Thore H. Johnsen turns 70
Thore Haakon Johnsen turns 70 on 22 December 2016, and will become professor emeritus at NHH from January 2017.
Thore graduated from NHH in 1970 and was recruited as a research assistant at NHH.
In 1972, he was accepted as a doctoral student at Carnegie-Mellon University, where his advisors included some of the leading economists in the post-war period: Robert Lucas, Edward Prescott and David Cass. In 1975, Thore moved to Northwestern University for a year and then to Columbia University where he became an assistant professor in 1977.
He returned to NHH in 1979 and became a full professor in 1986.
Thore’s PhD thesis is an early contribution to information economics. However, he soon left this area and devoted his efforts to finance. At NHH he joined his more established colleagues Karl Borch, Jan Mossin and Steinar Ekern to form the core of a formidable finance group at NHH.
In academia as well as in the professions, Thore is first and foremost known associated with the cost of capital. He has written about the theoretical underpinnings of familiar asset pricing models, measures of risk as well as the term structure of interest rates. However, he is best known for his applied work, determining the cost of capital in actual practical cases.
Thore initiated and has been instrumental in developing the Authorized Financial Analysts (AFA) program, a joint venture between NHH and the Norwegian Society of Financial Analysts (NFF). He has engaged generations of both AFA participants and NHH students with analytical rigor and a great deal of passion.
Thore’s lifetime contributions to the school, to his field, to his students and to the public discourse on financial matters in Norway, are unequaled. His deep and broad knowledge of financial economics, his enthusiasm, practical insights, wit and personal charm make Thore the natural center of gravity in most social and academic settings.
Thore embodies one of NHH’s core values – to engage and be engaging. Thore can certainly engage in the classroom, in academic seminars and faculty meetings, or later in the bar or pub!
Thore Johnsen has always been in great demand as a conference speaker, and advisor and sparring partner for finance professionals and government bureaucrats. The media makes use of Thore Johnsen as a commentator on current events and provides the journalist with unequivocal statements that make great copy.
Fortunately, there are no signs that Thore is in retirement mode. His energy levels and fighting spirit are as high as ever. We hope and predict that Thore will keep up his levels of activity, just moving from a position of tenured professor to a more free-lance existence.
Friends and colleagues at NHH.
