Faculty

PhD, University of Picardie; DEA, EHESS

Paul S. Adler is Professor of Management and Organization, of Sociology, and of Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California. He holds the Marshall Business School's Harold Quinton Chair in Business Policy. He began his education in Australia and moved to France in 1974, where he received his doctorate in Economics and Management while working as a Research Economist for the French government. He came to the USA in 1981, and before arriving at USC in 1991, he was affiliated with the Brookings Institution, Columbia University, Harvard Business School, and Stanford's School of Engineering.

PhD, Columbia University; MSc, Oxford University; BA, Northwestern University

Eric Anicich studies the forms and functions of social hierarchy within groups. His research draws from and contributes to knowledge on leadership, teams, and social cognition. Professor Anicich's research has been published in leading academic journals including Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science, and Perspectives on Psychological Science. Additionally, accounts of his work have appeared in numerous popular media and business outlets including Forbes, The Economist, CNN, New York Times, TIME, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, Scientific American, Inc. Magazine, and Times Higher Education (UK).

DBA, Harvard University; MM, Indian Institute of Management; BTech, Maharaja Sayajirao University

Arvind Bhambri specializes in strategic change, competitive strategy, global business development, and leadership. He has twice received the Golden Apple Award for MBA instruction. In a 2008 special report on executive MBA programs by the Wall Street Journal, Professor Bhambri was profiled as one of fourteen best EMBA professors worldwide. In 2009, he received the Evan C. Thompson Award for Learning and Teaching Innovation. Professor Bhambri has served on on the faculty of the Getty Museum Leadership Institute, Bocconi University, University of Hawaii's Advanced Management Program, and the Owner Managed Business Institute in Boston.

PhD, MBA, University of Southern California; BA, Hunter College of the City University of New York

Judith Blumenthal is an expert in strategic management; organizational design and implementation; corporate governance; and retailing. Her research has been published in the Journal of Management Inquiry, the Journal of Organizational Change Management, Performance Improvement Quarterly, and Human Resources Management, among others. In addition to her responsibilities at USC, she has served on Boards of Directors of several organizations, both public company and not-for-profit, including Guess?, Inc., the California Council on Economic Education and the Advisory Board of USC Radio (KUSC). From 1996 to 2000, she served as Associate Dean of the Marshall School of Business, and from 2000 to 2006, as USC's Chief Alumni Officer and Executive Director of the USC Alumni Association.

PhD, MSIA, Purdue University; BBA, New Mexico State University

John Boudreau is recognized for breakthrough research on human capital, talent, and sustainable competitive advantage. His research studies the future of the global HR profession, HR measurement and analytics, decision-based HR, executive mobility, HR information systems, and organizational staffing and development. He has published more than 200 books and articles, and his research has been featured in Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, and Business Week. Professor Boudreau serves as Research Director for Marshall's Center for Effective Organizations. He advises numerous organizations, including early-stage companies, global corporations, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.

Dr. Christopher Bresnahan is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Management and Organization department at the Marshall School of Business. Dr. Bresnahan teaches at the undergraduate and graduate level. His courses focus on organizational behavior, leadership, and understanding individual differences. His research interests focus on individual differences in the workplace.

PhD, SUNY-Buffalo; BA, University of Delaware

Peter Carnevale does research on negotiation, mediation, and organizational conflict resolution systems. He has published two books and more than 100 articles in leading scientific and management journals, often supported by grants from the National Science Foundation. He has served as the President of the International Association for Conflict Management as well as Chair of the Conflict Management Division of the Academy of Management.

MBA, BS, University of Southern California

David M. Carter is a national authority on sports business and strategic marketing, and the author of four books about the sport business industry. He founded the Sports Business Group in 1999 following more than ten years of consulting for the sports and entertainment industries. As a sports business consultant specializing in strategic marketing, Professor Carter has consulted for corporations, sports organizations, sports and entertainment venues, law firms, municipalities, and individual athletes. He regularly provides sports business commentary to national media concerns.

PhD, University of Southern California; MPA, BA, BS, Brigham Young University

Michael Coombs specializes in strategic management, individual and organizational development, globalization, and negotiation. He is the recipient of the Outstanding Young Man of America and of the U.S. Navy Achievement Medal. He has consulted for a variety of organizations, including ARCO Transportation Company and The Aerospace Corporation.

PhD, UCLA; MBA, BS, Cornell University

Tom Cummings is a leading expert in designing high-performing organizations and strategic change. He has published more than 20 books, including Handbook of Organization Development and Organizational Development and Change, and more than 60 articles. He has served on the editorial board or as editor for 10 journals, including Academy of Management Review. He received best paper awards in 1990 and 1994, and in 2007 received a Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Human Resource Management. Professor Cumming served as President of the Academy of Management, the leading professional organization for scholars in management and organization.

