Sessions

Rishi Behari is professional consultant, educator, speaker, and commentator across media, specializing in addressing the intersections of AI and technology with the realties of modern society, work, and life. The former Associate Director of the world’s first premiere master’s business program to merge education in AI and technology with business fundamentals, Rishi also teaches and lectures in these areas in post-secondary education. As an extension of his work in the classroom, Rishi continues to lead and advocate for innovation and a critical dialogue around these issues within and beyond academia. Rishi’s ongoing consulting has him embedded in conversations with, and gleaning insights from working with some of the most well known and trusted brands in the world.

Stacey Fitzsimmons brings a passion for helping individuals and organizations realize the strengths of a diverse workforce. Her research goal is to improve the way people work with others across differences.

Her current research examines how globally mobile employees contribute to their teams and organizations. This includes migrants, immigrants, refugees, multicultural employees, and other forms of diversity in international organizations. For example, when one person can see the world through more than one cultural lens, they can use those lenses to solve problems, build networks across groups and think differently than people who have one culture. Her research helps organizations value multicultural employees’ skills that often go unrecognized. Read Harvard Business Review's coverage of her research about discovering whether you’re multicultural, and intersectional pay gaps across gender, race, mother tongue and immigrant generation. You can also read summaries of her research about the organizational benefits of bicultural employees and integrating refugee employees.

See below for her awards, publications, current projects, and opportunities to connect. In addition to her role at University of Victoria, she is also a research associate at GIBS, South Africa. She is currently an associate editor at the Academy of Management Perspectives, serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of International Business Policy, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Business Research, and is serving a second term on the board of WAIB. Prior to joining the University of Victoria in 2014, she enjoyed three years as an assistant professor at Western Michigan University.

A diversely skilled professional, Amber McMillan specializes in all aspects of leadership, communication and interest-holder management. She has a unique aptitude for leading complex conversations and works hard to create and sustain productive dialog through team building exercises, positive motivation and her own contagious enthusiasm.

With tangible credentials and over 30 years of experience in both profit and not-for-profit environments, she is committed to learning and growing while continuing to practice her profession. Amber excels as an empathetic visionary, establishing creative ways forward in complicated multiple interest-holder communities. Often referred to as an ‘agent of change’, with wide-ranging communication and service experience, her passion continues to drive innovation in her work. She is eager to share both her successes and failures in benefit to others, reflected in her favorite quote:

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” —Maya Angelou

Interest-holders who work alongside Amber appreciate her honesty, transparency, unique insight and tangible advice for immediate use.

She currently serves as ED/Chief Visionary Officer of Rogers Society, Past President of PMI Vancouver Island/Yukon, Past Chair of the International Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration and Executive Educator for York University/Schulich School of Business, University of Victoria - Gustavson School of Business, Continuing Studies and BioMedical Engineering and UBC-BME.

Dr. Rick Cotton began teaching at the Gustavson School of Business in 2015, bringing a passion for understanding how individuals thrive in their careers and how talent management practices can foster sustainable organizational, team and individual success in a variety of country, industry and occupational contexts.

Rick’s research focuses on better understanding how human capital, social capital and positive psychological capital foster success and resilience at multiple levels of analysis from individual to country levels. He seeks to understand how individuals can better thrive in their careers and better handle challenging work contexts around the world. In particular, Rick studies high achievers including hall-of-famers, leaders and managers as well as those in challenging work contexts including Australian women miners, correctional officers, serial entrepreneurs, HR professionals who have laid off thousands of employees and organizations recovering from scandal. He is also very interested in researching how countries and societies can move forward to achieve a variety of meaningful objectives.

Rick is a principal co-investigator for the 140+ country Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research program (learn more about the project), a core research team member of the 40 country Cross-Cultural Collaboration on Contemporary Careers (5C), the 2022-23 division chair for the Academy of Management’s nearly 1,000 member Careers Division, a Gustavson Centre for Social and Sustainable Innovation fellow and a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the University of Michigan Center for Positive Organizations Community of Scholars and the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

Rick has written several book chapters and his research has appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Journal, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Career Development International, Business Horizons and the Journal of Management Inquiry as well as in media outlets including BC Business, CFAX 1070 radio, CHEK News, Douglas Magazine, EFMD Global Focus, iHeartRadio, Globe & Mail, Inc., Toronto Star, UPI, Victoria News and Your Workplace. His research has been awarded several grants and he has won 5 Academy of Management Best Paper awards and has 15 articles that have earned Academy of Management Proceedings honours in addition to being awarded three Gustavson Leader of Excellence in Research Awards and being recognized 6 times as a ‘Most Memorable Professor’ for his teaching prior to coming to UVic.

