Welcoming New Faculty Across the DeGroote School of Business

The latest cohort of faculty at the DeGroote School of Business brings with them new expertise, connections, and perspectives, across six different areas of the School. Their diversity of experiences will support teaching and research at McMaster.

We are pleased to welcome 12 new faculty members to the DeGroote School of Business:

Waquar Ahmad (Finance and Business Economics), Meena Andiappan (Human Resources and Management), Behrouz Bakhtiari (Operations Management), Pavithra Balaji (Strategic Management), Berk Görgülü (Operations Management), Jukyeong (Judy) Han (Strategic Management), William Huggins (Finance and Business Economics), Ala Mokhtar (Accounting and Financial Management Services), Lingling Shi (Operations Management), Iris Wang (Finance and Business Economics), Keiwan Wind (Information Systems), and Qian Yang (Finance and Business Economics).

Get to know our latest faculty members:

Waquar Ahmad

Assistant Professor, Finance & Business Economics

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University? 

I found the interdisciplinary focus of the university and the collegial atmosphere at the DeGroote School of Business very attractive. I like the calmness of Hamilton along with the school’s close ties with the local community.

What excites you most about working here? 

DeGroote’s Finance and Business Economics area has a strong reputation in the market due to the exceptional quality of its graduates and its faculty. I like the opportunity of teaching one of the basic finance courses as it allows me to influence the young minds who are looking to pursue a career in finance.

What is your primary area of expertise? 

I am interested in empirical finance, specifically corporate governance practices, mergers and acquisitions, and the role of corporate political donations.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study? 

Like it or not, finance is something that all individuals must ‘do’ during their lives. Instead of relying on gut feeling to make financial decisions, I decided to learn finance academically. Corporate finance is specifically of interest to me as it prepares my students well to work in a corporate environment and becomes attractive prospects for industry recruiters.

Are there any specific topics or trends you’re fascinated by in your field of business?

I am fascinated by the behavioral anomalies that we see in the market and how seemingly rational individuals behave irrationally in the financial market.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students? 

I try to bring current affairs of the corporate and the investment world in my class. This gets students’ attention easily and gets them excited to share their views of the event. I help the students link the course materials to real-world events and practices so that they can use them in job interviews and future careers.

Tell us one surprising or incredible fact about yourself. 

I am a passionate fan of heavy metal music – AC/DC is my favorite band.

Meena Andiappan

Associate Professor, Human Resources & Management

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University?

I find that DSB in particular, and McMaster as a whole, are at the sweet spot of being exciting, innovative settings to work in while each still maintains a strong sense of community and collegiality.

What excites you most about working here?

My colleagues, and the school’s support of research. There are brilliant people working in my area and across the school, and I feel privileged to be a part of that. I was also very impressed with how much research is valued at DSB and the number of faculty who remain research active over their careers.

What is your primary area of expertise?

Micro organizational behavior – within this field, I have three lines of research: dark emotions (e.g. jealousy, envy, and ostracism) at work, unethical behavior, and most recently, AI.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study?

My undergraduate training and first master’s degree were in finance. When I was considering pursuing my doctoral work in this domain, I realized that the questions that captivated me were why investors acted the way they did; they were really questions about human behavior more than markets. Thus, I decided to change my focus to organizational behavior – which tries to understand why people at work behave the way they do. I find it fascinating to apply individual and social psychology frames to the workplace setting.

Are there any specific topics or trends you’re fascinated by in your field of business? 

The strides that we have made in advanced technologies and AI (LLMs – large language models, in particular) in recent months have made their impact both on, and within, organizations come under the spotlight. There are so many questions that we do not yet have the answers to in terms of the role of these technologies in the workplace, how employees may respond to them, what guardrails need to be in place for their use… I think it is a wonderfully exciting time to be researching such topics.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students? 

I have a very interactive style of lecturing. I constantly ask students questions to get them thinking and active. I think the more passionate you are as a teacher; the more students respond. I also like to throw in a few jokes here and there (some more successful than others!).

Tell us one surprising or incredible fact about yourself. 

I love to paint (when I can find the time). My specialty is portrait painting, with oils.

Pavithra Balaji

Assistant Professor, Strategic Management

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University? 

I loved how McMaster had a clear vision and everything was aligned with the goals of this vision. I also love the focus on research and the support provided here.

What excites you most about working here? 

I feel that McMaster has a very supportive and friendly culture. I definitely see this within my department too, and I love working with my amazing faculty peers.

What is your primary area of expertise?

