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Message
From The Dean....
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I
am two for two in graduations! For the second year in a row, we
had a spectacular day for graduation. On behalf of the faculty and
staff of the College of Business Administration, congratulations to the
Class of 2008 and we wish them continued success in their future
endeavors.
No sooner did we bid farewell to over 400 students from the Class of
2008, then we began to welcome the Class of 2012. Professor Bob
Comerford, along with Kathy Bowser, Laurie Bouthillier and Assistant
Dean Peg Ferguson-Boyd do an outstanding job of welcoming the incoming
class and make them feel a part of the University and the College of
Business.
As you will read in the newsletter, Al and Gerrie Verrecchia have
agreed to be champions for the College of Business. As part of
URI's Make A Difference Campaign they have agreed to match up to
$250,000 of alumni contributions made toward the establishment of
scholarships. The way the program works is that Al and Gerrie
will match up to $12,500 of your contribution (payable at $2,500 per
year over 5 years) to establish an undergraduate scholarship named for
you, your family or anyone you designate. This gift allows for
the establishment of 20 potential scholarships and we already have five
people committed to creating one of these scholarship.
This summer we continue to put the finishing touches on our
re-accreditation document and are looking forward to the accreditation
teams' visit the last week of October. We are also gearing up for
the Fall semester and are pleased to announce that Stephen Hopkins '79,
Managing Director at Roundtable Investment Partners LLC; Deborah Ciolfi
'80, CEO, Providence Investors LLC; and Professor Emeritus Richard
Vangermeersch' 64 have been selected for induction into the College of
Business Hall of Fame. These three individuals along with Bruce
Sherman '69, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of
Private Capital Management who was selected as one of four
university-wide Distinguished Achievement Award winners, will be
honored on Saturday, October 18, 2008, homecoming weekend, at the
Westin in Providence. We hope many of you can attend that event
as well as the various events scheduled for homecoming. The
College of Business will sponsor a tent and a cookout at the football
game on Saturday. We hope that you will make plans to attend.
More information will be in the September newsletter.
Michaela and I continue to meet many successful URI alumni as we travel
throughout the country, and we will continue to highlight these alums
in our newsletter. The focus of the July issue is on our very
successful Ph.D. program. The faculty spotlight is on Professor
Paul Mangiameli, the director of that program. Our student spotlight is
on Ting "Jeffrey" Zhang a Ph.D. student in Finance, who
recently won an international grant for his research. Finally our
alumni spotlight is on Marketing Ph.D. graduate Dr. Adel Al-Wugayan who
is Secretary-General, Supreme Council for Planning and Development for
the Government of Kuwait. I am sure many of you remember former
Assistant Dean Jane Stich, who is highlighted in our "What
Happened To?" feature. Although Jane is enjoying retirement
she has continued to stay active in the university and continues to
attend many of the College of Business events.
I hope you have a chance to enjoy the summer and please feel free to
forward any suggestions you have to improve the Newsletter to Lisa
Lancellotta at cbanews@etal.uri.edu
Wishing you all the best,
Mark Higgins
Dean and The Alfred J. Verrecchia-Hasbro Inc. Leadership
Chair in Business
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Professor Paul Mangiameli
Professor
Paul Mangiameli joined the faculty of the College of Business
Administration in 1977, after obtaining his doctorate from Ohio State
University. In the thirty-one years he has been at URI, he has
taught beginning freshman classes to advanced doctoral research
seminars. Although he admits to being, "Pretty damn
old," he says teaching keeps him young. "Students are
eager to learn. Being business students, though, they are very
sharp and they demand the best from you. You have to be
knowledgeable and capable if you want to teach them. Only the
young of mind and heart can be that nimble."
Currently, Prof. Mangiameli is entering his fifth year as Director
of the Doctoral Program. He says it is one of the most enjoyable
experiences of his career. "Mentoring and guiding doctoral
students so that they, in turn, become college professors is difficult
and time consuming. Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to herd
cats. But in the end, it's just so rewarding. When mentoring
doctoral students, you work one on one with them. Often this
leads to collaborative research. "
He was the major professor for four doctoral students and
is proud to have published scholarly journal articles with them as well
as other doctoral students. "Much more important than
continued research collaboration is that we have stayed good friends
over the years. Having friends is better than any journal
article. I could not have had a better career. I am truly
blessed."
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Student Spotlight
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Ting
Zhang, Ph.D. Candidate
Ting "Jeffrey" Zhang recently finished his
third year study of PhD in finance at URI. He successfully defended his
dissertation proposal in May 2008, and is finalizing the dissertation.
