Kenneth Corts Biographical Note

Professor Corts has previously served in a number of other academic leadership positions at the University of Toronto. He has served as Vice-Dean, Faculty & Research at the Rotman School since 2015, prior to which he was Director of the Rotman Commerce Program and Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education. As Vice-Dean, Professor Corts has successfully led initiatives to increase recognition of faculty accomplishments, improve faculty hiring and pay equity, increase research support for faculty, and launch new research institutes. Most recently, he was a key part of the leadership team that developed the Rotman School’s academic plan, A Catalyst for Change, which charts the next leap forward for the School. He also served as Acting Dean in August 2019 and in January to February 2020.

As Director of the Rotman Commerce program he worked closely with the both the Rotman School and U of T’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences to lead initiatives to broaden the curriculum across all management disciplines; to provide significant leadership and communications skills development opportunities; to increase international learning experiences; and to engage alumni more fully in the life of the Rotman Commerce program. As Academic Director of the Lee-Chin Institute for Corporate Citizenship, he has driven increased faculty research collaboration and student participation in activities related to sustainable finance and sustainability strategy. In 2019 Professor Corts served as Acting Vice-President, University Operations for the fall term, developing relationships with leaders across the three U of T campuses.

He has been a visiting professor at UCLA and INSEAD and a visiting scholar at UC-Berkeley and IESE. Before joining the Rotman School in 2003, he was an Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor in the Competition and Strategy area at Harvard Business School. He received his PhD in Economics from Princeton University in 1994.

Professor Corts is a microeconomist with research and teaching interests in industrial organization, competition policy, organizational economics, and energy policy; he has published his research in leading academic journals such as the Rand Journal of Economics, the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, the Journal of Industrial Economics, and the Journal of Law and Economics. Professor Corts has also published a number of Harvard Business School case studies that are used at top business schools throughout the world, served as Editor at the Journal of Industrial Economics from 2005-2010, and has won grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In addition to his academic contributions, Professor Corts has provided expert testimony in competition policy cases before the Competition Tribunal and the Ontario Superior Court, co-authored a policy analysis paper for the UK Office of Fair Trading, and consulted on antitrust matters in the U.S.