Professor Daniel J. Taylor

Daniel Taylor is the Arthur Andersen Chaired Professor at The Wharton School, and director of the Wharton Forensic Analytics Lab. He is an expert on insider trading and has extensive expertise on corporate disclosures, economic materiality, and fraud prediction. He has published extensively on these topics in major scientific journals; served on the editorial board of several such journals; led seminars at dozens of top business schools across the globe; and won numerous academic and industry awards.

Prof. Taylor’s research frequently appears in the business media, and has been cited in rules and regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). His research has been instrumental in multiple DoJ, SEC, and FBI investigations, and was the impetus behind the SEC’s decision to require electronic filing of Form 144––Sale of Unregistered Securities; the SEC’s decision to issue new rules on 10B5-1 trading plans; and the introduction of the Holding Foreign Insiders Accountable Act in the US Senate.

Beyond academia, his research is relevant to a variety of practitioners and regulators seeking to understand, detect, and deter illicit activity in markets. He has led training sessions at the DoJ Fraud Unit, SEC Enforcement, and leading law firms, and has provided consulting services related to the materiality of information, statistical analysis of stock prices and trading activity, 10B5-1 trading plans, asset tracing, and fraud prediction. In addition, he has co-developed and licensed intellectual property related to parsing SEC filings and stock market surveillance. His consulting clients include the DoJ, various plaintiff and defense firms, and a Big 4 auditor.

Professor Taylor teaches a cutting-edge undergraduate course––Forensic Analytics––that applies state-of-the-art analytic tools to detect indicia of illicit activity, and teaches undergraduate and doctoral seminars on data analysis. His doctoral students have gone on to become faculty at a variety of leading business schools, including Chicago, MIT, Northwestern, and Stanford.

He received his bachelor’s degree from University of Delaware, his master’s from Duke University, and his PhD from Stanford University.