Dr. Julia Heath on the National Board of the Council for Economic Education
Dr. Julia Heath, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Economic Education, has been invited to serve on the national board of the Council for Economic Education for a three-year term, representing the Council's "unique nationwide network of affiliated university centers." The invitation states, "Having in mind the outstanding work you have been doing in Tennessee and the University of Memphis Center for Economic Education, such as your tremendously successful efforts for 'Smart Tennessee,' we believe that you could and would make a real contribution to the national effort."
The Council for Economic Education is comprised of a distinguished group of current and former business executives. For example, the council chairman is Craig Donohue, the CEO of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Other council members include Michael E. Bannister, Chairman & CEO, Ford Motor Credit Company and Group Vice President, Ford Motor Company; Barbara Cowden, Executive Vice President, State Farm Insurance Companies; John T. Dillon, Chairman & CEO (retired), International Paper Company; Gov. Frank Keating, President and CEO, American Council of Life Insurers and Former Governor of Oklahoma; Harold McGraw III, Chairman, President & CEO, The McGraw-Hill Companies; and Gary Stern, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Mr. Robert F. "Bobby" Fogelman Receives Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree at U of M Commencement
|Bobby Fogelman (r) with Dean Rajiv Grover |
The University of Memphis awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree to Memphis businessman and philanthropist Robert F. “Bobby” Fogelman during spring Commencement ceremonies Saturday, May 9, at FedExForum. Mr. Fogelman has been an unqualified success in business while simultaneously serving Memphis’ higher education, arts, and health communities. He is president of Fogelman Investment Company and a former director of numerous private and public companies.
In 1980, the Fogelman family was honored by having the College of Business named the Fogelman College of Business & Economics. The Fogelman Executive Center, a state-of-the-art conference facility, opened on campus in 1987. The Morris S. Fogelman Chair in Real Estate, within the Fogelman College, was established in honor of Bobby Fogelman’s father in 1975. In recognition of these and many other contributions, Bobby Fogelman was honored as a Distinguished Friend of the University of Memphis in 1987.
In 1989 a group of business and community leaders led by Mr. Fogelman formed the University of Memphis’ Board of Visitors. The BOV serves as an advisory board to the U of M’s president, helping the University achieve excellence and attain national recognition. Mr. Fogelman served as the BOV’s first chairman and is also a past president of the U of M Foundation Board of Trustees.
Mr. Fogelman is chairman of the Opera Memphis Endowment and the Memphis Jewish Federation Endowment. He also serves on the Baptist Memorial Healthcare Foundation and the U of M Investment Committee. He is a former trustee of several organizations, including the Memphis Pink Palace Museum, the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, and Shelby Farms. He is a past chairman of the Memphis College of Art and St. Mary’s Episcopal School.
Recently, Mr.Fogelman and his wife, Martha, donated more than 180 pieces of sub-Saharan African art to the University of Memphis Art Museum. This diverse collection features such objects as a beaded Yoruba priest’s tunic, a cast metal Benin head from Nigeria, and a wooden Fang funerary mask from Gabon. These works provide a rich core of valuable research and study material for students and visitors to the museum.
Mr. Fogelman earned a bachelor of science degree in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Fogelman College Student Wins Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship
The University of Memphis has been awarded a scholarship for the 2009-2010 academic year under the Department of Defense (DoD) Information Assurance Scholarship Program, with Vilas Rajanna selected as the recipient. Mr. Rajanna has a double major in Management Information Systems and Accountancy and expects to receive his Bachelor in Business Administration degree in Spring 2010. This scholarship includes tuition, required books, select fees, and a stipend.
This DoD program is sponsored by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Integration, with the National Security Agency administering the program as the Executive Agent. The Principal Investigator at the University of Memphis is Dr. Judith C. Simon, Co-Director of the Center for Information Assurance and Professor of Management Information Systems.
The National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have designated the University of Memphis as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education, and students at these designated institutions may compete for annual scholarships. Full-time students (juniors, seniors, and graduate students) with an overall grade point average of 3.0 and a major in a field associated with computer and network security and its management are eligible to apply. Interested students should contact Dr. Simon (firstname.lastname@example.org) by October 1 for further information about qualifications and the application process.
