Northeastern Online MBA Faculty
Academic achievement combined with real-world experience
Faculty at Northeastern University's College of Business Administration are leaders in their fields. As prominent scholars, they are also specially trained to teach in the online environment. You will learn from instructors and faculty who are well prepared to teach you the latest business theory, yet who are firmly rooted in real-world experience.
Nicholas Athanassiou
Associate Professor, International Business Group Coordinator, Bachelor of Science in International Business Academic Director
PhD, University of South Carolina
Prior to joining the College of Business Administration faculty, Professor Athanassiou served as a visiting professor at the University of South Carolina and a lecturer at the University of Maryland's International Business Management Institute in Tokyo. Professor Athanassiou has held a number of senior executive positions in the United States, Japan, Europe, and the Middle East with PepsiCo, Kentucky Fried Chicken International, and Heublein, Inc.
Ramaiya Balachandra
Professor, Information, Operations, and Analysis
PhD, Columbia University
Prior to joining the College of Business Administration faculty in 1980, Professor Balachandra taught at the University of North Carolina, Boston College, and the Indian Institute of Management. He holds a bachelor's degree in Engineering from Madras University in India, a master's degree in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, and a PhD in Business Administration from Columbia University. Professor Balachandra is a member of numerous professional and honorary societies, including the Institute of Management Science and the American Institute for Decision Sciences.
Paul J. Bolster
Professor and Group Coordinator, Finance of Insurance
PhD, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Professor Bolster serves as a director for several investment funds managed by Gartmore Investment Management in London. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for Woodbury College in Montpelier (VT). Professor Bolster holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He is an active member of the Financial Management Association and the Boston Security Analysts Society.
Bruce H. Clark
Associate Professor, Marketing
PhD, Stanford University
A former product manager for computer software at Sunburst Communications, Professor Clark has worked with American Express and in consulting or executive education roles at Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Compaq, EMC, Intel, Masterfoods, Ropes & Gray, Schering AG, and Shell International. He has also served on the faculty of the Anderson Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, and the Cranfield School of Management (UK). He has been an advisor on MBA Field Consulting Projects.
Edmund (Ted) Clark
Associate Academic Specialist and Executive Professor, Entrepreneurship and Innovation
MBA, Clark University
Professor Clark is Executive Director of the Center for Family Business. He has extensive experience consulting with family businesses and has worked in family businesses. He was also the Director of the College's $60k Business Plan Competition. Professor Clark has worked with many successful startups on the development of their business plans and has written business plans to acquire startup and operational funding. He has also been involved with a number of start-up companies and has held positions in marketing, sales, product management, and product development. As an independent consultant, he specializes in business-to-business strategy development and marketing. Professor Clark has worked with clients in software development, medical billing, and financial services. He also has experience in the Internet and unregulated energy industries.
Frederick G. Crane
Associate Academic Specialist, Entrepreneurship and Innovation
PhD, University of Bradford, United Kingdom
Prior to working at Northeastern University's College of Business Administration and the School of Technological Entrepreneurship, Professor Crane was a chair and full professor at Dalhousie University and a full professor at the University of New Hampshire. He grew up in a family business and has also started and operated his own businesses, including successful management consulting and research firms. Professor Crane is currently the Editor of the Journal of the Academy of Business Education and was the founding editor of the Journal of Promotion Management Education. He also sits on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including the Journal of Promotion Management, Health Marketing Quarterly, Journal of Hospital Marketing and Public Relations, and Services Marketing Quarterly.
Olubunmi Faleye
Associate Professor, Finance and Insurance
PhD, University of Alberta, Canada
Prior to joining Northeastern University's College of Business Administration, Professor Faleye served as an Assistant Accountant for Chevron Nigeria Limited from 1992 to 1996. He is a member of several professional organizations, including American Finance Association, Western Finance Association, Financial Management Association, and CFA Institute.
