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Faculty Directory

Faculty Directory

The Graduate School of Management at UC Davis brings together distinguished scholars and industry experts from all over the world. Alongside our students, they create a vibrant educational experience with real-world relevance and a culture of camaraderie. 

Our instructors have both academic expertise and practical experience, giving you a well-rounded and relevant MBA education. Plus, with a low student-to-faculty ratio, these diverse, high-quality faculty get to know you by first name and serve as mentors as you grow your professional network after graduation.

They've trained at top schools, including Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University, Harvard University, The University of Chicago, Cornell University and Northwestern University.

Through a powerful combination of case studies, seminars, guest speakers, simulations and team projects, they turn complex concepts into actionable tools you can use throughout your career.

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Mak Ahmad

Lecturer

Ph.D., Computer Science, UC Davis, In Progress
Master of Science (M.S.), Computer Science, Sonoma State University, 2017
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Computer and Electrical Engineering, UC Davis, 2004

Research Expertise
Visualization and Human-Computer Interaction

Areas of Expertise
Technology Management

Shannon W. Anderson

Professor Emerita

Ph.D., Harvard University

Research Expertise
Empirical analysis of quantitative and qualitative field-based data as well as survey data to study performance management and cost accounting in and at the boundaries of the firm (e.g., lean production, supplier performance management, customer profitability and lean consumption), integration of strategy, operations management and management accounting practices, and design of cost accounting systems, cost allocation mechanisms, and cost-based transfer pricing policy

Charles Ansbach

Lecturer

Charles Ansbach has worked with major corporations nationally and internationally representing not only their interests in discussions as donors to major nonprofits/NGOs but also in appeals for support and partnership made by community groups. In those many interactions, he learned why most corporate CSR programs fail and how to fix them. Ansbach has learned what CSR directors must do to manage their programs inside corporate structures and the practical sides of serving effectively in that role.

Cyrus Aram

Lecturer

MBA, UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Lecturer Cyrus Aram brings over 20 years of private and public sector experience in the areas of customer strategy, business transformation, planning, program, change and quality management. He has domain level expertise in customer strategy, business process transformation, lean sigma, program and change management, performance management and business controls, and thought leadership. He is also an adjunct faculty at the Sacramento State College of Business Administration.

Ashwin Aravindakshan

Associate Professor and MSBA Academic Director

Associate Professor Ashwin Aravindakshan’s research interests center on learning how brands can better allocate their advertising resources (e.g., budgets, creatives, etc.) across different regions and/or multiple media over time. In addition to studying such dynamic advertising models, his research also investigates the dynamics of customer behavior and loyalty to help managers devise better communication and targeting policies in order to optimize their marketing mix at the individual level.

Beth Bechky

Stephen G. Newberry Chair in Leadership

Ph.D., Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Stanford University, 1999
Master of Arts (M.A.), Sociology, Stanford University 1992
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) (with honors), Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University 1991

Research Expertise: Future of work, occupations and professions, collaboration. 

Paul Bianchi

2019 & 2020 Robert A. Fox Executive in Residence

Masters in Management, University of Kent, Canterbury
B.S., Managerial Economics, UC Davis

Paul Bianchi is an experienced and successful human capital executive and consultant with over 25 years of high-technology leadership experience from innovative companies like NeXT, Apple, Ask Jeeves, PeopleSoft and Illumina.

Nicole Woolsey Biggart

Research Professor and Professor Emerita

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Chair, Social, Political and Economic Sciences section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Research Expertise
Economic and organizational sociology, firm networks, industrial change and social bases of technology adoption.

Course Taught 
Strategic Innovations in Energy Efficiency

Fast Facts

Nick Briscoe

Lecturer

Master of Science (M.S.), UC Davis

Nicholas Briscoe is Chief Economist at Briscoe Economics Group, Inc. He provides valuation consulting and expert witness testimony in a wide variety of economic and financial matters.  He teaches as the UC Davis Graduate School of Management as part of the adjunct faculty. Briscoe’s prior positions include manager in the forensic services division of the accounting firm Crowe Horwath, LLP, as well as Senior Economist at Cohen | Volk Economic Consulting Group.

