Hemant Vaidya
Profile

Hemant Vaidya

Lecturer and Director of Biotechnology Industry Immersion

Ph.D. Microbiology, Sardar Patel University, India
Post Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Chemistry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis MO

Research Expertise
Healthcare, In Vitro Diagnostics, product development, executive management, Healthcare Biotechnology

Hemant Vaidya, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology is a lecturer and director of the Biotechnology Industry Immersion program at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. Until 2021 he taught Entrepreneurship Clinic at the same school. He is also an independent consultant in the In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) space and a

Daniel Kennedy
Profile

Daniel Kennedy

Lecturer

Master of Arts (M.A.), University of Toronto

Research Expertise
The development of persuasive, professional speaking and writing skills for business, and the use of critical thinking protocols that optimize decision making.

Lecturer Daniel Kennedy was director of marketing operations for the 1980 national census within the Promotions Office of the U.S. Census in Washington, D.C. He received a Silver Anvil award from the Public Relations Society of America for the best nonprofit or government national promotion campaign that year. He later became the national director of information services

Nick Briscoe
Profile

Nick Briscoe

Lecturer

Master of Science (M.S.), UC Davis

Nicholas Briscoe is Chief Economist at Briscoe Economics Group, Inc. He provides valuation consulting and expert witness testimony in a wide variety of economic and financial matters.  He teaches as the UC Davis Graduate School of Management as part of the adjunct faculty. Briscoe’s prior positions include manager in the forensic services division of the accounting firm Crowe Horwath, LLP, as well as Senior Economist at Cohen | Volk Economic Consulting Group.

Briscoe has earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from UC Davis as well as has obtained

Nicole Woolsey Biggart
Profile

Nicole Woolsey Biggart

Research Professor and Professor Emerita

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
Chair, Social, Political and Economic Sciences section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Research Expertise
Economic and organizational sociology, firm networks, industrial change and social bases of technology adoption.

Course Taught 
Strategic Innovations in Energy Efficiency

Fast Facts

  • One of the School’s founding faculty members, and an alumna of UC Davis
  • Influential in shaping the School’s community, values and learning environment through her teaching and leadership

Nicole Woolsey Biggart joined the

Suzy Taherian
Profile

Suzy Taherian

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

Suzy Taherian has over 20 years of experience as a senior executive for international industrial companies. She started her career with Exxon and Chevron and transitioned to CFO of a mid-size company.

On June 1, 2021, Taherian became CFO at Xpansiv, a global online exchange for ESG-inclusive commodities. She previously served as CFO of Wrightspeed, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer company, and continues to serve on their board of directors. She also serves on the board of directors of

Harold Schmitz
Profile

Harold Schmitz

Senior Scholar

Ph.D., North Carolina State University

A 20-year veteran at Mars, Visiting Professor Harold Schmitz has been chief science officer since 2005. His responsibilities include strategy development, program alignment and quality control of the company’s multidisciplinary scientific research programs. He has previously held various positions within Mars in scientific and regulatory affairs, fundamental research, analytical and applied sciences and corporate functions.

Schmitz joined the Graduate School of Management community in August 2013 to focus on business innovation in food and agriculture

H. Rao Unnava
Profile

H. Rao Unnava

Michael and Joelle Hurlston Dean and Professor of Marketing

Ph.D., The Ohio State University

Research Expertise
Advertising, brand management, promotions, international marketing and consumer behavior

Dean Unnava’s research focuses on issues related to brand loyalty, consumer response to advertising and sales promotions and consumer memory. His work has appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Marketing Letters, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of International Consumer Marketing and Advances in Consumer Research. He is on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research and Journa

Sharad Gupta
Profile

Sharad Gupta

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Sharad Gupta is an executive leader with large-scale strategy and execution background in driving modern data and analytics and technology transformations in the healthcare industry. He is a tech-savvy leader and is an industry-recognized thought-leader with focus on applying data science, artificial intelligence/machine learning, data science, digital technologies, and modern architectures for business growth and transformations.

Gupta is currently the senior vice president, chief data & analytics officer at

Brad M. Barber
Profile

Brad M. Barber

Distinguished Professor Emeritus | AAAS Fellow

Ph.D., University of Chicago, Booth School of Business
Ph.D., University of Maryland

Research Expertise
Behavioral finance, asset pricing, gender, and private equity.

Teaching Expertise
Financial Theory and Policy

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Brad Barber is an internationally recognized authority on investor psychology, stock analyst recommendations, online trading, and mutual fund performance. His research includes the effect of expenses on money flowing into mutual funds, gender-related overconfidence in stock trading, the impact of coordinated trading by individual investors, and how

Mark Smith
Profile

Mark Smith

Lecturer

Mark Smith is a UC Davis Graduate School of Management alum and Director of Public Policy, Western Region for Ducks Unlimited (DU). 

Smith’s primary responsibilities included managing federal and state government relations in 9 Western states (HI, AK, WA, OR, CA, AZ, NV, UT, ID). 

As a member of DU’s government relations team, Smith’s primary duties include policy advocacy with federal, state, and local elected officials, appointees, and regulatory bodies (Department of Interior, Natural Resources Agencies, Fish and Wildlife departments, others), managing DU’s coalition engagements, and

Joe DiNunzio
Profile

Joe DiNunzio

Executive Director, Mike and Renee Child Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship | Assistant Adjunct Professor

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Stanford Graduate School of Business, 1988
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Psychology, Harvard University, 1984

Research Expertise
Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Management Consulting, Entertainment & Media, Technology

Areas of Expertise 
Operations Management, Management & Organizations, Technology Management

Joe DiNunzio serves as an assistant adjunct professor at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, where he teaches MBA and undergraduate students and authors case studies in innovation and entrepreneurship. DiNunzio also serves as the

Carissa Bouwer
Profile

Carissa Bouwer

Lecturer

J.D., University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law

Carissa Bouwer is an associate at DLA Piper LLP in Sacramento. Bouwer assists clients in selecting, registering and protecting their trademarks and trade dress. She also advises clients on copyright issues, IP licensing, advertising, social media, sweepstakes, contests and gift card laws. Bouwer received her B.A. from George Washington University in Washington D.C. and her J.D. from University of Pacific McGeorge School of Law. She is on the Boards of the Sacramento County Bar Intellectual Property Section and Women Lawyers of Sacramento.

Robert Smelick
Profile

Robert Smelick

Ciocca Visiting Professorship in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2014 Visiting Faculty, 2011 Robert A. Fox Executive-in-Residence

Managing Partner and CEO, Headland Ventures, San Francisco, Calif.

Adjunct faculty at the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. Visiting lecturer at University of Washington; Harvard University; Georgetown University; the University of San Francisco; Duke University; and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.

Served on the boards of several private and public companies, including Kaiser Steel, Willamette Industries, King Broadcasting and The Wine Group (one of the world’s largest wine companies).

Workshops Taught

Leadership Series

Degrees

MBA, Harvard Business School

Shannon Kahn
Profile

Shannon Kahn

Lecturer

J.D., Columbia Law School

Shannon Kahn is currently an associate director for private sector counseling and programs at UC Berkeley School of Law. From 2015-2019, she was an associate director of career services at King Hall. She received a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2008. After graduation, she clerked for the Honorable Robert W. Sweet, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and then worked as an associate in the New York office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. During her six years at Debevoise, she represented public and private companies and private equity sponsors on

Cyrus Aram
Profile

Cyrus Aram

Lecturer

MBA, UC Davis Graduate School of Management

Lecturer Cyrus Aram brings over 20 years of private and public sector experience in the areas of customer strategy, business transformation, planning, program, change and quality management. He has domain level expertise in customer strategy, business process transformation, lean sigma, program and change management, performance management and business controls, and thought leadership. He is also an adjunct faculty at the Sacramento State College of Business Administration.

Aram has 18 years of experience working with progressively responsible

Paul Bianchi
Profile

Paul Bianchi

2019 & 2020 Robert A. Fox Executive in Residence

Masters in Management, University of Kent, Canterbury
B.S., Managerial Economics, UC Davis

Paul Bianchi is an experienced and successful human capital executive and consultant with over 25 years of high-technology leadership experience from innovative companies like NeXT, Apple, Ask Jeeves, PeopleSoft and Illumina.

Bianchi is an alumnus of UC Davis and serves on the Graduate School of Management’s Dean’s Advisory Council and has been a mentor for students and spoken to students at career workshops and events, including a panel of prominent business leaders addressing ethics and values-based

Judith Kjelstrom
Profile

Judith Kjelstrom

Lecturer

Ph.D. in Microbiology, University of California, Davis

Judy Kjelstrom (aka Dr. Judy) has a rich background in health science and biotechnology education and training, clinical laboratory science, microbiology, program administration, mentoring and leadership. From 2004 to 2018 she directed the UC Davis Biotechnology Program (est. 1986), a novel program that partners effectively across the campus and with the life sciences industry. Although the program is small in the number of personnel, it is involved in a large number of cross-disciplinary projects:

  • The NIH NIGMS T32 Biotechnology
Rachel Chen
Profile

Rachel Chen

Professor

Ph.D., Cornell University

Research Expertise 
Operations and supply chain management, service operations and dynamic pricing

Professor Rachel Chen is an expert in operations research and supply chain management. Her work has been published in leading journals, including IIE Transactions, Management Science, Marketing Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Operations Research Letters and Production and Operations Management.

Chen has presented her research widely in the U.S. and internationally, including the International Annual Overseas Chinese Scholars Association in

Kelly Wilson
Profile

Kelly Wilson

Lecturer

Master of Business Administration (MBA), Yale University

Wilson is a principal in EY’s strategy practice with more than 25 years of experience in the financial sector in both consulting and industry roles. Wilson's consulting background includes a broad spectrum of banking, payment and technology functional domains including strategy formulation, business assessment, marketing, performance improvement, operations and technology. 

For nearly a decade she was a strategy partner with Accenture, and in industry she has served in SVP and CMO roles with Wells Fargo, Blue Shield, Paradigm and

Charles Ansbach
Profile

Charles Ansbach

Lecturer

Charles Ansbach has worked with major corporations nationally and internationally representing not only their interests in discussions as donors to major nonprofits/NGOs but also in appeals for support and partnership made by community groups. In those many interactions, he learned why most corporate CSR programs fail and how to fix them. Ansbach has learned what CSR directors must do to manage their programs inside corporate structures and the practical sides of serving effectively in that role. He also was an early adopter of social entrepreneurism in the 1970s before the name of the field