Betty J. Simkins, Ph.D., is the Williams Companies Chair, Regents Professor of Finance, and Head of the Department of Finance at Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business. She has a Ph.D. in Finance from Case Western Reserve University, an MBA from Oklahoma State University (OSU), and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arkansas.   Prior to getting her PhD, Dr. Simkins (Betty) began her career as a chemical engineer in the oil and gas industry for Conoco and as an engineer and planning analyst for Williams Companies.  Currently, in addition to teaching energy finance courses at OSU and conducting research that she presents internationally, she also teaches executive education for energy companies globally. In June 2018, she was appointed to the Market Risk Advisory Committee for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Betty has received a number of teaching awards and research awards at OSU including the Regents Distinguished Teaching Award, the Regents Distinguished Research Award, the Outreach Excellence Award, and the Outstanding OSU MBA Faculty Award. She was also nominated for Regents Professor, the highest academic award at OSU and the appointment will become official July 1, 2019. Her primary area of research is risk management, including energy risk, but she also conducts research in energy finance and corporate governance, among other areas.  She has coauthored more than 70 journal articles and book chapters and has won best paper awards for her research.  She has published in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Banking and Finance, Financial Management, Journal of Futures Markets, among others. In addition, she has published extensively on energy finance and enterprise risk management including three books titled: Energy Finance and Economics:  Analysis and Valuation, Risk Management, and the Future of Energy (2013);, Enterprise Risk Management: Insights and Analysis on Today's Leading Research and Best Practices (2010); and Implementing Enterprise Risk Management:  Case Studies and Best Practices (2014), all published by Wiley. 

Betty is very active professionally.  She is editor (and founding co-editor) of the Journal of Commodity Markets and serves on the editorial boards of 11 other academic journals including the Journal of Banking and Finance, International Review of Financial Analysis, British Accounting Review, and the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance.  She is past president of the Eastern Finance Association and  Vice President of Education for the Financial Management Association International.  She is a member of several energy industry associations including the NGEAO (Natural Gas and Energy Association of Oklahoma), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE).