The Department of Economics is pleased to introduce our current Advisory Board Members. Each member has provided a biography and a photo.
Chair, Chris Marshall, Executive Vice President and Treasurer, BBVA Compass
Chris Marshall is the former Treasurer at BBVA USA, the U.S. regional bank for a large multinational bank. He has extensive experience at large, complex financial institutions that includes responsibilities for investment portfolio management, asset/liability management, liquidity management including debt issuance and structured finance, and the relationships with the rating agencies and fixed income investors. Prior to joining BBVA in 2005, Chris held positions in treasury at ABN AMRO N.A., GMAC Mortgage Asset Management, and Fifth Third Bank, along with fixed income and currency trading positions earlier in his career.
Chris earned a B.A. in Economics from the Ohio State University in 1983. As an alumnus at Ohio State, he serves on the Economics Advisory Board and in the mentor program. Chris earned an MBA in Finance from the Columbia Business School and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Vice-Chair, Keith Robinson, Partner, Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP
Keith Robinson is a transfer pricing partner in the PricewaterhouseCoopers Atlanta office. He has over 27 years of experience as a transfer pricing consultant. He is also a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Economics at Emory University. Keith received a Ph.D. in Economics from The Ohio State University in 1994.
Keith is responsible coordinating and performing economic analyses. These studies are performed
for a wide range of companies at both the international and state and local levels. He has a wide array of experience in dealing with pricing issues in an international setting, as well as a domestic setting. He is a specialist in the development of intercompany
transfer pricing and has performed transfer pricing and intangible property studies for numerous multinational companies. He has consulted and conducted transfer pricing studies for companies producing a wide range of products and services including automotive, chemical, telecommunications, healthcare, industrial machinery & supplies, medical equipment & supplies, pharmaceutical, printing/publishing, retail, software, and wholesale distribution. Additionally, he has advised clients regarding tax authority transfer pricing audits around the world and assisted in the resolution of these cases.
Former Chair, Richard (Dick) Willke, Independent Consultant
Dick is a health economist who has spent his 45+-year career in teaching, health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) in the pharmaceutical industry, and scientific association management. He was born and raised in Columbus and attended Ohio State in 1972-76, earning earned his BS in Mathematical Sciences (concentration in economics). At OSU he was also a member of Theta Chi Fraternity, the Men’s Glee Club, and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned his PhD in economics at Johns Hopkins University, attending it from 1976-80 and focusing in labor economics and econometrics. He taught in the OSU Dept. of Economics, primarily microeconomics, labor economics, and statistics, for 5 years and then began work in health economics at the American Medical Association in Chicago, doing research in physician labor supply and the economics of medical practice.
In 1991 Dick moved into a relatively new field, known at the time as “pharmacoeconomics”, which studies the cost-effectiveness of drug treatment and associated value characteristics to help determine economically justifiable prices for branded drugs. He spent 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry at Pfizer and its legacy companies (Upjohn, Pharmacia), in both research and group management positions, with work that took him around the world for clinical trial work and preparation of HEOR evidence for reimbursement agencies. In 2016 he left Pfizer to become the first Chief Science Officer for ISPOR, the Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research, which has nearly 18,000 individual and chapter members from more than 100 countries worldwide. At ISPOR he helped organize conferences, manage member groups, liaise with other organizations, and develop association strategy and initiatives, retiring in 2024.
Dick was a founding member of the OSU Economics Advisory Board and served as its Chair for 2020-24. He remains professionally active as an ISPOR member and on HEOR advisory boards, with over 100 journal articles and professional publications. He and his wife Brenda have four adult children, all of whom graduated from OSU, and now live near Chattanooga TN (and several grandchildren) but often visit family and friends (and other grandchildren) in Columbus.
Rosa Ailabouni, International Management Consultant; Managing Partner, RMA Strategies, LLC
Ms. Ailabouni has over 18 years of experience advising and assisting commercial and government client in the United States, Middle East, Western Europe, and Africa. She has led projects to optimize business processes and transform organizations leading to more efficient and effective processes in energy, financial services, non-profit and public sectors. Her functional expertise focuses on strategic planning, business process improvement, organizational analysis and design, and change management. She has also led community development as well as social and housing initiatives focused on foster youth and low and very low-income individuals in the United States in the Midwest Region to include Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
As a student at Ohio State, Ms. Ailabouni started BuckeyeThon, a non-profit organization benefiting Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Children’s Miracle Network by bringing together the university and community in support of children with cancer and cancer research. She continues to attend and support BuckeyeThon, now the largest student-run philanthropic organization on campus, raising more than $1 million annually and with over 5,000 students participating every year.
In addition to her bachelor’s degrees earned at Ohio State (French, International Studies, Political Science; minor in Economics, 2001), with honors and with distinction, Ms. Ailabouni earned an MBA from Cornell University; a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University; a Diplome (master’s equivalent) from the Institut D’Etudes Politiques in Paris (Sciences Po Paris), France and Graduate Certificates from George Washington University in Homeland Security, Emergency Preparedness, and Response and in Western European studies.
