Michigan Ross Welcomes Twelve New Faculty
In the 2023-2024 academic year, the Ross School of Business welcomes 12 new faculty. The professors and lecturers cover eight different academic areas and come to Michigan Ross from various professional and academic backgrounds.
Seven new associate professors
Akshina Banerjee, assistant professor of marketing, holds a BS from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and received her PhD in behavioral marketing from The University of Chicago. Bannerjee’s research focuses on linguistic influence on consumer decision-making, hierarchical choices, and mental accounting. Bannerjee will be teaching Marketing Management.
Brian Connolly, assistant professor of business law, holds a BS and MS from Cornell University and a JD from the University of Michigan. Connolly’s research focus is real estate, land use, and development law, particularly how public and private land development impacts affordable housing. His work on these topics has included filing a U.S. Supreme Court amicus curiae brief and serving as an expert witness in cases involving these and other land use topics. Before joining academia, Connolly spent over a decade in private practice in Colorado. Connolly will be teaching Real Estate Law in the BBA and MBA programs.
Ben Rosa, assistant professor of business economics and public policy, holds a BA and BS from Howard University and received his PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining Ross, Rosa was an associate professor at Virginia Tech and the University of Kentucky. Rosa’s research interests are empirical industrial organization and public economics, focusing on government procurement. He will be teaching Applied Microeconomics.
Edward Kim, assistant professor of finance, holds a PhD in finance from the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests are empirical corporate and household finance, focusing on banking, real estate, and intangible capital. He is particularly drawn to understanding the growing importance of technology. Kim will be teaching Financial Management.
Eric Zou, assistant professor of business economics and public policy, holds a BS from East China Normal University and received his MS and PhD in economics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the economics of pollution prevention in China and the United States. His current work targets emerging sources of pollution and evaluates their impacts on human and ecosystem health. In addition to his role at Ross, Zou is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining Ross, Zou was an assistant professor at the University of Oregon. Zou will be teaching Applied Microeconomics in the BBA and Masters of Management programs.
Neroli Austin, assistant professor of finance, holds a BA from the University of Sydney, an MA from the University of Canterbury, and a PhD from the University of Oxford. Her research interests are the intersection of law and finance, specializing in real estate and private markets. Prior to joining academia, Austin worked as an economist for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. She will be teaching Real Estate Finance and Investments and teaching an MBA Multidisciplinary Action Project course.
Siyu Yu, associate professor of management and organizations, holds a BA from Peking University, an MA from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MPhil and PhD from New York University. Yu’s research interests include diversity, equity, and inclusion; psychology; and corporate hierarchies. In addition to her role at Ross, Yu serves as a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Before joining Ross, Yu taught at Rice University and New York University. She will be teaching Behavioral Theory in Management.
Five new LEO intermittent lecturers
Sheldon Davis, LEO in technology and operations, holds a BS from North Carolina State University and received his PhD in chemical engineering from Arizona State University. Prior to joining Ross, Davis had a 20+ year career in the materials and chemical manufacturing industries. As an engineer, business leader, and executive, Davis has innovated and guided the development of ground-breaking products and processes that have delivered multi-million dollar contributions at Cabot Corp. and Guardian Industries. Davis will teach Integrated Product Development, an elective open to all graduate students and sponsored by the Tauber Institute for Global Operations.
Stu Hart, LEO in strategy, Hart holds a BA from the University of Rochester, an MS from Yale University, and a PhD from the University of Michigan. Hart is the professor in residence at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute. He was the founder of the Erb Institute’s dual master’s program in the early 1990s and went on to launch similar programs at the University of North Carolina and Cornell University. Hart’s research focuses on the intersection of business and sustainability; he has published over 70 papers and authored or edited seven books, with over 20,000 Google Scholar citations. Most recently, Hart was a professor and the Steven Grossman Endowed Chair in Sustainable Business at the University of Vermont where he was co-founder and director of the school’s Sustainable Innovation MBA Program. He will teach Strategies for Sustainable Development I: Competitive Environmental Strategy and Strategies for Sustainable Development II: Managing Social Issues.
Abinash Pati, LEO in finance, holds a BS from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and a PhD from Emory University. His research interests include municipal bonds, intermediary asset pricing, behavioral finance, and climate finance. Pati will be teaching Investment Banking and Making Financial Decisions.
Will Foss, LEO in entrepreneurship studies, Foss holds a BA and MBA from Michigan Ross. His professional background is in entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on strategy, innovation consulting, artificial intelligence, and investment management. Currently, Foss is an advisor to the Boston Dynamics AI Institute leadership team, advising some of the world’s leading AI researchers and roboticists. He is also a venture partner with Chakra Growth Fund and an advisor to the autonomous vehicle operator Goggo Network. He will be teaching the Zell Lurie Commercialization Fund course.
David Horowitz, LEO in finance, holds a BBA from Michigan Ross. His professional background includes a 20+ year investment banking, corporate venture capital, and corporate innovation career. He is the founder and CEO of Touchdown Ventures. Touchdown partners with leading corporations to manage their venture capital funds. Current Touchdown partners include Kellogg’s, TEGNA Inc., Allegion, Avery Dennison Corp., and Colorcon, among many others. Horowitz will be teaching a capstone course in Entrepreneurial Finance.
Matthew Trevor, Senior PR Specialist
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