Honoring the Leaders of Emory and Goizueta

The Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award is presented to faculty members from each of Emory’s four undergraduate schools during commencement every year. “The award celebrates the pinnacle of teaching excellence, honoring faculty who have profoundly impacted their students’ academic journeys,” says Wei Jiang, vice dean for faculty and research and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Finance. The award was established by Emory Williams, a 1932 Emory College alumnus and longtime trustee, to recognize a record of excellence in undergraduate teaching.

Emory College of Arts and Sciences selects three award recipients, drawn from the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. Each of the other undergraduate schools—Goizueta Business School, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, and Oxford College—selects one award recipient.

The 2024 honoree from Goizueta Business School is Richard Berlin, associate professor in the practice of organization and management.

The remaining 2024 honorees are:

• – Christopher Eagle, associate teaching professor in the Center for the Study of Human Health, Emory College of Arts and Sciences
• – Sarah Fankhauser, associate professor of biology, Oxford College
• – Gillian Hue, assistant teaching professor, Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology program and senior faculty fellow, Center for Ethics, Emory College of Arts and Sciences
• – Brajesh Samarth, teaching professor, Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies, Emory College of Arts and Sciences
• – LisaMarie Wands, associate clinical professor, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing

The Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award

The Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education recognizes outstanding scholars who excel as teachers within formal and informal educational settings. “This award honors exceptional teaching and recognizes those who guide their students with passion and expertise,” says Alicia Sierra, director of human resources and diversity.

One faculty member in each of Emory’s seven graduate and professional schools receives the award in recognition of the important role of exceptional teaching in graduate and professional education. 

The 2024 honoree from Goizueta Business School is J.B. Kurish, professor in the practice of finance.

The remaining 2024 honorees are:

• – Lauren Christiansen-Lindquist, assistant teaching professor, Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health
• – Thomas W. Elliott Jr., professor in the practice of practical theology and Methodist studies, Candler School of Theology
• – George S. Georgiev, associate professor of law, Emory School of Law
• – Adriana P. Hermida, professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory School of Medicine
• – Lori A. Modly, assistant clinical professor, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
• – David A. Steinhauer, faculty, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Program in the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, and associate professor, School of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology, James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies

The Keough Awards

The Keough Awards for Service are named after Don Keough, the legendary President of The Coca-Cola Company and a symbol of business excellence. This award is the business school’s highest service award and is awarded to one faculty member and one staff member. Each recipient receives a $2,000 award. “The recipient is a long-term contributor to the school and makes a significant impact or contribution to Goizueta,” says Jiang.

Keough Faculty Award

The recipient of the 2024 Keough Faculty Award is Professor Kristy Towry. Towry has served in many roles within Goizueta over many years. She has served as vice dean and significantly impacted the culture and comradery at the school. Towry also served as the chair of the executive committee, where she initiated a governance structure that has enhanced decision-making and evaluation. She served as a mentor to numerous junior faculty and doctoral students. In addition, Towry has shown true leadership by appealing to others’ values in helping and supporting the school.

Towry is a top researcher and has trained numerous influential students. She is a favorite teacher of hundreds of MBA graduates and has made a lasting contribution to the school.

Keough Staff Award

The 2024 Keough staff recipient is Krystle Arnold-Moore, administrative assistant, BBA program office. She has consistently made an impact since she started at Goizueta in the summer of 2019. Faculty and staff across the school quickly noticed her creativity, as she served as an active division student advisory council member and on the committee to build morale after the pandemic. She has helped other units with programmatic support during staff vacancies, all while continuing to grow her expertise in the BBA program office.

Staff Excellence Award: Collaboration

The staff excellence awards recognize staff who have “gone above and beyond in collaborating with others, managing resources, and overall influence at the school,” says Sierra. Each recipient receives a $1,000 award.

The 2024 recipient of the Staff Excellence Award for Collaboration is Brandi Baker, director of registrar services. Baker has worked tirelessly to accommodate Goizueta’s exponential growth as a school. She collaborates with program offices to meet the needs of faculty, students, and administrators and proactively finds solutions that create a more positive learning environment. Baker is in a position where she has to answer to colleagues across numerous academic programs. She is limited in terms of building capacity, and yet she manages to fit all the pieces together. In her work, she maintains a positive attitude and a “get to yes” philosophy.

Staff Excellence Award: Influence

The 2024 recipient of the Staff Excellence Award for Influence is Ron Harris, director of research computing. Harris has been the backbone of faculty research projects for decades. He helps faculty as a thought partner, sharing the work and thinking through choices. This ability requires a deep understanding of the datasets and faculty research challenges. He uses his data manipulation skills to clean data and make it serviceable for research. He also trains the next generation of scholars, our PhD students, in the use of statistical software. It would be fair to claim that the considerable pace of our research is due to Harris’s support.

