Cullman Symposium

Aravind Chandrasekaran (AC) was named interim dean of The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business in June 2025, bringing more than 15 years of experience as an operations management expert and academic leader at the college. 

Before his appointment, AC served as senior associate dean for faculty, research and non-degree executive education ― a role in which he spearheaded innovative enhancements to Fisher’s teaching, research and outreach priorities. 

Prior to that position, he was the college’s associate dean for graduate programs and executive education, managing a diverse portfolio that included the Full-Time MBA, Working Professional MBA (WPMBA), Specialized Masters, Executive MBA, Master of Business in Operational Excellence (MBOE) and custom executive education offerings. 

AC is a highly respected teacher in the classroom and thought leader in research. His work, which explores innovation, organizational learning and knowledge creation across sectors such as high-tech R&D, manufacturing and health care delivery, has been published in top academic journals. His recent research focuses on the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethics and operational excellence.

He holds a PhD in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Minnesota.

As the Executive Director of the Center for Innovation Strategies, Paul’s mission is to partner with key university stakeholders to establish a unified, overarching innovation collaboration strategy that maximizes value creation for Ohio State. His commercialization experience and industry relationships have uniquely prepared him to lead CIS. The Ohio State University Center for Innovation Strategies is an official academic center of The Ohio State University housed at the Fisher College of Business. The center facilitates innovation-based learning and experiences that will impact the global economy by assisting in new company formation and the development of new products and services within existing businesses.

Roger Bailey began his career as a lecturer of mathematics and statistics at Northern Arizona University.  After earning a PhD in Economics from Vanderbilt University, he joined Fisher’s Department of Marketing and Logistics in 2013. Since then, he has advised over 40 Undergraduate Honor Theses through the Undergraduate Honors Contract Program. Roger served as Academic Director for the Full-Time MBA program from 2018 to 2023, implementing a large program redesign and working to create a new STEM-designated MBA specialization. He currently serves as the Associate Dean of Executive Education and Centers. In addition to his faculty position in Marketing, Roger serves in a courtesy appointment in the Department of Engineering Education.

He teaches a wide variety of undergraduate, graduate and executive education courses in marketing research, pricing, business analytics, market analysis and forecasting, and applied economics. A passionate educator and recipient of several teaching awards, his research interests are in combining theory from classical and behavioral economics with modern modeling techniques to construct prescriptive models in pricing and product design. His speaking and consulting work focuses on market research, optimal pricing, behavioral response, economic forecasting and state-of-the-art methods in marketing. Having adopted AI training in his coursework since 2023, Roger is actively engaged in the design and implementation of AI methods in both theory and practical application.

Dan Haber is a Co-founder and CFO of Mova.AI, an AI conversation intelligence platform used by enterprises in mortgage and banking. He has spent more than twenty years inventing and commercializing new technologies across regulated industries including healthcare, aviation, and financial services. He has more than 10 years of experience building innovation teams and sustainably building profitable, fast-growing startups without reliance on venture funding. His work has spanned a global research institution and a Fortune 100 enterprise to startups he co-founded and led. At Mova he has turned toward the operator’s side of the same problem, building the financial, ops, and compliance foundation a young company needs to rapidly scale in regulated industries. Much of his career has involved bringing institutions together around goals none of them could reach alone and he mentors founders focused on building businesses with innovation, human development, and sustainability at their core. He holds an MBA from The Ohio State University and has built ventures in Ohio for two decades. 

Joan Smith has more than 25 years of experience in automotive engineering, product development and innovation. She focuses on human-AI collaboration and helping organizations translate emerging research into meaningful, real-world applications. Joan holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering technology from the University of Dayton and a master’s degree in cognitive systems engineering from The Ohio State University.

Tylan Tschopp is an accomplished and visionary leader recognized for his ability to cultivate and empower diverse global, multidisciplinary teams to tackle business challenges with passion and efficiency. With more than 16 years of professional experience in design, Tylan has demonstrated his exceptional leadership capabilities by spearheading Industrial Design and Innovation initiatives across three business units at Stanley Black & Decker. Currently serving as the Executive Vice President of Innovation and Industrial Design at Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Tylan continues to drive innovation and design to engage new challenges. Throughout his career, he has achieved significant milestones, including the development of a pioneering licensing co-development strategy that catapulted business growth from $700 million to $4.3 billion. Additionally, he has led the conception and execution of four Visual Design Languages and holds an impressive portfolio of over 70 patents. Tylan earned his degree in Industrial Design from The Ohio State University.

Jennifer "Jenny" Heckscher has more than 25 years of experience managing innovation and growth initiatives in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. As senior director of The Ohio State University Center for Innovation Strategies, she provides consultation and learning experiences for organizations, with a goal of aligning strategy, people and processes to create value. Prior to joining Ohio State, Jenny worked at Nationwide for over 10 years, most recently as an AVP of Product Management for the retirement plan division, where she helped launch a platform for new product innovation that became a growth engine for that division. She is also an adjunct faculty member for the online MPA program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she teaches organization theory. She earned two bachelor's degrees from Ohio State and a master’s degree in public policy and management from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.