Muhammad Azam Roomi, Ph.D.

Professor of Entrepreneurship

Contact Details:

✉ mroomi@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6130

Profile

Prior to joining MBSC, Dr. Muhammad Azam Roomi served as the Director of the Executive MBA program and MSc Management and Entrepreneurship program at the Cranfield School of Management, UK. He also held a principal lectureship at the University of Bedfordshire, where he played a major role in developing the business school’s graduate programs portfolio. He was also instrumental in setting up the research agenda for the Centre for Women’s Enterprise, with a focus on the growth and development of women-owned enterprises in the UK and other Asian and Islamic countries.

Dr. Muhammad Azam Roomi is a passionate entrepreneurship ‘activator’ and has successfully conceptualized, designed, and conducted executive and continuing education programs for more than fifty clients worldwide. He has acted as a consultant to national governments including the UK, Qatar, Oman, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Honduras; multi-lateral agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Union Higher Education Social Fund, ILO, and UN-APCTT; and private organizations including CIPE Int., LEAD Int., and InfoTech Ltd. Besides working with entrepreneurs, Dr Roomi works with charities and corporates on how to encourage and implement intrapreneurship.

Know more about Muhammad Azam Roomi, PH.D.

Research

• https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=DPipptAAAAAJ&hl=en
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Muhammad_Azam_Roomi
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/roomi/

The recipient of several teaching and research awards, Muhammad Roomi is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy – UK (HEA), National Council for Entrepreneurship Education – UK (NCEE), Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD), and European Entrepreneurship Educators Program (3ep). His innovative teaching and capacity building pedagogies have been recognized, acknowledged and appreciated globally.

Professor Roomi’s teaching and research focusses on entrepreneurial leadership, growth of entrepreneurial ventures, women’s entrepreneurship development especially in the context of Muslim countries, family business management, and Islamic entrepreneurship. His work has been published in the Journal of Small Business Management, International Small Business Journal, Technovation, and Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, among others. A keen case writer, Professor Roomi has published several cases and teaching notes. He has been a workshop tutor for The Case Centre, with experience of delivering case teaching and writing workshops to private, public sector, academic and corporate clients from around the globe.

Professor Roomi has been an invited member of the judging panel for UK Corporate Entrepreneurship Awards, the Asian Entrepreneur Awards, and The Case Centre’s case method competitions. He has also served as the chair of Marsh Farm Community Development Trust, UK (2009 – 2015) and the Vice Chair of the Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, UK (2008-2010).

Awards & Honors

• Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Annual Conference, Highly Commended Paper Award – 2016
• Cranfield School of Management ‘Researcher of the Year’ Faculty Award – 2016
• International Council for Small Business World Conference Best Paper Award – 2015
• ICSB/GIWE/IJGE/CWEL Best Paper Award on Women’s Entrepreneurship – 2013
• Emerald Literati Network Outstanding Reviewer Award – 2013
• Vice Chancellor Student Experience Award (Highly Commended) – 2013
• NCEE European Entrepreneurship Educators Fellowship Award – 2012
• Emerald Literati Network Highly Commended Paper Award – 2011
• ICSB/NWBC/IJGE Best Paper Award on Women’s Entrepreneurship – 2009
• University of Bedfordshire Commitment (Best Teacher) Award – 2008 and 2009
• University of Bedfordshire Dean’s Prize for Research – 2008 and 2009
• NCGE Entrepreneurship Educators Fellowship Award – 2008
• Prowess UK Women’s Enterprise Researcher of Year – 2008 (Finalist)
• Prowess & Lloyds TSB Innovator Award in Women’s Enterprise Development – 2007

Academic Interests/Courses Taught

• Entrepreneurial Leadership
• Growth of Entrepreneurial Ventures
• Leading Family Businesses
• Corporate Entrepreneurship
• Islamic Entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurship for Youth and Women
• New Venture Creation, Business Idea Generation and Opportunity Recognition
• Creativity and Innovation for Entrepreneurial Ventures

Farzad Khan, Ph.D.

Professor of Strategy

Contact Details:

✉ fkhan@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6138

Profile

Dr. Farzad R. Khan is presently a Professor of Strategy at the Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship in KAEC, Saudi Arabia. Prior to that appointment, he was an Associate Professor at the College of Industrial Management (CIM), King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). Dr. Khan graduated with a Ph.D. in Strategy and Organization from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) in 2005. His Ph.D. dissertation was co-supervised by Professor Henry Mintzberg considered the top ten management thinkers alive by the Financial Times of London. While at McGill University, Dr. Khan received the “Teacher of the Year Award”. Dr. Khan also has a Masters in Economics of Developing Countries from the University of Cambridge (UK) and a Bachelors with Great Distinction from McGill University in Accounting and Finance.

