Biography of Isabelle Dostaler, Provost and Vice-President (Academic)

Isabelle Dostaler, PhD

The Board of Governors has approved the appointment of Dr Isabelle Dostaler as Provost and Vice-President (Academic). In this role she joins the University Executive Team and becomes Chair of Deans' Council.

Dr. Isabelle Dostaler previously served as Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at Memorial University, Newfoundland and Labrador. Prior to joining Memorial in 2017, she was a Professor of Management at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University in Montreal, where she held a number of administrative appointments including Director of Accreditation, Director of the Aviation MBA and Director of the Executive MBA. Her teaching interests are strategy, critical business thinking and technology management.

During her time at Memorial University, Dr. Dostaler developed a strategic plan for the Faculty of Business Administration, including a redesign of its undergraduate curriculum. In September 2019, she introduced Memorial University’s MBA in Social Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, which integrates experiential learning activities that train social entrepreneurs to efficiently run sustainable organizations. In that same year, she introduced Memorial University’s Bachelor of Music/Bachelor of Business Administration program, a partnership between the School of Music and the Faculty of Business. She also successfully prepared the Faculty of Business Administration for the maintenance of its accreditation by the Associate to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, as she had done previously at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business.

Dr. Dostaler holds a PhD in Management Study from the University of Cambridge. Her research centers on the automotive, electronics, aerospace and aviation industries, and she is a strong advocate for bridging the gap between business research and business practice, and for community-engaged research. She was the recipient of the John Molson School of Business Dean’s Award for Distinguished Scholarship and was a nominee for the Gérard-Parizeau award, which recognized the exceptional contribution of a Quebec university faculty member to the field of transportation.

Dr. Dostaler is the author of more than 20 scholarly articles and book chapters, more than 40 practitioner articles, and several newspaper articles. For decades now, her work on the challenges of regional air transport in the province of Québec has had a significant impact on public policy. She served as an ambassador for the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University, having been cited or interviewed more than 350 times during her time there. She was the recipient of the award for Communicator of the Year from Concordia University Communications Services.