Faculty

Bringing Practical Experience into Classrooms

In this section, we will illustrate how some of our full-time faculty members bring real world examples into the classroom.

Prof. Karen Markel is currently working to develop a case study with Chelsey Pallas (HRM grad in May 08) about change management in compensation within an organization.

Prof. Austin Murphy makes students in his investment analysis class do credit analysis on real companies with only public information (e.g., financial statements and footnotes, as well as recent news indicating the outlook), and they value stocks using their own necessary subjective forecasting of relevant variables. They also evaluate debt prepayment risks and decisions using state-of-the-art software.

Prof. Anandi Sahu is incorporating reading of Wall Street Journal and watching the Nightly Business Report on PBS as a part of his teaching ECONOMICS 200. In addition, students are shown videos of major historical events that have shaped public policy. Through these sources students are able to better appreciate the relevance of this required class.

In the following section, we will present how some of our lecturers and part-time faculty are bringing their expertise into the classroom.

Mr. Kim Serota is currently a Special Lecturer in Marketing in the School of Business Administration at Oakland University. He is also President of KBSA, a national marketing research and consulting firm, as well as a doctoral candidate in Communication at Michigan State University. Mr. Serota draws on his unique blend of theoretical training and more than 30 years of business experience to illustrate the “yin and yang” of successful business and marketing strategy.

Mr. Brandon Bernier brings his extensive technology experience to enhance classroom learning through group interaction, real-world case analysis and study, video and web interaction.

Ms. Sara Buscaino teaches MIS 100 and brings specific real-work examples to the classroom to reinforce each topic covered. For example, with MS Excel, she brings spreadsheets from current work projects and demonstrates how to use the available tools to solve real business problems.

Mr. Jim Suhay brings his extensive practical experience in all areas of corporate financial management, but likes to stress controller’s functions, capital budgeting, and mergers and acquisitions, having participated in several at Ford.

Mr. Brian Palmer teaches MKT 405, Marketing Research and brings to the classroom a wealth of experience which helps make the text materials come to life. Each session he brings in “marketing problem” topics from the day’s news and shows videos on subjects of “absolutely current” interest, such as the topics covered daily in Advertising Age’s 3-minute videos.

Mr. Michael J. Sugameli teaches legal environment in business and uses real life experiences and guest speakers to make the subject matter being discussed interesting and relevant.

Mr. Steven Wagg teaches Marketing 302 and says that many firms confuse marketing with sales, and if marketing is done well, selling is easy. He brings much experience to the class from his 33 years at GM.

Mr. Larry Schramm brings his extensive GM experience to students that take classes in management, not to mention his passion to drive old cars.

New Faculty

We welcome three new faculty members to SBA: Dr. Boyce Cobb, Mr. Wayne Blizman and Ms. Amy Rutledge.

Dr. Mike Grieves: We welcome Dr. Mike Grieves to the School of Business Administration, as its first Research Professor. Dr. Michael Grieves, will be a part of the Decision and Information Science Department in the SBA and develop our research in the product life cycle management area, an intersection of engineering, management and information technology. He is establishing the Product Life Cycle Management Institute outside OU, but it will be affiliated with the forthcoming Center within SBA.

Faculty Research Recognitions

Congratulations to Prof. Balaji Rajagopalan for his work on "Competition Among Virtual Communities and User Valuation: The Case of Investing-Related Communities," with Professors Bin Gu and Prabhudev Konana of University of Texas-Austin. The paper was selected as the Best Published paper by one of the top-tier IS Journals and will be recognized at an ISS/ISR reception at the INFORMS conference.

Congratulations to Prof. Karl Majeske, Prof. Vijayan Sugumaran and Prof. Janell Townsend for their recognition as the most productive research faculty during the year 2008-09 by the Oakland University Provost.

Faculty Service Recognition

Congratulations to Dr. Mark Simon for receiving outstanding service award for the year 2007-08. Congratulations also go to Dr. Janell Townsend and Dr. Nivedita Mukherji for receiving honorary mention for their work in international business and international grant related work.

Congratulations to Prof. Sandra Pelfrey for her leadership in the recognition the Eta Phi Chapter as one that far exceeded the minimum requirements of Beta Alpha Psi in the areas of academics, professionalism and leadership, said the president of Beta Phi Chapter.

Staff Recognitions

Employee of the Month - Peggy Chiu Congratulations to Peggy Chiu for being selected Employee of the Month by Oakland University. An honor - well deserved!