|
Message
From The Dean....
|
|
The semester is quickly coming to a close and it is
hard to believe that the semester is three weeks from completion.
Many exciting events have taken place since the last newsletter.
The accreditation team visited in late October and we should be
receiving our final report in early December. Based on their preliminary
feedback the team was impressed with our facilities, faculty and
students.
In early October we held our 39th annual Public Accounting Night.
The event, which was held in the atrium of Ballentine Hall, attracted
15 firms. The feedback from the firms was extremely positive. A
recruiter from one of the Big Four firms said: "URI is a diamond
in the rough". I couldn't agree more. The College of
Business is a diamond and we all need to continue to spread the word
about the quality of our graduates. On the morning of October
17th we held our 2nd annual Career Day where over 30 business
professionals, including more than 20 alumni, shared their insights on
a variety of career topics. The topics explored in the 15 different
panel sessions ranged from "Appropriate Communication
Techniques" to "Reality Check: The First Few Years on the
Job". The keynote speaker was Bruce Sherman, '69 CEO and
Chief Investment Officer of Private Capital Management. Mr.
Sherman discussed the economic crisis. His talk featured six
things about the economic crisis that students probably know and six
things students probably don't know. One of the six things he
said students don't know, that everyone including the business
professionals didn't know, was that the market cap of Hasbro is now
greater than the market cap of General Motors!
The following evening, Mr. Sherman was one of four recipients to
receive the University Distinguished Achievement Award. Deborah A
Ciolfi, '80, Founder and CEO of Providence Investors LLC; Stephen H
Hopkins, '79, Managing Director, Roundtable Investment Partners LLC;
and Professor Emeritus Richard Vangermeersch '64 were also honored as
this year's inductees into the College of Business Administration Hall
of Fame.
In late October, The Princeton Review named the College of Business
Administration one of the "Best 296 Business Schools" for the
second straight year. This recognition is a tribute to the
dedication of our faculty and staff and the distinctiveness and quality
of our programs.
The Alumni Spotlight focuses on David Brennan, who is currently
Community Affairs Manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers. David is
another example of why our MBA program is recognized by the Princeton
Review. Our student spotlight is on Stacy Marszalkowski, who is
double majoring in Marketing and Management. Stacy, who had
a summer internship with Cox Communications, is an excellent example of
why it is important for our students to secure internships. The
faculty spotlight is on Laura Beauvais, Professor of Entrepreneurial
Management. Laura is an award winning teacher who has taught over 15
different courses while at URI and is a sought after industry
consultant. The new Provost recognized Laura's talents and has tapped
her for the newly created part-time position of Vice Provost of Faculty
Affairs. Fortunately, Laura will be available to teach our Honors
course in Organizational Behavior and in our MBA program. Our
"What Happened To" feature is on Clay Sink who continues to
volunteer part-time advising our students. It is always great to
have Clay around and the students love him.
The newsletter also has other information about the College and your
former classmates. Since this is the last newsletter of the
calendar year, I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a
prosperous 2009. As always, I welcome your feedback.
Wishing you all the best,
Mark Higgins
Dean and The Alfred J. Verrecchia-Hasbro Inc. Leadership
Chair in Business
|
|
|
|
Professor Laura Beauvais
Dr.
Laura Beauvais joined the College of Business Administration in 1984 as
a member of the Management Faculty (now Entrepreneurial
Management). In 1987, she received her Ph.D. in
Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Tennessee,
which was an interdisciplinary program in both Psychology and
Management. Given her training, she teaches and does research in
organizational behavior and human resources management.
Laura
estimates she has taught approximately 15 different courses in the
College during her 24-year tenure in the undergraduate, MBA,
Executive MBA, and doctoral programs. In addition, she is an
adjunct faculty of the Schmidt Labor Research Center and an affiliate
of the Women's Studies Program, as well as an advisory member of the
Leadership Minor Program at the university. She has been a Fellow
in the Honors Program, teaching honors courses in principles of
management, organizational behavior, and leadership for the last four
years. In addition to "solo" teaching, she has
joined faculty from other colleges to team-teach interdisciplinary
courses in the Executive MBA, Labor Research Center, and Women's
Studies Programs. Laura admits that team-teaching is challenging
and requires planning and coordination among two or more faculty.
Students report having an enriched and positive experience in
these courses.
Although
there is variety in the programs and students she encounters in
teaching, Laura enjoys the diversity and challenges these experiences
have offered. She was deeply honored to have received three
awards for her teaching: URI's Graduate School's Graduate Studies
Award in 2003; the Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching in
2006; and the Professor of the Year Award in 2007 from students in the
Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honor Society.
