In this ongoing series, we’ll profile Ivey’s newest faculty, giving you insights into their work and lives.
With citizenships in Israel, Australia and the United States, making the move to Canada seemed natural for Associate Professor Gal Raz. He and his wife Kelly, who also teaches at Ivey, and their three daughters moved to London this past summer, where Raz (who defines himself as a political junky) experienced the excitement of watching the 2015 federal election and survived the initial shock of Canada’s tax system.
For the past eight years, Raz taught at the Darden Graduate School of Business in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he was heavily ingrained in the case method.
“I’m a big believer in the case method and what makes a good faculty in business schools, which is the interaction between teaching and research and being connected to the industry,” said Raz. “This is one of the things that attracted me to Ivey because teaching is appreciated here, as well as the importance of grounded academic research that is based on real industry problems.”
This year, Raz will teach HBAs in operations management. Next year, he will also teach EMBAs in core operations, and he plans to teach supply chain management and innovation electives in the future.
Raz has designed and taught a variety of course electives that he hopes to introduce to the Ivey curriculum. In particular, his field course at Darden on global innovation, which brought students to Israel to work with Israeli startups.
“The students went to Israel for two weeks, but before that, we spent four weeks working with the startups to see how they could bring their products to the U.S. market,” explained Raz. “The students developed market research and learned customer behaviours, and then we went to Israel where they would do their final presentations for the startups.”
In addition to taking initiatives on course development, Raz also looks forward to being involved in his School. Since joining Ivey, he has become a member of the HBA Curriculum Implementation Committee.
“When I’m part of an organization, I like to be able to contribute to its success,” said Raz. “I also think it’s a great way to learn about the organization, its values and culture.”
At a Glance
WHO: Gal Raz, Associate Professor, Operations Management
PAST OCCUPATION: Raz comes from the Darden Graduate School of Business in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he was an Associate Professor of Business. He also served as a Visiting Associate Professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2014, a Visiting Associate Professor at the Israel Institute of Technology in 2010, and a Senior Lecturer at the Australian Graduate School of Management from 2006-2007.
RESEARCH INTEREST: Raz’s original work focused on supply chain management and the issues of supply chain contracts. In the last few years, his main focus has been on sustainable operations, where he looks at issues of environmental innovations, remanufacturing, and government environmental policies.
FINDINGS: By measuring their environmental and social impact, firms can evaluate where to invest more in order to have the largest impact not only economically, but also environmentally and socially.
RELEVANCE: Firm’s environmental actions such as remanufacturing and investing in environmental innovations, while profitable, can have negative environmental impact due to both market growth and shifts within the firm’s product line.
FUN FACT: With citizenships in Israel, Australia and the United States, Raz is without a doubt a global citizen. He also lived in Argentina for three years as a child.
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