Faculty

Professor John Grainger
Pro-Vice Chancellor/Executive Vice President
Academic Services

Professor John Grainger, as a graduate of Murdoch Perth, Western Australia, is delighted to lead a team of educational professionals in offering a range of internationally accredited Australian degrees in Dubai. These educational opportunities truly represent the ethos, high standards, and unequivocal calibre of degrees offered by Murdoch University in Australia. 

Professor Grainger earned degrees in Psychology and Education prior to gaining his MBA and his Doctorate in Business Administration. He has a long and distinguished career within the international information dissemination industry, as a professional writer and publisher; a successful business leader; an IT consultant; a teacher and an academic in Australia, the United Kingdom and Singapore, before moving to the United Arab Emirates in 2002.

He describes life in the UAE, and Dubai in particular, as “energizing, stimulating and very fulfilling” and reflects that “the opportunity to help grow an Australian university of international reputation, within the context of the UAE is a professional and personal dream come true.” He is enthusiastic about Murdoch University’s role in offering genuine and authentic learning opportunities to young people in the Emirates, specifically crafted to develop the skills, experience and expertise which will empower them to take on their future role as leaders in the local and global business community.

Professor Grainger is passionate about teaching, and he has considerable experience in most areas of business education with particular expertise in Strategic Management, Leadership and Motivation, Entrepreneurship, Educational Technology, Knowledge Management, Information Technology and Environmental Sustainability. He is also a strong advocate of student-focused and authentic learning experiences, whereby students learn by active rather than passive engagement - pedagogical techniques perfected by Murdoch University over its three decade history. He is enthusiastic about the role of technology in improving the learning process and is himself a dedicated life-long learner. 

Message from the Pro-Vice Chancellor

E-mail: john.grainger@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Daniel Adkins
Academic Director, Career Programmes (IT, Environmental Science, Foundation)
Acting Academic Director, Murdoch Business School
Academic Services

Dan joined Murdoch University in November 2009 to teach in the Foundation and Business programmes.  Born in the United States, Dan began his career working in the information technology industry.  During his time in the IT industry he performed IT services for companies including IBM, Dell, Clorox, Philips, Hershey’s, Coca-Cola, Merck, and VISA.  Over the course of 20 years, Dan held numerous management positions, including CIO and CEO.  Before coming to the UAE he worked extensively in the United States, India, Vietnam, the UK, and the Philippines.  He has taught IT professionals in various disciplines including project management, quality management, and leadership skills.  After founding an international school in India, he moved to the UAE in 2007 to return to his passions; teaching and lifelong learning.  Dan holds an MBA from Herriot-Watt University and has received professional certifications in project management, quality assurance, and TEFL.  He has lectured at the university level in IT, economics, accounting, and law and at the secondary level in business studies, English, law, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology..

Email: daniel.adkins@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Johan Claasen
Academic Director - Media Communication and Culture
Academic Services

Johan Claasen hails from South Africa where he honed his journalistic skills over three decades in print, radio and television news. Johan holds a BA (Ed) from the University of Johannesburg. He also completed an intensive Television Production and Reporting course at the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Johannesburg. This course was presented in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He is currently enrolled in an MPhil (Journalism) program at the University of Stellenbosch.

Johan started his career as a journalist in 1980 while studying for his first degree. This was followed by a short stint as a teacher before reverting back to journalism. In 1984 he joined the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as a radio news reporter. This set him on the road for a career in broadcast journalism. He served in several capacities, such as producer and editor of one of the SABC's national radio news and actuality programmes, radio correspondent in Bonn ('West' Germany), national input-editor of TV news, regional news editor, and specialist parliamentary reporter. In the late eighties, Johan jointly received the SABC’s coveted Artes Award for Best Investigative Journalism (Radio).

In later years, Johan became founder employee of Punt Geselsradio, South Africa's first talk radio station in the Afrikaans language. In his capacity as the station's Regional News Editor in Cape Town, he hosted his own talkback show on socio-political issues and the media industry.
          
