Seth Carnahan among ‘best 40 under 40’ professors

Poets & Quants has recognized Olin’s Seth Carnahan as a Best 40 Under 40 professor.

Carnahan, associate professor of strategy, is highlighted an April 29 article that notes Carnahan, 34, is an award-winning researcher and teacher. He “has spent his early career building a strong and robust research pipeline with more than 600 Goggle Scholar citations and multiple grants and awards to boot.”

Carnahan provided “a great experience for one of my first MBA courses at WashU” with lectures that were relevant, current and generated engaging class discussion, one nominator said.

I feel as though my point of view changed greatly with regard to business strategy after having taken his class.  

Student nominator

A professor inspired him

Carnahan told Poets & Quants that he has no other academics in his family and was inspired by his strategy professor during his undergraduate. She mentioned her research during class, and “I dug up some of her papers adn read them,” he said. When he learned her job was to write papers and teach, Carnahan said he thought, “I want to do that, too.”

Carnahan’s current research is examining the “human side of firm strategy.” He explores how organizations can out-compete their competition for talent and how firms can increase the performance of employees they already have by “managing their people more effectively.”

When P&Q asked what Carnahan thinks makes him a standout professor, he replied: “Based on the feedback they give me, I think students appreciate the open, inclusive culture that I try to create in my class. I think they see my class as a safe place where they can experiment with ideas, take risks, make mistakes, and learn from each other.”

Read the full article here.