Over the years, Laura's research program has portrayed a diverse
set of interests with some common threads. Laura describes
her earlier work as an investigation into how individuals carry out and
adjust to the different roles and social identities to which they
ascribe. How one manages and deals with the inherent conflicts
among his/her professional, organizational, union, family and non-work
roles in pursuit of a productive and satisfying life can be described
as the central focus of her research. In recent years,
working with former doctoral students, she has been researching
employee readiness to change. Laura is also conducting a
multi-year, multi-university study on the development of moral reasoning
and competence among students as they progress through their business
education programs. The multi-year data has not yet been
analyzed, but Laura and her co-investigators are curious to find out
how current business education practices affect the development of
moral awareness, critical thinking and reasoning, and decision making
regarding ethical challenges that students will face upon graduation
and employment.
In addition to her teaching and research, Laura has been active in
participating in leadership opportunities at URI. In 1992, she
became Director of the CBA's newly established Ph.D. Program. In
1995 she became Director of the re-organized one-year, cohort MBA
Program on the Kingston campus. Although Laura has been "just
a faculty member" since 1999, she continues her active involvement
in both university and the Rhode Island business community
service. She has conducted managerial training at the Naval
Undersea Warfare Center, Portola Tech Industries, and KVH Industries.
Within the university, among many other activities, she serves on the
ADVANCE Work/Life Committee, helping to develop and institute policies
and practices that help university employees integrate and balance the
demands of their work and non-work lives. Last year she served on
the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, which gave her a broader view
of the issues and challenges that the university faces in providing a
quality academic experience in a period of diminishing
resources. In January 2009, Laura will begin working in
the Office of the Provost in a part-time interim appointment as Vice
Provost of Faculty Affairs. She is looking forward to working
with the university's new Provost, Don DeHayes, and next year, with a
new URI President.
Although she admits to taking on too many roles and commitments, she
likes the excitement of tackling new assignments and challenges and
likes to stay busy. She finds her early research on role
integration instructive for her own life, emphasizing that the key to a
satisfying and productive life is to find the right balance among the
roles we take on as our lives unfold. This is one of the most
important lessons she would like her students to learn as they begin to
take on new responsibilities in a challenging, demanding, and rapidly
changing world.
|
|
Student Spotlight
|
|
Stacy
Marszalkowski, May '09
My name is Stacy Marszalkowski and I am a Marketing and
Management double major at URI. I was raised in Cumberland, Rhode Island
where I also attended high school. So I am a Rhode Islander at heart.
When I started looking at schools, Rhode Island was the last place I
thought I wanted to be. That was until my parents persuaded me to apply
to URI due to their gracious Centennial Scholarship. Soon after I was
accepted I decided to attend URI due to financial constraints.
Looking back, if I learned one lesson it is to listen to
your parents. Suddenly, being a student at URI was no longer about the
scholarship but the quality of education I was receiving. I have
encountered so many individuals, both academic and personal, who have
inspired me to learn. It didn't matter if it was Introduction to
Christian Thought or Accounting, the professors are passionate and
instill a sense of curiosity in their students that I found
refreshing.
Although I am a double major, my focus has always been my
Marketing major. To many of my professors this decision came as a
surprise. A professor once approached me after class and asked,
"Are you sure you haven't considered switching to
Accounting?" I had no idea how to tie my love for math and
research with design and creativity, until I took a class with
Professor DellaBitta who introduced me to the world of marketing
research. Coincidentally, I met an individual who was Director of
Marketing Analytics at Cox Communications and was offered an
internship in January '08.
I quickly found my niche working at Cox and
was offered a full-time position at the end of my internship. My senior
year has turned out quite differently than I expected. In October I
started working full time as a Marketing Analyst. I look forward to
graduating in May and using my degree to help me progress in my field.
I attribute much of my success to the amazing support I have received
from the College of Business and Internship Services. If it was not for
their patience with my more than unique schedule, I probably would have
never received the position I have today.
|
|
Alumni Spotlight
|
|
David
Brennan, MBA '01
Community
Affairs Manager, Los Angeles Dodgers
I
drive 23 miles one way every day through the traffic of Los Angeles to
get to work, sometimes taking an hour to get from point A to point B.
Most people would dread this, but my office is Dodger Stadium - one of
the most beautiful and historic ballparks in the country. I just finished
my fourth season doing community affairs for the Dodgers and
fundraising for the Dodgers Dream Foundation.
I grew up in Connecticut and graduated from Bates College in 1996. I
spent the next five years working at the Institute for International
Sport, located on the campus of URI, as the Director of National
Sportsmanship Day. It was at the Institute that I got my feet
wet and wore many hats, from PR to marketing to
operations, as one does while working for a non-profit. But it was
URI that taught me the "concepts" to the "real
world". I spent the last two-and-a-half of those five years
in Rhode Island in the MBA part-time program. I felt it was important
to further my education and this program was perfect. My classmates were
from different backgrounds, jobs and were a variety of ages. It was a
great way for graduate students to bring in their real-world
experiences and relate them to the concepts we were learning in
class.