My research centers on understanding strategic leadership characteristics, executive decision-making and their impact on outcomes for the firm and its stakeholders. I apply a social-issues lens, studying characteristics such as CEO social class, and outcomes related to social issues of importance to businesses and stakeholders, such as employee safety and gender-based outcomes.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study? 

I worked in a start-up prior to my Ph.D., where I observed how leadership influences the CEO, board and other executives, and its impact on the company and stakeholders. I was curious to understand how different characteristics of firm leaders manifest in firm strategy.

Are there any specific topics or trends you’re fascinated by in your field of business?
I think the growing influence of the board of directors, and the evolving roles within the board are of much interest to me.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students? 

I consider the how as important as the what, so I try to incorporate interesting activities and a lot of discussion in my classes. I also focus on making sure the students feel safe and comfortable in my class, so they can share their opinions and ask questions freely.

Tell us one surprising or incredible fact about yourself. 

I trained in Indian Classical Music (singing) for over 12 years.

Berk Görgülü

Assistant Professor, Operations Management

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University? 

There are two main factors. Firstly, the research-intensive structure of DeGroote and McMaster University. There is a wide range of support for both conducting high-quality research and forming interdisciplinary collaborations. Secondly, the supportive and collaborative academic environment at DeGroote fosters self-development as a successful academic.

What excites you most about working here? 

I am very excited about the collaborative research atmosphere and engaging with highly motivated students. Furthermore, there are extensive resources available to translate academic knowledge into innovations that have the potential to enhance real-world systems.

What is your primary area of expertise? 

My research focuses on constructing data-driven, realistic models of healthcare operations and developing predictive and prescriptive analytics to support decision-making under uncertainty. My research methodologies include stochastic modelling and optimization, queueing theory, interpretable machine learning, and Markov decision processes.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study? 

I have always been very interested in mathematics. Applying mathematical tools to improve healthcare systems and create a real difference in people’s lives motivated me to pursue this field of study.

Are there any specific topics or trends you’re fascinated by in your field of business? 

The increased ability to store and process the vast amount of data created big opportunities to develop data-driven solutions for service operations.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students? 

I enjoy running interactive classes. I encourage students to participate in class discussions and ask lots of questions. My teaching philosophy aligns with a hands-on approach, emphasizing experiential learning. Accordingly, I design captivating activities that provide students with opportunities to apply their theoretical knowledge.

Jukyeong (Judy) Han

Assistant Professor, Strategic Management

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University? 

When I visited DeGroote School of Business for my interview, I fell in love with the place by the warm welcome from the people in the School. It was only for a few days, but I felt that I would be happy to be part of the DeGroote Community.

What excites you most about working here? 

Canada is one of the best places for me to continue my area of study (international and immigrant entrepreneurship). After joining DeGroote, I already have had chances to meet many interesting people including international entrepreneurship scholars, immigrant entrepreneurs, and international venture investors.

What is your primary area of expertise? 

My research is at the intersection of international business, entrepreneurship, and strategic management, specifically in the areas of international entrepreneurship, immigrant entrepreneurship, startup growth, and a firm location choice.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study? 

Prior to starting my career in academia, I worked at Korea Innovation Foundation, managing a startup accelerating program to boost internationalization of startups. From this experience, I became motivated to study startups, especially the strategy of these startups to help them succeed globally.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students? 

I am eager to share current news in business to promote students’ engagement in the class and how does that relate to different business theories in the textbook. By talking about the connection between theory and practice, students tend to be more interested in learning theories and actively speak in the class.

Tell us one surprising or incredible fact about yourself. 

I lived in four different countries and visited 25 different countries. I am fascinated to learn about different countries and their cultures.

William Huggins

Assistant Professor, Finance & Business Economics

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University? 

DeGroote is one of Canada’s best business schools and its emphasis on sustainability and interdisciplinary work was particularly attractive.

What excites you most about working here? 

I really enjoy collaborating with other instructors and learning about their areas of expertise, as well as helping to train the next cadre of Canadian business leadership. The continuous creation and dissemination of new knowledge and best practices inspires me to keep thinking about how we can use our expertise to enhance society in a sustainable fashion.

What is your primary area of expertise?

Most of my work is focused on corporate finance and the economic tradeoffs faced by managers, but I’ve also developed an overriding passion for financial and economic history that trickles into all my teaching.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study?

I’ve always had a strong inclination towards improving economic coordination to reduce our impact on the ecological systems that sustain us. My interests started in corporate finance but the realization that our current approaches were the result of path-dependent evolution led me to explore historical solutions and other ways of thinking about allocation and efficiency.

