Faculty profiles
Thought leadership and teaching excellence
Melbourne Business School attracts world-class faculty who bring their knowledge and expertise directly into our postgraduate business education programs, research activity and our key centres for excellence in executive education, and business and public policy.
Their worldwide networks keep them at the forefront of business education, management thought and practice and in executive learning and contemporary leadership development. Their consulting and boardroom experience keeps them in touch with current business issues.
View our full list of faculty.
PhD (Adel), BA (Hons) (Adel),
Professor of Management - Negotiations
Mara Olekalns’ expertise lies in the fields of negotiation and conflict resolution.
Mara’s research focuses on communication processes in negotiation. She is interested in how the timing and sequencing of negotiation strategies affects negotiators’ outcomes, particularly their ability to create value in the negotiation; and also in identifying the contextual, cognitive and dispositional factors that shape strategy choice and sequencing. More recently, she has investigated the impact of first impressions and turning points on trust in negotiation.
In addition to her role at MBS, Mara has been a Visiting Research Scholar at Kellogg Graduate School of Management’s Dispute Resolution Research Centre. She has held lecturing positions at the University of Melbourne and University of Otago, as well as a range of management positions in the Australian Public Service. She also has considerable experience as a presenter on executive development programs.
Mara has published in leading international management, psychology and communication journals, and has presented her work extensively at international conferences. She was a board member of the International Association of Conflict Management and is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Conflict Management.
Mark Ritson
PhD Marketing (Lancaster)
Associate Professor of Marketing
Mark Ritson began his career as an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota and then went on to join the London Business School in 1999. Professor Ritson was among the highest rated instructors at LBS and taught both the Marketing 'core' of the MBA program and Brand Management, his specialist area. In 2002 he was awarded the Best Teacher Prize at LBS.
Mark's research focuses on marketing communication and branding. In 1995 he was awarded the Best Paper prize by the European Marketing Academy for his work on Advertising Literacy. He was also the recipient of the 2000 Robert Ferber Award, one of the most prestigious awards in marketing, for his article "The Social Uses of Advertising". He writes a weekly column for Marketing, the UK's leading trade magazine, and is currently shortlisted for the PPA Columnist of the Year award.
Mark also works extensively as a consultant on branding and marketing for some of the world's leading organisations. His clients include McKinsey, Roche, HSBC, Zenith Optimedia, adidas, Ogilvy, 3M, Bacardi Martini and Deutsche Bank. For the last three years he has been the brand consultant for LVMH in Paris and London.
Jody Evans
PhD (Monash), BBus (Marketing) (Hons) (Monash), BA (Monash)
Senior Lecturer - Marketing
Dr Jody Evans specialises in international marketing, branding, marketing strategy and retailing.
Jody’s professional expertise and research interests include international marketing and retailing, marketing strategy, consumer behaviour, services marketing and research methods. Her current projects examine a range of issues including the internal determinants of international retail involvement, entry strategy and performance, and branding as a source of competitive advantage.
Jody’s work has been widely published in both journal articles and book chapters, and she has acted as a referee for a number of leading journals. She has presented her work extensively in Australia as well as overseas.
Before joining MBS, Jody was Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Retailing and Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School. She has also worked as a Research Assistant at the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, where she project-managed ‘Retail Meter Asia’ in conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
