It looks like William Sharpe, Nobel Prize winner and founder of Financial Engines, a company that provides a sophisticated investment tool for the 401(k) crowd, will not have to worry about his own retirement. That’s because Sharpe, 75, has figured out a way to monetize his genius.
Six years after receiving his 1990 award in Economic Sciences along with Harry Markowitz and Merton Miller, the former Stanford University finance professor launched his company in Palo Alto, California. Last year Financial Engines produced its first annual profit, earning $4.6 million on revenue of $85 million. But Sharpe didn’t stop there. On March 16 he took the business public with an IPO on Nasdaq that closed the day at $17.25, more than 40 percent above Wall Street’s expectations.
Sharpe is best known for his groundbreaking work on financial asset pricing and the link between risk and return, widely known as the Sharpe ratio.
