Professor Brown is David S. Loeb Professor of Finance at Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. He joined the faculty of New York University in 1986, before that, he was Associate Professor at Yale University. In December 2002 he was appointed to the honourary position of Professorial Fellow with the title of professor at the University of Melbourne.

In 2007 Professor Brown was elected Academic Director of Financial Management Association. He has served as President of the Western Finance Association and Secretary/Treasurer of that organisation, has served on the Board of Directors of the American Finance Association, and was a founding editor of the Review of Financial Studies. He is a Managing Editor of The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and has served on the editorial board of The Journal of Finance and is on the board of the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal and other journals. He has published numerous articles and five books on finance and economics related areas.

Professor Brown was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories where he spent time on assignment as District Manager in the AT&T Pension Fund. He is currently retained as an advisor to MIR Investment Management Ltd in Sydney, and has served as an expert witness for the US Department of Justice.