Faculty
| Ajay Agrawal |
Academic Director Ajay Agrawal is the Peter Munk Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, where he teaches courses on strategy, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation. On Friday, April 13 the Graduate Business Council of the Rotman School of Management announced that the MBA Graduating Class of 2012 had voted Professor Ajay Agrawal 'Professor of the Year'. This is the sixth year Professor Agrawal received this honour; he also received the 2009 Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research. Professor Agrawal is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, MA and a leader of the Innovation and Creative Industries group at the Martin Prosperity Institute. He has presented his research on the economics of innovation at a variety of institutions including Harvard University, MIT, Stanford University and the Federal Reserve Bank. Professor Agrawal has testified as an expert witness before the Canadian Copyright Board, authored policy papers for provincial and federal level government agencies and advised organizations in fields including robotics, digital media, software development, wireless, biotherapeutics and pharmaceuticals. He was an invited Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and MIT. |
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| Marc Busch |
Karl F. Landegger Professor of International Business Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Adjunct Scholar, American Enterprise Institute Marc Busch is the Karl F. Landegger Professor of International Business Diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, and an Adjunct Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He is an expert on international trade policy and law, the author of the book Trade Warriors and articles in academic journals in political science, international affairs and international law. Professor Busch has addressed a variety of institutions, including the Advisory Centre on WTO Law, the World Bank and the United Nations. He has testified before the US Congress on Airbus-Boeing litigation and the Canadian Senate on softwood lumber litigation. He previously taught at Queen’s University and Harvard University and won several teaching awards, including the Frank Knox Teaching Excellence Award at Queen’s University, MBA Society Teaching Excellence Awards at Queen’s School of Business and the Thomas Hoopes Teaching Prize at Harvard University. Organizations he has consulted include Booz Allen Hamilton, Bell Canada, McKinsey & Co., Monitor, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Health Canada, the United Nations and International Trade Canada. |
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| Brendan Calder |
Adjunct Professor and Entrepreneur in Residence, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management Brendan Calder is an Adjunct Professor and Entrepreneur in Residence at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. At Rotman, Brendan conducts the 'GettingItDone' MBA course, chairs the Desautels Center for Integrative Thinking and was the founding chair of the International Centre for Pension Management. Prior to joining Rotman, Brendan was CEO of CIBC Mortgages and was co-founder and President of FirstLine Trust Company. Brendan serves on the Board of EllisDon, FirstService, Impact Consulting and the WSIB. He is on the advisory board of Canada's Top 40 under 40 and is a Past Chair of TIFF. Brendan has a BMath from the University of Waterloo and attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University. |
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| Christian Catalini |
Assistant Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management, Sloan School of Management, Massachussets Institute of Technology Christian Catalini will join the MIT Sloan Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management group in the summer of 2013, after completing his PhD in Strategy at the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management. Christian's main areas of interest are the economics of innovation, entrepreneurship and scientific productivity. His research focuses on crowdfunding and online entrepreneurial finance, how proximity affects the recombination of ideas, the adoption of technology standards, science and technology interactions. He holds a MSc (summa cum laude) in Economics and Management of New Technologies from Bocconi University, Milan. In 2009-10 he was a visiting student at Harvard University. He has presented his research on proximity and innovation at a variety of institutions including Harvard University, MIT, Yale University, London Business School.
