Faculty & Instructors

A native of Kingston and a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada, Dr. Bill Blake spent six years in a variety of leadership positions in the Canadian Navy prior to entering the University of Western Ontario where he completed an MBA and a Ph.D. in business.

Dr. Blake joined Smith School of Business in 2001. In 2002 he was appointed Associate Dean, MBA Programs, and served in that capacity for 6 years. During that time, the Accelerated MBA and Executive MBA Americas (a Queen's-Cornell partnership) were launched and the Full-time MBA was named #1 in the world outside the U.S.A by BusinessWeek in three successive biannual rankings.

Dr. Blake's research and teaching have focused on characteristics of effective leaders and the relationship between cultural adaptability and international effectiveness. He has been actively involved in consulting and executive development and he has delivered programs in leadership, cross-cultural management and human resource management nationally and internationally.

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.

Dr. Detomasi is a Professor & Distinguished Teaching Fellow of International Business at Smith School of Business, Queen's University. He completed his PhD from the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University in 1999, specializing in international political economy. He also holds a Master of Arts in War Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada, a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Queen's University, and is a graduate of the Executive Program on the Global Financial System from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Dr. Detomasi's research interests include globalization, corporate and non-profit governance, and corporate strategy.  He is nearing completion of the book manuscript Between Market and State: The Oil Multinational in Geopolitical Competition, currently under review at University of Toronto Press. He teaches courses on strategy, governance, and the geopolitics of global competition in undergraduate, MBA, and executive education programs at Smith School of Business and abroad. He has served as Academic Director for Global Business, Queen’s Executive Education.  He as has also served for a five-year term as academic director for the Fundamentals of Governance Program, Queen’s Executive Education.

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.

Shai Dubey teaches courses in negotiations, cross-cultural management, ethics, domestic and international business law and entrepreneurship.

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. 

After graduating from Seneca College in 1984, he began his working career as a commercial pilot. In 1985 he founded and ran both an executive aircraft charter company and a flight training school based in Toronto. After selling this company, Shai worked as an aviation consultant providing strategic and regulatory advice to Canadian and foreign clients. He practiced law on Bay Street and then ran a global company prior to joining Queen’s.

Jay is an Associate Professor & Distinguished Teaching Fellow of Marketing at Smith School of Business. He was the founding Director of Smith School of Business Centre for Social Impact (formerly the Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility). Jay has also served as the Associate Dean, Research and Associate Dean, Faculty at Smith School of Business. His teaching and consulting work are focused on the interplay between customer value and the alignment of an organization’s culture, structure, and metrics that maximizes the delivery of value to achieve customer loyalty. It is this achievement of customer loyalty that leads to superior brand equity for the organization. At the core of this perspective is the understanding that everyone in the organization has an important role to play in fostering the brand of the organization. Jay has extensive experience working with organizational members across a variety of industries in both the profit and not-for-profit sectors helping them to understand their contribution to customer value and the organization’s brand equity. This work has been in the form of teaching in professional Masters and Executive Education programs, as well as consulting. Jay has been voted by students as Teacher of the Year in both the Executive MBA and Accelerated MBA programs. Jay holds an MBA from McGill University and a PhD in Marketing from Queen’s University. 

Dane Jensen is an expert on strategy and leadership, and a furious cross-pollinator between the podium and boardroom. As Third Factor’s CEO, he advises other CEOs and Senior Leaders in both sport and business.

Dane’s extensive global experience includes work across 23 countries on six continents. He is an instructor in the MBA, EMBA and Executive Education programs at Smith School of Business, and has worked with Fortune 100 companies in industries from financial services to industrial manufacturing, and with CEOs and front-line managers. Dane’s unique ability to simultaneously educate and excite has resulted in equipping thousands of people with the clarity and skills necessary to move beyond what they thought they could do and execute winning strategies.

In addition to his corporate work, Dane works to enhance the competitiveness of Canadian athletes in international competition, working extensively with the Canadian Paralympic Committee and Canadian Sport Institute Ontario. Dane also leads the relationship with Right To Play by supporting the development of over 15,000 managers and volunteer coaches.

