Faculty & Instructors

Moez Ali is a data scientist with more than a decade of experience in solving complex business problems through data, particularly in the domain of Healthcare, Education, Fintech, and Professional Consulting. Moez has a background in Finance and he is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (UK), Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), Chartered Professional Accountant, Ontario (CPA, CMA). He also has an undergrad degree in Commerce and Business with dual Masters in Economics and Management Analytics.

He is currently leading a team of data scientists at Moneris Canada where he is building sophisticated data science solutions at scale to solve some of the most complex problems. Alongside the full-time day job, Moez is very passionate about teaching data science and opensource community contribution that's where he dedicates over 40% of his time.

Moez has also created an open-source, low-code machine learning library (PyCaret) which is used by over half a million data scientists around the world including some major tech companies and research organizations.

Moez was awarded, most-read writer two times in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in 2020. He was also nominated for Highly Influential Data Scientists in Canada and has some impressive following on social media.

Raga Gopalakrishnan’s research interests are primarily in the areas of (a) Service Operations Management, where his focus is on studying service systems with strategic entities, and (b) Pricing and Revenue Management, where his focus is on designing sustainable market models for modern urban mobility. His research combines tools from multiple subjects such as optimization, probability, queueing theory, decision theory, game theory and mechanism design for obtaining analytical results, as well as numerical methods and data-driven simulation for validation in real-world environments. Raga’s research has appeared in Operations Research and Mathematics of Operations Research.

Dr. Ceren Kolsarici is a Director (Scotiabank Center for Customer Analytics), Associate Professor & Ian R. Friendly Fellow of Marketing at Smith School of Business.

Dr. Kolsarici specializes in Big Data and analytics applications on domains including advertising, mobile and digital marketing, diffusion of new products, pharmaceuticals and financial sector. Her current projects focus on design and evaluation of integrated marketing communications campaigns, media selection and scheduling, budgeting and development of advertising creative strategies. She develops new models and methods to improve managerial decisions and marketing applications in practice, by helping managers better understand how marketing affects firm performance and designing marketing programs that maximize profitability. Dr. Kolsarici's research has been published in leading journals such as Management Science, Journal of Marketing Research, and International Journal of Research in Marketing. She has been invited to present her work at institutions such as UC Davis, Northwestern University, Erasmus University, Tilburg University, Koc University as well as national and international conferences in Australia, Belgium, US, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal and Turkey.

Ceren has received several awards and grants for her scholarly contributions including the QSB New Researcher Achievement Award, MSI's Top Young Scholar Nomination, SSHRC, FQRSC and other external funds, American Marketing Association-Sheth Consortium Fellowship, as well as nominations for national (SSHRC) and provincial (ADESAQ) doctoral dissertation awards. She holds a Ph.D. in Marketing (2009) from McGill University a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering (2002) from Middle East Technical University, and an MBA (2004) from Bilkent University. Dr. Kolsarici teaches Advertising, Social Media and Marketing Analytics in Commerce, MBA, MMA and Ph.D. programs. She also continues to do consulting and executive training for various companies in Canada and internationally.

Murray Lei is an Assistant Professor of Management Analytics and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Smith School of Business, Queen's University. His research focuses on developing data-driven frameworks that enable companies to make dynamic decisions under uncertainty. Additionally, he investigates how data-driven analytics can be aligned with societal values, particularly in the areas of privacy, fairness, and sustainability.

Murray’s research has been published in top-tier peer-reviewed academic journals and is supported by various funding agencies. His achievements have been recognized through multiple awards, including the New Researcher Achievement Award. He has collaborated with leading global tech companies such as Alibaba, Instacart, Flipkart, Staples, and Oracle Retail Labs, where he has contributed to developing real-time, large-scale analytics solutions.

Murray’s teaching interests span Business Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Operations Management, Supply Chain Management, and Revenue Management. He has extensive experience teaching these subjects across various academic levels, including professional graduate programs (such as Master's in Management Analytics), research-based graduate programs (M.Sc. and Ph.D.), and undergraduate courses.

Guang Li’s research interest focuses on modeling customer choice behavior, as well as seeking solutions to high-impact operations management problems, such as assortment planning and price optimization, using both analytical and data-driven approaches. She is also interested in topics at the interface of operations and marketing, including the impact of new pricing, promotion mechanisms and personalized marketing, on operational decisions. Guang’s work has appeared in Operations Research and Operations Research Letters.