David S. Bunch

Professor Emeritus

Ph.D., Rice University

Research Expertise: Marketing research, marketing science, decision and management sciences, consumer choice behavior, choice modeling, new product development and introduction

Professor David Bunch is an internationally recognized expert on marketing research, marketing science and decision and management sciences. His research interests include consumer choice behavior, choice modeling, new product development and introduction, travel behavior, vehicle choice and alternative fuel vehicles.

C. Janie Chang

Academic Executive Director, Master of Professional Accountancy Program

Ph.D., University of California, Irvine

Research Expertise 
Human information processing in accounting settings, behavioral issues in managerial accounting and auditing, nature of expert judgments, group decision making, accounting information systems, audit analytics, and cross-cultural research.

Janie Chang is the academic executive director of the Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAc) program at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

Olga Clasper

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Olga Clasper has a Bachelor's in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a Master's in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, and an MBA from the University of California, Davis. She has worked at Intel in Folsom as a Software Engineer and Technical Program Manager since 2014.

Conrad M. Davis

Visiting Faculty

Master of Science (M.S.), Taxation, Golden Gate University, California

Conrad Davis is the Partner-in-Charge of the Firm’s Sacramento, CaliforniaTax Practice. He has more than 28 years of experience providing tax compliance and consulting services to closely held business, their owners in the food and food production related businesses. He works closely with his clients to understand their business and goals. He coordinates with Crowe auditors to effectively and efficiently provide tax services to jointly served clients.

Eamonn Dolan

Lecturer and Former Robert A. Fox Executive-in-Residence

Master of Science (M.S.) in Management  - Concentration in Finance, MIT, 1985
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Managerial Economics, UC Davis, 1983

Research Expertise
Alternative investing, portfolio management, investment cycles, fixed income

Areas of Expertise
Finance

Horacio Enriquez

Lecturer

Master of Science (M.S.), Engineering Management and Leadership, Santa Clara University, 2004
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Mechanical Engineering, Santa Clara University, 1997

Research Expertise
Supply chain digitalization, supply chain risk and resiliency, supplier relationship management, FDA, ISO 13485:2016, and MDSAP regulations

Areas of Expertise
Business analytics, operations management, management & organizations, technology management

Vanessa Errecarte

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Marketing Emphasis, UC Davis Graduate School of Management, 2014
Master of Arts (M.A.), Communication, Mass Communication Emphasis, University of the Pacific, 2007
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Communication, University of California, Davis, 2004

Doug Findlay

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), UC Davis Graduate School of Management
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), California State University, Sacramento


Lecturer Douglas Findlay brings over 30 years of experience in the technology sector, building extensive expertise and practical knowledge in the areas of product marketing, product management, new market development, market strategy, channel strategy, sales management, and business operations.

Sharad Gupta

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Sharad Gupta is an executive leader with large-scale strategy and execution background in driving modern data and analytics and technology transformations in the healthcare industry. He is a tech-savvy leader and is an industry-recognized thought-leader with focus on applying data science, artificial intelligence/machine learning, data science, digital technologies, and modern architectures for business growth and transformations.

John D. Hancock

Lecturer

Lecturer John D. Hancock provides valuation consulting services in civil and business litigation through economic and financial analysis. He also teaches at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management as a visiting professor.

Andrew B. Hargadon

Professor

Ph.D., Stanford University

Research Expertise
The effective management of innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly in the development and commercialization of sustainable technologies

Professor Andrew B. Hargadon has written extensively on innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly the commercialization science and technology and the management of research and development. He has published numerous articles and chapters in leading scholarly and applied publications.

Hargadon is at the forefront of teaching, research and practice in cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship, and is founding director of two key centers at UC Davis—the Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Energy Efficiency Center. These centers are dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and innovation through educational programs bridging science, engineering and business. They provide a successful framework for university scientists and engineers to move their ideas out of the lab and into the world.

Hargadon received the 2009 Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award in recognition for his strong entrepreneurship curriculum and success with the two centers.

Prior to his academic appointment, Hargadon worked as a product designer at Apple Computer and taught in the Product Design program at Stanford University.

A senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, Hargadon is the author of How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate (Harvard Business School Press, 2003).

His most recent book is Sustainable Innovation: Build Your Company’s Capacity to Change the World (Stanford University Press, 2015).

Hargadon received his Ph.D. from Stanford University’s School of Engineering, where he was named Boeing Fellow and Sloan Foundation Future Professor of Manufacturing. He received his M.S. in mechanical engineering and B.S. in engineering from Stanford University’s Product Design Program.

  • AlwaysOn 2012 Power Players in Greentech: The University Players.
  • Charles M. Soderquist Chair in Entrepreneurship, UC Davis Graduate School of Management, 2010-present.
  • Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award, National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, 2009.
  • Chancellor’s Fellow, UC Davis, 2005-present.
  • Vanguard Award for the Energy Efficiency Center, Comstock’s Magazine, 2006.
  • Professors of Manufacturing Fellow, Stanford Integrated Manufacturing Association.
  • Boeing Fellow, Future Professors of Manufacturing, Stanford Integrated Manufacturing Association.

Andrea Haviley

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), UC Davis Graduate School of Management, 2008
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Business Administration with Concentration in Accounting, California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo, 1993

Committed to focusing on disruptive innovation to improve the human condition and a future that people and nature can thrive together, Andrea Haviley is a successful financial executive in Silicon Valley for 25 years as a key contributor at growth companies with strong forward-thinking missions.

Greta Hsu

Professor

Ph.D., Stanford University, Graduate School of Business

Greta Hsu is Professor of Management at the Graduate School of Management at University of California, Davis. She received her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior, M.S. in Statistics, and M.A. and B.A. Sociology from Stanford University. 

Through her research, Hsu develops understanding of how market categories are socially constructed, how they are used and strategically manipulated by market actors, and how they shape market evolution and competitive dynamics. Her work includes studies of industry dynamics in the cannabis, e-cigarette, wine, film, book publishing, global fashion, and high-tech industries. She has published in journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, American Sociological Review, and the British Medical Journal.

Hsu is an associate editor at Administrative Science Quarterly and co-editor of Research in Organizational Behavior. She was formerly a department editor and associate editor at Management Science, senior editor at Organization Science, and co-editor of the Culture and Economic Life book series at Stanford University Press.

Courses Taught 
The Individual & Group dynamics, Managing People in High-Performance Organizations, Strategy and Structure, People Analytics

Fast Facts

  • Expert in market categorization processes, organizational identity, and industry evolutionary dynamics

Awards

Marybeth Kavanagh

Lecturer

Marybeth Kavanagh joined the Graduate School of Management as a lecturer in 2018 after spending 30 years with IBM Corporation leading numerous software development and technical consulting engagements. Kavanagh’s extensive experience working with clients to achieve critical business goals through technological improvement and organizational change strategies gives her an excellent foundation for advising MBA student teams’ Integrated Management Project consulting projects for client organizations.

Gareth Keeves

Lecturer

Ph.D. Strategic Management, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

Gareth Keeves' research interests include impression management and impression formation in the context of corporate leadership. His first stream of research draws from social and psychological theories to examine interpersonal interactions between top managers. The second stream of research examines the linguistics of organizational communications, using computational linguistics to characterize the nature of company filings.

Brian Kennedy

Lecturer

J.D., McGeorge Law School

Teaching Expertise
The development of persuasive, professional speaking and writing skills for business, and critical thinking protocols to optimize decision making

Lecturer Brian Kennedy is an attorney, focusing on criminal defense. He has his own law practice in San Diego.

Judith Kjelstrom

Lecturer

Ph.D. in Microbiology, University of California, Davis

Judy Kjelstrom (aka Dr. Judy) has a rich background in health science and biotechnology education and training, clinical laboratory science, microbiology, program administration, mentoring and leadership. From 2004 to 2018 she directed the UC Davis Biotechnology Program (est. 1986), a novel program that partners effectively across the campus and with the life sciences industry. Although the program is small in the number of personnel, it is involved in a large number of cross-disciplinary projects:

Srinivas (Srini) Koushik

2021 Robert A. Fox Executive in Residence

Srini Koushik is an innovative and dynamic executive with a track record of leading organizations of all sizes to deliver business results through the use of digital technologies, design thinking, agile methods, lean processes, and unique data-driven insights.

