Dr. Nikolina Ljepava is a senior marketing professional and practice-oriented academic currently serving as a Department Chair of Management in the College of Business Administration at the American University in the Emirates.

She has over 20 years of industry and academic experience in North America, Europe, and the United Arab Emirates. Dr Nikolina holds a Ph.D. in Marketing Research specializing in marketing research and analytics and major international professional qualifications in marketing: Chartered Marketer, Certified Digital Marketing Professional, and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Her professional experience includes consulting and management positions in marketing insights and analytics, digital transformation, and evaluation and assessment. Dr Nikolina conducted and supervised more than one hundred industry research and development projects as a director of research in the market and public opinion research agencies and as a market research consultant for different institutions and companies.

Additionally, she served as a research and evaluation consultant on a number of projects supported by international organizations such as UNICEF, UNDP, and USAID.

She is the author of more than 60 peer-reviewed research publications and holder of various academic and research awards. Her professional and academic interests are related to AI applications in marketing and higher education, various aspects of digital transformation in marketing and business, human-technology interaction, and applied marketing research and analytics.