Soma Dasgupta, Associate Teaching Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Economics at The Johns Hopkins University
Soma Dasgupta is an Associate Teaching Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in Economics at Johns Hopkins University. She is an International Economist and teaches courses on International Trade, Rich Countries, Poor Countries and the BRIC Economies at JHU. As the DUS, she is in charge of running the Economics undergraduate program. She is also an Economics major and minor advisor. She has served on several committees at JHU and has contributed to university-wide policy making.
Prior to working at JHU, Soma worked as a faculty member in other higher education institutions including Georgetown University, George Washington University, Washington College and Berea College. She graduated from The Ohio State University with a Ph.D in Economics in 2011. She loves travelling, especially to places of historical importance. She is also an avid foodie who likes to try out cuisines from different parts of the world.
Rod Essig, Business Owner-Operator
Rod Essig spent over 30 years with Carr Supply, a midwestern HVAC and Plumbing wholesale distributor. Mr. Essig worked his way up through the organization to become partner and COO. During his tenure with Carr Supply and under his leadership the company grew from a single location to a multi-state operation with twenty-two locations, earning multiple industry awards along the way. He also has been involved as a partner in a commercial real estate and land holding company for over 30 years.
After the sale of Carr Supply, Mr. Essig has become an active investor in several privately held companies, an advisory board member for a community bank, and along with his wife started a property management company. Their property management company now owns and manages over fifty units in Central Ohio focusing on giving low and middle-income people that have a checkered past an opportunity to get back on track and become responsible members of society. Mr. Essig is also currently director of business development for Worthington Energy Consultants, an electricity and natural gas broker for businesses. In his role with the company, he has saved companies he works with millions of dollars on their energy spend through various cost saving strategies as well as helping them achieve their ESG goals.
Mr. Essig graduated from The Ohio State University in 1993 with a B.A. in Economics. Rod is a life member of The OSU Alumni Association, The Upper Arlington Rotary Club, Charity Newsies, and The Freemasons. Rod and his wife Betsy live in Columbus and have a blended family of four grown children and two dogs. In their free time they enjoy volunteering for various charities including Pelotonia, traveling, skiing, biking, golf, attending OSU sporting events and pickleball.
Scott Gledhill, Business Owner-Operator
Scott Gledhill’s first career was on Wall Street. For most of his 23 years he was a portfolio manager and chief investment officer of mutual funds, pension funds, endowments, and foundations. After selling his interest in his investment advisory firm, Scott matriculated at Harvard Divinity School and earned a Masters of Theological Studies. He founded a pastoral counseling firm focused on guiding clients to productive and satisfying employment. Scott's next adventure was to become a professional sailor and ship master. He has sailed for over 3000 days in many parts of the world on vessels ranging from small sailboats to mega yachts and ferry boats. He is the tenth generation of his family to be a ship captain.
Today, Scott owns and operates a small contracting company in Annapolis, MD. He still does some counseling and remains an active and avid sailor. Much of his time is spent on charitable activities including lobbying congress for cancer research funding and working with physically challenged sailors.
Scott graduated from Ohio State with honors in Economics in 1967.
Megan Gordon, Apple, Global Operations Manager
Megan Gordon is a Global Operations Manager at Apple, where she brings a decade of experience leading, strategizing, and advising in influential Fortune 500 companies. As a Global Operations Manager, Megan manages the operations of new product introductions at Apple, articulates cohesive strategies, and ensures flawless execution in end-to-end logistics.
Prior to Apple, Megan served as a Global Strategy Manager at General Motors, where she directed Buick’s product planning, created complex advertising initiatives for Chevrolet electric cars & crossovers, oversaw Chevrolet’s global auto shows and experiences, and helped plan branding for Buick in China. When Megan graduated from Ohio State, she launched her career at GEICO working as a Product Management Analyst.
Megan holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree in Economics from The Ohio State University. At OSU, Megan was a four-year member of the varsity rowing team and coached the freshman team to a Big Ten Championship during her fifth year. She also served on the Student Athlete Advisory board.
Outside of work, Megan has a passion for rowing, backpacking, traveling, running, and spending time with her yellow lab Georgie. She continued her coaching career for five years at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Washington DC. She has run five marathons; her favorite was the Marine Corp Marathon. Megan is an avid traveler and has explored four out of seven continents; some highlight trips were Vietnam, France, Greece, and Colombia. She has also gone on stunning backpacking trips in Banff, Patagonia, and the Pacific Northwest.
During the pandemic, Megan took advantage of the work flexibility to live in San Diego for five months. She loved taking Georgie to the beach daily and exploring a new part of the country.
Thomas J. Kniesner, University Professor and Chair of the Department of Economic Sciences, Claremont Graduate University
Thomas J. Kniesner was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and received his Ph.D. degree in economics from The Ohio State University. He is a Research Fellow at IZA and Krisher Professor of Economics Emeritus at Syracuse University. In 2013 Dr. Kniesner joined the faculty of Claremont Graduate University, where he is University Professor and Chair of the Department of Economic Sciences.
