Michelle Higgins
Profile

Michelle Higgins

Professor

Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Research Expertise
Accounting, financial reporting and valuation

Professor Michelle Higgins' (fna Yetman) research interests are in financial reporting quality, governance and taxation. She expands beyond the boundaries of the commonly investigated U.S. for-profit corporation by investigating international and nonprofit settings. Her research has been published in the Journal of Accounting Research, the Accounting Review, National Tax Journal, Management Science, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and the Journal of Accounting and

Julie Morris
Profile

Julie Morris

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Harvard University

Julie Morris is an experienced technology executive with over 25 years in leadership roles ranging from startups to large Fortune 500 companies.  She is currently academic coordinator of the Food & Agriculture Industry Immersion at the Graduate School of Management, UC Davis, having previously served as director, technology innovation at the World Food Center at UC Davis. Prior to joining UC Davis, Morris was with Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc. (MBI), an ag biotech company based in Davis, California.  She was CFO of MBI from its

Hemant Bhargava
Profile

Hemant Bhargava

Distinguished Professor, Jerome and Elsie Suran Chair in Technology Management | Director, Center for Analytics and Technology in Society

LinkedIn

Ph.D., The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Research Expertise
Technology management, management information systems, economics of information technology industry, pricing and product design decisions, management decision technologies

Distinguished Professor Hemant K. Bhargava is an academic leader in economic modeling and analysis of technology-based business and markets. His research focuses on decision analytics and how the distinctive characteristics of technology goods influences specific elements of operations, marketing, and competitive strategy, and the

Keith Weissglass
Profile

Keith Weissglass

Lecturer

MBA, UC Davis Graduate School of Management, 2012
B.A., Psychology, Haverford College, 2005

Keith Weissglass joined the Graduate School of Management as a lecturer in 2018 to teach the Integrated Management Project capstone. He brings to the GSM a wide range of industry experience spanning the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

Weissglass currently serves as director of operations at an AI safety research center in the Bay Area. He previously held leadership roles at two high-growth B2B software companies, a consumer AI hardware startup, and an international philanthropy NGO.

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Ashwin Aravindakshan Nair
Profile

Ashwin Aravindakshan Nair

Associate Professor

Associate Professor Ashwin Aravindakshan’s research interests center on learning how brands can better allocate their advertising resources (e.g., budgets, creatives, etc.) across different regions and/or multiple media over time. In addition to studying such dynamic advertising models, his research also investigates the dynamics of customer behavior and loyalty to help managers devise better communication and targeting policies in order to optimize their marketing mix at the individual level.

Mike Palazzolo
Profile

Mike Palazzolo

Assistant Professor

Ph.D., University of Michigan

Research Expertise
Choice, causal inference, retail, nutrition

Mike Palazzolo's research lies at the intersection of marketing and policy. Recently he has been focused on consumer nutrition, in an effort to learn how marketers can encourage healthier food selection. 

Palazzolo teaches courses on causal inference and marketing analytics for the GSM's MBA programs.

Palazzolo earned his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and his MBA at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. He received his B.S. in management science at UC San

Brett Saraniti
Profile

Brett Saraniti

Lecturer

Ph.D., Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Brett Saraniti received his Ph.D. in managerial economics and decision sciences from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1997. His dissertation chair was Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate 2007. Saraniti is currently a visiting professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at Kellogg and a lecturer at Stanford in the Department of Economics.

Saraniti has taught MBA and executive courses at Kellogg every summer since 1995 and has been honored with three different teaching awards. He has also taught in

Jason Perez
Profile

Jason Perez

Visiting Faculty

J.D., UC Davis
Master of Business Administration (MBA), UC Davis

Jason Perez began his career in the United States Navy as a military police officer. He served approximately one and a half years in Bahrain and two years in New Jersey leading teams of police officers responding to emergency 911 calls. Perez was also given the opportunity to attend military detainee operations school, where upon completion, he worked for approximately one and a half years at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba as a prison guard.

After 5 years of military service Perez returned to college to complete his J.D. before passing

Prasad Naik
Profile

Prasad Naik

Professor

Ph.D., University of Florida, Gainesville

Research Expertise 
Marketing and advertising strategy, integrated marketing communications, and dynamic market response models, including preparing for product harm crisis

Courses Taught
Integrated Marketing Communications, Marketing Management, New Product Development

Consulting
Sales and brand management

Fast Facts

  • UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow
  • Led MBA International Study Trips to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Brazil and Argentina
  • Co-founder of annual international Marketing Dynamics Conference
  • Groundbreaking marketing research
Kay Peters
Profile

Kay Peters

Visiting Professor

Ph.D., Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany

Courses Taught 
New Product Development (Startups), Digital Marketing, International Marketing

Kay Peters is the SVI-endowed Chair of Dialog Marketing and Professor of Marketing at Hamburg University, Germany. He holds a visiting position at the University of California Davis since 2010.

