2026 Best 40-Under-40 Business Professors: Hossein Piri, Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary

Hossein Piri
Haskayne School of Business
University of Calgary

“In the MBA environment, where students often come from diverse non-technical backgrounds, Hossein’s mastery lies in demystifying Python and optimization strategies without sacrificing rigor. He operates on a “high-expectation, high-support” model. Before the first lecture, Hossein was transparent about the significant time commitment and intellectual heavy lifting required. By setting the bar high from the outset, he fostered a classroom culture of deep focus and accountability. However, he balanced this intensity with radical availability; he was consistently encouraging and patient, ensuring no student was left behind in the code. The true measure of his impact, however, is the longevity of his teachings. His class challenged me to think in a fundamentally different way about problem-solving. Post-MBA, I find myself constantly leveraging the learnings from his class to look at strategies through a new lens, identifying specific opportunities where I can use code to optimize processes. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have taken his class and for the lasting shift it created in my professional perspective.” – Gordon Sinn

Hossein Piri, 35, is an Assistant Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. His research focuses on using optimization, analytics, and machine learning to improve decision-making in healthcare and other service systems, with a particular emphasis on patient monitoring and human-AI decision support. His work has been published in leading operations journals and supported by major competitive grants, including an NSERC Discovery Grant and an SSHRC Insight Development Grant.

At Haskayne, Piri teaches supply chain analytics, prescriptive analytics, and other operations courses to business students, and is known for bringing rigorous analytical thinking to practical, high-impact problems. His teaching has been highly rated by students, including MBA students, who appreciate the way he connects quantitative methods to real business settings and industry practice. His research has also drawn media attention through interviews and features, including coverage by CTV and CBC.

BACKGROUND

At current institution since what year? July 2022

Education: PhD in Business Administration, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia

List of MBA/graduate business courses you currently teach: MGST 631, Prescriptive Analytics in Business

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when … I realized I wanted to be a business school professor when I saw that research and teaching in this field could be both intellectually rigorous and practically useful. I was drawn to the idea of working on analytical problems that matter in the real world, while also helping students learn how to think clearly and make better decisions.

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? I am currently researching how analytics, optimization, and AI can be used to improve decision-making in healthcare, especially in settings where people face information overload and time pressure. A major theme in my recent work is that more information is not always better. In many operational settings, especially in healthcare, poorly designed alerts or decision tools can overwhelm users and reduce performance. One of the most important insights from my research is that better systems are not simply more accurate systems. They also need to be designed around human attention, behavior, and implementation constraints.

If I weren’t a business school professor… I would probably be working in a role that sits between analytics and real-world problem solving, either in healthcare, public policy, or strategic consulting. I enjoy using quantitative tools, but what motivates me most is applying them to meaningful decisions with real consequences.

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? I think what makes me stand out is my ability to connect rigorous analytical thinking to practical problems in a way that students find both challenging and useful. I want students to leave my classes not only with technical tools, but with a better sense of how to think, model uncertainty, and make decisions in messy real-world environments.

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: That success in this job is not just about producing good research or delivering a good lecture. It is about building a body of work, mentoring students, contributing to a community, and staying grounded through a career that has many moving parts. Over time, I have come to appreciate how much long-term consistency matters.

Professor I most admire and why: First and foremost, I most admire my PhD advisors, Professors Steven Shechter and Tim Huh. They shaped how I think about research, teaching, and academic life, and I remain very grateful for their mentorship. I also admire Professor Christopher Ryan at UBC for his honesty and courage in speaking openly about the realities of academia, Professor Maxime Cohen at McGill for showing how academic excellence can be combined with industry relevance and broader public engagement, and Professor Marco Bijvank for his dedication to the growth and development of Haskayne. I deeply respect scholars who are not only strong in their own work, but who also help strengthen the academic communities around them.

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? What I enjoy most is that business students are often very motivated by relevance. They want to understand how ideas connect to real decisions, real organizations, and real outcomes. That makes the classroom dynamic exciting, because it pushes me to teach in a way that is rigorous but also grounded.

What is most challenging? One of the biggest challenges is helping students become comfortable with ambiguity. Many business problems do not have clean, textbook answers, and part of the learning process is developing the judgment to make good decisions with incomplete information. Teaching that balance between analytical structure and managerial judgment is challenging, but also very rewarding.

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… Demanding but caring. I hold students to a high standard, but I want grading to reflect clarity of thinking, effort, and genuine understanding rather than perfection for its own sake.

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

What are your hobbies? Outside of work, I enjoy cooking and long-distance running. Training for races like a half marathon or marathon gives me a very different kind of challenge from research and teaching, and I like the discipline and mental reset that comes with it. Cooking is the opposite in a good way. It is creative, hands-on, and something I genuinely enjoy sharing with other people.

How will you spend your summer? This summer, I expect to spend time attending conferences, traveling, and making progress on research projects that are harder to focus on during the teaching term. I also try to use part of the summer to reset, think more broadly, and come back with new ideas for both research and the classroom.

Favorite place(s) to vacation: Some of my favorite places to vacation are Bali, the Maldives, and Greece, especially Mykonos. I enjoy places that combine beautiful scenery, good food, and a sense of escape from the pace of everyday life.

Favorite book(s): Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, because it changed the way I think about judgment, decision-making, and human behavior.

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? Breaking Bad. What I find compelling is how it shows the gradual evolution of choices and consequences over time.

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? I enjoy electronic music, especially artists like David Guetta, because it is energetic, immersive, and great for both workouts and travel.

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

If I had my way, the business school of the future would have much more of this… Much more connection between rigorous research, practical relevance, and thoughtful teaching. I would like business schools to prepare students not only to analyze problems well, but also to exercise judgment, communicate clearly, and make decisions in real settings where the answer is rarely obvious.

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… Building systems, technologies, and incentives that actually reflect how people behave. Too often, organizations adopt tools or processes that look good on paper but create friction, overload, or unintended consequences in practice.

I’m grateful for… The people who have invested in me along the way, especially mentors, students, collaborators, and colleagues. I am also grateful to be in a profession where I get to keep learning, work on meaningful problems, and hopefully make a positive difference through both research and teaching.

DON’T MISS: THE ENTIRE 2026 ROSTER OF THE WORLD’S BEST 40-UNDER-40 GRADUATE BUSINESS PROFESSORS 

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