Are there any specific topics or trends you’re fascinated by in your field of business? 

The most interesting questions for me relate to how our society and financial institutions will need to evolve to meet the demographic and environmental challenges of the 21st century. In several regards, we are still following a “playbook” from the 19th and 20th centuries when such complications were not imminent, but the time for transformation is now upon us. I am excited to play a role in equipping the next generation to help us transition society into something better.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students?

My teaching style is rooted in storytelling, the oldest instructional tool. I have found that students who are able to place themselves into the narrative retain the core lessons more effectively (and for longer!), and that it helps them learn to think more adaptively than prescriptively. This involves not just cases and news stories, but building a broader understanding through international and interdisciplinary connections that elevate perspectives from the tactical to strategic level. I encourage students to think about what is possible rather than reaching for established solutions, and to make use of both prior knowledge and insights from other fields of study.

Tell us one surprising or incredible fact about yourself. 

I always buy books and music and have developed an irresponsibly extensive collection of both.

Ala Mokhtar

Assistant Professor, Accounting & Financial Management Services

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University? 

Lots of things! I was definitely excited to work with the accounting area faculty members, who are all so great. I really loved the environment in DSB, which I could see was super collegial and supportive. And I can’t forget the amazing campus – it’s probably one of the prettiest in Canada.

What excites you most about working here? 

The students! They’re excited to learn, very engaged, and really friendly. I also love how supportive the school is with everything that’s related to research. And honestly, I have an office that I love and that I’m excited to work in day-in and day-out.

What is your primary area of expertise? 

Managerial accounting. My research relates to the management controls that are used by companies to motivate employees in their work.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study? 

I was really excited about the research I was reading in this field, while I was pursuing my doctoral studies. It was all very interesting and relevant, and I could see myself doing it every day.

Are there any specific topics or trends you’re fascinated by in your field of business? 

I would definitely say my favorite at the moment is examining why employees overwork. It’s what I studied in my dissertation and what I want to study further in my career.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students? 

I would say I like to ask questions in class, to give students a chance to think about concepts while I explain them. This gives them a chance to see how much they are learning while they are in class (and not find out for the first time whether they have learned when they are studying for an exam). I also really like to use a student participation tool called Top Hat, which lets me ask students questions and get their responses during class, to see how much the concepts make sense to them.

Tell us one surprising or incredible fact about yourself. 

I love reading! I especially love books about psychology and society.

Lingling Shi

Assistant Professor, Operations Management

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University? 

Impressed by ‘Education with Purpose’, the DeGroote School of Business aligned perfectly with my philosophy of bridging academic knowledge with industry experience. Moreover, the cutting-edge research focus, diversity and collaborative environment, as well as favorable location at the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University were particularly attractive to me.

What excites you most about working here? 

I am delighted to join a collaborative team and have the opportunity to work with distinguished scholars across various disciplines at DSB.  Encouraged by the intensive research support, I eagerly anticipate contributing my research to the strategic plan of building sustainable communities. Besides, having an interactive and diligent learning environment in the classroom is a valuable asset to teaching.

What is your primary area of expertise? 

I am interested in applying operations management methodologists to address climate change and sustainable development problems. My recent research focuses on sustainable operations, green technology development, and innovative business models.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study? 

Climate change mainly caused by greenhouse gas emissions is one of humanity’s greatest challenges. This issue has driven me to cofound a startup electric vehicle technology company ten years ago and later conduct research in related areas, which could not be fully understood merely within the industry.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students? 

I attempt to create a classroom environment that facilitates interactive learning, which emphasizes peer instruction, group discussion and collaborative problem-solving. Utilizing real-world examples to illustrate course concepts is also key to actively engage students. With my previous work experience and ongoing research, I aim to seamlessly integrate practical insights into the curriculum, fostering a connection between the classroom and the real world.

Iris Wang

Assistant Professor, Finance & Business Economics

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University? 

Both the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University are deeply committed to sustainability and social responsibility, values that resonate with my own passion. This commitment is intricately woven into their curricula, research initiatives, and campus practices, creating a rich educational environment that aligns with my research interests in inequality and governance.

What excites you most about working here? 

The DeGroote School of Business is distinguished by their exceptional commitment to interdisciplinary research and collaboration, particularly in the field of health. This unique focus within a business school presents numerous intriguing potential research avenues, especially at the intersection of health science, finance and management.

