Mr. Wayne Blizman

is President of Wayne Blizman & Associates, a private consulting firm focusing on business strategy development and market planning. His fields of expertise include market research and competitive analysis, long-range business and strategic planning, aftermarket and OEM marketing, and acquisitions focusing on industrial products and the transportation industry.

In addition to twelve years of consulting for major public and private businesses, he has a diverse background of over thirty five years of direct operational experience in the vehicular and industrial markets. He has successfully managed several major acquisitions and joint ventures, and was a senior member of a management team for a company that received an award from the governor for being the fastest growing publicly held company in Michigan.

Mr. Blizman is a Senior Partner and founding member of Spinnaker Advisors, LLC, an international business consulting firm. He is also a Registered Consultant with the Automotive Resource Institute, and is currently an Adjunct Faculty Instructor and Director of the Entrepreneurship Institute at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

Dr. April Boyce Cobb

is a Visiting Professor of Management at Oakland University. As an educator Dr. Cobb is passionate about teaching, supporting, and inspiring students. Her primary research interests are diversity in the workplace, sexual harassment, and work-life balance. Dr. Cobb earned her Doctorate and Master of Arts degrees in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Wayne State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Dayton. She is a member of the Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology, and the Michigan Association of Industrial Organizational Psychologists. Prior to joining the faculty at Oakland University, Dr. Cobb has held faculty appointments at the University of Houston Clear Lake, Wayne State University, and Michigan Technological University.

Ms. Amy Rutledge

is a Visiting Faculty in the Decision and Information Sciences. She has a BS in MIS and a BA in French Modern Languages and Literatures, and an M.B.A. from Oakland University.

Amy teaches Management Information Systems (MIS) 100, which introduces the use of Information Technology in business problem solving and business modeling. She has also taught MIS 300, which introduces MIS concepts including systems types (transactions processing, decision support, etc.) hardware, software, networks, data management, and decision support.

For several years before joining Oakland University as a visiting faculty member, Amy Rutledge worked in the private sector. She was employed by Handleman Company, a category manager and distributor of recorded music. While there, Amy coordinated the company’s Balanced Scorecard (a strategic planning and management system) and Balanced Scorecard software programs. She later transitioned to Handleman’s New Business Development team and coordinated the design of new customer programs, including logistics planning, pricing strategy, product assortment and promotion development. Amy assisted with the development of a business plan for one of the company’s acquisitions. She later joined the automotive sector serving as a Project Manager for Chrysler LLC’s Business to Dealer portal architecture team. Amy began teaching at Oakland University on a part-time basis in 2006, and joined as a visiting faculty member in 2008. She is an Alumna of Oakland University’s Applied Technology in Business (ATiB) Program.