PhD, University of Southern California; MBA, BBA, American University of Beirut

Christine El-Haddad specializes in business, corporate and global strategy and has taught courses in strategy in Marshall’s undergraduate, MBA, and MS in Social Entrepreneurship programs. She has received the Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching twice alongside multiple other teaching awards and media mentions. Dr. El-Haddad has substantial experience in designing educational programs and conferences. She has developed executive education programs for the USC Office of Continuing Education. She has also organized and delivered two highly successful day-long Marshall conferences featuring nationally renowned speakers. As a management consultant and strategist, she has advised businesses in various industries and leading nonprofits including Habitat for Humanity.

Ph.D., Stanford University

Nathanael Fast studies the factors that facilitate and hinder effective leadership. His research examines the determinants and consequences of power and status in groups and organizations as well as the interpersonal processes that lead people, ideas, and practices to become and stay prominent. He is also interested in the psychological underpinnings of social networks as well as the individual and organizational implications of the adoption of new technologies. His findings have been published in top-tier academic journals and are featured regularly in popular media outlets. He earned his Ph.D. in organizational behavior at Stanford University and has received numerous awards for his teaching and research.

PhD, MIT; MA, University of Pennsylvania; AB, Harvard University

Daniel Fehder is an Assistant Professor at USC's Marshall School in the Management and Organization Department. His research focuses on the emergence and evolution of entrepreneurial ecosystems and the growing role of entrepreneurship programs (e.g. accelerators, hackathons, pitch competitions, etc) in catalyzing these processes. To that end, he has helped manage the Seed Accelerator Ranking Program and has worked closely with the top management at MassChallenge. He is a recent graduate of the PhD program at MIT Sloan from the TIES Group. Prior to his PhD education, Daniel helped lead a startup as the Senior VP of Business Development for PriceSCAN. He holds an AB from Harvard College, magna cum laude, and a MA from the University of Pennsylvania.

PhD, UCLA; MDance, CSU-Long Beach; BA, UC-Berkeley

Trudi Ferguson has consulted widely with large and small organizations in many areas of organizational development including strategic planning, team building, executive coaching, diversity, and woman's issues. She serves on the Board of L.A. Best and Ready Set Read.

PhD, Northwestern University; MA, University of Hamburg

Peer is broadly interested in how meaning structures shape organizational actions, his current research topics include framing and social categorization. His work has been published in journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, American Sociological Review, Organizations Science, and the Strategic Management Journal, among others.
Peer has also been working for almost two decades on the use of set-analytic methods in the social sciences, specifically on the use of fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) in management and related fields. Most recently he has been working on applying set-analytic methods to policy analysis, specifically the intersectionality of poverty. His recent book with Charles Ragin (UCI) is entitled “Intersectional Inequality: Race, Class, Test Scores, and Poverty” (University of Chicago Press, 2017).

PhD, Indiana University

Shaun Harper studies racial, gender, and LGBT issues in corporations, law firms, Hollywood production companies, K-12 schools, and universities. He also is an expert on college sports. Dr. Harper has consulted with more than 200 businesses and institutions on strategies related to equity, diversity, and inclusion. He has published 12 books and over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and other academic publications, and procured $13 million in research grants. His research has been cited in over 10,000 published studies. The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune, Washington Post, Black Enterprise, and several thousand other news outlets have quoted Professor Harper and featured his research. He has interviewed on CNN, ESPN, and NPR. Prior to becoming a faculty member, he was Assistant Director of MBA Admissions for the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Dr. Harper spent a decade at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a tenured full professor.

Ph.D., University of Southern California; MBA, Pepperdine University; B.S. Business Administration, Redlands University

Katharine Harrington is Professor of Clinical Management and Organization at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. She came to USC in 1992 after a career in consumer and mortgage banking. Her scholarly interests include organizational ethics, social entrepreneurship and crisis management. In addition to her faculty responsibilities, Katharine currently serves as USC’s chief enrollment officer.

MS, PhD, Cornell University; BA, MPA, Brigham Young University

Shon Hiatt is an assistant professor of business administration at USC Marshall School of Business and faculty affiliate of the Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. An expert in the agribusiness and energy sectors, he explores issues related to entrepreneurship, strategy, and business sustainability in domestic and international contexts. Professor Hiatt’s research has been published in scholarly journals and featured in media outlets.

He is the recipient of numerous scholarly and teaching honors, including the 2015 Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship Research, the 2016 Academy of Management ONE Emerging Scholar Award, the 2018 Golden Apple MBA Teaching Award, and the 2018 ARCS Emerging Sustainability Scholar Award. Prior to joining USC, Professor Hiatt was on the faculty at Harvard Business School.

