Celebrating our departing staff
We say goodbye to nine valued members of our academic staff who are moving on to new opportunites or retirement. Learn more about each of them and their contributions to the Wellington School of Business and Government.
Professor Evan Berman
Evan has served as the Professor of Public Management in the School of Government (SOG) where he has conducted a vast amount of research in the areas of public performance, public leadership, and public sector human resources management. Over the course of his time at the University, Evan has received a number of awards including the NASPAA/ASPA Distinguished Research Award, the Fred Riggs Award for Lifetime Achievement in International and Comparative Public Administration, and the Outstanding Scholarship Award from the American Society for Public Administration. Evan is listed among the most productive scholars of his generation and has 15 books and over 150 articles that have appeared in leading journals.
At the University, Evan also served Director of Internationalisation for SOG. In that role, he helped the University achieve a few firsts. He provided leadership helping the School of Government achieve accreditation from NASPAA (Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration) for its MPM and MPP programs, the first such programs to receive this in the Southern Hemisphere. He also led in creating the first double degree between SOG and the University of Indonesia, for which the Indonesian government just announced its funding of 50 scholarships for next year. Evan also received a first-class teaching award from China for a co-taught, distance learning course with Fudan University, a top university in China, along with Associate Professor Graham Hassall.
Evan is joining Fundação Getúlio Vargas, the leading private university of Brazil. There he will be Professor Titular of Public Management, in Sao Paulo. Before joining Victoria University of Wellington, Evan was University Chair Professor and Director of the International Ph.D. Program in Asia-Pacific Studies at National Chengchi University (Taipei, Taiwan). Prior to moving to Taiwan, he was a Huey McElveen Distinguished Professor at Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, USA). He has worked for the U.S. National Science Foundation. Evan is an active member of the American Society for Public Administration and other professional associations.
Professor Rachel Baskerville
Rachel started at the University as a student in 1968, studying under Professor Jan Pouwer in the anthropology department before gaining a Master’s and PhD in anthropology from the University of Otago. Rachel returned as a student to the University in 1991 to undertake a Diploma of Accounting before gaining a Master of Commerce in 1993. Apart from some time spent with the University of Auckland and University of Exeter, Rachel has been with the faculty ever since.
In addition to supervising PhD students and teaching on a number of Honours courses, Rachel has taught the MBA, MMPA, and all levels of undergraduate courses. After the faculty shifted down to the Pipitea campus, Rachel enjoyed returning to Kelburn to teach the large first year courses. Rachel was previously Chair of the Pipitea Ethics Committee and has undertaken many other responsibilities at both a university and faculty level over the last 28 years.
Dr Bob Cavana
Bob is a well-respected researcher, educator and practitioner in the Systems Sciences, including systems thinking, system dynamics, group model building and systems education. He has an impressive record of over 5,350 citations of his published work on Google Scholar, and he (and his research students) have received several NZ and international awards for their research contributions.
The majority of Bob’s published articles appear in top quality international journals including the European Journal of Operational Research, American Journal of Public Health, System Dynamics Review, Systems Research & Behavioral Science, and Journal of the Operational Research Society. In addition, Bob has co-authored and co-edited books by highly reputable international publishers, including Wiley (Applied Business Research); Pearson (Systems Thinking, System Dynamics); MDPI (Systems Education for a Sustainable Planet); and forthcoming with Springer Nature (Feedback Economics).
Bob has regularly received invitations to present plenary and keynote addresses at NZ and international conferences, He has also helped to organise a range of system dynamics, systems, management and operational research conferences in New Zealand and in the Asia Pacific region.
Over a long period, Bob has played leadership roles in scholarly organisations, including as a Vice-President of the System Dynamics Society, President of the New Zealand Operational Research Society, and a New Zealand board representative for the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM). For many years he was Managing Editor of the prestigious System Dynamics Review, and he is currently a Fellow of ANZAM.
Bob has also contributed to the development of several systems thinking, decision science and research methods courses and programmes within the School of Management and was Head of the Management Discipline Group for a period of time.
Previously, Bob was Corporate Economist with the NZ Railways Corporation. He has a BCom and MCom (in Economics) from the University of Auckland and gained his PhD (in Management / System Dynamics) at the University of Bradford, UK.
Bob will maintain a connection with the University by becoming a fellow of the School of Management.
Dr Jim Sheffield
Jim is an expert in the areas of decision-making, project management, knowledge management, supply chain management and systems theory, and has published a vast number of research articles across his career.
Jim gained a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science from the University of Auckland before gaining a Postgraduate Diploma in Tertiary Teaching and a Master of Business Administration at the University of Wisconsin. Jim completed his PhD at the University of Arizona where he researched group support systems. His work in this area led to the creation of a Decision Support Centre at the University of Auckland.
Jim has designed, implemented and evaluated more than 100 action research initiatives with NZ businesses. Most of these initiatives centred on complex inter-organisational situations such as with peak industry bodies and The Porter Project that involved considerable confusion and conflict.
Jim has a lifetime interest in problem-driven learning and critically reflective practice. As faculty advisor for business case competitions, he initiated Victoria Business Consulting (VBC), a student club that currently has more than 100 members. VBC students are now highly competitive in national business case competitions.
“My post-experience decision-making students wrote critical, self-reflective assignments after studying neuroscience-based, practical decision making. The juxtaposition of emotion and reason in assignments often moved the writer (and readers) to tears,” says Jim.