In 2001 I received my MBA and had the opportunity to move to Los
Angeles to work for the Los Angeles Clippers (and work with Lamar
Odom). It's funny how things happen because I used to watch most of
Lamar's URI college games at Keaney and now I was taking him out into
the community doing basketball clinics and reading events with
youngsters.
In 2005 I moved on to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I like to say I do the
"good" side of sports, where we get our players involved in
the community with school visits, hospital visits, hosting kids on
the field during batting practice or donating a free game ticket
to kids who might not otherwise afford it. I also raise funds for
our foundation through numerous events, such as our annual golf and
bowling events where we raise money to build our Dodger Dream Fields -
baseball fields in gang prevention areas where we give the youth in the
community a safe place to play baseball.
URI was a great experience from a gradudate school perspective and
along with my Bates education, gave me a strong foundation to succeed
in the real world and of course at the ballpark.
|
|
What Happened To?
|
|
Professor Clay V. Sink
Professor Clay
V. Sink retired June 14, 2007. Since then he has been active as a
volunteer in the College of Business Administration. As a previous
Associate Dean, Professor and Chair of Management, he is in a position
to help with degree audits and advising students, which he finds
personally satisfying. Some people say to him "You need to
get a life and move on." but Clay keeps giving back. For
the past 40 years, URI was and continues to be a major part of his
life.
His interest in
the two Endowments established in his name (Ph.D. in Management and
Internship Endowment) continue to receive his support. He is also
a supporter of the ROTC program by participating in and contributing
annually to the endowment rewarding a graduating business
senior with a formal military uniform. He especially enjoys
working with Dr. Shaw Chen who is Director of the Global Business
Program in the College of Business Administration.
Professor Sink has served on the Board of Missions at the Kingston
Congregational Church for the past year. He is amazed at the many
wonderful local, national and international programs the church
supports through its Board of Missions.
Clay spent three summer months in North Carolina where he enjoyed
re-bonding with his family. His four surviving sisters, who have
all been business leaders, were an inspiration - one a Sara Lee
retiree, one a Hanes Corp. retiree, one an AT&T retiree, and one a
successful entrepreneur of several businesses.
He has used this year to readjust, but in the coming year he plans to
continue his activities with the CBA. He enjoys time spent with
his former colleague, Assistant Dean Jane Stich. He says,
"We reminisce about our CBA days and the good times we
had." He is presently enjoying and recommends reading
"The Power of Now" written by Eckhart Tolle, "especially
to students I taught in the past because it addresses an important
issue that perhaps I did not address in
class."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Howard Frank, '62 has generously pledged $250,000 to create an
endowed scholarship fund for College of Business Administration
students.
The Vice Chairman and CEO of Carnival Cruise Corp.
credits the University with cultivating the leadership and
communication skills that helped launch him to the top of his
industry.
"I feel the need to give back to my community and
my school for the support they gave me. For me, that's important."
Frank says.
"We are extremely grateful to Howard and his wife
Mary for their generous contribution", Dean Mark Higgins said.
"They understand the value of education and that the success of
this state is tied to being able to educate as many people as possible.
This gift provides the opportunity for students to get that
education."
|
|
Story
By Marybeth Reilly-McGreen
|
|
URI
MBA Listed as One of Best Programs
|
|
|
The URI MBA program has been listed in Princeon Review's
"Best 296 Business Schools: 2009 Edition" for the second year
in a row.
According to Robert Franek, Princeton Review
VP-Publishing, "We select schools for this book based on our high
regard for their academic programs and offerings, institutional data we
collect from the schools, and the candid opinions of students attending
them who rate and report on their campus experiences at the
schools. We are pleased to recommend URI to readers of our book and
users of our website as one of the best institutions they could attend
to earn an MBA."
The Princeton Review does not rank the schools in the book on a single
hierarchical list from 1 to 296, or name one business school best
overall. The Princeton Review's surveys of 19,000
students attending the 296 business schools are profiled in the
book.
|
|
Matty
Siravo Memorial Foundation - Purple Out!
|
|
|
|
Congratulations URI 101, College of Business sections!
Collectively they raised over $15,000 for the Matty Siravo
Memorial Foundation.
On Friday, November 7th, the URI community came together
at the URI vs. RIC basketball game to show their spirit and awareness
about Epilepsy. The College of Business first-year class took on a
service learning project to raise awareness about Epilepsy and
contribute financially to the Matty Siravo Foundation. URI 101
sections sold purple t-shirts for the first PURPLE OUT at the
RyanCenter. It was inspirational to see the sea of purple
shirts at the game, and College of Business students made that happen!
Congratulations section 112 for raising $1,834 and
section 21 for raising $1,466.