Staff Excellence Award: Resources

The 2024 recipient of the Staff Excellence Award for Resources is Robin Dittmann, chief business, analytics, and operations officer. Dittmann has been instrumental in helping strengthen school finances. She has worked toward more efficient staffing levels, streamlined processes, and new policies to facilitate efficient resources by faculty and staff. She does so with expertise and transparency that instills confidence in the community.

Department Distinguished Teaching Awards

Emory and Goizueta also award those of exceptional academic excellence in each department. These awards go to individuals who represent their departments with outstanding education and lead the professionals of tomorrow. We would like to recognize them here.

• – BBA Distinguished Educator: Emily Bianchi, Goizueta Foundation term associate professor of organization and management.
• – Evening MBA Distinguished Core Educator: Omar Rodríguez-Vilá, professor in the practice of marketing.
• – Evening MBA Distinguished Elective Educator: Kevin Crowley, associate professor in the practice of finance.
• – Full-Time MBA Distinguished Educator: JB Kurish, professor in the practice of finance.
• – Full-Time MBA Distinguished Educator: Marina Cooley, assistant professor in the practice of marketing.
• – MS in Business Analytics Distinguished Core Educator: Rajiv Garg, associate professor of information systems and operations management.
• – MS in Business Analytics Distinguished Elective Educator: Emma Zhang, associate professor of information systems and operations management.
• – Master of Finance Distinguished Educator: Kevin Crowley, associate professor in the practice of finance.

We are immensely proud to celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty. Through their transformational work, they push industries forward, prepare the next generation of business leaders, and solve today’s toughest business problems.

The post Awards Recognize Distinguished Members of Emory and Goizueta Faculty and Staff appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

A master’s degree in finance is your passport to a dynamic and data-driven career in finance. This specialized program equips you with advanced quantitative and analytical skills. It enables you to dissect complex financial data, model risk, and forecast market trends with precision. It’s a qualification that can do incredible things for your career prospects. It can open doors to quantitative finance, asset management, and financial technology roles. This makes you a sought-after professional in a rapidly evolving financial landscape. However, do you need years of work experience to embark on this graduate program?

At Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, little or no professional experience is required to join its Master of Analytical Finance. The program is ideal for a novice or one who is looking to further their skills. This 10-month, action-based STEM degree has experiential learning built into its curriculum. Students experience the working life of a Wall Street analyst through four divisions of a top-tier global bank or fund. To ensure a solid foundation, there are boot camps in financial statements, business statistics, and technology/data to kickstart the program.

Hands-on Learning

“The entire curriculum focuses on students having direct experiences with the industry,” says Tom Smith, professor in the practice of finance and academic director of Emory’s finance master’s degree.

The curriculum is built around our practicum experience. That places students at the center of a ‘high-touch’ learning environment. They get to interact with industry leaders and engage with markets on a daily basis.

Tom Smith, professor in the practice of finance & academic director of Emory’s finance master’s degree

Students experience the working life of a Wall Street analyst through four divisions of a top-tier global bank or fund. To ensure a solid foundation, there are boot camps in financial statements, business statistics, and technology/data to kickstart the program. Goizueta then gives students access to global markets on a professional trading floor. Students learn and utilize professional tools, data, and trading platforms including Bloomberg, FactSet, Thompsons, Python, R Studio, Barra, and MATLAB.

“We have two ‘jewels’ within the program—our amazing faculty and our state-of-the-art Finance Lab,” says Smith.

Our students work out of the Finance Lab, which includes Bloomberg terminals, for most of their classes. Our faculty are approachable and offer hands-on learning to our students.

Tom Smith

The major difference from other schools is that this master’s degree takes a more hands-on learning approach. “This internship-style graduate program allows us to gain more real-world experience than a typical master’s program,” says Lauren O’Banion 23MAF.

Hands-On Learning

There are four different rotations: global markets, asset portfolios, investment strategies, and a final ‘in practice’ rotation on a global leadership team. “We designed the curriculum to take advantage of the amazing talent within Goizueta’s Finance faculty. Our students are learning from award-winning faculty, including professors Narasimhan Jegadeesh, Kevin Crowley, and Tetyana Balyuk,” says Smith. “I enjoy seeing our finance students learning each quarter. It’s a thrill whenever one of the students stops me in the hall. They want to talk about a project or about the job they just landed. The students are flourishing.”