Expertise

• Business Ethics
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
• General Management
• Leadership
• Organizational Behavior
• Strategy

Engagement

Dr. Khan is an invited guest speaker on many prestigious forums including the Hanken School of Economics (Finland), the EMBA Program at Hult International Business School (USA) ranked as the world’s third best business school in international business by the Financial Times of London, and the National Institutes of Health Bio Ethics Program for Aga Khan University.

Apart from the above achievements, Dr. Khan been involved in consulting assignments as well as in executive development programs. Over his almost two-decade-long international career, Dr. Khan has educated and coached executives in leadership related skills from the world’s leading multinational corporations such as Cisco Systems, Costa Coffee, Huawei, Nestle, Proctor and Gamble, SABIC, Saudi Aramco, Siemens, and Unilever.

Research

Dr. Khan has published various research papers in leading academic journals including Human Relations, Organization, Organization Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Change Management. Farzad’s research focuses on Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Critical Management Studies, Institutional Theory, Leadership, Postcolonial Theory, and Spirituality and Management

• LinkedIn Link

Teaching

Farzad is currently teaching

Capstone Simulation and Advanced Management courses in MBSC.

Abdulrahman Hariri, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship

Profile

An entrepreneurship instructor, author, and mentor with practical business experience and a proven record as an active player in the national entrepreneurship eco-system. Author of the widely successful Startup Idea Discovery book with research interests in entrepreneurship & innovation. Passionate about continuous self-learning, and creating social impact. Helped educate tens of thousands in the areas of entrepreneurship & scientific research through his online learning platforms.

Adnan Maalaoui, Ph.D.

Professor of Entrepreneurship

Contact Details:

✉ amaalaoui@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6141

Profile

Dr. Adnan Maalaoui is a professor of entrepreneurship at Mohammed Bin Salman College for Business and Entrepreneurship (MBSC). Dr. Adnan Holds his Ph.D. in Strategic Management & Entrepreneurship from IAE Toulon (France). Previously, Dr. Adnan worked as a professor of entrepreneurship and director of Entrepreneurship Center at PSB Paris School of Business (2009-2018) and IPAG (2018-2023). He secured more than 6 Million Euros in European projects (more than 20 EU projects). Dr. Adnan created different entrepreneurial education tools such as Mooc’s (Business plan, Crowdfunding, Entrepreneurial mindset), also social crowdfunding initiatives with students and a virtual incubator. His research has been published in leading academic journals including the Small Business economics International Small Business Journal, Journal of Small business Management, Journal of Business Research and Technological Forecasting & Social change journal. His research mainly focuses on issues of entrepreneurship, and in particular Disadvantage entrepreneurs: elderly, disabled entrepreneurs, refugees entrepreneurs, …etc. . Dr. Adnan is the author of more than 60 articles published in academic journals, and He also authored articles published in professional journals, and in edited books such as in Digital Entrepreneurship, Senior Entrepreneurship, minority entrepreneurship …etc. He is an Associate editor and reviewer in several academic journals (Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Knowledge Management, the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, European Management Review, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research …etc)

G. Mujtaba Mian, Ph.D.

Professor of Finance

Contact Details:

✉ gmujtaba@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6146

Profile

Dr. G. Mujtaba Mian is a Professor of Finance at Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship (MBSC). Prior to joining MBSC, he was a professor at Zayed University since 2015, where he also served as Associate Dean of College of Business and Chair of Department of Finance. He was an Associate Professor (with tenure) at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2008-15), an Assistant Professor at National University of Singapore (1999-2008), and obtained his PhD in 1999 from University of Sydney.

Professor Mian is an accomplished educator and researcher. His role in executive education is highlighted by his tenure as Deputy Program Director of the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The program was a key initiative for the university, offering research training to high-level executives in the Greater China region, including those managing multi-billion-dollar businesses. With expertise in corporate finance and financial markets, Professor Mian has a diverse teaching portfolio, engaging with PhD students, senior corporate executives, civil servants, and undergraduate students in countries such as Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE and Saudi Arabia. He is a recipient of several teaching awards during his career.

Professor Mian’s research on financial markets has appeared in premier finance and accounting journals like the Journal of Financial Economics, The Accounting Review, and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. His work has also been featured in industry publications such as the CFA Digest and presented at leading academic conferences including the annual meetings of American Finance Association and European Finance Association. In addition to his academic endeavors, he has consulted for notable organizations including the KUB conglomerate, Civil Aviation Authority in Malaysia, and the Commonwealth Program for Chief Executives of Public Sector Organizations in Singapore.

James Ryan, Ph.D.

