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Choose a courseTeaching · Santa Clara University
Understand the numbers. Explain the decision.
I teach students to connect financial concepts to choices they can explain and defend. At Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, I bring experience from Deloitte, Riveron, and Google Cloud into the classroom.
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Devon Coombs, CPA, MBA · Assistant Teaching Professor of Finance and Faculty Director of Real Estate Finance, Santa Clara University
“This instructor was amazing at making financial concepts super easy to understand and relatable to all business students. I appreciated that the instructor provided all the resources I needed to practice working questions and understand concepts.”
How I teach
Start with a real question. Build the reasoning.
A formula is easier to remember when you understand the problem it solves. I connect cash flow, risk, valuation, and financial tradeoffs to examples students can recognize, then work through the logic step by step.
Practice matters. Students need a chance to make a mistake, see why an answer changes, and try again. My course materials combine explanations, worked examples, interactive tools, and retrieval practice.
University teaching and executive education
I’m an Assistant Teaching Professor of Finance and Faculty Director of Real Estate Finance at Santa Clara University. My teaching experience also includes San José State University and Ohlone College.
With executives and professional teams, I apply the same approach to their own workflows, from finance decisions to the use of AI in analysis and accounting.
Read my official SCU faculty profileUniversity evaluation record
The results, with their context.
These are published section-level results from San José State University’s Student Opinion of Teaching Effectiveness reports for BUS 170 in 2025–26. They relate to my SJSU teaching, before my current SCU appointment.
- 4.6–4.9 / 5
- Published teaching-effectiveness scores across the five sections below.
- 5 sections
- Two in Fall 2025 and three in Spring 2026.
- Above the department mean
- In each of the five published section comparisons.
| Term / section | Responses | Devon | Department |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2025 · Section 05 | 20 | 4.7 | 4.4 |
| Fall 2025 · Section 01 | 23 | 4.7 | 4.4 |
| Spring 2026 · Section 10 | 24 | 4.6 | 4.5 |
| Spring 2026 · Section 11 | 37 | 4.9 | 4.5 |
| Spring 2026 · Section 20 | 17 | 4.8 | 4.5 |
Source: five official SJSU SOTE reports, academic year 2025–26, as transcribed in the published teaching record. Scores are displayed at their published precision; no combined average is inferred from these rounded values.
“Seriously the greatest class I’ve ever taken. I truly learned real-life concepts, and the passion he has for all students to succeed was a pleasure to experience. I cannot stress how much I learned from him. Such a great instructor.”
“Professor Coombs genuinely cares about the success of his students. He is always willing to answer questions, even encourages them, in order to gauge how much we are understanding his material. His care for our success is what drove me to want to do well in his class.”
Read more student comments
“Really engaged with students, developing a friendly and open environment to learn. He used personal and real-world examples to teach the course, which I found very effective. Concepts taught were relevant and incredibly useful for future careers.”
“Professor Coombs was very welcoming, understanding, and supportive throughout the semester. Every morning, he greeted the class and made the environment feel comfortable and positive. He always made sure students understood the material before moving on and was willing to help whenever needed.”
“It was very clear he wanted the best for his students, so it was great that he was teaching finance in a way that would benefit students for their entire lives. He was good at explaining concepts and providing study resources.”
Graduate & executive education
Clear explanations. Hands-on application.
University evaluations and executive-session feedback measure different experiences. Each result below includes its own response base.
KAIST MBA executive session, hosted by Santa Clara University
25 respondents overall. Not everyone answered every question.
- 25 of 25
- Could understand the speaker clearly
- 23 of 25
- Rated the content high value to their daily role or industry
- 20 of 21
- Would recommend the session to a peer or colleague
“I really loved this session, and Devon delivered the lecture clearly and in a compact way. I think this is the best session I have ever had in an SCU course.”
“The best practice in using AI starts from understanding whether it is a deterministic or a non-deterministic task, and the judgment should be your own.”
Full result breakdown and improvement feedback
| Question | Result | Full distribution |
|---|---|---|
| Could understand the speaker clearly | 25 of 25 | Everyone who answered agreed. No neutral responses, none disagreed. |
| Said the speaker kept their attention | 22 of 24 | About 92% agreed, 2 were neutral, and none disagreed. |
| Said the speaker was an expert on the topic | 22 of 24 | About 92% agreed, 2 were neutral, and none disagreed. |
| Rated the content high value to their daily role or industry | 23 of 25 | 92% rated it high value, 2 said some value, and none rated it low. |
| Would recommend the session to a peer or colleague | 20 of 21 | About 95% said yes, one said no, and four people skipped the question. |
What participants wanted more of
Six people answered the question about what they wished the session had covered. Five requests were:
- A longer session
- How he uses AI himself, plus other examples
- Tactics for revising prompts
- More time to refine the output
- More complicated AI use cases
The sixth response expressed a different view of the session’s fit:
“I did not expect this class to be just ‘Try Claude Code or Cowork.’ In my opinion, it is work for C-level, not for a DI-related major student.”
Source: the program’s post-session evaluation. Participant comments are copyedited for grammar only, preserving meaning and sentiment.
Professional teams
Learning through the work itself.
PagerDuty controllership onsite
Every attendee who answered the favorite-content question named the workshop or the live Claude session. About 40 leaders attended the three-day onsite; nine filed written feedback.
The only two improvement responses were "more time with Claude" and "more Claude workshops."
Explore workshops for your team“I liked how interactive each session was. The Claude workshop was very helpful and relevant for the work I am currently doing.”
Keep learning
Choose your next step.
Present a recommendation clearly
A practical executive presentation checklist, an interactive decision brief, and guides for startup pitches and real estate investment committees.
Build your presentationThe book & teaching guides
Connect personal and corporate finance through The 10 Laws of Finance, with resources for instructors and readers.
Explore the guidesExecutive training & speaking
Hands-on AI workshops, finance sessions, and talks for leadership teams and professional audiences.
Plan a sessionBring a practical finance education to your audience.
For teaching inquiries, academic collaboration, or a tailored executive session, tell me who you want to reach and what they need to learn.