CREF - Key Persons
Alfonso Munk - Chief Investment Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Investment Officer and Head of Asset Management
Arthur Adler '78 and Karen Newman Adler '78 Director of the Center for Real Estate and Finance, Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration 607.255.2606 sac20@cornell.edu
Job Titles:
- Dean
- Charles Field Knight Dean
- Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business
Job Titles:
- Chief Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Chief Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Co - Head, Managing Director / H.I.G.
Job Titles:
- Dean
- Charles Field Knight Dean
Andrew Karolyi is the Charles Field Knight Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Also the Harold Bierman, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Management, he is a scholar of investment finance with a specialization in the study of international financial markets. Karolyi has published extensively in journals in finance and economics, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics and Review of Financial Studies, and has published several books, including International Capital Markets (2003) and Cracking the Emerging Markets Enigma (2015). His research has been featured in print and electronic media, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and many others.
Prior to serving as dean, Karolyi completed an eight-year term as editor and then executive editor of the Review of Financial Studies, one of the top-tier journals in finance. He has also served as an associate editor for a variety of journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Review of Finance and Pacific Basin Finance Journal. He is a recipient of the Michael Jensen Prize for Corporate Finance and Organizations (2017), the Fama/DFA Prize for Capital Markets and Asset Pricing (2005), the William F. Sharpe Award for Scholarship in Finance (2001), and the Johnson School's Prize for Excellence in Research (2010) and is a three-time winner of the School's Global Award for Excellence in EMBA teaching.
Karolyi has led various executive education programs in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, and is actively involved in consulting with corporations, banks, investment firms, stock exchanges, and law firms. He is chair of the board of directors of Responsible Research in Business and Management (RRBM) and vice chair of the UN's Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), an initiative of the UN Global Compact. He also serves as a Global Advisory Councillor for Accounting for Sustainability (A4S), one of HM King Charles III Charitable Funds. He currently serves as a director of the American Finance Association, is past president of the Western Finance Association, and is past chairperson of the board of trustees and past president of the Financial Management Association International.
Karolyi received his BA (honors) in economics from McGill University and worked at the Bank of Canada for several years in its research department. He subsequently earned his MBA and PhD degrees in finance at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.
Dean Karolyi brings a wealth of expertise in investment and corporate finance, asset management, emerging markets, and global business. His research is featured in print and electronic media, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Economist, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, BusinessWeek, and CNBC. Karolyi also completed a four-year term as executive editor of the Review of Financial Studies, one of the top-tier journals in finance. He has served as an associate editor for a variety of journals, including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Review of Finance and the Pacific Basin Finance Journal. Learn more about his research and academic contributions by exploring his faculty profile.
Job Titles:
- Centers and Institutes Assistant, Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration 607.254.3285
Evan Laskin - Chief Investment Officer
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President for Real Estate & Asset Management / Hilton Worldwide
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Professor of Management
Job Titles:
- Cofounder and Co - Executive Chairman of KKR & Co., Delivered the 2025 Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture.
Job Titles:
- Head of Asia Pacific, Chief Investment Officer
Job Titles:
- Senior Partner, Co - Head of Private Equity Real Estate
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean
- Senior Extension Associate Executive Director, Institute for Compensation Studies / Associate Dean for Strategy and Societal Impact
Linda Barrington is associate dean for strategy and societal impact for the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. She is also the executive director of the Institute for Compensation Studies. Barrington came to Cornell University from The Conference Board, a global business membership and research organization. While there, she advanced through several positions, including economist, special assistant to the CEO, research director, and managing director of human capital. Before assuming her current role at SC Johnson, Barrington served as associate dean for outreach and sponsored research at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She began her career on the economics faculty at Barnard College of Columbia University and has also taught economics at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, the University of Michigan, and the University of Illinois.
Barrington's published research addresses compensation, gender issues in the workplace, business leaders' perceptions of their top challenges, employees with disabilities, workforce demographics, and the working poor. Her work appears in the Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic History, Historical Statistics of the US, WorldatWork Journal, workspan, and numerous business-research reports. Barrington has also edited and been contributing author to three scholarly books.
She has been a frequent media contributor on compensation issues and labor market statistics and has presented expert opinion to state and national policy panels on gender pay gaps, generational workforce challenges, and compensation. She has rich career experience as an educator, researcher, media spokesperson, and executive leader, having built a successful track record in academic administration, stakeholder collaboration, and organizational management.
Mark Chu - Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Founding Partner / Newbond Holdings
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Real Estate
Job Titles:
- Co - Chief Executive Officer
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors of SmithBucklin Corporation
- Professor
- Professor of Practice
Risa Mish is a professor of practice and the Day Family Senior Lecturer of Business Ethics at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management, part of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. She created and teaches the MBA and Executive MBA core courses in Critical and Strategic Thinking; created and taught the Cornell-Tsinghua FMBA core course in Critical and Strategic Thinking; has taught elective courses in leadership and influence; and was the founding faculty director of the Johnson Leadership Fellows program.
Mish is the inaugural recipient of the Provost Award for Teaching Excellence in Graduate and Professional Degree Programs at Cornell University created to "recognize excellence in teaching among faculty who teach primarily at the professional school and/or graduate program level". She has also received the MBA and Accelerated MBA Core Faculty Teaching Awards, selected by classes to honor the teacher who "best fosters learning through lecture, discussion and course work in the required core curriculum"; the Apple Award for Teaching Excellence, selected by the MBA graduating class to honor a faculty member who "exemplifies outstanding leadership and enduring educational influence"; the Best Teacher Award, selected by the graduating class of the Cornell-Tsinghua dual degree MBA/FMBA program offered by the Johnson School and the PBC School of Finance at Tsinghua University to recognize "a faculty member whose teaching was the best in the classroom"; the Stephen Russell Distinguished Teaching Award, selected by the five-year MBA reunion class to honor a faculty member whose "teaching and example have continued to influence graduates five years into their post-MBA careers"; the Globe Award for Teaching Excellence, selected by the Executive MBA graduating class to honor a faculty member who "demonstrates a command of subject matter and also possesses the creativity, dedication, and enthusiasm essential to meet the unique challenges of an EMBA education"; and the Star Award for Teaching Excellence, selected by the Executive MBA Americas graduating class to honor the faculty member whose "exceptional performance made the most significant contribution to the student learning experience".
Mish serves as a keynote speaker and workshop leader at global, national, and regional conferences for corporations and trade associations in the consumer products, financial services, health care, high tech, media, and manufacturing industries, on a variety of topics, including critical thinking and problem solving, persuasion and influence, and motivating optimal employee performance.
Before returning to Cornell, Mish was a partner in the NYC law firm of Collazo Carling & Mish LLP (CC&M), where she represented management clients on a wide range of labor and employment law matters, including defense of employment discrimination claims in federal and state courts and administrative agencies, and in labor arbitrations and negotiations under collective bargaining agreements. Prior to CC&M, Mish was a labor and employment law associate with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in NYC, where she represented Fortune 500 clients in the financial services, consumer products, and manufacturing industries. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and state and federal courts in NY and MA.
Mish is a member of the board of directors of SmithBucklin Corporation, the world's largest trade association management company, headquartered in Chicago. She formerly served on the board of directors of TheraCare, Inc., headquartered in NYC, as a trustee of the Tompkins County Public Library, vice chair of the board of directors of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County, and member of the board of directors of the United Way of Tompkins County.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Co - Founder
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Senior Principal
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer / Masterworks Development Co., LLC