Vice Dean of Faculty and Research, Professor of Organizational Behavior

Contact Details:

✉ JRyan@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6196

Profile

Dr James Ryan is a management scholar with more than 20 years of international experience in teaching, research, and consulting. He specializes in issues relating to workplace behavior and human resource management.  He holds a B.Sc. and M.A. from University College Dublin, and a PhD from Dublin City University, Ireland.

Dr James has published impactful research in leading academic journals such as Research Policy, Journal of Business Ethics, & Journal of Business Research, among others. He has worked in higher education in the Gulf region since 2008, as well as previously working with diverse student populations in New Zealand and his home country of Ireland. Throughout his career, he has been awarded several teaching and research awards at national, institutional, and departmental levels.

Dr James teaches across the HR functions with particular teaching and research interests in performance management issues, and staff hiring and retention challenges. He is an editorial advisory board member of several academic journals and a Government of Ireland Scholar.

Tarek El Masri, Ph.D.

Vice Dean, Executive Education | Associate Professor of Accounting

Contact Details:

✉ telmasri@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6116

Profile

Dr. Tarek El Masri holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut and a PhD in Business Administration (Accountancy) from the John Molson School of Business (JMSB) at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. In recognition of his high scholastic achievement, he was selected for lifetime membership in Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honor society for collegiate schools of business. In 2018, he has obtained the Ethical Leadership Certification from the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy Center for the Public Trust, USA. More recently in 2023, Dr. El Masri earned the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) certification from The Institute of Internal Auditors.

Research

Dr. Tarek El Masri researches several topics related to corporate governance with a particular focus on family firms for what they represent in importance to the world economy. Corporate governance topics he is mostly interested in, but not limited to, are board of directors’ composition, top management team compensation, gender diversity on the board of directors, and ownership distribution. His research has won several awards in Canada such as the National Bank Initiative in Entrepreneurship and Family Business Award and the Bell Research Centre – Scholarship Award.
Moreover, Dr. El Masri’s research was published in international peer reviewed academic journals and presented in international conferences such as the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management, the International Management Control Conference, and the Canadian Academic Accounting Association Conference.

Teaching

Dr. El Masri has been teaching Financial Accounting courses at both the undergraduate and graduate (MBA) levels along with Managerial Accounting, Cost Accounting, and Financial Accounting for Non-Business major students.

Joel Evans, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Management

Contact Details:

✉ Jevans@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6140

Profile

Dr. Joel M. Evans is an Associate Professor of Management at MBSC.  He carries a PhD in management from the University of Arizona, an MS in management from Penn State University, and a BS degree in management from Brigham Young University.  His research focuses on topics such as organizational fairness, knowledge transfer, and team performance, and has been published in Organization Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and the Academy of Management Learning and Education, in addition to the Best Paper Proceedings of the Academy of Management.  Joel also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Business and Psychology.

Prior to joining MBSC, Joel worked for six years at SKK Graduate School of Business in Seoul, Korea, teaching organizational leadership, negotiations, team leadership, and ethics and social responsibility at the MBA level.  He has also provided corporate training for some of Korea’s largest corporations, including Samsung, LG, and Doosan, assisting them in developing their corporate practices to promote greater creativity and entrepreneurial thinking in areas such as global leadership, innovation, and managerial communications.  Following his work in Korea, he lectured for two years at Alfaisal University’s College of Business in Riyadh, KSA, in which he taught negotiations and business statistics, after which he joined MBSC.  During these years in academia, he has also been privileged to be a Visiting Fellow at MIT, and a visiting scholar at Babson College.

Dr. Joel is passionate about MBSC’s culture of entrepreneurship, and the promise that entrepreneurship holds for Saudi Arabia more generally.  He is married and has five children, all of whom enjoy living and thriving in KSA.

Rhea George, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Economics

Contact Details:

✉ RGeorge@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6189

Profile

Dr. Rhea Elizabeth George is an economist and educator with over 12 years of international experience across teaching, consultancy, and the establishment of strategic partnerships in higher education in the UK, Ireland, and Saudi Arabia. Dr. George earned her PhD in Economics from Lancaster University, UK, specializing in commodity price volatility and its effects on portfolio hedging across developed and emerging markets. She also holds an MSc in Money, Banking, and Finance from Lancaster University.

Throughout her career, she has taught a wide range of courses in economics and finance at leading institutions, including MBSC, DCU Business School in Ireland, and Lancaster University. Dr. George has previously worked in the Financial Services sector as a Research Economist and consulting econometrician.

She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE UK) and an Aurora Champion (Women’s Leadership Programme in Ireland and the UK), advocating for women’s leadership in the higher education sector. Passionate about sustainability and education, she aims to continue making impactful contributions to economics education, education for sustainable development, and advancing research on sustainability and social development.

