Our staff

Meet our programme directors

Learn from a globally experienced team of Programme Directors and a diverse group of academics and industry professionals who are passionate about our Business Masters programmes.

Director, Graduate School of Management

Leo Paas

Andrew Eberhard

Andrew is the Director of the Graduate School of Management where he leads a fantastic team of people who are dedicated to the success of our professional programmes. Andrew is also the Associate Dean – Professional Programmes and the Associate Dean – Technology for the University of Auckland Business School.

Andrew’s teaching focuses on Digital Systems, Information Management and Data Visualisation.

Andrew has a track record of innovation and sustained excellence in teaching and leadership. His principal contribution has been in the development of new ways to engage and motivate students in large classes, taking advantage of technology to improve engagement and assessment practices.

In 2019 Andrew was awarded the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for Tertiary Teaching Excellence.

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Director, Master of Business Analytics

Leo Paas

Professor Leo Paas

In addition to directing the MBusAn, Professor Leo Paas is head of the University of Auckland Business School’s Marketing Department. Leo’s professional and academic careers in marketing began in Amsterdam and he has been teaching in New Zealand since 2014. He specialises in (big data) analytics, consumer reactions to human advertising models and entrepreneurship in developing economies.

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Director, Master of Applied Finance

Dr Marco Eugster

Dr Marco Eugster is a Professional Teaching Fellow in Accounting and Finance, specialising in financial modelling, cost of capital, cost-benefit analysis, regulated industries and infrastructure economics. Marco has worked in consulting for several years and has held roles with KPMG in Germany and PwC in Auckland. Marco is also a founder and managing director of the food distribution company Zenesco.

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Director, Master of Management

Dr Jo Wright

As the Director of the Master of Management in the Graduate School of Management (GSM), Jo Wright is responsible for the long-term direction of the program, and the smooth operations as students move through their degrees.

In her role as Professional Teaching Fellow in the department of Management and International Business. Jo teaches across the post graduate taught masters in the GSM and has co-designed and also co-leads the capstone industry projects in the undergraduate core. She has previously been an Operations Manager, Lead Consultant and Global Systems Implementation Manager over many years in the New Zealand technology industry working across most industries over time. Previous clients include 42 Below Vodka, Auckland Council, Royal Bank of Scotland, NZ Immigration, and The Radiology Group to name just a few.

As a Professional Teaching Fellow, Jo is passionate about teaching international business across varied student cohorts, research, program development, as well as student wellbeing and achievements.

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Director, Master of Professional Accounting

Dedre Van Zyl

Dedre Van Zyl

Dedre is a Professional Teaching Fellow in Accounting, specialising in financial reporting, taxation, auditing and management accounting. Dedre’s career as a Chartered Accountant began in South Africa, where she worked Audit Director in a mid-tier accounting firm, before moving to New Zealand. More recently, she has specialised in financial reporting, working as the Director, Accounting Policy at the Auditor General in New Zealand.

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Teaching Team

Dr Brent Burmester

Dr Brent Burmester
A lecturer in international business whose main research interest is the political economy of foreign direct investment and the multinational enterprise. Current research centres on the causes and implications of the international relocation of production by multinational enterprises.

Dr Hanoku Bathula

Dr Hanoku Bathula
Hanoku’s teaching areas include strategy capstone, human resource management and consumer behaviour. His current research interests focus on emerging markets, experiential learning, higher education, self-efficacy and healthcare. Hanoku has a Master of Business Studies from Massey University, a PhD in Business from AUT University and a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice from the University of Auckland. Hanoku is a Fellow of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (Ireland) and a certified PRINCE 2 practitioner.

