School of Business and Law

Professor Maryam Omari

Professor Maryam Omari is the Executive Dean of the School of Business and Law.

Key Research Areas

• Dignity and respect at work
• Workplace bullying
• Quality of work-life issues
• Cross cultural management

Biography

Professor Maryam Omari has been the Executive Dean of the School of Business and Law since January 2016. She is the first female, and the longest serving Executive Dean of the School. Maryam is a member of the University’s Executive team and has held a number of previous academic leadership positions between 2005 – 2015 including: Program Director MBA and Graduate Studies; Associate Dean International; Director of Undergraduate Studies; and Human Resource Management Course Coordinator.

Since becoming the Executive Dean, she has grown and repositioned the School of Business and Law (SBL) at ECU by leading and managing a significant change agenda which has resulted in structural, cultural, academic and curriculum renewal. In 2024 SBL became the largest of eight Schools at ECU, moving up from the third largest School in 2016 when Maryam took over as Executive Dean.

Under Maryam’s leadership the Business School achieved accreditation from AACSB International in 2022. The Business and Economics discipline at ECU rose to the Top 250 in the Times Higher Education (THE) international rankings for 2022 and retained this standing for 2023 and 2024 - the highest ranked THE discipline at ECU. The Hospitality and Tourism discipline became the highest ranked discipline at ECU on the ShanghaiRankings at number 30 in the world in 2023 and moved up to #26 for 2024.  In October 2024, The Australian Financial Review (AFR) named the Business School at ECU as number 1 in Western Australia for the third year running for Quality, and #2 in the nation.

Maryam has a PhD, Master of Business (Human Resource Management), Graduate Diploma of Business (Management), and a Bachelor of Science (Zoology). She has taught Human Resource Management, International Business, and Management and has lived, studied and worked in the Middle East, UK and USA.

Maryam is a graduate of UK’s Advance HE’s Top Management Program (TMP) and is currently on the Alumni Advisory Group of the TMP.  She is also:

• The Chair of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International Asia Pacific Advisory Council (APAC);
• A member of the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) Executive Committee; and
• A member of the Australian Human Resources Institute’s (AHRI) Future of Work Advisory Panel.

Over the past decade, Maryam has been a Board member of:

• The Cat Haven WA., and the Chair of the People and Culture sub-committee of the Cat Haven Board (2020 – 2022)
• The International Association on Workplace Bullying and Harassment (IAWBH) (2016 – 2020);
• The Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management (ANZAM) (2014 – 2016); and
• Connectgroups in Western Australia (2013 – 2016).

Maryam has also been a member of:

• The WA Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) State Council (2013 – 2016);
• The WA representative on the national AHRI Research Advisory Panel (RAP) (2013 – 2017);
• The Chair of the International Management Stream of (ANZAM) annual conference (2012 – 2018); and
• A Judge for the annual Telstra Business, and Business Woman of the Year Awards (2013 – 2017).

In her industry roles, Maryam has designed, developed, implemented and evaluated national projects and in-house capability building programs. Prior to academia, she worked in the public sector for over 17 years in various HR capacities including: learning and development; recruitment and selection; coordination of graduate programs; organisational development; strategic planning; leadership development and management. As an HR Manager she was a member of the State Executive of the Agency.