Global Markets

In the “global markets” rotation, students become part of the Wall Street research team responsible for analyzing connections in real-time and publishing sell-side client research. Not only will they gain expertise in how the global markets function, but an insight into the operations of the financial system, tracking real-world news and events and making connections to theory learnt in the classroom.

Asset Portfolios

With the sales and trading team in the “asset portfolios” rotation, students will gain an understanding of the asset classes that are traded around the world. In this, they get insights into markets and deliverables as well as pitch live trading ideas to their portfolio manager.

Investment Strategies

During the “investment strategies” rotation, students develop and propose a proprietary trading strategy to institutional investors. This is when turning ideas into real investment strategies will become second nature. Emory master’s in finance students can choose to specialize in strategies such as ESG, algorithmic trading, or digital currencies to deliver customer-driven results.

Practice Rotation

The final “practice” rotation is where students put what they have learned into their on-the-job training. As part of a team, they must propose ventures and investment opportunities that can make the world a better place. Using data-driven analysis and innovative blue-sky ideas, their respective teams leverage a firm’s global reach and funding sources to tackle a pressing social, economic, or environmental issue using a strategy that has a positive return on investment.

A Strong Foundation

Each of these rotations takes students deep into the global finance community in the number one city for fintech: Atlanta. Georgia has become a giant in sub-field of technology, with 70% of all transactions on a global scale passing through the state. Goizueta’s strategic location in the global commerce capital adds to the list of opportunities for students with the many fintech industry leaders and Fortune 1000 companies around. Thanks to these connections, students have no shortage of chances to network and collaborate with professionals, clients, and mentors.

In addition to technical finance skills, we want our students in our finance master’s program to learn the soft skills necessary to thrive and grow in the modern finance workplace.

Kirsten Travers-UyHam, associate professor in the practice of finance

The program includes visiting experts, including ESG-impact specialists, who give talks and will listen to pitches of the investment proposal to a panel of respected corporate leaders.

With access to experts, cutting-edge systems, and real-world projects, Goizueta master’s in finance students gain a wealth of experience to launch their careers in all the right ways. This master’s in finance helps students earn professional licensing, including Bloomberg BMC, SIE (Series 7 preview), and CFA prep, as well. As an unmatched experience and insight into the world of finance, this Goizueta program ensures every student evolves from a beginner in this field into a graduate set to excel in areas such as sales and trading, investment management, fintech, and investment banking.

“Our students are receiving employment across the finance spectrum. The quality of jobs that these students have secured has impressed me,” says Smith. “In fact, several of our current students have already secured employment for next year and we’ve just finished our first quarter of classes. Our students are very employable.”

Excited to expand your professional horizons and experience? To check out Emory University Goizueta Business School, click here.

The post Go from Beginner to Analytical Finance Expert appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

“We continue to develop principled and impactful leaders and entrepreneurs, foster innovation for a data and technology driven world, and grow a global presence fueled by local synergies,” said Gareth James, John H. Harland Dean. “I’m proud of our faculty and staff – and energized about the future of our school and students.”

Impacting Business & Beyond

Faculty and staff contribute to the Goizueta and Emory community, but also have significant impact on society and the broader business world. External awards include:

Karen Sedatole, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Accounting, was named as an editor to the Accounting Review. Sedatole was also elected to the position of president elect for the Management Accounting section of the American Accounting Association.

Emma Zhang, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was named an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. Zhang was also named an associate editor to the Journal of the American Accounting Association.

Ruomeng Cui, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was a finalist for the 2022 Management Science Best Paper Award in Operations Management for her paper, “Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Evidence from Field Experiments on Amazon.”

Panos Adamopoulos, assistant professor of information systems & operations management, was named as an associate editor at Management Science.

Giacomo Negro, professor of organization & management, was appointed as the senior editor of Organization Science and also received an honorable mention for the Robert K. Merton Award for his paper, “What’s Next? Artists’ Music After Grammy Awards.” Negro additionally served as the principal investigator for the 2022 LGBTQ Southern Survey.

Erika Hall, associate professor of organization & management, was named as an incoming associate editor at the Academy of Management Discoveries.

Dan McCarthy, assistant professor of marketing and Marina Cooley, assistant professor in the practice of marketing were recognized by Poets&Quants’.” McCarthy was also a finalist for the Weitz-Winer-O’Dell Award.

John Kim, associate professor in the practice of organization & management, was designated as one of the top instructors by Coursera for Management Consulting courses.

Vilma Todri, assistant professor of information systems & operations management, was named an associate editor to the Management Information Systems Quarterly Journal, one of the top three leading Information Systems journals.

Tonya Smalls, assistant professor in the practice of accounting, has been appointed to serve on the Inaugural Advisory Board for Make-A-Wish Georgia (MAWGA).

