David Wessels

All Courses

• ECON4999 - Independent Study

  Individual study and research under the direction of a member of the Economics Department faculty. At a minimum, the student must write a major paper summarizing, unifying, and interpreting the results of the study. This is a one semester, one c.u. course.

• FNCE2070 - Valuation

  The focus of this course is on the valuation of companies. The course covers current conceptual and theoretical valuation frameworks and translates those frameworks into practical approaches for valuing companies. The relevant accounting topics and the appropriate finance theory are integrated to show how to implement the valuation frameworks discussed on a step-by-step basis. The course teaches how to develop the required information for valuing companies from financial statements and other information sources in a real-world setting. Topics covered in depth include discounted cash flow techniques and price multiples. In addition, the course covers other valuation techniques.

• FNCE2500 - Vent Cap & Fnce of Innovation

  This course covers the finance of technological innovation, with a focus on the valuation tools useful in the venture capital industry. These tools include the "venture capital method," comparables analysis, discounted cash flow analysis, contingent-claims analysis. The primary audience for this course is finance majors interested in careers in venture capital or in R&D-intensive companies in health care or information technology.

• FNCE6110 - Corporate Finance

  This course serves as an introduction to business finance (corporate financial management and investments) for both non-majors and majors preparing for upper-level course work. The primary objective is to provide the framework, concepts, and tools for analyzing financial decisions based on fundamental principles of modern financial theory. The approach is rigorous and analytical. Topics covered include discounted cash flow techniques; corporate capital budgeting and valuation; investment decisions under uncertainty; capital asset pricing; options; and market efficiency. The course will also analyze corporate financial policy, including capital structure, cost of capital, dividend policy, and related issues. Additional topics will differ according to individual instructors.

• FNCE7070 - Valuation

  The focus of this course is on the valuation of companies. The course covers current conceptual and theoretical valuation frameworks and translates those frameworks into practical approaches for valuing companies. The relevant accounting topics and the appropriate finance theory are integrated to show how to implement the valuation frameworks discussed on a step-by-step basis. The course teaches how to develop the required information for valuing companies from financial statements and other information sources in a real-world setting. Topics covered in depth include discounted cash flow techniques and price multiples. In addition, the course covers other valuation techniques such as leveraged buyout analysis.

• FNCE7500 - Vent Cap & Fnce Innovat

  This course covers the finance of technological innovation, with a focus on the valuation tools useful in the venture capital industry. These tools include the "venture capital method," comparables analysis, discounted cash flow analysis, contingent-claims analysis. The primary audience for this course is finance majors interested in careers in venture capital or in R&D-intensive companies in health care or information technology.

• FNCE8990 - Independent Study

  Independent Study Projects require extensive independent work and a considerable amount of writing. ISP in Finance are intended to give students the opportunity to study a particular topic in Finance in greater depth than is covered in the curriculum. The application for ISP's should outline a plan of study that requires at least as much work as a typical course in the Finance Department that meets twice a week. Applications for FNCE 8990 ISP's will not be accepted after the THIRD WEEK OF THE SEMESTER. ISP's must be supervised by a Standing Faculty member of the Finance Department.

• Wharton Teaching Excellence Award, The Wharton School, 2018-2021
• Excellence in Teaching Award, WEMBA San Francisco, 2017
• William G. Whitney Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Affiliated Faculty, 2016
• William G. Whitney Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Affiliated Faculty, 2015
• William G. Whitney Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Affiliated Faculty, 2013
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Full-time MBA Program, 2013
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Full-time MBA Program, 2012
• William G. Whitney Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Affiliated Faculty, 2012
• Excellence in Teaching Award, WEMBA San Francisco, 2011
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Full-time MBA Program, 2010
• Excellence in Teaching Award, WEMBA San Francisco, 2009
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Full-time MBA Program, 2006
• Excellence in Teaching Award, WEMBA San Francisco, 2004
• Trefftzs Award, Western Finance Association, 2000

• “The Market is on Fire”: What’s behind the flood of DTC IPOs?, Retail Dive - 10/28/2021
• Turning investment theory into a successful value-oriented equity strategy, The Business Times - 05/12/2021
• Stopping the Red Ink Tops WeWork’s To-Do List, Wall Street Journal - 08/15/2019
• Levi CFO Returns to NYSE to Float Another Family-Owned American Icon, Wall Street Journal - 03/21/2019
• An Inside Look at CalPERS’s New Direct Private Equity Organization, Chief Investment Officer - 08/24/2018
• Retail Reckoning: How Private Equity Is Boosting Some Brands and Crushing Others, Fortune Magazine - 04/18/2018
• Why Those Startup Valuations Might Be Way Off, Wall Street Journal - 10/08/2017
• Wal-Mart is buying trendy e-commerce sites. The cool kids are not having it, Los Angeles Times - 08/17/2017
• Vision Quest: Expectations for CFOs to add strategic value have never been higher., CFO Magazine - 06/10/2016
• Saudi Aramco IPO: The Biggest Fee Event in Wall Street History, Wall Street Journal - 06/09/2016
• The enduring power of the biggest idea in business, The Economist - 04/02/2016
• How Foreign Should Investors Get?, Wall Street Journal - 08/10/2015
• Chemours launches with questions about its future, Wilmington News Journal - 07/02/2015
• WhatsApp price ups the ante in a big-spending industry, Los Angeles Times - 02/21/2014
• Social media start-ups’ value is enormous — if you trust investors, Los Angeles Times - 11/16/2013
• Beware, investors: Facebook was just a warning, CNN - 05/24/2012

Knowledge at Wharton

• What Will It Take for Uber to Become Profitable?, Knowledge at Wharton - 8/20/2019
• The IPO Market Heats Up: What Investors Need to Know, Knowledge at Wharton - 4/9/2019
• Spotify’s Direct Listing: Will Other Unicorns Follow?, Knowledge at Wharton - 4/10/2018
• The CFO Imperative: Leveraging the Cloud for Business Innovation and Growth, Knowledge at Wharton - 10/3/2016
• What’s Behind Google’s Alphabet Restructuring?, Knowledge at Wharton - 8/14/2015
• Of Unicorns and ‘Decacorns’: Is a Tech Start-up Bubble Forming?, Knowledge at Wharton - 6/22/2015

Wharton Stories

• Six Ways This Alum Used Wharton’s EMBA Program to Transition into a New Role in His Organization, Wharton Stories - 04/03/2018
• Semester in San Francisco Gives MBA Students More Options for Recruiting and Entrepreneurship, Wharton Stories - 12/22/2016