Picture: URI 101-Section 112 winning team photo with
instructor Michelle Curreri, presenting Deb Siravo with their
check.
|
|
Student
Alumni Career Day A Success
|
|
|
On October 17th, twenty-nine alumni volunteered their time
to individually speak or serve on panels discussing careers in various
industries, emerging business topics and techniques. Classes were
canceled that morning to allow students to attend the event.
Topics included: What You Should Know About
Internships from Young Alumni; Marketing Corporate Communication;
Business to Business Sales; Why Pursue an MBA?; How To Succeed in
Business; Supply Chain Management and Wall Street The Market: Let's
Talk.
|
|
Where
Are They Now?
|
|
Where
are some of our CBA alumni?
Stas Antons, '97 is Principal
at Jump to Green, Inc. in Newton, MA. Jump To Green is a
company dedicated to the development of visualization technologies that
articulate green or eco-friendly qualities of products, services and
lifestyles in visual form, making their "greenness" instantly
recognizable. The main feature of JumpToGreen.com, is
JumpGauge (JumpGauge.com), a
utility that presents eco-friendly qualities of a product in visual
format.
Marco
Becker, MBA'05 is Vice President/Senior Sales
Manager and Certified Financial Risk Manager at Deutsche Bank AG in
Hamburg, Germany.
Denise
Belton, '78 is a
Partner with KPMG in Bermuda.
Charles
(Chuck) Levy, '81 is currently
Vice President and Controller of the International Investments business
unit at Prudential Financial, Inc., Newark, NJ.
Michael
Kennedy, '80 is the
Vice President/Business Development at Gilbane Building Company in RI.
Mark
Liersch, MBA '04 is the
Naval Liaison, Kenya US Liaison Office at the American Embassy,
Nairobi, Kenya.
Donald
Vasta, '81 is Tax Counsel at General
Electric Company in Stamford, CT.
To be added to the next newsletter. email your update to cbanews@etal.uri.edu
|
|
Ph.D.
News
|
|
|
Adriana Boveda-Lambe has accepted a
tenure track position of Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Rochester
Institute of Technology, starting Fall 2009.
Zhenzhen Sun
and Dr. Jeffrey Jarrett have published a paper entitled, "Evidence
and Explanations for the Association Among Six Asian (Pacific-Basin)
Financial Markets" in Applied Economics.
Roger Blake, PhD May '08 is an assistant
professor at the University of Massachusetts - Boston. He has won the
Stuart Elliot Madnick IQ Best Paper Award at the 13th Annual
International Conference on Information Quality. The paper is
entitled "The Effects and Interactions of Data Quality and Problem
Complexity on Data Mining" and is co-authored with Dr. Paul
Mangiameli.
|
|
CBA
News
|
|
Effective
January 1, 2009, Dr. Laura Beauvais has agreed to serve as Interim Vice
Provost for Faculty Affairs at URI. The Vice Provost for Faculty
Affairs will serve as a liaison between the URI faculty and the
Office of the Provost, ensuring the faculty perspective is reflected in
analyses and policies considered by the administration. The Vice
Provost will also share responsibility, along with the other Vice
Provosts, for advancing the cause of diversity and equity by promoting
a community spirit, a climate of respect and fairness, and curricular
transformation that reflects multicultural perspectives. Dr. Beauvais
is currently a Professor of Management and will continue to teach while
serving this interim position.
|
|
|
|
Matching Gifts
|
So
far in 2008, over nearly 500 charitable gifts made to URI by alumni and
friends were matched by their employers. The value of those gift
matches alone, not including the initial gift itself, is nearly
$250,000. Corporate matching gifts are a great way to maximize
personal contributions to the University and increase the impact of your
gift. By taking advantage of a company's matching gift benefit, you may
be able to double or even triple the amount of a contribution.
One
alumni recently wrote:
|
|
"Through a matching gift program I have been able to
make a long held dream of mine come true with a scholarship I have
created.
I know that this scholarship will change lives, because it has already
changed mine."
This graduate went on to state how much she appreciated the challenges
faced in raising funds and getting endowments like hers but that the
rewards are so worthwhile. She felt terrific that she will be providing
support to a deserving student just as she was helped financially as an
undergraduate at URI. Her message was that she was grateful, thankful
to be able to establish this endowment.
To find out if your company (or your spouse's or partner's company) has
a matching gift program, please click here and enter the name
of your employer. Your support of the COBA is truly appreciated and
valued.
Warm thoughts and wishes that this Thanksgiving will be especially
plentiful!
Michaela
Mooney
Associate Dean for Development
CBA
341 Ballentine Hall
401-874-4716
michaela@uri.edu
|
|
Pictures
of the Month
|
|
URI Accounting Night
|
|
|
|
Quick
Links
|
CBA Website
UPDATES FOR NEWSLETTER? Contact:
University of Rhode Island
College of Business Administration
|
|
|
