Fifteen new, accomplished, and enthusiastic faculty have joined the School of Business this fall.
Dean John A. Elliott, who returns to the School after serving as interim Provost at UConn, said he was impressed by their expertise and credentials.
“It speaks highly of our reputation as a School of Business that we have been able to recruit such exciting new faculty,” he said. “I look forward to meeting them personally in the coming weeks and learning about their goals and objectives.”
The new faculty, by department, are:
Accounting
Guojin Gong joins the faculty as a tenured associate professor of accounting, based in Stamford. She comes to UConn after serving as a tenured associate professor at Penn State. She earned a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Iowa. Her research interests include financial reporting and corporate governance, with a focus on executive compensation and disclosure choices. Her recent work investigates relative performance evaluation and the timing of earnings release.
Alumnus Garth Monroe joins the school as an instructor-in-residence in accounting, based in Storrs. Monroe earned his bachelors degree in business administration, summa cum laude, in 2000, followed by an MBA from the University of Virginia. He also served as a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He recently worked as a CFO at Capital Royalty Group of Houston, Texas, creating financial solutions for early-stage biotech companies. He also previously worked as VP and CFO at a San Diego life-science company that addresses genomics and disease.
Subprasiri “Jackie” Siriviriyakul joins the School as an assistant professor-in- residence in accounting, based in Stamford. She has previously worked at Baruch College of the City University of New York, where she received a teaching excellence award. She earned her Ph.D. in accounting at the University of California at Berkeley. She previously worked as an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Thailand. Her research interests include earning management, capital market-based research, analyst forecasts and auditing.
Carlos Fernandez Varela joins the faculty as an accounting instructor-in-residence, based in Storrs. He most recently worked as a visiting professor at Sacred Heart University. He has also recently been an adjunct professor of accounting at UConn, Fordham University, and Fairfield University.
His experience includes working at KPMG as a partner in several roles and countries, including as Audit Partner in the Department of Professional Practice in KPMG New York; Head of the Audit Division in KPMG Peru; and leader of two lines of business in KPMG Venezuela. He also served in New York as Associate Director of the PCAOB, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. He earned an advanced degree in accounting from Universidad Central de Venezuela and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in New Hampshire, Peru and Venezuela.
Youli Zou joins the School as an assistant professor of accounting, based in Stamford. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and previously served as an assistant professor at the George Washington University. Her research interests include exploring determinants of financial reporting and disclosure and assessing economic consequences of financial reporting regulations.
Finance
Yao Deng joins the faculty as an assistant professor of finance, based in Stamford. He earned his Ph.D. in finance from the University of Minnesota. His research interests include empirical and theoretical asset pricing, behavioral finance and macro finance.
Meng Gao joins the School as an assistant professor of finance, based in Storrs. She earned a Ph.D. in physics from Boston College and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include corporate governance, executive compensation, and insider trading.
Management
Ryan Coles joins the faculty as an assistant professor of entrepreneurship in Storrs, after having earned his Ph.D. in organizational behavior from Cornell University. Coles’ program of research analyzes the social conditions that support entrepreneurship and research commercialization, with active projects in Jordan, Mexico, Peru, and the U.S. He has also worked on startups in the fintech and voluntourism sectors, and has advised venture capital firms in Boston on startup investments.
Alexandra Rheinhardt joins the faculty as an assistant professor of management, based in Storrs. She earned a Ph.D. in management and organization from Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include identity, leadership, and social movement processes within organizations.
Marketing
Christina Kan joins UConn as an assistant professor of marketing, based in Storrs. She earned a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Colorado Boulder and most recently worked as an assistant professor at Texas A&M University. Her research interests include budgeting and consumer financial decisions. In 2018, she was a co-winner of the Journal of Consumer Research best paper award.
OPIM
Alumnus Stephen Fitzgerald joins the School as an instructor-in-residence of OPIM, in Storrs. He earned a bachelor’s degree from UConn, with a major in management information systems, in 2014, and has served as an adjunct professor here for several years. He also earned a master of arts in curriculum and instruction from UConn.
Bowen Lou joins UConn as an assistant professor in OPIM, based in Storrs. He earned a Ph.D. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. His research primarily lies in economics of digitization and innovation, most recently focusing on the role of artificial intelligence in transforming the development of innovation in the global pharmaceutical industry.
Tao Lu joins UConn as an assistant professor in the OPIM department, based in Storrs. Lu has previously taught at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. He earned his Ph.D. from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research interests include analytical modeling, supply chain management and transport logistics.
Writing Center
Zachary Suetta joins the faculty as an assistant professor-in-residence of business writing, based in Storrs. He most recently worked as a visiting assistant professor of business communication at Cleveland State University. He received his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University—Carbondale.
Maria E. Vint joins UConn as an Instructor-in-Residence of business writing, based in Storrs. She is completing a Ph.D. at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and most recently taught at the City College of New York and at Fordham University.