This winter, Koushnik joins IBM as the executive leader for the Global Hybrid Cloud Applications Services Platform

Chi-Yi Kuan

Business Mentor, MSBA

Chi-Yi Kuan is a vice president of data science at Outdoorsy where he is responsible for all machine learning efforts across the company. Kuan is a seasoned data science leader and career mentor with 20+ years of extensive industry experience in building high performing teams in Silicon Valley and applying big data and technology across various business domains (social network, e-commerce, marketplace, SaaS, and consulting) at both Fortune 500 firms and startups. Kuan is dedicated to helping organizations become more data driven and profitable.

Gary Lew

Lecturer

Gary Lew is currently lecturing in finance, management and accounting at the University of California Davis, Graduate School of Management; St. Mary's College and Holy Names University and advises and consults in the aviation finance industry as the founder of Capitola Partners.

Sophie Linnett

Lecturer

Sophie Linnett received her MBA from UC Davis Graduate School of Management with a focus in operations and strategy. After graduating from Columbia University with a B.A. in Classics, Linnett founded an educational services company that helps students access opportunities in higher education. Students of Linnet's program have earned over three million dollars in scholarship funds. For fun, Sophie enjoys hiking in her hometown of Oakland and playing pub trivia.

Dickson Louie

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), University of Chicago

Lecturer Dickson Louie is principal of Louie & Associates, a boutique San Francisco Bay Area consultancy that provides strategic planning, competitive analysis, and executive development services to start-ups, nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies.

Pantelis Loupos

Assistant Professor

Research Expertise 
Social Customer Relationship Management, Digital Platforms, Business Analytics 

Pantelis Loupos' research interests focus on understanding consumer behavior in digital platforms and in particular networked services. In particular, services whose value is a function of the number of customers they have and their underlying network topology.

Marc Lowe

Continuing Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), University of California, Los Angeles
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Genetics, UC Davis

Research Expertise 
Product Management, New and Small Business Ventures, Business Planning

Michael W. Maher

Professor Emeritus

Ph.D., University of Washington

Research Expertise
Accounting, cost-effectiveness of online education, healthcare costs, corporate crime and misconduct

A recognized expert on managerial accounting, Professor Emeritus Michael Maher is also an authority on corporate crime (e.g., fraud, bribery, antitrust). He develops profiles on companies and managers that commit corporate misconduct, and studies and lectures on corporate ethics and the responsibilities of business and auditors to stakeholders.

Marc Ross Manashil

Lecturer

Master in Public Administration (MPA), Harvard Kennedy School
Master of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara

Marc Ross Manashil is a consultant and educator specializing in leadership and organizational development. His background is in global health and philanthropy, having served in director roles with an international grant-making foundation, a medical relief organization, and an NGO preventing child mortality in West Africa. 

Robert Marquez

Professor

Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research Expertise 
Banking and corporate finance

A leading expert in banking and corporate finance, Professor Robert Marquez tries to uncover the mechanisms that underlie the behavior of financial institutions. One important focus of his research is the effect low interest rates have on banks and whether they encourage banks to take on more leverage. Marquez joined the Graduate School of Management faculty in July 2012.

Sorin Maruster

Lecturer

Ph.D., Northwestern University

Sorin Maruster is a senior manager in KPMG’s Silicon Valley tax practice, with more than five years of experience in valuation of complex securities, including earnouts, convertible bonds, put/call arrangements and equity-based compensation, under ASC 718, ASC 805 and ASC 820.

Alexander F. McCalla

Professor Emeritus

Active efforts to organize the Graduate School of Administration, as it was known in 1981, were launched under the leadership of Professor Emeritus Alexander F. McCalla, professor of agricultural economics and former dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. McCalla was asked to serve as the founding dean of the nascent program from 1979 to 1981. Together with a 13-member planning committee, McCalla was responsible for the School’s initial organization and development.