Leading the Future Of Emory and Goizueta

Goizueta Business School and Emory also honor academic professionals and leaders for their dedication to excellence through teaching, content development, experiential learning, scholarly inquisition, and commitment.

“We could not be prouder of our exceptional faculty and staff for their remarkable work and dedication throughout the past year,” says Anandhi Bharadwaj, who will step down as vice dean for faculty and research this summer as Professor Wei Jiang prepares to take on the role. “It has been an honor to work alongside our faculty and staff in developing the school and its programs.”

The recipients of these prestigious honors and awards are listed below:

Rajiv Garg, associate professor of information systems & operations management, was awarded the Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education. Garg was also honored as the MSBA Distinguished Core Educator.

John Kim, associate professor in the practice of organization & management, was awarded Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Giacomo Negro, professor of organization & management, received the Keough Faculty Award. Negro also received the Jordan Research Award.

Marvell Nesmith, associate dean of academic affairs & instructional design, received the Keough Staff Award.

Marina Cooley, assistant professor in the practice of marketing, was honored as the BBA Distinguished Educator and was also recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (One Year).

Omar Rodríguez-Vilá, professor in the practice of marketing, was awarded the Evening MBA Distinguished Core Educator and was also recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (Two Year).

Charles Goetz, associate professor in the Practice of organization & management, was awarded Evening MBA Distinguished Elective Educator.

Ray Hill, associate professor in the practice of finance, was recognized for MBA Teaching Excellence (Classic Faculty).

Alvin Lim and David Sackin were awarded MSBA Distinguished Elective Educators.

Rob Kazanjian, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Organization & Management, was awarded Executive MBA Distinguished Educator (Core).

Kevin Crowley, associate professor in the practice of finance and Narasimhan Jegadeesh, Dean’s Distinguished Chair of Finance, were awarded MAF Distinguished Educators. Crowley was also awarded Executive MBA Distinguished Educator (Elective).

Giacomo Negro, Melissa Williams and Panos Adamopoulos received Goizueta research awards at the levels of full, associate, and assistant professor, respectively.

Goizueta Business School is proud to present the accomplishments of these and other faculty members within our institution. To learn more about the teaching, specialized research, and core interests of each faculty member, check out our faculty profiles and their related publications. 

The post Goizueta Faculty and Staff Shine with Prestigious Accolades and Honors appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Several Goizueta faculty were recently recognized by Emory University for their accomplishments over the past year, including Assistant Professor in the Practice of Accounting Allison Kays and Associate Professor in the Practice of Marketing Omar Rodríguez-Vilá.

The Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award

Presented annually to faculty with a record of excellence in undergraduate teaching, this year’s award was presented to Allison Kays. The Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award recognizes faculty who foster participation, exemplify the highest quality of teaching scholarship, serve as a mentor to students, retain an ongoing commitment to teaching, and make significant contributions to advance the university through teaching.

Kays joined the Goizueta faculty in 2018 and teaches a core accounting course to students. She recently developed and taught a new course in data analytics that helps prepare students in the usage of Python and Excel.

“The pandemic brought unique teaching challenges to all Emory faculty and Allison rose to the occasion in so many ways,” John H. Harland Interim Dean Karen Sedatole wrote in her nomination form. “In the spring of 2020, Professor Kays went above and beyond to make sure that students would maintain their academic experience during the switch to online course delivery.”

Outside of teaching, Kays has served on several committees, including the Accounting Area NTT Faculty Selection Committee, as well as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council and the Experimentation Zone Committee.

“I am so honored to receive this award and so lucky to get to do the work that I do,” Kays said. “Goizueta has brilliant undergraduate students who keep me on my toes. Their passion, curiosity, and desire to learn fuels my own desire to constantly improve my content and teaching methods.”

Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education Teaching Award

For his dedication to teaching within formal and informal educational settings, Omar Rodríguez-Vilá was honored with the Provost’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Education Teaching Award. The award honors faculty who foster participation and engage students, dedicate their time to advancing the art and science of teaching and learning, make significant contributions that impact the university through teaching, serve as a mentor to students and form advising relationships with graduate and professional students.

Rodríguez-Vilá currently serves as the academic director of education at the academic research center, The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute. His current research focuses on two areas: how the environmental and social sustainability considerations are changing the nature of marketing activities; and how brands communicate societal benefits in social media and into the marketplace practices of antiracists brands. His work has been published in Harvard Business Review, and includes one of his most recent works, “Is Your Marketing Organization Ready for What’s Next?”

