Beedie Professor named as Smart Thinker on prestigious Twitter list

Ian McCarthy, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Technology & Operations Management at SFU’s Beedie School of Business, has been named on Business Insider’s prestigious list “54 Smart Thinkers Everyone Should Follow on Twitter”.

The Business Insider website provides commentary and analysis on the top business news stories from around the web. The list identifies the most influential thought leaders in the world currently active on Twitter who are respected in their fields and have developed a following for their insightful commentary on the platform.

In being selected for the list McCarthy joins esteemed names such as Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, editor-in-chief of the Huffington post, Arianna Huffington and renowned physician and public speaker Deepak Chopra.

“It is a tremendous honor being named on this list alongside such prominent figures,” says McCarthy. “I started tweeting and blogging while writing an award-winning research paper with colleagues. The paper focused on understanding and exploiting the functionalities of different social media, and it has since proven to be an effective launching pad for my social media presence.” 

McCarthy tweets under the handle @toffeemen68, in honour of Everton FC, the English soccer team of which he is a fan. His tweets focus on a wide range of business topics such as technology, innovation, operations and management education, and have attracted almost 12,000 followers to date.

McCarthy joins several other notable academics on the list, from institutions such as Duke University, Harvard Business School and New York University. Other high-profile names on the list include Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot and senior lecturer at MIT, Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla, SpaceX and PayPal, and Paul Krugman, columnist at the New York Times.

In the past year, McCarthy’s Twitter activity has seen him selected on the “50 Business Professors You Should Follow on Twitter” list assembled by OnlineMBA, as well as helping the Beedie School of Business retain its top Klout score for the second year in a row.

McCarthy is part of a burgeoning social media presence at the Beedie School of Business which has seen Beedie School of Business Dean Daniel Shapiro become the first business school Dean in Canada active on twitter. Using the handle @sfubeediedean, he engages with students, industry and alumni globally, tweeting about research, economics, globalization and business strategy, as well as news from the Beedie School of Business.

To follow Ian McCarthy on Twitter, visit http://www.twitter.com/Toffeemen68

To view the full list of Business Insider’s Smart Thinkers on Twitter, visit http://www.businessinsider.com/smart-people-to-follow-on-twitter-2012-6#