Curriculum

Alanna Lazarowich is a Senior Director of Kellogg Executive Programs. She leads several Kellogg custom programs focused on innovation and strategy and is an award-winning and Harvard Publishing “Top Selling” author on bringing technology to market. Alanna is a strategic advisor to Pro-Wear Gear, a family-owned business, which holds a patent for soft body armor. She is also Founder of 3Is Leadership and Executive Coaching.

Before joining the Executive Education team, Alanna helped lead two of Kellogg’s most prolific research centers: the Center for Science of Science and Innovation (CSSI) and the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). During this tenure, Alanna was the organizing chair of the inaugural International Conference on Computational Social Science. She also co-authored “Evaluating the Cognitive Analytics Frontier” which was awarded first place in the Emerging Technology category from EFMD. She helped develop curriculum for the first AI focused MBA course at Kellogg and moderated weekly research seminars on A.I. and data science.

A former consultant on corporate innovation and strategy, Alanna spent 15 years helping clients identify, launch and lead initiatives at Deloitte, Kearney and Northwestern Medicine. She received numerous ‘Great Client Work’ awards on topics ranging from strategic partnerships to new product development.  Alanna led the interdisciplinary analysis of proton beam technology for Northwestern Medicine resulting in an investment of $150M and the first center in Illinois/6th in the U.S.

Alanna served for nearly a decade as a Foreign Service officer for the United States Department of State. As a U.S. diplomat, Alanna focused on topics of a scientific nature and was involved in international negotiations related to intellectual property.

Alanna received her MBA in Strategy and Finance from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and her B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. She also holds a certificate in A.I. Strategy from MIT and a certificate in executive coaching from Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy. Alanna is a triathlete and is fluent in Spanish.

Ed Zajac joined the faculty of the Kellogg School of Management after completing his Ph.D. in organization and strategy at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. At Kellogg, he received the James F. Bere Chair and the Sidney J. Levy Teaching Award. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cologne and a visiting scholar at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Free University of Berlin, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Zurich. He is an elected Fellow of both the Academy of Management and the Strategic Management Society, and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Free University of Berlin. Professor Zajac's research, teaching, and consulting focuses on strategy, alliances, and corporate governance. His award-winning research has been published widely in major academic journals, such as the Strategic Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, American Sociological Review, Psychological Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He has been recognized in the Institute of Scientific Information's yearly list of "most highly cited researchers" worldwide (representing less than one-half of one percent of all published researchers), and his work has garnered over 34,000 citations over his Kellogg career. He has also received the following career awards from the Academy of Management:  The Distinguished Scholar Award (Organization and Management Theory Division), the Outstanding Educator Award (Strategic Management Division), the Distinguished Service Award (Strategic Management Division), and the Outstanding Scholar Award (Western Academy of Management). He also served for many years as Co-Editor of the Strategic Management Journal.

Professor Zajac has developed a number of courses at Kellogg in his areas of expertise: Creating and Managing Strategic Alliances addresses the design and management of joint ventures, licensing agreements, consortia, and other structures for cooperation. Advanced Strategic Management examines how organizations can better adapt to changing environments by holistically addressing both strategy formulation and implementation challenges. Corporate Governance analyzes the interdependent roles of the CEO, board of directors, shareholders and other stakeholders in the modern corporation, both in the U.S. and abroad.

Professor Zajac is also active in executive education and consulting in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America in the areas of strategy formulation and implementation, strategic alliances, and corporate governance.  He has worked with organizations such as Abbott, AstraZeneca, Baxter, Blue Cross/Blue Shield (the Association, HCSC, and the Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, North Carolina, and North Dakota plans), Brady, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Brunswick, Cargill, Caterpillar, Cigna, Commonwealth Edison, ConocoPhillips, Cooper Tire & Rubber, Copersucar, R.R. Donnelly, Edwards Lifesciences, FTI Ringtail, General Mills, W.W. Grainger, Harnischfeger, Hearst, Healthways, Hollister, Hu-Friedy, IBM, Idealease, the Institute for Corporate Directors (Canada), Johnson & Johnson, Land O'Lakes, Libbey, Eli Lilly, MARKEM, Merck, Monsanto, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Premier, Procter & Gamble, Public Service Company of New Mexico, O'Melveny & Myers, Rockwell Automation, Rockwell Collins, RSM, Sanofi-Aventis, Savoy Brands Internacional, Schering-Plough, Siemens, Topco, Toyota, Zurich Insurance, several U.S. governmental agencies, and numerous professional associations (particularly in health care). He has served as an expert witness in corporate governance matters, and is currently a board member at Scot Forge (an ESOP company), having also formerly served as board chair at Pioneer Surgical Technology, and as a board member at PeopleFlo Manufacturing, Roberts Industries, and The Wetlands Initiative. 

