Bio

Charlie Wood has over 50 years of leadership and business experience in the United States, Europe, and Asia. in 1989, after 13 years on Wall Street, including nine years with First Boston and Credit Suisse-First Boston, in New York, London, and Los Angeles, he founded and led his own firm focusing on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and strategy. Mr. Wood has testified as an expert in the U. S. District Courts for the Eastern Districts of Virginia and Washington, and the Superior Court of California. Shortly after the turn of the century, his focus shifted to teaching, first at the University of California – Los Angeles, and later joining the University of Southern California Gould School of Law faculty as well. For 15+ years he taught financial risk management, financial statement and security analysis, business acquisitions, and behavioral finance at UCLA. In 2014, Mr. Wood developed Business for Lawyers for the USC Gould School of Law online International LL.M. Degree Program. He subsequently taught Business for Lawyers in the residential J.D. program and Corporate Finance in the residential LL.M program. Along the way he chaired the Stanford GSB Trust, miraculously won a silver medal at the VI FINA World Masters (men's 45+ water polo), and worked as an ER trauma tech. He has been active in the Tournament of Roses since 1977, seemingly forever. He is the recipient of Princeton University’s Harold H. Helm ‘20 Award for Exemplary and Sustained Service on Behalf of Annual Giving, the Stanford Graduate School of Business John W. Gardner Volunteer Leadership Award, and, with his family, the Cancer Support Community Angel Award. In 2022, Mr. Wood, with his wife of nearly 50 years, lemmingly left California after 50 years. They now reside in Newport, KY, where he rows with the Cincinnati Rowing Club. He is also a member of the Literary Club of Cincinnati, founded 99 years prior to his birth, and The Mercantile Library, founded in 1840, where he may be found playing the 1937 Steinway on occasion. Mr. Wood matriculated at Princeton University, advanced standing in mathematics, receiving his A.B. in politics in 1970. He received his M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1976. While at Stanford, Mr. Wood studied finance and investments under Nobel Laureate William F. Sharpe. Mr. Wood served as an infantry officer in the U. S. Marine Corps (Vietnam Service Medal) attaining the rank of Captain prior to entering Stanford.