Todd Mirell

Lecturer

Teaching Expertise
Real Estate Finance and Development

A vice president at Union Bank, where he manages relationships with several of the top real estate developers in Northern California, Lecturer Todd Mirell has held previous positions with Preferred Capital Advisors as a senior associate, McMorgan & Company as a real estate investment analyst and with CB Richard Ellis Inc. as a property tax assistant/marketing specialist. 

Mirell earned both his MBA and B.S. in managerial economics from UC Davis.

Jim Olson

Lecturer, Robert A. Fox Executive in Residence, 2013

Jim Olson founded the WestShore Management Group in April of 2007, continuing a distinguished career after leading several high technology businesses for two Fortune companies and serving for nine years as CEO of SkyStream Networks, the top rated IPTV video head-end provider worldwide. WestShore Management Group provides Interim CEO, corporate consulting, and executive development services for both public, and private, venture-financed companies.

Mike Palazzolo

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., University of Michigan

Research Expertise
Choice, causal inference, retail, nutrition

Mike Palazzolo's research lies at the intersection of marketing and policy. Recently he has been focused on consumer nutrition, in an effort to learn how marketers can encourage healthier food selection. 

Palazzolo teaches courses on causal inference and marketing analytics for the GSM's MBA programs.

Jason Perez

Visiting Faculty

J.D., UC Davis
Master of Business Administration (MBA), UC Davis

Jason Perez began his career in the United States Navy as a military police officer. He served approximately one and a half years in Bahrain and two years in New Jersey leading teams of police officers responding to emergency 911 calls. Perez was also given the opportunity to attend military detainee operations school, where upon completion, he worked for approximately one and a half years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba as a prison guard.

Kay Peters

Visiting Professor

Ph.D., Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany

Courses Taught 
New Product Development (Startups), Digital Marketing, International Marketing

Kay Peters is the SVI-endowed Chair of Dialog Marketing and Professor of Marketing at Hamburg University, Germany. He holds a visiting position at the University of California Davis since 2010.

Gary Pieroni

Visiting Professor

Master of Business Administration (MBA), John F. Kennedy, 1993,
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Accounting, California State University, 1980

Gary Pieroni has more than 14 years corporate financial reporting in a Fortune-50 company. He assisted in the standard setting process as an Academic Fellow at the International Accounting Standards Board in London from 2015-2017. Pieroni has more than 33 years teaching students at all stages in life at the UC, State University, and Community.

Elizabeth Pontikes

Associate Professor

Ph.D., Stanford Graduate School of Business

Research Expertise
Category strategy, market evolution, stigma in markets

Elizabeth Pontikes is associate professor of management at The University of California, Davis, which she joined in 2019. She was formerly on the faculty of The University of Chicago Booth School of Business as associate professor and was visiting associate professor at the Kellogg School of Management. She is associate editor at Management Science and senior editor at Strategy Science.

Guru Pundoor

Lecturer

Ph.D., Management Science, R.H. Smith School of Business (2005), University of Maryland, College Park
Master of Science (M.S.), Systems Engineering, Institute for Systems Research (2002), University of Maryland, College Park
Bachelor of Technology, Mechanical Engineering (2000), Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India

Olivier Rubel

Professor

Professor Olivier Rubel is fascinated by two related questions: How can firms make better decisions in highly competitive environments? And what are the optimal strategies for implementing these decisions over time?

Rubel’s research examines how companies can best determine and allocate resources to marketing activities when facing a realistic chance of encountering a product harm crisis such as the SUV rollover controversy faced by Ford and Firestone in 2000 or the many product recalls Mattel was forced to make in 2007. His findings point to no single, simple answer to invest less or invest more. Rather, each firm’s best solution depends on the characteristics of the crisis, including its likelihood, its impacts on sales and on the effectiveness of marketing instruments.

Brett Saraniti

Lecturer

Ph.D., Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Brett Saraniti received his Ph.D. in managerial economics and decision sciences from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1997. His dissertation chair was Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate 2007. Saraniti is currently a visiting professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at Kellogg and a lecturer at Stanford in the Department of Economics.

