2016 John Bates Clark Medalist Among New Faculty at Stanford GSB

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The addition of six new professors brings the total number of tenured and tenure-line faculty to 125. | Elena Zhukova

This fall, Stanford Graduate School of Business welcomed 6 new professors — including the 2016 winner of the prestigious John Bates Clark award, Yuliy Sannikov — and 11 lecturers.

The new professors bring the total number of tenured and tenure-line faculty to 125. “Our new faculty and lecturers represent the blend of academic rigor and practical relevance that Stanford Graduate School of Business is known for throughout the world,” said Jonathan Levin, Philip H. Knight Professor and Dean of Stanford Graduate School of Business. “I salute the intellectual range of these new arrivals and look forward to their contributions to research and teaching here at Stanford GSB.”

Three of the faculty are returning to the Farm after earning graduate degrees at Stanford:

• Mohammad Akbarpour, PhD ’15, assistant professor of economics
• Gabriel Weintraub, MA ’05, PhD ’06, associate professor of operations, information, and technology
• Yuliy Sannikov, PhD ’04, John Bates Clark medalist who joins as professor of economics

Other tenure-line faculty include:

• Amit Seru, professor of finance
• Brandon Gipper, an assistant accounting professor
• Benjamin Hébert, an assistant professor of finance

Also joining Stanford GSB for the 2016-17 academic year are 11 lecturers. Among them are several Stanford GSB graduates:

• Naomi Bagdonas, MBA ’15, a facilitator for Deloitte’s Leadership Center for Clients
• Denise Brousseau, MBA ’93, the CEO of Thought Leadership Lab
• Mary Ittelson, MBA ’85, the founder of the strategic firm, Ittelson Consulting
• Sophie-Charlotte Moatti, MBA ’02, who runs Products That Count, a company advising business on how to leverage mobile technology
• Anne Raimondi, MBA ’98, senior vice president of marketing at Zendesk

Rounding out the roster of new lecturers are:

• Tyra Banks, supermodel, entrepreneur, and business CEO
• Stephen Johnson, an independent consultant
• Christopher Krubert, an entrepreneur and active investor
• Giovanna Prennushi, a consultant with the Food and Agriculture Organization
• Mike Speiser, managing director of Sutter Hill Ventures
• Maxwell Wessel, vice president, Growth Investments & Market Development at Sapphire Ventures

Tenure-Line Faculty

Mohammad Akbarpour, Assistant Professor of Economics

Mohammad received his PhD in economics from the Stanford Economics Department in 2015. Akbarpour is a microeconomic theorist whose interests include market design, social and economic networks, and allocation mechanisms. Akbarpour deferred his appointment for one year to do post-doctoral work at University of Chicago.

Brandon Gipper, Assistant Professor of Accounting

Brandon is a PhD candidate in accounting at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Gipper is an empirical researcher focusing on the effects of accounting regulation and regulatory oversight on corporate behavior. In addition, he has done significant work on auditing and the monitoring and investigative activities of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. His dissertation work examines the effects of mandated management compensation disclosures on executive compensation levels.

Benjamin Hébert, Assistant Professor of Finance

Benjamin completed his PhD in business economics at Harvard University in 2015. Hébert’s main research interests are in macroeconomics and finance. He has worked on optimal security design and developed a general theoretical model that shows that the simple debt contract is the optimal security to issue in many settings. Hébert deferred his appointment for one year to do post-doctoral work at the Stanford Economics Department.

Yuliy Sannikov, Professor of Economics

Yuliy joins Stanford GSB from Princeton University. Sannikov is an economic theorist whose work focuses on dynamic models. Sannikov developed a new technique for formulating and solving continuous time strategic dynamic models with information, which he then applied across a diverse range of fields in economics: contract theory, general micro models, finance, and macro finance. In April 2016, Sannikov was honored with the John Bates Clark medal, which is awarded annually to the American theorist under 40 who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. Sannikov earned his PhD in business administration from Stanford in 2004.

Amit Seru, Professor of Finance

Amit joins Stanford GSB from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Seru works in the area of empirical corporate finance. His research is very broad and spans issues related to financial intermediation and regulation, interaction of internal organization of firms with financing and investment, incentive provision in firms, and household finance. Seru earned his PhD in finance from the University of Michigan in 2007.

Gabriel Weintraub, Associate Professor (Tenured) of Operations, Information and Technology

Gabriel joins Stanford GSB from the Columbia Business School. Weintraub has pursued research in a number of areas, most notably work that uses advanced methods and insights to solve computational challenges arising in the dynamic analysis of competition among firms in an industry and in the design of auctions and other market mechanisms. Weintraub received his PhD in management science and engineering from Stanford in 2006.

Lecturers

Naomi Bagdonas (MBA ’15)

Naomi designs and facilitates strategic conversations for groups of executives as part of Deloitte’s Leadership Center for Clients. Bagdonas’ current work leverages principles from design thinking, behavioral science, innovation theory, and strategic facilitation – and is applied to solve her clients’ business challenges. Bagdonas will co-teach, with Jennifer Aaker, MKGT 346 Humor: Serious Business in spring quarter.

