Financial Modeler Spotlight: Edward Bodmer - Author, Corporate and Project Finance Modeling
Nov 13, 2025
Edward Bodmer: From Mainframes to the Future of Financial Modeling
“I started modeling before your parents were born,”
Edward Bodmer often says not as a boast, but as a reminder of how far the discipline of financial modeling has evolved, and how much further it still needs to go. In 1979, while most professionals were just beginning to explore personal computing, Edward was already immersed in financial models coded in Fortran, running on mainframes that could take weeks and sometimes months to process what modern laptops now compute in seconds.
Edward Bodmer’s career bridges eras from punch cards to machine learning and yet his philosophy remains timeless: clarity over complexity, substance over spectacle, and structure over style. He is widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts in corporate and project finance modeling. His work spans decades, continents, and industries, and his approach has remained strikingly consistent throughout.
Born in Manchester, England, to a nuclear physicist father and a Swiss professional skater mother, he relocated with his parents to the United States at the age of seven. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Illinois and later completed a Master of Business Administration in Econometrics from the University of Chicago. His first job at the Illinois Utility Regulatory Agency introduced him to financial modeling in its earliest form long before the advent of Lotus or Excel. These early models, built in Fortran and processed on mainframes, instilled in him a deep respect for computational efficiency and logical structure.
Following his time at the agency, he worked at two other organizations, including a bank that would later become part of JPMorgan Chase. During this period, he transitioned from Fortran to Lotus and eventually to Excel, continuing to refine his modeling skills.
As a consultant, Edward Bodmer has advised leading institutions such as Shell, Société Générale, General Electric, Citibank, HSBC, Saudi Aramco, and the Asian Development Bank. His expertise spans the development of simulation models, support for mergers and acquisitions, expert testimony before regulatory agencies, and contributions to government policy on electricity deregulation and energy efficiency. He has prepared models and analyses for Argonne National Laboratory and the City of Chicago, evaluated energy purchasing decisions for major corporations, and provided strategic advice across sectors.
He is also an Affiliate Subject Matter Expert in Organizational Effectiveness and Strategy Execution with Agile Dynamics LLC, a professional trainer with the Finance Energy Institute, and a consultant with Euromoney and the Amsterdam Institute of Finance.
His reputation as a global authority in financial modeling is built on both intellectual rigor and technical innovation. His book, Corporate and Project Finance Modeling: Theory and Practice remain a cornerstone for finance professionals seeking to balance technical mastery with conceptual clarity.
Among his most influential contributions is the User-Defined Function (UDF) technique, a method for resolving circular references in Excel models without relying on slow copy-and-paste macros.
“As models have become large,” he explains, “they can become very slow. The biggest problem is that they generally must run copy-and-paste macros to address circular references.”
His solution behaves like a SUM function with no buttons, no macros, eliminating unnecessary processing and dramatically reducing model run-times from minutes to seconds. He has also developed a suite of tools to format, audit, and optimize Excel performance, which are now used by finance teams worldwide.
Edward Bodmer’s philosophy is grounded in the principle of simplicity as strategy. He is a vocal critic of what he calls “monster bureaucratic models.” He believes that the spreadsheet, once a tool of liberation, has become a trap. “Models have become too cumbersome,” he says. “It is much better to avoid a few bad practices than to chase so-called best practices.” He often cites author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who warned: “When you put an Excel spreadsheet into computer-literate hands, you get projections effortlessly extending ad infinitum. We have become excessively bureaucratic planners thanks to these potent programs.”
For Edward, the spreadsheet is not the enemy, but the misuse of it is. His approach is to strip away the noise and restore human judgment and logic to a field that risks drowning in automation.
Equally passionate about education, Edward has taught customized modeling programs for organizations such as the MIT Sloan School of Management, BNP Paribas, and Saudi Aramco. He has delivered training across Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. His teaching philosophy emphasizes clarity, logic, and the power of models to tell compelling financial stories.
His website, www.edbodmer.com, hosts one of the most comprehensive online libraries of financial modeling resources in the world. With over 1,000 videos, downloadable templates, and step-by-step courses, his materials are used by professionals across the globe.
“I am obsessed about people in Africa doing their own modeling,” he says. “I focus on both the theory of why you do things and how to build efficient formulas that make sense.”
His message is consistent: avoid unnecessary complexity, understand the logic, and remember that good models tell better stories than slides ever could.
Even now, Edward continues to refine his craft. He is currently writing a second book on valuation errors and analytical fallacies, drawing from decades of what he calls “the torture of making models.” His goal is to help analysts understand that the pain of modeling is not a flaw but a discipline—the process through which clarity emerges.
“People who have endured the torture of making models,” he says, “understand the core of finance and its theoretical flaws better than anyone else.”
Edward Bodmer’s influence is felt not only in the models he has built, but in the generations of analysts he has trained to think critically, design efficiently, and approach finance with humility. His work bridges eras, and his philosophy remains as relevant today as it was when he first began. His legacy lies not only in the models he has built but in the generations of modelers he has inspired to think critically, design efficiently, and approach finance with both rigor and humility.
- Website: edbodmer.com
