People and Places: July 20, 2021

Julie Petherbridge has been named dean of Mercer University’s Stetson-Hatcher School of Business in Macon, Georgia. She has served as interim dean since June 2019, and she also holds a position as associate professor of accountancy. In the past, she has acted as associate dean of graduate programs in the School of Business. She worked full-time in public accounting until 2001, when she transitioned to academia while continuing to practice.

Wanda Costen has taken up her role as dean of the Smith’s School of Business at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Costen has held senior academic leadership roles at institutions across North America, including MacEwan University and Northern Arizona University, and she has held faculty positions at the University of Tennessee, the University of Nevada, and Washington State University. Prior to her academic career, she held leadership and management roles in sales, operations, and human resources for several global organizations and Fortune 500 companies. Costen takes over from Brenda Brouwer, who served as interim dean for 18 months.

Terrill L. Drake has been named the first chief diversity and inclusion officer (CDIO) at Harvard Business School in Boston. In his new position, which begins September 1, he will play a lead role in developing a culture of inclusive excellence, diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the HBS community. He also will build on the work of the school’s Racial Equity Action Plan and join equity efforts related to race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, and age. Drake currently is the associate dean of strategic initiatives and head diversity officer at the Villanova School of Business in Pennsylvania. He also serves on the steering committee for the Diversity & Inclusion Affinity Group for AACSB.

Sascha Steffen has been named to the newly created position of vice president of research at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management in Germany. Steffen, who has been a professor at the school since 2017, conducts studies at the intersection of financial markets, financial regulation, and the nonfinancial sector. In his new position, he will help the school strengthen its focus on research.

Collaborations

A new partnership between Cranfield School of Management in the U.K. and The Talent Enterprise, headquartered in Dubai, will allow learners to benefit from leadership development and executive education based on scientific analysis of behavior. Executive-level learners will explore contemporary psychometric tools and assessment solutions with the latest advances in artificial intelligence and data science. The partnership is designed to help delegates in the Middle East support the development of individuals and organizations in the region.

The New York University Stern School of Business in the United States and NYU Shanghai in China will jointly offer two new one-year master of science programs focused on management and marketing in China and the broader Asia region. The MS in Organization Management and Strategy will teach topics such as strategy, innovation, design thinking, and negotiation skills in the context of large and medium-sized Chinese private and government-owned organizations, consulting firms, family-owned enterprises, and startups. The MS in Marketing and Retail Science will include courses on topics such as marketing analytics, new retail technology, and data-driven decision making. Delivered over three semesters, each program will start with a summer semester at NYU Stern in New York City followed by fall and spring semesters at NYU Shanghai. The first classes will enroll in June 2022. These offerings build on the partners’ existing joint programs, which include an MS in Data Analytics and Business Computing and an MS in Quantitative Finance, which welcomed their first cohorts in June 2019.

The Maastricht School of Management (MSM) in the Netherlands has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to collaborate on initiatives related to global value chains (GVC). The organizations will work together to operationalize the bank’s GVC agenda at the country and industry level. MSM also will work with IsDB in building the capacity of IsDB member countries by developing interventions for projects in those regions. In addition, MSM and IsDB are exploring options to develop an advanced degree program in GVC analysis and industrial policy.

Eleven universities from the four Atlantic provinces of Canada are joining together to attract more indigenous and Black students to business programs. The Atlantic Promise Scholars Initiative will provide financial aid and other supports to these students with the long-term goal of creating a more diverse business community. The initiative launched in March 2020 at Dalhousie University Halifax, but has expanded to include ten more schools: Acadia University, Cape Breton University, Mount Saint Vincent University, Saint Mary's University, and St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia; Mount Allison University, Université de Moncton, and University of New Brunswick in New Brunswick; Memorial University of Newfoundland; and the University of Prince Edward Island. The program has partnered with Atlantic Business Magazine to encourage top CEOs and leaders in the business community to donate to the program at the university of their choice.

Taylor’s University in Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, is collaborating with the University of Canterbury in New Zealand to launch a three-year dual Bachelor of Accounting degree in fintech. Among the topics covered will be financial accounting, management accounting, audit and assurance, corporate governance, taxation, corporate finance, information systems, blockchain, financial technology, and innovation. The new program allows students from Taylor’s University to specialize in the fintech sector at the undergraduate level, then transfer to the University of Canterbury for their final year. Students will complete two internships at top accounting firms. The first intake will occur in August 2021.

The University of South Florida Center for Entrepreneurship in Tampa is partnering with Chessler Holdings, a family investment firm. Together they have launched HUSTLE, a competition in which student teams will pitch their business ideas for running food kiosks that dispense oven-baked food and frozen yogurt. Chessler will supply each of the top two teams with 250,000 USD in funding to invest in a minimum of 10 kiosks that can be placed in dorms, libraries, malls, hotels, and apartment complexes. Students will secure locations and manage the kiosks as part of running their businesses. HUSTLE participants will work a minimum of 15 hours a week and could earn up to 20 percent of all the profits made from the kiosks during the program. Each four- or five-person team will meet weekly with mentors and attend monthly board meetings. The team that runs the most profitable business will win a cash prize of 75,000 USD, while the second-place team will take home 25,000 USD. The competition is open to juniors and seniors from the Muma College of Business, as well as to graduate students.

Other News

The Center for Sustainable Enterprise at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill has announced a new online student competition supporting the center’s Invest for the Future initiative. The event, which will be held this fall, is open to undergraduate and graduate students from any department or school in higher education institutions around the world. It will offer students a chance to learn about social impact and environmental-themed financing and investment models, such as blended finance and impact investing. The competition, called Launching Investment for Future Transformation (LIFT), asks students to propose investment and finance solutions that focus on using sustainability to drive social equity and economic mobility. It is sponsored by Bank of America, which also sponsors Invest for the Future.

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