Maryam Kouchaki is a Professor of Management and Organizations at Kellogg School of Management. Maryam is an organizational psychologist who seeks to make theoretical and practical contributions at the intersection of management and psychology. Her research focuses on decision-making, diversity, and ethics.

She is the editor-in-chief of journal of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Her work has appeared in scholarly publications such as Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Psychological Science, and has been featured in media outlets such as the Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Business Week, Wall Street Journal, the Huffington Post, and BBC. 

Julie Hennessy is a Clinical Professor of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Professor Hennessy's MBA and Executive teaching focuses on the development of Marketing Strategies to enhance long-term competitive advantage and profitability. She works frequently with research and technology-driven firms that desire to become more customer-centric, in both new product/services and mature product/services categories.

At Kellogg, she teaches three courses: Introduction to Marketing, Advanced Marketing Strategy for Growth and Defense, and Marketing Consulting Lab. In addition to MBA courses, she teaches extensively at the Executive level. Recent Executive teaching assignments have included work with Starbucks, Facebook, Hyatt, SC Johnson, Abbvie, Medtronic, Nestle, McDonalds, Microsoft, ABInBev, John Deere, Kraft/Heinz and Textron.

Professor Hennessy has been a regular recipient of teaching awards at the Kellogg School. In both 2017 and 2007, she received the Lawrence G. Lavengood Outstanding Professor of the Year Award, Kellogg's top award for teaching quality and impact, as voted by the Kellogg graduating class. She had been a finalist (top 5 faculty members) in consideration for the Lavengood Award in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016. Professor Hennessy has also been recognized by her academic department, winning the Marketing Department's Core Course Teaching award three times, most recently in 2022. She has also received special student impact awards in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Professor Hennessy is also a leader on the Executive Education side of Kellogg.   She serves as Academic Director of Kellogg's Executive Development Program,  an intensive, three week program for Senior Executives.   She is also the Academic Director for three Kellogg Custom programs:  one for Textron Corporation, one for the National Association of Convenience Stores., and one for the YPO (Young Presidents' Organization).   Professor Hennessy serves as a coach for executives newly joining the Kellogg faculty in Executive teaching roles.

Tom Turmell is a member of the Executive Education team at the Kellogg School of Management where he designs, delivers, serves as academic director, and teaches in executive education programs for entrepreneurs and senior leaders of well-known, established companies.  His areas of expertise include private equity, capital markets, finance, strategic planning, growth strategies, organizational structure, and entrepreneurship.

Tom is a seasoned business professional with over 30 years of experience providing various capital and advisory services to middle market, lower-middle market and high growth-potential companies, primarily in the manufacturing, distribution, physician practice, and business to business service sectors.  He founded TMT Capital Partners, LLC, a private investment and advisory firm that works closely with companies and their management teams to achieve profitable business growth. 

Prior to founding TMT Capital, Tom held the position of Principal at Golub Capital, providing senior debt, junior debt, and equity capital to middle market companies.  Mr. Turmell joined the firm in 2004 to establish and build the firm’s Chicago office, make new investments, and participate in portfolio management.  Before Golub Capital, Tom was a Vice President with Pfingsten Partners, L.L.C., an operationally-oriented, middle market private equity firm focused on making control investments in middle market companies in the manufacturing, distribution, and business to business service sectors.  Before Pfingsten, Tom was a Vice President at LaSalle Bank, N.A., providing credit and non-credit financial solutions to middle market manufacturing, distribution and service businesses.

