business’ MBA program and graduated with a specialty in finance. My quantitative training and problem solving skills, gained from my education as an engineer, was a tremendous help in grasping the concepts and mathematics underlying the field of financial economics. My faculty advisors at SFSU noticed my interest, curiosity, and strengths and suggested I consider earning a Ph.D. in finance. I completed my Ph.D. in finance at the UCB Haas School of Business in 1990 and immediately joined the finance department at SFSU as an associate professor. While I was earning my Ph.D., I kept in contact with a couple of my old faculty advisors at SFSU, and on occasion, worked with them on their side consulting projects. When I graduated, they asked me to join their department.

I have been with the finance department at the College of Business, San Francisco State University ever since Jan. 1990. For the first 10 years or so, I primarily taught MBA level courses in Financial Analysis & Management and Corporate Finance.

Beginning in 2001, I began my transition from faculty to university administrator. From 2001-2002, I was interim Associate Dean of the College of Business. From 2002-2004, I was acting Associate Vice President for Academic Resources, reporting directly to the provost. Academic Resources allocates and monitors the budgets of the various academic entities (e.g., individual colleges, library, etc.) on campus, as well as, oversees academic classroom scheduling, creates the class schedule, and manages all academic facilities. In Fall 2004, I returned to the classroom to teach both undergraduate and graduate courses. In Fall 2006, I became the chair of the Finance Department and concurrently limited my teaching to graduate courses. From Jan. 2016 through Jan. 2019, I returned to my former position as Associate Vice President for Academic Resources. Thereafter, I rejoined the Finance Department as faculty.

My primary research interests include valuing managerial flexibility (e.g., real options) and helping corporations mitigate their exposure to financial risk (e.g., derivatives and hedging). My research has also benefited from my real-world experience in these areas (i.e., consulting), which in turn has benefited my students through the integration of both theory and practice in my courses.