Meet our 14 newest faculty members at the Lazaridis School

April 4, 2022

In 2021-22, the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University welcomed 14 new full-time faculty members to its two departments. With a total of 158 full-time faculty and 58 contract teaching faculty, the Lazaridis School has a strong commitment to academic excellence.

Please join us in welcoming the following faculty members to the Lazaridis School:

Department of Economics

Nikolai Cook
Assistant Professor of Economics
PhD (University of Ottawa)

Nikolai Cook’s research fields include environmental economics and research transparency. He has written on the effects of climate change, air pollution and COVID-19. Recent articles include Brain freeze: Outdoor cold and indoor productivity; Clean air and cognitive productivity: Effect and adaptation; and, On the effects of COVID-19 safer-at-home policies on social distancing, car crashes and pollution. His work has been published in the American Economic Review and the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

Cook attended York University for his Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and his Master of Arts in Economics. He completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Ottawa in 2020 and served as a postdoctoral scholar there before joining Wilfrid Laurier University.

Juan S. Morales
Assistant Professor of Economics
PhD (University of Toronto)

After teaching in Turin, Italy for four years as an assistant professor at Collegio Carlo Alberto, Juan S. Morales decided to return to Ontario and join the Lazaridis School’s Department of Economics. Morales is an applied microeconomist, which means he takes economic theories and methodologies and applies them to questions of human behaviour and societal outcomes. He works in the fields of political economy and development economics with a particular research interest in conflict, media, political communication, and legislative behaviour. Themes of his work include using theoretical spatial models of political behaviour, the use of social media data to study political environments, and applying event-studies, difference-in-differences, and other applied micro-empirical methods. His work has been published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Public Economics, and the Journal of Development Economics, among others.

Morales attended the University of Waterloo for his undergraduate studies, earning a Bachelor of Computer Science and earned a Master of Arts and PhD in Economics from the University of Toronto.

Muthoni Nganga
Assistant Professor of Economics
PhD (University of Nairobi)

Muthoni Nganga’s research focuses on education and gender issues. Current research includes a project to assess the impact of COVID-19 on women-owned small and medium enterprises. Her previous research work involves estimating the impact of class-size reduction on test scores, academic achievement gaps in public and private primary schools in Kenya, and gender gaps in mathematics. She graduated with a PhD in Economics from the University of Nairobi and was a lecturer in Kenya at Kenyatta University’s School of Economics and Strathmore University’s Institute of Mathematical Sciences. She was also a Fellow at East Africa Social Science Translation (EASST), which is a multi-institution research network with a mission to promote scientific evaluation of social and economic development programs in East Africa, housed at the University of California, Berkeley.

Nganga earned a Master of Arts in Economics and Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Economics with a Sociology minor from University of Nairobi. Additionally, she received her Certified Public Accountant designation from Strathmore University.

Department of Business

Abhijith G. Acharya
Associate Professor of Policy
PhD (Pennsylvania State University)

Abhijith Acharya joins the Policy group after working at the Singapore Management University for eight years. Prior to his academic career, he worked at a global financial institution in the consumer and investment banking divisions and a brand consulting startup. His research focuses primarily on corporate governance and strategic leadership. He examines how leaders can shape and/or be shaped by social evaluations and stakeholder engagement especially in startups that have become newly public companies via initial public offerings (IPO). Some of his ongoing research examines impression-management tactics used by CEOs to influence stakeholder groups; the performance and growth implications of women CEOs in startups; and recovery strategies used by companies that have engaged in fraudulent activities. 

Acharya earned his PhD in Business Administration from the Pennsylvania State University, a Master of Science in Marketing and Sociology from Clemson University, an MBA from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and his undergraduate degree in business from Bangalore University. 

Mahbubul Alam

Assistant Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management
PhD (York University)

After nearly 20 years of professional work experience in large- and medium-sized business organizations in North America and South Asia, Mahbubul Alam returned to the classroom to complete his PhD at York University in Human Resource Management. He earned his MBA in Global Business from the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University, and a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. He has the Certified Human Resources Professional designation and Certified Human Resources Manager designation.

