The Favorite MBA Professors Of The Class of 2023

“During the Summer Entrepreneurship Experience program, I had two amazing professors: Mathieu Carenzo and Mauricio Prieto. They provided me with profoundly valuable insights and guidance as I worked to create my startup. Throughout the ups-and-downs of the entrepreneurial journey, they encouraged me to maintain a sense of hope during difficult times and avoid becoming complacent when things were going well.

I also greatly appreciate how both Mauricio and Mathieu held us to high standards, giving sincere advice even after the program. I vividly recall asking Mathieu whether it was better to accept a less-than-ideal candidate for a position, given how challenging it can be to find the right fit, or leave the position open. His response was both challenging and inspiring: “No, Lais, you’d rather have the position filled with the ideal person. I know you’re capable of finding the right fit.” Conversations like this taught me valuable life lessons about being resilient and not settling for average.”
Lais Giardullo Bernardes, IESE Business School

“My favorite faculty at IIMA was Professor Saral Mukherjee. Prof. Saral is quite a legend at IIMA, and his classes each year are heavily subscribed. I took two of his electives: Marketplaces and Platforms and The Remains of the MBA.  Prof. Saral has a rare ability to structure his class like an onion, peeling one layer at a time, only to reveal the most potent part towards the end, leaving the class enthralled. Prof. Mukherjee also has an uncanny ability to connect theories across distinctly different domains such as psychology, anthropology, and animal science to the business world. His wit and humor keep the class in high spirits. Prof. Mukherjee designs his courses extremely thoughtfully, whether it is the names of the sessions, to locations, to the readings. For example, for the The Remains of the MBA elective, we have classes at different locations across campus – from lawn to auditorium to Louis Kahn Plaza (LKP), and at varying times of the day to allow reflection as per the setting.”
Soumya Mohil, IIM Ahmedabad

“My favorite professor was Arturo Bris. One of IMD’s strengths is the strong sense of humanity and community that reverberates throughout the institution and Professor Bris, for me, was an embodiment of this. He carried himself with passion, excellence, and empathy. Like most IMD professors, his classes were tailored to the specific needs of our cohort based on our individual and collective profiles. He also went out of his way to make class challenging but engaging.

Professor Bris combined his wealth of experience with his desire for us to truly expand our understanding to create a vibrant and stimulating learning environment. As a creative and analytical person, I admire how he brought creativity to a very analytical topic in the form of finance. Using humor, interactive simulations, charisma, and sheer will, he turned the topic of finance, which I feared would be convoluted and overwhelming, into something fun, intriguing, and dare I say, exciting. I felt as if he was in class with us more because he cared about our learning than because it was his job to be there.”
Craig Ian Plaatjes, IMD Business School

“This is a tough question, but I think the obvious choice for most Kelley MBAs would be Professor Brian Miller. Brian teaches our Core Accounting class, a subject that is at best boring and at worst painful. Somehow, he has the amazing ability to make the material fun and easily digestible. Fun fact – I had to take Introduction to Accounting three times as an undergraduate and I still was able do well in Brian’s class.

But it’s not just Brian’s ability to teach that makes him stand out, he is also just a fantastic human being. While I was in Core, I was still in the process of selling my old house in Texas. During a break, I was standing in the hallway talking to my realtor on the phone because there was a leak in my roof that needed to be repaired. Brian happened to overhear my conversation and when my call was over, he asked me if everything was ok (it was, and the repairs were completed promptly). He then used the example of my leaky roof in class, asking the class if Ben’s roof repair would be a capital improvement or repair. I found this incredibly amusing and it will be a memory from my time at Kelley that I will never forget. Not only the specific lesson in class, but also how Brian showed that he was personally invested in me.”
Ben Krebs, Indiana University (Kelley)

“My favorite professor is Ella Miron-Spektor, our Organizational Behavior professor. I loved how she encouraged us to have an open, balanced, and inclusive dialogue that promoted mutual understanding and motivated us to have deep and thought-provoking discussions. She touched upon key agenda topics as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the key capabilities leaders need to have in order to thrive in an ever-changing, globalized world. She also provided us with a powerful toolkit for our professional lives and used a variety of methodologies such as VR Sessions, Group simulations, psychotechnical tests and case studies to enrich the academic and learning experience.”
Susana Jaramillo, INSEAD

“Naser Nikandish was one of my favorites. He is one of the most dedicated professors I have ever met. He made handwritten placement cards for each person in class. During finals week, he would have office hours every day. The weekend before the final, he had office hours twice a day. I remember he was available in his office six to eight hours for those days. He is so gracious and passionate about teaching. It’s rare to come by a professor who is so invested in each student’s individual success, in class and beyond.”
Mehaque Kohli, Johns Hopkins University (Carey)

“It has to be Professor Aneeta Rattan. Aneeta sits on our EUROUT advisory board, was an exceptional panelist at the EUROUT conference, and teaches both ‘GLAM’ (Global Leadership Assessment for Managers) and ‘Diversity Science for Leaders’, which is without doubt the best elective at LBS. Aneeta researches and teaches on diversity in the workplace. An example of the sort of thing she works on, is her most recent research on diversity at Fortune 500 companies, which shows that the vast majority value diversity because of the business benefits that it yields instead of focusing on the ethical case. She found that by championing the business case for diversity, their use of language around the subject reduces the sense of belonging that marginalised groups anticipate having at those organisations. It also has an impact on the likelihood of people from these groups wanting to apply to these companies. She teaches that it can be damaging to the exact marginalised groups that companies need to appeal to if they want to diversify their ranks. She also highlighted the danger that one day a study finds that diversity doesn’t yield economic benefit, thus serving as a justification not to diversify organisations. As someone who is passionate about improving diversity, I greatly valued the knowledge that I gained through Aneeta’s classes.

