Faculty

“I was impressed at how practical they were in their knowledge of the real world. You expect faculty to be out of touch, but they were really valuable to talk to.”

-- Matthew O’Brien, VP, Business Operations and CFO,
Sandia National Laboratories

Paulo Prochno
Tyser Teaching Fellow and Associate Department Chair, Management & Organization

Dr. Prochno earned his Ph.D. in management from INSEAD, his MBA from Vanderbilt University and his B.Eng. in industrial engineering from the University of São Paulo. He has successfully taught in Executive Development programs, MBA, M.Sc. and undergraduate programs, having won the "Top 15% Teaching Award" at the Smith school in 2008 and an award given for the best Masters Program professor at Ibmec in 2006.

Additionally, through his consulting and executive education engagements he has helped major companies in Brazil to shape and disseminate their strategies and to foster innovation. His consulting and custom program clients include Petrobr ás (energy), Telemar/Oi (telecommunications), Grupo Votorantim (industrial/financial conglomerate), Furnas (energy), Samarco (mining), Correios (postal services), and Grupo Santander (banking).

Oliver Schlake
Distinguished Tyser Teaching Fellow, Management & Organization

Dr. Oliver Schlake is a Tyser Teaching Fellow at Robert H. Smith School of Business, a senior business consultant, entrepreneur and researcher. His publications and research on scenario-based strategic planning and innovation strategy have been featured in leading academic and practitioner journals worldwide. Oliver has been an international management consultant and strategic advisor for leading companies and government agencies in Europe and North-America.

His primary research subjects include Innovation Strategy, Scenario Planning, R&D Portfolio, Optimization, Early Stages of Venture Creation and Business Creativity. He consults for companies such as Astra Zeneca, Audi, Bosch, Department of Defense, German Telekom, Junghans, Metso, Siemens, Thomson ISI and UPM Kymmene.

Cynthia Kay Stevens
Associate Professor, Management & Organization

Dr. Cynthia is an Associate Professor with the Department of Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior. She earned her Ph.D. in psychology from University of Washington and her Masters from Miami University (Ohio).

Her current research focus is on cognitive and social factors that influence motivation, decision making, and behavior across a variety of organizational contexts, particularly staffing and recruitment, job search, work place diversity, training, and work-group interactions.

J. Gerald Suarez
Professor of the Practice in Systems Thinking & Design
Department of Management and Organization

Dr. J. Gerald Suarez is a premier educator, speaker and consultant in the fields of Organizational Design, Systems Thinking and Total Quality Management. Suarez earned the prestigious Allen J. Krowe Teaching Excellence Award and has been consistently selected a Top 15% Faculty Member at the Smith School. He teaches at the corporate, executive MBA, custom EMBA, international, and undergraduate levels. He is also a Lockheed Martin Visiting Technical Fellow.

Prior to joining the Smith School, Suarez served for two administrations in the White House as the Director of Presidential Quality -- the first such post in the institution’s history, and as Director of Customer Support and Organizational Development for the White House Military Office.

M. Susan Taylor
Smith Chair of Human Resource Management & Organizational Change
Co-Director, Center for Human Capital, Innovation and Technology
Department of Management and Organization

Dr. Susan earned her doctorate from Purdue University in I/O Psychology and has also been a visiting faculty member at the Amos Tuck School, Dartmouth College, University of Washington, Seattle, School of Administration at Bocconi University, Milan Italy, and the London Business School. Taylor's past research has focused on organizational recruitment, the effects of performance feedback and performance management systems, the procedural justice of organization's HR systems and its impact on the employment relationship.

Her current research examines the nature of change leadership and its effects on employee reactions and team performance and cross-cultural differences in the nature of the organizational innovation process. Both the National Science Foundation and the Kaufman Foundation have provided grant funding to support her research.