Harold Schmitz

Senior Scholar

Ph.D., North Carolina State University

A 20-year veteran at Mars, Visiting Professor Harold Schmitz has been chief science officer since 2005. His responsibilities include strategy development, program alignment and quality control of the company’s multidisciplinary scientific research programs. He has previously held various positions within Mars in scientific and regulatory affairs, fundamental research, analytical and applied sciences and corporate functions.

Justin B. Siegel, Ph.D.

Arthur and Carlyse Ciocca Visiting Professor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Justin Siegel is an associate professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at the UC Davis Genome Center. He received his B.S. in Biochemistry from UC Davis in 2005 and his Ph.D. in Biomolecular Structure and Design from the University of Washington in 2011, after which he returned to UC Davis to begin his research lab.

Robert H. Smiley

Professor Emeritus

Ph.D., Stanford University 

Research Expertise 
Economics, strategy, public policy, competitive strategy, energy economics, public policy analysis, anti-trust policy, regulation

Consulting 
Public utilities, telecommunications, wine industry, energy, strategy

Mark Smith

Lecturer

Mark Smith is a UC Davis Graduate School of Management alum and Director of Public Policy, Western Region for Ducks Unlimited (DU). 

Smith’s primary responsibilities included managing federal and state government relations in 9 Western states (HI, AK, WA, OR, CA, AZ, NV, UT, ID). 

Victor Stango

Professor

Ph.D., University of California, Davis 

Research Expertise 
Consumer and firm behavior in banking markets, behavioral economics, industrial organization.

Professor Victor Stango’s research focuses on household financial decision making over both short- and long-term time horizons. His current work examines how behavioral influences on consumer decision-making are related to each other, to cognitive abilities and other demographics, and to financial decisions and outcomes. That work is supported by grants from the Michigan Retirement Research Center (MRRC), and by the Pension Research Council/TIAA Institute. Stango has also studied the credit card and ATM markets, and has a side interest in sports economics.

Stango’s work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Business Week, Newsweek and major online business news media. He has appeared on "Good Morning America," Fox News, CNBC, Bloomberg and many other news programs to discuss his work and provide expert commentary. His research has appeared in the American Economic Review, The Journal of Finance, The Review of Financial Studies and other leading academic journals. Stango is an associate editor of The International Journal of Industrial Organization. He is also an affiliate expert with Cornerstone Research, occasionally providing consulting in matters related to the financial service industry.

Before joining the Graduate School of Management in 2008, Stango gained experience at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago and New York, and other academic institutions. He also served for several years on the board of Consumer Credit Research Foundation, a nonprofit research foundation supported by providers of short-term credit.

Stango holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in economics and political science from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in economics from UC Davis.

Awards

  • Research Grant, Michigan Retirement Research Center (MRRC), “Behavioral Factors and Long-Run Financial Well-Being,” 2016-2017.
  • Research Grant, Pension Research Council/TIAA Institute, “Behavioral Factors and Long-Run Financial Well-Being,” 2016-2017.
  • Research Grant, Russell Sage Foundation, “Behavioral Biases in Household Financial Decision-making,” 2010-2012.
  • Professor of the Year Finalist, UC Davis Graduate School of Management, 2010.
  • Research Grant, National Science Foundation, “Information Technology, Outsourcing and Productivity,” 2008-10.
  • Research Grant, Networks, Electronic Commerce, and Telecommunications Institute, Summer 2004, Summer 2006.
  • Research Grant, Filene Institute, “Outsource or Die,” 2006-07.
  • Research Grant, Filene Institute, “Payment Choices,” 2006-08.
  • Research Grant, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), 2006.
  • Allen H. Keally Teaching Award, University of Tennessee, 1999-00.
  • Club 6 (High Teaching Evaluations), Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, 1998.
  • Finalist, Allen H. Keally Teaching Award, University of Tennessee, 1997-98.

James Stevens

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), University of Michigan Ross School of Business
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), American University

James Stevens is a lecturer in the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, teaching organizational behavior courses in the MBA program and leadership courses in Executive Education. He brings his more than two decades of leadership and senior management experience into the classroom. That experience includes leading diverse and successful teams, launching new programs and developing compelling curricula.