Before he joined the PhD program, Jeffrey received a Master of
Science in Finance from Clark University. He received an MBA
and Master of Accounting degree from the University of Northern Iowa in
2003. Jeffrey has solid industrial experience in finance and investment
areas, and has worked as a stock analyst, firm valuation consultant, foreign
exchange trader, and financial analyst. Jeffrey was a member of the CFA
Institution and a member of the Boston Security Analyst Society.
Why I Came to
URI?
Jeffrey made his first visit to the URI campus in April 2005 after
submitting his application for Ph.D. studies. He talked to faculty
members and Ph.D. students at the College of Business Administration,
and was introduced to various research resources/databases, including
PACAP Research Center and WRDS databases. Jeffrey was deeply impressed
by the kindness, devotion, and faculty involvement. He liked the
beach and the scenic campus very much as well and decided to
attend URI after he received the admission offer.
Research and
Teaching Experience at URI
During his three years' study at URI, Jeffrey has accumulated valuable
experience in research and teaching. His research interest
includes analyst earnings forecast and stock recommendations,
international finance, empirical asset pricing, and corporate pension
plans. In his dissertation, Jeffrey will be examining the implications
of corporate pension underfunding on the securities valuation and
market efficiency.
He recently won a research grant of 10,000 Euros from
Netspar, which is a global research institution located in the
Netherlands with specialization in pension and aging research. Jeffrey
also received a URI Provost Research Grant for Graduate Students in
2006. His research papers have been accepted by a number of premier
finance and accounting conferences, including Emerging Market Group
conference, Financial Management Association meeting, American
Accounting Association conference, American Risk and Insurance
Association conference, and Southern Financial Association. Jeffrey is
working as a research associate with the Pacific-Basin Capital Market
Research Center - Greater China Database, with the responsibilities of
developing, managing, and distributing the Chinese stock markets
database. He is an active member of the Wall Street Journal Digest and
2008 Summer Finance Reading Group.
Jeffrey has taught Managerial Statistics, Financial Management, and
Risk Management and Insurance courses at URI. He enjoys bringing
his industry experience and research into the classroom and makes the
class materials interesting and applicable to the dynamic business
world. For example, he used his stock research report as an example to
show Financial Management students how to analyze firm financial
information. In addition, Jeffrey assisted faculty members in
developing finance curriculum that incorporated the test content of the
CFA program. He was a regular speaker at the FMA URI Chapter
meetings about the CFA test-related information between 2005 to 2007.
Plan after
Graduation
Jeffrey is looking for a college faculty position in the US. He likes
doing research, teaching, and sharing knowledge with his
students.
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Alumni Spotlight
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Dr. Adel Al-Wugayan ,
Secretary-General,
Supreme Council for
Planning
& Development, Government of Kuwait
In
1979, the government of Kuwait established the Ministry of Planning
(MOP) to provide the state-wide long-term strategic, medium-term, and
short-term plans so the budgetary process becomes properly
aligned. In 1986, the parliament issued a law by which plans must
be approved by the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD),
an entity that was created in the same year. The SPCD is headed
by the Prime Minister, with 9 ministers and the director of the Kuwait
Central Bank along with non-government members appointed for 4
years. Since 1991, all efforts to make five-year plans that win
the approval of MOP and SPCD as well as the Cabinet of Ministers have failed.
This has been mainly due to the lack of appropriate steps necessary to
establish the long-term vision strategic objectives to guide the
formation of the five-year development plan.
In
August 2007, Adel was appointed by a royal decree to assume the
responsibilities as the Secretary-General for the SPCD. His
major task has been to re-engineer the macro planning system by
dismantling MOP and transfer its relevant responsibilities to the
General Secretariat of the SPCD, completed in October 2007. The
next step was to establish a vision for Kuwait as well as
strategic objectives that should serve as the impetus for the five-year
plans, completed March 2008. Currently the SPCD is working on
establishing the five-year plan. The SPCD employs almost 500 government
employees composed of professors, planning experts, and administrative
staff. His position is category one undersecretary second to
a minister. The annual budget is approximately 40 million
dollars. If the effort becomes successful and wins the approval
of the government and the parliament, Kuwait will have the first
mid-range plan in seventeen years.
Born
in Kuwait City in 1966, second in a family of seven children, Adel
joined the public schools in Kuwait where he graduated from high school
as one of top 12% nationwide using a standard comprehensive exam.
In 1984, he joined the College of Business majoring in Finance and
Banking and graduated valedictorian, earning a scholarship for
graduate studies in 1990. He earned his MBA from Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale in 1992 and his Ph.D. in Business
Administration from the University of Rhode Island in 1998. He joined
the CBA faculty at Kuwait University (22,000 students and 14 colleges)
in 1998 and spent his first sabbatical at URI in 2000. Since
then, he published a major textbook on the principles in Marketing (in
Arabic) and published more than 13 papers in international double-blind
refereed journals as well as numerous conference papers. In 2002, he
became the supervisor of the Business Consulting Unit at the Center of
Excellence in Management (CEM), the professional arm of the
college. From 2003-2007 he was chosen as the Associate Dean for
the College of Business. In 2004 he was promoted to the rank of
associate professor and in 2005 became the Director of the CEM until
2007 when he was chosen as the Secretary-General for the Supreme
Council for Planning and Development.