At MBSC, she imparts her expertise in Economics and Sustainability to students in the Executive MBA (EMBA), Master in Management (MIM), and Master in Finance (MIF) programs.

Ali Hajjar, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Management Science

Contact Details:

✉ ahajjar@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6142

Profile

Dr. Ali Hajjar joined Mohammed bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship (MBSC) in July 2023 as an Assistant Professor of Management Science.

Dr. Hajjar’s research involves the use of statistical and mathematical models to inform health policy decisions. Particularly, his research interests are centered on the intersection of operations research & statistics, with a focus on stochastic optimization and simulation to support decision-making in practice. His primary methodological and computational research interest is completely and partially observable Markov decision processes (MDPs). His research interests also include personalized medicine, healthcare analytics, health economics, and advancements of decision-analytic methods for medical decision-making.

Prior to joining MBSC, Dr. Hajjar joined Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institute for Technology Assessment (ITA) in August 2020 as a Research Fellow within the Radiology Department, working on research projects related to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), alcoholic liver disease (ALD), and screening for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). His work received the “Best of The Liver Meeting” Award in the Health Services and Public Health Research category at the Liver Meeting 2021 conference by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) (Anaheim, CA 2021).

His current research focuses on healthcare applications at the population and patient levels. He has substantive research experience in various diseases and collaborated with several medical practitioners to solve complex healthcare engineering problems, including the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET), whose studies received major media attention from Time, NBC, The New York Times, CNN, ABC News, Los Angeles Times, CBS, and others.

Dr. Hajjar received his Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia. During his graduate studies, a National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (NIH/NCI) grant proposal about his work received the top score by CISNET’s Breast Working Group (BWG) and funded by NCI for a budget of $9,152,630.

Selected Publications

• Hajjar, A., & Alagoz, O. (2023). Personalized disease screening decisions considering a chronic condition. Management Science, 69(1), 260-282.
• Ergun, M. A., Hajjar, A., Alagoz, O., & Rampurwala, M. (2022). Optimal breast cancer risk reduction policies tailored to personal risk level. Health Care Management Science, 25(3), 363-388.
• Chhatwal, J., Hajjar, A., Mueller, P. P., Nemutlu, G., Kulkarni, N., Peters, M. L. B., & Kanwal, F. (2023). Hepatocellular Carcinoma Incidence Threshold for Surveillance in Virologically Cured Hepatitis C Individuals. Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology.
• Lu, Y., Hajjar, A., Cryns, V. L., Trentham‐Dietz, A., Gangnon, R. E., Heckman‐Stoddard, B. M., & Alagoz, O. (2023). Breast cancer risk for women with diabetes and the impact of metformin: A meta‐analysis. Cancer Medicine, 12(10), 11703-11718.

Ahmed Sewaid, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Finance

Contact Details:

✉ asewaid@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6135

Profile 

Dr. Ahmed Sewaid is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Mohammed bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship (MBSC). He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration (with distinction) from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, which was sponsored by the Generalitat de Catalunya. Additionally, he holds a M.Sc. in Financial Analysis from the University of San Francisco. Furthermore, Dr. Sewaid is a CFA^® charterholder.

Dr. Sewaid’s primary area of interest centers around the intersection of entrepreneurship and finance. His research primarily focuses on the resource acquisition process of entrepreneurs and the impact of financing platforms on entrepreneurship. His scholarly contributions have been published in globally renowned (FT50) journals such as Research Policy, Journal of Business Venturing, and Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. Moreover, his work has also appeared in other highly ranked international journals including the Journal of Banking and Finance, Small Business Economics, and the British Journal of Management, among others.

Before joining MBSC, Dr. Ahmed Sewaid served as an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at INSPER, a prestigious business school located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and recognized as a leading institution in South America. At MBSC, Dr. Sewaid actively contributes to the Executive MBA (EMBA) and the Masters in Finance (MIF) programs. His teaching portfolio encompasses various courses such as Entrepreneurial Finance, Portfolio Management, and Private Wealth Planning. Through his teaching, he imparts valuable knowledge and skills to aspiring entrepreneurs, business leaders, and finance professionals.

Selected Publications

Cumming, D., & Sewaid, A. (2024). Crowdlending, self-Employment, and entrepreneurial performance. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

Sewaid, A., Parker, S. C., & Kaakeh, A. (2021). Explaining serial crowdfunders’ dynamic fundraising performance. Journal of Business Venturing, 36(4), 106124.

Sewaid, A., Garcia-Cestona, M., & Silaghi, F. (2021). Resolving information asymmetries in financing new product development: The case of reward-based crowdfunding. Research Policy, 50(10), 104345.