Anton Ovchinnikov is a Distinguished Professor of Management Analytics at Smith School of Business in Kingston, Canada. His research interests include, on the theoretical side, behavioral operations, revenue management and environmental sustainability. On the applied side, he studies data-driven applications in business, government and nonprofit sectors.

Anton’s work has been published in the leading academic journals. One of his academic papers was recognized as the finalist of the 2009 Junior Faculty Best Paper Competition held by the Institute of Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS), and his applied work was recognized as the finalist in the 2014 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing section Practice Prize. In 2015 Anton received the Paul Kleindorfer Award in Sustainability from the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) for his work on sustainable operations. His case studies also won several awards, including the 2005 and 2011 INFORMS Case competitions. Anton organized several conferences and is on the editorial review boards of two leading operations management journals; his contributions to the academic community also received multiple service awards.

Alex Scott has a background in management consulting with a specialization in retail banking analytics. In addition to teaching in Smith’s Master of Management Analytics programs, he is currently a manager at TD Bank in enterprise data & analytics where he leads analytics projects and sets analytics strategy across Canada and the United States. Alex holds two degrees from Smith School of Business at Queen’s University – a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Management Analytics.

With a unique ability to present technical topics in an easy-to-understand and inspiring way, Steve is a sought-after professor and AI expert at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business. He leads both introductory and expert-level courses on multiple aspects of AI in undergraduate, graduate and executive education programs. He has been selected by students in the Master of Management Analytics as MMA Professor of the Year for the last three years running.

Holding PhD, MSc, and BSc degrees in Computer Science, Steve’s research focuses on analytics, machine learning, and natural language processing. His work has been published in leading journals including IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Empirical Software Engineering, and others. In recognition of his work in the analytics and AI space, he was awarded a prestigious Scotiabank Scholar research grant.

Beyond teaching and research, Steve has run a big data startup company and conducted industrial operations research at Raytheon, a major U.S. defense contractor and commercial electronics company. He regularly consults with a wide range of organizations on the application of AI for best business outcomes.

Jue Wang is an Associate Professor & Distinguished Research Fellow of Management Analytics at Smith School of Business. His research lies at the intersection of operations research and statistics, with particular interests in real-time decisions with monitoring data. In addition, he is studying complex revenue management problems through the lens of optimal control theory. Jue has led multiple big data & analytics consulting projects in energy, transportation, and mining industries. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University (China) in 2007 and PhD from the University of Toronto in 2013.

A former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the YMCA of Kingston, Ontario (1995 to 2008), Mr. Bissonette began teaching at Smith in 2000. Possessing both private and public sector experience, Mr. Bissonette has considerable managerial expertise at both the middle management and upper management levels and has been involved in a number of turnaround initiatives. Possessing over 20+ years of teaching experience at both the university and college levels, Mr. Bissonette is also a successful entrepreneur, operating his own employee benefit consulting business. Mr. Bissonette holds an MBA from Clarkson University and a Bachelor of Administration from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. A published author, Mr. Bissonette’s textbook, Business: Strategy, Development, Application, McGraw-Hill Ryerson Publisher, has been adopted (all or in part) by a number of universities and colleges across Canada. Mr. Bissonette also oversaw the creation of the Smith School of Business’ “Living Case” unit and has personally written and been actively involved in a number of cases associated with this innovative initiative.

Barry Cross is an expert and thought leader in innovation, execution and operations strategy. He joined Smith School of Business after nearly 20 years in the automotive and manufacturing sectors with Magna Autosystems and DuPont, where he led many key strategic initiatives, including nearly 30 program launches in North America, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Barry speaks and consults widely in the areas of Lean Innovation, Strategy, Projects and Execution, enabling organizations to create sustainable value for their customers. He is the bestselling author of three books, including Simple: Killing Complexity for a Lean and Agile Organization, and several Most Read articles.

Diana Drury is the Director of Team & Executive Coaching at Smith School of Business. She is an experienced Team Performance Coach, Counsellor, College Professor and Facilitator. Diana is responsible for the overall leadership of the team and executive coaching programs which operate across eight of the Smith School of Business MBA and Master’s programs and Queen’s Executive Education. She also works extensively with outside organizations. She has over 30 years’ experience working with high performing teams as an Administrator, Athletic Director, Coach and as an athlete at the College, University, Provincial and National levels. She has been the recipient of numerous coaching awards. She also competes as an athlete nationally representing Canada at the World Masters Games. To date, Diana has been inducted into seven Halls of Fames across Canada as an Athlete, Builder and Coach.

