Dimensional Welcomes New Independent Directors to Boards of US Mutual Funds

Darrell Duffie of Stanford and Ingrid M. Werner of Ohio State have been appointed to serve as independent directors on the boards of Dimensional’s US mutual funds. Duffie and Werner join a long list of academic luminaries who have helped oversee the funds on behalf of investors.

Dimensional recognized the value of academic research from the beginning and established close ties with leading academics. Two of the first independent directors to serve on the boards of Dimensional’s US mutual funds—Merton Miller and Myron Scholes—would later be recognized as Nobel laureates in economic sciences. “We built the firm to deliver investment solutions for clients,” Chairman David Booth said. “Who better to look over your shoulder than the leading researchers in the world?”

The independent directors of Dimensional’s US mutual funds currently include a former chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, a former executive director of the Center for Research in Security Prices, and multiple past presidents of the American Finance Association. They include experts in portfolio management, asset pricing, financial intermediaries, liquidity, market returns, cost of capital, personnel economics, employee incentives, options pricing, tax policy, financial reporting, accounting, and corporate governance.

Since the firm’s inception, Dimensional’s research has been shaped by leading academics and their work. Collectively, these academics have contributed many of the major ideas of modern finance. The independent directors bring intellectual curiosity and scientific rigor to their role, providing governance for the funds and helping to ensure investors’ interests are served.

“We’re proud of our heritage of leading research and honored to have the opportunity to learn from Darrell and Ingrid and their impressive experience and expertise,” Booth said. “Independent directors play a critical role in helping us provide sound solutions and a good investment experience for our clients.”

Darrell Duffie is the Dean Witter Distinguished Professor of Finance at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He is a Fellow and member of the Council of the Econometric Society, a Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Duffie was also the 2009 president of the American Finance Association and was a member of the board of directors of Moody’s Corp. from 2008 to 2018. In 2014, he chaired the Market Participants Group, charged by the Financial Stability Board with recommending reforms to Libor, Euribor, and other interest rate benchmarks. His recent books include How Big Banks Fail (Princeton University Press, 2010), Measuring Corporate Default Risk (Oxford University Press, 2011), and Dark Markets (Princeton University Press, 2012).

Ingrid M. Werner is the Martin and Andrew Murrer Professor in Finance at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. Professor Werner is currently President of the Western Finance Association and a Director of the American Finance Association, and she is a Past President of the European Finance Association. Professor Werner is an Independent Director of the Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund and a member of the FINRA Economic Advisory Committee. She serves on the prize committee for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. She chairs the scientific advisory board of the Swedish House of Finance, and serves on the board of Mistra Financial Systems and the scientific advisory board of the Danish Finance Institute. Professor Werner has a PhD in Economics from the University of Rochester and an Honorary Doctorate in Economics from Stockholm School of Economics.