Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management is excited to welcome five new faculty members and four new postdoctoral research scholars this upcoming academic year. Vanderbilt Business is proud to introduce the newest members of the Owen community; the school looks forward to feeling their human and industry impact through teaching, mentorship, and scholarly work.
“At Owen, we’re proud of our academic community, which values both innovative research and a strong commitment to teaching,” said Thomas Steenburgh, Ralph Owen Dean and Professor of Marketing. “This year, we’ve welcomed an outstanding group of new faculty–some of the most impressive we’ve recruited to date. They bring intellectual curiosity, practical insight, and a clear dedication to preparing the next generation of business leaders.”
Professor Yang
Daniel Yang, Assistant Professor of Accounting
Daniel Yang joins Owen as an Assistant Professor of Accounting. He earned his PhD from The Ohio State University. Before Vanderbilt, Yang worked at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and as a credit analyst at Société Générale.
Yang’s research explores how accounting information is used in debt contracting and labor markets and is published in top journals, like The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and Contemporary Accounting Research.
Connect with Professor Yang via email.
Professor Fairbanks
Josh Fairbanks, Associate Professor of the Practice of Finance
Josh Fairbanks joins Owen as an Associate Professor of the Practice of Finance and Faculty Director of the MS Finance program. He holds a PhD in Finance from Texas Tech University. Fairbanks previously held faculty roles at Texas Tech, the University of Tennessee, and Ohio University, bringing more than two decades of higher education experience.
Fairbanks researches human capital, corporate finance, and financial markets, and he has received multiple teaching and advising awards.
Connect with Professor Fairbanks on LinkedIn.
Professor Wang
Wenyu Wang, Visiting Associate Professor of Finance
Wenyu Wang joins Owen as a Visiting Associate Professor of Finance, on leave from Kelley School of Business, where he is the Peterson Chair in Investment Banking. He earned his PhD in Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a Visiting Scholar at The Wharton School.
Wang studies corporate finance, including governance, control, and investment, with publications in journals such as the Journal of Financial Economics. He is active in the academic community through conferences and editorial service.
Connect with Professor Wang on LinkedIn.
Professor Park
Eric Park, Assistant Professor of Marketing
Eric Park joins Owen as an Assistant Professor of Marketing. He recently completed his PhD in Business Administration at Columbia Business School. He researches how emerging digital technologies affect consumer behavior.
Park’s work has been published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology and Current Opinion in Psychology. Park previously worked in Innovation and Consumer Insights at Anheuser-Busch.
Connect with Professor Park on LinkedIn.
Professor Silverman
Jackie Silverman, Associate Professor of Marketing
Jackie Silverman joins Owen as an Associate Professor of Marketing. She earned her PhD in Marketing from The Wharton School. Silverman comes to Vanderbilt from the University of Delaware after six years.
Silverman studies how behavioral tracking technologies influence consumer decisions and goal pursuit, along with broader topics in consumer psychology. Before academia, Silverman taught high school science.
Connect with Professor Silverman on LinkedIn.
Meet the New Postdoctoral Scholars
Leo Stanek, Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Finance. earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Minnesota in 2025. His research focuses on using structural methods to examine firms’ public listing and equity issuance choices and how structural shifts in the US economy have affected those firms and investors in public markets.
Edmond Tapero, Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Accounting, is expected to complete his PhD in Accounting from Tel Aviv University in August 2025. His research examines how cost-elasticity choices, implied by firms’ operating actions, affect the likelihood of loss reversal.
Angela Xiao, Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Marketing, earned her PhD in Marketing from Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in 2025 and her BS in Psychology from Tsinghua University in 2020. Her research interests focus primarily on consumer goals and motivation, such as goal setting, planning, goal-related purchases, sustaining motivation, and exercising self-control.
Aten Zaandam, Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Organization Studies, earned his PhD in Management from Kent State University in 2023. His research examines how the past experiences of top executives shape their leadership behaviors through the lens of evolutionary theories of human motivation.