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| Darren Dahl |
Senior Associate Dean – Faculty/Research Darren Dahl is the Senior Associate Dean – Faculty/Research and the Fred H. Siller Professor in Applied Marketing Research at the University of British Columbia. His current research interests are in the areas of new product design and development, creativity, consumer product adoption, the role of social influence in consumer behavior, and understanding the role of self-conscious emotions in consumption. He currently is associate editor of the Journal of Consumer Research and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Professor Dahl teaches courses in Consumer Behavior, Marketing Research, and Strategic Marketing Analysis at the undergraduate, MBA, and executive education levels. He has won awards for both his research (e.g., Sauder School of Business Senior Research Award) and his teaching (e.g., CGA Graduate Teaching Award) efforts. Before coming to UBC he held a faculty appointment at the University of Manitoba for four years. He also has been a visiting professor at Stanford (2009), Columbia University (2008), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (in 1997 and in 2001) and the Thammasat University in Thailand (2005, 2006). He has been an invited speaker at numerous universities including Harvard, Chicago Graduate School of Business, Yale, University of Michigan, Wharton, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, University of Southern California, the London Business School, National University of Singapore, and at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. Before entering academia Dr. Dahl worked with Coopers & Lybrand chartered accountants in the areas of audit and insolvency. He has consulted and organized education programs for a number of non-profit and for-profit organizations such as Cathay Pacific, Procter & Gamble, Xerox, General Electric, Vancouver Public Health, Teekay Shipping, Hagensborg Foods, Lulu Lemon Athletica, Earls Restaurants, BCLC, Agent Provocateur, Daehong Advertising – Korea, and LIC India. Professor Dahl received his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. |
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| Joshua Gans |
Professor of Strategic Management, Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto Joshua Gans is a Professor of Strategic Management and holder of the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Prior to 2011, he was the foundation Professor of Management (Information Economics) at the Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne and prior to that he was at the School of Economics, University of New South Wales. In 2011, Joshua was a visiting researcher at Microsoft Research (New England). Joshua holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and an honors degree in economics from the University of Queensland. At Rotman, he teaches MBA and Commerce students Network and Digital Market Strategy. He has also co-authored (with Stephen King and Robin Stonecash) the Australasian edition of Greg Mankiw's Principles of Economics (published by Cengage), Core Economics for Managers (Cengage), Finishing the Job (MUP) and Parentonomics (New South/MIT Press). Joshua is also the co-founder of the Digitopoly blog that examines digital competition and entrepreneurship. While Joshua's research interests are varied he has developed specialities in the nature of technological competition and innovation, economic growth, publishing economics, industrial organisation and regulatory economics. This has culminated in publications in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, RAND Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Public Economics, and the Journal of Regulatory Economics. Joshua serves as an associate editor of Management Science and the Journal of Industrial Economics and is on the editorial boards of the BE Journals of Economic Analysis and Policy, Economic Analysis and Policy, Games and the Review of Network Economics. In 2007, Joshua was awarded the Economic Society of Australia’s Young Economist Award. In 2008, Joshua was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Australia. |
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| Avi Goldfarb |
Associate Professor of Marketing, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto Avi Goldfarb is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University. His research explores brand value, behavioral modeling in industrial organization, and the impact of information technology on marketing, on universities, and on the economy. Professor Goldfarb has published over 30 articles in a variety of outlets, including the American Economic Review, Marketing Science, Management Science, the Journal of International Economics, the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, and the Journal of Marketing Research. He is co-editor at the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy and an associate editor at Management Science, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, and the International Journal of Industrial Organization. |
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| David Hsu |
Associate Professor of Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania David Hsu is Associate Professor of Management (with tenure) at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Stanford University with undergraduate majors in economics and political science. After a few years working in industry, he received his master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University, followed by his Ph.D. in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hsu’s research interests are in entrepreneurial innovation and management. Within that domain, he has investigated topics such as intellectual property management, start-up innovation, technology commercialization strategy, and venture capital. His research has appeared in leading journals such as Journal of Finance, Management Science, RAND Journal of Economics, and Research Policy. He serves as a department editor of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation department of Management Science. In 2008, Hsu was awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Industry Studies Fellowship. At Wharton, he teaches two MBA electives, Entrepreneurship and Technology Strategy. At Penn, Hsu is Associate Faculty Director of the Weiss Tech House, which encourages and supports students in the creation, development, and commercialization of innovative technologies. |
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| Ramana Nanda |
Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School Ramana Nanda is Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He teaches Entrepreneurial Finance in the second year of the MBA program and in HBS executive education offerings. Ramana's research focuses on the ways in which the financial sector impacts innovation and entrepreneurship in the economy. Ramana is a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for International Development and the Center for the Environment at Harvard University and a Research Associate at the Center for Corporate Performance in Arhus, Denmark. He received his Ph.D. from MIT's Sloan School of Management and has a BA and MA in Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge, U.K. He is a recipient of the 2010 Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship Research. Prior to starting his Ph.D., Ramana was based in the London and New York offices of Oliver, Wyman & Company, where he worked primarily with clients in global capital markets as well as in small-business banking. He continues to advise startup ventures on their financing strategies, with a focus on the biotechnology and clean energy sectors. He also works with philanthropic investors who use market-based solutions to address poverty and promote entrepreneurship in developing countries. |
