Mahdi Rastad

Mahdi Rastad’s research encompasses various areas of finance and economics, including corporate finance (capital structure and private equity), corporate governance (shareholder activism and board diversity), fixed-income investment (public pension funds and sovereign wealth funds), and energy economics (OPEC, oil economies and renewable energy).

His work has been published in notable journals such as the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Industrial Economics and Energy Economics. Rastad has also presented his scholarly work at various conferences and has been featured in the business press, including Bloomberg.

As an educator, Rastad has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Advanced Corporate Finance, Merger and Acquisition, Fixed Income Securities Market, Financial Literacy, Energy Finance, as well as courses in statistics and economics.

Rastad joined Cal Poly in 2012 after earning his Ph.D. in economics and M.S. in finance from the University of Illinois. He currently serves on the Cal Poly Corporation Investment Advisory Committee and enjoys playing soccer with colleagues in his free time.