Johnson Management Committee

Benjamin Davis

Associate Dean, Alumni Affairs and Development

Benjamin P. DavisBenjamin Davis is a Cornell alumnus who graduated from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1988 with a degree in animal science, Davis earned an MPA from the University of New Hampshire while working for the UNH Cooperative Extension and the NH 4-H program. In 2000, after leading UNH’s 4-H fundraising program, Davis returned to Cornell as the executive director of the New York State 4-H Foundation. He joined Cornell’s Alumni Affairs and Development team in 2001, first as a gift officer for CALS, and later, in 2003, in the central AA&D special gifts program. In 2007, Davis joined the major gifts staff, and in 2012 became a major gifts officer for Johnson. In the five years Davis has been at Johnson the program has experienced unprecedented growth, with Davis managing relationships with many of the School’s most significant donors and partnering with faculty and staff to help fulfill his prospects’ philanthropic objectives.

Allan Filipowicz

Associate Dean, Executive Education
Clinical Professor of Management and Organizations

Allan Filipowicz headshotAllan Filipowicz's research focuses on how emotions drive or impede leadership effectiveness, at both the intrapersonal and interpersonal levels. Within this domain, he studies the relationship between emotions and risky decision making; the influence of humor on both leadership and negotiation effectiveness; and the impact of emotional transitions in negotiations. Full faculty bio >


Vishal Gaur

Associate Dean, MBA Programs
Professor of Operations Management

Vishal GaurVishal Gaur was appointed Associate Dean for MBA Programs in 2014 after serving as Professor of Operations Management since 2012. In this new role, Gaur will be responsible for oversight of Ithaca MBA Programs, Student Services, Career Management Center, Leadership Programs and the Roy Park Leadership Fellows Program. Gaur teaches the MBA core course in operations management and an MBA elective course in retail operations. He was awarded the Clifford H. Whitcomb Faculty Fellowship in 2010-11, the Johnson Core Faculty Award by the graduating class of 2008, the Wickham Skinner Early Career Research Accomplishments Award by Production and Operations Management Society in 2006, and honorable mention in the George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award Competition in 2001. Full faculty bio >

Brenda Jahnke

Executive Director, Marketing and Communications

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Brenda Jahnke is responsible for overseeing the development and execution of integrated marketing and communication plans for Johnson’s graduate programs. In her role on the Management Committee, she also leads Johnson’s long-range marketing, branding, and strategic planning efforts.

Jahnke joined the Johnson community in July 2018. She came to Johnson from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where she led marketing strategy, research, and analytics as the school’s marketing director. Prior to that, she spent four years at the University of Queensland Business School, where she led marketing and the launch of a new brand and merger at the school. Before focusing on higher education, Jahnke worked for Mintel, a global market research and intelligence agency, in the area of financial services. There, she was responsible for brand insights, market research, reporting, and strategy support for key financial clients. Jahnke holds an MBA from the University of Queensland Business School in Australia and a BS from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Michael Nowlis

Associate Dean for Executive MBA Programs

Mike NowlisMichael Nowlis is Associate Dean for Executive MBA Programs at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of ManagementCornell University. He previously worked for Cornell as Lecturer and Director of the IMHI MBA program in Paris.

Nowlis previously served as Dean for Corporate and Professional Education at Stevens Institute of Technology (USA), Director of the Senior Executive Program at London Business School (UK) and Director of the TIO International Executive Program at Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden). His other educational posts have included Department Chairman at Johnson & Wales University (USA) and Professor at the Centre International de Glion (Switzerland). He has delivered guest lectures at more than 40 universities. His professional activities have taken him to more than 100 countries.

A US citizen who lived in Europe for 30 years, Nowlis held senior management positions at both the corporate and unit level. He has published numerous articles, book chapters, book reviews and online monographs. He has served on the editorial boards of five professional and academic journals and is a member of fifteen professional and scholarly associations, many of which he has served as an officer and board member. Most recently, he completed a term as Vice Chairman of the United Nations WTO Business Council (private sector arm of the UNWTO). Nowlis received a Bachelor of Science in Management Summa cum Laude from Johnson & Wales University and a Master of Letters in International Relations with Distinction from the University of Aberdeen. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in International Strategic Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Laura Syer

Associate Dean, Administration and Finance

Laura E. SyerLaura Syer is responsible for providing leadership to Johnson’s administrative units in Finance, IT, Facilities and HR while supporting the academic mission of the School. In her role on the Management Committee, she also leads the organization’s long-range planning efforts in her respective areas.

Syer joined the Johnson community in 2013 and in her prior position as the Executive Director of Finance and Business Intelligence, she led extensive process improvements for budgeting, reporting, and data analysis. Prior to Johnson, Syer held a management role in the Division of Budget and Planning at Cornell and was responsible for leading an extensive university-wide reporting effort. Before Cornell, she worked in International Finance at ESPN under the Walt Disney Company where, in her last management role, she was responsible for financial reporting for ESPN entities in South America, Central America, Mexico and the Deportes TV Network. Syer holds a BA from Ohio University, an MS from Canisius College and an MBA from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.


Stijn M.J. van Osselaer

Associate Dean, Academic Affairs
Cornell S.C. Johnson College of Business, Professor of Marketing

Stijn M.J. van Osselaer headshot Stijn M.J. van Osselaer is an internationally known scholar in the areas of marketing strategy and consumer behavior. His research focuses on branding, customer loyalty, connecting customers with service providers, and the influences of learning, memory, and cognition in consumers' decisions. His work has appeared in numerous publications including the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, and many other scientific journals.

Associate Dean van Osselaer joined Johnson in 2013 after teaching at the Rotterdam School of Management of Erasmus University and the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. He serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and International Journal of Research in Marketing, and twice served as an associate editor at the Journal of Consumer Research. He received a PhD from Warrington College of Business at University of Florida and a degree in Psychology from University of Leuven.

Full faculty bio >