Rosanna Garcia
Associate Professor, Marketing; McCarthy Family Research Fellow
PhD, Michigan State University
Professor Garcia worked as a new product manager for several companies in the telecommunications industry before joining the College of Business Administration faculty in 2002. She holds a BS in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an MBA from the University of Rochester, and a PhD in Marketing from Michigan State University. Professor Garcia's research interests are in new product development, radical innovations, and complexity theory.
Richard M. Kesner
Executive Professor, Information, Operations, and Analysis
PhD, Stanford University
Prior to his Northeastern assignment, Professor Kesner served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of CELT Corporation, an IT strategy and architecture firm working with K-12 public education systems. He has also served as a senior IT executive for Northeastern University, MetLife, Babson College, Multibank (now part of Bank of America), and the Faxon Company. Professor Kesner holds CLU and ChFC certifications from The American College, an MA and PhD from Stanford University, and an AB and MB from Oberlin College. He has also completed post-doctoral training in finance and strategic planning at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Steven R. Kursh
Associate Academic Specialist and Executive Professor, Finance and Insurance
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Professor Kursh has extensive experience in computer software and the Internet, including software development, software project management, contract performance, intellectual property, and valuation. He was the founder of a software company that was acquired by McGraw-Hill, and he is the author of articles, software products, cases, and a book published by Financial Times Prentice-Hall. Professor Kursh was named a Fulbright Scholar in 2005. He serves as a General Editor in Finance and Information Technology for a division of Pearson Education. Professor Kursh has earned several teaching awards, including the Beta Gamma Sigma award for best teacher in the College of Business and the University Excellence in Teaching Award.
Harry Lane
Darla and Frederick Brodsky Trustee Professor in Global Business; Director, Institute of Global Innovation Management
DBA, Harvard University
Prior to joining Northeastern University in September 1999, Professor Lane served for 23 years on the faculty at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. Professor Lane has been a consultant and faculty member for numerous university and corporate courses and has engaged in varied assignments around the world. He has conducted courses in diversity and cross-cultural training, executing global strategy and the MBTI for companies such as Ericsson, Bowne, The Cavan Group, BAE Systems, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and a consortium of Mexican companies including CEMEX, Alfa, and Modelo.
Felicia G. Lassk
Associate Professor, Marketing
PhD, University of South Florida, Tampa
Professor Lassk has done some consulting work for Blackwell Publishing in Medford, MA and in Cambridge, England and HCPro in Marblehead, MA. Prior to entering academic life, she was an account executive and senior research analyst for a marketing research firm in Orlando, FL. Professor Lassk is a member of several editorial review boards, including Marketing Education Review, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and The Sales Review. She has served as a national officer of the American Marketing Association and the Society of Marketing Advances. Professor Lassk is certified in the administration of the ECI and MSCEIT.
Edward F. McDonough, III
Professor, International Business and International Innovation Management
PhD, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Professor McDonough has been a visiting scholar in the R&D Research Unit of the Manchester Business School in England. He held administrative positions in two start-up companies prior to joining Northeastern in 1979 and has consulted with numerous companies on organizing and managing their new product development and innovation efforts. Some of the companies that Dr. McDonough has worked with include, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Eastman Kodak, Corning, Phillips, Black & Decker, ITT Hartford, NYNEX, EG&G, Litton Industries, Northern Trust, Bay State Gas, Quebecor Providence Printing, Basic American Foods, Modine Manufacturing Corporation, New Pig, Sabanci Holding, Arcelik, Eczacibasi, and Akbank.
Robert M. Mooradian
Professor, Finance and Insurance
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Professor Mooradian has research and teaching interests in corporate finance, international finance, real estate finance, and applications of law to finance. He holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Mooradian's articles have appeared in Journal of Financial Economics and the Journal of Business.
Jay Mulki
Assistant Professor, Marketing Group
PhD, University of South Florida
Professor Mulki has B2B selling experience in the energy sector in domestic and international markets. He held senior management positions in Fortune 500 companies before entering the doctoral program. Professor Mulki was a member of the Sales and Marketing Executives of Tampa Bay. He is a member of the editorial review board of the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice and member of abstract. Professor Mulki's primary research interests are in the areas of services marketing, personal selling, and sales management. Professor Mulki has taught undergraduate classes in International Marketing and Introduction to Marketing, and graduate classes in Services Marketing and Marketing Strategy.
