Welcome to 17 new business faculty in the Lazaridis School

Jan. 26, 2023

Please join us in welcoming our newest faculty members to the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University.

These new faculty have demonstrated a personal commitment to the Lazaridis School’s emphasis on teaching and academic excellence, and we are pleased to have them join our community.

Meet the 17 new faculty members:

Tatiana Astray

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

Tatiana Astray is a negotiation and organizational behaviour subject matter expert. Astray’s research interests focus on Professional Relationships and Trust and Organizations and Emotions. Her research supports the paradigm shift towards placing relationship quality at the centre of business exchanges. This humanizes workplace relationships and allows scholars to generate insights that can benefit employees’ social experiences while improving negotiation and outcomes.

Astray has over a decade of experience teaching and facilitating, including working with executives and early-career professionals. She has worked and consulted in the education, research, technology start-ups, and marketing sectors. In her spare time, she sits on the board for Jumpstart, an NGO that focuses on the economic empowerment of Canadian refugees, and facilitates workshops to help female immigrant entrepreneurs master the skills of negotiations.

She completed a PhD in Organization Studies from the Schulich School of Business at York University, Master of Science in Marketing and Consumer Studies from the University of Guelph, and Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Trent University.

Osama J. Butt

Assistant Professor of Marketing
EdD (University of Toronto)

Osama Butt has taught marketing at a number of post-secondary institutions in Canada, the United States and Pakistan, including at McMaster University, Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Guelph, the University of Texas at Pan American and also at Rio Grande Valley, as well as at St. Joseph’s College in New York.

His research interests include branding, higher education marketing, and consumer psychology. His research has appeared in reputable marketing proceedings as well as in the Journal of Brand Management.

He holds a doctorate from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, an MBA in Marketing from West Texas A&M University, a master’s degree in Economics from University of the Punjab in Pakistan, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Statistics from Government College Lahore in Pakistan.

Hamid Elahi

Assistant Professor of Operations and Decision Sciences
PhD (Western University)

Hamid Elahi’s research interests include co-opetition, counterfeiting products, and online platforms

Elahi has more than seven years of experience in the financial industry working with equity, fixed income, and complex instruments. He is highly experienced working with financial data and has hands-on experience in Python, SQL, and VBA programming as well as project management.

He obtained his PhD in Management Science from Ivey Business School at Western University, MSc in Finance from Goethe University in Germany, and MSc in Transportation from Sharif, University in Iran.

Hamsa Gururaj

Lecturer of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management
PhD (McMaster University)

Hamsa Gururaj’s research interests include workplace aggression, leadership, social network analysis, and emotional labour.  She received the best student paper award from the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada in 2021 and the Best Paper award at the European Academy of Management in 2021.

Prior to coming to Canada, she worked as a faculty member at Bangalore University.  Gururaj also holds a Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation.

Gururaj obtained her Ph.D. in Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University.  She completed her earlier education in India, earning her Master of Philosophy in Human Resources Management from Christ University and her Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bangalore.

Hillbun “Dixon” Ho

Associate Professor of Marketing
PhD (University of Arizona)

Dixon Ho’s research interests span several marketing and management areas, including marketing strategy, buyer-seller relationships, corporate social responsibility, and social media marketing. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Retailing. Ho has received several distinguished awards, including the Journal of Retailing Best Paper Award, Louis W. Stern Award (from American Marketing Association), and the Institute for Supply Management Dissertation Award.

Before joining the Lazaridis School, Ho worked for Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and University of Technology Sydney in Australia. He earned his PhD in marketing from the University of Arizona, and his Master of Philosophy in Marketing from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Xiaoran “Jason” Jia

Lecturer of Accounting
DBA (York University)

Jason Jia's research interests are primarily empirical and span applications in financial accounting (e.g., financial/regulatory reporting by banks) and the influence of emerging financial technologies. His studies also involve areas such as IPO underpricing, financial stability, citizens' financial literacy, and economics of discrimination. One of his recent papers is forthcoming in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis titled “Financial literacy and IPO underpricing”.

Jia enjoys the friendly, collaborative, and encouraging work environment at the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics.  A CFA charterholder, he is currently completing his PhD in Accounting from the Schulich School of Business at York University. He earned his Master of Business Administration from the University of Calgary, his Master of Science in Finance from Clark University in Massachusetts, and his Bachelor of Business from the University of Nottingham, England.

Sarin John

Assistant Professor of Accounting
PhD (University of Alberta)

Prior to pursuing a career in academia, Sarin John worked for a leading analytics and data management company in the United States for nearly a decade.

His research interests span corporate governance, market value relevance of financial reporting, economics of intangible assets, and mutual funds. One of his recent papers was published in the Journal of Operations Management titled “Competition and slack: The role of tariffs on cost stickiness”.

He is enjoying the state-of-the-art facilities and collegial work environment at the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics very much. Sarin John received his PhD in financial accounting from the University of Alberta. Prior to that he earned an MBA in Finance from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Cochin University of Science and Technology in India.

Hugh Kim

Assistant Professor of Finance
PhD (The University of Texas at Dallas)

Hugh Kim’s research focuses on mutual funds and institutional investors. He studies how external ratings impact the incentives for mutual funds and how institutional investors interact with their brokers in equity markets. He has presented papers at top-tier academic conferences such as Western Finance Association (WFA) Annual Meetings, Society for Financial Studies  Cavalcade, Financial Intermediation Research Society , and NYU Stern Microstructure Meeting. He won best paper awards including WFA PhD Candidate Award for Outstanding Research.

Prior to joining Wilfrid Laurier University, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. He earned a PhD in Finance from the University of Texas at Dallas, and a Master of Arts in Statistics from Columbia University.

Saman Lagzi

Assistant Professor of Operations and Decision Sciences
PhD (University of Toronto)

Saman Lagzi’s research focuses on integrating data analytics into decision-making processes. He uses data and designs ways to better guide the decision-making processes, most specifically in Revenue Management and Pricing and Healthcare Operations Management. Lagzi has been published in premiere management journals such as Management Science and Journal of Operations Mangement.

Lagzi earned his PhD in Operations Management and Statistics from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, a Master of Arts degree in Combinatorics and Optimization from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Engineering degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Auburn University in Alabama, United States. He completed his undergraduate education at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, where he received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering.

Jie “Kassie” Li

Assistant Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management
PhD (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Kassie Li has two active research streams focusing on innovation and deviance, respectively. In her research on innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship, she takes a process perspective to investigating how to effectively manage the innovation process that encompasses multiple stages.

In her research on organizational deviance, she examines the antecedents and outcomes of employee deviant behaviors such as workplace gossip and, social undermining. She has published articles in leading academic journals including Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Li received her PhD in management from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and her Master of Philosophy in Management and bachelor’s degree in Economics from Nanjing University in China.

Qiang Li

Assistant Professor of Operations and Decision Sciences
PhD (Rutgers University)

Qiang Li holds the Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Qiang studies and teaches supply chain management and business analytics, which transform data into models and insights. He has two broad areas of research interest: As an empirical researcher, he is passionate about utilizing data and employing experimental approaches (e.g., field/natural experiments) to improve platform operations and healthcare. Moreover, He is interested in causal inference as well. Qiang has published scholarly papers in elite academic journals such as Management Science.

Prior to joining the Lazaridis School, Qiang worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Houston and spent a year as a research intern at Alibaba Damo Academy, United States. He also taught Operations Management at Rutgers University and Data Analytics related courses at the University of Houston. 

Li holds a PhD in Logistics, Materials and Supply Chain Management from Rutgers University, and a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University.

Saurabh Mukesh Rawal

Assistant Professor of Marketing
PhD (University of Alberta)

Saurabh M. Rawal focuses on research that provides theoretical and practical insights into different aspects of sustainable consumer behavior, such as, consumer wastefulness and overconsumption. Additionally, he studies how firms can capture the potential of sustainable markets, such as the bottom-of-the-pyramid markets.

Rawal completed his undergraduate education in engineering from University of Rajasthan in India. He then spent time in industry, working as a brand and business development consultant in fast-moving consumer goods and fashion retailing. Before joining the doctoral program at the University of Alberta, Rawal also worked as a research associate at the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) on projects related to retailing in developing economies.

Oluseyi “Seyy” Sode

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

Oluseyi Sode is an organizational studies scholar and behavioural strategist. His research focuses on organizational dynamics such as learning, innovation and effectiveness, leadership and professionalism, and entrepreneurial behaviour. His research looks at “ethnocultural orientation” and how it influences leadership style and managerial effectiveness in banking organizations. 

Sode holds a PhD in Organizational Behaviour, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in General Management from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Olabisi Onobanjo University, Nigeria.  

Aadhaar Verma

Assistant Professor of Finance
DBA (Washington University in St. Louis)

Aadhaar Verma’s research specializes in empirical research in the intersection of disclosures, investor preferences, and capital markets. His research primarily focuses on the capital market effects of mutual funds’ portfolio disclosures. He is also interested in understanding how market participants and firms respond to analysts’ earnings forecasts, and sustainable financial disclosures. His work has been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, among others.

Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked as a credit analyst at Axis Bank, one of India’s largest private commercial bank and as a software engineer at Infosys.

Aadhaar earned his Doctor in Business Administration in Finance from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, United States. He also has an undergraduate degree in Engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in India and a post-graduate program in Management degree from the Great Lakes Institute of Management in India.

Timothy Wingate

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

Timothy Wingate’s research focuses on personnel selection and work performance. This includes a variety of topics like strategies for employment interviewing, teamwork and communication behaviours, and the role of personality at work. He tries to take a practical approach to research, and a scientific approach to solving practical problems that people face at work. Some of his ongoing projects explore how the employment interview can be used to accomplish multiple goals in the staffing process, and how interviews should be designed to accurately assess different forms of work performance.

Wingate earned a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Allison University, a Master of Science and a PhD  from the University of Calgary. During this time, he has also acted as a research associate at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary, and he was also a visiting student researcher at the University of Zurich.

Yongheng “Angus” Yao

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

Angus Yao’s research interests include person-environment fit, job stress and well-being, satisfaction, job design, performance appraisal, leadership, and racial diversity. He is also interested in issues such as theory development and research methods. Yao’s research goal is to improve the fit between employees, teams, leaders, and organizations and to improve firm productivity and employee well-being. Yao’s research has been published in academic journals including Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Yao attended Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business for both his PhD in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources Management and his Master of Business Administration. He has a Bachelor of Engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing China.