Eight new faculty members have joined the Daniels College of Business for the 2024-25 academic year in accounting, management, business information and analytics, and real estate and construction management. Several other faculty received promotions.
“Our new faculty members bring both research expertise and a deep passion for teaching,” said Lorenzo Patelli, associate dean of faculty and professor in the School of Accountancy, who facilitated a welcome breakfast at the Daniels Fund offices. There, the incoming faculty learned about Bill Daniels and his commitment to ethics. “It’s a privilege to work within, and introduce others to, a values-driven institution like ours, where integrity, trust, and accountability—principles inspired by Bill Daniels—are at the core of everything we do.”
Orkun Baycik, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Business Information and Analytics
Orkun earned his MS in industrial engineering from the University of Arkansas and his PhD in decision sciences and engineering systems at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was previously a clinical assistant professor in the Questrom School of Business at Boston University. His research focuses on modeling and disrupting illegal networks, and designing sustainable supply chains.
Ryan Chacon, Assistant Professor, Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management
Ryan Chacon earned his undergraduate degree in finance from Florida State University and his doctorate in financial economics from the University of Missouri. Before joining the faculty at Daniels, Chacon served as an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. His research, focused on the interplay between real estate and financial markets, has been published in top-tier academic journals, such as the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics and the Journal of Real Estate Research. As an educator, Chacon is passionate about teaching a wide range of real estate and finance courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Outside of academia, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, and occasionally indulging in a competitive game of pickleball.
Macy Knutson, Assistant Professor, School of Accountancy
Macy Knutson earned her PhD in business administration with an accounting emphasis from the University of South Carolina in 2024. Macy’s scholarly pursuits center on judgment and decision-making in auditing and financial accounting. Her research also explores managerial decisions regarding the disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) information and how these disclosures influence investor behavior. She is also a licensed CPA who has experience in public accounting, conducting audits for a diverse range of clients across sectors such as manufacturing, finance and nonprofit organizations.
Rebecca Manning, Assistant Professor, School of Accountancy
Rebecca Manning has a PhD in business administration (accounting) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MBA (finance) from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS (engineering) from Cornell University. Before earning her PhD, Manning worked as a portfolio manager at an asset management firm and in investment banking at UBS Investment Bank. Her research interests lie in private markets and banking, leveraging her institutional background for market- and policy-relevant accounting research. Her institutional research has appeared in the Journal of Portfolio Management; the Handbook of Finance, Financial Markets, and Instruments; and the Handbook of Municipal Securities. Manning also co-authored a book on collateralized debt obligations.
Lily Morse, Assistant Professor, Department of Management
Lily’s research examines the causes and consequences of ethical failures in organizations, including ethical challenges posed by AI. She has published in leading disciplinary journals such as Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, MIS Quarterly, Nature Machine Intelligence, and Journal Personality and Social Psychology. She currently teaches courses on negotiation and organizational behavior. Lily earned her PhD at Carnegie Mellon University and her BA at the University of Texas at Austin.
Elaine Richards, Assistant Professor of the Practice, Department of Management
Elaine Richards is the chief operating officer at 37signals, a software company best known for Basecamp, project management software and HEY, an email platform. She has also held executive level positions in operations, sales and marketing at several technology and marketing companies, including Cars.com and Wyzant, an ed tech company.
Elaine has a BA in journalism and an MBA from the University of Southern California. She is currently completing her DBA in management at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business. Her research interests are in the future of work and the corresponding changes in management practices.
Asim Shrestha, Teaching Assistant Professor, Department of Business Information and Analytics
Asim earned his MS in system sciences and PhD in information systems and decision sciences from Louisiana State University. He was previously an assistant professor of business data analytics and computer and information science at Arkansas Tech University. His teaching interests are in database management and business process improvement. His research interests are in information systems innovation and sentiment analysis
Mingrui “Ray” Zhang, Assistant Professor, Department of Business Information and Analytics
Ray earned his MA in economics from Columbia University and his PhD in information systems from the University of Washington. His research interests are in consumer behavior, FinTech, innovation, and e-commerce.
Faculty Promotions
In addition to the new faculty joining this fall, several current Daniels faculty members have been promoted. They are:
- Jack Buffington, associate professor of the practice, Department of Marketing
- Aaron Duncan, associate teaching professor, Department of Marketing
- Eric Holt, associate professor of the practice, Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management
- Irina Khindanova, teaching professor, Reiman School of Finance
- YJ Lee, professor, Department of Business Information and Analytics
- Libbi Levine Segev, teaching professor, Department of Business Ethics and Legal Studies
- Kerry Mitchell, associate teaching professor, Department of Management
- Michael Myers, teaching professor, Department of Marketing
- Joshua Ross, associate teaching professor, Entrepreneurship@DU
- Amrik Singh, professor, Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality Management
- Daniel Trujillo, associate professor of the practice, Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management
- Andrew Urbaczewski, professor, Department of Business Information and Analytics