A book series of student work entitled “My Decisive Moment” was published bi-annually over 10 years. This captured student’s life experiences and produced a level of engagement that more than a few described as life changing.
Jim will maintain a connection with the University by becoming a fellow of the School of Management.
Associate Professor Deborah Jones
Deborah is an Associate Professor in the School of Management, and an Associate of the Centre for Labour, Employment, and Work (CLEW).
Across her academic career, Deborah has focussed on critical and interdisciplinary work which links organisational studies to cultural studies, with an emphasis on gender, race/ethnicity and sexuality. Deborah has had her work published in a variety of leading journals such as Gender, Work & Organization, Journal of Management History, Higher Education Research & Development, The Sociological Review, Journal of Management Studies, and Labour & Industry.
Deborah completed her undergraduate and Master’s degrees in English at Victoria University of Wellington, and gained a PhD in Management Studies from the University of Waikato.
Before becoming an academic, Deborah worked in the public service in industrial relations, editing, and in communications. Deborah then went on to become self-employed and to work as a community educator.
Deborah will maintain a connection with the University by becoming a fellow of the School of Management.
Associate Professor Graham Hassall
Graham joined the University as Associate Professor, Public Policy and Administration, in the School of Government in 2010 after teaching at the University of the South Pacific from 2004 to 2009, Landegg Academy in Switzerland from 2000 to 2003, and at the University of Melbourne from 1990 to 2000.
Graham’s principal research interests are Public Governance in the Pacific Islands, and Global Studies. Over the course of his career Graham has had his research published in such journals as Australian Journal of Social Issues, Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, Comparative Law Journal of the Pacific, New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, Canterbury Law Review, Pacific Studies, Policy Quarterly, and the Journal of Religious history.
In recent years Graham has undertaken projects for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, UNDESA, UNDP, Commonwealth Local Government Forum, Global Integrity, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and Papua New Guinea’s Departments of Foreign Affairs and Higher Education.
Graham was President of the United Nations Association of New Zealand from 2012 to 2016, and Academic Director of Papua New Guinea’s Foreign Service Training Programme 2014 to2017. He has served on the Board of the New Zealand Centre for Global Studies since 2012.
Professor Vicky Mabin
Vicky is a highly respected member of staff and is known for her research, teaching and consulting on problem structuring, problem solving and decision-making methods, applying them in public, private sector and not-for-profit organisations. Vicky’s main specialty areas is Goldratt's Theory of Constraints (TOC) and how it may be used to focus performance improvements, on its own and in combination with other methods. Vicky has also worked with many organisations assisting them with strategic priority setting, project selection and problem reframing.
Vicky is regarded as one of the top researchers in TOC worldwide. Her contributions to the field of operations research more broadly have been recognised internationally. She is an elected Fellow of the Operational Research Society (UK) and was awarded the Hans Daellenbach Prize from the ORSNZ in 2017. At the end of last year, along with her co-authors, Vicky received the Griffths Medal from The Operational Research Society in the UK, for their paper Using the Theory of Constraints to resolve long-standing resource and service issues in a large public hospital.
Constraints to resolve long-standing resource and service issues in a large public hospital.
From 2008 to 2014, Vicky was the inaugural Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) for the Business School, during which time she led the establishment of assurance of learning and other assessment processes for accreditation, as well as various initiatives including the Showcasing Teaching Excellence, Internationalisation at Home and groupwork projects.
Prior to joining Victoria University of Wellington in 1991, Vicky worked for NZ’s main scientific and industrial research institute, gaining practical experience working with organisations on a wide range of strategic and operational problems.
Vicky will maintain a connection with the University by becoming a fellow of the School of Management.
Professor Kim Fam
Kim is a Professor of Marketing in the School of Marketing and International Business and was Head of School from 2010-2014.
Kim’s expertise in marketing, particularly in marketing in Asia, has been of great benefit to students and the faculty. His research has primarily focused on the influence of aspects of culture (such as values and faith) on the inter-relationships between advertisers and consumers.
Kim’s research has appeared in the Journal of Marketing, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Advertising Research, Psychology and Marketing, and the Journal of Business Research amongst other publications.
Kim is the Founding Editor of Asian Journal of Business Research (SCOPUS), Editorial Board member of the European Journal of Marketing, and the International Journal of Advertising. Kim is also Founding Director of MAG Scholar. For his contributions to knowledge, Kim received an honorary doctorate from Szechenyi Istvan University, Hungary; and an Exalted Order of Malacca award from the Governor of Malacca, Malaysia.
Dr Richard Norman
Richard has been a valued member of staff at the University for many years.
Richard’s teaching and research has focused on human resources management, training and development, with a particular focus on New Zealand public sector organisations.
One of his most recent projects has focused on researching the impact of employment change on a medium-sized city such as Wellington. With support from Wellington Regional Council and Grow Wellington, this research saw Richard produce the report It Takes a City to Raise a Graduate along side Kate Peters and Sarah Bickerton.
Richard’s previous research on performance management challenges of the decentralised model adopted by the New Zealand public management model in the late 1980s-1990s included completion of a PhD and book entitled Obedient Servants? Management freedoms and accountabilities in the New Zealand public sector (Victoria University Press, 2003).
Richard will maintain a connection with the University by becoming a fellow of the School of Management.