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| John O'Dwyer |
Partner, Strategic Advisory International John’s professional career has spanned financial, operational and strategic management. He has held a number of management positions including President and CEO, and Business Owner. He is currently a partner with Strategic Advisory International where he is a trusted advisor to a wide range of clients from Fortune 500 corporations to smaller entrepreneurial and high tech organizations. Since 2003, John has also ‘co-conducted’ a second year MBA elective course, "Getting It Done", at the Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto) and additionally lectures in their Executive Programs. Over the years, John has been a volunteer with a number of non-profit organizations. He is currently Treasurer for the Ireland Canada Chamber of Commerce, Toronto; Treasurer of the European Chambers of Commerce in Toronto; a member of the Fund Raising Committee for the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, Hamilton; and is an on-going contributor to the Peter F. Drucker Award for Effective Non-Profit Management. John received his Ph.D. from the Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario, and his MBA from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. He is a Fellow Member (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, and is a member (CMC) of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants. He is also a graduate of the ICD Corporate Governance College, Directors’ Education Program (ICD.D). John lives in Toronto. |
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| Reza Satchu |
Managing Partner, Alignvest Capital Management Reza Satchu is an entrepreneur, the creator of University of Toronto’s most highly rated undergraduate course, “Economics of Entrepreneurship,” and Founding Chair, Co-Chair and Co-Founder of The Next 36. Mr. Satchu is a Managing Partner of Alignvest Capital Management, an investment management company based in Toronto and New York.. Mr. Satchu has co-founded, built and managed four successful operating businesses all from inception, including: SupplierMarket, a supply chain software company funded by Sequoia and KKR, that grew to 225 people with several Fortune 500 customers, prior to being sold to Ariba in 2000; StorageNow Holdings, which became Canada’s second largest self-storage company before being sold to InStorage REIT in 2007; Stellation Asset Management, an investment management firm that managed over $300 million; and most recently KGS Alpha Capital Markets, a US fixed income broker dealer launched in August 2010, that has quickly grown to over $150 million of equity capital and 70 employees. Previously, Mr. Satchu spent 12 years in New York where he was a General Partner at Fenway Partners, a $1.5 billion private equity firm, and a Financial Analyst at Merrill Lynch. Mr. Satchu has received “Canada’s Top 40 Under 40™” Award (2007) and the Management Achievement Award from McGill University (2011). He is the Vice Chairman of the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation, a member of the Canadian Advisory Board to the Harvard Business School and a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization. He has a BA from McGill University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. |
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| Stewart Thornhill |
Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship and Executive Director, Pierre L. Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario Stewart Thornhill is Associate Professor of Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship and Executive Director, Pierre L. Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Richard Ivey School of Business. Prior to joining Ivey, he belonged to the faculty in Entrepreneurial Studies at York University's Schulich School of Business in Toronto. He received his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia and also holds a B.Sc. (Eng.) in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA with a concentration in Finance. Before beginning his graduate studies in business, he worked as a production engineer in the manufacturing sector and as a radio journalist. Dr. Thornhill's research interests include strategic execution, leadership, competitive strategy, innovation, and corporate entrepreneurship. His published work has appeared in several top management journals and he currently serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Business Venturing and the International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal. Professor Thornhill has taught in Europe, Asia and South America. Recent corporate training engagements include the Toronto Dominion Bank Financial Group, Hutchinson Port Holdings, the Globe and Mail, and JD Irving, as well as ongoing development with Canada’s fastest growing companies through the Quantum Shift Executive Development Program. Dr. Thornhill is a Director of the Ontario Telemedicine Network. |
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| Pai-Ling Yin |
Richard S. Leghorn (1939) Career Development Professor Assistant Professor of Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management, Sloan School of Management, Massachussets Institute of Technology Pai-Ling Yin is an Assistant Professor of Strategy at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She graduated summa cum laude from Indiana University-Bloomington with a BA in French, a BS in economics, and a BS in math. She was the Resident Scholar for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation in Washington, DC. She obtained an MSc at The London School of Economics and Political Science in regulation. Her PhD in economics is from Stanford University. She then became an Assistant Professor of Strategy at Harvard Business School, where she taught the core strategy course and the strategy and technology elective course. Pai-Ling's research focuses on how firms compete in the presence of network effects. She has studied the roles that demand side drivers (in particular, uncertainty) and supply side actions such as control of distribution affect industry evolution. Her demand side work includes a study of information aggregation and dispersion in eBay online auction markets for computers. Recent work examines how second-movers can tip markets characterized by network effects in their favor, with specific application to the browser wars and derivatives exchange competition. The use of survey data is a methodological theme underlying her work. She has also written cases on technology and strategy (TiVo, PalmSource, Qualcomm, SAP).
