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Message
From The Dean....
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On behalf of the faculty and staff of the College of
Business Administration, I would like to wish you a Happy and
Prosperous 2009! As we get ready to begin the spring semester, we
have wonderful news to share.
First, the Board of Directors for the Association to
Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) informed us they have
ratified the recommendation of the peer review teams to extend our
accreditation for an additional 5 years - the maximum allowed.
The Accounting Area, which is one of only 165 schools in the country,
with separate accounting accreditation, was also reaccredited for
another 5 years.
The second piece of great news is that in a nationwide
study of private and public institutions, SmartMoney magazine ranked
URI 15th in the country for value. URI's return on investment was
the highest in New England and greater than Harvard and Yale. The
university and the college have always communicated to prospective
applicants that we are a great value and this nationwide study confirms
it. So if you want ROI you need to go to URI!
The Make a Difference Campaign is in full swing and I
continue to be amazed at the generosity of our alumni. I think it
is important to point out that all contributions to the capital
campaign have a significant impact on the quality of education we deliver
in the College. Although you might not think $100 makes a
difference, it, coupled with the generosity of your fellow alumni,
allow finance students to visit Wall Street, entrepreneurship students
to attend a conference, or in these challenging times provide financial
assistance to students. Your contributions Really Do Make a
Difference.
In the July newsletter, I announced that Al and Gerrie
Verrecchia agreed to be champions for the College of Business. As
part of URI's Make A Difference Campaign they agreed to match up to
$250,000 of alumni contributions made toward the establishment of
scholarships. 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. Our Alumni Spotlight is on one of our young alumni,
Michael Jordan '02, an Assurance Manager with Ernst & Young in
Chicago who took the challenge. To date we have had 14 people
participate in this unique partnership. If you would like more
information please contact Michaela Mooney.
Our Faculty Spotlight is on Professor Robert Comeford, who with the
retirement of Craig Overton is now the senior faculty member in Entrepreneurial
Management. Our Student Spotlight is on Elizabeth Downing a double
major in Global Business and French who participated in an elevator
pitch contest as part of the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition and
received second place. I think you will find the product she
"pitched" to be very innovative. Finally, our feature What
Happened To is on former MIS Professor Richard Mojena who seems to be
very busy in "retirement". Included in the newsletter
are other items I think you will find of interest as well as updates on
your fellow alumni. We are always looking to hear what is
happening with our alums so please let us know what is happening in
your life. 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
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Professor Robert Comerford
 Bob attended college after serving four years in the Naval
Air Force, enlisting out of high school. Between the Navy and
academics, he worked as a manager of flight test operations for a
subsidiary of Halliburton, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Once
he entered school, he didn't stop until receiving his Ph.D. at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1975. He started his
career at URI in September 1975. Bob and his wife Chris
reside in the Oaks section of Wakefield, and have three children and
four grandchildren, with number five on the way.
Achieving the rank of full professor in the early 1980's, Bob admits he
was fortunate in finding a link between business and his interest
in the sea. It made grant-getting and research more enjoyable than it
otherwise might have been. He and friend and co-author
Dennis Callagan began a series of research projects in the 1970's that
delved into the business practices of marine-related organizations such
as marinas and boatyards (industry average financial data), commercial
fishing firms (economic impact of the industry), and marine aquaculture
operations (financial structure). Much of their data analysis was
conducted while racing Ensigns on the Bay! Either alone or with
Dr. Callaghan, scores of seminars, lectures and workshops were
delivered around the country and the world involving the application of
various business practices to marine businesses. In 1987, their
National Marine Financial Data Bank, a monograph presenting the results
of a Seagrant-funded national tabulation and analysis of the financial
structure of marine businesses, was published by Seagrant and subsequently
by the International Marina Institute.
In 1985, Comerford and Callaghan's, "Strategic Management: Text,
Tools and Cases for Business Policy" was published by Kent
Publishing Company. Bob started flying, earned his
instrument rating, and joined a flying club (called "Snoopy's
Group") located at Westerly airport. "'Snoopy's' gave
me the opportunity to fly whenever I wanted to; I still can't
adequately describe how thrilling that was." In the early
1990's he was appointed Associate Dean of the College of Business and
later served as Interim Vice President for Business and Finance of the
University. "Although these jobs "interfered" with
flying, research pursuits, and boating," he felt that he had to
try his hand at "...administration, instead of just continuing to
complain about what other administrators were doing." It turned
out to be a great experience. "I hadn't fully appreciated
what a great job being a college professor was until I got into
administration." In 1992 he returned to the faculty, "a
position I probably shouldn't have left in the first place."
Actually, he continued teaching his courses throughout his stint
in administration.
He since has become involved in aquaculture industry research, the
resurgence of entrepreneurship as a teaching interest, and refining use
of the CAPSIM© strategic management simulation in the introduction to
business, undergraduate strategic management course and the graduate
strategic management course. CAPSIM© gives students a chance to
implement their strategic ideas in a simulated company that competes
with other simulated companies in the electronics components
manufacturing industry. He feels that applying strategic analysis
processes to a simulated company and industry that students have operated
for eight years is a better exercise for students than trying to apply
them to static descriptions of companies. Students have an
emotional connection to the company they are analyzing which generates
a better learning outcome.
An opportunity in the early 2000's to work with two engineering
professors to create an entrepreneurship course was unique. They
created teams made up of engineering and business students who
developed real products and commercialization plans for them,
simultaneously. Although the obvious goal of
this one-of-a-kind course was to introduce students to the
entrepreneurial process, a more fundamental expectation was that both
groups of students would experience the benefits of cross-functional
simultaneous product development systems as opposed to traditional
sequential ones. Bob and his Engineering colleagues and students
received two President's awards for "Outstanding Contributions to
Intellectual Property."
Over the years Bob has received several awards including the Beta Gama
Sigma Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award (1978), the College of
Business Administration Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate
Teaching (2005), the Dean's Annual Award for Service Excellence (2008),
the local Chamber of Commerce Business Person of the Year Award (1984),
and several awards from Junior Achievement of Rhode Island for his work
with that organization.
Nowadays, Bob has stopped flying, due to loss of the use of his
left eye thanks to a choroidal melanoma, which cost him his depth perception.
"Missing a doorknob when I reach for it is one thing; I didn't
want that to happen while reaching for a runway or taxiing among parked
aircraft." He noted further that Chris
"encouraged" him to stop flying. It has been replaced
with chasing striped bass, bluefish and tuna in Block Island Sound with
grandson Andrew in Bob's small center console boat.
Always bothered by the fact that potential entrepreneurs can quite
readily get data for business plans on most of their expected operating
expenses, they get little help in predicting what their sales will
be. Bob has been collecting data on real businesses' annual
sales growth trends for the first five years of operation. The
idea is to see if there are similar trends for similar kinds of firms and
geographical areas. He feels that this data, once tabulated and
organized, would be invaluable to anyone planning a new business.
"But," he claims, "getting the numbers from people is
like pulling teeth."
Still teaching a full load of courses and enjoying it more than ever,
serving as Area Coordinator of the Entrepreneurial Management area, and
working with students in various activities and clubs, Bob says he has
no interest yet in retiring. "They're going to have to wheel
me out of a classroom on a gurney some day, and the way I feel now,
that'll be soon enough. I deeply appreciate the huge value of
having a job and career for which you can go to work every day on a
beautiful rural college campus, interact all day with high-energy young
people who smell much better that we did in the '60s, and also get an
office with carpeting and windows that open, even though finding a
place to park is a challenge."
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Student Spotlight
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Elizabeth
Downing, May '10
I am currently a Junior at URI, double-majoring in
International Business and French. I am from Tolland,
Connecticut- a small town east of Hartford. I decided to attend
URI because of the strong business and french programs.
For the spring semester, I am studying abroad in
Marseille, France at Euromed Marseille School of Management. Euromed is
a business school that has built a strong reputation with ties
to Mediterranean and International partnerships.
Recently, I participated in an elevator pitch contest for
the Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce and was awarded second place for
my presentation of poksak, a reusable bag that fits into a pouch approximately
the size of an iPod. I am working with a small team of
individuals to initiate a test stage of this product during the next
few months. In an elevator pitch contest, one has 90 seconds
to introduce and essentially sell their product to potential investors
(the timing represents the time one would have to speak to another
individual in an elevator). The contest was extremely fun, and many
individuals presented innovative products that evening. It was
especially inspiring to see the presentation of products developed by
the other young individuals.
After graduation, I plan on pursuing an MBA. I would like
to study in Europe again and am considering a program abroad.
Afterwards, I would like to work for an internationally-based company
that would allow me to continue learning foreign languages, and
experiencing other cultures.
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Alumni Spotlight
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Michael V. Jordan, '02
Manager,
Assurance, Ernst & Young LLP, Chicago, IL
When
I arrived at the University of Rhode Island my freshman year, I
struggled to determine what my identity would be now that my
competitive athletic days were over and the term "athlete" no
longer defined me. After a month of feeling things out, I was accepted
into the Student Alumni Association and elected to the Student Senate,
and from that point on I fully immersed myself in the student
involvement opportunities at URI. Through SAA, I organized Oozeball and
co-organized Midnight Madness. I got the chance to serve as
an orientation leader, RA, and be peer mentor for a URI 101 and FLITE
class. I was part of the re-colonization of Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity,
and eventually served as president of the student body.
I graduated in 2002 with a BS in Accounting and a minor in Leadership
Studies. The experiences I had both in and out of the classroom at
URI fully prepared me for the demands and challenges of working for a
Big 4 public accounting firm. I was one of the very few people in my
start class that had not done an internship, but my time spent in my
various campus activities more than made up for that gap. When it came
time to ask difficult questions of our clients, work long hours to meet
a deadline, challenge a CFO on a judgmental accounting treatment or
train a new member of a team, my education and experiences at URI had
equipped me to accept those challenges and exceed expectations.
Currently in my second year as manager in our Assurance practice, I
have served clients ranging from large accounts such as BP, AON and
Brunswick, to smaller public clients like WMS Industries and Standard
Parking; I have even done work related to the NFL collective bargaining
agreement for the Chicago Bears. Leveraging some of the fundraising
experience I gained at URI, I served this year as EY Chicago's
co-coordinator for our successful efforts in the American Heart
Association Heartwalk. Outside of work, my positive experience with ZBT
has led me to take an active role in the national organization by
serving as a member of the organization's board of directors.
I was blessed to have had the experience that I did at URI, and I can
credit much of that experience to the Centennial Scholarship that I
received which drew me to URI. I have always wanted to find a way to
give back to URI for all that it has given me. I was honored to support
the College of Business through the Clay Sink endowment for
undergraduate internship opportunities. A wonderful professor and man
whom I had the pleasure to work with during the summers I was an
Orientation Leader, Clay has inspired a legacy of support for
undergraduate development that is well served by this endowment.
Recently, due to the Verrecchia Challenge and Ernst & Young's
commitment to higher education through our matching gift program, I
started the process of creating a new endowment to support accounting
and finance students that are active in campus leadership. In time, I
hope to play a small part in encouraging future students of the school
of business to pursue campus leadership, which has been so invaluable
to my success in my professional life. While Chicago is a long way from
Kingston, RI, URI still has a very special place in my heart and mind.
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What Happened To?
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Dr. Richard Mojena 
Professor Emeritus Richard Mojena retired in 2007 after 36 years with
the College of Business Administration.
Richard received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, an M.B.A., and a
Ph.D. in Quantitative Analysis & Finance from the University of
Cincinnati. Prior to URI, he taught three years at the University of
Cincinnati and worked two years in advanced combustion research at
General Electric's Large Jet Engine plant in Evendale, Ohio.
He has published articles in professional journals on statistical
forecasting and classification methods, applied mathematics, and financial
modeling. He is the author and co-author of ten textbooks in
operations research and computer programming, used by more than 500
colleges in the US and abroad. He has been a statistical
forecasting consultant to several companies; has conducted seminars in
executive development programs on statistical forecasting for
production scheduling and inventory control systems; has been a
Research Fellow in the Computational Science Department at the
University of St. Andrews, Scotland; has developed commercial software
for the cluster analysis system distributed by CLUSTAN; and has served
as a National Science Foundation evaluator for the University/Industry
Cooperative Research Center in Robotics at The University of Rhode
Island. He has also received teaching excellence awards from the CBA
and the Executive Development Program at URI.
That was then... this is now...
After retiring, Richard, his wife Cynthia, and two Chihuahuas have
cruised full-time on their Kadey Krogen 42' trawler
"Sinterra" along the east coast down to the Florida
Keys. Extended ports of call included Wilmington, NC, Savannah,
St. Augustine, Miami Beach, and Key West. A land break enabled
"cruising" in their Airstream Bambi travel trailer through
Cincinnati, Cumberland Lake, Memphis, Austin, San Antonio, New Orleans,
and northern Florida. Their adventures (and misadventures) are
detailed in the blog bambisinterrasojourns.blogspot.com.
Sample entry during the Keys portion of the trip:
"We anchored at the west end of Card Sound Bridge, north side in 6
feet, ours the solo boat. A short dink ride into a canal brings us to
Alabama Jacks. We tied up to their docks and dropped a sack of rubbish
in the dumpster at the head of the pier. It's our third time here and
it still feels fresh and energetic... a ramshackle, roadside bar and
backwater, mangrove-swamp setting that reflects the "real"
pre-condo Florida. Get it while you can. A live country band and
dancing entertained us when there on a Sunday afternoon. It was very
crowded with families, weekend boaters, bikers. It's best to sit at the
small bar: better service and entertaining, hyperactive barkeeps. The
Coronas are cold and the conch chowder and fritters are good. It's nice
to see friendly staff too, especially amidst the chaos.
This we followed with an interesting dink run up the canal from AJs: we
saw three crocs (not gators), a few derelict and working boats and
shacks, some REAL liveaboards, and one sponger with sacks of sponges
hanging from the boat. Lots of friendly waves.
There was a huge white pelican rookery on shore, visible from the
anchorage. It was beautiful to watch their water-skimming,
gliding/flapping formations as they come and go, black-tipped wings
against their white bodies. As always, their fish-seeking dives are comical.
The contrast of these two settings is definitive: the natural-world
surrounding the anchorage, still wild and primitive; a roadhouse with
character on land. In our view, this is a MUST stop along the inside
route. "
During his travels Dr. Mojena maintained his stock market timing site
mojena.com, which shows actual return performance since 1990 beating
the S&P500 with about half the risk, or about double the
risk-adjusted return. He will likely commercialize the service in
the future.
The future? Richard & Cynthia recently bought a house in
Naples, FL, at the western edge of the Big Cypress Swamp. After
nine years of living aboard it was time to bond with the land once
more: tropical fruit trees scattered among palm, cypress and pine
trees, chickens, bears, coyotes, panthers, bobcats, gators, rattlers,
water moccasins, and mosquitoes are all on the agenda.
Reluctantly, Sinterra is up for sale at Virginia Yacht Brokers near
Norfolk. With SW Florida as a home base a smaller boat will do
just fine for cruising the nearby "Thousand Islands." And
Bambi remains on call for exploring the American West, Baja, and
Alaska. Post-URI life is very good, as was life for many years at
URI.
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SmartMoney Ranks URI
15th
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The January 2009 issue of SmartMoney magazine ranks the
University of Rhode Island 15th in a nationwide study of public and
private colleges, examining the relationship between tuition costs and
graduates' earning power. In what it called a "twist on traditional
college rankings," the magazine assessed schools on their ability
to deliver the best return on investment and sought to quantify the
long-term value of a college education.
The monthly magazine, published by The Wall Street Journal,
specifically cites URI as a far better value than all the private
institutions included in the survey. At 15, URI is the highest ranked
institution in New England, followed by the University of Massachusetts
(Amherst) at 18, the University of New Hampshire at 23, and the
University of Vermont at 42. Harvard is ranked 25, Princeton at 20 and
Dartmouth at 21.
In his January article, "Why the Ivies Aren't Worth it," Neil
Parmar writes, "Indeed those unheralded public universities turn
out to be a far better deal than virtually all the privates we
surveyed. The Ivies in general? They deliver nowhere near the payback
on tuition that most parents staring at a six-figure bill over four
years might expect."
Working with consultant PayScale.com, the survey looked at what graduates
from 50 of the most expensive four-year colleges earn in their early
and midcareers. Then they factored in their up-front tuition and fees.
The University of Georgia was No. 1 and would deliver a payback nearly
three times that of Harvard, noted the article, while the "state
universities of Delaware and Rhode Island would beat out every Ivy in
the ranking."
URI Dean of Admission Cynthia Bonn said, "We've known all along
that our students receive an outstanding education for a tremendous
value. It's great that SmartMoney did the research that showed how well
our graduates are doing, and that they are not burdened by the amount
of debt that graduates of pricier schools are incurring.
"This validation by a respected national publication comes at a
time when families are asking important questions about where their
children will receive the best education for the most reasonable
price."
Parmar writes that elite private schools do boast of lower
student-to-faculty ratios, large endowments, and name recognition and
extensive alumni networks.
"But if long-term career and salary are what matters -- and what
else should, especially in today's economy-then a growing chorus of
private school critics point out that the public-school scenario may
actually deliver a far greater bang for your buck," the article
says.
A portion of the article is posted online at
http://www.smartmoney.com/Personal-Finance/College-Planning/The-Best-Colleges-For-Making-Money
The complete article with the full chart of rankings can be found on
page 73 of SmartMoney magazine.
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MBA
Networking Reception
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SAVE
THE DATE
URI MBA Networking Reception
Providence Marriott Downtown
Join guest speaker Sandra Parrillo, MBA '93, President
and Chief Executive Officer of The Providence Mutual Fire Insurance
Company, fellow MBA alumni and current MBA students at the annual
networking reception.
Invitations will be sent shortly.
If you have any questions, contact the MBA Office at
401-874-5000 or manni@uri.edu
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Where
Are They Now?
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Where
are some of our CBA alumni?
Deborah Budnick, '88 MBA, is Vice President
and Chief Financial Officer for Planned Parenthood of Arizona.
Jeff Glucker, '02 is Partner Manager
and Road Test Editor for NADAguides.com located in Costa, Mesa, CA.
Charles (Chuck) Levy, '81 is Vice President
and Controller of the International Investments business unit at
Prudential Financial, Inc., Newark, NJ.
Paul Verdile,
'91 is the Sales and Marketing Manager for Elssworth
Handcrafted Bicycles in San Diego, CA.
To be added to the next newsletter. email your update to cbanews@etal.uri.edu
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Ph.D.
News
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Congratulations on the recent accomplishments for
the following CBA doctoral students:
Adriana M. Bóveda-Lambie
Conference Presentation
Dholakia, R. R. and A.M. Bóveda-Lambie, "Co-creation as Consumer
Resistance and Marketer Co-optation" Association for Consumer
Research (ACR) - Asia Pacific Conference, Hyderabad, India, January
2009.
Julianne Cabusas
Journal Article
Arruda-Filho E.J.M., J.J. Cabusas, and N. Dholakia (2008), "Social
Factor versus Utilitarian Technology: Social Marketing versus
Utilitarian Market", JISTEM: Journal of Information Systems and
Technology Management, 5(2), 305-324, (in Portuguese, with English abstract).
Conference
Presentations
Leonard, H. and J.J. Cabusas, Consuming Violence: The Lived
Experience, Association for Consumer Research (ACR) Conference, San
Francisco, California, October 2008.
Kyung Woo
"David" Kang
Conference
Presentation
Kang, K.W. and S.K. Shin, "A Model of Virtual Community Knowledge
Exchange Intentions: Perceived Network Structure, Self-Efficacy and
Individual Motivations", Proceedings of the 39th Decision Sciences
Institute (DSI) Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD., November 2008.
The above paper was conferred the 'Distinguished Paper of 2008 Award'
Conference Presentation
Perfetto, R, A. Woodside, "Extremely frequent casino gamblers:
Jumbo shrimp, big fish, and whales", 2008 Society for Consumer Psychology
Summer Conference, organized by the APA Division 23, August 2008.
Bogdan
Prokopovych
Conference
Presentation
Prokopovych, B. and D. Creed, "Institutional Settlement and the
Adoption of Sustainable Technologies: the Case of Biofuels,"
European Group for Organizational Studies, Amsterdam, Netherlands,
2008.
Grants
and Awards
Coastal
Institute IGERT Program Fellowship, Fall 2008 - Spring 2009
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) graduate research grant,
Summer 2009
Irex Embassy Policy Specialist Program, Spring 2009
Zhenzhen Sun
Conference Presentation
Sun, Z, Y. Ren, Q. Sun and T. Yu, "Investment Cycles in the
Insurance Industry," Western Risk and Insurance Association
(WRIA), Las Vegas, January 2009.
Caroline Wilcox
Journal Articles
Wilcox,
C., International Journal of Psychology Research, 2008.
Woodside, A.G., and C. Wilcox, "Contingency Theory and
Meta-Analysis of Behavioral Primacy and Imprinting Influences,"
International Journal of Psychology Research, 3 (3), 1-13, 2008
T. Jeffrey Zhang
Conference
Presentations
Zhang, T.J., S. Chen, T. Yao and T. Yu, "Asset
Growth and Stock Returns: Evidence from the Pacific-Basin Stock
Markets", Financial Management Association International (FMA),
Dallas, TX, Oct. 2008
Zhang, T.J. and H. Oppenheimer, "Do Analyst Conflicts of Interest
Matter? Evidence from Recommendation Changes Subsequent to Firm
Large Earnings Surprises," Financial Management Association
International (FMA), Dallas, TX, Oct. 2008
Grants and Awards
2008 Netspar Research Grant on: "Testing Moral Hazard and Tax
Benefit Hypotheses: Evidence from Pension Plan Contributions and Asset
Allocation", with Tong Yu
2008 Spencer Foundation Risk Manager in Residence Program Grant
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Alumnus of the Game
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Alumnus
of the Game is a program established last year, as a way to honor
alumni who have distinguished themselves in their careers, communities,
personal lives, and/or on behalf of the University.
Congratulations to Dick
Minot '75 of Laguna Hills, CA recognized as Alum of the
Game on January 18.
Dick embodies the notion of the 3 T's - giving his time, talent and
treasure to the University and in particular the College of Business.
He has been an extraordinary volunteer and donor for many years.
The examples of his devotion to his alma mater include long service
(15+ years) as an alumni admissions volunteer; involvement in all
manner of alumni and university events (organized an Annual "Mini
Golf Tournament" to raise funds for freshman book scholarships);
financial contributions to a wide range of College of Business and
University causes including Ballentine Hall and the Ryan Center
Campaigns, Vangermeeresch Professorship and a newly established endowed
scholarship for COBA students.
He is a true advocate for URI and a resource for the College -
guest lecturing each year in Accounting, Tax and Ethics courses.
Dick has also distinguished himself as a successful accountant and
manager. He has been in public accounting practice for 30+ years
and has owned his own firm since 1979. He and his wife, Jana
are the proud parents of Jennifer '03 and Justine, and grandparents of
Dylan.
Dick,
on behalf of the College of Business - way to go! And thank you for all
that you do...
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Michaela
Mooney
Associate Dean for Development
CBA
341 Ballentine Hall
401-874-4716
michaela@uri.edu
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Pictures
of the Month
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Big Thinkers Event: Miami
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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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