Dr. Eric Brey Widely Quoted on Effect of Swine Flu on Mexican Tourist Industry
Dr. Eric Brey, Assistant Professor and AT&T Fellow, and Director of the Center for Resort and Hospitality Business in the Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management, was recently quoted in The Washington Post in a story on the effect of the swine flu on Mexico’s tourist industry.
In fact, Dr. Brey has recently been quoted in over 125 media outlets in more than seven countries on resort and tourism issues. These outlets include Forbes, Business Week, National Public Radio, The New York Post, PBS, CBS News, CNBC, MSNBC, The Chicago Tribune, Yahoo! Finance (multiple international versions), and MSNMoney.
Prof. Zabi Rezaee Visits Several Overseas Universities
Prof. Zabi Rezaee, Professor and Thompson-Hill Chair of Excellence in Accountancy, visited several international universities this summer. He visited the University of the Virgin Islands in May as an external reviewer of their accounting program. He also visited Lulea University of Technology in Sweden in May, where he reviewed and redesigned their PhD program in accounting.
Prof. Rezaee was in Malaysia from June 1-18. He served as the external reviewer for 32 dissertation proposals and defenses at Malaya University and UiTM. He also was the keynote speaker at three professional conferences in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, including The International Asia-Pacific Conference on Forensic Accounting and Financial Criminology. Prof. Rezaee also visited Poly Technic University in Hong Kong in July, as a lecturer in their executive corporate governance program.
Prof. Rezaee’s 2007 book, Corporate Governance Post-Sarbanes-Oxley: Regulations, Requirements, and Integrated Processes, has just been translated into Chinese.
Venture Capital Firm Innova to Provide Funding for Entrepreneurship MBA
|Mr. Ken Woody (L) with
Dean Rajiv Grover |
A key feature of the Fogelman College's new Entrepreneurship Track in its Customer-Driven MBA (CDMBA) program is the requirement that each student develop a business plan for a new, technology-based business venture.
The Fogelman College is very pleased to announce that Innova, a Memphis based venture capital firm headed by Mr. Ken Woody, will provide funding to our Entrepreneurship MBA students in support of their business plan development. The funding will be $12,500 for each of four students while they are in the program for a total commitment of $50,000 per year. Deserving ventures can seek more capital through formal rounds of funding as the needs arise.
Dean Rajiv Grover comments, "This is an exciting development as I have been saying that the Entrepreneurship MBA program is for launching businesses and not for just offering courses." Dean Grover added, "I take pride that this program has been able to contribute to the outstanding Memphis Fast Forward and Memphis Economic Development initiatives."
For related story see: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jul/25/entrepreneurship-mastered/
Profs. Chang and Richardson Visit China to Discuss China-Tennessee Rural Health Care Exchange
Dr. Sandra Richardson of MIS and Dr. Cyril Chang of Economics were among 8 health care consultants and state health officials from Tennessee to visit China as a follow-up of last year’s China-Tennessee Rural Health Care Exchange. This year’s program took place in Xi’an between June 7 and June 22 for more than 100 Chinese health care professionals from eight different Provinces currently undergoing rural health care reform. The World Bank and the British Department for International Development program funded the program.
|Dr. Cyril Chang
||Dr. Sandra Richardson
Buzz Aldrin Appearance at Memphis Charitable Foundation Event Benefits Fogelman College Entrepreneurship Programs
Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969, was the guest of honor on Saturday, August 29, 2009, at the “Out of This World Evening” event in Memphis, sponsored by the Memphis Charitable Foundation. The event was hosted at One Commerce Square by Melanie and Kerr Tigrett, and Pat Kerr Tigrett, founder of the Memphis Charitable Foundation. The event was part of The John Burton Tigrett Innovators and Entrepreneurs Series.
Aldrin’s comments included, “I'm looking forward to being back in Memphis and promoting the continuation and expansion of our space program. Space exploration presents unlimited entrepreneurial opportunities, and we need to be a lot more aggressive in pursuing those options.”
The proceeds from the event will benefit the Fogelman College’s entrepreneurship programs, such as the new Entrepreneurship MBA program.