Carl W. Nelson
Associate Professor, International Business and Strategy
PhD, University of Manchester, England
Before joining the faculty of the College of Business Administration, Professor Nelson was an assistant professor at Boston University and a visiting lecturer at the Manchester Business School. He has served as visiting associate professor of health systems management at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and as visiting associate professor in the Health Policy and Management Department of the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health. Professor Nelson currently teaches in the areas of operations management, health care management, and corporate social responsibility. He holds a BS from Cornell University, an MBA from Columbia University, and a PhD from the University of Manchester, England.
Gilbert Nyaga
Assistant Professor, Information, Operations, and Analysis
PhD, Michigan State University
Professor Nyaga holds a PhD in Marketing from Michigan State University and an MBA in Marketing from Miami University in Ohio. Prior to joining the College of Business Administration faculty, Professor Nyaga worked as carrier analyst intern for Cognis Corporation in Cincinnati, OH. Professor Nyaga's primary research interests are in logistics strategy, supply chain relationships, and new product launch. His primary teaching interests are in logistics management, supply chain management, and transportation management.
Harlan D. Platt
Donald J. Harding Professor of Finance, Finance and Insurance
PhD, University of Michigan
Before joining the College of Business Administration faculty in 1981, Professor Platt was director of electricity research and forecasting for Data Resources, Inc. He previously served on the boards of companies on the New York Stock Exchange, the Dublin Stock Exchange, and the NASDAQ. In 1997 - 1998, he was the Klein Lecturer at Northeastern University. Professor Platt was the Associate Editor-Finance for the Journal of Business Research. He is a member of the board of directors of Republic Financial Corporation and the advisory board of XRoads Solutions LLC. Professor Platt holds a BA from Northwestern University and an MA and PhD from the University of Michigan.
Michael J. Power
Lecturer, Information, Operations, and Analysis
MBA, Northeastern University
Prior to joining the College of Business Administration faculty in 1998, Mr. Power worked for United Parcel Service (UPS); his last position was as a National Account Executive, where he was assigned a targeted group of multinational companies. His duties included coordinating and executing all business development efforts and negotiations. Mr. Power also held the position of Center Reassessment Project Leader. He was tasked with reassessing and redesigning the role, structure, staffing, and key processes of the individual business units. He and his group developed organizational structure and development guidelines for self-directed work teams, defining new measurements for monitoring performance.
Andrew Rohm
Assistant Professor, Marketing; Denise and Robert DiCenso Term Professor; Co-Director, Executive MBA Program
PhD, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Professor Rohm participated in the Visiting Professor Program at Saatchi & Saatchi in New York in the summer of 2007. Before joining Northeastern's College of Business Administration faculty, he was Director of Marketing for Reebok International in Stoughton, MA. Professor Rohm also worked for Brooks Sports in Bothell, WA as National Sales Manager, for General Motors in Detroit, MI as Marketing Manager, and for United Technologies in Wet Palm Beach, FL as Senior Analytical Engineer. Professor Rohm's research interests are in the areas of New Media and Innovations in Marketing Communications and Branding.
Ravi Sarathy
Professor, International Business and Strategy
PhD, University of Michigan
Before joining the College of Business Administration faculty, Professor Sarathy held a LATF Fellowship from Tufts University and consulted and taught in Brazil. He was a Fulbright scholar and held the Fulbright-Flad Chair in Strategic Management at the Technical University of Lisbon in the Spring of 1996. Professor Sarathy has been a visiting professor at HEC, France; Bocconi University in Milan, Italy; Monash University in Melbourne, Australia; the University of Michigan; and the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University. Professor Sarathy is also a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).