Dr. Kniesner’s specialty is the econometric examination of labor and health economic issues. His interests are labor supply, workplace safety, and health care costs and use. He has published articles in over 20 different professional journals including The American Economic Review, Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Literature, and Journal of the European Economic Association. He is has served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Human Resources, Co-Editor of Foundations and Trends in Microeconomics, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty.
Before joining Claremont Graduate University, Dr. Kniesner was faculty at Indiana University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Syracuse University. Dr. Kniesner has also served as the Senior Labor Economist on the staff of President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers. Throughout his career, Kniesner has been a visiting research fellow at top universities in Japan, Australia, the Netherlands and London, as well as American universities like Harvard and Cornell. More recently, Dr. Kniesner has been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution on War Revolution and Peace and University College London, a Visiting Research Fellow in the Division of Health Services and Policy Research of Eli Lilly and Company, and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Risk Analysis. During Spring 2001 he was a Visiting Fellow at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Dr. Kniesner is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and has received the University of Mississippi’s Otho Smith Medallion for service to the economics profession. He serves on the Board of the Society for Benefit Cost Analysis. In 2004 Dr. Kniesner was elected to the National Academy of Social Insurance.
Jack McKitrick, Regional Director of Sales, apree health
Jack McKitrick is a passionate Healthcare IT professional with broad experience in all aspects of sales, development, product management, and consulting. He brings high energy, leadership, interpersonal, and negotiation skills, to help companies achieve revenue targets. He received his B.A. in Economics from Ohio State University.
Over the past 10 years he has sold EHR, enterprise content management (ECM), and enterprise software in a variety of models including software as a service (Saas), ASP and traditional models.
Specialties: Government sales, business development, strategic partnerships, product marketing, account acquisition and management, computer hardware, software, market development, program management, sales, professional services.
Justin Miller, Attorney-In-Charge, International Trade Field Office, U.S. Department of Justice
Justin R. Miller is the Attorney-In-Charge of the International Trade Field Office, U.S. Department of Justice, located in New York City. Mr. Miller handles international trade and customs matters before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Prior to joining the Justice Department, Mr. Miller served as a legal fellow for the Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Trade, in the U.S. House of Representatives and as a law clerk to the Hon. Leo M. Gordon of the U.S. Court of International Trade. From 2013 to 2015, Mr. Miller served on detail to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where he represented the United States in the first enforcement action brought by the United States under the Dominican Republic – Central America – United States Free Trade Agreement.
He received his J.D. and his B.S. in Economics from Ohio State University.
Jim Nieberding, Owner and Principal Consulting Economist, North Coast Economics, LLC
Jim Nieberding is Founder and Principal Consulting Economist of North Coast Economics, LLC which was established in 2011. He previously was Principal in the Global Competition Policy Group at LECG (Washington DC office) from 1998 through 2010. For the past 25 years, he has provided economic consulting and expert witness testimony in the context of government investigations and private litigation involving antitrust and competition policy, public policy and regulatory matters, merger reviews, intellectual property, economic damages in complex business litigation, and class certification.
Jim has taught undergraduate, graduate, and MBA courses in economics, statistics, and business strategy. He has offered Continuing Legal Education training to attorneys, presented papers at conferences, and published articles in academic and professional journals. He has held academic appointments and teaching positions at Cleveland State University (Department of Economics); The Johns Hopkins University (Graduate Part-Time Program in Engineering and Applied Science, Whiting School of Engineering, Washington, DC); University Of Notre Dame (Department of Finance and Business Economics, College of Business, South Bend, IN); Baldwin Wallace College (Department Of Economic, Berea, OH); and The Ohio State University (Department of Economics, Columbus, OH).
Jim received an M.A. (1990) and Ph.D. (1994) in Economics from The Ohio State University. He resides in Lakewood, Ohio.
Dave Priestley, Retired Principal, Turnaround and Restructuring Consulting at Plante & Moran
Dave graduated summa cum laude from The Ohio State University in 1978 with a degree in Energy Engineering and Economics. At OSU Dave was elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Sphinx and later served on the Alumni Advisory Board. In 1980 he received his MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business with concentrations in finance, economics, and public management.
Dave spent much of his career as a turnaround and restructuring consultant, most recently with Plante Moran. For these clients he developed and helped implement business turnaround and financial restructuring plans or facilitated their sale or liquidation. He also performed acquisition due diligence for buyers of financially underperforming entities and participated in merger integrations. His consulting experience was with a wide variety of manufacturing, distribution, construction, healthcare, education, and service organizations. Dave served a term as President of the Detroit Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association.
Prior to joining Plante & Moran, Dave was President of Stahls’ Inc., a closely held manufacturer and business-to-business marketer in the team wear and customized apparel market. Before Stahls’, he was Director of Cost Management for Allied-Signal Automotive and the Energy and Environmental Manager for McGraw-Edison. In 1981, Dave served on the President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (Grace Commission).
In retirement, Dave and his wife Susan (OSU ’78) enjoy travel, time with their offspring, and teaching personal finance at the Downtown Boxing Gym, an after-school program for Detroit youth.