Faculty & Instructors
For the Master of Management in Artificial Intelligence, Smith School of Business has lined up an impressive group of faculty and instructors whose expertise, experience and teaching abilities will ensure an extraordinary student experience.
Faculty are drawn from leading experts and experienced teachers at Smith School of Business plus adjunct faculty from the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a hub of outstanding global talent focused on research excellence in deep learning and machine learning.
Faculty and instructors subject to change.
Technical Expertise
Sidney is an Associate Professor in the School of Computing at Queen’s University (appointed in January 2019). From 2009 to 2019, Dr. Givigi was a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Givigi has supervised more than 40 graduate students. Dr. Givigi’s previous students now hold key positions in universities, industry, and government organizations in Canada and around the world.
Dr. Givigi has co-authored over 100 scientific papers in top journals and conferences with low acceptance rates, some of them awarded best-papers in major conferences such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference in Systems, Man & Cybernetics (SMC).
Dr. Givigi is a Senior Member of IEEE and has led over 20 research projects in areas related to robotics, autonomous systems, control and machine learning. Dr. Givigi has worked extensively in the modeling of uncertain systems using reinforcement learning, inference systems, and control theory. Also, Dr. Givigi has almost 20 years of experience in developing robotics using reinforcement learning.
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.
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.
Rodolfo Rivas currently works at TD Bank as a Senior Advisor, Enterprise Data and Analytics Strategy and Planning. Prior to his current role he supported different areas at TD Bank such as fraud detection, life and health insurance, human resources, and treasure balance sheet management. Before working in the financial industry, Rodolfo spent time working as a research and development chemist, operations manager in manufacturing, logistics, inventory optimization, and continuous improvement.
Rodolfo Rivas holds a Licentiate degree in Chemistry, an MBA, and a Master of Management Analytics degree from Queen’s University. He also teaches Research Methods & Statistical Inference at York University for the Master in Financial Accountability and developed course content and taught Statistics for the Data Science Fundamentals Certificate at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.
Wulin Suo joined the school in 2000. Before joining the school, he had taught at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, the Mathematics Department of UBC and Hebei University in China. He also worked in the risk management department and the treasury department of the Royal Bank of Canada.
Suo’s research interests include consumption and portfolio theory, asset pricing, valuation and hedging of derivative securities, term structure modeling, credit risk and risk management. His research interests also include computational finance, and mathematical finance.
He has a PhD in Applied Mathematics (UBC '94) and a PhD in Finance (Toronto ;02).
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.
Management Expertise
Nicole Bérubé is an adjunct faculty member at the Smith School of Business. She is a tenured faculty member at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), occupying executive service positions. She values lifelong learning, as her career exemplifies. At RMC, she chaired numerous academic programs and served as Associate Dean of Continuing Studies.
Nicole earned several degrees while working full time. She has a PhD in Organizational Behaviour, which was supported by fellowships and for which she received the Joe Kelly Graduate Award. Before her doctorate, Nicole earned a Master of Business Administration and a Graduate Diploma in Public Administration. While working on those degrees, she experienced and appreciated the benefits and challenges of working in academic teams.
Nicole’s Bachelor of Science supported more than a decade of applied scientific work early in her career. She held management positions in public and private sectors and for-profit and non-profit organizations. She also operated two consulting firms and managed work teams throughout her career.
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.
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.