Alex Edmans
Professor of finance at London Business School
Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. He is an expert in purposeful business/sustainable finance/responsible investing; diversity, equity and inclusion; practical investment strategies; the psychology of finance/behavioural economics; the use and misuse of data; and time management.
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- English ,
- French
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Alex Edmans's 2025 biography
About Alex Edmans
Alex has a unique combination of deep academic rigour and practical business experience. He is particularly noted for his ability to present complex concepts in non-technical language and an engaging, dynamic manner. Alex Edmans has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talks The Pie Growing Mindset and The Social Responsibility of Business, with a combined 2.8 million views. He previously served as Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business at Gresham College, giving a four-year programme of lectures to the public.
Alex is a leading figure in the reform of business to serve wider society. He serves as Non-Executive Director of The Investor Forum, on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Responsible Investing, and on Royal London Asset Management’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee. The UK government appointed him (jointly with PwC) to study the alleged misuse of share buybacks and the link between executive pay and investment.
Alex has written for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and World Economic Forum and been interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports. His book, “Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit”, was a Financial Times Book of the Year and has been translated into nine languages. He is a co-author of the classic textbook “Principles of Corporate Finance” (with Brealey, Myers, and Allen). His latest book, “May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – and What We Can Do About It” will be published by Penguin Random House in 2024. This book is about misinformation … but with a twist. Stories, statistics and studies lie to us on a daily basis. Not only this but, Professor Alex Edmans reveals, our brains lie to us too. He argues that we need to acknowledge and understand the role that our own human biases play in interpreting and digesting the information that we consume. It’s only when we do, that we can actively resist being manipulated, and make informed decisions that improve our lives.
Alex was named Professor of the Year by Poets & Quants in 2021. He has won 25 teaching awards at Wharton and LBS, featured in Thinkers50 Radar, and been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Alex’s latest books
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Alex Edmans's 2025 talks & topics
The Power of Purposeful Business
Purpose is the buzzword of today, with politicians, the public, and even shareholders calling on businesses to serve wider society. But purpose is also controversial, because companies need to make a profit. Is there a trade-off between purpose and profit, or can companies to achieve both? This talk will critically examine the case for purposeful business, using rigorous evidence and real-life examples to show what works – and, importantly, what doesn’t. It will discuss practical ways for companies of all sizes to put purpose into practice – to ensure it guides their day-to-day decisions, is embedded throughout the organisation, and enhances rather than jeopardises long-run returns.
Sustainable Investing: Does it Work and How to Do It?
Interest in sustainable investing is at an all-time high, due to the promise of both financial returns and social impact. But criticism is also at a high, with concerns of “greenwashing” and false promises. This talk will use rigorous evidence and real-life examples to explain what sustainable investing can realistically achieve, and the best way to do so. It will explain how to do sustainable investing – how to handle controversial sectors such as energy and defence, how to overcome the challenges with unreliable data and inconsistent ESG ratings, and how to distinguish companies that are truly sustainable from those that simply claim it.
ESG: The Beginning, the End, and the Future
ESG is at a peak. Companies are prioritising ESG issues, sometimes even more than mainstream business topics, and investors are selecting companies based on their ESG rather than financial performance. But is ESG an unnecessary distraction? Isn’t it enough for a company to focus exclusively on profit, as long as it it’s long-term profit? This talk will critically examine the case both for and against ESG, and set out of a vision for the future of ESG – how companies and investors can reap its benefits while avoiding the controversies and politics.
Bias-Free Investing
Textbook finance theory assumes that investors are rational and markets are efficient. But real-world investors are human and prone to biases. This talk will highlight the main biases that distort our trading decisions, and explain how to address them to make better investments, as both individuals and teams. It will also illustrate how the biases of other investors cause markets to be inefficient – stocks and bonds can be overvalued or undervalued – and explain tried-and-tested investment strategies that take advantage of these mistakes.
Facts, Data, and Evidence: Knowing What To Trust
One of the most dangerous phrases is “evidence shows that …”, because you can almost always find evidence to support any viewpoint. Experts are similarly untrusted, because they may have motives other than the truth. These problems are particularly severe in the digital age where people are bombarded with data and supposed expert opinions. This talk will explain the common mistakes people make in interpreting data, and the biases that cause us to make them. It will provide a practical guide for how to discern whether a particular study or expert opinion is trustworthy – even if we’re pressed for time and don’t have specialist knowledge in the field – and how to create a culture that actively promotes a diversity of thinking.
Time Management in the Digital Age
Classic time management frameworks advise us to focus on the important rather than the urgent. But these frameworks seem not to be applicable to the 21st century, where technology means that we are constantly bombarded with deadlines, and it’s unrealistic to simply ignore the urgent. This talk will explain how to focus on important long-term goals but at the same time meet urgent short-term deadlines, how to use email as an effective communication tool without being overwhelmed with it, and how to instil superior time management practices within the teams that we lead. It will be based on insights from behavioural economics which demonstrate the most effective ways to develop new habits.