Prior to joining Third Factor, Dane worked as a management consultant at Monitor Group—a renowned strategy consulting firm that is now part of Deloitte. At Monitor, he moved from Consultant to Associate Partner in the shortest timeframe in firm history. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Smith School of Business.

Greg is based in Toronto, Ontario where he works on a range of active equity and strategic credit funds for a large Canadian asset management firm. Greg is a CFA Charterholder, holds the CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing, and is a double graduate of Queen’s University having completed a Master of Finance with a specialization in Investment Banking (MFin) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA). In addition, he holds an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree with a Cooperative Education option and a specialization in Finance from Wilfrid Laurier University. Greg has worked on fundamental valuation, strategic company analysis, and economic research for eight years on both the sell-side and buy-side on a diverse range of public companies, numerous geographies and sectors. He maintains a particular emphasis in U.S. Healthcare and Canadian Consumer.

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.

Peter Richardson has been a faculty member of the School of Business for 37 years. He teaches both introductory and advanced strategy courses in the School of Business on the Executive MBA programs and on a number of the School’s one and three week Continuing Education programs.

Together with Elspeth Murray, Peter has authored a book, entitled Fast Forward: Organizational Change in 100 Days, published by the Oxford University Press in 2002. An accompanying Guide was published early in 2003. Through his research and associated consulting activities, he has developed a unique concept of Strategy as Action, and has written several papers on this topic. During his 30-plus years at Queen’s University, Peter has authored over 90 papers and case studies on strategic management. In his previous book, Cost Containment: The Ultimate Strategic Advantage, one of the few books written on cost improvement, Peter described a novel strategic approach to cost improvement that has been adopted in many organizations in both the public and private sectors. At present, Peter is exploring the impact of the increasing demand for speed in business, which he believes has profound implications for organization change, strategy implementation, risk management and organization processes.  

Peter consults widely with both public and private sector organizations, working closely for extended periods with senior executives on strategy development and deployment. Corporate clients have included Codelco, Vale, Anglo-American Corporation, Alcoa, BHP Billiton, Barrick Gold, Bell Canada, CIBC, CIBC-Mellon, De Beers Canada, Ivanhoe Mines, Ivanplats, Redpath Mining, Quadra Chemicals, Gibson Energy, and Xerox. In the Public Sector, clients have included the Supreme Court of Canada, The Office of the Auditor General for Canada, The Surveyor General of Canada, Health Canada, Natural Resources Canada and Health Canada. He has also been retained as a consultant on more than 20 major international mining projects including the successful development and construction of the Collahuasi copper mine in Chile which is to-date the world’s largest and highest single mining project, and the Victor Diamond Mine in Canada – designated globally as the ‘Mine of the Year in 2009’.    

Peter has also carried out strategic planning assignments for a number of Associations including the Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO), the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors, The Consejo Minero de Chile, the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada, the Zinc Association, and the Mining Association of Canada.

Mr. Robertson was an investment banker for nearly 20 years and has over US$100 billion in completed transaction experience.  He has extensive M&A experience (>US$80 billion) as well as significant ECM, DCM and restructuring experience products (US$22bn across 50 capital raisings: 35 public market deals, 15 private market deals) across a broad group of sectors.  Mr. Robertson has held numerous senior positions, including Co-Head of Investment Banking, Asia and Head of Sectors, Asia (which included both investment banking and corporate banking).  Employers have included Lazard Freres, Credit Suisse First Boston/Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and The Royal Bank of Scotland/ABN Amro. 

Mr. Robertson has executed numerous award winning and notable transactions across the globe.  Independently recognized “Deal of the Year” awards won by transactions led and executed by Mr. Robertson include Best Domestic M&A Deal in Asia in 2006, Best GDR/ADR in Asia in both 2007 and 2005, Best Equity-linked Deal in Asia in 2005, Best Secondary Deal in Asia in 2005, Best Deal in Singapore in 2006 and Best Deal in Korea in 2005.  Whilst in New York, as a junior banker, Mr. Robertson executed the largest and third largest M&A deals in history at the time of the transactions (MCI Communications’ US$42.7bn merger with WorldCom and SBC Communications’ US$23.8bn purchase of Pacific Telesis).

