Our faculty bring years of academic research, teaching and industry experience to the Nelson Hall classrooms and beyond.
Meet Our Faculty
Christian Koch, Lecturer of Finance, Department of Business Management
Christian G. Koch brings 25 years of investment management and research experience to Poole College with previous roles in the financial services industry ranging from an equity research analyst at a mutual fund, managing director of a large institutional investment firm, trust officer at a regional bank and a portfolio manager. For the past 10 years, he has run his own independent wealth management firm.
He will be teaching two courses, BUS 320, Financial Management; and BUS 422, Investments and Portfolio Management, as well as serving as a faculty advisor for the Finance Club.
Most recently, Koch was a professor of finance at Dalton State College, which is part of the University of Georgia system. In that role, he taught three finance topic areas: fundamentals of investments, corporate finance and case studies in finance. Before that, he taught at Christopher Newport University in Virginia. Koch’s research work focuses on Warren Buffett and the major investment themes from the Warren Buffett Archive.
“Being located in Raleigh, Poole offers the perfect balance of right thinking and right feeling. It provides faculty the opportunity to educate leaders who will make a difference in the world. “
Koch earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Stetson University in 1992, a Master of Business Administration from Jacksonville University in 1993, a certificate from the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School in 2004 and a Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) from the University of South Florida in 2020.
“Being located in Raleigh, Poole offers the perfect balance of right thinking and right feeling,” said Koch. “It provides faculty the opportunity to educate leaders who will make a difference in the world. The young men and women who will contribute to the world of tomorrow are gathering together at Poole each semester.”
Shawn Mankad, Assistant Professor of Business Analytics, Department of Business Management
Shawn Mankad joins Poole College after serving as an assistant professor at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Mankad’s research focuses on developing and applying statistical methods for addressing business, economic and policy issues. He specializes in using text documents to explain and predict economic variables, in the modeling of networks to identify communities or influential nodes and to characterize network structure evolution over time. His work on developing methods for assessing the interconnectedness of financial institutions and systemic risk has been utilized in operations at the Federal Reserve Board and was also supported by funding from the National Science Foundation.
“NC State and Poole are fantastic institutions where faculty have the intellectual freedom to cut across domains in both research and teaching – it’s an exciting environment for me given my research cuts across several domains,” said Mankad.
Mankad will be teaching a section of BUS 351, Predictive Analytics, and will create two new courses: Business Analysis with SQL and Machine Learning Methods in Business. His teaching philosophy is to take a multifaceted and innovative approach to delivering course content. In addition to traditional lectures and classroom discussion, students gain hands-on experience throughout the semester in multiple ways.
Mankad received a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. From the University of Michigan, he earned a Master of Arts in statistics in 2012 and a PhD in statistics in 2013.
Fangfei Guo, Assistant Professor of Marketing Analytics, Department of Business Management
Fangfei Guo recently earned her PhD in marketing in 2022 from Texas A & M University’s Mays Business School where she taught strategic retailing at the undergraduate level. There she received the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2020.
Prior to pursuing a career in higher education, Guo served as a business intelligence and data analyst for IQVIA from 2015 to 2016 where she developed customer surveys and analyzed data with regression and visualization.
Guo’s primary research interests center on understanding consumer behaviors in various marketing settings by leveraging data-driven methodologies. More recently, her research has examined the effectiveness of online shipping policies, multichannel product returns and consumer engagement strategies on digital platforms.
Guo will be teaching MBA 562, Research Methods in Marketing, where her teaching philosophy will emphasize the linkage between theory and practice. She believes the value of teaching is helping students understand how to apply the marketing theories they learn from class in handling real-world business problems.
“Poole College attracted me because of its emphasis on integrating academic research and industry practice through analytics, which resonates with the fundamental motivation of my research and teaching interests,” said Guo. “Meanwhile, it offers a tremendous opportunity to collaborate with distinguished faculty in multiple disciplines.”
Guo earned a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from University of International Business and Economics in 2013 and a Master of Science in business analytics and project management from the University of Connecticut in 2014.
Adriana Corredor-Waldron, Assistant Professor of Microeconomics, Department of Economics
Adriana Corredor-Waldron comes to NC State from Princeton University where she held a postdoctoral associate position at the Center for Health and Wellbeing.
Corredor-Waldron’s research asks how changes in public policy affect the quality and quantity of care provided to the medically disadvantaged population. She has studied these effects in two groups: elderly with disabilities and adults with substance use disorders.
“I believe as instructors we have a unique opportunity to help build students’ sense of value and understanding of equality with their peers,” said Corredor-Waldron. “In my classes, I aim to create a question-friendly environment where all students feel comfortable participating. In addition, I encourage students to take different roles: as learners in some activities and peer instructors in other activities.”
In 2008, Corredor-Waldron received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Columbia. Additionally, she earned a Master of Philosophy in economics from the Universidad de los Andes in 2010 and a PhD in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2019. Corredor-Waldron will be teaching courses on health economics and policy this fall.
“The outstanding faculty at Poole College as well as the research triangle’s interdisciplinary collaboration opportunities attracted me to NC State,” said Corredor-Waldron. “With Poole, I have great resources to thrive in my academic career, and I feel that the college truly roots for its faculty’s success. I felt welcomed from the start and am very fortunate to be part of the Pack!”