Other Publications

Sewaid, A., Silaghi, F., & García-Cestona, M. (2024). Learning from failure: Do narcissists learn?. Small Business Economics, 1-22.

Alsagr, N., Cumming, D. J., Davis, J., & Sewaid, A. Geopolitical risk and crowdfunding performance (2023). Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions, and Money, 85, 101766.

Cumming, D. J., Martinez-Salgueiro, A., Reardon, R. S., & Sewaid, A. (2022). COVID-19 bust, policy response, and rebound: Equity crowdfunding and P2P versus banks. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 47(6), 1825–1846.

Silaghi, F., Martin-Oliver, A., & Sewaid, A. (2022). The CDS market reaction to loan renegotiation announcements. Journal of Banking and Finance, 138, 106431.

Sewaid, A., Garcia-Cestona, M., & Silaghi, F. (2021). Do learning benefits accrue equally over successive fundraising attempts? Strategic change and the moderating role of experience. British Journal of Management, 12551.

Nikolaos Tzokas, Ph.D.

Professor of Marketing

Contact Details:

✉ ntzokas@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6144

Profile

Dr. Nikolaos Tzokas is a Professor of Marketing at Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College for Business & Entrepreneurship. He earned his Ph.D. in Marketing Management from the University of Bath, UK as well as an MBA from the Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece. His academic career began as Research Fellow at the University of Stirling, Scotland and continued at the University of Strathclyde as a Marie Skłodowska Curie Senior Research Fellow.  In 2000 he joined the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK, as a full Professor in Marketing and for the next 14 years he held numerous leadership roles there including, Director of Research, Dean/Head of the Business School and Associate Dean for Research, Enterprise, and Engagement in the Social Sciences Faculty.  From 2014 to 2018 he led the Faculty of Business at the University of Plymouth as their Executive Dean. At MBSC Dr. Tzokas is a Professor of Marketing and he is the lead for Research in the College.

Research Interests

His research focuses on value co-creation through new product/services development, services marketing, relationship marketing and knowledge management.  Within these areas, he has supervised successfully a number of Ph.D. students, who are currently holding significant positions in important institutions in the UK and elsewhere. His research has been published widely in international journals such as the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Management and Industrial Marketing Management among others.

Engagement

Dr Tzokas has served on several Boards and held positions of responsibility such as elected Council member of the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS), UK; Chair of the International Committee of the Chartered Association of Business Schools; member of Plymouth’s Growth Board; and Chair of the Special Interest Group on Relationship Marketing of the UK’s Marketing Academy, as well as an international ambassador of the UK’s Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (LFHE), among others.  He is a regular reviewer for a number of academic journals and on the editorial board of the Industrial Marketing Management. For the past 5 years, Dr. Tzokas has been supporting the development of entrepreneurial mindsets in the HE sector in Jordan through close collaboration with the British Council in Jordan.

Teaching

Throughout his career, Dr. Tzokas has been instrumental in the development, launch, and implementation of several innovative, postgraduate programmes including an MBA with a clear sustainability focus and a Masters in Brand Leadership. A key common feature of all these programmes has been the blending of state-of-the-art management knowledge with challenging experiential student engagement, thus allowing them to become confident & resilient professionals.  This is a reflection of his approach to teaching & learning, where students become partners in a joint knowledge creation and discovery process.  Dr. Tzokas has taught Marketing at both undergraduate, masters and MBA levels and in various Universities including the American University of Beirut where he served as a visiting Professor.

At MBSC Dr. Tzokas is teaching the following courses:

• Marketing Management
• Sales Management
• Services Marketing (elective)

Larissa Von Alberti, Ph.D.

Vice Dean of Programs, Professor of Accounting

Contact Details:

✉ Lalberti@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6137

Profile

Dr. Larissa von Alberti holds an MSc degree (distinction) in Accounting & Finance and Ph.D. in Accounting from University of Southampton, UK, which was undertaken with scholarships from University of Southampton and the Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC), UK. Following her postgraduate education, she undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Southampton, which was also funded by the ESRC. Her focal point was strategic management accounting and performance management at Higher Education institutions, which she has continued to pursue both in research and administrative terms.

Following her postdoctoral fellowship, she moved to the German-Jordanian University in Amman, Jordan, a collaborative start-up institution between the German and Jordanian governments. She was a founding faculty member in the School of Management & Logistics, the first head of accounting department from 2008 to 2012, and the first exchange officer at the School, in charge of the School’s network with German industry and universities, and in charge of the students’ exchange year in Germany, also from 2008 to 2012. In 2012, she moved to King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, where she was a member of the AACSB and AMBA accreditation team at Faculty of Economics and Administration.

