Freeman welcomes 12 to faculty for 2019-20

Tulane University's A. B. Freeman School of Business is pleased to announce the appointment of 12 new faculty members for the 2019-20 academic year. The appointments, which were effective July 1, include 10 tenure-track assistant professors and two professors of practice.

Ben Bennett
Assistant Professor of Finance

Ben Bennett joins the Freeman School from Ohio State University, where he spent the last three years as a visiting professor. Prior to that, he completed his PhD in finance from Arizona State University. Bennett teaches corporate finance, and his research focuses on executive compensation and corporate governance. Prior to pursuing his doctoral studies, he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force, where he tested and evaluated military aircraft and satellites. He holds a bachelor’s degree in operations research from the U.S. Air Force Academy and an MA in economics from University of New Mexico.

Suzanne Chang
Assistant Professor of Finance

Suzanne Chang teaches investments in equities at the Freeman School. She comes to Freeman from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, where she earned her master’s and PhD in finance. Her research interests include behavioral, household and corporate finance, and her dissertation focused on how local industry conditions influence the investment decisions of mutual fund managers. Prior to her doctoral studies, Chang worked in the Capital Markets Section at the Federal Reserve Board. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University.

Saeede Eftekhari
Assistant Professor of Management Science

Saeede Eftekhari joins the Freeman School from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she earned her PhD in management sciences and systems. She teaches business analytics, and her research focuses on healthcare network analytics and healthcare information technology, using methodological techniques including econometric modeling, social networks analysis and data mining to analyze healthcare management problems and develop cost-effective solutions. She has published her research in ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems (TMIS). She holds a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in Iran.

Sophia Hamm
Assistant Professor of Accounting

Sophia Hamm comes to Freeman from Ohio State University, where she served as an assistant professor of accounting and taught intermediate accounting. At the Freeman School, she’ll be teaching intermediate accounting. Her primary research interests relate to the role of accounting disclosure in capital markets, executive compensation, labor unions and earnings management. Her papers have been published in Journal of Accounting Research and Contemporary Accounting Research. Hamm received her PhD in accounting from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree in business from Seoul National University. Prior to her doctoral work, Hamm worked as a senior consultant at PWC Korea.

Han Jiang
Assistant Professor of Management

Han Jiang joins the Freeman School from the University of Arizona, where he served as an assistant professor in management. Jiang teaches strategic management, and his research focuses on social network and interorganizational relationships, corporate governance and strategic leadership, and entrepreneurship. In particular, he is interested in the decisions and actions of business elites in adverse situations, such as scandals, organizational decline and political shocks. His work has appeared in Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice and Academy of Management Discoveries among other academic outlets. Prior to beginning his scholarly career, Jiang worked as a management consultant, delivering projects for clients across multiple industries. He received his PhD in business administration from Arizona State University and his master’s degree in business management from Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Eugina Leung
Assistant Professor of Marketing

Eugina Leung teaches marketing fundamentals at the Freeman School. She received her PhD in marketing from Erasmus University in the Netherlands and served as a visiting research scholar at the University of Chicago and the University of Zurich. Her work explores the influence of technology on consumer judgment and how technology hinders identity-based consumption. She also investigates the role of language and culture in consumer response. Her work has been published in Journal of Marketing Research. She holds a master’s degree in economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Natalie Longmire
Assistant Professor of Management

Natalie Longmire received her PhD in management from the University of Texas at Austin and her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Vanderbilt University. At the Freeman School, she’ll be teaching organizational behavior. Her research focuses on the informal interactions among coworkers that form the relational foundations for effective teamwork. In her dissertation, she investigates the potential risks and rewards associated with sharing personal information in the workplace. Prior to earning her PhD, Longmire worked as a researcher at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, examining employment outcomes for adults with autism. The challenges faced by this growing population of adults continues to inform her research on interpersonal dynamics in organizations.

