Welcoming excellence

By Jacqueline Ghosen

“Growing our faculty is a critical step in contributing to UB’s ambition to become one of the country’s top 25 public research universities and for us to compete successfully to increase our grant-funded research,” says Ananth Iyer, dean of the School of Management. “Our goal is to add 25 net new tenure track faculty over four years, and we are well on our way.”

The new faculty and their research interests are:

• Michael Brace, clinical assistant professor of finance, holds an MBA from the UB School of Management. He is teaching Comprehensive Financial Analysis and Investment Management. 
• Vincent Castellani, assistant professor of accounting and law, has a PhD from Pennsylvania State University. His research interests are initial equity issuances, the impact of regulatory changes and auditing.
• Shaoyin (Sherry) Du, assistant professor of marketing, has a PhD from the Simon Business School, University of Rochester. Her research expertise is in quantitative marketing; digital marketing and consumer choices; online advertising and privacy concerns; and causal inference with machine learning.
• Dinesh Gauri, professor of marketing, earned his PhD from the UB School of Management. His research is in retail promotions, store performance, shopper and commerce marketing, pricing, social media marketing and revenue management.
• Wreetabrata (Wreeto) Kar, assistant professor of marketing, has a PhD from the Simon Business School, University of Rochester. His research is in the areas of marketing interventions, digital platforms and relationship marketing.
• Maria Kraimer, Donald S. Carmichael Professor of Organizational Behavior and chair of organization and human resources, earned her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has conducted extensive research on managing career transitions and success; the challenges and consequences of working globally; and the employee-employer relationship.
• Scott Laing, clinical assistant professor of finance, earned his PhD from the UB School of Management. His research interests are in environmental social governance, sustainability policy, asset pricing and corporate finance.
• Luca Xianran Lin, assistant professor of finance, has a PhD from IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Spain. His research centers on financial institutions, empirical corporate finance, banking, loan contracting, and mergers and acquisitions.
• Arun Kumar Rout, assistant professor of operations management and strategy, has a PhD from the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research focuses on two-sided platforms, online platforms, new business innovations and mechanism design.
• M. Kim Saxton, clinical professor of marketing, holds a PhD from the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Her research focuses on techniques for segmenting markets; effectiveness of segmented approaches to advertising; vaccine receptivity and decision-making about vaccine acceptance; new venture and startup success factors; the role of marketing in startup success; and entrepreneurial intentions and their role in startup success.
• Todd Saxton, associate professor of entrepreneurship and innovation, holds a PhD from the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. His research focuses on how startups secure resources for launch and growth; the role of venture advocates in startup launch and growth, social exchange theory and innovation networks; construal theory and health behaviors; success factors in corporate acquisitions; and success factors in strategic alliance.
• Scott Seibert, professor of organization and human resources, holds a PhD from Cornell University. His research interests lie in the areas of employee careers and career success; leadership and employee motivation; and the psychology of entrepreneurship. 
• Jiaqi Shi, assistant professor of management science and systems, has a PhD from the University of California, Irvine. His research is on digital platforms, machine learning, artificial intelligence and e-commerce.
• Inki Sul, assistant professor of operations management and strategy, earned a PhD from the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research is on revenue management and pricing, retail operations, behavioral operations management and structural estimation.
• Shaojie Tang, professor of management science and systems, holds a PhD from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Research interests include machine learning, responsible AI and combinatorial optimization.
• Junho Yoon, assistant professor of management science and systems, has a PhD from the University of Iowa. Research expertise includes innovation, human resources, machine learning, econometrics and network science.
• Zhoupeng (Jack) Zhang, assistant professor of operations management and strategy, has a PhD from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. His research expertise is in the future of work, socially responsible operations, digital platforms and industrial organization.