Expertise

• Managerial Accounting
• Strategic Management Accounting and Performance Management
• Corporate Reporting, Sustainability, and Integrated Reporting
• Integrated Thinking and Reporting
• Accounting and New Technologies
• Accounting Education

Research

Her research interests have on the one hand remained focused on Higher Education, accounting and performance but on the other hand expanded to include other areas of accounting, such as financial reporting, new technologies, sustainability, and integrated reporting. In this context, she has been one of the first accounting faculty publishing in the field of financial accounting, big data and social media. She has also engaged in research on regional organizations, such as leaders in the logistics sector, and their commitment to sustainability and integrated reporting. Her research has been published in leading journals, such as Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal and Journal of Business Research. Furthermore, her research and education practice has been governed by her commitment to practice-led and application-based education, which she has engaged in at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This interest has led to an international research collaboration focusing on the future of accounting education.

Teaching

Dr. Larissa is currently teaching:
Accounting: Financial and Managerial Accounting Courses

Yasser Bhatti, Ph.D.

Professor of Strategy

Contact Details:

✉  ybhatti@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6143

Profile

Dr. Yasser Bhatti is a scholar of Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship with a focus on the study of emerging models of innovation and strategies which promote inclusive and sustainable growth. He merges an understanding of innovation concepts, mainly frugal, social and reverse innovations with strategy concepts, mainly cost leadership, business models, and scenario planning. He draws on institutional theory and resource-based view to understand the role that organizations play in the market and in society. For impact of scholarly work, he also works at the intersection of management and health, relying on mixed methods research.

He contributes to and speaks regularly at international forums on innovation. For instance, he provided expert feedback to Pakistan’s new Social Protection Ministry (called Ehsaas); he was invited for knowledge sharing by the Danish Ministry of Science and Technology; offered expert advice to the UK’s Innovation think tank NESTA; and served on the scientific advisory board of the European Commission Project on Frugal Innovation. He was also invited to Google Headquarters in New York City to present to Chief Innovation Officers of healthcare organisations on how to scale frugal innovations. His book ‘Frugal Innovation: Models, Means, Methods’, published by Cambridge University Press, was nominated for best book award at the Academy of Management annual meeting 2020. The book sheds light on how entrepreneurs and firms can pursue competitive strategies by innovating for humanity to improve lives for everyone, everywhere.

Yasser completed his PhD in Innovation and MSc in Entrepreneurship from University of Oxford’s Said Business School. His MSc thesis at Oxford received best dissertation prize. He also has an MSc degree in Computer Science and PG certificate in Management of Technology both from Georgia-Tech with distinction and BSc in Mechanical Engineering with special distinction from the University of Oklahoma. Following five years of practice in the manufacturing industry (Met-Pro Corporation and IBM) and in the multilateral development sector at the United Nations, he pursued a renewed passion for teaching and research in academia to bridge the gap between the academic community and business world. He worked at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, Imperial College London, and Queen Mary University of London. At QMUL he served as Director of the MSc in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Director of Admissions and Recruitment.

He grew up in Jeddah in the 1980s to early 1990s, moved to the United States for his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the late 1990s, and then to the United Kingdom for his PhD degree in the late 2000s. Going full circle, he is delighted to return to Saudi Arabia after almost three decades and looks forward to making a positive contribution to MBSC and the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

Georgios Daskalakis, Ph.D.

Professor of Finance

Contact Details:

✉ gdaskalakis@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6148

Profile

Georgios Daskalakis is a Professor of Finance at MBSC and the Academic Program Director of the Masters in Finance (MiF). Prior joining the College, he was an Assistant Professor of Finance at University of East Anglia, UK, and an adjunct Lecturer in Finance at the University of Aegean, Greece.

He holds a Bachelor’s in Physics with Theoretical Physics from the University of Lancaster, UK, a Master’s in Applied Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, UK, and a PhD in Management Science and Technology from the Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece. The focus of the latter was on the operation of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and its interrelations with the European electricity markets.

His research, which is empirically driven, applied in scope and interdisciplinary, has been published in the European Journal of Operational Research, the Journal of Banking & Finance, the International Journal of Production Economics, Economics Letters, Finance Research Letters, Review of Futures Markets, the Energy Journal, Energy Policy and Applied Energy. Areas of interest include carbon finance and environmental policy, energy finance and policy, corporate finance and sustainability, and finance interfaces.

Dr. Georgios, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK, is passionate about teaching finance courses at the undergraduate, postgraduate, and post-experience level. At MBSC, he regularly teaches corporate finance, entrepreneurial finance, and data analysis.

