Dr. Anton OVCHINNIKOVAssociate Professor of Decision Sciences - INSEAD

Dr. Anton Ovchinnikov is an Associate Professor of Decision Sciences at INSEAD. He holds a specialist degree in Economics from his hometown university in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, and a PhD in Operations Management from the University of Toronto. Prior to INSEAD he was a professor at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia in the USA and at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Canada (from which he is presently on leave). Under his leadership, the Smith School won a major global prize for the best curriculum in analytics and AI: the UPS Prize by the Institute of Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS).

Anton’s research interests are on the intersection of Decisions Sciences with Operations, Marketing, and Economics. On the theoretical side these include studying strategic behavior of consumers and firms, innovative technologies (including artificial intelligence, AI), and environmental and social sustainability, and on the applied – data driven decision making in business, government, and non-profits. Anton published extensively in both the leading academic research journals, such as Management Science(MS), Operations Research(OR), Manufacturing & Services Operations Management(MSOM) and Production and Production and Operations Management(POM), and the leading practice-oriented journals, such as Harvard Business Review(HBR).

Anton teaches courses on data-driven decision making, data analytics, AI (incl. GenAI), and pricing analytics in the INSEAD’s MBA and GEMBA programs. In Executive Education he co-teaches and co-directs flagship open-enrollment programs such as “Strategic Decision Making for Leaders” (SDML) and “AI for Boards,” as well as the numerous custom programs around the world. He worked with clients in financial services (banks, insurance, investment firms, incl. sovereign wealth funds and family offices), oil&gas, chemicals, mining, energy, advanced manufacturing, FMCG, major retailers, airlines, big tech, law firms, as well as for government bodies (incl., regulators, education, and healthcare systems). He also consults on the topics of advanced analytics and AI, including for sustainability and ESG applications.

Anton is twice the winner of the “Faculty of the Year” Award for the Master in Management Analytics (MMA) program at Smith and a co-winner of the 2020 INFORMS UPS Prize for the world’s best curriculum in analytics and AI. His research received numerous recognitions, such as being listed among the Top 100 AI projects to advance UN Sustainable Development Goals by UNESCO’s International Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI), and has been awarded multiple prestigious research awards, such as the 2015 Paul Kleindorfer Award in Sustainability from the POM Society and the 2023 Best Paper Award by the INFORMS’ MSOM Special Interest Group (SIG) on Finance and Operations (iFORM).

Anton is also a prolific case writer. Her is a three-times winner of INFORMS Case Competitions (2005, 2011 and 2021) for the best new cases in analytics, and his cases were four times among the Case Centre’s Global Bestsellers. Anton organized several conferences and is on the editorial review boards of multiple leading academic journals (including being an Associate Editor in OR and as a Senior Editor in POM); his contributions to the academic community also received multiple service awards.

Before starting his academic career, he worked in commercializing high-tech developments, and co-owned a business in industrial and architectural design. Anton still owns a boutique consulting firm, and is a founding board member of an international artist residency (L’AiR Arts) based in a historical artist atelier in the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris.

Anton's INSEAD case publishing site is here: Anton S. Ovchinnikov | INSEAD Publishing