“I think of my job as helping students ‘see more’ and ‘do more,’” Rodríguez-Vilá said. “However, keeping that promise to our students given the disruptions of the past year was one of the hardest challenges of my career. That is why this award meant so much to me. It has fueled my passion and courage to continue the work of innovating and improving our student’s experience at Goizueta.”

Twelve Additional Teaching Awards Bestowed on Goizueta Faculty

Kevin Crowley, senior lecturer of Finance, was awarded Weekend Executive MBA Distinguished Educator Award (Electives).

Renée Dye, associate professor in the Practice of Organization & Management, received the MBA Teaching Excellence Award (Junior Faculty). The award is sponsored by the MBA class of 1999.

George Easton, associate professor of Information Systems & Operations Management and Rajiv Garg, associate professor of Information Systems & Operations Management, were awarded MSBA Distinguished Core Educators.

Ray Hill, senior lecturer in Finance, received the MBA Teaching Excellence Award (Classic Faculty). The award is sponsored by the MBA class of 1999.

JB Kurish, professor in the Practice of Finance, was awarded MBA Capstone Lecturer.

Alvin Lim and David Sackin were awarded MSBA Distinguished Elective Educators.

Daniel McCarthy, assistant professor of Marketing, was awarded Evening MBA Distinguished Elective Educator.

Shehzad Mian, associate professor of Finance, received the Modular Executive MBA Distinguished Educator Award.

Usha Rackliffe, associate professor in the Practice of Accounting, was awarded BBA Distinguished Educator Award.

Omar Rodríguez-Vilá, associate professor in the Practice of Marketing, received the Evening MBA Distinguished Core Faculty and Weekend Executive MBA Distinguished Educator Award (Core).

Goizueta Business School is proud to present the accomplishments of these and other faculty members within our institution. To learn more about the teaching, specialized research, and core interests of each faculty member, visit here to review our faculty profiles and their related publications.

The post Goizueta Faculty Recognized with Awards for Excellence, Dedication over Past Year appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Organizations should reframe the M&A conversation as an opportunity for professional advancement and growth, highlighting the positives, such as having increased capital, expanded markets, and new technology and tools.

Assessing and retaining the right talent during corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is never an easy task for leadership. But companies that successfully execute M&As have learned that prioritizing talent at the start is critical to the organization’s future success, according to Kevin Crowley, Goizueta senior lecturer of finance.

“Human capital is more important today than ever before for long-term growth. The companies that do M&A best understand it’s a smart investment,” said Crowley, who has expertise in pre-merger activities. “Companies in strategic acquisitions are in it for the long-haul; they are not intending to flip the business in a few years. Paying a premium to retain top talent is often less expensive than having to recruit and retrain new employees.”

“We are starting to see more of our clients assess talent earlier in the M&A process and asking if the talent of a target company has the right skills to align with the overall growth strategy,” said Jamie Traynor 14EvMBA, who serves clients with human capital in M&A for PwC’s deals practice.

Reframing the M&A conversation as an opportunity

Many employees traditionally think of the downside of M&As first, which can include job uncertainty and layoffs. As a result, they may be inclined to jump ship before considering the opportunities that may lie ahead for them within the newly merged organization.

“Often the immediate reaction of employees to M&A is concern about job security, pay, and benefits,” noted Traynor. But the reality for many organizations today is that the low-hanging cost cutting has already been done prior to M&A. “The days of creating value by simply reducing headcount are gone,” she said.

Consequently, organizations should reframe the M&A conversation as an opportunity for professional advancement and growth, highlighting the positives, such as having increased capital, expanded markets, and new technology, and tools. “Sometimes opportunities open up in new areas for additional revenue stream as a result of an M&A,” said Crowley.

Ali Frost 00C 07MBA and chief marketing officer for Crown & Caliber, has held a front row seat for several mergers and acquisitions in recent years, including one her company is currently undergoing.

“Today, many companies are strapped for resources. As companies come together, it’s important to share how a newly integrated organization might have the additional resources needed to achieve growth goals,” she said.

The strategy for the recent acquisition of her current company is to combine content and commerce to become the clear leader in the luxury watch market. This newly integrated company should provide opportunities for employees to take on new roles and leverage additional skillsets, she adds.

“Companies can be in a better situation to innovate post M&A to help accelerate market growth. And human capital is critical to innovation and growth,” she said.

Traynor agrees, adding that M&As can be a great learning experience for high potential talent. “The most important thing employees can do during an M&A is to get on board.”

Traynor notes two important ways to do this:

1. Serving on a cross-functional team to help with the business integration, increasing one’s knowledge of different processes, departments and people within an organization.
2. Being a change champion and influencer by understanding how work gets done and being an advocate for positive change.

“Change management really happens with the mid-level or front-line employee who is an influencer and can help drive change,” Traynor said.