Before embarking on a search for new career opportunities in the UAE, Johan spent four years at academic institutions in Cape Town and Stellenbosch where he lectured in Journalism, Media Studies, Communication Science and Public Relations. His passion lies in media. In relying on his experience, he strives to contribute towards keeping Murdoch at the forefront of quality education and training.
                       
E-mail: johan.claasen@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Dr. Rhiannon Talbot
Program Coordinator – School of Education
Academic Services

Dr Rhiannon Talbot is an honours graduate from the University of Lancaster (UK), holds a doctorate from the University of Warwick (UK) and a postgraduate diploma in teaching, from the University of Newcastle (UK). In her academic career she has taught in both the University of Warwick and the University of Newcastle.

She has over two dozen publications in a wide range of sectors ranging from international peer reviewed academic journals, newspapers, book chapters, edited collections to magazines. She has extensive media experience having undertaken work with the BBC and appeared on programmes such as BBC1 the Politics show, Radio 4 and Radio 5. She is also a qualified TEFL teacher and has previously worked in post-communist Czechoslovakia (now the Slovak Republic). She took a short career break from academic teaching from 2006-2008 where she lived in rural India and undertook charitable work with local schools.

Email: rhiannon.talbot@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Silvia Lindsay
Acting Program Coordinator – School of Environmental Management and Sustainability
Academic Services

Silvia Lindsay holds a degree in environmental science from Alcala University in Madrid (Spain) and a Master’s degree in waste management from Glasgow Caledonian University (UK). She is a member of the Chartered Institution of Waste Management in the UK.

Silvia brings to Murdoch University her enthusiasm and genuine passion for the environment. She has 8 years of international experience in environmental management projects, focussing on waste management and climate change. She has worked for different private consultancies in a wide variety of projects in Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. She also has teaching and mentoring experience at Glasgow Caledonian University (UK) and she was the University’s Magnus Magnusson Award winner (2009) which helped to finance her participation in a voluntary environmental project in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Silvia is delighted to be coordinating the environmental management program and teaching environmental management and sustainable development at Murdoch University in Dubai as she believes that the UAE is taking decisive steps towards more sustainable development.

Email: silvia.lindsay@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Wayne Muller
Acting Program Coordinator – School of IT
Academic Services (School of IT, Foundation)

Wayne joined Murdoch University in August 2010 to teach in the MUPC and Information Technology programs. Wayne holds a BSc degree from the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He has taught IT at the tertiary level for the past 10 years, specialising in end user computing, information system management, system analysis and design, and basic programming.

Wayne has also completed several short courses including Visual Basic programming and a Certificate in Computer Technology in order to stay up to date with the fast changing landscape of Information Technology. Wayne strongly believes that computers are one of the most powerful tools in modern society and is passionate about using computers as a teaching tool.

Email: wayne.muller@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Saritha Krishnakumar
Lecturer
Academic Services (Murdoch Business School)

Saritha hails from India, having graduated from the Mahatma Gandhi University in Law. She went on to do her Masters in Law at Cochin University of Science and Technology, where she specialised in Environment and Consumer Law. Presently doing her PhD, her research concentrates on how the emigration law protects human rights of people going abroad. It tries to analyse the drawbacks of the existing emigration laws of India and suggest solutions to the issue.

Saritha has been living in Dubai for the past five years during which she has acquired experience teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students in universities. Her main areas of teaching concentrate on Law, Industrial Relations, Environmental Management and Tourism.

She has joined Murdoch University as lecturer of Law and teaches MBA and MHRM and of Media Law for undergraduates. She is very passionate about teaching. Teaching Law in a foreign country gives her ample opportunity to interact with the students on a higher level. It also allows her to learn their views about legal systems of many countries; how to develop a critical attitude and instil a sense of justice as part of their values system.

Email: saritha.kumar@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Aiva Svede
Adjunct Lecturer
Academic Services

Aiva Svede comes from Latvia. She holds two bachelor's degrees - one in Political Science and one in Finance Management. Aiva attained her MBA degree with Excellence from Hult International Business School, which she studied at the Boston (USA) and Shanghai (China) campuses.

