Ivey is excited to welcome several new faculty members to campus this year! To get to know our new colleagues, we asked them some questions to learn about their interests inside and outside the classroom.
Get to know: Kevin Nanakdewa
Kevin Nanakdewa is an assistant professor in the Organizational Behaviour group at Ivey who teaches negotiations in the HBA and MBA programs. He earned his PhD from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto. Before joining Ivey, he was an assistant professor at Peking University in China. His research areas include choice, bias in hiring, workplace gossip, diversity in organizations, judgment and decision-making, and culture. His work has been published in academic and practitioner journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Harvard Business Review. Before his academic life, Nanakdewa was a Marketing Consultant at Nielsen in Toronto working with clients including Coca-Cola, SC Johnson, and Energizer. He now lives in London, Ont. with his wife Florence and their two dogs (Dover, a Jack Russell Terrier; and Vista, a Patterdale Terrier). While noting that Dover and Vista are inseparable partners-in-crime, he jokes that when the two of them are together, they are basically the definition of "trouble." And as if their antics weren’t enough, the two are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their new human brother, set to join the fun in December 2024.
Q&A with Kevin Nanakdewa
What is the most important thing business executives can learn from your research/area of expertise?
I'll provide my own quote that I give to students at the end of one of my courses: "Use your own brain or someone else will use it for you." The core idea is that it is important to understand how our brains make decisions to minimize the effects of naturally occurring biases that creep into our decisions if we're not mindful of them.
Where did you grow up and what was it like there?
I grew up in Mississauga (a suburb neighbouring Toronto). When I was growing up, I thought it would be cool to live in big metropolitan cities. Then I lived in Beijing, Dalian, Seoul, Busan, Singapore, Toronto, and Shenzhen. After a string of big cities, I'm glad to settle down in the smaller city vibe of London.
What led you to your career?
Interestingly, I never considered a career in academia until I did an exchange semester at Duke University (Fuqua School of Business) during my MBA studies. A classmate asked me if I would be down to participate in an experiment at the behavioural lab. After participating, I was immediately curious about the purpose of the experiment. I reached out to the PhD student running the experiment (Anyi Ma, now a good friend of mine), and signed up to do some Research Assistant work. After learning that professors conduct research alongside teaching, and after conducting countless informational interviews with academics, I realized that the academic career path could be a good fit for me. Turns out it was!
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
I have a few fun facts. I was a spinning (indoor cycling) instructor at Revolution in Singapore and at Spokehaus in Toronto. I play guitar, most recently in a band I started, based in Toronto. I've also played ice hockey since I was five years old, and I golf whenever I have the chance. Other than that, spending time with my wife Flo and my two dogs is hard to beat.
What might someone be surprised to know about you?
I am introverted. People who attend my spinning classes, watch my band play live, or take my negotiations class probably would not guess that.
What is the most played song on your playlist as of now?
If I had to pick a current favourite, it would be When You See My Friends by Mayday Parade (this changes every week though). Some of my favourite bands are Brand New and Alexisonfire. I listen to a lot of alternative rock, but also grew up listening to ’90s alternative, 2000s pop punk, ’90s rap/hip-hop, and all sorts of guilty pleasure pop. When I'm doing research, I've been listening to the same episode of a three-hour podcast on repeat every day since 2021 (Max Graham Cycles Radio Episode 337). It has no lyrics and a feeling of constant motion, so it works great for productivity.
What book would you recommend to others? On the personal side? On the business side?
Also, kind of a fun fact, but surprisingly, I don't read a lot of books. I usually end up reading research papers, and that fills my quota of interest for reading. If I were to give one recommendation that I think contains useful information on the personal and business side, it would be Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.
I do like podcasts about music and how music is created. My current favourite is Chris DeMakes a Podcast, in which the host of the show talks to songwriters and musicians to get the "behind the scenes" story of how a song came to be, from start to finish.
I'm excited to be part of the Ivey team and I look forward to meeting you!