Rakesh Mallipeddi
Assistant Professor of Management Science

Rakesh Mallipeddi joins the Freeman School from Texas A&M University, where he earned his PhD in business administration with a concentration in information and operations management. He teaches business analytics, and his research interests include data-driven modeling, social media analytics and technology management. Prior to his doctoral studies, Mallipeddi managed the operations of manufacturing companies in the U.S. and India. He holds a master’s degree in industrial and systems engineering from Oakland University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio State University.

Jason Sandvik
Assistant Professor of Finance

Jason Sandvik comes to Freeman from the University of Utah, where he recently received his PhD in finance. His research focuses primarily on the organization design of corporate boards, executive compensation and various questions in labor economics. His early work on corporate boards considers the consequences of directors closely monitoring management, and his most recent work analyzes the gender dynamics of boards. His research has been presented at multiple meetings of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Sandvik worked as a NCAA football recruiting assistant at Brigham Young University, where he received a bachelor's degree in mathematics.

William Waller
Assistant Professor of Finance

William Waller joins the Freeman School from Carnegie Mellon University, where he served as a postdoctoral fellow in finance. He teaches advanced financial management, and his research explores the interaction between macroeconomic factors, financial markets and asset prices. In addition to publishing articles in The Review of Financial Studies and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Waller’s research has received an Inquire Europe Research Grant. Waller holds a PhD in finance from the University of North Carolina, an MS in personal financial planning from Texas Tech University, and a BS in animal science from Texas Tech University.

Pierre Conner
Professor of Practice in Management Science and Executive Director, Tulane Energy Institute

As executive director of the Tulane Energy Institute, Pierre Conner guides the strategic direction and operations of the Freeman School’s energy finance-related academic programs. He also teaches Energy Markets, Economics and Policy in the undergraduate program and Energy Projects in the Master of Management in Energy program. Conner brings nearly 40 years of experience in energy operations and finance to the Freeman School, including serving as president of Capital One Securities, an energy equity boutique investment banking subsidiary of Capital One Financial Corp., and engineering manager of Exxon’s Domestic Drilling Organization, where he supervised operations from the Gulf of Mexico to the North Slope of Alaska and worked on the Exxon Mobil merger. Conner holds a BS in mechanical engineering, an ME in petroleum engineering and an MBA with a concentration in finance, all from Tulane University.

Megan Guy
Professor of Practice in Business and Legal Studies

Megan Guy teaches courses including negotiations and business law, where she draws on her 20 years of experience in law to bring strategic planning and business development issues to life in the classroom. Prior to joining the Freeman School, she served as executive counsel at Gillis, Ellis & Baker, advising the growing insurance brokerage on long-term strategic planning and development, as well as legal and compliance issues. Before that, she served as an associate and partner at Adams and Reese, where in her 13 years of practice she represented a broad range of clients including multinational pharmaceutical companies, oil and gas exploration and service companies, healthcare providers, and insurers. Guy earned her bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and her JD and MBA from Tulane University.

In addition to tenure system faculty and professors of practice, the Freeman School also named 14 instructors to one-year visiting appointments. They include Nima Ebrahimi, Victoria Li and Zoe Nie, visiting assistant professors of finance; Huaizhong Chen, Trey Cummings, Zhe Han and Ted Matherly, visiting assistant professors of marketing; Jonathan Jona, visiting assistant professor of accounting; Les Alexander, A.J. Brooks and David Thompson, visiting lecturers in finance; Christy Lynch and Kimberly Min, visiting lecturers in accounting; and Cheng Wang, visiting lecturer in management science.

“The foundation of everything we do is our faculty,” said Freeman School Dean Ira Solomon. “Over the last seven years, we have grown through the addition of outstanding tenure-system professors and highly accomplished professors of practice boasting extensive industry experience. This year’s new faculty members continue this winning strategy, and it gives me great pleasure to welcome them to the A. B. Freeman School of Business.”