Erik Lie is a professor of finance at the University of Iowa and has been teaching for twenty-five years. In 2002, he began researching executive compensation, and using large databases, he documented strong patterns of manipulation of stock option grants. He brought them to the attention of the...

Erik Lie is a professor of finance at the University of Iowa and has been teaching for twenty-five years. In 2002, he began researching executive compensation, and using large databases, he documented strong patterns of manipulation of stock option grants. He brought them to the attention of the SEC and Wall Street Journal, which resulted in a massive SEC investigation, numerous lawsuits, congressional hearings, the firings of at least seventy corporate executives, and a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the Wall Street Journal. In 2007, Time magazine included him in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world.