During his banking career, Mr. Robertson held a wide variety of committee responsibilities, including: Co-Head of the Investment Banking Management Committee in Asia, Co-Head of the Regional M&A Engagement Committee (Asia Pacific), Member of the Regional Equities Engagement Committee (Asia Pacific), Regional Capital Allocation Committee (Asia Pacific), Asia Pacific Banking Management Committee, Global M&A Engagement Committee, Global TMT Management Committee, Global TMT Capital Allocation Committee and the Asian Global Clients Management Team.

Mr. Robertson lived and worked in Asia (15 years) as well as in New York and San Francisco (4 years).   Prior to becoming an investment banker, Mr. Robertson spent over a year volunteering primarily with domestic female indigenous NGOs in remote areas of Central America followed by a year working and volunteering in Nanning and Wuhan, China.

Mr. Robertson currently teaches/has taught over 6,000 students in twelve different finance courses across seven different programs at the Smith School of Business, including courses in the Executive MBA, Master of Finance – Toronto, Full Time MBA, Master of International Business, Accelerated MBA, GDB and Bachelor of Commerce programs.  Courses taught include: Investment Banking (MFIN 840), International Investment Banking (MGBL 822), Investments (MBAS 824), Corporate Valuation and Merger and Acquisition Analysis (MBAS 823), Investments and Portfolio Management (COMM 324), Advanced Managerial Finance (MBUS 813), Financial Strategy (MBUS 925), Corporate Financial Decision Making (COMM 323), Global Financial Institutions (COMM 329), Financial Management (GDB – MBAS 821), Finance Fundamentals (MBAS 821) and Introduction to Finance (COMM 121).  

He is also works with Smith’s Career Advancement Centre.  Students trained/coached have successfully landed jobs at the world’s top hedge funds (including Point72, Citadel, etc.), private equity firms (including Blackstone, KKR, BC Partners, etc.), boutique investment banks (including Ardea, Armentum, Evercore, Greenhill, Lazard, Moelis, etc.) and bulge bracket banks (including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, CSFB/UBS, BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotia, TD, etc.) in a variety of global financial centers including New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Los Angeles, Chicago, Calgary, Hong Kong and London.

Mr. Robertson is conversant in Mandarin and Spanish.  He is also a professional portrait photographer and has photographed people across the globe, often in extreme conditions (www.blairrobertsonphotography.com).  Subjects have ranged from Balinese royalty to world class skateboarders to members of the award winning band The Tragically Hip (aka Canadian royalty!).  He earned his H.B.A. from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Professor Schneider does research in empirical microeconomics, with a focus on industrial organization, information economics, and behavioral economics. He uses both laboratory experiments and small and large-scale field experiments with firms and government agencies; analysis of large observational data sets; and collaboration with applied theorists to test economic theories.

For example, in the field of information economics, his work has tested a range of classic theories of asymmetric information, such as adverse selection in the used car market and agency problems in the auto repair market. Some of this work also examines solutions to the inherent contracting and incentive problems, such as when personal connections are a viable substitute for formal contracts. In behavioral economics, he has examined why people do not always complete tasks on time – for example, why people sometimes pay a parking ticket or file taxes late – and in auctions, he examined why bidders sometimes overbid and whether competitive spirits, inattention, and other psychological phenomena are to blame.

Daniel Tisch is widely known as a leader in the Canadian and global communications community. He is the CEO and principal owner of the Argyle Group, one of Canada's largest communications consulting firms, and previously served as chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management, the confederation of the world's public relations professional associations.

