Elena Simintzi

Elena Simintzi Ph.D., Professor of Finance
Finance | Corporate Valuation & Financial Strategy | Full-Time MBA |

What courses do you currently teach, and what do you love most about them?

Professor Elena Simintzi teaches MBA 777: Corporate Valuation and Financial Strategy. What she loves most isn’t just the content—it’s seeing the moment when valuation clicks for students as more than a formula. Through DCF models, capital structure theories, and real-world applications, she helps students shift from seeing finance as mechanical to seeing it as judgment under uncertainty. The goal is to move students from asking, “What’s the right answer?” to asking, “What assumptions actually make sense here?”

How do you bring real-world business challenges or trends into the classroom?

Professor Simintzi uses case studies and current events to help students connect financial tools to real business decisions. These discussions allow students to understand both the strengths and limitations of valuation models while developing better instincts rather than simply searching for the “right” answer.

What’s one lesson or insight you hope every MBA student takes with them after your course?

“Valuation isn’t about precision, it’s about disciplined judgment in a world that keeps changing.”

For Professor Simintzi, strong financial analysis isn’t about eliminating uncertainty—it’s about understanding the assumptions behind a decision and developing the judgment to act when the answer isn’t clear.

Can you share a moment or MBA student success story that’s stuck with you?

One of the most rewarding moments comes when students return from their summer internships—many having received full-time offers—and share that the course proved genuinely useful on the job. Hearing that feedback repeatedly is one of the strongest validations that students are gaining skills they can carry into investment banking, consulting, private equity, corporate finance, and beyond.

In what ways do you see MBA students standing out in the workplace?

Professor Simintzi sees MBA students stand out not because they know more formulas, but because they can think through structured uncertainty. They are often able to take a messy business question, turn it into a clear analytical framework, and explain not only what the numbers say, but what assumptions are driving them and what those assumptions mean for the business.

That ability to bridge strategy and numbers—and communicate financial analysis as a decision-oriented narrative—is particularly valuable in environments where data is incomplete and strong opinions can compete. As Professor Simintzi puts it, strong analysis doesn’t eliminate ambiguity; it clarifies it.

What excites you most about the future of business education or your field?

Professor Simintzi is excited by how quickly the gap is closing between what students learn in the classroom and what they encounter in practice. As markets, technologies, and business models evolve, she believes finance education increasingly requires adaptive thinking and the ability to reassess assumptions as circumstances change.

She is also encouraged by how interconnected business education has become, with students increasingly seeing finance alongside strategy, technology, and organizational behavior rather than in isolation.

What advice would you give to incoming MBA students?

Treat the MBA less like a checklist of courses and more like a training ground for how to think under uncertainty. The value isn’t in mastering every framework perfectly—it’s in learning which framework applies, which assumptions matter, and when the information you have is good enough to act.

Professor Simintzi also encourages students to lean into discomfort, especially in areas outside their prior experience. The MBA is one of the few environments where students can be wrong, revise their thinking, and build better judgment as a result.

Is there anything you’d like to highlight about your research or other projects?

One of Professor Simintzi’s favorite aspects of teaching is bringing her research directly into the classroom. Earlier this year, she shared a new project exploring how Generative AI could reshape the startup landscape. The strong student interest reinforced what she values most about business education: bringing together research, student curiosity, and real-world business relevance while engaging with ideas that are still evolving.