Leadership

Klaas Baks
Executive Director

Klaas P. Baks, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Emory Center for Alternative Investments and an Assistant Professor of Finance at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. His research and teaching focuses on issues in venture capital, private equity, entrepreneurial finance and investment management, and he has published papers in a number of academic and business journals. Baks serves on the board of Triton Value Partners, an Atlanta-based private equity firm, and on the board of a number of start-ups.

A doctoral graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in finance, Baks also holds a master’s degree in economics from Brown University, a master’s degree in econometrics from Groningen University, The Netherlands and a diploma in Japanese language and business studies from Leiden University, The Netherlands. Prior to joining Emory University, Baks held positions at Fuji Bank in Tokyo, Japan and Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong.

Larry Benveniste
Co-Chairman of the Board

Lawrence M. Benveniste, Ph.D., is Dean of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. He also holds the academic position of the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Finance.

Prior to his current role, Benveniste served as Dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He rose to the rank of dean from his faculty position as the U.S. Bancorp Professor of Finance. He also served on the faculties of Boston College, Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Rochester.

Benveniste worked as a staff economist for the Board of Governors to the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C., where he helped to develop several significant regulatory initiatives, including risk-based capital, which monitors the equity value of commercial banks to protect the deposit insurance system.

Lado Gurgenidze
Co-Chairman of the Board

Vladimir Gurgenidze received his MBA degree from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in 1993. As a career banker he spent nearly a decade at various investment banks in Europe, serving at various times as Head of M&A, Emerging Europe and Head of Technology Corporate Finance at ABN Amro, as well as Head of Europe at Putnam Lovell.

In 2004 Gurgenidze returned to his native Georgia and served for three years as CEO and Executive Chairman of Bank of Georgia, leading the bank’s transformation into the leading universal bank in Georgia and the Caucasus.

In 2007, he agreed to serve, for a one-year term, as Prime Minister of Georgia, helping put the finishing touches on Georgia’s free-market reforms, including a new round of tax cuts and a 25% limit on state budget expenditures.