What is your primary area of expertise? 

My first line of research seeks to understand the governance and ownership structure of firms, and what role key stakeholders such as proxy advisors and institutional investors play in affecting these. My second line of research examines how labor market frictions affect corporate policies.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study? 

Good corporate governance is one key determinant of a firm’s success. I leverage my experience working in a governance advisory firm and have several exciting working projects focusing on corporate governance.

Are there any specific topics or trends you’re fascinated by in your field of business? 

I am particularly interested in gender inequality, immigrants, and entrepreneurship.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students? 

My teaching style is student-centered, and interactive, designed to engage students actively in their learning process. I believe in creating an inclusive and supportive classroom environment where every student feels valued and motivated to contribute. Specifically, I incorporate questions, in-class discussions, and real-world examples into my lectures to make complex concepts more relatable and understandable.

Tell us one surprising or incredible fact about yourself. 

I am a big fan of the Vancouver Canucks.

Keiwan Wind

Assistant Professor, Information Systems

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University?

What attracted me to DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University was its prestigious academic environment, my personal connection as an MSc in eHealth alumnus, and the School’s commitment to interdisciplinary education. The focus on social entrepreneurship and inclusive business practices at McMaster, known for its intensive research, resonated with my professional goals, offering an ideal platform for growth and collaboration among supportive colleagues.

What excites you most about working here?

Working at DeGroote excites me due to its energetic atmosphere, characterized by talented and enthusiastic students and a collegial, intelligent faculty. The supportive work culture and visionary leadership enhances this experience. Additionally, DeGroote’s strategic direction, emphasizing healthcare, digital transformation, sustainability, and social innovation, aligns perfectly with my interests and professional aspirations, promising a stimulating and impactful career.

What is your primary area of expertise?

My expertise is in pioneering methods that fuse advanced data science techniques with critical realist studies, focusing on assessing the social impacts of change initiatives. I specialize in blending data science, machine learning, and AI with critical theories, an approach I like to describe as being a “data philosopher.” This approach enables a comprehensive exploration of the broader societal and ethical dimensions of technological and data-driven transformations.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study?

My motivation to pursue this field stemmed from multiple paradigm shifts I experienced throughout my education, realizing that understanding social phenomena requires more than mere observation and underscoring the importance of a theory-driven, historical, and philosophical approach. This perspective transforms social science into a thrilling exploration akin to detective work, unravelling complex social patterns with a blend of empirical investigation and theoretical insight.

Are there any specific topics or trends you’re fascinated by in your field of business?

In my field, I am deeply intrigued by two main topics. The first is the impact of rapid advancements in information systems and digital transformation on future job landscapes. The second is the evolving role of educational institutions in the AI era, specifically how they should adapt to not only remain relevant but also lead in a technology-driven future. These trends represent pivotal areas of study in understanding and shaping our increasingly digital world.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students?

Education is our journey from compound ignorance (not knowing that we don’t know) to simple ignorance (knowing that we don’t know). It reduces the “illusion of knowing” and encourages “a thirst for learning.” I apply the Socratic method in teaching, posing inquisitive questions to draw out varied viewpoints and clarify complex topics. Additionally, I focus on experiential learning, equipping students with a deeper comprehension of the subject to tackle future challenges effectively.

Tell us one surprising or incredible fact about yourself.

A surprising fact about myself is my remarkable birth weight of 16 pounds, a rarity that often piques interest. Additionally, my ability to speak four languages reflects my diverse cultural background and enhances my capability to connect with a broad spectrum of students and colleagues, enriching my personal and professional experiences.

Qian Yang

Assistant Professor, Finance & Business Economics

What attracted you to the DeGroote School of Business and McMaster University? 

It’s a prestigious school with a favorable research and teaching environment and very supportive faculty and staff.

What excites you most about working here? 

The freedom to choose the most exciting projects and the opportunity to work with Ph.D. students.

What is your primary area of expertise? 

Empirical asset pricing.

What motivated you to pursue this field of study? 

I am fascinated by how investors make their investment choices and how those choices shape the market returns.

Are there any specific topics or trends you’re fascinated by in your field of business? 

Machine learning is increasingly fused in asset pricing in terms of studying human decision-making processes and also predicting asset returns.

Describe your teaching style – how do you engage students? 

I like to ask questions that challenge their conventional wisdom.

Tell us one surprising or incredible fact about yourself. 

When I was little in the fifth grade, I saw a flying saucer around 8 PM, but apparently, no one in my class saw that.