About The Big Picture Partners

Professor Christie L. Nordhielm, Ph.D.

Christie Nordhielm is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Michigan Business School, where she oversees the core Marketing Program and serves as the Director for the Marketing Center of Excellence for Executive Education. Nordhielm is a recognized marketing consultant and trainer, and has partnered with firms across numerous industry sectors to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their marketing efforts. In addition to her consulting work, Nordhielm lectures extensively both domestically and abroad and her expertise is often sought by publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, Business Week and other print and television media outlets. In addition to her publications in academic journals, Nordhielm has published in the Harvard Business Review. Professor Nordhielm’s work is also presented in her book, Marketing Management: The Big Picture, published by Wiley and Sons.

Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Michigan, Nordhielm was an Assistant Professor at the Kellogg School of Management and a Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, where she earned her PhD in Marketing and Behavioral Science in 1998.

Marta Dapena-Barón

In addition to being a founding partner of The Big Picture Partners, Dapena-Barón is also on the MBA and Executive Education faculty at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Dapena-Barvn helps her clients close the gap between their strategic and executional efforts utilizing the Big Picture framework. Dapena-Barón is co-developed the Big Picture Simulation, a systems-dynamics simulation based on the Big Picture framework. Dapena-Barón’s areas of expertise include strategy and business metrics, the relationship between service operations and customer satisfaction, business simulations, and marketing research and intelligence.

Prior to founding The Big Picture Partners, Dapena-Barón was the Vice President for Marketing for GE’ Capital’s US Equipment Dealer Leasing Business. Dapena-Barón has also worked as a strategy consultant for McKinsey & Co., and in a variety of roles at ABN AMRO Bank including being the Director of Strategy reporting to the North American Chairman; head of e-commerce for the Global Trade business line; and as infrastructure privatization advisor in Latin America.

Marta Dapena-Barón holds an MBA in finance and international business from the University of Chicago and a BA in Economics summa cum laude from Kenyon College. She is Six Sigma Black-Belt Certified.

Angela Y. Lee

Chaired Professor of Marketing, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

Professor Lee holds the Mechthild Esser Nemmers Professorship Chair and Professor of Marketing since 2007. She has been a professor of Marketing at the Kellogg School since 1995 and has also taught at Cornell University.

Professor Lee teaches courses on marketing management and the use of analytical research methods in marketing. She is experienced in the use of research methods in less developed economies and has worked on projects in China as well as South Africa, in addition to the United States.

Professor Lee’s research is focused on understanding the effects of repeated exposures on consumer learning as it relates to product evaluation and brand choice; she also does research on cross-cultural similarities and differences in information process, self-regulation, motivation and persuasion; and conscious and non-conscious influences on memory.

Professor Lee has been published extensively in academic journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Consumer Research, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, and the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science among others. Her work is widely quoted and featured in a variety of books including Kellogg on Marketing, Kellogg on Branding, Kellogg on China, and the Financial Times, among others.

Fiona Lee

Professor of Psychology and Associate Professor of Management and Organizations

Dr. Fiona Lee is Full Professor of Psychology and Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the University of Michigan. Dr. Lee’s research focuses on interpersonal communication, learning, cross-cultural collaborations, and innovation in organizations. Dr. Lee has published in numerous journals in Psychology and Organizational Behavior, including Harvard Business Review, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Psychological Science. Dr. Lee obtained her BA from Scripps College in Claremont CA, and her MA and PhD from Harvard University in Cambridge MA.

Carolyn Yoon

Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Michigan

In addition to being a professor of Marketing at the University of Michigan since 1998, Dr Yoon’s academic appointments include being an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Toronto. Professor Yoon is an authority in the areas of consumer behavior and consumer decision-making. Her research appears in journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Gerontology, the Journal of Psychology, and Science Magazine. Her work has been widely quoted in a variety of media outlets and is often featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Der Spiegel; and on National Public Radio and the Science Update radio program sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Professor Yoon obtained her AB from the University of California, Berkeley, her MBA from UCLA, Anderson Graduate School of Management and her Ph.D. from the Duke University, Fuqua School of Business.

Aaron Ahuvia

Professor of Marketing at the University of Michigan-Dearborn School of Management

Professor Ahuvia received his PhD in Marketing from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where along with conducting original research; he assisted Professor Phillip Kotler with a revision of his classic textbook. Aaron is the winner of two of UM-Dearborn’s highest awards, the University of Michigan-Dearborn Annual Research Award for 2007 and the University of Michigan-Dearborn Faculty Member of the Year Award for 2001. Aaron has taught or consulted in the Kazakhstan, Jordan, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Israel, and Yemen. Prof. Ahuvia also does applied social marketing work in an effort to alleviate poverty in the developing world. The US government has recently awarded him a $250,000 grant to promote entrepreneurship in Yemen, and a $300,000 grant to improve business education in Libya, which is the first US Government grant for work in Libya since the removal of sanctions.

Aaron’s research looks at (a) consumers’ love of certain brands; (b) issues related to brand symbolism and consumer identity such as brand image, fashions, and trends; and (c) the nature of contemporary consumer culture with a special focus on how people can build successful lives within this environment. Professor Ahuvia has served as Vice President for Academic Affairs for the International Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQUOLS) and is a former associate editor for the Journal of Economic Psychology. He has published academic research in leading scientific journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Professor Ahuvia has been quoted in Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, major publications in Europe and Japan, and has appeared on public radio talk shows as well as popular Television shows such as Oprah.