Bill Marcum
Evaluating Oversight

When Bill Marcum came to Wake Forest more than three decades ago as a visiting professor, he thought he’d only stay for a short time.

“I came here to try to figure out what I wanted to do,” he says. “And I really like Wake, so I guess technically I’ve been here 30 years trying to figure out what my career would be.”

Over the years since first coming to Wake in that visiting professor role, Marcum has risen through the ranks to his current role of Wall Street Partners Faculty Fellow and associate professor, teaching corporate and international finance to both undergrads and graduate students.

Outside the classroom, Marcum’s research taps into his undergraduate pursuits by examining the intersection between law and finance/economics.

“I always thought as an economist, and I saw law as simply dead-weight cost—it basically hindered markets. But as I thought about it more and did more research, I realized you can’t have a market without a robust legal system. So my question is exactly how much does the law need to intercede in financial markets to make them work the way they’re supposed to?”

Marcum’s research also touches on forensic economics, the practice of applying economic theories and methods to legal situations, such as personal injury litigation or contract violations.

“How do economists establish losses for people when someone’s injured or loses their life? We have to find an appropriate way to analyze the losses someone has suffered,” he explains. “It can get pretty tricky because you’re looking at what would have happened in the future, and that can be debatable.”

In the classroom, Marcum says one of his biggest goals is equipping students with financial and economic literacy, particularly for undergrads. And his research plays a role in that process.

“When you’re teaching undergraduates, they really don’t have a lot of experience, so anything I can explain about markets brings a lot to the table. They hear words like ‘yield curve,’ things an economist uses every day figuring out, say, forensic economics. When they hear ‘yield curve,’ it likely means nothing to them until you actually draw it out and explain why it’s important.”

Marcum says that even if his students don’t want to pursue a career in finance or economics, this type of knowledge will prepare them for executive-level positions in other business sectors.

“My assumption is that every student in my class, at some point, wants to be a decision-maker and rise in the ranks of whatever organization they’re involved in. And if they’re going to do that, they have to be able, at minimum, to communicate with the finance people, the CFO. They need to be able
to understand the context in which these leaders are making decisions, because ultimately the bottom line is what matters.”

Over the past 30 years, Marcum has encountered hundreds of students in his classroom, and he says they all have one major thing in common.
“Wake students are so easy to work with,” he shares. “They’re career-oriented, and they want to achieve things in their life, which makes it such a pleasure to work with them.”

Along with his students, Marcum says his fellow faculty members in the School of Business have made his tenure at Wake an enriching experience.
“Wake in general is great, and we have a really good finance group—I have some great colleagues. This School is as supportive as it can be, and we often hear people coming in from other institutions say they are much happier here. That’s a pretty strong statement.”