Frost agrees, noting cross-functional business integration teams can focus on everything from processes to culture. For example, a cross-functional committee could evaluate existing Corporate Giving programs to make recommendations for the new company’s support, while providing employees with an opportunity to collaborate and define the combined culture.

Crowley, Traynor, and Frost all agree that it’s up to senior leadership to provide a common vision for the new organization, noting the type of skills needed for growth, as well as setting integration timelines or phases.

They all emphasize how important it is for leaders to communicate honestly and often about any impact to the workforce as a result of an M&A as well as what is still unknown and will be determined in the near-term – all of which can help avoid anxiety and built trust with the workforce.

So before jumping the proverbial ship, Traynor advises to “read the tea leaves and pay attention to leadership messages. Then form a view to how you fit into the new strategy for the vision and capabilities needed.”

At Goizueta, we build principled leaders ready to positively impact business & society. Learn more about The Roberto C. Goizueta Business & Society Institute.

The post Magnifying the Power of Human Capital in Mergers and Acquisitions appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

BBA Distinguished Educator: Allison Burdette

Full-Time MBA Best New Educator: Renee Dye

Full-Time MBA Best Classic Educator: Ray Hill

Full-Time MBA “Last Lecturer”: Ryan Hamilton

WEMBA Distinguished Educator (Core): JB Kurish

WEMBA Distinguished Educator (Elective): Kevin Crowley

Evening MBA Distinguished Educator (Core): Usha Rackliffe

Evening MBA Distinguished Educator (Elective): Doug Bowman

MEMBA Distinguished Educator: Shehzad Mian

MSBA Distinguished Educator (Core): George Easton

The post Excellence in teaching appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

In late September, embattled Equifax CEO Richard Smith stepped down, less than a month after the credit reporting agency announced that a hack to its computer system exposed the sensitive personal information of 143 million Americans. In recent weeks, it was reported that nearly 11 million driver’s licenses were among the data in the breach. 

The fallout has been significant, from top leadership stepping down, to the stock price dropping some 40 percent before a small rebound. 

Overall, three top executives stepped down, and interim CEO Paulino do Rego Barros, Jr., most recently president of the Asia Pacific region, replaced Smith. Equifax is also facing several state and federal inquiries, class-action lawsuits and congressional investigations. 

Earlier this month, the IRS temporarily suspended the $7.2 million, no-bid contract it awarded to Equifax to verify the identities of taxpayers when they create accounts on its website.

Peter Topping, associate professor in the Practice of Organization & Management at Goizueta, said previous hacks of companies like Target, Home Depot and Yahoo may suggest the recovery period would be relatively short, the scope of this breach, and the fact that the company is supposedly in the business of secure information, may extend this to a two-year time frame.  

“The story for the consumers affected by the breach is likely to go on for many years,” Topping said. “It is my understanding that the potential for fraudulent usage of the stolen data can still be possible 10+ years later. The story for Equifax is more likely to be resolved over the next 12 to 18 months. The search for, and onboarding of, a new CEO can take that amount of time.”

Kevin Crowley, a lecturer of Finance at Goizueta, noted that the stock price dropped from an early September high of about $142 per share, to about $94 in mid-September. It has recovered to trading at about $109. 

“That’s a normal reaction to what was a huge negative news story for the company and right now, it’s sort of stabilized,” Crowley said. “Initially, value investors may have jumped at it seeing it was trading down close to 40 percent. But the hard thing here is how it plays out over the next 12 to 18 months. If we observe a meaningful increase in the incidence of credit card fraud or the like, I think that will weigh on the stock price. The stock is unlikely to get back to prior highs very soon, because it’s not a situation where they can say the coast is clear now.”

As Equifax looks to rebuild public trust, it must first look internally, Topping said, especially in how it selects new senior leadership and how they react to fixing the problem. 

“The first step is to establish or regain trust within the organization itself,” Topping said. “The public evidence that has surfaced from the former CEO indicates that he was unwilling to accept responsibility, but had no difficulty blaming others. If this pervades in the top echelon of the company, then the corporate culture will work against rebuilding trust with the public and investors. If all of the employees at Equifax believe in the company and its commitment to data security, that will be communicated outward in myriad ways. It’s not just a matter of time, it’s more a matter of effective senior leadership.”

Another credit monitoring firm, TransUnion, reacted to the Equifax news by bolstering its lobbying effort in Washington. Reuters reported that TransUnion, which already had three lobbying shops under contract, added CGCN Group, a Republican firm that lobbies on a myriad of topics, according to disclosures filed with the U.S. Congress.