Aiva has extensive professional experience in the tourism and hospitality industry, where she has held senior executive management positions as well as consulting roles. In her current position as Managing Director - Middle East and Africa, for a large multinational corporation, Aiva brings her business and academic experience to MBA students by lecturing in a variety of business management areas, including international business, organisational behaviour and risk management.

Email: aiva.svede@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Claire Macrae
Adjunct Lecturer
Academic Services

Claire Macrae holds two Masters degrees in Education, most recently from London’s Middlesex University in Dubai, and another from Rhodes University in South Africa. Seeing the difference in the learning environments, experienced almost twenty years apart, provided inspiration and fuelled her passion for the complex and dynamic world of Web 2.0 technology and 21st century learning.

Claire has many years of educational experience in a secondary school context, as well as an educational publishing background, from which she gained extensive experience in the training and facilitation of workshops for teachers, including presenting at numerous education conferences. After successfully running her own publishing business in South Africa, Claire moved to Dubai with her family in 2007, where her interest in 21st century learning arose out of her experience with forward-thinking schools here and her Masters study, which focused on ways of enhancing the learning potential of digital games. She looks forward to the challenge of assisting others to make teaching and learning with ICT meaningful and relevant to the future for the Net generation.

Email: caire.mcrae@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Dr. Seyed Bozorgnia
Adjunct Lecturer
Academic Services

Dr. Seyed M. Bozorgnia was born and educated in Iran. At the age of 17 he moved to the United Kingdom to pursue his education. After completion of O’ and A’ level degrees in the United Kingdom, Dr. Bozorgnia went to the United States. There he attended the University of Missouri in Kansas City where he completed his bachelor degrees in Economics and Political Science. In 1983 Dr. Bozorgnia received his Master degree in Economics from University of Missouri and in 1993 his Ph.D. in Political Economy from Arizona State University.

He is the founder and the managing director of Caspian Trading Company, Inc. A company established in 1986 in the U.S.A. whose activities have involved processing, import and export of food products. Caspian Trading Company, Inc. has office and warehouse facilities in the U.S.A. and the U.A.E. His responsibilities have included overseeing company's daily operation, supervision of staff, purchasing raw materials, marketing and sales of final product worldwide.

Dr. Bozorgnia has been teaching various economics and business courses in the United States and the Middle East since 1980.

Dr. Bozorgnia is author of the Role of Precious Metals in the European Economic Development: From Roman Times to the Eve of the Industrial Revolution, which was published in 1998 by Greenwood Press, Westport, Ct, U.S.A. He is also a contributor to international edition of Economics by R. Glenn Hubbard and Anthony Patrick O’ Brien, published by Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey U.S.A.. He is the economic editor of The Journal of Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, Emerald Journal Dubai, U.A.E. and a regular contributor to The National and other newspapers in the U.A.E.

Email: seyed.bozorgnia@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Jeff Price
Adjunct Lecturer
Academic Services

Jeff Price, an experienced radio and television broadcaster, joins the team of lecturers at Murdoch University bringing with him years of international radio broadcast experience to share with the students of Radio and Sound.  Jeff started his radio career in the studios of Great Ormond Street Hospital.  Radio GOSH is where his passion for radio was founded, and volunteering in the studios led to introductions to other radio professionals.  He was given his first on-air show with just minutes notice, and has never looked back.

Jeff went on to eventually become Programme Director of Radio stations in the UK, France and UAE, where he has settled for the time being. He came to Dubai in 1997 to help launch 104.8 Channel 4FM, which was an amazing experience, and saw the team pioneering radio in the region.  In 2003, he was invited to head up a team at a community radio station with a view to winning a full time license in the UK; a mission which he took on with enthusiasm and a great deal of motivation. The team was successful and was awarded the full time license. As the former head of English Radio in the UAE, he has seen a great deal of change and progress in the media field.