Tyra Banks

An original Victoria’s Secret angel, Tyra was the first African-American model to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. For the last decade, she has been the creator and executive producer of America’s Next Top Model. Most recently, Banks created TYRA Beauty, a 100% self-funded company with the goal of providing everyone the opportunity to become the CEO of their own lives. TYRA Beauty is a one of a kind cosmetics experience where beauty and entertainment collide. She will co-teach, with Allison Kluger, GSBGEN 585 Project You: Building and Extending Your Personal Brand in spring quarter.

Denise Brosseau (MBA ’93)

The CEO of Thought Leadership Lab, Brosseau works with leaders and their teams to accelerate their journey from leader to thought leader. Brosseau began her career in the technology industry at companies such as Motorola and Broderbund Software. She was the founding CEO of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE), now Watermark, which she grew into the nation’s leading organization for women-led startups. Brosseau will co-teach, with JD Schramm, GSBGEN 528 Communication for Credibility: An Introduction to Thought Leadership in autumn quarter.

Mary Ittelson (MBA ’95)

Mary founded Ittelson Consulting in 1996 to provide strategic planning, governance and leadership counsel to business, arts, and cultural organizations. Her clients include corporations, museums, theaters, dance companies, foundations, and government agencies. A leader and manager in the cultural sector, Ittelson recently completed a four-year term as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). Prior to launching her management career, Ittelson was a professional dancer and choreographer. She will co-teach, with Amir Goldberg, STRAMGT 539 Leadership in the Arts and Creative Industries in autumn quarter.

Stephen Johnson

As officer (2013-2014) and now independent consultant to the U.S. neuroscience not-for-profit, One Mind, Johnson leads development and implementation of intellectual property, data, and other research policies. He convened and moderated policy conferences including 2014 and 2015 One Mind Annual Summits. Johnson focuses on intellectual property in a business context and solutions to intellectual property disputes through means other than litigation. Johnson holds a JD (1984) from IIT Chicago Kent College of Law. He will co-teach, with Richard Abramson, STRAMGT 511 Protecting Ideas in autumn quarter.

Christopher Krubert

Christopher is an entrepreneur, active investor, and advisor to a variety of businesses in the health care, wellness, service, and hospitality industries. Krubert has held positions as operating partner at Advent International, a global private equity firm, and as CEO of ApolloMD, a health care professional services firm consisting of health care professionals in four medical specialties nationwide. In addition to his MD degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine (2000), Krubert holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at University of Michigan (1993). Krubert will teach GSBGEN 503 The Business of Health Care in autumn quarter.

Sophie-Charlotte Moatti (MBA ’02)

Sophie-Charlotte runs Products That Count, an organization that advises businesses on how to leverage mobile technology and produces some of the largest product events in the world, including the Manifesto conference. She also serves on boards of both public and private companies, including mobile technology giant Opera Software. While serving as an executive at companies such as Facebook, Trulia, and Nokia, Moatti launched and monetized many of the mobile products that have been or currently are in use by people worldwide. Moatti will co- teach, with Jim Lattin, MKTG 326 Customer Acquisition for New Ventures in autumn quarter.

Giovanna Prennushi

Giovanna is currently a consultant with the Food and Agriculture Organization. Prennushi worked as a lead economist and economic advisor at the World Bank from 1993 to 2015 on poverty monitoring, analysis and evaluation, poverty reduction strategies, and country programs, primarily in South Asia and Africa, including a five-year assignment in India. Prennushi holds a PhD in political economy from Carnegie Mellon University (1993). She will co-teach, with Kathryn Shaw, MGTECON 526 Inclusive Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries in winter quarter.

Anne Raimondi (MBA ’98)

Anne has been senior vice president of marketing at Zendesk, Inc. since April 2016. Raimondi has spent the last eight years working in marketing, merchandising, and product roles for leading consumer internet companies, and she has served in a wide range of senior and entrepreneurial roles within leading consumer and retail companies. She will co-teach, with Stefanos Zenios, STRAMGT 356 The Startup Garage: Design in autumn quarter, and STRAMGT 366 The Startup Garage: Testing and Launch in winter quarter.

Mike Speiser

Mike is currently managing director at Sutter Hill Ventures. Prior to joining Sutter Hill, Speiser held positions at Yahoo! (VP of Community Products), Bix, acquired by Yahoo! in 2006 (CEO), and Symantec. He also co-founded Epinions.com and worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Speiser holds an MBA from Harvard (1998). He will co-teach, with Mark Leslie and Kirk Bowman, STRAMGT 353 Entrepreneurship: Formation of New Ventures in autumn quarter.

Maxwell Wessel

Maxwell is vice president, Growth Investments & Market Development at Sapphire Ventures, a growth-based venture fund in Palo Alto. Wessel is also a founding member and on the Board of Advisors for Nextgen Venture Partners, a national angel investment community. He holds an MBA (2011) from Harvard Business School. He will co-teach, with Rob Siegel and Aaron Levie, STRAMGT 520 The Industrialist’s Dilemma in winter quarter.