Schulich School of Business Professor Markus Giesler has been named one of the “40 Most Outstanding B-School Profs Under 40 in the World” by management education website Poets&Quants. The list recognizes rising stars who are “outperforming senior teaching staff, winning the admiration of their students and producing standout scholarship”.
Giesler was the youngest marketing professor to be hired by a North American business school when he joined York’s Schulich School of Business in 2004. Today, he is an associate professor of marketing and the PhD program coordinator for marketing. Courses he teaches include Entertainment Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Customer Experience Design and Marketing Management, and he is a winner and four-time finalist of the Seymour Schulich Award in Teaching Excellence.
“Markus is a master at weaving a compelling narrative for various brands,” said former student Cary Walkin (MBA ’13), CPA, CA. “This made Markus's lectures one of a kind and cutting edge within marketing at Schulich. His significant breadth of knowledge and expertise meant that every class felt new and exciting as he'd challenge the class to think beyond their textbooks. . . . I left his class with a new appreciation for marketing."
Giesler uses a sociological approach in his research to understand what drives the success of products in dynamic market systems such as digital, pharmaceutical or automotive markets, and how firms can develop effective marketing strategies for such products. He has conducted applied research with several technology-focused companies such as Apple, BMW, Google and Allergan. In addition, he also has several ongoing projects exploring issues related to other market and consumption systems and the use of qualitative methodologies in marketing.
His research has been supported by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and the European Research Council, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing and Marketing Theory and covered by a wide range of media outlets such as the New York Times, Time Magazine and Businessweek. Wired Magazine has declared Giesler "one of the best recognized experts studying high-technology consumer behavior."
In addition to teaching and advising several doctoral students, Giesler serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Consumer Research and on the Editorial Advisory Board of Consumption, Markets, and Culture. He is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Association for Consumer Research and the American Sociological Association, and is also a member of a rock band called RockSoldiers. He has also initiated the Sidney J. Levy Award that is given to the best dissertation article on a culturally oriented marketing or consumer research topic published in the preceding year.
The list of professors on Poets&Quants’ "Top 40 Under 40" represent elite schools from around the world. According to the blog, which received nominations from business school officials, faculty, students and alumni, “these uncommon profs have excelled in research” but more weight was given to teaching because “even the best researchers must convey their material compellingly to be effective in the classroom”.
As a result of being named among Poets&Quants’ “Top 40 Under 40″, Giesler was featured in Fortune magazine’s list of “8 young B-school professors on the rise”. The magazine described him as “a dynamic instructor willing to go to extreme lengths to drive a point home, even setting his PhD dissertation on fire as part of one demonstration” and said “the German-born professor eschews textbooks in favor of real-world cases and hands-on experience. He spends summers touring Europe with his band.”
To see the full article, visit the Poets & Quants website.