Suzy Taherian

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

Suzy Taherian has over 20 years of experience as a senior executive for international industrial companies. She started her career with Exxon and Chevron and transitioned to CFO of a mid-size company.

Huy Tran

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Huy Tran brings over 15 years of public and private sector experience in technology leadership, business transformation, continuous improvement, project management and data analytics. He has a career that spans higher education, healthcare and, most recently, Fortune 500 Technology.

Chih-Ling Tsai

Distinguished Professor of Management (Emeritus)

Ph.D., University of Minnesota

Research Expertise 
Regression analysis, model selection, high-dimensional data, time series, biostatistics, application of statistics in business.

Teaching Field 
Statistics

Professor Chih-Ling Tsai is a recognized expert in the practical application of statistics in business, including regression analysis, model selection, high-dimensional data, time series and biostatistics. He has had more than 100 research papers published in academic journals relating to statistics, marketing, finance and biostatistics. He teaches courses on forecasting and managerial research methods, and time series analysis and forecasting.

Tsai earned a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Minnesota and an Master of Science (M.S.) in mathematics from the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle. He earned his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in mathematics from Tamkang University.

Awards

Ayung Tseng

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., Accounting, Columbia University, 2015
Master of Business Administration (MBA), Finance, Yale University, 2009
Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.), Accounting, National Taiwan University, 2003

Research Expertise
Company disclosure, accounting measurement issues, asset pricing, innovation, healthcare

Mike Ueltzen

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), California State University, Sacramento
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), California State University, Sacramento

Research Expertise
Forensic Accounting

Mike Ueltzen has testified as an expert witness in cases throughout the United States in federal and state courts in matters that involved both civil and criminal claims and in arbitrations. He has also served as a federal special master, court appointed expert, referee, mediator, and an arbitrator.

Hemant Vaidya

Lecturer

Ph.D. Microbiology, Sardar Patel University, India
Post Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Chemistry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis MO


Research Expertise
Healthcare, In Vitro Diagnostics, product development, executive management, Healthcare Biotechnology

Mary Kay Vona

Lecturer

Ph.D., Organizational Development and Executive Leadership, The George Washington University, 1997
 

Research Expertise
Research focused on Organizational Transformation, Learning & Development, DE&I and Talent Management (primarily technology enabled transformation). 

Keith Weissglass

Lecturer

Keith Weissglass joined the Graduate School of Management as a lecturer in Winter 2018. He brings to the GSM a wide range of marketing and consulting experience spanning the private, public, and non-profit sectors.

Weissglass has served in foundational leadership roles at two high-growth B2B software companies, where he specializes in product marketing. He currently runs a consulting practice that provides business strategy and marketing services to early-stage technology startups and social businesses.

Kelly Wilson

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Yale University

Wilson is a principal in EY’s strategy practice with more than 25 years of experience in the financial sector in both consulting and industry roles. Wilson's consulting background includes a broad spectrum of banking, payment and technology functional domains including strategy formulation, business assessment, marketing, performance improvement, operations and technology. 

David Woodruff

Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs

Ph.D., Northwestern University

Research Expertise 
Business analytics, operations and management science, planning and scheduling under uncertainty, optimization

Professor David Woodruff's research concerns computational aspects of optimal decision making. He is particularly interested in problems with a mix of discrete and continuous choices with multiple time stages when there is significant uncertainty. His research includes solution algorithms, problem representation and modeling language support. He has worked on applications in operations, logistics, science, and has been involved recently in a number of applications in electrical energy planning and scheduling.

He is one of the developers of Pyomo, (www.pyomo.org) that won the INFORMS Computing Society prize in 2019 and an R&D 100 award in 2016.

From 2013 to 2019 he was editor-in-chief of the INFORMS Journal on Computing, which is a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science. His paper with Jean-Paul Watson titled “Progressive Hedging Innovations for a Class of Stochastic Mixed-integer Resource Allocation Problems” shared the best paper of 2011 award in the journal Computational Management Science. He was the UC Davis principal investigator for the ARPAe (Department of Energy) grant Improved Power System Operation Using Advanced Stochastic Optimization awarded in 2012. He is presently principal investigator for additional Department of Energy funded research on grid planning in the presence of uncertainty due to renewables.

