The
Fall 2015
B-School Buzz
News from the Tiffin University School of Business
Sharma Named New School
of Business Dean Dr. Maneeesh Sharma joined the TU family on Monday, August 24 as the new Dean of the School of Business. He replaced Dr. Terry Sullivan who served as Interim Dean since January of 2015. Sharma is Professor of Finance, and is coming from Indiana-Purdue University (IPFW), Fort Wayne where he served as Director of the MBA Program. Prior to being named MBA director, he served as the director of the Institute for Pension Plan Management (IPPM) at IPFW from 2009-2013. Sharma has published actively in peer reviewed journals. He has also presented at numerous national and International conferences. He has also worked on several research grant funded projects, the most recent of which being a financial literacy grant from the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE). Sharma has consulted extensively as a lead strategic advisor for private equity firms and companies whose concentrations include utilities, medical devices, auto-ancillary, construction material, and logistics. In his consulting capacity, he has built and prepared valuation models designed for acquisition of either specific assets and or companies. His areas of expertise are international expansion strategies, corporate valuation and strategic business modeling. He has a B.S in Petroleum Engineering and a Ph.D. in finance, both from the University of Alabama. Maneesh and his wife, Sheel Sharma, have two children. In his message to students on the School of Business website, Sharma emphasizes that today’s global and hyper competitive businesses demand thoughtful and well trained future leaders. He stressed Tiffin’s focus is on improving a Return of Investment to students. Tiffin improves students’ ROI by offering smaller class sizes, personal attention by exceptional faculty who bring great academic and real world experience into the classrooms and meaningful internships for students within their respective disciplines.
Third Boot Camp Concludes with Business Plan Contest
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The first place team for Tiffin University’s third Entrepreneurship Boot Camp Business Plan Competition left to right: Tiffin University Professor Perry Haan; Northeastern Academy student Webb Shandrell; Tiffin University students Timothy Dillon and Mohammed Alfaez; Tiffin Unive rsity professor Megan Borich.
he third annual Tiffin University Boot Camp concluded with seven teams presenting business plans to local business people and faculty members on the Tiffin campus on December 2. Teams of Tiffin University students in the Entrepreneurship class teamed up with high school students to participate in three boot camp sessions held on the Tiffin campus. The boot camp sessions featured guest speakers from the business community and government agencies such as the Small Business Administration. Jake Ward of Fraser Clemens Martin & Miller LLC, Dr. John Millar, Dean Emeritus and Dr. Daniel Foster, Assistant Professor of Marketing served as judges. Dr. Dan Mays, Adjunct Faculty Member and Dr. Laura Mays, Professor Emeritus along the Tiffin Charitable Foundation sponsored the event.
12th Cohort Graduates in Bucharest On October 23, 2015, Tiffin University Romania held its twelfth graduation ceremony at in Bucharest. Twentytwo graduates of the EMBA program received their diplomas from Dr. Teresa Shafer, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, who traveled to Romania for the ceremony. Shafer said “Our students work very hard in the program and I could not be happier to be here to share in this moment with them.” Shafer also recognized special guests attending the festivities: Dr. Bonnie Tiell, TU Professor of Management; Dr. Robert Rietbroek, European Council for Business Education Commissioner; and TU senior administrators, Leon Wyden, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Mahmoud Lamadanie, Vice President for International Affairs. Dr. Laura Mays, Director Emeritus, announced the names of the graduates, eight of whom graduated with distinction, while Drs. Shafer and Tiell handed out the diplomas along with distinction medals and the traditional TU yellow rose. Each graduate was given time to speak to the audience about their thoughts regarding the impact of the program. Mays then introduced TU alumni Narcis Obeada who presented a memoriam for Marius Georgescu a graduate from Cohort 11 who passed away earlier this summer due to a car accident. The memoriam involved a collage of pictures from Marius’ time in the program as well as a eulogy regarding the feelings of his colleagues. His family were special guests for the evening. Instead of a moment of silence, a round of applause ended the special tribute. Mays then introduced Marius Mihailescu, Managing Director of the Tiffin EMBA program, to provide a history regarding the MBA oath that all graduates take at the end of the ceremony. Mays and Tiell, who was also in-country to teach the first module of the 2014-15 Academic Year, reminisced with Shafer about the early days of the program and marveled over the fact that the program is already in its fourteenth year. With the addition of the 22 students graduating as part of cohort 12, the Romanian EMBA program has nearly 300 alumni representing the highest level of employees from all sectors of industry. TU’s Romanian program has consistently been ranked in the top three by the country’s weekly business journal. “I am not happy whenever we are not #1 for the year,” Mihailescu commented, “and we work for that every day.” TU’s EMBA has been ranked #1 in Romania for the past three years.
Five Hospitality Students Attend Hotel Conference Five hospitality students attended the Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association Annual Conference on November 16. They were accompanied by Teresa Miller, Associate Professor of Hospitality Management. The students attended sessions where they networked with industry professionals, and visited all of the booths at the hotel trade expo. The keynote presentation was done by the Director of Business Development at Smith Travel Research on the state of the hotel industry. Senior Hospitality Student, Hailee Hill said, “My favorite session was the Women In Leadership Hospitality Students Alyssa Kelm, Anthony Modica, Chelsea Knapp, Hailee Hill, Sara DeWeese attended the Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association Conference session. I thought that the women on the panel were very inspiring and also full of valuable information. Each woman gave great advice on how to become a leader, and what it is like to be a woman in the Hospitality field.”
