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Dr. Will Zhao is a Limited Duties (Visiting) Faculty at Ivey Business School, where he leads and develops cases on Entrepreneurship and New Ventures. At his home institution, the University of Waterloo, Dr. Zhao is an Associate Professor with Tenure in the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, with additional cross-appointments to both the Department of Management Science and Engineering and the Department of Systems Design Engineering. He earned his PhD from the French Grande École EMLYON Business School and completed postdoctoral research at Stanford University as a SCANCOR scholar.
Dr. Zhao's research in Human-Centered Innovation explores how ethical reflection and artistic sensibility can inform the development, commercialization, and governance of innovations in ways that enhance, rather than erode, human well-being. Drawing on organizational theory, human-computer interaction, and systems thinking, Dr. Zhao's current projects contribute to sectors where human well-being is directly at stake: creative practice, health, education, and finance (CHEF).
Recognized for excellence in both teaching and research throughout his career, Dr. Zhao bridges academic rigor with entrepreneurial practice. He has extensive experience advising startups from ideation to scale and consulting with large organizations on innovation strategy and the adoption and governance of emerging technologies such as AI systems and extended reality (XR) applications. This deep practice in venture creation and organizational transformation directly informs his scholarship and pedagogy, creating learning experiences that integrate theoretical frameworks with real-world entrepreneurial challenges.