Education
- Ph.D. Finance — The University of Texas at San Antonio
- M.B.A. Finance — University of Bahcesehir, Istanbul, Turkey
- B.A. Psychology — Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
About Professor Yildirim
"I think finance is fun, really I do! I try to relate everything in the textbooks to real-life situations. The financial environment the past couple of years has attracted attention. My prospective students should expect to see lots of Wall Street Journal and Business Week articles in my classes.
"I find relating big theories to real life situations very exciting. I can talk about theories for hours, but it won't be as effective as when the students can relate these facts to real-life problems. The small class sizes at Texas Wesleyan allow for lively discussions where everybody can participate. All the advantages of being a small university can be found at Texas Wesleyan. It’s a very friendly environment, with superb collegiality and open doors. It's a great place to work and study."
An assistant professor of finance at Texas Wesleyan since 2008, his classes include Corporate Finance, Managerial Finance, Financial Statement Analysis, Money and Banking, and M.B.A.-level Integrated Advanced Financial Analysis. In Financial Statement Analysis, students analyze company’s true value by applying different valuation methods. "It's pretty comprehensive, but also rewarding."
His own current research is about closed-end funds in corporate finance. Dr. Yildirim has presented his research at various conferences and two of his papers received McGraw-Hill Irwin distinguished paper awards in 2010 and 2011.
Did You Know?
Outside of the classroom, Dr. Yildirim stays busy with a toddler-aged daughter and visits family in his home country of Turkey in the summers. From Istanbul, he came to Texas in 2002.
"Texas is a great place to be. The people are friendly and it’s just really easy living here."