School of Business Hosts Accreditation Conference Tiffin University hosted the 2015 Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) Conference for the Great Lakes Region on October 22 and 23. More than 100 educators from the US and Canada are attended. The two-day conference featured TU alumna Lynn Child as the keynote speaker. Child is the chair and president of IT security firm CentraComm Communications and CEO of web and app development company Aardvaark. Tiffin University School of Business faculty and staff members coordinated the conference that was held at Camden Falls and on the Tiffin campus. In noting the selection of the conference location, ACBSP President and CEO Jeffrey Alderman praised Tiffin University, remarking “the university continues to distinguish itself as a leader and innovator for business education and has maintained ACBSP accreditation of its business programs since 1996. We are truly honored they are served as the host for this year’s Great Lakes Region conference.” In making its selection of conference location, Alderman praised Tiffin University, ACBSP Region Four keynote speaker and TU alumna saying “the university is innovative and effective in its approach to business education, Lynn Child and we’re pleased to have them as our host for this Great Lakes Region conference.” Tiffin Mayor Aaron Montz commented, “I am proud an organization like the ACBSP has chosen Tiffin and Tiffin University from hundreds of communities and institutions throughout the Midwest and Canada. It reinforces our status as an education city and learning community.” During the event, Kristina Collins, Assistant Professor of Management at Tiffin University, was elected to the office of Secretary of Region Four. She made a three-year leadership commitment that will include the positions of President-elect in 2015-2016 and President of the region 2016-2017. Established in 1988, the ACBSP is an organization that validates the quality of university business education; and it is the only one globally that accredits business degree programs at all levels, from associate to doctorate. There are currently 1,320 member campuses from 59 different countries. Region Four is the Great Lakes Council of Business Schools and Programs, a division of ACBSP that is comprised of over 250 colleges and universities in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and the Canadian Province of Ontario. The mission of the ACBSP is to establish, promote and recognize educational standards that contribute to the continuous improvement of business education and, through the process of accreditation, to recognize business schools and programs that adhere to these standards.
Business Faculty Honored With University Service Awards Two members of the Tiffin University School of Business were honored with the first annual Tiffin University Faculty Awards at the Faculty Dinner on October 30. Terry Sullivan, J.D., Associate Professor of Business Law & Finance, won the Provost Award. This award is given for exemplary contributions to TU as a fulltime faculty member, a steward to the institution in all aspects of the Boyer Model and continuous demonstration of going above and beyond for the betterment of Tiffin University. Vice President of Academic Affairs Lillian Schumacher praised Sullivan for his contributions while serving as Interim Dean of the School of Business and his willingness to help with all kinds of tasks when asked. Kristina Collins, Assistant Professor of Management, earned the Service to the Community Award. It was given for volunteer work with public and non-profit organizations, contributions to student community service programs, enhancing the quality of life in the community through community service, consulting for small business, domestic and multi-national corporations and leadership within Kristina Collins and Terry Sullivan were winners of the first Tiffin University Faculty Awards. the community. As a consultant and practitioner, she also has earned a Six Sigma Green Belt which is utilized in working with organizations to develop and implement continuous improvement programs. Professional certifications include Achieve Global and Covey programs. Her professional awards include the Presidential Award for Outstanding Evening Division Faculty of the Year as well as the Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellow Award as the SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) faculty advisor.
Faculty Activities Dr. Lisa Kahle-Piasecki, Assistant Professor of Information Systems & Management, had a paper, “A Comparison of Mentoring in Higher Education and Fortune 1000 Companies: Practices to Apply in a Global Context” published in the Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice. Kahle-Piasecki also served as Co-Chair, a Statewide Collaborative Professional Development Initiative, with the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio. Dr. Kellie C. McGilvray, Assistant Professor of Marketing and eight TU students co-authored a paper presented at the Atlantic Marketing Association Conference on September 25 in Savannah, GA. Students Ahmed Abdullah Y Al Alhareth, Austin Benton, Sarah Engeman, Cory Frey, Kaitlin Gruenewald, Keith Jackson, Joseph Laumer, and Amber Wagner presented “Franciscan Earth Literacy Center Case Analysis.” Professor of Marketing & Entrepreneurship, Dr. Perry Haan co-authored a paper that was presented at the Atlantic Marketing Association Conference. The paper “Corporate Social Responsibility in the B-2-B Market” was presented on September 24 in Savannah, GA. Haan also attended the Entrepreneurship Experiential Classroom at the University of Florida in Gainesville September 17-20. Tiffin University faculty members Professor Emeritus of Management Dr. Laura Mays and Professor of Management Bonnie Tiell, along with Marius (Alex) Mihailescu, Managing Director of the EMBA program met Gabriela Szabo, Minister of Youth & Sports for Romania. The meeting focused on the scope of women advancing in leadership positions in sport programs to assist Olympic athletes’ transition to life after competition. Tiell and Laura Mays, Bonnie Tiell, Gabriela Szabo and Szabo are also developing a case study for an upcoming textbook: Marius Mihailescu meet in Bucharest Sport & Human Resources: A Managerial Approach.
Technology Club Members Attend Conference
CIS students who attended the Annual Information Assurance Conference: Tyler Bell, Larry Sheets, Danielle Rohrback, Rick Ziegler, Joel Edwards (left to right).
The Tiffin University Technology Club took several students to the 14th Annual Information Assurance Conference entitled, “The Internet of Things: How Secure Are You?” The conference featured presentations on a variety of information assurance topics such as machine level data collection and inferential analysis, the security of wireless devices, smart technology for the home and related security concerns, and a quantitative study of organizational security breaches in NW Ohio during 2014. The students were accompanied by faculty members Laura Ketter, Associate Professor of Computer Information Technology & Management, and Susan Treece, Associate Professor of Computer Information Systems.