2026 Best 40-Under-40 Business Professors: Rehema Msulwa, Oxford Saïd Business School

Rehema Msulwa
Oxford Saïd Business School

“Rehema is a widely admired teacher both on our MBA program and on our Master’s in Major Programme Management – one of our flagship programmes and one of our most challenging. According to senior staff, the profiles of the people in the room are among the most impressive and accomplished in the university. Rehema is teaching people putting in oil fields around the world, creating electrical grids for entire countries and managing some of the biggest projects internationally. Rehema’s research and teaching is not only is aimed at making a significant impact on major project management – it already has.” – Associate Dean Patti Brown

Rehema Msulwa, 38, is an Associate Professor of Major Programme Management at Saïd Business School and a Hugh Price Fellow at Jesus College, University of Oxford. She is also an Affiliated Researcher at the Bennett School for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge.

Her research explores how decisions are made, coordinated, and sustained in complex inter-organisational environments, where actors operate under bounded rationality and often pursue divergent objectives, interests and values. Drawing on literature in management, economics, and public policy, she develops theory that extends conventional perspectives on major programmes, with a particular focus on large-scale infrastructure.

Her work centres on the earliest stages of major infrastructure projects, across sectors such as transport, energy, water, and wastewater, areas that frequently face delivery challenges worldwide. In her 2022 paper, How do megaprojects influence institutional change?, she advanced a novel perspective by examining how large-scale projects reshape institutions, rather than simply being shaped by them. She argues that, due to their scale and complexity, megaprojects can drive changes in institutional structures and behaviours, citing the London’s Thames Tideway project as an example of how such initiatives can transform official procedures and influence the delivery of future projects.

Rehema’s work sits at the intersection of research and practice. She engages closely with infrastructure organisations, public bodies, and policymakers, guided by a central question: how are ambitious ideas translated into projects that can be sustained over time? Through this, she contributes to broader debates on governance, organization design, and decision-making in complex, multi-actor settings.

BACKGROUND

At current institution since what year? 2023

Education: PhD Business and Management, University of Manchester, MSc Management and Implementation of Development Projects, University of Manchester, MCom Applied Economics, University of Cape Town, BCom (Hons) Economics, University of Cape Town, BCom Economics and Finance, University of Cape Town

List of MBA/graduate business courses you currently teach: Organizing Successful Major Programmes, MSc Major Programme Management, Designing Successful Major Programmes, Governance and Stakeholder Engagement; MBA: Strategies for Impact, Building Major Programme Futures

 

TELL US ABOUT LIFE AS A BUSINESS SCHOOL PROFESSOR

I knew I wanted to be a business school professor when … I recognised my draw to questions that resist singular, definitive answers and instead require deeper interrogation of how complex, contested, and often ambiguous phenomena unfold in practice. Business schools occupy a distinctive position at the interface of interdisciplinary academic inquiry and professional practice, offering a fertile context in which to critically examine and extend such ideas. Saïd Business School, in particular, together with the wider University of Oxford ecosystem, provides an exceptional environment, through its diversity of perspectives, in which to develop rigorous, theoretically informed explanations for complex organisational and societal phenomena.

What are you currently researching and what is the most significant discovery you’ve made from it? I’m currently researching how large, capital-intensive projects, such as national infrastructure programmes, maintain direction over many years, even as governments change, priorities shift, and opposition grows. What I’ve found is that progress is not simply the result of good planning or strong leadership. Rather, it is continually rebuilt through the ways organisations coordinate, negotiate, and make decisions. Interestingly, the very systems that enable a project to move forward in its early stages can later become the mechanisms that stall or reshape it.

If I weren’t a business school professor… If I weren’t a business school professor, I would likely work as an infrastructure advisor. Infrastructure is often taken for granted when it functions well, yet its failures are highly consequential for societies, economies, and everyday life. I would be particularly interested in how large-scale projects are financed and governed, and in helping organisations navigate these complexities to translate ambitious ideas into systems that are technically sound and responsive to the social and institutional dynamics in which they operate.

What do you think makes you stand out as a professor? What sets me apart is my ability to understand the interplay between managerial and technical challenges through the lens of fundamentally social and political processes. My research examines how decisions are made in complex environments, including how coordination occurs across organisations, how competing interests are negotiated, and how projects evolve over time. This perspective, shaped by my academic background and professional experience, allows me to engage meaningfully with a diverse range of students and to encourage them to move beyond how systems are supposed to work, instead interrogate how they unfold in practice and why.

Here’s what I wish someone would’ve told me about being a business school professor: I wish someone had told me that growing into the role would require continuously challenging my assumptions and recalibrating. Over time, you realise that being an academic is an ongoing process of iteration across ideas, methods, and how you connect with people. It is not static; it evolves as you do. I also wish I had understood earlier how much the role involves balancing competing demands across research, teaching, and service, and that learning to prioritise is part of the work itself.

