New Faces

This article was originally published in the Spring 2012 edition of the Huntsman Alumni Magazine.

Four new faculty members will be joining the Department of Management; three will become part of the Department of Finance and Economics; two will be faculty in the School of Accountancy; and one will join the Management Information Systems Department.

Devon Gorry

A researcher from one of the top economics education programs in the country has joined the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business in the Economics and Finance Department.

Devon Gorry has been a teaching assistant and lecturer in the Economics Department at the University of Chicago.

Frank Caliendo, an as­sociate professor in the Economics and Finance Department, said Dr. Gorry will bring valuable experience and add to the Huntsman School’s reputation.

“Chicago has one of the best economics depart­ments in the world,” Dr. Caliendo said. “We are excited to have her join the team.”

Jason Smith

A researcher who co-authored a paper accepted into one of the nation’s top finance journals has been hired by the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.

Jason Smith, who earned his doctorate in finance from Washington University in St. Louis in 2006, will join the Economics and Finance Department. He has been an assistant professor of finance at the University of Kentucky since 2006.

Dr. Smith collaborated with three other research­ers on a paper that looks at specific effects of cash flows for corporations and how they are adjusting le­veraging ratios. The paper has been accepted into the Journal of Financial Economics, one of the most selective finance journals in the country. The Journal of Financial Economics rejected nearly 90 percent of all submissions from Feb. 2011 to Jan. 2012, accord­ing to its website.

Ryan Whitby

A professor whose research on executive pay has been published in one of the top finance journals in the world will begin teaching in the Economics and Finance Department.

Ryan Whitby has published in the Review of Financial Studies, one of the top three finance journals in the world, said Ben Blau, an assistant professor in the Economics and Finance Department.

“Ryan wrote an article exploring the practice of adjusting the terms of the options after companies pay their executives,” Dr. Blau said. “Having that article published in the Review of Financial Studies is very impressive.”

Dr. Whitby now teaches at Texas Tech University. He received his doctorate and master’s degrees from the University of Utah, and a bachelor’s in business administration from Weber State University in 1998.

John Ferguson

A Vanderbilt University law school graduate, who earned a Juris doctorate degree in constitutional law and international hu­man rights, has agreed to join the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business fac­ulty as a law, ethics, and international management lecturer.

John Ferguson, whose employment begins fall 2012, now works as a lec­turer at Baylor University and has a considerable amount of professional experience. First amend­ment consultant, attorney, and editor of The Texas Journal of Free Enterprise and Public Policy are three of many professional titles Dr. Ferguson has held.

Chad Simon

A professor who won the 2011 “Best Paper Award” at a top auditing research symposium in Europe has agreed to join the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business faculty as an assistant professor. He will teach accounting with an audit emphasis.

Chad Simon has worked as an assistant professor at University of Nevada – Las Vegas since 2008 and has garnered a considerable amount of professional ex­perience in a short amount of time.

Merideth Ferguson

With a doctorate from the University of Georgia and a master’s of ac­countancy from Brigham Young University, Dr. Simon specializes in audits and has been published in Accounting Review and Accounting Academic. The “Best Paper Award” recognition came at the 6th European Auditing Research Network (EARNet) Symposium in 2011.

Merideth Ferguson, author and co-author of more than 26 publications, conference papers, and presentations, will be joining the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business as an assistant professor teaching human resources classes.

Dr. Ferguson received two “Best Paper” honors from the Academy of Management, in 2008 and 2010. Her research has been featured in major media outlets such as ABC News, Business Week, Wall Street Journal Radio, and USA Today.

Dr. Ferguson earned her doctorate and master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University. She now works as an assistant professor at Baylor University.

Sterling Bone

The developer of the strategic sales manage­ment course materials used by the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business has agreed to become a new faculty member at the school.

With a doctorate from Oklahoma State University and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Utah State University, Sterling Bone will join the Huntsman School of Business as an assistant professor of marketing.

Dr. Bone has extensive experience teaching courses such as market­ing management, services marketing, promotional strategy, and principles of marketing. He has earned high student ratings from these courses.

In the past year alone, Dr. Bone has been recog­nized as an AMA Sheth Foundation Consortium Faculty Fellow and honored for the Best Practitioner Presentation at the Frontiers in Service Conference.

Timothy Gardner

A researcher known for his work in strategic human resource manage­ment has agreed to join the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business in the Management Department.

Timothy Gardner is now a professor of management at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Gardner received his doctorate in 2002 from Cornell University and his master’s degree from The Ohio State University in 1996.

Dr. Gardner conducts research to find out if firms can gain a competitive edge in the marketplace by taking better care of their employees and business partners, according to Alan Warnick, associate department head for the management department.

“He comes with a great research record, along with a long list of journal articles and book chapters to his name,” Professor Warnick said.

Nicole Forsgren Velasquez

A former Huntsman valedictorian, who is now teaching at Pepperdine University, has agreed to join the Huntsman School of Business in its Management Information Systems Department. Nicole Forsgren Velasquez was Huntsman’s valedictorian in 2001, and she was also named the Robins Award Scholar of the Year, a Utah State University award given to one outstanding student each year.

Dr. Velasquez has since gone on to earn a master of accounting and a doctorate in management information systems from the University of Arizona, a university that has a top-five rated MIS program. She is now an assistant professor in the Business Division at Pepperdine University where she conducts research dealing with cost allocations, knowledge management, and IT impacts. She said she likes to collaborate with undergraduate students on research, something she intends to continue at USU.

She has been a featured speaker at industry and academic events. Dr. Velasquez has also drafted technical white papers, a patent, newsletter articles, and academic research papers.