Woodruff teaches the core course Data Analysis for Managers. He sometimes teaches Managing for Operational Excellence and the Management Science course.

Woodruff earned his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and management sciences from Northwestern University. He received both his Master of Science (M.S.) and Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University.

He was appointed associate dean of academic affairs on July 1, 2023.

Awards

  • 2019 INFORMS Computing Society Prize for Pyomo Annual award for the best English language paper or group of related papers dealing with the Operations Research/Computer Science interface
  • Research Grant, Department of Energy Green Electricity Networks, "Improved Power System Operations Using Advanced Stochastic Optimization," Co-Principal Investigator, 2012-14.
  • Electives Courses Teacher of the Year, UC Davis Graduate School of Management, 1994-95, 1996-97, 2000, 2001.  
  • Research Grant, National Science Foundation, "Identification of Outliers in Multivariate Data," 1996.
  • Dissertation Competition Runner-up, Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), 1991.
  • JD Scaife Award, Institution of Manufacturing Engineers, “CONWIP: A Pull Alternative to Kanban,” 1990.
  • Doctoral Colloquium, Operations Research Society of America, 1988.

Jim Wunderman

Lecturer

Lecturer Jim Wunderman serves as the president and chief executive officer of the Bay Area Council, a business-backed public policy organization in the Silicon Valley. Led by its CEO members, the Bay Area Council is the strong, united voice of more than 275 of the largest Bay Area employers, representing more than 500,000 workers, or one of every six private sector employees. Since becoming CEO in 2004, Wunderman has led the 64-year-old public policy organization to become one of the most influential, effective institutions of its kind.

Keer Yang

Assistant Professor

Ph.D, Finance, University of Minnesota, 2022

Research Expertise: FinTech, Machine Learning, Financial Intermediaries, Corporate Finance

Keer Yang’s research interests in fintech and machine learning in finance are inspired by the recent revolution in new technologies that affect both financial markets and academic finance research. Through his research, he seeks to understand how financial technologies could contribute to more efficient, equitable, and inclusive financial markets. 

Catherine Yang

Professor

Ph.D. Operations and Information Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2004
Master of Arts (M.A.), Operations and Information Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2001
Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Management Information Systems, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, 1998


Research Expertise
Business analytics, big data analytics, predictive modeling, artificial intelligence and machine learning

Professor Yinghui (Catherine) Yang focuses her research on business intelligence, big data, machine learning, data mining methods for business applications, online shopping patterns analysis, user profiling, etc. Her research has been published in top-tier journals in Information Systems, Marketing and Computer Science, including Information Systems Research, Marketing Science, INFORMS Journal on Computing, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering and ACM Transactions on Database Systems.

Michelle Yetman

Professor

Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Research Expertise
Accounting, financial reporting and valuation

Professor Michelle Yetman's research interests are in financial reporting quality, governance and taxation. She expands beyond the boundaries of the commonly investigated U.S. for-profit corporation by investigating international and nonprofit settings. Her research has been published in the Journal of Accounting Research, the Accounting Review, National Tax Journal, Management Science, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy. She teaches the core MBA and MPAc course in financial accounting, as well as an accounting for non-financial managers course in the Wine Executive Program.

Yetman received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her Master of Accounting Science from the University of Illinois, Champaign, and her MBA from Texas A&M University. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration from Stephen F. Austin State University. She is a certified public accountant in Texas and a member of the American Accounting Association.

Awards

  • Best Paper Award 2013, American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, Government and Nonprofit Section Annual Meeting.
  • Dean’s Faculty Research Scholar, UC Davis Graduate School of Management, 2009-10.
  • Small Grant in Aid of Research, UC Davis, 2007-09.
  • New Faculty Research Grant, UC Davis, 2005.
  • Faculty Research Fellow, University of Iowa McGladrey Institute, 2002-03.
  • Scholarship, Educational Foundation for Women in Accounting, 1999.