Assistant professor of finance Stephen McKeon is one of two co-winners of the Financial Research Association's 2012 Michael J. Barclay Award for the best solo-authored paper by a young scholar. The award is fiercely competitive and in some years the committee does not name a winner at all. McKeon's winning paper, "Manager-Initiated versus Investor-Initiated Equity Issuances," examines the influence of employee stock options on corporate financing. "My research documents that firms raise more money through stock issuances to employees than all initial public offerings combined," said McKeon. Coverage of McKeon's previous study on the risk-taking behavior of CEOs who fly private planes has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and SmartMoney, among other publications. McKeon—who received his bachelor's degree from the Lundquist College in 2000—returned to teach here in September 2011. Download a copy of his paper.