Professor I most admire and why: Over the course of my career, I have been fortunate to work with excellent people who have shaped how I approach research and teaching. What I admire most is their ability to conduct rigorous research that advances ideas others can engage with and extend, while also having real-world impact. Equally, they are exemplary professionals, exercising thoughtful judgment and treating others with respect and dignity. That is something I strive to emulate in my own work.

At Saïd Business School, I am particularly inspired by the work of Professors Tom Lawrence and Daniel Armanios, whose research and teaching exemplify this balance of intellectual rigor, real-world engagement, and professional integrity.

What do you enjoy most about teaching business students? What I enjoy most is helping students connect theory and practice. Many arrive with an intuitive sense that reality is more complex than the frameworks suggest, and it is rewarding to equip them with tools to engage with that complexity more systematically. I also value the discussions that emerge in the classroom, and the challenge students bring, because they push both them and me to think more deeply. Seeing students translate abstract understanding into applied insight is particularly fulfilling.

What is most challenging? One of the biggest challenges for me is resisting the instinct to shield students from discomfort as they encounter uncertainty and competing perspectives. It can be tempting to provide clarity too quickly, but this risks obscuring the very dynamics they need to understand. In practice, decisions involve negotiation, trade-offs, and ambiguity, and part of my role is helping students stay with that complexity rather than smoothing it over. Over time, I aim to help students become more comfortable engaging with incomplete information, questioning assumptions, and recognizing that well-reasoned judgment often emerges from grappling with, rather than avoiding, complexity.

When it comes to grading, I think students would describe me as… Fair, but demanding. I place strong emphasis on students engaging critically with the material and demonstrating the ability to apply ideas rather than simply repeat them. The goal is to move beyond memorization and help students develop the confidence to think through and reason about complex problems. Ultimately, this extends beyond the classroom. It is about equipping students to discern what is most relevant and to apply what they have learned in making sense of real-world situations.

LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE CLASSROOM

What are your hobbies? I enjoy taking long walks through green spaces and cities, where I tend to be something of a flâneuse, observing how places are structured and how people move through them. I also enjoy spending time with family and friends, and, when not reading, often beyond my field, watching film and television.

How will you spend your summer? I’ll be balancing teaching, research, and some conference travel. Since most of my family lives in the Southern Hemisphere (Tanzania, South Africa, and New Zealand) while I am based in the UK, I tend to operate on two calendars. My main summer break therefore comes in December, when I will likely travel to Tanzania, South Africa, or wherever we manage to converge.

Favorite place(s) to vacation: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for its vibrancy and sense of home and connection; and Paris, France, for its atmosphere and walkability. I’ve also briefly visited Dakar, Senegal, which left a strong impression, and I would love to spend more time there. I am drawn to its cultural depth and the griot traditions, where music and storytelling intertwine and instruments like the kora carry histories and collective memory across generations.

Favorite book(s): Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom, for its intellectual sharpness and deeply personal voice, and for the way it challenges how we think about inequality, power, and the systems we often take for granted.

What is currently your favorite movie and/or show and what is it about the film or program that you enjoy so much? The Capture, a British conspiracy thriller. I’m drawn to how it explores the blurred line between truth and perception, particularly through its focus on deepfake technology. It shows how easily that line can be manipulated, and the risks that follow. As technology continues to advance, those risks are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

What is your favorite type of music or artist(s) and why? I have fairly eclectic tastes, shaped in part by my love of language, but I tend to gravitate toward instrumentally rich and layered genres, including neo-soul, R&B, and dance-pop. I also enjoy Nigerian and Kiswahili music, which is rhythmic, lyrical, and grounded in storytelling, often through proverbs or subtle commentary, revealing more with each listen. And of course, always Beyoncé.

THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS

If I had my way, the business school of the future would … provide stronger incentives and clear institutional frameworks to support closer integration between academic research, policy, and industry. Business schools are uniquely positioned to bridge these worlds and critically examine ow theory and practice interact across a broader range of real-world decision-making contexts. Closer integration would strengthen the feedback loop between research and practice, enhancing both rigor and real-world relevance.

In my opinion, companies and organizations today need to do a better job at… adapting to uncertainty and managing coordination under complexity. We are operating in an increasingly uncertain and complex environment, where many challenges involve multiple actors, competing priorities, long time horizons, and persistent headwinds. Navigating these dynamics requires a sustained capacity to bring together diverse actors, make decisions under uncertainty, and adapt as conditions evolve.

I’m grateful for… each step of my journey and for the people who have shaped how I think and the work I do today. I’ve been fortunate to learn from exceptional colleagues across academia, policy, and industry, and to engage with questions that matter both intellectually and practically. At Saïd Business School, I value being part of a vibrant community with a global footprint, working alongside world-class colleagues whose work has meaningful real-world impact.

Beyond the professional sphere, I am deeply appreciative of my family and the many communities within my wider network whose support has made this journey possible.

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

 

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