PhD, University of Toronto; BA, Peking University

Associate Professor Nan Jia holds a PhD in Strategic Management from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto (Canada). Her research interests include corporate political strategy, business-governance relationships, and corporate governance in international business. Nan’s research has been published in the Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, Organizational Science, Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Politics. She serves on the editorial boards of the Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, and the Journal of International Business Studies. Nan’s teaching interests and experience encompass Strategic Management and International Business.
https://www.marshall.usc.edu/faculty-research/labs-and-institutes/usc-marshall-china-research-group

PhD, MS, Northwestern University; BA, Wesleyan University

Peter Kim studies the dynamics of interpersonal perceptions and their implications for negotiations, work groups, and dispute resolution. His research has been published in numerous scholarly journals, received ten national/international awards, and has been featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, and National Public Radio. He serves as an Associate Editor for the Academy of Management Review and the Journal of Trust Research, on the editorial boards of Organization Science and Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, and as Chair of the Academy of Management’s Conflict Management Division. He received a teaching award from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

PhD, UC-Berkeley; BA, Brown University

Ed Lawler is Director of the Center for Effective Organizations and Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business. He is the author of over 450 articles and 52 books; his most recent book is Human Resource Excellence: An Assessment of Strategies and Trends (2018). For more information, visit http://www.edwardlawler.com and http://ceo.usc.edu.

PhD, MS, UC-Berkeley; BS, UC-Davis

Kyle Mayer studies how firms govern relationships with other firms, with particular attention to the contract and its role in establishing a framework for the relationship. His research has been published in Organizational Science, Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, and Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization. He served on the editorial board of Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Academy of Management Review, and Strategic Management Journal. He received a Golden Apple Award in 2003, Marshall's Educator of the Year Award in 2006, and a Mellon Mentoring Award from USC in 2006.

Serving on the Marshall faculty since 1997, Michael teaches management consulting, strategy, team performance and turnarounds. As a former consulting partner/principal in the global firms of SCG, KPMG and A. T. Kearney, Michael brings over 35 years of experience in management consulting into the classroom. Michael has worked on M&A transactions and strategic repositioning efforts for some of the most well-known and respected companies in the world and has consulted to a wide range of organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, prominent management consulting and investment banking firms, state and local governments and global companies. Michael has testified before legislative and judicial bodies as an expert witness and in a number of litigation cases. His primary teaching and research interests are in management consulting and professional services firms and strategy.

DBA/PhD, University of Southern California; MBA, UCLA

Thomas Hilton Olson's research and consulting focus is on strategy development and implementation, organization and human capital, leading change, and psych assessment and intervention. He has authored four books in the last five years, written 100+ scholarly articles, and made numerous presentations at national and international conferences. He was a founding member, Careers Division, and Officer/Representative-at-Large, of the Academy of Management, Officer of the Personnel Testing Council, and member of the Board of the APA and three corporations. Professor Olson is the Director of the Consulting Concentration at USC, prior equity holder (Partner) with Booz and has led hundreds of consulting engagements for private and public organizations across the globe in industry and for USC.

PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Joe Raffiee is an Assistant Professor of Strategy in the Management and Organization Department within the Marshall School of Business at USC. He earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2016. Joe's research is focused on understanding how and when human assets lead to superior firm performance and sustainable competitive advantage with an emphasis on the antecedents and implications associated with employee mobility and employee entrepreneurship. Joe's research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and the Academy of Management Perspectives. His research has also been covered and cited by media outlets such as the Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, Inc. magazine, and Wired.

PhD, University of Pittsburgh; MBA, Indian Institute of Management - Ahmadabad; BC, Bombay University

Nandini Rajagopalan is the Joseph A. DeBell Chair in Business Administration and Professor of Management and Organization. Her research examines platform-based markets, diversification and strategic alliances, CEO succession, and corporate governance. She has published in the Academy of Management Review, the Academy of Management Journal, the Strategic Management Journal, the Journal of International Business Studies, the Journal of Management Studies, the Journal of Management, and Business Horizons among others. She is a Distinguished Faculty Fellow at USC’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, and recipient of USC’s Provost’s Mentoring Award. She is past Associate Editor of the Academy of Management Journal.

PhD, NYU

Violina Rindova teaches and studies strategic innovation -- how firms create value, intangible assets, and new market opportunities through unconventional strategies across a variety of industry contexts. Her work has been published in the premier management journals and has been covered frequently in the business media, including the Economist, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. She is the recipient of multiple grants and awards, including the “Thought Leadership” award from the Entrepreneurship Division of the Academy of Management (2009), and the award for outstanding scholarly contribution from Strategic Organization (2012). She served as an Associate Editor of the Academy of Management Review and is currently part of the leadership team of the Behavioral Strategy Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society.

