Dr. Kevin Grell

A native Dane, Dr. Kevin B. Grell moved to Los Angeles in 2011 after completing his doctoral work in venture capital and entrepreneurial finance; his first visit to the Golden State was in 2009 as a visiting scholar at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Always curious about the funding and investment hurdles faced by small and medium sized businesses, he immersed himself in industry research and consulting related to the (then) emerging fields of crowdfunding and P2P finance.

The interest in water economics and sustainability has grown for many years, but culminated with the California drought (2011-2017), which illustrated not only the magnitude of California’s water risk exposure, but also the complexity of regional and statewide water policies. This period spurred an interest in market-based innovations, their barriers to entrance, and a curiosity about how financial mechanisms may help accelerate their adaptation.

Furthermore, he is an adjunct faculty teaching finance at the College of Business Administration, Cal Poly Pomona as well as at Department of Business and Economics at University of Southern Denmark. Teaching interests spans managerial and corporate finance, economics of information, real options, game theory, sustainability and green finance. He received his Ph.D. (business economics), Master’s and Bachelor's degree (mathematics and economics) from the University of Southern Denmark.