Joel M. Stern is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Stern Stewart & Co., an advisory firm on financial policy, strategy and corporate governance, the creator and developer of Economic Value Added (EVA^®) as a measure of performance and the EVA^® Management System.

After graduating from the University of Chicago's graduate program in Finance and Economics, he joined the Chase Manhattan Bank where he ultimately ran their global consulting operations, called Chase Financial Policy. In 1982 he started Stern Stewart as an independent objective advisor to company boards, executive committees, and even to heads of state in order to improve even the performance of state-owned enterprises. From 1973-1976 he was a regular financial policy columnist for the Financial Times of London. From 1979-1983 he made frequent contributions to the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal. More recently he has been a regular columnist for Finance Week. He also teaches as a professor at six graduate schools, including Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, The University of Chicago, the University of Cape Town, Singapore Management University and Old Dominion