Adel
is married to his wife Hana, and has three children: Abdulla (16),
Deema (13), and Durrar (9). His personal interests include reading,
fishing, and free consultations for entrepreneurs.
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What Happened To?
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Jane
Stich
In
September I will celebrate 50 years of association with URI, for it was
in 1958 that I enrolled as a freshman. That decision rewarded me with
an excellent education and a host of wonderful, lifelong friends. In
2004 I retired after twenty-nine years as a member of the professional
staff at URI, the last twenty as assistant dean of the College of
Business Administration. It was a great career and I got to work
alongside many outstanding colleagues both in the College of Business
Administration and across campus. I even attempted to learn German with
some of them and had a fantastic sabbatical in Germany. Now it is a
delight to watch former students succeed in organizations and assume
leadership roles. It is also very satisfying to see the new Ballentine
Hall, a project in which I was very involved.
After retiring I built a new home in Narragansett and I now divide my
time between Rhode Island and Florida. No more snow for me! I travel
whenever possible and am currently looking forward to a trip to San
Diego in October for a reunion of my late husband's Vietnam Era
squadron.
I serve as secretary of The Friends of the Kingston Station, Inc. and
last fall I completed training to become an Operation Lifesaver
Presenter. Operation Lifesaver is a non-profit, international
continuing public education program first established in 1972 to end
collisions, deaths and injuries at places where roadways cross train
tracks, and on railroad rights-of-way.
I stay active with URI as a trustee of the URI Foundation and through
my friendship with Professor Emeritus Clay V. Sink. This picture was
taken at Clay's retirement party last year. Life is good!
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MBA Networking Event
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 MBA students, alumni,
faculty and staff joined to network and hear guest speakers President
Robert L. Carothers and Al Verrecchia of Hasbro, Inc. '67, MBA '72,
Hon. '04 at the Renaissance Providence Hotel. For pictures
of the event, click HERE
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MBA
Alumni Are LinkedIn
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A group in LinkedIn was formed for MBA alumni, MBA
current students and MBA faculty of the College of Business to network.
If you would like to join, visit
http://www.linkedin.com/
e/gis/116585/19791540B4C7
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Student
Internships
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URI offers internships for academic credit to
undergraduate and graduate College of Business students during the
Fall, Spring and Summer sessions. Currently, CBA students are
doing internships in a wide variety of industry areas including:
American Capital Strategies - Providence
Bank of America - Providence
Bank of New York Mellon - NY
CVS Caremark (MBA) - Woonsocket
Cosmopolitan Magazine - NY
Fuji Film - NY
Home & Garden Magazine (Reader's Digest) - NY
JP Morgan - NY
Merrill Lynch - NY
Pricewaterhouse Coopers (MBA) - Boston
Sovereign Bank - Providence
Smith Barney - Boston
Victoria's Secret - NY
If
you are interested in creating an internship program at your workplace
or recruiting URI interns to apply to an existing internship program,
please contact: Amy Weinstein, URI College of Business Internship
Coordinator at awein@etal.uri.edu
or 401-874-4043.
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Where
Are They Now?
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Where
are some of our CBA alumni?
Eric Andreozzi '89 is a Founding
Partner and Managing Director with McColl Partners LLC in Charlotte,
NC.
Michael Boone, '95 is Vice President,
IT Services at PossibleNOW in Duluth, GA.
Karen Davis, '82 Vice President of
Community Relations at Hasbro, Inc. has been elected chair of the
board of directors of the Association of Corporate Contributions
Professionals.
Edward Doughty, '93 is Second Vice
President-Wealth Management and Financial Advisor for Citi Smith Barney
in Charlotte, NC.
Gregory Glover, '69 is Managing
Director, Private Client Services at Marsh USA Inc. in New York, NY.
John Hansen, '72 & '74 MBA recently retired
from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) after 34 years of
service. He plans to substitute teach in Fairfax, Virginia
and continue to umpire girl's high school lacrosse.
Stephen
Hopkins, '79 is Managing Director at Roundtable Investment
Partners, LLC in New York, NY.
David '64 and
Rosalind Katz are owners of My Friend's
Place, with 25 restaurants mostly in GA and MS.
Louise [Martineau] Marcus, '83 is an attorney
mediator who also teaches Mediation at RWU Law School and Leadership
at Johnson & Wales.
