Brad Geddes, BA, MSc, MBA, PMP
Pronouns: He/HIm
Contact
Assistant Lecturer, Management, Augustana - Social Sciences
- brgeddes@ualberta.ca
- Availability
- Please reach me by email: brgeddes@ualberta.ca
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Program: Management and Business Economics
About
Brad Geddes is an Assistant Lecturer in Management at the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus, where he teaches in the Bachelor of Management program and helps students learn how to lead people and manage projects in real-world settings. His teaching focuses on areas such as leadership and strategic management, including courses like AUMGT 330 (Introduction to Marketing) and AUMGT 490 (Business Policy and Strategy).
He grew up in a family of settlers and blue-collar workers in Stony Plain, his grandparents teaching him that even if you come from simple roots, you use whatever talents you have to leave things a little better than you found them.
Geddes completed his bachelor of arts, with concentrations in economics and rural development, at Augustana before going on to obtain a master’s in agricultural economics at the University of Saskatchewan, followed by an MBA at the University of Alberta. He has been teaching on and off at the Camrose campus for years and is now entering a new full-time role as assistant lecturer in management. He brings more than 25 years of public service leadership experience to the classroom, with a varied background that includes modernizing major contact-centre operations and coordinating disaster recovery.
For Geddes, leadership is fundamentally about showing up for community, and his lengthy career in public service and, eventually, executive leadership gave him a way to live that value every day. By helping shape programs, regulations and systems that support the kinds of communities that are often overlooked, his career has truly reflected the Augustana motto, “to lead and to serve.”
Teaching
How would you describe your work?
At Augustana, management education goes beyond the boardroom — we learn how organizations shape communities, affect ecosystems and drive economies. In a deeply connected world, responsible leadership matters more than ever.
The ability to lead people, co-ordinate teams and make decisions that affect others is a skill every graduate needs in any discipline. My work is to guide the next generation of leaders through that process.
What are some of the most impactful lessons you hope to share with your students?
- Trust is built in small and consistent actions.
- Numbers help you see patterns and risks, but people’s lived experience — including the perspectives, histories and knowledge of Indigenous communities — tells you why something is important.
- Real change is usually slower and messier than we expect. If we treat people with respect, keep listening and be willing to adjust our approach, we will get where we need to be, and will have brought our teams with us.
What does good mentoring mean to you?
The best mentors I’ve had didn’t try to turn me into a copy of them. Leaders like Dr. Dittmar Mundell, one of the founding directors of the Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life; Dr. Varghese Manaloor; and Dr. Glen Hvenegaard helped me become a better version of myself and held me accountable for my choices. I’m grateful that Augustana’s research centres, including the Chester Ronning Centre, continue to be places where that kind of mentorship happens across disciplines.
Good mentoring means walking beside someone and not in front of them — asking honest questions, sharing your own missteps as well as your successes and creating a space where people feel safe enough to stretch, make mistakes and try hard things. It also means offering clear feedback and expectations. Support and accountability need to travel together and the person you’re mentoring can grow with confidence and integrity.
What is the best wisdom a mentor has shared with you?
Society works best when people are empowered to make their own decisions, based on their own capacity. The best support I can provide is to share my knowledge, empathy and options so people can take action — even a modest next step can build momentum, confidence and hope.
How do you hope to include your lived experience in the way you teach?
In class, I plan to draw on moments from my career such as negotiating with partners, working with communities and navigating uncertainty: slowing down the stories so students can see the moving parts. By unpacking why and how decisions were made, what worked and what I would do differently, I hope to give students both practical tools and the confidence that they, too, can learn and lead their way through complex challenges. Where possible, I want students to learn alongside the partners, municipalities and community organizations whose decisions shape rural Alberta.
What keeps you coming back to Augustana?
Every time I return to Augustana, I’m reminded that education can be both personal and transformative. This is where I first learned my rural background, my interest in public service and my questions about leadership all belonged in the same conversation. Coming back now feels like closing a circle. I get to stand on the other side of the classroom and help students discover that their stories and talents matter.
What’s something you’re grateful for?
I’m grateful for the chance to do work that connects my roots, my values and my responsibilities: teaching at Augustana, serving communities and learning alongside students. Being trusted to watch students discover their own strengths and sense of purpose feels like a privilege. I’m also grateful to be part of a faculty whose new strategic plan, Collaborative Futures, names the kind of community-rooted, student-centred work I most want to do
Courses
AUECO 101 - Introduction to Microeconomics
Economic analysis, problems, and policies, with emphasis on the Canadian economy; roles of consumers and firms in competitive and monopolistic markets; foreign ownership in the Canadian economy; distribution of income, inequality, and poverty; use of the environment; government economic policies.
AUECO 102 - Introduction to Macroeconomics
Economic analysis, problems, and policies, with emphasis on the Canadian economy; national income and monetary theory; problems of unemployment and inflation; government monetary and fiscal policies; international trade theory, problems, and government policies. Prerequisite: AUECO 101.
AUIDS 101 - First Year Seminar
Selected topics that highlight the interdisciplinary nature of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. This seminar-style class is the first course in Augustana's Core. The focus and content of each course are determined by faculty interests, and vary from year to year.
AUMGT 200 - Introduction to Management
Introduction to the basic concepts of management. Topics include the origins of management, functional areas of management, levels of management structure, relationship between structure and function of the organization. The course examines management in diverse organizational and societal contexts, including Indigenous governance and organizations operating on treaty territories and unceded Indigenous lands, ethical leadership, and reconciliation-informed practice. Prerequisite: AUMGT 100.
AUMGT 330 - Introduction to Marketing
Introduction to the theory of marketing and its practice. The role of marketing within the business environment is discussed. Topics include the product design and management, national and international marketing strategies, consumer behaviour, product distribution and pricing, and market research. The course addresses marketing in diverse cultural contexts, including attention to Indigenous Peoples as important publics in the Canadian marketing environment across treaty and unceded territories, and the ethical dimensions of culturally grounded marketing strategies. Prerequisites: AUMGT 200.
AUMGT 370 - Organizational Research Methods
This course introduces students to the importance of valuable information, since information - for decisionmakers in organizations - is often the most pertinent element in achieving and maintaining competitive advantage. In addition to decisionmaking, this course will also focus on how scientific knowledge can be generated from an organizational context to help scientists understand the changing dynamics of modern organizations. Prerequisites: AUMGT 200, AUSTA 153 or consent of the instructor.
AUMGT 399A - Management Internship
Students will combine work experience with academic study through the development and completion of an internship program related to management. As part of the internship, students are required to complete a major project related to their work. Prerequisites: AUMGT 200, third year standing and consent of the instructor.
AUMGT 399B - Management Internship
Students will combine work experience with academic study through the development and completion of an internship program related to management. As part of the internship, students are required to complete a major project related to their work. Prerequisites: AUMGT 200, third year standing and consent of the instructor.
AUMGT 490 - Business Policy and Strategy
Capstone course for the Bachelor of Management program. The course helps the student develop overall directions of an organization and mobilize human and other resources to accomplish strategic goals. The skills, concepts, and tools learned in various courses form the framework for making strategic decision. Prerequisite: Completion of all other courses in the Management Foundations, or consent of program adviser. The course helps students develop overall directions of an organization and mobilize human and other resources to accomplish strategic goals, including ethical considerations, reconciliation responsibilities, and strategic engagement with diverse communities and Indigenous nations in regional, rural, and Indigenous business environments across treaty territories and unceded lands. Notes: Open only to a student in the Bachelor of Management Program.