Dr. Ronnie Clayton

Glenn Huie Chair & Eminent Scholar
257 Merrill Hall
256-782-5715
rclayton@jsu.edu   

Dr. Ronnie Clayton currently serves as the Glenn Huie Eminent Scholar Chair and Professor of Finance in the College of Commerce and Business Administration at Jacksonville State University. Professor Clayton joined the faculty of the Gregory D. Brown Department of Finance, Economics and Accounting in June 2000. His teaching and research interest are in the areas of U.S. and international investing, asset valuation and financial issues in bank management. Among the journals in which he has published articles are the Journal of Financial Research, Decision Sciences, the Financial Review, the Financial Management Journal, the Journal of the Academy of Finance, the Journal of Portfolio Management, Advances in Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, and Advances in Financial Planning and Forecasting. Dr. Clayton also serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Financial Research and the Banking and Finance Review and is the former editor of Financial Decisions. Dr. Clayton is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Jacksonville State University Foundation where he serves on the Investment Advisory Committee and the JSU Foundation Student Housing Taskforce.

Prior to joining Jacksonville State University, Professor Clayton served from 1997-2000 as an associate professor in the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business in Winter Park, Florida. He was a member of the faculty of the University of Central Florida from 1988-1997 where he served as an associate professor. At the University of Central Florida, he was the Finance Department Chair from 1988-1993 and Ph.D. Program Coordinator from 1988-1994. Dr. Clayton was a member of the finance faculty at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville from 1984-1988 where he served as an assistant and associate professor. From 1981-1984 Professor Clayton was an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky. During the 1983-84 academic year, Professor Clayton was on leave from the University of Kentucky and served as a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Home Loan Bank Board in Washington, DC. Dr. Clayton is an editorial reviewer for several journals. He holds membership in numerous academic finance associations and has served as the Executive Director of the Southern Finance Association since 1992. Dr. Clayton was awarded his Ph.D. in 1982 from the University of Georgia and received his MA degree in 1978 and BS degree in 1976 from the University of Alabama. He is a 1971 graduate of Crossville High School in Crossville, Alabama. 

Dr. Clayton has served as a consultant in a substantial number of business valuations and utility rate cases. He has also served as an expert witness in numerous banking related cases involving the valuation of banks, proper banking practices, the valuation of mortgages and mortgage securities and the appropriate investment in mortgage securities by financial institutions and individuals. Among his most prominent consulting engagements is the valuation and precedent setting testimony involving the American Home Mortgage bankruptcy. Utilizing discounted cashflow techniques, Dr. Clayton valued more 6,000 mortgages totaling more than $1 billion. His technique was accepted as precedent setting by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Dr. Clayton also conducted an analysis involving more than $5 billion for the receivers in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy during the 2007-2009 great recession. During his consulting career, Dr. Clayton has assisted in the valuation of more than $30 billion of assets.

In 2015 Dr. Clayton assisted in the establishment of the International Business Administration Cooperation Agreement between Jacksonville State University and Lishui University from Lishui, PRC. Prior to the COVID interruption in the Agreement, Dr. Clayton taught at Lishui University each May from 2017-2019 and helped bring several Lishui University students to JSU to study for a year. He is currently (2023) assisting to reestablish the Agreement for 2024 forward.

His volunteer work includes serving on several committees in his church including serving as Administrative Board Chair and as a member of the Finance Committee. He has also served as President of the Jacksonville High School Golden Eagle Athletic Booster Club and as scorekeeper for the Jacksonville High School basketball and baseball teams. His past volunteer work included the Business Advisory Board for the Seminole County Public School District in Florida where he served from 1994-2000 and was Chairperson from 1996-1998. He is a past member of the Kiwanis Club in Maryville, Tennessee. Professor Clayton has also volunteered as a Little League Baseball coach and as a youth basketball coach.

Dr. Clayton is an avid college football fan. He and his wife, Patricia, reside in Jacksonville. They have three adult children and five granddaughters.