Olin Business School Leadership

Dean Michael J. Mazzeo

Mike Mazzeo is dean and Knight Family Professor at WashU Olin Business School. He joined Olin after a 25-year career as a researcher, scholar and educator at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he was a professor of strategy and a faculty associate at the university’s Institute for Policy Research. Mazzeo has had a distinguished and prolific career as a researcher, and his work—focused on empirical industrial organization—has been cited thousands of times.

Students have recognized Mazzeo with teaching awards numerous times for his work as a strategy instructor in Kellogg’s MBA and executive MBA programs. He served as faculty director for Kellogg’s evening and weekend MBA programs and its Master of Science in management studies program. He was the school’s senior associate dean for curriculum and teaching from 2017 through 2020.

As a scholar, Mazzeo has developed new statistical methodologies for examining the relationship between product differentiation and market competition, with insights spanning the airline, banking, healthcare, hospitality, retail and telecommunications industries and applications for both business strategy and antitrust analysis. He serves on the editorial board of the Review of Industrial Organization and is coauthor of Roadside MBA: Back Road Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives and Small Business Owners.

That 2014 book, a collaboration with fellow business professors from Stanford and the University of Utah, was based on visits with more than 250 small- and medium-size businesses over a dozen years. Covering more than 30 states and 12 countries, the team shared stories illustrating the important concepts taught in leading MBA programs.

Mazzeo’s research has been published in leading journals, including the Rand Journal of Economics, the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Marketing Science, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Review of Industrial Organization, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, and the Journal of Industrial Economics.

At Kellogg, Mazzeo was the point person for the school’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and used that experience to innovate in the school’s working professional degree programs.

Mazzeo earned his PhD in economics from Stanford University in 1998 and was immediately hired on to the faculty at Kellogg. Previously, he earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and urban studies at Stanford in 1991.

His child attends New York University. Outside of work, he volunteers on the board of directors for Chicago-based Howard Brown Health, which provides affirming healthcare services to the LGBTQ+ community and is one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ+ nonprofits.

Markus Baer

Vice Dean for Degree and Nondegree Executive Education and Professor of Organizational Behavior

Markus Baer is a tenured, full professor of organizational behavior and has been on WashU Olin’s faculty since 2006. Baer oversees the academic aspects of Olin’s executive education portfolio, including three Executive MBA programs in St. Louis, Mumbai and Shanghai, as well as nondegree executive education in St. Louis and Washington, DC; in partnership with Brookings; and virtual formats. His research examines creativity and innovation and all its related activities—problem formulation, idea generation, idea selection and idea implementation. His research has been published in leading academic journals and has won multiple awards, including the “Olin Award Recognizing Research That Impacts Business.” Baer has been honored as one of the world's “Best 40 Business Professors Under 40.” He earned his PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign and holds an MA from the University of Giessen in Germany.

Todd Gormley

Vice Dean for Education and Professor of Finance

Todd Gormley serves as Olin’s Vice Dean for Education. In this role, he has oversight of the academic administration portfolio, including undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as adjunct faculty members. His research focuses on why managers sometimes fail to act in the best interest of shareholders and what governance arrangements mitigate these conflicts. His most recent research has analyzed the growing impact of indexed investment products on firms and markets. Gormley earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Michigan State University and his PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He originally joined Olin in 2006 before moving to The Wharton School in 2009, returning to Olin in 2016.

Brent Jenson

Senior Associate Dean of Finance and Operations

Brent Jenson is the school’s chief financial officer responsible for fiscal oversight of Olin, including financial planning, reporting and accounting. A key component of his role is aligning budgets with the strategic direction of the school. Jenson also directs the school’s operations, encompassing I/S, A/V, general services, faculty support and Knight Center/food service operations. He has been with WashU for more than 20 years and holds a WashU Olin MBA.

Mark Leary

Co-Vice Dean of Faculty and Research and Professor of Finance

Mark Leary joined WashU Olin's faculty in 2010. In his role as co-vice dean, Leary oversees senior faculty and all aspects of faculty research support. His research investigates the motives behind corporate financial policy decisions, including leverage, security issuance, dividend and share repurchase decisions. He taught previously at Cornell University and, prior to his academic career, worked for CVS Corp. and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Leary holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Rutgers University, an MBA from New York University and a PhD in finance from Duke University.

Robyn LeBoeuf

Co-Vice Dean of Faculty and Research and Joyce and Chauncy Buchheit Distinguished Professor in Marketing

Robyn LeBoeuf joined WashU Olin’s faculty in 2014. As co-vice dean of faculty and research, she oversees junior and teaching-track faculty and manages the promotion and tenure process. In her research, she strives to understand how people make decisions and to explore the subtle factors that bias those decisions. An award-winning teacher and researcher, LeBoeuf has taught marketing, decision-making and consumer behavior courses across WashU Olin’s undergraduate and graduate programs. She earned her undergraduate degree in psychology and statistics from American University and her PhD in psychology from Princeton University.

Jackie Lorrainne

Senior Associate Dean of People and Culture and Chief of Staff

Jackie Lorrainne oversees the dean’s administrative and executive support functions and ensures smooth operations and effective time, information and decision management. She oversees all HR and payroll operations, partnering with academic and administrative leadership to provide guidance on people issues, organizational structure, change management, employee engagement and performance management. Lorrainne has been with WashU for 15 years and previously served as a senior advisor to the vice provost and university librarian. She’s an Olin EMBA alumna with a doctorate in higher education leadership from Maryville University.

Joe MacDonald

Senior Associate Dean for Strategy and Innovation

Joe MacDonald leads school-wide strategic planning, advances university partnerships and initiatives, and leads the marketing and communications, business development and customer relationship management teams. Prior to joining Olin in March of 2024, MacDonald served in WashU’s office of the provost as the assistant provost and director of strategy, transformation and impact. In this capacity, he served as the executive director of the university’s strategic plan, Here and Next, and co-lead for its implementation. He earned his master’s and PhD in Classics from WashU and his bachelor’s from Middlebury College.

Gisele Marcus

Vice Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Professor of Practice

Gisele Marcus works closely with Dean Mazzeo on strategic initiatives to enhance Olin’s ongoing commitment to building and maintaining an inclusive, pluralistic and diverse environment. Her responsibilities include facilitating programs to support the integration of diverse students, staff and faculty into the community, facilitating dialogue on diversity, equity and inclusion, and serving as a catalyst for change. In addition, Marcus is a professor of practice, teaching a required DEI-focused course to MBA students. Her 20+ years of experience includes working with companies like AT&T, Johnson Controls, Cushman & Wakefield, and Thermo Fisher Scientific. Her MBA is from Harvard Business School, and her bachelor’s degree is from Syracuse University.