People and Places: August 3, 2021

Transitions

On August 16, Frank Braun takes up his new post as dean of the College of Business, Health, and Human Services at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Braun most recently was dean of the School of Business and a professor of business informatics at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. He also has served as department chair, associate professor of business and health informatics, and director of the Master of Science in Information Systems program at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights. Braun replaces Jane Wayland, who retired after 14 years of service, and interim dean Shannon Collier-Tenison.

Damon Fleming has become the new dean of the Orfalea College of Business at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. He most recently was dean and professor of accounting at the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis in Tennessee. Previously, he spent nearly 13 years on the faculty of the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University, where he was professor of accounting, Ernst & Young Faculty Fellow, and William E. Cole Director of the Charles W. Lamden School of Accountancy.

New Programs

This September, a Master in Sustainability and Impact Management will debut at Mannheim Business School, the umbrella organization for management education at the University of Mannheim in Germany. The 24-month part-time program, which is split between in-person and online classes, will encourage students to balance commercial, environmental, and social factors as they implement sustainable business practices. In addition to covering traditional management concepts, classes will explore topics such as impact measurement and valuation, decarbonization, impact investment, and social entrepreneurship. The director of the program will be Laura Marie Edinger-Schons, chair of sustainable business.

The Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, will launch a life science entrepreneurship concentration within its MBA program. The school will partner with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, as well as with the School of Engineering and School of Science at Rensselaer, to create both the 21-credit MBA concentration and a 12-credit certificate program in life science entrepreneurship. Both programs will be available to students at Rensselaer and the Icahn School. The concentration was made possible through a New York Life Science Entrepreneur Development grant the Lally School recently received from Empire State Development.

Collaborations

The Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and Parthenope University of Naples in Italy will embark on a five-year collaboration in support of Parthenope’s new Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management (MEIM). The 12-month program is designed to help students develop managerial, entrepreneurial, and technological skills to innovate in a complex economy. MEIM students from Parthenope will spend a three-week immersion at the MIT campus, where they will participate in classes, company visits, and cultural activities. As part of the collaboration, MIT Sloan faculty will visit Naples to lecture in the Parthenope MEIM program and Parthenope faculty can visit MIT Sloan as International Faculty Fellows to conduct research and curriculum development.

Nyenrode Business University in Breukelen, the Netherlands, has collaborated with the Conscious Learning Tribe, a learning platform, to launch a holistic new course called Breath in Leadership Journey. The course addresses the challenges and opportunities that institutions must confront in the face of societal and business issues such as political power shifts, climate change, COVID-19, and technological developments. During the six-month course, which is based on nature and ancient wisdom, participants learn about the intersection of science, art, academics, and technology. They also study the perspectives of leaders who have made a direct impact in and through their organizations. The course takes place in multiple venues: Breukelen; two other locations in the Netherlands; Ibiza, Spain; and online.

The American University in Cairo (AUC) School of Business is partnering with fintech companies valU, a buy-now pay-later platform (BNPL), and Paymob, a payment facilitator in Egypt, to offer more flexible and convenient financing plans to AUC’s executive education students. Through the partnership, individuals who plan to enroll in one of the AUC School of Business’ 25 exec ed programs can opt to pay for their tuition using valU’s installment payment plans for up to 60 months. These installment payments will be made through payment aggregator Paymob for a more seamless payment experience.

Honors and Awards

The American Accounting Association has announced its 2021 AAA Award Winners, honoring nearly 30 educators who have made contributions to the field of accounting. Awards were handed out for best papers, for innovations in accounting education, for outstanding service, and lifetime achievement.

Other News

The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor has launched the Pinkert Healthcare Accelerator for student entrepreneurs. The accelerator provides student teams with grant seed funding; expert mentorship from faculty, staff, and alumni; and advice from a board of leaders in healthcare entrepreneurship and investing. Any student at the university who has an impactful idea for solving a serious need in healthcare can apply to the accelerator, which will have two annual application cycles. The accelerator was created through a dedicated fund included in a 5.4 million USD gift from Eleanor and Michael Pinkert. The gift also established the Pinkert Scholars Program, which provides full-ride scholarships for full-time MBA students pursuing specialized coursework focused on healthcare.

This fall, Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY) will launch the QC Business School. The college currently offers a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, as well as an honors minor program in business and the liberal arts. Undergraduate programs are available in actuarial studies, finance, international business, accounting, quantitative economics, and policy analysis; graduate programs include those in accounting, risk management, and taxation. Courses on fintech will provide students with knowledge of blockchain technology and big data analysis; a policy analysis track will familiarize students with evaluations used by regulatory agencies.

Mendoza Ventures, a Boston-based venture capital firm, has announced its Venture Capital Fellowship Program, designed to match diverse MBA students with resources within the venture capital field. The early-stage VC firm provides opportunities to women and minorities and focuses on fintech, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity. As summer associates, Venture Fellows will conduct market research to identify new investment opportunities; write investment memos; implement the firm’s policies regarding environmental, social, and governance issues; and work one-on-one with general partners at Mendoza Ventures. The first two fellows are Patricia Decker of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles, and Jeremy Soares from the Yale School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut.

The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) has launched the second series of The Internationalist, a podcast series that looks at issues of the digital revolution and how they affect universities. During the six episodes of the series, academics, students, practitioners, and experts will examine how universities have responded to the pandemic and what role digital technology will play in higher education in the future. The series also will explore topics such as whether blended learning will be the new normal in universities, how to equip academics and students with the skills they need to navigate a digital future, and how technology can close the inequality gap in higher education and beyond. The series is hosted by Natasha Lokhun, head of marketing and communications at the ACU.

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