Kimberly Deatherage-Mominah, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior

Contact Details:

✉ kmominah@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6153

Profile

Kimberly Deatherage-Mominah, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior. Her research interest includes the influence of culture on behavior, inclusion and diversity, engagement, and factors that influence continued personal development across the lifespan. She has worked in higher education and counseling in the United States and Saudi Arabia for more than 20 years. She began her career in the United States as a counselor and coordinator of programs providing services to adolescents and young adults. After moving to Saudi Arabia, she worked for 8 years for Effat University as a psychology faculty, mentor, and academic advising manager. She later continued as an adjunct faculty for Effat University and served as a consultant for MBSC and other organizations. She joined MBSC full-time in the Fall of 2019 as a faculty member and college counselor. She has engaged in public speaking related to personal and professional development for TedX, higher education institutions, and intermediate educational institutions during her career. She was selected as the first recipient of the Queen Effat University Faculty of Excellence Award for both the University and the College of Social Sciences. She has lived in the Kingdom for 17 years and is fully engaged in helping bring about the reality of Vision 2030.

Zeger Degraeve, Ph.D.

Executive Dean

Contact Details:

✉ Dean@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6193

Profile

Dr. Zeger Degraeve is the Dean of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship. With over 20 years of experience, Dr. Degraeve is an expert in decision-making, risk, operations research and managing project portfolios. An award-winning teacher, he has contributed to executive development programs in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Russia and North America for leading businesses.

Dr. Degraeve started his academic journey as a Professor of Management Science at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, his home country, before joining London Business School in 1999. From March 2002 until August 2005 he was the Associate Dean of the Executive MBA and Executive MBA-Global Programs, and from August 2005 until August 2007 he served as London Business School’s Deputy Dean Programs and a member of the School’s Management Committee and Board of Governors.

He became Dean of Melbourne Business School in November 2011, as well as Co-Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics of The University of Melbourne after successfully establishing an alliance between Melbourne Business School and The University of Melbourne in May 2013.  After 7 years in these roles, he joined, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College in October 2019.

Alongside his academic career, Dr. Degraeve has provided consultancy support across a range of issues including: operations management, logistics and supply chain management, environmental planning and purchasing strategy. Consultancy clients include the European Commission, Andersen Business Consulting, National Economic Research Associates (NERA) and McKinsey and Co.

With his extensive executive education expertise, Dr. Degraeve has been sought after to contribute to executive development programs in numerous leading international businesses, including: HSBC, Cadbury Schweppes, Novartis, Rio Tinto, E.on, Carlsberg, Merck Serono, SABIC, BP, Shell, Hess Oil, Premier Oil, Zain/Celtel, Orascom, Dubai Holdings, Majid Al Futtaim, and IBM.

Dr. Degraeve’s research has won several awards, including: Association of the European Operational Research Societies’ (EURO) Prize for Best Applied Paper and the Chairman’s Award for the Best Applied Contributed Paper by INFORMS (The Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences). He has published over 50 articles on decision making, optimization, scenario analysis and risk assessment for leading journals, including: Management Science, Operations Research, INFORMS Journal on Computing, European Journal of Operational Research, Interfaces and Harvard Business Review. He is also a regular speaker at international conferences.

After studying at the Universities of Ghent and Leuven in Belgium, Dr. Degraeve gained his PhD from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, now Booth School of Business, in 1992.

Haya Al-Dajani, Ph.D.

Professor of Entrepreneurship

Contact Details:

✉  haldajani@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6145

Profile

Dr Haya Al-Dajani is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the MBA’s Signature Learning Experience at the Mohammed Bin Salman College for Business and Entrepreneurship (MBSC). Haya earned her PhD in entrepreneurship from the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom in 2007. Since then, she has held academic posts at the University of East Anglia and the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom and has secured over two million GBPs in research funding from world leading international funding bodies. Her award winning research focuses upon the intersectionality of gender, entrepreneurship and empowerment, and their collective impact on sustainable development. Within this research arena, Haya works on women’s entrepreneurship, cultural heritage entrepreneurship, refugee entrepreneurship, social innovation for poverty alleviation, and enabling entrepreneurship, to understand how entrepreneurship can be a vehicle and catalyst for sustainable development. Her research has been published in leading academic journals including the British Journal of Management, International Small Business Journal, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development and Gender, Work and Organisation.

Haya launched and led the Responsible Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation research group (RESI) at the University of Plymouth and currently co-chairs the international Gender and Enterprise Network; a special interest group of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE). Her engaged scholarship philosophy led her to initiate and launch the ‘Women, Research and Enterprise Forum’ (WREF) at the University of East Anglia and the University of Plymouth Women’s Network. She is a member of Editorial Boards of leading entrepreneurship journals, and an advisor to several entrepreneurship education, research and policy centres around the world. The entrepreneurship training programs she designed and developed have been delivered to over six million people globally and are available in ten languages.

