James C. Van Horne

James Carter Van Horne (August 6, 1935 – September 1, 2025) was an American economist and finance academic. He was the A. P. Giannini Professor of Banking and Finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB). He authored five books, more than 60 articles, and numerous case studies. His teaching and research covered corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, money and capital markets, and fixed-income securities.

Early life and education Van Horne was born in South Bend, Indiana on August 6, 1935. He completed his bachelor's degree at DePauw University in 1957, followed by master's and doctoral degrees at Northwestern University in 1961 and 1964, respectively.

Career In 1965, Van Horne began teaching at Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was promoted to professor and became the school’s first faculty director of the MBA program (1970–73). He twice served as associate dean of academic affairs during the 1970s and later headed the finance group, helping to build it into one of the leading academic finance groups worldwide. and was the 1984 president of the American Finance Association. He retired from Stanford in 2007 after 42 years on the faculty. His advanced course Topics in Corporate Finance was structured as a quasi-seminar with case discussions, focusing on capital structure, distribution policy, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate restructuring.

Death Van Horne died in Palo Alto, California on September 1, 2025, at the age of 90. He was the 1998 recipient of the Robert T. Davis Award for extraordinary faculty contributions. In 2011, the GSB established the James C. Van Horne Professorship in his honor; the named professorship was first held by Jeffrey Zwiebel. He was also elected a Fellow of the American Finance Association.

Selected publications Van Horne, James (2000). Fundamentals of Financial Management (11th ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 013090533X. Van Horne, James (2001). Financial Management and Policy (12th ed.). Pearson. ISBN 0130326577. Van Horne, James (2001). Financial Market Rates and Flows (6th ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 0130326976.