Reza Estilaei, Professor of Practice of Finance, Department of Business Management
Reza Estilaei has a background in both the academic and corporate world of finance that he brings to the Poole College classroom. Estilaei worked for almost 18 years in investment finance for organizations including BlackRock, Canada Pension Plan and BNY Mellon.
Estilaei worked for almost 18 years in investment finance for organizations including BlackRock, Canada Pension Plan and BNY Mellon.
Most recently, Estilaei served as a faculty member at Texas State University at San Marcos since 2019 where he was the head of Bulmahn Trading Lab. His teaching and research interests include investment, portfolio management, financial options and quantitative finance.
Estilaei received master’s degrees in finance and financial engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD in physics from the University of British Columbia.
This fall Estilaei will serve as a faculty advisor for the Finance Club.
Trung Ly, Teaching Assistant Professor of Economics, Department of Economics
Before coming to NC State, Trung Ly served as an assistant professor at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, GA. Prior, Ly taught for a year as a research assistant while pursuing his PhD at the University of Notre Dame. He also brings experience working as a full-time intern for the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C. in 2017.
This fall, Ly will be teaching a course in econometrics as well as a research seminar offered by the department of economics.
“I strive to link in class materials to real world examples so students know that the materials they learn are applied in practice,” said Ly. “I also regularly update my teaching materials to incorporate the latest advances in my field so students are equipped with the most relevant skills and knowledge.”
Ly received Bachelor of Science degrees in business administration and economics and a Master of Arts in economics from the University of Missouri at St. Louis. He also holds a Master of Arts and a PhD, both in economics, from the University of Notre Dame.
“I choose Poole College of Management because of its reputation and the world-class faculty who I will be working with on a daily basis,” said Ly.
Haley Huie, Assistant Professor of Practice, Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Haley Huie joins Poole College with extensive experience in industry and in higher education at institutions on the west coast and at NC State. She spent her time in student-facing programs at NC State in her role as director for experiential learning where she had the chance to build the living-learning community for student entrepreneurs at NC State. She led other signature programs such as the Entrepreneurship Garage, Jump Start summer camp and helped begin the annual Make-A-Thon sustainability challenge on campus.
Most recently, Huie has taken the helm of the Entrepreneurship Clinic at NC State, serves as an assistant professor of practice and she runs the Andrews Launch Accelerator program.
“I believe that the most impactful experiences we offer students involve direct, real-world applications with tight feedback loops.”
“I believe that the most impactful experiences we offer students involve direct, real-world applications with tight feedback loops,” said Huie. “Our goal in the Entrepreneurship Clinic and across many of our programs at Poole and NC State is to create experiential opportunities for students to apply knowledge and skill to create real value for organizations in our community, our state and beyond.”
In the fall semester, Huie will be teaching the MIE 410 course that focuses on business opportunity analysis to evaluate entrepreneurial opportunities and will lead the MIE 418/419 courses along with Marshall Brain’s ECE 383 class. This opportunity creates an environment for students across campus to engage with clinical projects to deliver value for concepts that range from ideation to commercializing technology for large corporate innovation systems.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside Poole faculty and staff on many exciting programs, like our mentorship program, for the past five years,” said Huie. “I’ve both benefited and very much enjoyed building programs with direct impact for our students and our local entrepreneurship ecosystem. The support that I’ve received from Poole in creating the next chapter for the eClinic has been tremendous, and I look forward to celebrating many milestones within our program and the larger college.”
Huie is an NC State alumna as she earned bachelor’s degrees in public relations and journalism from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She also pursued a Master of Leadership in higher education from the American Intercontinental University.
Tom Zaganczyk, Professor of Human Resource Management, Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Since joining Poole College in January 2022, Tom Zaganczyk has taught undergraduates and MBA students and will continue this fall with MBA 590, Technology Leadership, and MIE 438, Strategic Staffing. Zaganczyk’s teaching philosophy is to present the theories and empirical evidence from organization science, psychology and sociology so that students are able to integrate it into their lives and use it to succeed in their careers.
“My goal is that students not only learn to be better managers, but also recognize the effects that their behaviors have on their coworkers and their coworkers’ families,” said Zaganczyk.
Zaganczyk has held teaching positions at the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University. Most recently, he From 2006 to 2021, he was a faculty member at Clemson University.
My goal is that students not only learn to be better managers, but also recognize the effects that their behaviors have on their coworkers and their coworkers.
His research generally addresses three main questions: how does social influence from coworkers affect how employees think and behave at work?; how does an employee’s position in the organization’s social network affect their behavior and performance?; and what can organizations do to help employees deal with stressors (such as abusive supervision, coworker exclusion and broken promises) at work? He publishes his work in journals that focus on organizational behavior, human resource management, and I-O psychology.
“Poole is a great school with a talented faculty and is on an exciting trajectory,” said Zaganczyk. The Triangle area is an amazing place to live and study organizations and it is closer to my family as well.”
Zagenczyk earned his PhD in organizational behavior and human resource management at the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh. He also has a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Pittsburgh.
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