Crowley said he believes the other agencies in the credit monitoring space are also working harder than they have in the past to bolster their security. And given the attention the incident has received, it could signal a shift in how personal information is stored and shared. 

“We’re losing the arms race against the hackers. Something has to change,” Crowley said. “Using Social Security numbers and passwords and simple things like that, they’re just not as effective as they were in the past. I’m sure this will give rise to new products and new types of security. More money needs to be spent on R&D for security.”

Topping added that the issue should be a lesson to companies in general about management. 

“From a leadership perspective, the lesson to learn is the importance of being more ‘hands-on’ with their upper mid-level managers,” he said. “To have one person identified as being responsible for the breach indicates an organization that was too disengaged with the security system.”  

The post Goizueta professors predict long recovery from Equifax breach appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Crowley was chosen as the recipient of the 2017 Adler Teaching Prize, which honors a faculty member’s ability to combine outstanding teaching with innovation in the classroom and relevance to real-world problem solving. Crowley was nominated by students and selected by a committee of recent alumni across degree programs.

Additionally, Crowley supports the Japanese-sponsored student recruitment effort, a key part of the Full-Time MBA admissions strategy. During his annual vacation, Crowley presents a sample finance lecture to top Japanese prospective candidates, which helps the MBA admissions team start their recruitment effort a year in advance.

Crowley was also the recipient of the Emory Williams Teaching Award, which is the highest university honor for teaching given to a full-time faculty member. The award recognizes faculty with a record of excellence in teaching, having made major contributions in their academic discipline to curriculum development, pedagogy and educational innovation.

“As a teacher, we often do not know if we have had any meaningful impact on a student’s life or career path,” Crowley said. “The best reward is to see them doing well some years later, but we often lose contact. In addition, if we do hear of a former student’s success, to be fair, an educator can only take the smallest modicum of credit. It is the nature of this job, we do not see nor can we measure the long-term results of our teaching – the finished product. So yes, it was very gratifying to receive recognition from our talented students and faculty members. I feel honored to play a role in this great university.”

Kevin Crowley joined the Goizueta Business School as an adjunct faculty member in finance in 2005. He received his MBA from the University of Chicago in 1992 and holds a BA from Michigan State University in financial administration and economics. Prior to his arrival at Goizueta, Crowley worked in the investment banking industry for 14 years. He served as a managing director in the Mergers & Acquisitions group of Deutsche Bank in its New York and Tokyo offices. He also worked at J.P. Morgan Securities as a vice president in the corporate finance advisory group. During his banking career, Crowley gained extensive cross-border experience and completed a variety of advisory and financing transactions involving US, European, Latin American, and Japanese companies. He is co-founder of Sollucet Partners, a market-neutral US equity hedge fund. At Goizueta, Crowley has taught a range of courses on investment banking, international finance, and mergers & acquisitions to BBA, MBA, and Executive MBA students.

The post Crowley receives Adler Teaching Prize, Williams Teaching Award appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.

Some of the effects, like the temporary shutdown of air travel that disrupted vacation and other plans, had a relatively short-term effect on companies. But others, like the focus on enhanced security procedures, had a far-ranging impact on multiple industries — from accounting to technology firms — that continues to this day.

“Some industries, like travel-related businesses, saw an immediate drop off in activity post-9/11,” says Peter Topping, an associate professor in the practice of organization and management. “I worked with the hospitality industry and companies saw a significant drop in business until the mid-2000s.”

The downturn in the hospitality industry occurred against a broader economic pullback in the wake of the terror attacks, according to federal data.

For example, a Bureau of Labor Statistics survey indicated that during the 10-week period between mid-September and mid-November 2001, 350 mass layoffs involving a total of 101,781 employees were reported to be directly or indirectly attributable to the attacks. Among the workers laid off, 42 percent (43,735 workers) had been employed in the air transportation industry. Another 29 percent (30,399 workers) had been employed in hotels or motels, according to the BLS.

But as Topping noted, the hospitality industry did rebound. In 2010, domestic and international visitors accounted for a total of $1.8 trillion of economic activity in the United States, according to the U.S. Travel Association, an organization that represents the travel industry.

“The world of management consulting also took a significant hit in the 2001-2003 timeframe,” Topping says. “But the growth businesses would be those around homeland security, military [and] defense contracting and government consulting. I would guess that security will continue to grow as a concern at all levels — from “homeland” to personal home — and it will also become increasingly technologically driven.”

But the long-term tie between September 11 and the expansion or contraction of some industries may be tenuous, suggests Kevin M. Crowley, an adjunct finance lecturer at Goizueta.