His current research focusses on emotion regulation/emotional labor can be viewed in few sub-topics: conceptualization of emotion regulation beyond service workers, emotion regulation in work-family interface, emotion regulation in employee performance management process, and beneficial impact of leader emotion regulation on their employee.  Additionally, his research focusses on negative performance feedback and international labour regulation.

Anne Haubo Dyhrberg
Assistant Professor of Finance
PhD (University of Sydney)

Anne Haubo Dyhrberg is a specialist in cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. She earned her PhD in Finance from the University of Sydney Business School. Previously, she completed a Master of Arts in Economics from University College Dublin, and a Bachelor of Science in International Business from Copenhagen Business School. As a PhD student, she was a visiting scholar for two months at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam – a top-ranked public research university.

Her research focusses on market microstructure, financial technology (fintech), and blockchain technology in finance. More specifically, she researches the intersection of market microstructure (which is the way in which assets are traded) and fintech (ie the software or technology used by exchanges to facilitate trading of assets). Since cryptocurrency operates in a different regulatory framework, her research studies the trading behaviour under market structures that haven’t previously been studied in the more traditional study of market microstructure. Additionally, her research focusses on bitcoin blockchain design.

Catherine Lam
Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management
PhD (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

Catherine Lam joined the Lazaridis School from Hong Kong where she was an associate professor at City University of Hong Kong. She was also a professor at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Her research focuses on understanding relationships among employees and between leaders and members. She explores the impact of positive and negative leadership styles on employees. Overall, her research interests include leadership, social comparison, emotions, job stress, interpersonal relationships, and team processes in organizations. She has published articles in leading academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management to name a few. She is an editorial board member of Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, Human Relations, Management and Organizational Review, Asia Pacific Journal of Management ,and Journal of Managerial Psychology. Lam has published a book chapter in the Handbook of Chinese organizational behaviour on managing social comparison processes among Chinese employees.

She received her PhD in Organizational Behaviour and Master of Science in Management (Public Sector) from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.  She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Business Studies with honours the City University of Hong Kong.

Dorian Lane
Assistant Professor of Accounting
PhD (University of Waterloo)

Dorian Lane returned home to the Lazaridis School in July 2021. As an undergraduate student in the Lazaridis Bachelor of Business Administration, she entered with high marks earning the university’s top scholarships. She graduated with distinction for high academic achievement. She later returned to the Lazaridis Master of Business Administration program after working for the Canada Revenue Agency. As an MBA student, she represented the university at the 2014 John Molson MBA International Case Competition in Montreal, the largest case competition of its kind open to top business schools worldwide. She holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of Waterloo. She also holds a CPA, CMA designation.

Dorian’s research focuses on examining the systems and processes involved in effectively managing employee motivation and performance. Her most recent paper published in Accounting Perspectives is entitled “Revisiting the impact of Goals on Affect and Effort.”

Thomas Marta
Assistant Professor of Finance
PhD (Universite Paris Dauphine)

Thomas Marta studied business and finance in Paris, France, earning his Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration and Economics with honours and went on to a career in finance. Most notably, he joined Bluefin Trading LLC as a credit ETFs Trader in London, UK. Later, he left trading to join academia, returning to Universite Paris in Dauphine to earn a Master of Science in Finance and then a PhD in Finance. Born in France, Marta decided to move to Canada to join the Finance team at Laurier. He is fluent in French and English and understands Spanish. Marta has presented papers around the world, in particular at the AFA conference and the Microstructure Exchange.

Marta’s research focusses on market microstructure, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the credit market, and liquidity. A recent working paper examines the impact of fixed income ETFs on corporate bond liquidity. His findings report that corporate bond ETFs decrease the transaction costs of their constituent securities and increase information efficiency regardless of market stress.

Brandon Mattalo
Assistant Professor of Policy
JD (Queen’s) & LLM (University of Toronto)

Brandon Mattalo earned his BBA from the Lazaridis School and went on to complete his Juris Doctor (JD) from Queen's University and a Master of Laws (LLM) with a specialization in business law from the University of Toronto. Mattalo started his legal practice as a commercial litigator at McCarthy Tétrault in Toronto. He later left to join academia but remains an active member of the Law Society of Ontario where he continues a part-time practice as a freelance litigation lawyer, practicing primarily in commercial litigation.

In the LLM program, his thesis centred around the concept of corporate personhood, including its implications on corporate liability and corporate constitutional rights. Mattalo is primarily interested in researching business law, with a focus on ethical business practices and the effective regulation of businesses.

Michael Moorhouse
Assistant Professor of Marketing
PhD (Western University)

Michael Moorhouse had an extensive career in marketing and sales with Procter & Gamble, Walmart, and Viacom International Media Networks before returning to school to complete his PhD at Western University’s Ivey Business School. At Viacom, Moorhouse was Director of Brand Management and Retail Marketing for Nickelodeon and Viacom properties. He managed the advertising plans and led the creative development for television, digital media, social media, and shopper marketing. His research uses consumer insights to help solve practical issues that are important to marketing managers and policymakers. His current research focusses on how businesses use digital reputation systems, branding, and governance to create trust and to deliver rewarding experiences for consumers.

Prior to earning his PhD, Moorhouse earned a Master of Business Administration from the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University and graduated from the Lazaridis Bachelor of Business Administration program.

Adam Prokop
Lecturer in Accounting

After graduating from Laurier’s Psychology program, Adam Prokop graduated from McMaster’s MBA Accounting co-op program. He earned a place on the Dean’s Honour List, received medals and awards for his top performance in accounting and finance. He then completed the research-based Master of Science degree in Supply Chain Management from the Lazaridis School. He also completed a post-graduate diploma in organizational psychology from Birkbeck College, University of London, England, and earned a Master of Finance degree from Queen’s University. With his Chartered Professional Accounting and Chartered Financial Analyst designations, he held numerous roles until opening his own firm, VALCONIC for which he offers valuation, consulting and equity research services for the consumer discretionary and utility sectors.

He has taught and developed more than 250 courses for undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees at McMaster, York, University of Guelph, University of Manitoba, Carleton, University of Regina and Laurier to name a few.

Behrooz Pourghannad
Assistant Professor of Operations and Decision Sciences
PhD (University of Minnesota)

Behrooz Pourghannad’s primary areas of research are healthcare with an emphasis on innovative healthcare delivery methods, and platform economy with an emphasis on the economics and social activities facilitated by platforms such as Airbnb, and Uber to name a few. He is developing data-driven solutions using a variety of methodologies such as machine learning and mathematical modeling to build models that can be used to predict and better understand complex systems.

Prior to joining the Lazaridis School, he was a post-doctoral fellow in the Data Science Pillar of the Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery at the Mayo Clinic where he continues to contribute at a research collaborator. He earned a PhD in Industrial and System Engineering from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, a Master of Arts in Mathematics from Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey, and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Azad University in Iran.

Guolei (Chris) Zhang
Assistant Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management
PhD (York University)

After travelling the world for more than 10 years working in human resources for a number of multinational companies, such as Coca-Cola and Unilever, Guolei (Chris) Zhang went back to school to pursue a PhD in human resource management from York University. Zhang specialized in talent management, training and development, and diversity and inclusion as a human resources professional and continued this interest to his PhD. His primary research interest is diversity and inclusion. More specifically, his research explores how different stakeholders, such as management teams or employees, could together build a diversified and inclusive working environment.

Zhang studied at Brock University where he earned a Master of Business Administration with a specialization in Human Resource Management and graduated from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan, China, with a Bachelor of Business Administration. He holds a Certified Human Resource Leader designation in addition to a Certified Human Resources Professional designation.

Learn more about the faculty members in the Lazaridis School by browsing our directory.