In addition to being a world leading researcher in a field which I’m passionate about, Aneeta has provided advice and mentorship on many initiatives we’re working on at the school, including the new pronouns initiatives and the EUROUT conference.”
Cameron Martin, London Business School

“My favorite professor was P.K. Kannan. Professor Kannan’s personality, experience, and points of view on marketing really inspired my career goals. He always made himself accessible to answer any class topics or to bounce ideas off of him. More importantly, he was a motivator. When I expressed disappointment in my full-time job search, Professor Kannan knew the right things to say to keep me optimistic. He then went the extra mile and made personal contacts with people within his network to help in my search. His actions speak to the character of the faculty members here at the Smith Business School.”
Philip “PJ” Thomas, University of Maryland (Smith)

 “My favorite Professor is Stewart Thornhill. I met him initially as the faculty lead for Ross’ inaugural Silicon Valley Experience (SVE) last summer. I was impressed by how he knew the backgrounds of all ~15 students who came from a selective group of innovators across our various MBA, BBA, Engineering, Creative Arts, and PhD programs. During the week-long experience, he alluded to a course he was teaching in the winter semester called Quality as a Strategy, which would focus on multinational generational businesses vs. the typical high-growth startups business models we were used to studying. I signed up for the class and was further blown away by the content and his ability to make each session engaging and enlightening (with one guest lecturer). His mastery of multiple cultures outside of the United States, novel and traditional business strategies, and ability to connect the dots of theory versus real-world actions through tangible tactics was empowering. It did not hurt that he was terrific with people, wore amazing suits, and flew planes on the weekends. Stewart’s ability to garner and grow someone’s interest among a crowd of distractions was and is simply one-of-a-kind.”
George Okpamen, University of Michigan (Ross)

“My favorite professor to this day will always be Judith Whipple, who was at the time my Supply Chain professor. When I came into the business school, I had a rough idea of how Supply Chain truly went. She did a wonderful job from an academic standpoint in teaching us how to go above and beyond in what we were learning. She made sure we understood what we were learning, and WHY we were learning it. I believe Judith Whipple is one of the main reasons Michigan State is ranked number 1 in Supply Chain. Not only does her teaching leave an impact on each student, but her persona and personality help as well. The Supply Chain class she taught continues to be one of my favorite classes I have had at Eli Broad College of Business.”
Kimberly Rodriguez, Michigan State (Broad)

“My favorite MBA professor has been Siddharth Chandramouli, who is the managing director for the Carlson Consulting Enterprise (CCE). He teaches core concepts and important frameworks on structured problem-solving and we can apply those concepts by taking on a consulting project for a real-world client. He takes deep interest in an individual’s personal growth and development, and works as a sounding board for one’s career and personality development. Siddharth goes above-and-beyond to ensure that his students get the support they seek. Under his mentorship, I discovered a creative side of me that I hadn’t been tapping into. I became more conscious of my abilities owing to his critique and guidance, and because of the support of the CCE ecosystem that he has created.”
Sanket Jasani, University of Minnesota (Carlson)

“Don Sull, a highly regarded Senior Lecturer of Competitive Strategy, was my favorite professor. His use of unique case studies and his assertive teaching style compelled students to develop a quantitative mindset, encouraging us to make data-backed assumptions when analyzing the strategic trajectory of an enterprise. Through his teaching methods, Don cultivated an environment that fostered comfort in operating in uncertainty. As a result, my ability as a strategic thinker improved significantly during his course.”
O’Shae Bridges, MIT (Sloan)

“My favorite MBA Professor was Joel Goh, who taught Managerial Operations and Analytics. Managerial Operations and Analytics is one of NUS’ core modules, so he was one of the first professors I encountered when I started my MBA. He is also one of the professors at NUS that teaches fully using the case method.

When classes began, I was worried about how I could contribute to discussions, but he made the classroom into a safe space and I always felt comfortable speaking in his class. While the class usually did more of the talking, he made each case relatable by bringing sample products or other items that would help us visualize the goal of the case. He would usually say that there isn’t a wrong answer when a student brings a point up for discussion but it always felt satisfying to see him write your answer on the board. I always felt comfortable whenever I added to the class discussion. Participating in his class gave me the confidence to speak up in my other classes and really taught me to always be prepared for class. I also love his tradition of having lunch with groups of students to learn more about them, out of the classroom setting. It makes him more personable and approachable, so much so that other students would ask for his advice on case competitions.”
Ayla Francesca Reyes, National University of Singapore

“Professor Michael North for Leadership in Organizations. I left his classes more energized than when I came in. His facilitation of the class discussion was impeccable, and he would blend concepts with discussions around and opinions about the case at hand. Plus, he’s the most accessible professor I’ve met. Outside of class, I would write long emails to him about my thoughts on the class or a discussion during class and he would take the time to respond to each one I wrote. For context, some email chains lasted for weeks and months after the class was over. I think that level of openness, eloquence and humility make him an incredibly impactful educator. Oh, and his slides were the coolest I’ve ever seen!” Jeetendra Khilnani, New York University (Stern)

“Of the several amazing professors I have had, my favorite professor was Arvind Malhotra, who taught “Managing Innovation.” He was always very knowledgeable and rooted his explanations of concepts and theories in real world examples he had experienced in his career. He challenged us to look at even the smallest hinderance to innovation and think of solutions to address it. He took a very broad concept and artfully walked through how to apply it to any career or role. Outside of the classroom, he was incredibly thoughtful and giving with his time. One day before class I came to him with an issue I was having as president around fostering innovative ways of thinking. He spent the next 45 minutes walking through my different approaches and providing advice and insight. He exemplifies what I think an MBA professor should be: intelligent, passionate and personable.”
Taylor Jackson, University of North Carolina (Kenan-Flagler)