For related story see: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/aug/28/aldrin-is-out-of-this-world-guest-of-honor
University of Vlora (Albania) President Visited Fogelman College, Week of September 7th
Dr. Tanush Shaska, Rector (President) of the University of Vlora (Albania), and his party, visited the Fogelman College during the week of September 7th.
The purpose of this trip was to (1) develop a growing relationship between the University of Vlora and the Fogelman College, as well as with other University of Memphis colleges; (2) discuss ways to establish exchanges of faculty and students between the University of Vlora and the University of Memphis; (3) meet the President, Provost and university administrators to develop forms of cooperation between the two universities; (4) meet with faculty at the University of Memphis with regard to their teaching and research interests; (5) meet with the leaders of local, national and international business organizations who have their corporate offices in Memphis; (6) explore cooperative opportunities for the University of Vlora with U.S. companies, such as FedEx, International Paper, Autozone, and other firms located in Memphis.
The others in Dr. Shaska’s party were:
Prof. Dorjan Tozaj - Assistant Executive to the Rector
Prof. Albert Qarri - Dean College of Economy and Law
Prof. Amali Cipi - Head of the Business Department
Prof. Luciana Koprencka - Head of the Finance Department
Prof. Oltiana Muharremi - Prof. of Finance
Prof. Erald Pelari - Prof. of Finance/International Relations Officer
For further information, contact:
Dr. Ronald W. Spahr
Professor and Chair, Department of Finance, Insurance and Real Estate
College of Business and Economics
University of Memphis
Memphis, TN 38152
Prof. Brey Helps Develop Hospitality Program in Rwanda
Dr. Eric T. Brey, Assistant Professor in the Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management and Director of the Center for Resort and Hospitality Business will be traveling to the Eastern South African country of Rwanda to assist Muhabura University in developing their hospitality and tourism management program. The university, which will admit their first group of students in the fall, will focus on programs in business, engineering, agriculture and hospitality. Through a relationship with Little Rock, AR based Bridge 2 Rwanda Eric will be joining a team around the United States to assist in creating a new university in this quickly developing country. Eric will be leading the development of a hospitality program where students gain hands-on knowledge in the lodging, foodservice and tourism industries.
For more information, visit http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2009/09/28/story10.html
Prof. Janz Brings Author and Disney Speakers to Campus
Disney Speakers: In May, Dr. Brian Janz brought "cast members" from Walt Disney World's Disney Institute to the University of Memphis to speak to over 200 members of the Memphis business community on how they can enjoy the same levels of customer intimacy, employee loyalty, and innovation that has made the Disney Corporation legendary for decades. In a separate program, Dr. Janz arranged for the Disney Institute to present their secrets to world-class customer service to over 150 employees of the University of Memphis.
Author on Campus: In June, Dr. Janz brought Emily Yellin, author of Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us: Customer Service and What It Reveals About Our World and Our Lives to campus to present her findings related to best and worst practices related to customer service. Again, well over 100 University of Memphis employees attended this event.
Prof. Hussey is Quoted in Business Week
Andrew Hussey, an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Fogelman College, was quoted in Business Week on October, 19, 2009, in an article entitled, "GMAT: The MBA Job Seekers Best Friend." The article debated the purposes and actual uses of the GMAT (Graduate Management Admissions Test.)
After a quote from a recruiting director at Bain & Co. that questioned the value of the GMAT, the paragraph quoting Prof Hussey said, "Still, a person's quantitative GMAT score does seem to be linked to salary, while verbal GMAT scores appear to be linked to managerial status," says Andrew Hussey, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Memphis. "This is true," he says, "regardless of what school, if any, a student attends. Additionally, there's a wealth of information released by the Graduate Management Admission Council showing that scores have a high correlation with success in an MBA program, which in turn can be a determining factor of success in the job search. And there's a strong, if unsurprising, parallel between schools where graduates earn the highest starting pay and schools where students have the highest GMAT scores."
Prof. Silkes Receives Best Paper Award at Conference
Dr. Carol Silkes, Assistant Professor in the Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality and Resort Management, received the"best paper" award last week at the International Society for Travel and Tourism Educators (ISTTE) Annual Conference held in San Antonio, Texas. The paper was entitled "The role of trip motivation on customer’s satisfaction and behavioral intention: A rural culinary tourism perspective."