Dennis Shaughnessy
Executive Professor, Entrepreneurship and Innovation
MBA, Northeastern University
Professor Shaughnessy was a senior executive for many years in a local life sciences technology company where he was a principal in numerous acquisitions, financings, and other strategic transactions, including a leveraged buy-out and initial public offering. He also has extensive experience in strategic planning, international business development, corporate governance, technology licensing, and management of technology-driven operations. Professor Shaughnessy was chief legal officer of a New York Stock Exchange company, responsible for global legal affairs. He was also in private legal practice representing venture capitalists and technology entrepreneurs, and prior to that, in public service.
H. David Sherman
Professor, Accounting
DBA, Harvard University
A member of the CBA faculty since 1985, Professor Sherman also serves as an adjunct professor at the Tufts University School of Medicine. He has been on the faculty of the MIT Sloan School of Management and was visiting faculty at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, in 1999. He teaches executive and MBA courses in accounting, control, and global financial statement analysis with a focus on high technology, medical technology, financial services, healthcare, and non-profit organizations. Professor Sherman holds DBA and MBA degrees from Harvard Business School and an AB in economics from Brandeis University. A Certified Public Accountant, he has practiced with Coopers & Lybrand and served on an advisory task force of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).
Bert A. Spector
Associate Professor, International Business and Strategy
PhD, University of Missouri
Professor Spector holds a PhD from the University of Missouri. Since joining the College of Business Administration faculty in 1983, he has co-authored a number of books in the area of human resource management and organizational change, including Managing Human Assets (1984), Human Resource Management: A General Manager's Perspective (1985), and The Critical Path to Corporate Renewal (1990). He is the author of Taking Charge and Letting Go (1995). Professor Spector's articles have appeared in the Harvard Business Review and the Sloan Management Review.
Emery A. Trahan
Professor of Finance and Insurance
PhD, State University of New York-Albany
Prior to joining the CBA faculty in 1988, Professor Trahan served as a senior accountant for Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. and as controller for Ceramaseal, Inc. A Certified Public Accountant and Chartered Financial Analyst, Professor Trahan is an active member of the American Finance Association, the Financial Management Association, the Eastern Finance Association, the Boston Security Analysts Society, and the Chartered Financial Analysts Institute. His current research interests include valuation, value-based management, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and applied corporate finance. Professor Trahan was named a Research Fellow at the Center for Institutional Investment Management in 2007.
Christopher A. Walker
Executive Professor, Strategy
Doctorate, Golden Gate University
Professor Walker holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from Golden Gate University and a Master in Public Administration from the University of Southern California. An experienced manager of people and processes, Professor Walker is a former executive with a Fortune 50 company and has consulted with a number of leading business firms across a variety of industries. Professor Walker is engaged in ongoing executive education for the FBI. His research interests are in leadership, leadership development, strategy, and organizational behavior.
Jonathan B. Welch
Donald J. Harding Professor of Finance
PhD, University of Connecticut
A member of the College of Business Administration faculty at Northeastern University since 1977, Professor Welch has served as Department Chair of the Finance and Insurance Group, Dean of the Graduate School, and the Donald J. Harding Professor of Finance. Prior to joining the College of Business Administration, he served as faculty member at the University of Hartford, as an engineer at ITT (Grinnell Corporation), and as a capital budgeting analyst and long-range planner at AT&T. Professor Welch has served as a consultant to numerous utility, financial services, and technology companies.
Mustafa R. Yilmaz
Professor and Group Coordinator, Information, Operations, and Analysis
PhD, Johns Hopkins University
Prior to joining Northeastern University in 1979, Professor Yilmaz taught courses in management at the Middle East Technical University and served as chairperson for the Department of Applied Statistics. He has completed consulting assignments for several organizations, including Mathematica, Inc. in Washington D.C., Gardner and Preston Moss, Inc. in Boston, and CHS Corporation in Scottsdale, AZ. Professor Yilmaz is a member of the editorial board for the American Journal of Mathematical and Management Sciences. He is also a member of several professional organizations, including the American Statistical Association (ASA), Decision Sciences Institute (DSI), and The Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS).