Best Prof: Ryan Hamilton

Ryan Hamilton of Emory's Goizueta School is among the world's 40 best business school profs under the age of 40.

Ryan Hamilton of Emory’s Goizueta School is among the world’s 40 best business school profs under the age of 40.

Ryan Hamilton

Assistant Professor of Marketing

Age: 35

Institution: Emory University Goizueta Business School

Hometown: Mesa, Arizona

Marital Status: Married

Children: Savannah (7), Jim (5), Caroline (3), Lily Claire (4 days)

Education: Northwestern University, PhD, Marketing

Brigham Young University, BS, Applied Physics

Course: Marketing Management

At Goizueta Since: 2008

Before Goizueta: Northwestern PhD student

Fun Fact: “I used to do stand-up comedy and was in a sketch comedy group in college. I mostly gave it up when I started having kids, but I still try to make it out to an open mic night every once in a while.”

This professor of marketing calls himself a consumer psychologist, mostly studying consumer judgment and decision making using lab experiments used by psychologists. Ryan Hamilton’s research covers branding, consumer mindsets, pricing, and price image. His work has investigated the role of the visual structure of information in decision making and some of the factors that influence consumers’ choice among assortments. A recent stream of research investigates how consumers decide whether a retailer or brand is, in general, high priced or low priced, and how price image influence consumers’ choices. This year, Hamilton was awarded Emory’s MBA Teaching Excellence Award for Junior Faculty.

Students Say:

“Marketing can be a hard sell for people from other walks of life such as Finance, but Professor Hamilton made it relatable, fun, and personable. No wonder our Monday morning 8:00 Marketing class never felt like the first class after a weekend. Real world examples, structured delivery, and the much awaited witty stand-up bit ingrained within the class made it the most memorable class of the semester. — Sanchit Rege, Goizueta MBA Class of 2012

Professor Hamilton can make any class at 8:00 A.M. worth attending.  His dry sense of humor, laid back style, and quick wit keeps us all engaged and makes the oftentimes dull task of learning theory and frameworks worthwhile and fun. He encourages active learning and values the experiences and opinions that students share in class. Professor Hamilton is also very interested in the success of his students.  The week before most students were to attend an MBA job fair, he spent an entire class on “marketing yourself.”  In true Hamilton style, he also made sure to teach how NOT to market yourself, which helped to alleviate some of the pre-fair stress.  Professor Hamilton is a well-respected, challenging, and engaging professor. — Matt Long, Goizueta MBA Class of 2012

Ryan Hamilton is among The World’s 40 Best B-School Profs Under the Age of 40