Students Expected to Raise Nearly $200,000 for Entreprenuers in Developing Countries

This article was originally posted November 2011 by The Huntsman Post.

Students Put Skills Into Practice by Raising Money for Worthy Causes

By Paul Lewis Siddoway

It may be hard to see, at first, how a shotgun-shooting contest could help an entrepreneur in Peru. And most probably wouldn’t think that dropping a professor into a cold dunk tank in front of the George S. Eccles Business Building might help someone in Africa start a new business.

Dave Herrmann is only dry for a split second after someone scores a hit on the dunk tank.

It is easier, however, for students at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business to make that connection, especially those in marketing classes taught by David Herrmann and Ron Welker.

Students in management 3110 spend each semester executing service projects; many of them with a goal to raise money for the Small Enterprise Education and Development program, or SEED. Other teams chose to work on other projects for other non-profits or a worthy cause of their choice.

All of the teams are under the same obligation to demonstrate they have learned something in class. Mr. Hermann, executive-in-residence in the Huntsman School’s management department, said the assignment is designed to help develop leadership, and harness the power of teamwork as the students plan, organize, execute, and report on their projects. To give them a goal, he said the revenue from their projects could be used to help fund the SEED program, which started in 2007.

This semester, he said he expects the total amount of money raised by Huntsman students for the SEED program will be between $180,000 and $190,000.

The SEED program, Mr. Herrmann said, is designed to give students hands-on learning as students mentor and teach aspiring entrepreneurs in developing economies, adding that some graduate and undergraduate students spend a semester doing internships as “permanent players” in Ghana, Peru, or Uganda.

At least two student interns are on-location year-round, teaching local entrepreneurs about basic business principles, he said. Study abroad students then come for a week and help filter through business plans written up by those who have completed the course taught by the Huntsman student interns.

Dave Herrmann plunges into the cold waters of a dunk tank knowing it was for a good cause. The dunk tank was part of one of the many fund-raisers his students conducted to raise money for would-be entrepreneurs in developing countries.

The money raised by students at the Huntsman School, which Mr. Herrmann said is kept separate from university funds, will then be loaned to qualifying entrepreneurs as micro- or small-enterprise loans. Of the sixteen business plans submitted in Peru last summer, he said half were approved and given loans.

“We don’t want to set anyone up for failure,” he said. “If it’s not going to work, we don’t fund it.”

Once the loans are given out, Mr. Herrmann said student interns check up with the entrepreneurs on a weekly basis and continue to mentor them, teaching them such things as how to make monthly financial statements.

Chelsey Funk, a senior studying economics, said her time with SEED in Abomosu, Ghana, was the most rewarding experience of her college career. Along with the other Huntsman students, she said they were able to help 31 individuals start or expand small businesses.

As the businesses grow, the loans increase as well, Mr. Hermann said, adding that he is taking MBA students to Africa in November to analyze a potential medium enterprise loan for a cocoa processing plant.

The SEED program provides students with opportunities in all four of the Huntsman School’s areas of emphasis as student work in a foreign culture, analyze business plans, and mentor local entrepreneurs. Melody Jensen said her three months in Africa helped “drive home” the importance of having an entrepreneurial spirit.

“In the eastern region there aren’t a lot of options for employment,” she said, “so people have to make things happen on their own. I definitely gained a greater understanding of what it takes to start and sustain a business.”

Huntsman Professor shares $600,000 grant, stresses out computer characters

This article was originally posted November 2011 by The Huntsman Post.

Three Utah State University Colleges Share $600,000 Grant

By Paul Lewis Siddoway

Dozens of computer characters are about to become very stressed out thanks to the research of a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business.

The characters will be reacting to emergency situations such as explosions and fires as researchers try to find out ways to better help disabled people during emergency situations and building evacuations.

Yong Seog Kim, an associate professor in the management information systems (MIS) department at the Huntsman School, is one of four principal lead researchers from three Utah State University colleges and three university research centers which have been awarded a $600,000 grant to conduct the study.

USU’s colleges of agriculture and engineering, as well as the Center for Persons with Disabilities, Center for Self-Organizing and Intelligent Systems, and the Utah Transportation Center are also involved in the project.

Dr. Kim is developing the software used to program the agents or individuals in the computer simulations. The agents will be able to respond to emergency situations based on information gathered from real simulations and human behavior, which he said are anything but straightforward.

“It’s not just simple evacuation of people without disability,” Dr. Kim said. “We would like to see how people without disabilities would react to the people with disabilities. So we are looking at the psychological impact.”

John D. Johnson, department head of MIS at the Huntsman School, said Dr. Kim is an integral part of the simulation portion of the research.

“He develops software that can mimic human characteristics and demonstrate what people would do in a real emergency,” Dr. Johnson said. “Computer agents in a simulation can react to an emergency just as real people would, giving researchers vital information they need in order to draw informed conclusions and make valid recommendations.”

Agent-based simulation has been Dr. Kim’s research specialty since his MIS Ph.D. program at the University of Iowa in 2001, and he said one challenge is predicting human behavior when programming the agents.

Another worry is the sheer amount of experiments, Dr. Kim said, due to all the architectural and human variables.

“Since we need to have very complete data, we are looking at many different experiments,” he said. “When you look at all the different combinations, we found out we need about 100 experiments.”

Dr. Kim said he is very excited for this opportunity and ties this project into the Huntsman School’s “analytical rigor” pillar of education. Graduate students will help extract information from the raw data, analyze it, and build the models, Dr. Kim said, adding that the first phase of the project, which is primarily data collection, is planned to conclude in 2013.