With Major Gift, University of Maryland Business School to Create Behavioral Finance Center

Alumnus H. Kent Baker, A Leading Voice in the Field, Aims to Expand UMD's Research

COLLEGE PARK, Md., Sept. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business will establish the H. Kent Baker Center for Behavioral Finance following a generous gift from the alumnus and noted scholar, creating only the second named center of its kind in the United States.

Through Baker's support, the center will bring together powerhouses of financial research and innovation at the Smith School to advance understanding of how human psychology, not just rational economic calculations, shapes financial decision-making.

"The Smith School has a wonderful finance faculty and great researchers in the area of behavioral finance," said Baker, MBA '69, DBA '72, M.Ed. '74. "It's vital for understanding how emotions and biases affect financial decisions and using that to be a better decision maker. The Smith School is the ideal place where that research could occur."

UMD President Darryll J. Pines said the new center and faculty positions funded by Baker will put the Smith School at the forefront of the developing field.

"Dr. Baker's generosity will provide our business students with unsurpassed learning opportunities, reinforcing the critical value of a top-flight public institution of higher education while advancing faculty research that solves business problems," he said.

Baker's gift will also create the Baker Endowed Chair in Behavioral Finance and provide additional endowed faculty support.

"We are deeply grateful to Dr. Baker for his generous contributions to the Smith School," said Smith School Dean Prabhudev Konana. "His investment in establishing the H. Kent Baker Center for Behavioral Finance will shine a spotlight on the school's strong research enterprise and its pivotal role in advancing understanding of psychological biases and human behavior in financial decisions."

A University Professor of Finance at American University's Kogod School of Business, Baker is a lifelong educator and scholar; he earned eight postsecondary and postgraduate degrees in the fields of education and finance, in addition to acquiring CFA and CMA designations.

Over his 56-year career in academia, he has been a leading voice in finance, particularly in the areas of behavioral finance, dividend policy and survey research methodology. His interdisciplinary research has transformed modern finance and changed how scholars, practitioners and policymakers approach market behavior.

The Journal of Finance Literature has recognized him as among the top 1% of the most prolific authors in finance during the past 50 years. In 2024, Stanford University ranked him among the top 2% of scientists in the world. Baker is an award-winning author and editor who has published 46 books, 225 peer-reviewed articles, and more than 100 practitioner-oriented works.

Baker has also spoken publicly about his pride in serving as a steward of education for future generations of business leaders. In 2005, he established an award supporting Smith School doctoral candidates in finance, helping cover the costs of attending academic conferences. In 2025, he made another transformational gift, resulting in the naming of the Linda A. and H. Kent Baker School of Education at American University in memory of his wife.

With this latest gift to UMD, he said, he hopes to pay it forward to help others. "One of the greatest things to me is education, and the University of Maryland has been one of the most influential institutions in my life," Baker said. 

About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business
Located eight miles from Washington, D.C., 35 miles from Baltimore, and situated inside the Capital Beltway, the Robert H. Smith School of Business is a recognized leader in management education and research. Smith's over 70,000 alumni are part of the 400,000-strong University of Maryland alumni community. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland in College Park, the Smith School is plugged into the business, government, nonprofit and professional networks of the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., metroplex. We offer undergraduate, online and on-campus business master's, full-time, part-time, online and executive MBA, PhD and DBA degree programs, graduate certificates, and non-degree and executive education programs.

Contact: Veronica Robinson, [email protected]

SOURCE University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business