Paul Ponte, '91 & '03
MBA is
President and COO at Housing Systems Inc in Atlanta, GA.
Jane Reiner, '74 & MSA
'76
is with PROCON Management Services, Inc. in Coral Springs, FL.
Michael Tamer, '80 is President and
Chief Executive Officer at Tamer Partners Corporation in Southlake, TX.
Peter Zutty '73 is President,
Magellan Group Investments, LLC in Delray Beach, FL.
Robert Zutty, '71 is Senior Vice
President and Wealth Portfolio Manager at Wachovia Wealth
Management in Miami, FL.
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CBA
News
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Faculty Panel Appointments & Awards
Dean Mark Higgins has been appointed to a
new Rhode Island 21-member tax policy panel. The Tax Policy
Workgroup is expected to report its findings and recommendations by the
end of the year to Governor Carcieri.
The group will focus on three areas of state tax policy: Business taxes
and the costs and benefits of various tax credits - including
job-creation and investment credits - will be reviewed. Individual
taxes - from income to estate to consumption taxes - as well as
income-tax credits in place currently and the relationship between tax
credits and the alternative flat-rate income tax will be evaluated. And
last, property taxes will be examined.
For the full story,
visit http://www.pbn.com/stories/32293.html
Dr. Cynthia Blanthorne,
Accounting was recently elected to serve as the
Vice President of Regions of the Accounting, Behavior and Organization
(ABO) section of the American Accounting Association (AAA). Among
other things, she will be responsible for working with Regional
Coordinators to develop, promote, and implement ABO activities and
programs with the AAA Regions, preside over a planning meeting of the
Regional Coordinators Committee at the AAA Annual Meeting, and report
to the Executive Board regarding regional activities.
Dr.
Kathy Jervis, Accounting was selected for the
John Hazen White Fellowship for Ethics and Public Service, for the
academic year 2008-2009.
MBA
Student One of 40 Under Forty Award Winners
Carissa
Hill, a current evening URI MBA student and Vice President, Management
and Special Programs at United Way of Rhode Island, has been named by
the Providence Business News as one of the winners of the 40 Under Forty competition,
"PBN's annual program that recognizes the next generation of
business community leaders. Using career success, community involvement
and a commitment to making a difference as the benchmarks, this year's
list was drawn from a pool of more than 100 applicants and runs the gamut
from entrepreneurs to professionals to nonprofit employees."
Congratulations Carissa!
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Ph.D.
News
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There
has been a great deal of work within the Marketing department relating
to consumer culture and global business. Recent
activities include:
Prof.
Nik Dholakia with students Julianne Cabusas and Caroline Wilcox
attended and presented at Marketing, Development and Globalization
- an 8 Day Ph.D. Seminar Program at the University of Texas-Pan
American. "Are Poor Kids Willing to Pay More? A Comparative Study
of Latitude of Acceptance Between High and Low Socioeconomic Status
American
Tween Populations," was presented by Caroline Wilcox "Women
and Violence on Second Life," was presented by Julianne Cabusas.
The Consumer Culture Theory Conference was held in Boston at Suffolk
University. Professors Nik Dholakia and Hillary Leonard along with
students Ralph Perfetto, Caroline Wilcox and Julianne Cabusas
attended. "Bypass Surgery, Beach Cabanas and Bon Appetit: An
Exploration of the Cultural Contradictions of Medical Tourism," by
Professor Dholakia and Ralph Perfetto was presented. "Second
Wave Hits Second Life: Gender Identity Construction of Women in a
Multi-user Graphical Visual Reality," by Julianne Cabusas
and Professor Dholakia was presented during the poster session.
Professor Hillary Leonard chaired the "Music and Cool in
Consumer Culture" session and Caroline Wilcox chaired the session
entitled "Consumption Patterns within Consumer
Culture."
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The Verrechia Challenge
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Al '67 , MBA '72 and Hon '04 and Gerrie Verrecchia are challenging
the College of Business Administration alumni to make a difference by
helping URI build for the future. They are asking that you please join
them in supporting the COBA by pledging a gift of $12,500 (payable over
5 years) - which will be matched by the Verrecchias for a total gift of
$25,000 - the amount needed to establish an endowed undergraduate
scholarship, named for you or someone special. If your
company has a matching gift program this could either increase the
amount in your scholarship fund or decrease your personal contribution
to only $6,250.
Double your gift. Establish a legacy.
Help support COBA students for generations to come.
For more information, please contact:
Michaela Mooney
Associate Dean for Development
COBA
341 Ballentine Hall
401-874-4716
michaela@uri.edu
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Pictures
of the Month
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Graduation
Day -May 18, 2008
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Quick
Links
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CBA Website
UPDATES FOR NEWSLETTER? Contact:
University of Rhode Island
College of Business Administration
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