William M Cockrum

Biography

Professor Cockrum has won numerous teaching awards, including recognition as the top entrepreneurial professor in the nation in a survey conducted by Business Week in 1996. He has become a legend for a case-study entrepreneurial finance class he has taught for more than 30 years, teaching students the ins and outs of acquiring and sustaining the financing for organizations.

Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, Bill Cockrum spent 25 years in financial services initially as a marketer and lastly as CFO/CAO and one of the top senior officers at Becker Paribas, Inc. a 3,000-employee investment banking firm. When the company was sold to Merrill Lynch in 1984, Cockrum began his second career as a consultant to chief executive officers. He serves as a consultant in a variety of industries on issues such as organization structure, strategy, marketing, finance, and administration.

Shortly after starting consulting, Cockrum in 1985 joined UCLA Anderson and in 1988 became a full time professor teaching students the business and finance skills needed to succeed as entrepreneurs. Mr. Cockrum has taught at UCLA Anderson for 33 years. He currently teaches entrepreneurial finance, leadership and business ethics, real world challenges leaders face and investment management and more than 7,000 students have passed through his classroom for these courses. He also is a member of the School's Board of Visitors, the Anderson Alumni Board, the Advisory Board of the Price Center, the Advisory Board of the Fink Center, a former member of the UCLA Foundation investment committee and a Governor of the Foundation.

Professor Cockrum is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Graduate School of Management of Cranfield University, Cranfield, England as well as a visiting Professor and a member of the Advisory Board of the Betteny Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies at Cranfield. Cockrum was also a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Management at Warwick University, Coventry, England from 2004 to 2013 where he won teaching awards in each year 2005 to 2012. Currently, Professor Cockrum is a professor and member of the Business School’s Advisory Board at Trinity College Dublin University where he was awarded the top Teaching Award from students in 2016.

Professor Cockrum is also a Trustee of Educational Housing Services in New York City, a not-for-profit providing 4400 beds to university students in the New York City area, where he is Chairman of the Board‘s Nominating, Governance and Compensation committee.

Bill Cockrum
Adjunct Professor of Finance
Interests
Banking, Board Management, Brokerage Industry, Capital Markets, Corporate Finance, Entrepreneurship, Ethics, Initial Product Offerings, Investments, Leadership, Start-Up Companies, Venture Capital

Education
MBA Finance and Marketing, 1961, Harvard University
B.A. Economics, 1959, DePauw University