“You could argue that the 9/11 attacks and the recession that engulfed the country at that time played a major role in the subsequent actions of the Federal Reserve to pursue loose monetary policies,” he says. “The low interest rate environment that ensued helped to spur the housing boom, construction industry, expansion of bank balance sheets and the rise in the overall financial markets. Now we are still living with the painful adjustments that come from that period of excess in 2004-2007. Although it is hard to make a direct linkage because many forces are at work in the economy, clearly certain industries were affected by the boom and bust that followed 9/11.”

If there’s a single thread that connects all of the industries that did see growth in the wake of 9/11, it would likely be technology, according to Ashish Sood, an assistant professor of marketing at Goizueta.

“Following the September 11 attacks, government spending on technology went up dramatically,” he says. “Federal, state and local organizations wanted to enhance their ability to connect more quickly between agencies and other people to speed their coordination through a faster and more accurate flow of information. Technology was one way to do it.”

In fact, despite calls for cutbacks in the overall federal budget, federal spending related to information technology contractors is scheduled to grow 1.5 percent from FY 2011, according to INPUT Inc., a Reston, Va.-based consulting company that provides information and analysis to companies about government markets.

“This is in part due to the shifting of IT dollars from low priority to high priority projects, even across agency lines,” according to INPUT. “IT priorities include shifting $20 billion from traditional IT spending to cloud computing systems by 2015 and proposed improvements in cyber security and systems consolidation.”

“The September 11 events resulted in a heightened sense of fear and vulnerability,” Sood adds. “This created opportunities for new and existing companies that provide security related products and services.”

Some of the business opportunities were expected, like the increased demand for scanner technology. Others, like the increased use of radio frequency identification, or RFID chips to help speed products through airport and seaport security, may not have been as obvious at the outset.

But some of the growth areas were in industries that would not normally be considered security related.

“One of the responses to the 9/11 attacks was a renewed emphasis on disrupting the flow of funds to terrorists,” observes Sood. “Legislation was enacted to more closely scrutinize cash transfers and other financial activities that moved funds between banks and between nations.”

Perhaps the most famous, and somewhat controversial, legislation was the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools to Restrict, Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, also known as the USA PATRIOT Act.

It criminalized the financing of terrorism and augmented existing Band Secrecy Act laws by strengthening customer identification procedures, prohibiting financial institutions from engaging in business with foreign shell banks, and also required financial institutions to have due diligence procedures, and enhanced due diligence procedures for foreign correspondent and private banking accounts.

The Patriot Act and other 9/11-related legislation did create a demand for accounting and other professionals with knowledge and experience in banking, technology and compliance, according to some industry experts.

Signed by President George W. Bush on Oct. 26, 2001, the USA PATRIOT Act has “elevated compliance to a top-level issue for boards of directors,” Sandy Jaffee, the former CEO of anti-money laundering consulting firm Fortent, previously announced. “Banks are recruiting experts attuned to regulatory expectations, even hiring former policy-makers and examiners as key members of their compliance staff. But organizations have found such people in short supply leading to stiff competition for those workers.”

The government’s response to September 11 also had another unintended consequence, according to Sood: It indirectly helped to propel the social media movement.

“Government’s push was for faster and expanded connectivity largely related to security concerns,” says Sood. “The industry responded with creative solutions driven by technological advances. The mobile computing devices developed by the private sector, using the Internet as a backbone, emerged as a viable solution.”

“Equally important was an increased public demand for faster access to information,” he adds. “During a crisis, either manmade or natural, the unofficial, free flow of information becomes a valuable resource, supplementing or even supplanting the official sources of information.”

The advent of technological advances like Twitter and Facebook reduced people’s dependence on slow and inefficient communication channels and essentially gave consumers the power of communication that was formerly limited to government agencies, Sood notes.

“Consumers became more interested and aware of events and developments around the world, and also willing to share more than ever before,” he says. “As more companies move into the social media space, we will continue to see this decentralization gain ground, resulting in even more opportunities for businesses. For example, my research suggests that firms are increasingly using social media to engage consumers, build informal networks, foster communication and improve innovation.”

Ten years after the attacks, the aftershocks of Sept. 11, 2001 are still with us, Sood notes.

But instead of being frozen into paralysis, individuals and companies alike have stepped up to the plate and continue to make technological advances that may start out as security-related products or services but are eventually integrated into broader societal behavior patterns, he explains.

“Human beings are very adaptable,” he says. “We may be thrown off stride for a while by unexpected and shocking events, but eventually we emerge from the trauma much stronger, build responses to challenges into our daily routines and move on. It’s the way that civilizations advance.”

– Marty Daks

The post Business Saw Lasting Change Post-9/11 appeared first on EmoryBusiness.com.