Nusa Fain is an Assistant Professor at Smith School of Business, specializing in entrepreneurship and innovation management.

She completed her PhD in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on process management within innovative organizations at University of Ljubljana (2010). Prior to joining Smith School of Business, Dr. Fain was a lecturer at Strathclyde Business School (UK), where she taught Managing Innovation, Strategic Global Marketing and Integrated Marketing Communications.

She has extensive consulting experience within the field of product development and innovation management with a wide diversity of firms (including oil and gas, manufacturing and retail). Her research interests are two-fold. She is exploring implementation of open innovation practices into mature organizations and looking into pedagogies that support the development of entrepreneurial mindsets in design students.

At Smith School of Business, Dr. Fain teaches entrepreneurship and new venture creation courses in the Commerce program and supports the delivery of content for the individual projects on the Master of Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship program.

Dr. Tracy Jenkin is an Associate Professor at Smith School of Business, affiliate member of Ingenuity Labs Research Institute, and a Faculty Affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Her current research explores human-AI collaboration and cognitive processes. She has also published in the areas of data analytics, environmental sustainability and IT (green IT), project management, and project alignment. She has published in a variety of top journals including Business and Society, The Data Base for Advances in Information Systems, Decision Sciences, Information and Organization, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Information Technology, and MIS Quarterly. Dr. Jenkin’s teaching focuses on analytics, artificial intelligence, and agile project management.

Dr. Jenkin received her PhD in Management (MIS), with a minor in Computer Science, from Queen’s University. She previously worked in the IT and software industry for ten years, working with a broad range of organizations, such as Accenture, Dell and new venture Trilogy Software, and across a diverse set of industries, including telecom, high-tech, financial services, and commodity chemicals.

Mr. Kearns has more than 20 years of experience leading successful startup, turnaround and high-growth business units at premier global firms. He has broad experience in data analytics, technology, management and operations. Known for quickly repositioning businesses, driving revenue and profit growth, effective communications, and client focus, his leadership style is famous for being both strategic and operational. His specialties are risk management, global growth and innovation.

Elspeth Murray has served as the Associate Dean - MBA and Master’s Programs from 2012-2022 and has been a professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Smith School of Business since 1996. She also holds the CIBC Fellowship in Entrepreneurship, and founded Smith's Centre for Business Venturing. She is the Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Social Impact. Prior to joining Smith, she worked in industry for 7 years for several firms including IBM, and Canadian Tire. As an integral part of her work in the strategy and new venture fields, Dr. Murray specializes in the management of change. In 2002, she co-authored a best-selling book, Fast Forward: Organizational Change in 100 Days, Oxford University Press, with Dr. Peter Richardson. She has recently co-developed (with Dr. David Saunders) the Analytics Climate Assessment Tool (ACAT), which is used to assess organizations technological capacity, skill sets, and analytics culture. Current research is focused on best practices in leading and managing change to create an analytics culture.

Dr. Murray teaches on many MBA and Executive Education programs, and consults widely with a diversity of firms including BMW, Detour Gold, Wawanesa Insurance, Versacold Logistics and the Auditor General for Canada. She serves as a Director for several firms and is an advisor to several start-ups and CEO's. Dr. Murray received an undergraduate degree in computer science and mathematics, and an MBA, both from Queen's University. Her doctorate in Strategy and Management Information Systems was completed at the Richard Ivey School of Business.

Geoff Pond has been a member of RMC’s Department of Management since July, 2015 and taught an adjunct basis at both Queen's University (Smith School of Business and Engineering & Applied Science) and uOttawa (Telfer School of Business) since 2016.

Prior to joining academia, Dr. Pond spent 7 years as a member of Defence Research and Development Canada as an analyst with the Centre for Operations Research and Analysis. He has been a member of NATO and ABCA research panels, authored a number of government reports, and presented research at a number of national and international conferences.

His research is focused on optimization of resources, specifically in support of fleet management. His PhD in mechanical engineering was awarded by the University of New Brunswick in 2006. Dr. Pond also holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration awarded by Queen's University.

Keith Rogers has a Ph.D. in Management from Queen's as well as an M.A.Sc in Management Sciences (Supply Chain Management) from the University of Waterloo and an M.A. in Economics (Econometrics and International Economics) from Queen's. He has published research in the journal of Operations Management, Development Economics and the Journal of Business Ethics.