Tom is actively engaged with organizations and activities that promote economic development and profitable business growth.  He is a past-president and former Executive Committee Member of the Chicago Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (“ACG”), and remains involved in various leadership roles within the Chapter.  A former Board Member of ACG Global and Chair of the ACG PAC, Mr. Turmell remains involved with ACG Global, with an interest in the organization’s public policy efforts and InterGrowth 2022.  In addition, Mr. Turmell provides leadership and insight as a board member of multiple for profit and not-for profit organizations.

Prof. Sawhney is a globally recognized scholar, teacher, consultant and speaker in business innovation, modern marketing, and Artificial Intelligence applications in business.

Prof. Sawhney has written seven management books as well as dozens of influential articles in leading academic journals and managerial publications.  His most recent book, The Sentient Enterprise: The Evolution of Business Decision Making, was published in October 2017 and was on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list.  He has also written a book of poetry called Love, Longing and Loneliness in 2014. His research has been published in leading journals like California Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Management Science, Marketing Science, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He is a contributor to Forbes and his articles have been published in Fortune, Financial Times, CIO Magazine and TheHill.com.

Prof. Sawhney is a pioneer in online executive education. He has created 8 successful SPOCs (Small Online Private Courses), including Digital Marketing Strategies, Product Strategy, AI Applications for Growth, Influencer Marketing Strategy, and the Kellogg Chief Product Officer Program. These online courses have enrolled over 15,000 students from December 2018 to February 2023. He has also co-authored simulation games like DigiStrat (2021), CloudStrat (2020) and PhotoWars. He has authored over 30 case studies. In 2021, he was ranked by the Case Center as 23rd in the list of top academic case writers in the world. He has won several awards for his teaching and research, including the 2006 Sidney Levy Award for Teaching Excellence at the Kellogg School, the 2005 runner-up for Best Paper in Journal of Interactive Marketing, the 2001 Accenture Award for the best paper published in California Management Review in 2000 and the Outstanding Professor of the Year at Kellogg in 1998. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta in 2011and the Global Alumni Recognition Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2021. 

Prof. Sawhney advises and speaks to Global 2000 firms and governments worldwide. His speaking and consulting clients include Accenture, Adobe Systems, AT&T, Boeing, Cisco Systems, Dell, Entergy, Ericsson, Fidelity Investments, General Mills, Google, Honeywell, Intuit, Jenner & Block, Jones Lang LaSalle, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg Company, KPMG, McDonald's, Meta, Merck, Microsoft, Raytheon Missile Systems, Red Hat, Rockwell Automation, Roche, SAP, Salesforce, Smartsheet, Sony, Teradata and Textron Inc. He serves on the Board of Directors at Reliance Jio Infocomm. He also serves on the advisory boards of several technology startups, including Course5 Intelligence, LawGeex, MommyDaddyMe, Octi, PomVom, QualSights, Sprinklr, StartupWind, Vistalytics and vMock. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Study for Business Markets (ISBM) at Penn State University and a member of the Advisory Board at Chicago Innovation.

Prof. Sawhney holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania; an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta; and a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

Marian Powers earned her Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana. She has served on the accounting faculty of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and The Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. Since 1987, she has been an adjunct professor of accounting in the Kellogg School's Executive Education program, specializing in teaching financial reporting and analysis to executives.

She is also co-author of several college accounting textbooks and in-depth cases on financial analysis. The Text and Academic Authors Association chose Financial Accounting as recipient of the 1998 Textbook Excellence Award. Her research has been published in The Accounting Review, The International Journal of Accounting, Issues in Accounting Education, The Journal of Accountancy, The Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, and Financial Management among others.

Professor Powers has co-authored three accounting and finance interactive multimedia software products. Fingraph® Financial Analyst™ is financial analysis software. Financial Analysis and Decision Making is a goal-based learning simulation focused on how to interpret financial reports. Introduction to Financial Accounting is also a goal-based simulation that uses the Financial Consequences® Model to introduce financial accounting and the financial statements to those unfamiliar with accounting.

Dr. Powers has received recognition and awards for her teaching and is a part of a team that developed and delivers The Conference on Accounting Education, an annual conference.

She has been active in several professional organizations including the Illinois CPA Society, American Accounting Association, European Accounting Association, International Association of Accounting Education and Research, the American Society of Women Accountants, and The Education Foundation for Women in Accounting.