William Cockrum's House

Professor Cockrum has won numerous teaching awards, including recognition as the top entrepreneurial professor in the nation in a survey conducted by Business Week in 1996. He has become a legend for a case-study entrepreneurial finance class he has taught for more than 25 years, teaching students the ins and outs of acquiring and sustaining the financing for organizations.

Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, Bill Cockrum spent 25 years in financial services initially as a marketer and lastly as CFO/CAO and one of the top senior officers at Becker Paribas, Inc. a 3,000-employee investment banking firm. When the company was sold to Merrill Lynch in 1984, Cockrum began his second career as a consultant to chief executive officers. He serves as a consultant in a variety of industries on issues such as organization structure, strategy, marketing, finance, and administration.
Shortly after starting consulting, Cockrum became a full time professor at UCLA Anderson teaching students the business and finance skills needed to succeed as entrepreneurs. Mr. Cockrum has taught at UCLA Anderson for 28 years. He currently teaches entrepreneurial finance, leadership and business ethics, and investment management and more than 7,000 students have passed through his classroom for these courses. He also is a member of the School's Board of Visitors, the Anderson Alumni Board, the Advisory Board of the Price Center, and a member of the UCLA Foundation investment committee and a Govenor of the Foundation.
Professor Cockrum is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Graduate School of Management of Cranfield university, Cranfield, England as well as a visiting Professor and a member of the Advisory Board of the Betteny Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies at Cranfield. Cockrum is also a Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Management at Warwick University, Coventry, England.


Education
MBA Finance and Marketing, 1961, Harvard Business School
B.A. Economics, 1959, DePauw University