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Workshop Facilitators
| Jim Gray |
An accomplished speaker, writer, and media and presentation skills coach, Jim Gray works with clients throughout North America — always with a single goal in mind. It’s to help each individual communicate with clarity and power, like a leader. A former journalist with The Toronto Star and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Gray has been counseling clients on their communication initiatives for more than 20 years. During that time he’s conducted hundreds of focused, practical media and presentation skills sessions with achievers from every sector. The Principal of Media Strategy Inc., a boutique public relations firm, Gray serves on the faculty of the Canadian Management Centre. He contributes articles on communicating effectively to The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, and speaks regularly on communication issues. His first book, How Leaders Speak, published by The Dundurn Group, is available at bookstores across Canada. A proud son of Nova Scotia, Gray is a graduate of Acadia University |
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| Helen Kula |
Helen Kula is a librarian and information professional with expertise in startup business research and competitive intelligence. A graduate of the University of Toronto's Master of Information Studies program, Helen has worked in the business library of the Rotman School of Management and is currently a senior member of MaRS Discovery District’s market intelligence team. She is cross-appointed to her current position from the University of Toronto Libraries through a unique UofT/MaRS partnership. At MaRS, Helen supports information, communication and entertainment (ICE) clients and MaRS advisors by sourcing and delivering relevant market insights using licensed and public domain resources. Helen is also an active member of the professional library association community. |
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| Geoffrey K. Taber |
Partner in the Toronto office of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP’s Business Law Department and a founder of the firm’s Technology Business Group. Geoff’s practice focuses on private and public financings, M&A transactions and strategic commercial matters. He acts for a broad spectrum of life sciences and technology companies, including privately held high-growth businesses and start-ups. Geoff has been involved in over 100 venture capital financings and numerous public and private M&A transactions. Recent transactions include advising SonoSite Inc. on its June 2010 acquisition of VisualSonics, Inc.; Google Inc. in multiple acquisitions of Canadian technology businesses; InterTAN Canada (Circuit City’s Canadian subsidiary) in its CCAA proceedings and the Court-supervised sale of The Source by Circuit City to Bell; the lead investors in NeuroMed Pharmaceuticals in the merger of that company with CombinatoRx, Inc.; Genesys Ventures in connection with its Canadian life sciences investments and also its purchase of certain portfolio positions from other Canadian VC funds; and Traxtal Inc. in its sale to Philips. As Co-Chair of the firm’s Asia-Pacific initiative and former managing partner of Osler’s Singapore office, Geoff continues to advise Canadian multinationals on Asia-Pacific transactions. |
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| James Tucker |
James joined BCG in July 2006 has had a broad selection of project experience across industries and functions: Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of a major Canadian financial institution; Worked to develop the optimal enterprise brand architecture and subsequent go to market strategy for one of Australia’s leading diversified financial services providers, including a framework for measuring and mitigating customer impact and the customer communication strategy; Prepared global consumer durable client for billion dollar contract manufacturing negotiation; Redesigned pricing processes for Canada’s leading grocery retailer; Go to market strategy & sell in toolkit development for a global white goods manufacturer; Channel distribution analysis and strategy development for a global insurance provider; Multi banner portfolio strategy development and merchandising organizational redesign for one of Canada’s leading multi-line retailers. Prior to joining BCG James garnered a significant amount of experience in sales, marketing and business development across multiple industries. Concurrently James completed his BA in English Literature (specializing in poetry) at York University, is designated as a Six Sigma Black Belt and holds a Global MBA through a joint program where course work was completed on campus at the Rotman School of Business in Canada, the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, Business School Sao Paulo in Brazil, City University in Hong Kong and Fudan University in Shanghai, China. James graduated at the top of his class, making the Dean’s List with Highest Distinction, was named a Bregman Scholar and class Valedictorian. |
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| Joseph Wilson |
Joseph is currently an education advisor at MaRS Discovery District. He also writes on issues of technology and culture for NOW Magazine, the Globe and Mail, Spacing and Yonge Street. He is the Executive Director of the Treehouse Group, dedicated to fostering innovation by hosting cross-disciplinary events. |
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