50 Best Undergraduate Business Professors of 2023

Asked to describe his first time teaching in one word, Corey Ciocchetti uses two: Comically exhilarating.

The ethics professor had his very first class the morning after his honeymoon in Hawaii. But, when the airline lost his luggage, he showed up to class in the Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and flip flops he wore on the flight.

“The students thought I did it on purpose and I became popular in their eyes very quickly,” says Ciocchetti, the Bill Daniels Chair and Professor of Business Ethics & Legal Studies at University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business.

In teaching ethics, he asks students to not just evaluate their professional lives, but their home lives as well. He strives to graduate “character-infused” leaders who want to make a difference in their careers as well as in the lives of their own families and friends.

His resume reflects this balance: Author, award-winning teacher and scholar, coach of his daughters’ soccer teams – the Kicking Kangaroos and the Leaping Lions. He can find ethics snippets for class or his numerous speaker engagements in the Frozen movies and other family-friendly flicks he watches with his wife and two young daughters.

Corey Ciocchetti, pictured with his wife and daughters, asks students to evaluate ethical decisions in both their professional and personal lives.

He knew he wanted to be a business professor when “I saw the long-term impact I could have on students’ lives and legacies in their communities. One of my goals as an ethics professor has always been to encourage my students to evaluate their work lives AND home lives and try to be the best person they can be in both realms,” says Ciocchetti, one of Poets&Quants’ 50 Best Undergraduate Business School Professors of 2023.

“I do believe that ethical behavior will lead to the best outcomes in the long run. To this end, I am excited to explore with my students the idea of doing the right thing solely because it is the right thing to do.”

PRESENTING P&Q’s BEST UNDERGRADUATE PROFESSORS

Today, we proudly present our sixth edition of the 50 best professors in undergrad business education. We received more than 650 nominations from students, alumni, colleagues, and school deans taking the time to put into words what these outstanding professors meant to their students, their departments, and the business community at large.

Nominations came from more than 50 of the best undergraduate business programs, including a dozen international schools.

The editorial team at Poets&Quants individually evaluated every nomination. Each professor was assigned a 1-to-10 score based on their research and teaching accolades. Research was given a 30% weight and teaching a 70% weight, with the average making up the final score.

For research, we considered the volume of a professor’s Google Scholar citations, how much major media attention they received along with research and writing awards. For teaching, we considered all nominations, teaching awards, and impacts on their schools and departments.

PROFESSORS FROM 39 SCHOOLS MADE THE LIST

Anjelina Belakovskaia

2023’s list features 24 women, including Anjelina Belakovskaia, Associate Teaching Professor in Global Finance at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management. She is a Woman International Grandmaster in chess, a three-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, and a member of the US Olympic Women’s Chess Team from 1991-2000.

What does she enjoy most about teaching business school students? “The ‘eye-opening moments’ when students make connections, recognize value, get excited about the material, and discover the depth of financial knowledge and possibilities,” she says.

Winners hail from 33 different schools. Two schools have three featured professors: The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Darla Moore School of Business at University of South Carolina.

Twelve schools had two professors each including Babson College, Binghamton University, Cornell University Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, New York University Stern School of Business, Texas Christian University Neeley School of Business, University of Illinois Gies College of Business, University of Miami Herbert Business School, University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce, and University of Washington Foster School of Business.