Meet Your Faculty
As a UC Davis Master of Science in Business Analytics student, you’ll learn from world-renowned professors who are both academic experts and leading industry practitioners that are actively working across numerous segments of the big data industry. Additionally, our 10-to-1 student-professor ratio can ensure your professors will know you by name and serve as mentors during your education and after you graduate.
Mak Ahmad
Lecturer
Ph.D., Computer Science, UC Davis, In Progress
M.S., Computer Science, Sonoma State University, 2017
B.S., Computer and Electrical Engineering, UC Davis, 2004
Research Expertise
Visualization and Human-Computer Interaction
Areas of Expertise
Technology Management
Programs
Online MBA, MSBA
Mak Ahmad is currently driving product and programs for Instagram Reels.
Hemant Bhargava
Professor, Jerome and Elsie Suran Chair in Technology Management
Director, Center for Analytics and Technology in Society
John Carter
Lecturer
Ph.D. in Statistics, University of Connecticut
John Carter is an accomplished data and analytics executive and consultant with broad industry experience leveraging data and analytics to drive business impact. His expertise includes enterprise data management, business analytics, predictive modeling, digital transformation and AI/machine learning. He is currently helping companies use data and analytics to strategically transform their organizations and capabilities to accelerate growth.
Gina Dokko
Professor
Ph.D., Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Research Expertise: Careers, job mobility, organization theory, organizational behavior, social networks, technology and innovation
Noah Gift
Lecturer
MBA, University of California, Davis
M.S., Cal State Los Angeles
B.S., Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Greta Hsu
Professor
Ph.D., Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
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
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.
Hsu’s papers include “Category Taken-for-Grantedness as a Strategic Opportunity: The Case of Light Cigarettes, 1964 to 1993,” published in the American Sociological Review; “Co-opt or co-exist? A study of cannabis dispensaries’ identity-based responses to recreational-use legalization in Colorado and Washington,” published in Organization Science; ”Multiple Category Memberships in Markets: A Formal Theory and Two Empirical Tests,” published in American Sociological Review; and “Jacks of All Trades and Masters of None: Audiences’ Reactions to Spanning Genres in Feature Film Production,” published in Administrative Science Quarterly.
Awards
- Seeman Faculty Term Fellowship, UC Davis, 2011.
- Invited Speaker, Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management, 2011.
- Invited Speaker, The 13th Organizational Ecology Conference, Helsinki, Finland, 2010.
- Research Grant, National Science Foundation, Co-Primary Investigator on “SoD-TEAM: Longitudinal effects of design in open source projects,” ($750,000), 2006-09.
- Industry Studies Program Travel Grant, Sloan Foundation, (with S. Grodal), 2008.
- Small Grant in Aid of Research, UC Davis.
Guru Pundoor
Lecturer
Ph.D., Management Science, R.H. Smith School of Business (2005), University of Maryland, College Park
M.S., Systems Engineering, Institute for Systems Research (2002), University of Maryland, College Park
B.Tech., Mechanical Engineering (2000), Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India
Mehul Rangwala
Lecturer
MBA, UC Davis Graduate School of Management
B.S. Electronics Engineering, India
Lecturer Mehul Rangwala has nearly 20 years of experience in information technology and quantitative and qualitative data analysis. An information technology manager at the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District, Rangwala researches, plans and provides insights to the executive management on IT strategy and the latest technology trends while providing leadership in IT investments, cost/benefit analysis, asset management, IT operations and support.
Sanjay Saigal
Director of Analytics Strategy, Master of Science in Business Analytics
Long-time Silicon Valley tech executive and educator Sanjay Saigal is director of analytics strategy for the Master of Science in Business Analytics program. He is concurrently a lecturer in the UC Davis MBA and MSBA programs.
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 M.S. in mathematics from the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle. He earned his B.S. in mathematics from Tamkang University.
Awards
- UC Davis Distinguished Teaching Award (2021)
- Elected Member, International Statistical Institute (2015)
- Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS 2015 Fellows (2015)
- Distinguished Professor in Management (2012)
- Robert W. Glock Chair Professor in Management (2005)
- Teacher of the Year, UC Davis, GSM, 1991, 1995, 1997-99, 2001-04, 2006-07, 2009-11, and 2016.
- Who's Who in the America and Who's Who in the World, Marquis Who's Who, 2000.
- 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the 20th Century, International Biographical Centre, 2000.
- Who's Who in the West and Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Marquis Who's Who, 1998.
- Fellow, American Statistical Association, 1996.
- 100 most prolific authors published in statistical journals (1988-93), National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
Vince Vengapally
Lecturer
MBA, Wharton School of Business
Vince Vengapally is currently working in Product Management for Google Workspace. Vince leads various Google efforts around digital whiteboarding and develops Google Meet Hardware for Meeting Rooms and Classrooms.
Catherine Yang
Professor
Ph.D. Operations and Information Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2004
M.A. Operations and Information Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 2001
B.E. Management Information Systems, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, 1998
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.
Research Expertise
Business Analytics, Big Data Analytics, Predictive modeling, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning