The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Private Equity

Dr. Benjamin Hammer, FHEA, is a member of the Accounting & Finance Department at Lancaster University Management School in Bailrigg, United Kingdom, and an Associate Professor of Finance at Lancaster University's branch campus in Leipzig, Germany, where he has held various leadership positions since 2020. Prior to joining Lancaster University, Benjamin was the Executive Director of the Center for Corporate Transactions & Private Equity (CCTPE) at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, a leading think tank for private equity research in Europe. He has held visiting or affiliate positions at Florida Atlantic University, Concordia University, and Utrecht University. Benjamin's research focuses on private equity and leveraged buyouts and has been published in highly ranked journals such as the Journal of Corporate Finance and the British Journal of Management. His research has been recognized with the Larry Lang Corporate Finance Best Paper Award at the 2015 European Financial Management Association (EFMA) Annual Meeting, the 2018 Bundesverband Alternative Investments (BAI) Science Award for excellent dissertations in the field of alternative investments, and the 2023 BAI Science Award for the best research paper in the field of alternative investments. He is a member of the editorial board of Venture Capital: An International Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance and is a regular speaker at academic (e.g., European Finance Association) and practitioner conferences (e.g., SuperReturn). Benjamin attended the Management Development Program at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and holds a Habilitation and Ph.D. in Finance (with highest honors) from HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. He studied at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and Tulane University as a scholar of the German Academic Merit Foundation and is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.