The Top MBAs Name Their Favorite Business School Professors

Accessible To Students 

“UNC Kenan-Flagler has many truly fantastic professors, but I would say that Dave Roberts, my sales professor, is my favorite for several reasons. He’s approachable and makes himself available to students to help with both classroom related and other miscellaneous professional inquiries. He also has an engaging teaching style for a subject that has already been, and I imagine will continue to be, useful in many ways.” – Taylor Mallard / University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler Business School

“My favorite professor is Professor Rockney Walters. There are several reasons why he is my favorite. Firstly, he is extremely enthusiastic about the subject matter he teaches and this rubs off on students. Secondly, he respects the opinions of students and is a great listener. Thirdly, he is accessible outside the classroom. I got in touch with him during my summer internship and his assistance proved very helpful in my project. Fourthly, he has the ability to translate his learnings from his consulting experience in the real world to models that students can easily grasp and apply. Additionally, he is excellent in giving honest feedback which has helped me improve a great deal.” – Ramanuja Atur / Indiana University, Kelley School of Business 

“Professor of Economics Ryan McDevitt. In addition to being an innovative and creative professor, at the beginning of my second year, I was unsure if I’d be able to train adequately for what would be my fourth Marine Corps Marathon in five years. Ryan committed to running the marathon with me in Washington DC. He trained with me and pushed me throughout the Fall. On October 26, 2014 true to his word, Ryan McDevitt ran every step of the marathon with me.” Bering Tsang / Duke University, Fuqua School of Business

Listen and Care

“Professor Alejandro Lago [was my favorite]. His energy and enthusiasm are infectious and make it easy to pay attention even after long and intense days in class. Apart from being a great professor, Alejandro Lago is very approachable and has proactively offered me to talk about my job decision, despite being busy. His advice was very honest and helped me to see things more clearly and be even more aware of risks as well as opportunities. During the two weeks of the international module in Nairobi, he always sought the best experience for us students and proved that nothing is impossible. He has certainly inspired me a lot over the last two years.” – Victoria Teworte / IESE Business School

“John Wisneski: As an academy advisor and professor, he has never failed to challenge me to support the decisions I make, be it career-wise or academically. As an advisor, he is a fantastic sounding board due to his many years in industry and his uncanny ability to see through students’ fear of failure. He is a perpetual cheerleader and enables students to see the fulfillment that the right career provides. In the classroom, he holds his students to a high standard of excellence, teaching a way of thought and encouraging students to always question the easiest path.” – Ellen Gartner Phillips / Indiana University, Kelley School of Business

Engaged In Campus Life

“My favorite professor is Dolly Chugh because I’ve been able to learn from her inside and outside the classroom. Inside the classroom, it is evident that she puts a lot of thought into her lectures and experiential activities. Outside of the classroom, she has worked with several student clubs to host events focused on pushing dialogue further at Stern and to help Stern form a more inclusive community. On a more personal level, she is also an incredible moderator, speaker, mentor, and accomplished researcher and has been a valuable member of my support team during my time at Stern.” – Jennifer Meacham / New York University, Stern School of Business

“Shreevardhan Lele is the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs for the Smith School. Professor Lele wears many hats, including teaching courses on ethical leadership, the economics of incentives and strategic coordination using game theory, and business analytics using statistics and management science…Many professors hold office hours in which students come to them for help. Professor Lele goes to the students and offers his help. He is a constant face at events, discussions, luncheons and dinners, and seems to take every opportunity to emphasize the importance of the entire Smith experience. Professor Lele has challenged me, as a student, from the first day of orientation two years ago, when he welcomed my class into business school via lectures on differential calculus. With his help, my classmates and I – from backgrounds of different areas of mathematics – rose to the occasion. His teaching has helped to redefine my thinking to that of a data-concerned businesswoman, analytical thinker and always as an engaged human being. When I think of business school, I think of Professor Lele.” – Nadine Payne / University of Maryland, Smith School of Business

Demanding

“Cameron Andersen, my professor for Power & Politics, challenged me to think more strategically about every interaction I have with co-workers. Coming from an engineering background, I tend to rely on my ability to influence using data and logic, but Cameron’s class made me rethink how to more impactful in both personal and professional settings by being more aware and observant of other’s emotions and agendas.” – Katie Benintende / University of California-Berkeley, Haas School of Business

“[With] Professor Jose Maria Liberti…I’ve never had a professor who was as rigorous, energetic and unforgiving as he is. His class, Global Entrepreneurial Finance, is taught as a series of 12 cases focusing on financial challenges that business owners and managers have faced around the world. For each of these, we had to answer 20 to 30 case questions – all of which were based on modelling advanced financial concepts [that] we were still learning. Many weeks, my team would take the case home, read it, attend his weekend workshop, review 60 slides on new concepts, meet 3 times a week, and only then finally be able to answer the case questions accurately. I’ve never learned so much in 10 weeks as when I took his class – I couldn’t imagine a curriculum that dense and demanding before – and I recommend it 200% to any student at Kellogg.” – Bruno Valle / Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

“Professor Vikas Mittal, who teaches marketing, is my favorite professor. He is very consistent with his approach and personality. He pushed me to think a lot deeper than the “how” to solve problems and made me really explore the “why” to solving problems. He drove my thought process and equipped me with tools to take a deeper dive into problems.” – Kevin Bentley / Rice University, Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business

“Viva Bartkus, who taught my Problem Solving and Judgment courses. Viva’s teaching style pushed me beyond my comfort  zone by driving me to think about business problems in a methodical way, with a focus on developing achievable solutions. Her feedback is individualized and heartfelt—she makes every effort to connect with her students, including by soliciting our analysis and advice on judgment challenges she’s experiencing in her own work. Her commitment to her students’ learning is second-to-none, and I’m confident the skills I learned in her courses will be essential to my future success no matter what industry I end up working in.” – Elizabeth Owens / University of Notre Dame, Mendoza College of Business