Dr Nina Brosius

Dr Nina Brosius
Nina has worked in the tertiary education sector for the past 12 years. She completed her PhD in Marketing, more specifically consumer behaviour, in 2016. She has taught on various large cohort undergraduate courses and in the postgraduate education space, supervising MBA research theses and coordinating and lecturing on professional Masters courses. Since 2021, she has been involved in the University of Auckland Business School’s core undergraduate courses where she is currently course coordinator for an award-winning second year course. She also still teaches postgraduate students, currently in digital branding and advertising, and is involved in the Master of Business Analytics where she organises the applied student-industry projects. Her approach as an educator is to inspire and empower students. She loves getting to know her students (even in courses with hundreds of students) and helping them grow professionally, academically, and personally. Nina believes that every student can succeed if given the right tools, guidance and support.

Areas of Expertise: Consumer behaviour, consumer acculturation, branding, understudied consumer groups, consumer culture theory, millennials, sustainability, family consumption.

Lina El-Jahel

Associate Professor Lina El-Jahel
Lina is an Associate Professor of Finance. She previously held an academic position at Imperial College London Business School where she was director of the MSc Finance programme and taught on the MSc Finance and MBA programmes. Lina has extensive industry experience having worked for leading investment banks and hedge funds in London and consulted for several central banks in Europe. Her academic research focusses on financial markets and has appeared in finance journals such as Journal of Money Credit and Banking, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Markets and in more mainstream practitioner publications such as Risk and Professional Investor.

Dr Benjamin Fath

Dr Benjamin Fath
Benjamin is a Senior Lecturer in Management at the Graduate School of Management. Benjamin focuses on the evolution of markets, strategic management capabilities in New Zealand SMEs and evidence-based decision making. He has taught a range of executive courses within the University and as part of his external engagement through the Centres of Asia Pacific Excellence (CAPEs).

Associate Professor Julia Fehrer

Associate Professor Julia Fehrer
Julia’s research focus is on digital transformation, actor engagement, innovation, business models and marketing strategy. Julia has eleven years of professional experience, working in multiple countries, holding senior roles in marketing in the insurance industry.

Dr Antje Fiedler

Dr Antje Fiedler
Research interests include business engagement with Asia, innovation and entrepreneurship, and diversity of capitalism. Received her Master of Commerce (Diplom-Kauffrau) from the Justus-Liebig University Giessen and PhD in Management from the University of Auckland Business School.

Dr Subhamoy Ganguly

Dr Subhamoy Ganguly
Subh is a Senior Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management at the Graduate School of Management. Before moving to Auckland, he was a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Management Udaipur, India, and has served as a visiting faculty member at Purdue University, USA. His research on improving health care and manufacturing operations using optimisation models has appeared in reputed scholarly journals. His current research interest is focused on food waste at the consumer level. Prior to his academic career, Subh has worked as a Supply Chain Manager for Avaya, a US based telecom company, and as an information technology analyst for Tata Consultancy Services.

Gehan Gunasekara

Associate Professor Gehan Gunasekara
Gehan is an associate professor and deputy head of the Department of Commercial Law. His research has focused on topics topics including franchising law and data privacy law. Gehan has acted as advisor to Government on law reform and policy and is Chair of Privacy Foundation New Zealand, a not for profit organisation helping to protect New Zealanders’ privacy rights, through research and education.

Dr Julie Harrison

Dr Julie Harrison
Dr Julie Harrison is an associate professor in the Department of Accounting & Finance at the University of Auckland Business School. She obtained her PhD in 2008. Prior to joining the University, Julie worked as a tax consultant at Ernst & Young and Deloitte. She specialised in international tax and transfer pricing. Julie has also worked as a corporate tax accountant and management accountant in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Her research interests include performance measurement, data envelopment analysis, revenue management, international tax, and transfer pricing.

Dr Dulani Jayasuriya

Dr Dulani Jayasuriya
Dulani has industrial experience in trading and building trading models at Hedge Funds in the U.K. and conducts consulting activities on Bank Risk Management, Data Governance and FinTech. Her research areas include banking, social media, machine learning, technology in education, blockchains and cryptocurrencies. She is particularly interested in applying artificial intelligence-based technologies to solve socio-economic problems in finance, education, health, and the environment.

