Celebrating empathy in action: 2025 Kabiller Prize winners announced

Biennial award honors faculty and alumni advancing empathy in business.
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Kellogg
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Two men side-by-side smiling
Brady (L) and Moabery (R).

 

Empathy is more than a buzzword at Kellogg — it’s a cornerstone of our culture, curriculum and leadership philosophy. The Kabiller Science of Empathy Prize, awarded biennially to one faculty member and one alumnus, honors those who advance our understanding of empathy and its impact in business and society. Established by David Kabiller ’85, ’87 MBA, co-founder of AQR Capital Management and Northwestern University Trustee, the prize reflects Kellogg’s commitment to rigorous research and real-world application of empathy as a transformative force. 

Kabiller faculty winner: William Brady 

William Brady, assistant professor of management and organizations, is the 2025 faculty recipient. His research explores how emerging technologies —like artificial intelligence and algorithms — shape human psychology, particularly in digital environments. Brady investigates how platforms can both hinder and enhance empathy and perspective-taking, especially among groups in conflict, such as political partisans. 

As director of the Mind & Technology Lab, Brady leads an interdisciplinary team that blends social science theory with behavioral and computational methods to study the influence of technology on individuals, groups and organizations. His work has appeared in top journals including Science, PNAS, Nature Human Behaviour and Science Advances. He’s also been featured in The New York Times, BBC, Wired and The Wall Street Journal. Brady is also a recipient of the Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award and the Sage Emerging Scholar Award. 

A smiling man with a beard wearing a dark blazer
Brady is a computational social scientist with 10+ years of experience in behavioral science, data science and statistics and project management.

Kabiller alumni winner: Abdol Moabery ’23 MBA 

Abdol Moabery, founder, president, and CEO of GA Telesis, is the 2025 alumni recipient. A U.S. Navy veteran and serial entrepreneur, Moabery has built GA Telesis into a global leader in commercial and defense aviation services. Since its founding in 2002, the company has earned accolades such as the Air Transport World MRO of the Year and multiple Boeing Gold Services Awards. 

Moabery’s leadership is rooted in empathy and accountability. He fosters a customer-first culture that has significantly enhanced the company’s market value. With over three decades of experience across aviation sectors — including flight operations, leasing, finance, software, logistics and maintenance— Moabery holds several patents and is the youngest recipient of both the Wright Brothers Memorial Award and its Lifetime Achievement Award. 

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A serial entrepreneur, Moabery is a distinguished alum of the Executive MBA Program at Kellogg.

Honoring empathy at Kellogg 

The Kabiller Prize winners will be celebrated at a special event this fall. The faculty recipient also receives a research grant and the opportunity to shape an academic conference on the science of empathy. Past winners of the Kabiller Prize include Professor Paola Sapienza and Anant Goenka ’07 MBA in 2023 and Professor Nicole Stephens and Mike George ’83, ’85 MBA in 2021.