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A broad constituency of CU alumni, corporate partners, prospective students and community members gathered for Leeds Business Insights on February 5 to meet, mingle and hear fresh research from two of Leeds’ world-renowned faculty. Over the past three years, Leeds Business Insights (LBI)—learning and networking events designed to present the work of Leeds research faculty to audiences in a relatable way—have been hosted in some of the biggest cities across the United States.

This was the second time LBI was held in our neighboring city of Denver, and turnout was higher than expected. Of note were the many high school students who attended with their parents, curious to find out more about Leeds and hear what the featured faculty had to say.

Leeds’ Dean Sharon Matusik welcomed the audience and laid the groundwork for the evening’s speakers, whose work contributes to Leeds faculty’s #24 in-the-world ranking per-capita for research productivity. As Matusik described, their work is not only making a difference in their fields, but it is also impacting policy—and our everyday lives.

Leeds Associate Professor Janet Bercovitz took the stage first to discuss her research on academic entrepreneurship and making research pay. Bercovitz discussed how and to what end foundations can help researchers get their work off the ground through the growing sector of venture philanthropy. Academic institutions are important generators of innovation, but there is a strong need for sufficient backing from businesses in order for those insights to make it from the laboratory to the world.

Professor Jonathan Rogers followed with his presentation on voluntary disclosure, market microstructure, multinational firms, insider trading and stock return volatility. Specifically, he examined the extent to which the SEC itself provides a level-playing field with fair and equal access to public company filings. Ultimately, he found that the SEC does not actually provides the general public information at the same rate as they do “subscribers.”

All in all, this was another successful event for Leeds, which can be measured by the great attendance, new connections made among attendees and thoughtful takeaways that kept conversations going well after the presentations had concluded.