Areas of Expertise:
Empirical asset pricing, banking, blockchains, cryptocurrencies, machine learning, social media, sentiment analysis.

Dr Deepika Jindal

Dr Deepika Jindal
Deepika teaches human resource management and strategic management in the Business Masters programme. Her research interests lie in the areas of human resource management, organisational behaviour, and personality. Prior to teaching, she has worked in an Indian manufacturing conglomerate for a decade in the areas of Strategy and Human Resource Management. She received her PhD in Management from the University of Auckland. She was recently awarded the inaugural Academic Impact Award at the 2023 NZ HR Awards for her teaching and service relating to human resource management in New Zealand, and her commitment to helping shape the future HR workforce.

Una Lightfoot

Una Lightfoot
Una Lightfoot’s research and experience focuses on Learning Design, FIELD Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, educational assessment including Assessment for Learning, feedback, peer review, learning technologies and the use of exemplars in Higher Education; organisational communication and organisational change.

Dr Grigorij Ljubownikow

Dr Grigorij Ljubownikow
Greg is a lecturer in strategy whose main research interest is in understanding how competition influences and is influenced by various aspects of firm strategy. His current research revolves around the effect of multimarket interdependencies on competitive behaviour and how competitive pressures influence diversification and alliance strategies.

Dr Helen Lu

Dr Helen Lu
Helen Lu joined the University of Auckland in January 2014. Her primary research areas are empirical asset pricing and valuation. She is interested in issues related to applications of machine learning techniques to finance, recent advances in FinTech, and financial impacts of climate risks. Helen worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank prior to her PhD.

Dr Diandian Ma

Dr Diandian Ma
Lecturer in Accounting who is currently researching the non-linear use of accounting information to value companies. Received her PhD in accounting from Victoria University of Wellington.

Professor Sholeh Maani

Professor Sholeh Maani
Professor of Economics and specialist in applied microeconomics, in particular the labour market and education. Engaged in international research collaborations and advises on labour market research and policy in New Zealand and overseas.

Dr Udayangi Muthupoltotage

Dr Udayangi Muthupoltotage
Udayangi is a Professional Teaching Fellow of Information Systems and Operations Management at the Business School. She completed her PhD in Information Systems at the University of Auckland and is also a PhD/doctoral accredited supervisor.

Dr Karin Olesen

Dr Karin Olesen
Research interests include social and organisation aspects of information technology. Accounting systems including ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems implementation in organisations and aspects of supply chain and taxation systems. Received her PhD in Information Systems from the University of Auckland Business School.

Dr Joh Ren

Dr John Ren
Dr John Ren is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Commercial Law, Auckland University Business School. He received his PhD from the University of Sydney. His research focuses on contract law and letter of credit law. He teaches commercial law subjects at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Professor David Robb

Professor David Robb
Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management with extensive background in top New Zealand companies, teaching at undergraduate, graduate and executive level. Received his MBA and PhD from the University of Calgary.

Dr Carlos Diaz Ruiz

Dr Carlos Riaz Ruiz
Lecturing in marketing, Carlos is a specialist in market-shaping strategy, business models, and consumer culture theory. He received a PhD from Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland and served as Assistant Professor of Marketing at KEDGE in France. His professional experience includes working as marketing manager at Mexicana Airlines and consumer insights specialist at a market research agency in Latin America.

Dr Herbert Sima

Dr Herbert Sima
Dr. Herbert Sima is a Professional Teaching Fellow in the Department of Marketing, at the University of Auckland. His research experience is in the areas of International Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Digital Marketing Strategy, Branding, Innovation and Emerging Market Enterprises, internationalisation, Managerial Ties, and Guanxi, Export Venture, Business Models, services, stakeholder relationship marketing, high education, and Team-Based Learning. He has published his work in Industrial Marketing Management, European Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Strategic Marketing. He is also a business practitioner. He has been actively involved in international business practice. Recently, Dr. Herbert Sima has appointed as the Business Mentor of Auckland Chamber of Commerce, and Business Mentor New Zealand. He received a Certificate of Specialisation in Strategy (including Disruptive Strategy, Sustainable Business Strategy, and Strategy Execution) from Harvard Business School.

