Speakers
Gavan J. Fitzsimons
Associate Professor of Marketing
The Fuqua School of Business
Duke University
Gavan J. Fitzsimons is an associate professor of marketing at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He is a consultant to and executive teacher for a wide range of firms ranging in focus from consumer products to pharmaceuticals to not-for-profit management. He has specific interest in new ventures and entrepreneurial marketing activity within larger organizations, and also deals frequently with issues of customer orientation and customer value management. Prior to joining Duke, he was an award-winning faculty member at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and prior to that, at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA. Professor Fitzsimons received a BSc and MBA from the University of Western Ontario and an MPhil and PhD from Columbia University.
His research focuses on understanding how consumers may be influenced without their conscious knowledge or awareness by marketers and marketing researchers, often without any intent on the part of the marketing researcher. The traditional view of marketing and marketing research is that the former seeks to persuade the consumer to behave in a certain way, and the latter seeks to assess consumer opinions and attitudes. In each case, little attention has focused on unintended effects of marketing or marketing research. Professor Fitzsimons’ research demonstrates that marketers and marketing researchers have substantial unintended effects on consumers, and these effects are often behavioral in nature and quite substantial in magnitude. He has published 17 research articles since arriving at Fuqua three years ago, and his work has been published in numerous academic journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Psychological Science. He serves as an associate editor at the Journal of Consumer Research, and is a co-chair of the 2006 Association for Consumer Research conference, the largest conference on consumer behavior. Professor Fitzsimons was co-founder and continues to be a steering committee member for the Marketing Science Institute Young Scholar conference. He was the winner of six teaching awards during his time at Wharton and was recently awarded the Daimler Chrysler Core Teaching Award at Fuqua.
- Professor Fitzsimons discussed his research on consumer response to product unavailability as part of the recent Duke MBA Marketing Conference. Watch a brief clip from his presentation.
See slides Professor Fitzsimons' presentations in Vancouver:
What's in a Brand Name?
The Psychology of Investing
Brandt C. Louie, B.Comm., F.C.A., LL.D
President and Chief Executive Officer, H.Y. Louie Co. Limited
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, London Drugs Limited
Brandt Louie has brought his own unique energy and drive to the organization founded by his grandfather, H.Y. Louie, over 100 years ago, as well as to London Drugs which has been owned by his family for over 30 years and recently celebrated its 60th anniversary.
Brandt Louie, a practicing chartered accountant at the time and the son of Dr. Tong Louie, former Chairman and CEO of London Drugs, joined the family business, H.Y. Louie, in 1972. Working his way through the organization, he quickly established a solid foundation of experience and insight. He earned respect for his leadership, business acumen and entrepreneurial approach and was appointed President in 1987.
In 1998, Mr. Louie was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of London Drugs, a member of the H.Y. Louie group of companies. Mr. Louie views London Drugs as an important part of this strong family enterprise, built on a solid foundation of history.
Brandt Louie’s belief in corporate responsibility to the community has resulted in his support of a myriad of organizations. He is an active philanthropist and his dedication to community is evident in the many causes he supports. He generously contributes his time and energy, serving on a number of Boards including the World Economic Forum, the Vancouver Board of Trade, the BC Business Council, Simon Fraser University, Duke University, the Dean’s Council, John F. Kennedy School of Government – Harvard University, Canfor Corporation, the Royal Bank of Canada, and the Food Marketing Institute.
Among his many current public service commitments are: Chancellor of Simon Fraser University, Director of the Historica Foundation of Canada, and Director, NeuroScience Canada Foundation and NeuroScience Canada Partnership.
He is the recipient of many awards, including Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the Institute of Chartered Accountants of B.C. and the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors.
Read Mr. Louie's Welcome Address.
Tim O'Neill, Ph.D.
Founder and Principal
O'Neill Strategic Economics
Dr. O'Neill has recently been appointed the H. Ian MacDonald Visiting Economist in the Ontario Ministry of Finance. He is also a partner in The Network Executive Team (TNET). He served as Executive Vice President & Chief Economist of BMO from 1994 to 2005. He joined the Bank of Montreal in 1993 as Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. Prior to joining the Bank, Dr. O’Neill held the position of President of the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council from 1988 to 1993. For 12 years before that, he taught in the Department of Economics at St. Mary's University in Halifax. He served as a consultant to several provincial governments, as well as to the Canadian federal government.
Dr. O'Neill is a native of Sydney, Nova Scotia. He received his B.A. degree (with Honours) at St. Francis Xavier University, his M.A. at the University of British Columbia, and his Ph.D. at Duke University, North Carolina.
In his teaching, research and consulting activities, Dr. O'Neill focused extensively on the structure and performance of the North American economy. Areas covered in his publications and public presentations have ranged from macroeconomic forecasts and assessment of key sectors of the economy, to examination of broader themes such as the employment effects of technological change, and the economic impact of low literacy skills.
Dr. O'Neill is currently a Director of the ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation and a member of the National Statistics Council, and of the Monetary Policy Council (C.D. Howe Institute).
Dr. O’Neill is the first Canadian economist to be elected to the Board of Governors of the Washington-based National Association for Business Economics (NABE) and served as Vice President in 2001-02. In October 2002, Dr. O’Neill was elected President and completed his term in September 2003.
Ehud I. Ronn
Professor of Finance
Jack S. Josey Professorship in Energy Studies
Director, Center for Energy Finance Education and Research
McCombs School of Business
The University of Texas at Austin
Ehud I. Ronn is a Professor of Finance at the University of Texas at Austin and Director of the Center for Energy Finance Education and Research at the McCombs School of Business.
Dr. Ronn obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Economics at the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. in Finance from Stanford University. He has published articles on investments, interest rate-sensitive instruments and energy derivatives in the academic and practitioner literature, including Journal of Finance, Journal of Business, American Economic Review and Energy & Power Risk Management. He is the editor of Real Options and Energy Management: Using Options Methodology to Enhance Capital Budgeting Decisions published in 2002 by Risk Books, London.
Prior to joining the University of Texas at Austin in July 1988, Dr. Ronn was a faculty member of the business schools at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago. While on a two-year 1991 - '93 leave of absence from the University of Texas, Dr. Ronn served as Vice President, Trading Research Group at Merrill Lynch & Co., where he was responsible for the valuation and hedging of a wide array of interest rate-sensitive securities, from callable bonds to exotic options.
Since 1993, he has served as consultant to government agencies, an insurance company, investment banks, risk advisory firms and an energy-derivative software vendor in the interest-rate and energy-commodity arenas. From May 1, 1998 to June 2001, Dr. Ronn was a principal of the Law and Economics Consulting Group. From June 4, 2001 to June 30, 2002, Dr. Ronn was Senior Advisor at PA Consulting Group. In Nov. 2004, Dr. Ronn was one of fifty individuals selected by Energy Risk Magazine to the “Energy Risk Hall of Fame."
In the energy-consulting area, Dr. Ronn has addressed the multiple issues of Risk Assessment; Construction of Optimal Hedge Portfolios; VAR and CVAR; Dual-Fuel Options; Valuation of Load-Following Services; Modeling Energy Prices and Pricing Monthly and Daily Options; and the Valuation and Optimal Management of Storage Facility. Dr. Ronn has addressed practitioner as well as academic audiences at energy-finance conferences and training courses.
See Professor Ronn's slides from the Energy Panel