At MBSC, Haya’s teaching focuses on the MBA Signature Learning Experience (SLE). Embedded within Babson College’s Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® steps and processes, the SLE provides bespoke and immersive student-centric experiential entrepreneurship learning, relevant to the Saudi context.

Aseel Alghamdi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Marketing

Contact Details:

✉ aalghamdi@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6173

Profile

Dr. Aseel Al Ghamdi is an Associate Professor of Marketing and Sport Marketing and Management Researcher at Prince Mohammed Bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship – MBSC. He teaches various marketing courses including principles of marketing, brand strategy, international marketing, marketing management and integrated marketing communications for the EMBA and MiM programs as well as Executive Education.
He is also serving as an international research fellow at the International Institute of Sport Business and Leadership – IISBL at the University of Guelph, Canada. He conducts various sport marketing and management research projects for topics such as sport sponsorship, on-field performance, sport marketing revenue generation, sport resources and advantage, sport management and integrated marketing communications. He also served as the editor and program coordinator for the sport management division at the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) Conference between 2013-2015 and presented his research at various global conferences such as Marketing Science and ASAC. Previously he was the Vice Dean of Academic Affairs and the Head of Advertising Management Department at Jeddah College of Advertising – JCA between 2015-2018 at University of Business and Technology – UBT.

Research and Professional Interests

• Marketing
• Sport Marketing and Management
• Sport Sponsorship and Activation
• Sport Resource Allocation and Prioritization Advantages
• Strategic Management
• Strategic Marketing
• Marketing Communications (Advertising, Sponsorship, Sales Promotion)

Engagement

Dr. Al Ghamdi is an invited guest speaker at the Saudi Sport Hub-Saudi Tech Meet Up and serving as a judge for the Pioneer Marketing Award by Saudi Marketing Association. He also served as the editor and program coordinator for the sport management division at the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) Conference between 2013-2015.

Research

• Hasani, T., Al Ghamdi, A., O’Reilly, N., (Working Paper). A Comparative Analysis: The Antecedents to the Adoption of Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) Technologies between Start-up Companies in Canada and Saudi Arabia. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development Journal.
• Al Ghamdi, A., Kanetkar, V., O’Reilly, N., Hasani, T., (Working Paper). The Effect of Managerial Decisions on Sport Resources Over On-Field Performance in European Soccer Clubs. European Sport Management Quarterly.
• Al Ghamdi, A., O’Reilly, N., (Working Paper). Sponsorship Twist in Sport as the 6th element of Integrated Marketing Communication: A Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Sport Communication
• Al Ghamdi, A., (In Progress). Sponsorship versus Advertising: Genuine or Persuasion. Journal of Advertising.

Conference Research Papers

• Al Ghamdi, A. (2014). Understanding the Ontology and Epistemology of Sport Sponsorship: Philosophical Interpretation. Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) Conference, Muskoka, Canada.
• Al Ghamdi, A., Chang, C., Hummel, T., D’Alvise, J. (2015). The Role of the Dean in Contributing to Management Education in the Ontario 2000-2010 Context, Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) Conference, Halifax, Canada.
• Al Ghamdi, A. (2015). Workplace Spirituality: One Approach Leading to Motivation and Performance. Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) Conference, Halifax, Canada.
• Al Ghamdi, A., Kanetkar, V. (2013). Testing Resources Allocation and Their Effects on Firms’ Performance: A Resource-Advantage Theory Perspective in Sports, Marketing Science Conference, Istanbul, Turkey.

Teaching

• Principles of marketing
• Brand strategy
• International Marketing
• Marketing Management
• Integrated Marketing Communications

Achievements and Awards

Dr. Aseel Al Ghamdi was nominated for D.F. Forester Medal (Best PhD Thesis) at University of Guelph, Canada in 2016-2017 academic year and achieved a Paper of Merit Award from the Management Education Division at Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) Conference in Summer 2015. He was also awarded various excellency awards from the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Canada between 2008-2016.

Khaldoon Al-Htaybat, Ph.D.

Professor of Accounting

Contact Details:

✉ Kalhtaybat@mbsc.edu.sa

✆ +966 12 510 6120

Profile

Dr. Al-Htaybat is a professor of accounting, with more than 20 years of teaching, research and leadership experience. He holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of Southampton, UK, and a MSc in Accounting & Finance, from the University of Birmingham,  UK.

His teaching specialization includes both financial and management accounting, with a particular focus on application of financial reporting standards. His research focusses on accounting as an organizational practice, how innovations sustain accounting value creation of business under uncertainty.

His research has been published in impactful journals, such as Journal of Business Research, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal and Journal of Intellectual Capital. Having worked in the Middle East since 2007, his research engages with the local context, which is incorporated in his graduate-level classes and Executive Education programs.