Dr Dan Tisch

Dr Dan Tisch
A lecturer in international business whose main research interest is in sustainability at the intersection of corporate strategy and government policy.  Current research focuses on organizational resilience and crises associated with climate change.

Professor Charl de Villiers

Professor Charl de Villiers
Charl is Professor of Accounting where his research and teaching interests include Management Accounting, Sustainability Accounting, and Integrated Reporting. He is also a research fellow at the Centre for Sustainability Management at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany.

Dr Xingang Wang

Dr Xingang Wang
Xingang’s research interests include migration and spatial econometrics. His teaching experience covers undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Economics. He received his MCom and PhD in Economics from the University of Auckland.

Audrea Warner

Audrea Warner
Audrea Warner is a Marketing and Management Professional Teaching Fellow in the Graduate School of Management. Audrea has designed and delivered courses in human resources, organisational behaviour, stress and resilience, gender and diversity, and marketing and communications.

Audrea’s industry experience ranges from healthcare to Auckland Council and the Dame Mira Szászy Research Centre. Audrea has a strong desire to educate and empower employees and is interested in equity and sustainability. Audrea believes that providing students with enriching learning experiences builds capabilities that help them evolve for the future.

Kirsty Williamson

Dr Kirsty Williamson
Kirsty is a member of the Business Communication team and her expertise includes teaching and assessing written and oral communication skills. Her doctoral research focuses on improving the writing skills of masters students for whom English as a second-language.

Jo Wright

Dr Jo Wright
Jo Wright is a Professional Teaching Fellow focused on International Business.  Jo’s favourite part of her role is the capstone consulting project at the end of the specialisation in International Business.  Here she supports and guides the students through their applied business research project which gives her the opportunity to have a hands-on, one-on-one relationship with student outcomes, not to mention the amazing variety of projects.

Dr Ramona Zharfpeykan

Dr Ramona Zharfpeykan
Lecturer in Accounting with the main research interest in sustainability and performance measurement. Ramona received her PhD in accounting from the University of Auckland. She has several years of experience in both academia and industry.

Dedre Van Zyl

Dedre Van Zyl
Dedre is a Professional Teaching Fellow in Accounting, specialising in financial reporting and taxation. Dedre’s career as a Chartered Accountant began in South Africa, where she worked Audit Director in a mid-tier accounting firm, before moving to New Zealand. More recently, she has specialised in financial reporting, working as the Director, Accounting Policy at the Auditor General in New Zealand.

Student Advisers

Business Masters Student Advisers

Semily Sang is your dedicated Student Adviser for the Master of Management programme, here to help with any questions you may have about your programme, courses or enrolment.

Semily Sang
gsm-businessmasters@auckland.ac.nz

Business Masters Student Advisers

Dan Liu is your dedicated Student Adviser for the Master of Professional Accounting programme, here to help with any questions you may have about your programme, courses or enrolment.

Dan Liu
gsm_mpacc@auckland.ac.nz

Business Masters Student Advisers

Anya Vai is your dedicated Student Adviser for the Master of Management and Master of Professional Accounting programmes, here to help with any questions you may have about your programme, courses or enrolment.

Anya Vai
gsm-businessmasters@auckland.ac.nz

MAppFin Student Adviser

Eleanor Adeane-Nancarrow is your dedicated Student Adviser for the Master of Applied Finance programme, here to help with any questions you may have about your programme, courses or enrolment.

Eleanor Adeane-Nancarrow
mappfin@auckland.ac.nz

MBusAn Student Adviser

Sarah Jones is your dedicated Student Adviser for the Master of Business Analytics programme, here to help with any questions you may have about your programme, courses or enrolment.

Sarah Jones
gsmbusinessanalytics@auckland.ac.nz

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