Classroom lectures have always provided fertile ground for new areas of research for Prof. Panos Patatoukas, who is inspired by conversations with MBA students.
“For me, teaching doesn’t feel like a job,” says Patatoukas, an assistant professor who joined the Haas Accounting Group in 2010 after graduating from Yale University. “It is my passion and hobby.”
For his boundless enthusiasm, research insights, and teaching accomplishments, Patatoukas earned a spot on the recently published Poets & Quants World’s Best 40 Under 40 Business School Professors list, as well as the corresponding Top-10 B-Professors list of Fortune Magazine.
“Panos is perhaps the most engaging professor and as well as the most caring professor I have ever come across,” one student told Poets & Quants. “Panos cares a great deal about his students. He is always available when students needed help, well beyond his required office hours.”
Patatoukas currently teaches Evening & Weekend MBA students enrolled in the Financial Information Analysis & Valuation course. He says he particularly enjoys breaking down and communicating complex ideas—and feeds off the energy of his students.
“The students I teach are incredibly motivated and I am always learning something new from them,” he says. “They’re always surprising me with their insights and intellectual curiosity.”
Patatoukas’ place on the Poets & Quants list is one of a growing roll of honors he has received in recent years, including “Club 6” Excellence in Teaching awards annually from 2010-2013; and the Earl F. Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award in 2012, the highest teaching award granted by students.
Prior to arriving at Haas, Patatoukas earned a total of five degrees, including a PhD in accounting and finance from Yale University, plus two master’s degrees in management from Yale, a master’s in accounting and finance from the London School of Economics, plus a BA in accounting and finance from Athens University of Economics and Business, where he graduated as valedictorian.
Patatoukas’ areas of research include corporate valuation, financial statement analysis for measuring and forecasting economic activity at the firm level and at the aggregate macroeconomic level, and supply chain management.
He has been published in several top-tier academic journals and, in May 2013, he received the Hellman Fellows Fund Award for Distinction in Research, a UC Berkeley campus-wide award given annually to an assistant professor. He also received the Schwabacher Award for Distinction in Research and Teaching in February of 2012. The Schwabacher Award is the highest honor for distinction in research and teaching awarded to a Haas assistant professor.
Patatoukas, who is 33, says he’s found a new home in Berkeley, which he likens to Athens, where he finds people are intellectual yet down to earth. That’s a combination he ties to his favorite Haas Principle: Confidence without Attitude.
“I am very proud of being part of UC Berkeley,” he told Poets & Quants. “The history and values of Cal fit my personality and background. Confidence without Attitude is one of the defining principles of the Haas School of Business that I associate with and implement in my life.”
For more information about Patatoukas, please visit his website.