EdD, University of Pennsylvania; MBA, Illinois Institute of Technology; MLIS, Dominican University; BA, University of Illinois, Chicago

Christopher Stewart’s research and professional interests include strategic management, organizational culture, staffing trends, and organizational development. His book, The Academic Library Building in the Digital Age: A Study of Construction, Planning, and Design of New Library Space was published by the Association of College and Research Libraries. His work has appeared in journals including the Journal of Academic Librarianship and Library Leadership & Management. As a management consultant, he has worked with library leaders on projects ranging from benchmarking and assessment to facilities planning and design. Prior to joining the MMLIS program at USC, he was an associate professor in the School of Information Studies at Dominican University. Before he began his teaching career, his leadership experience included serving several years in an academic library deanship.

Ph.D., University of Toronto; MBA, York University; BS University of Bucharest

Florenta's main areas of interest are the economics of innovation, creativity and the impact of technology on society. Her research agenda is composed of two research streams: factors influencing the process of knowledge production at the individual researcher level, and the relationship between knowledge advancement and markets. Through her first research stream, she examines various factors influencing the productivity and project choices of knowledge workers, such as availability of research technology, breadth and depth of expertise, collaboration and knowledge accumulation. As part of her second research stream, Florenta is interested in the role of technological advancement in influencing entrepreneurship activity and labor markets.
Prior to academia, Florenta was a project manager and technical consultant for various data-driven large-scale business decision-making projects, in a variety of industries such as publishing, market-research, health-care and automotive.

MBA, University of Southern California; BA, Smith College

Jody Tolan specializes in leadership and organizational development. She has created programs to build leadership skills among emerging managers, middle managers, and senior executive teams to meet strategic and organizational goals. She has also led workshops on leading teams, management communications and strategy development. She has designed and facilitated programs in Marshall’s Office of Executive Education and consulted with Wescom Credit Union, Honda Financial Services, Allergan, BDO Seidman and Thailand Government Savings Bank. Professor Tolan began her career on Capitol Hill followed by positions in several boutique consulting firms in New York City.

PhD, Business Administration, Duke University

Leigh Plunkett Tost studies the psychological and sociological dynamics of power and status in organizations, with a particular focus on how hierarchy affects team functioning, moral judgments, and ethical decision making. She also examines the motivations underlying individuals' pursuits of prosocial change, focusing her research at the intersection of social psychology and institutional theory. Her research has been published in a broad range of academic journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Psychological Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personality and Social Psychology Review. In addition, the implications of her research have been discussed in numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review.

PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara; BA, MA, Stanford University

Sarah Townsend is the Kenneth King Stonier Assistant Professor of Business Administration. Her research reveals the dysfunctional behaviors and physiological costs that can result when individuals’ cultural beliefs collide with the dominant cultural beliefs of organizations. She studies these “cultural divides” in the context of diversity in organizations, differences in meritocracy beliefs, social class, gender, and race. Her work demonstrates how cultural divides can be both a source of and solution to inequality. Dr. Townsend's research has been published in numerous scholarly outlets, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

PhD, UCLA; MBA, Andrews University; BA, Pacific Union College

Carl Voigt teaches business policy, competitive strategy, entrepreneurship and venture initiation, and global strategy and international management. He is a three-time winner of the Golden Apple Award, and has served as Associate Dean for the undergraduate, executive MBA, and Marshall MBA programs.

PhD New York University

Cheryl Wakslak’s research focuses on basic questions of cognition and interpersonal connection, establishing the way that people use different styles of thinking to help them connect with those closer to them and those farther away. In much of this work she explores the role of abstraction in facilitating connections across distance. She uses these insights to look at a range of organizationally relevant outcomes, including communication, learning, leadership, venture-capital investment, and decision-making. Her findings have been published in numerous scholarly outlets, including top journals in management, marketing, and psychology.

PhD, AM, Stanford University; MBA, INSEAD; AB, Harvard University

Scott Wiltermuth researches how socio-environmental factors affect people’s reactions to unethical behavior and their likelihood of behaving unethically themselves. He also researches how interpersonal dynamics, such as synchrony and dominance, affect people’s willingness to cooperate with others. He has published papers in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Academy of Management Journal, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and numerous other academic journals. His work has been reported in many media outlets, including: The Economist, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. Previously, he worked in the airline industry as a strategy consultant.

PhD, Columbia University; MA, Peking University; BA, Renmin University

Qingyuan (Lori) Yue has published research papers on how businesses mobilize collective action and how they strategically interact with social movement challenges. Her recent research investigates the economic and social issues in the digital transformation of the economy and in emerging markets. Lori is an associate editor of Management Science, a consulting editor of the American Journal of Sociology, and has served in the editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly and Organization Science. She chairs the Research Committee of the Organization and Management Theory (OMT) Division of the Academy of Management. Lori is also a three-time recipient of teaching awards.