Before pursuing his PhD, Rick worked in financial futures for Citibank in London, as a change management consultant and manager with Accenture and as a SVP of Learning and Development supporting U.S. and Japanese employees at Putnam Investments (part of Great-West Lifeco). Rick earned his PhD from Boston College before working as an assistant professor at Appalachian State University prior to coming to UVic. Rick also enjoys facilitating executive education sessions and consulting. His clients have included Aetna, BC Ferries, General Electric, the Hay Group, Harbour Air, the Intercultural Association of Greater Victoria, Pepsi, Sapient, Tourism Victoria, United Technologies, Cridge Centre for the Family and several other primarily services-based firms, governmental entities and multinationals. 

Known for his passion for excellent customer service and his innovative teaching style, Dr. Mark Colgate serves as an associate professor of service excellence and an associate dean with the UVic Gustavson School of Business. He helps to inspire students, new faculty members and guide the school’s brand, culture and growth.

Mark’s primary research areas are service excellence, financial services marketing and sports coaching. His research, which has been published in journals such as the Sloan Management Review, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Service Research and the Journal of Business Research, advances our understanding of the science of service excellence. He brings a coaching, mentorship approach that blends the science of service with the front line delivery of sales and service in a professional way. His goal is for practitioners to benefit from the academic framework and models to provide an unforgettable customer experience.

Mark’s teaching reflects his research and he has taught many courses in marketing management, service excellence, the 8 moments of power, and financial services marketing at undergraduate, postgraduate and executive levels.

In 2013, Mark received the prestigious UVic Harry Hickman Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has earned similar awards throughout his career including teaching excellence awards from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and in 2003, 2004 and 2007 from his students at the Gustavson School of Business.

Mark joined UVic in 2002 and is a regular professor at the China European Business School in Shanghai, the leading business school in China, and he has also taught in the U.K., Ireland, New Zealand and Canada. He’s consulted for many service organizations including the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, TELUS, ASB Bank, the Bank of Ireland, the Bank of New Zealand, Kiwi Experience, Sony, Toyota and Enerco.

Jill McAbe is the founder and CEO of Create Beyond Limits Inc., a company that integrates the science of performance and brand strategy to develop intelligent, human-first AI tools that help teams work smarter, communicate more clearly and scale with ease.

Through her ventures—True2Brand™, a brand strategy consultancy, accelerator, and AI SaaS, and Owlwayz.ai, a managed AI system for scaling internal knowledge and delivery—Jill helps organizations align strategy, storytelling and systems to drive meaningful results.

She is the creator of the STORI™ Method, a narrative development framework that enables businesses to craft authentic messaging, define psychographic alignment, and lead with truth. Jill is widely recognized for teaching story at a strategic level, linking backstory, voice, and positioning into narratives that both sell and scale.

Her background includes leadership, growth strategy, operational efficiency, and systems design, with a deep passion for making complexity simple, teachable and scalable.

Jill speaks on positioning, STORI-based marketing, and the science of breakthroughs, frequently collaborating with educators, entrepreneurs, and innovation teams to uncover new possibilities and implement them with clarity and ease.

She believes AI should enhance human capacity—not replace it—and works with organizations seeking to harness AI in ways that empower people and unlock their potential.

Christian Van Buskirk brings over 25 years industry experience in the private and public sectors to his position as assistant teaching professor at Gustavson, ranging from marketing and coordinating province-wide tourism initiatives to owning and operating a destination marketing organization (DMO) and customer experience management consulting business. Christian has worked with both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations to create and execute marketing and management initiatives in areas including experience management, observational research, branding and marketing communications.

Christian joined Gustavson in 2014 and teaches in all levels of the business school, from first to fourth year as well as in our MBA program. He teaches several courses in the area of marketing and management. He was the recipient of the Gustavson School of Business Excellence in Teaching Award in 2020.

Most recently, Christian has been involved in community-based tourism skills and tourism entrepreneurship skills training as well as sustainable tourism education. Christian acts as the North American representative on a 3-year project, funded by the LEGO Foundation as part of the United Nations-supported initiative, Principles of Responsible Management in Education (PRME). As part of this pedagogy expert team, he collaborates with a global education community to develop a “Playbook” of teaching materials and instructional strategies that will give educators effective ways to teach sustainable, responsible management to business students.