His research focusses on advanced dynamics in communication, customer centricity, and international marketing. Since 2010, he expands his research covering sustainability, digital transformation, startups, and since 2019 covering the latest AI advances

Conrad M. Davis
Profile

Conrad M. Davis

Visiting Faculty

Master of Science (M.S.), Taxation, Golden Gate University, California

Conrad Davis is the Partner-in-Charge of the Firm’s Sacramento, CaliforniaTax Practice. He has more than 28 years of experience providing tax compliance and consulting services to closely held business, their owners in the food and food production related businesses. He works closely with his clients to understand their business and goals. He coordinates with Crowe auditors to effectively and efficiently provide tax services to jointly served clients.

Professional and Industry Experience

Davis works with owners and

Andrew B. Hargadon
Profile

Andrew B. Hargadon

Professor

Ph.D., Stanford University

Research Expertise
The effective management of innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly in the development and commercialization of sustainable technologies

Professor Andrew B. Hargadon has written extensively on innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly the commercialization science and technology and the management of research and development. He has published numerous articles and chapters in leading scholarly and applied publications.

Hargadon is at the forefront of teaching, research and practice in cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship, and is

Colleen O. Zern
Profile

Colleen O. Zern

Lecturer

J.D., Saint Louis University School of Law
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) Washington University in St. Louis

Olivier Rubel
Profile

Olivier Rubel

Professor

Professor Olivier Rubel is fascinated by two related questions: How can firms make better decisions in highly competitive environments? And what are the optimal strategies for implementing these decisions over time?

Rubel’s research examines how companies can best determine and allocate resources to marketing activities when facing a realistic chance of encountering a product harm crisis such as the SUV rollover controversy faced by Ford and Firestone in 2000 or the many product recalls Mattel was forced to make in 2007. His findings point to no single, simple answer to invest less or invest more. Rather, each firm’s best solution depends on the characteristics of the crisis, including its likelihood, its impacts on sales and on the effectiveness of marketing instruments.

Richard Armstrong
Profile

Richard Armstrong

Lecturer

MBA, University of California, Davis
B.S., Cornell

Teaching Expertise
Accounting

Currently a director at G3 Enterprises, where he directs all procurement, supply chain planning, scheduling & forecasting activities for multiple manufacturing divisions, Armstrong was previously a senior supply manager at E&J Gallo. There, he was key in driving strategic sourcing decisions, from initial vendor evaluation to technical assessment to final selection and contract negotiation. He also worked as a Sr. Finance Manager in International Finance for Gallo, where he was responsible for accounting, pricing

Alexander F. McCalla
Profile

Alexander F. McCalla

Professor Emeritus

Active efforts to organize the Graduate School of Administration, as it was known in 1981, were launched under the leadership of Professor Emeritus Alexander F. McCalla, professor of agricultural economics and former dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. McCalla was asked to serve as the founding dean of the nascent program from 1979 to 1981. Together with a 13-member planning committee, McCalla was responsible for the School’s initial organization and development. In two years, McCalla and his team put in place a fully functioning organization with six full

Robert Marquez
Profile

Robert Marquez

Professor

Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research Expertise 
Banking and corporate finance

A leading expert in banking and corporate finance, Professor Robert Marquez tries to uncover the mechanisms that underlie the behavior of financial institutions. One important focus of his research is the effect low interest rates have on banks and whether they encourage banks to take on more leverage. Marquez joined the Graduate School of Management faculty in July 2012.

Before graduate school, Marquez worked for several years for the Federal Reserve in San Francisco. Marquez spent eight years on

Michael W. Maher
Profile

Michael W. Maher

Professor Emeritus

Ph.D., University of Washington

Research Expertise
Accounting, cost-effectiveness of online education, healthcare costs, corporate crime and misconduct

A recognized expert on managerial accounting, Professor Emeritus Michael Maher is also an authority on corporate crime (e.g., fraud, bribery, antitrust). He develops profiles on companies and managers that commit corporate misconduct, and studies and lectures on corporate ethics and the responsibilities of business and auditors to stakeholders.

Maher focuses his research on the efficiency of recent developments in managerial accounting

Dickson Louie
Profile

Dickson Louie

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), University of Chicago

Lecturer Dickson Louie is principal of Louie & Associates, a boutique San Francisco Bay Area consultancy that provides strategic planning, competitive analysis, and executive development services to start-ups, nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies.

Louie is also co-founder, president and CEO of Time Capsule Press, a book publishing imprint that focuses on the creation of books from archival material. Time Capsule Press’ content partners include Getty Images, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. Time Capsule Press’ first

Brian Kennedy
Profile

Brian Kennedy

Lecturer

J.D., McGeorge Law School

Teaching Expertise
The development of persuasive, professional speaking and writing skills for business, and critical thinking protocols to optimize decision making

Lecturer Brian Kennedy is an attorney, focusing on criminal defense. He has his own law practice in San Diego.

He employs cognitive restructuring techniques to increase students’ self-confidence and skills for professional presentations. He applies a series of six steps to improve students’ writing abilities, regardless of their initial capabilities. He uses critical analysis techniques developed by