The recipient of the inaugural Denis Gromb Award for Outstanding Citizenship in Financial Economics is Professor David Webb of the London School of Economics (LSE).
David’s outstanding and dedicated leadership of the LSE’s Financial Markets Group (FMG) from 1991 to 2009, and of the LSE’s Finance Department from 2009 to 2014, provided the setting for his Outstanding Citizenship in Financial Economics. In these roles, David’s relentless efforts to host, finance, mentor, support, and advise finance Ph.D. students, including Denis Gromb himself, not only transformed the school’s Ph.D. program in finance but also positively affected the lives of many finance researchers. More generally, during his tenure in these positions, David was a critical force behind the transformation of finance at the LSE from a relatively small part of the Accounting and Finance Department of the early 1990s to the top-notch Finance Department that it has since become.
Testimonies
Convincing arguments that David Webb fully deserved to become the first recipient of the Award came from a long list of testimonies sent by former Ph.D. students from the LSE, current and former colleagues of David’s, and scholars who visited the LSE at various times. Here is a sample of these testimonies which, taken together, highlight many of the Award’s eligibility criteria and indeed encapsulate the same kind of academic citizenship that Denis Gromb was well known for.
“David created an environment in which students were always encouraged to interact with faculty as equals, without any unnecessary barriers. The effects of this work on student welfare at LSE-Finance have been enormous […] and persist today.”
“David was the essence of FMG which trained and disseminated promising finance academics throughout the world. To me, he is the single person who contributed the most to the development of academic finance in Europe in the last few decades.”
“David’s great triumph has been the establishment of the Department of Finance at LSE, [which] has become a world-class outfit.”
“The best way to measure David’s wider impact on the finance profession is to think of the many outstanding scholars who over the years have come through the LSE and the FMG and benefitted from his generosity and the intellectual environment he helped to build before moving on to stellar careers all over the world. One of them was Denis Gromb.”
“In my view the tremendous success of the FMG is (almost) entirely due to David. He fostered an amazing research environment for faculty and especially PhD students. Many successful research careers started there, including that of Denis himself. But his contribution to Citizenship goes way beyond the FMG. He was the driving force for the establishment of the Finance Department at the LSE.”
“Denis was well aware of David’s importance to his development and the development of other top finance scholars not only as researchers but also as citizens of finance academia.”
“David Webb is the single figure most responsible for the development of Finance at the London School of Economics, in his capacities as Director of the Financial Markets Group from 1991 to 2009 and Head of the LSE Finance Department from 2009 to 2014. The FMG was established in 1987 and became an area where economists from the LSE with interests in Finance could interact between themselves and with visiting academics from around the world. David took a personal interest in the development of all young scholars and PhD students at the FMG. He spent much time circulating around the FMG desks and offices, talking to students and colleagues, and encouraging them to exchange ideas and collaborate on research projects. He created a culture of community that made the FMG a pleasant and buzzing place to do research. Many accomplished finance academics, including Denis Gromb, spent their formative years at the FMG and developed lasting research collaborations and friendships there. The FMG helped catalyse the creation of the LSE’s Finance Department in 2006 and its subsequent growth. It played an important role more broadly in the development of finance research in the UK and across Europe.”
History of LSE’s Financial Markets Group (FMG)
In its deliberations, the Award Review Committee also reviewed a document entitled “A Brief Affectionate History of the Financial Markets Group,” written in 2018 by Charles Goodhart and Kathleen Tyson. This document goes over the transformation of finance at the LSE that the FMG effected, and David and his contributions feature prominently throughout the entire document. In particular, his tireless work for the FMG, especially for the LSE’s Ph.D. students interested in finance and, more generally, for the development of finance research at the LSE, is discussed fondly and generously. Here are two particularly revealing passages from this document about David’s contributions to the FMG, and how they affected the development of research in finance at the LSE.
“Perhaps David’s most important contribution was simply caring [about] what went on in FMG from day to day, and taking an interest in the work going forward among Members, Research Fellows, Researchers and Visitors. He would circulate among the desks and carrels of FMG frequently, taking a personal interest in the development of research and encouraging collaborations and exchange of ideas both formally and informally. He inspired a culture of community and good habits of collaboration that led to many long-enduring research partnerships. David’s care for the Researchers was deeply appreciated. As one former Researcher wrote, ‘Professor David Webb was a pillar of discipline and moral support, and a catalyst of intellectual ferment within FMG that created the experience of a lifetime.’”
“In response to our survey, one former Researcher summed up the importance of community at FMG: ‘Doing a PhD can be a lonely experience, but not at the FMG in my time there. The FMG provided a wonderful sense of community. I think back to David Webb going through the office, scooping up the students, and taking us to the pub. Once there, David, along with Antoine, Sudipto, Bob, Richard, Sylvain, Urs and other faculty, shared stories that humanised the profession, and gave us the sense that they thought we might have something worthwhile to say about that week’s seminar, or were genuinely curious about what progress we were making on our research. I have had the good fortune to have spent time at several great universities, but among these the sense of vibrant academic community at FMG, where students were viewed as full participants, really stands out. FMG socialized and encouraged me into the profession, and I am grateful for it.’”
Award Presentation
The first Denis Gromb Award for Outstanding Citizenship in Financial Economics was announced during the luncheon on May 31 at the 2024 FIRS Conference in Berlin, Germany. The Award was presented by Denis Gromb’s daughter, Livia, along with Giorgia Piacentino and Jason Donaldson, Denis Gromb’s most recent co-authors. FIRS also gratefully acknowledges the presence and participation of Denis Gromb’s wife, Clare, at the event.