Daniel began his career in the Canadian government and served in progressively more senior roles, culminating in a post as Senior Policy Advisor and Acting Chief of Staff to the Canadian foreign minister in the 1990s. In more than two decades as a consultant, he has advised a long list of Global 500/Fortune 500 companies as well as both Canadian and international government leaders. Daniel is particularly well-known for expertise in reputation, issues and crisis management, including serving as lead communications advisor to an industry affected by the largest food recall in North American history. His other areas of practice include reputation management strategy, stakeholder engagement, governance and executive leadership communications.

Under Daniel's leadership, Argyle has grown from a small Toronto-based consultancy in 2003 to a team of more than 100 full-time professionals with offices in five major Canadian cities. Argyle was recently named 2020 Canadian Agency of the Year by PRovoke Media, the leading source of news and analysis on the global public relations industry. Other recent honours for Argyle include being named Global Mid-Sized Agency of the Year by the International Association of Business Communicators in 2017 and 2018, and listed on the Globe and Mail's inaugural ranking of Canada's Top Growing Companies in 2019.

Daniel speaks English, French and Spanish, and holds a BA and an MBA (specializing in marketing) from Queen's University. He is the Vice-Chair of the Queen's University Board of Trustees and a frequent guest lecturer at the Smith School of Business.

Erin is based in Kingston, Ontario where she is a CPA, CA and holds a Master of Science in Management from Smith School of Business (2003). She obtained her Chartered Accountant (CA) designation while with Deloitte's Audit practice in 2000. Her audit experience includes life insurance, oil, agriculture, NFPs and prospectus engagements, as well as internal audit.

Most recently, Erin managed a budget of $100 million while at Queen's University, while participating in activity-based budgeting and PeopleSoft systems conversions. Erin has teaching experience with CA School of Business, CPA Ontario, University of Regina and Queen's University. Her accounting research has been published and received media attention. Erin has served on not-for-profit boards as Chair, Treasurer, Finance Director and executive member.

Ken Wong is a faculty member and the Distinguished Professor of Marketing at Smith School of Business, where he has held both teaching and administrative positions. He was the principal architect of the first full-time degree program in Canada to operate completely outside of government subsidy: a distinction that earned him the cover of Canadian Business in April 1994. (The new Program has been rated by Business Week as #1 worldwide among non-US MBAs in the last four bi-annual rankings). Ken is also the Vice President, Knowledge Development for Level 5, a marketing consulting firm focused on brand strategy and execution.

As a teacher, Ken has received numerous awards for his courses in strategic planning, marketing and business strategy. Most recently, he was named an Inductee into Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends. In 1998, Ken won the Financial Post's Leaders in Management Education award, a lifetime achievement award for his work in undergraduate, MBA, and Executive Development programs. Beyond Queen's, he has also taught in degree programs at Cornell, Carleton University, Radcliffe College and Harvard's Continuing Education Program and in executive programs at York University, University of Toronto, Dalhousie University and the University of Alberta.

Ken is a frequent speaker and facilitator in conferences and executive development programs around the world.

As a researcher, Ken has worked with the Strategic Planning Institute (Cambridge, MA) and the Conference Board of Canada. He writes regularly for Strategy magazine,  Canadian Grocer and Meetings and Incentives, and had served as a regular columnist for Marketing magazine and the National Post. He has also written for the Financial Times, Globe and Mail and the Conference Board Review.  His current research focuses on enhancing "marketing productivity" and brand profitability.

In addition to consulting for private corporations,  Ken has served as a marketing and strategic planning consultant to a number of government agencies and departments and on various local, provincial and federal government task forces. He often assists on judging panels, most recently for the 2010 Canadian "Best 50" competition (excellence in management) and the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year.

He received his B.Comm and MBA degrees from Smith School of Business, Queen's University prior to a period of doctoral studies at the Harvard Business School. He is former Chairman of the Board, PBB Global Logistics Inc and a member of  Advisory Boards/Boards of Directors for the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA), Everest Asset Management AG, Equifax, Nature's Path, Southmedic and the Kingston YMCA.. He is listed in the Canadian Who's Who and International Who's Who of Business Professionals.