Email: jeff.price@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Kristina Rajic
Adjunct Lecturer
Academic Services

Kristina Rajic holds a Master’s Degree (Mag. Phil.) in Applied Linguistics from the University of Graz in Austria where she has specialised in Translation and Interpreting. Before moving to Dubai in 2007 she worked as mentor and tutor at the University of Graz as well as a free-lance translator and interpreter. Following her passion for teaching, Kristina acquired a qualification in TESOL and worked as Language Instructor at the ETON Institute and EAP Lecturer at the Canadian University of Dubai. Her area of interest and research is foreign language acquisition, where she is academically involved with the aim to acquire further academic qualifications.

Kristina teaches Critical Thinking, Research, and Writing as well as Introduction to Information Technology for Murdoch Dubai Foundation Programme.

Email: kristina.rajic@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Maha Sidahmed
Adjunct Lecturer
Academic Services

Maha Maha Sidahmed earned her degree in Art & Design from Curtin University of Technology, Australia and moved on to complete an MA in Communication Management from the University of South Australia. In the years that followed her bachelor's, Maha worked as a graphic designer, copywriter and consultant on various projects before pursuing a full-fledged career in academia. This new found passion for teaching led her to KDU College, Malaysia where she worked as lecturer and programme leader at the Department of Communication, Media and I.T. Maha hopes that her new start with Murdoch Dubai as a lecturer for the School of Media Communication and Culture will continue to fuel this passion.

Email: maha.sidahmed@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Mahima Mathur
Adjunct Lecturer
Academic Services

Mahima Mathur holds a Masters in Business Administration with specialization in Finance (Distinction) from The Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in India and a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from the University of London. She also holds a BA (Honours) in Economics from the University of Delhi. Mahima started her career as an Investment Banker at Lazard Bros, working in the area of Mergers and Acquisitions.

She has since moved to teaching and been lecturing in Economics and Finance based subjects for the last seven years. The last five years she has worked for several Australian universities based in Jakarta teaching subjects such as Economics, Corporate Finance, Corporate Governance, and Human Resource Management.

Mahima is also keen on research and has written a paper on “Corporate Governance and its impact on shareholder value”. Mahima feels privileged to have a good understanding of different cultures, having lived in Switzerland, Indonesia, India and the UAE in the last 12 years and having travelled to many more countries. Her next step is a PhD which she intends to pursue in 2011.

E-mail: mahima.mathur@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Marlene Muller
Adjunct Lecturer
Academic Services

Marlene Muller studied in South Africa, graduating in the fields of Political Science, International Relations and Governance, and completing a postgraduate qualification in Theopolitics. The recipient of numerous awards for Teaching Excellence and Academic Achievement, Marlene has published extensively in internationally accredited journals and was also appointed as a Research Fellow.

Marlene has held various management and leadership roles over the years, in both the professional and community spheres. She has trained many traditional leaders, government officials and politicians, and received awards for constantly bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Marlene is elated to be part of the Murdoch family in Dubai. Considering herself as a student of life in its totality, she is eager to be part of the success stories of both Dubai and Murdoch University.

E-mail: marlene.muller@murdochdubai.ac.ae

Zana Azeredo
Adjunct Lecturer
Academic Services

Zana Azeredo joined Murdoch Business School in 2010 as a Marketing lecturer for the MBA and undergraduate programs. Zana holds a chemical engineering degree, an MBA from Cranfield University, UK, and has specialisations in both Marketing from INSEAD, France, and Finance from Harvard Business School.

Zana has over 14 years of experience in general management and marketing, covering operations management, sales, product management, and portfolio direction. Over the years, she has worked or consulted for the following companies: Eli Lilly, Glaxo Smith Kline, Novartis, Procter & Gamble, Rohm and Haas, Ripasa SA, Rigel Agropecuary, Scott Wilson, the train line.com and the United Nations. Zana has extensive global experience, having lived in the USA, Brazil, Peru, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Venezuela and the UAE.

Email: zana.azeredo@murdochdubai.ac.ae