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Learn from Outstanding Faculty and Industry Experts

Smith's excellent and expert faculty are key to the strength of our programs.

In the Master of Financial Innovation & Technology program at Smith, you will be learning from an outstanding faculty team comprised of some of the best management educators in North America.

Faculty and instructors subject to change.

Jon is the founder and CEO of an artificial intelligence consulting firm, NordAi Analytics and the owner of a law and consulting firm, Metrix Law P.C. Previously, Jon was Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager for an exempt market dealer and alternative investment firm. Prior to this, Jon was Managing Director of an alternative investment firm for a public company which focused on developing a portfolio of global alternative investments. His mandate included researching, acquiring, and managing a portfolio of hedge funds, private equity, private debt in both onshore and offshore jurisdictions, including the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Jon was Vice-President and Counsel at Citigroup Global Market, the investment bank in London, U.K.

Jon has a law degree from Queen’s University, an MBA from the University of Oxford (Brasenose College) and has completed advanced certificates on artificial intelligence and fintech from MIT. Jon is a Chartered Investment Manager and qualified lawyer in Ontario, England & Wales.

One of the architects of Smith School of Business' innovative MBA for Science and Technology - Canada's first specialized MBA - Mr. Anger is an authority on business curriculum development.

In 1997 he was appointed Chair of the School's Undergraduate Program where he is responsible for the curriculum review and ongoing improvement of the School's BCom program.

Mr. Anger also teaches Finance and Accounting for Smith's Executive MBA program. He integrates financial accounting with the finance courses in the program, and he plays a leading role in advising Executive MBA participants on their projects, and in integrating financial considerations into the curriculum.

In the private sector, Mr. Anger is a leader in the application of learning technologies for bankers and other professionals. He earned both a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and an MBA degree at Queen's University.

Karine Benzacar has been teaching for Smith School of Business at Queen's University since 2010. She is also Managing Director of Knowledge Plus Corp., an organization which specializes both in business training and in providing financial, accounting, and management information services. As a professional accountant, certified both in Canada and in the U.S., Karine's practice has involved organizations all across North America.

Karine is a seasoned industry professional with over 25 years of solid industry experience. After beginning her career in the finance departments of Kraft Foods and Avon Products, she held senior financial management positions at three major Canadian Banks - Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, and Bank of Montreal.

Karine obtained an MBA from McGill University in Montreal. In addition to her industry experience, Karine has been teaching undergraduate, MBA, and Masters of Finance courses at several leading universities which include University of Toronto, Queen’s University, Concordia University, and Ryerson University. She is a highly acclaimed industry expert, has presented at national and international industry conferences, and has been facilitating professional development courses for CPAs for over 10 years. She was awarded the FCPA designation an honorary designation where she was selected by her industry peers for her outstanding contributions to the industry, profession, and the community; this designation is held by less than 1% of CPAs in Canada.

A world in which technology enables businesses to prosper, employees to thrive, and a culture for driving results to flourish is the vision behind Kathryn Brohman’s thought leadership in sustainable execution. An Associate professor at Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Kathryn has co-authored several books that focus on how today’s organizations can navigate business practices to drive short-term results without compromising long-term success. Her most recent book entitled SHIFT: A New Mindset for Sustainable Execution presents results from her work with over 750+ organizations that helped translate strategy into action. The book provides a pragmatic approach to identifying salient execution barriers, filling gaps to stabilize an execution backbone, and removing distractions to seamlessly adapt to change.

Since arriving at Queen’s University in 2003, Kathryn has pioneered programs in Strategy Execution and Digital Transformation across MBA and executive programs. She has worked with hundreds of organizations in North America to translate strategy into action. Kathryn has received multiple funding grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) as well as the Ontario Research Foundation and published her work in premier journals including MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Harvard Business Review, MIS Quarterly Executive, and Communications of the ACM.

Shai Dubey teaches courses in negotiations, cross-cultural management, ethics, domestic and international business law and entrepreneurship. He is the academic director for project courses in various MBA programs as well as the MIB program.

Shai earned his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Toronto and his Law Degree from Queen's University. Shai is also a graduate of the aviation Flight Technology Program at Seneca College.

Victoria Granova is a community leader, entrepreneur and passionate advocate for diversity and gender inclusion in the cybersecurity industry.

Victoria works in cybersecurity risk as a Security Technical Program Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS), managing global vendor security for sales and marketing business lines. Previously, Victoria was the global major cybersecurity incident manager at CIBC where she led incident response against attacks on the bank’s financial data, and communication to C-level executives and the Board of Directors.

Victoria is the founder of CyberToronto, a community-based organization that holds free training and educational conferences to help lower the barriers of entry for newcomers and young women to enter the industry. Since launch, CyberToronto has served over 1,500 attendees, featured free training from top Canadian cybersecurity executives and has become one of the most successful cybersecurity conferences in Canada.

As an educator, Victoria is an instructor in the Master of Financial Innovation & Technology program (MFIT) at Smith School of Business, Queen’s University. She also instructs at Toronto Metropolitan University in Enterprise Cybersecurity, and at York University’s School of Continuing Studies in the cybersecurity certificate programs.

As a learner, Victoria is currently a PhD student at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Cybersecurity Research Lab, channelling her passion about leveraging psychology to strengthen the "human factor" in cybersecurity.

She was awarded Canadian Security’s 2021 Top 10 Under 40, York University's 2022 Top 30 Alumni Under 30, Canada's Top 20 Women in Cybersecurity by IT World Canada in 2021, and CPA Ontario’s Emerging Leader 2022.

Evan Jo joined the Smith School of Business at Queen's University as an Assistant Professor of Finance in July 2021 after obtaining his Ph.D. in Finance from McGill University. His research interests include Asset Pricing, Capital Markets, and Credit Risk.

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 Queen's Centre for Business Venturing. Prior to joining Queen's, 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 Smith 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.

Holding her PhD from Rotman School of Management, Dr. Purda brings a wealth of experience with her time in investment banking in oil and gas. She is known for combining Finance with International Business, Accounting, and Law. Dr. Purda has numerous journal publications including the Journal of International Business Studies, Contemporary Accounting Research, and the American Law and Economics Review.

Keith Rogers has a Ph.D. in Management from Smith School of Business at Queen's University, 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 University.

He has published research in the Journal of Operations Management, Development Economics and the Journal of Business Ethics. His current research areas include international outsourcing and immigration. Prior to returning to academia, Dr. Rogers was a Manager in Accenture's Supply Chain Planning and Strategy Practice, where he worked with a number of clients in electronics, transportation and chemicals. He also spent several years with Methanex Corporation leading the global operational planning team and working on special projects.

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.

Dr. Stephen W. Thomas is an adjunct faculty member at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, ON, Canada. He is also the Director of Queen’s Master of Management Analytics program, and the inaugural Director of the Queen’s Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence program. He was named the Professor of the Year in the MMA program in 2017 and 2018.

Dr. Thomas holds PhD, MSc, and BSc degrees in Computer Science. His main interests are databases, data analytics, and natural language processing. His research has been published in IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Empirical Software Engineering, and others. He is a recipient of the Scotiabank Scholar research grant.

Dr. Thomas previously ran a tech startup in the world of big data. He consults with several large companies in the areas of big data, text analytics, and AI. He previously held an industrial data analytics position at Raytheon in Tucson, AZ.

Dr. Thomas teaches several courses on natural language processing, machine learning, database design, big data, and mathematical analysis in Smith’s Commerce and MMA, and MMAI programs. He serves on the MMA advisory board.

Jue Wang is an Associate Professor & Distinguished Faculty 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.