Engage@Spears Summer 2015 by Spears School of Business

Catch up with Spears School alumni, current students, and friends of the school as we gather prior to a pair of Oklahoma State Cowboys football games this fall. Saturday, Sept. 12 OSU vs. Central Arkansas

Saturday, Oct. 24 OSU vs. Kansas Homecoming

Tailgates will begin approximately three hours prior to kickoﬀ.

• Food, Fun & Friends • See the progress as construction begins on the new Business Building • Spears School Swag • Bring the Family More information will be available closer to football season on the Spears School website spears.okstate.edu

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sole Profits Spears student Louis Lacarbonara is sprinting his way to success by restoring and selling high-dollar athletic shoes.

Adding Space The new building for the Spears School of Business is already growing with

the addition of a full basement to the plans.

As Data Grows… Goutham Chakraborty is watching his Data Mining Certificate Program

expand into a full master’s degree program.

Welcoming Wozniak Crowds in Stillwater, Tulsa and Oklahoma City turned out to hear Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak speak this spring.

Departments Dean’s Letter

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Spears by the Numbers

Faculty Research

100th Anniversary

Retirements 60

LETTER FROM THE DEAN

PHOTO / GARY LAWSON, UNIVERSITY MARKETING

GREETINGS, Wow, 2014 was an exciting year of celebration. From all our centennial events to our groundbreaking ceremony, it was a fun year. While 2015 will not be as filled with celebrations, I think it will be a very good year for the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University.

As I write this, workers are busy preparing for our new building. Utility work has the street in front of the building torn up (making it a little bit more difficult to get to Gundersen!), and the classroom wing was taken down in the spring. You’ll find an update on the building in this edition along with stories about our data analytics program, Veterans Entrepreneurship Program and faculty research. What I want to highlight in my letter are the stories about our students that you will find in this edition. All in all, you will read about students who are in different stages of their educational journeys. One of the major new programs here at the Spears School is our Career Readiness Initiative. Coordinated out of our Eastin Center for Talent Development, this initiative strives to better prepare our students for their post-college lives. We want to help our students find their passion and be able to start their careers with confidence and poise; we want them to know what it takes to be a professional and to give them the skills to succeed as one. We started the initiative this fall with our freshmen. In these pages, you will read about two of them, Anna Hudson and Garrett Stevenson, and learn about their experience with the program. We appreciate the generosity of Joe and Monica Eastin, who have enabled us to start these activities. You will also read about two of our recent graduates, Erin Scanlan and Louis Lacarbonara. They are two very different people, on two very different paths, but they both show what can be accomplished with a Spears School education. Finally, you will read about two of our graduates, Tara Rains and Tyler Schooley — two inspiring stories from two incredible individuals. We are very proud of our commitment to our students and appreciate all of the support we have received from our alumni and donors. After reading about these students, you will see the dividends being paid on your investment. All the best,

Ken Eastman Dean, Spears School of Business

OSU SPEARS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS DEAN Ken Eastman A S S O C I AT E D E A N S Karen Flaherty Carol Johnson V I C E D E A N , W AT S O N G R A D U AT E SCH OO L O F MANAG E M E NT Ramesh Sharda SPEARS SCHOOL MARKETING A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O N S Terry Tush MAGA ZI N E E DITO R Dorothy L. Pugh ART DIREC TOR Mark Pennie CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dollie Elliott and Sonya Colberg PHOTOGR APHY Phil Shockley and Gary Lawson GRAPHIC DESIGN Mikey Neeley and Blake Brasor SPEARS SCHOOL D E PA R T M E N T H E A D S Lee Adkins, Economics and Legal Studies in Business Bruce Barringer, School of Entrepreneurship Robert Cornell, School of Accounting Jim Pappas, Management John Polonchek, Finance Joshua L. Wiener, Marketing Rick L. Wilson, Management Science and Information Systems C O N TA C T Spears School of Business Oklahoma State University 201 Business Building Stillwater, OK 74078-4011 405-744-5064 ssb.news@okstate.edu spears.okstate.edu

Oklahoma State University, in compliance with Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Executive Order 11246 as amended, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Higher Education Act), the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and other federal and state laws and regulations, does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, genetic information, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, or status as a veteran, in any of its policies, practices or procedures. This provision includes, but is not limited to admissions, employment, financial aid, and educational services. The Director of Equal Opportunity, 408 Whitehurst, OSU, Stillwater, OK 74078-1035; Phone 405-744-5371; email: eeo@okstate.edu has been designated to handle inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies. Any person (student, faculty, or staff) who believes that discriminatory practices have been engaged in based on gender may discuss his or her concerns and file informal or formal complaints of possible violations of Title IX with OSU’s Title IX Coordinator 405-744-9154. This publication, issued by Oklahoma State University as authorized by the office of the Dean, Spears School of Business, was printed by Royle Printing at a cost of $5,411. 7000 / June 2015. #5876

summer 2015 engage@spears

Eastin Center helps younger students prepare for careers

BY DOLLIE ELLIOTT

Launched last fall, the Eastin Center provides leadership and administrative support for the Spears School’s Career Readiness Initiative, which focuses on practical interpersonal business skills to meet the requirements of the business community and recruiters.

nna Hudson has attended numerous etiquette dinners, career fairs and other events to develop the professional skills that will help land her dream job. She Hudson and other Spears School freshmen like Garrett Stevenson has visited with career consultants to fine-tune her are among a growing group of résumé and cover letter. She underclassmen who are getting has a HireOSUgrads.com proa jumpstart on their careers. file to ensure future employers see those skills. She has taken “The Eastin Center is important on leadership roles in the to me because by completing Entrepreneurship Club, Life Out these activities it proves that of the Box Club and Phi Beta a student is career ready and Lambda. All of these steps have has what it takes to not only get been to prepare for life after a job but succeed at that job,” — KENNETH EASTMAN graduation. Stevenson says.

“We believe the Eastin Center will become a leader nationally in innovative programs that improve the career readiness of students, thereby improving their quality of life.”

While you’d expect this from a graduating senior at Oklahoma State University, Hudson recently completed her freshman year in the Spears School of Business. She is already participating in the Eastin Center for Talent Development, which is focused on inspiring and developing students in professionalism, business etiquette, career readiness and a broad worldview. 4

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“I believe it is important to be a part of the Eastin Center for the experiences it gives you,” says Hudson. “Employers not only want a person with a degree but a person with experience and developed skills in their areas. The Eastin continues

Anna Hudson and Garrett Stevenson are among the OSU students who are getting an early start on preparing for their professional futures by getting involved with the Eastin Center for Talent Development as freshmen.

PHOTO / GARY LAWSON, UNIVERSITY MARKETING

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Center gives you those experiences that will put you ahead of the game to where you will be fully prepared after graduation.” Spears School Dean Ken Eastman says the Eastin Center will make a difference in the lives of future business school graduates. “We believe the Eastin Center will become a leader nationally in innovative programs that improve the career readiness of students, thereby improving their quality of life,” says Eastman. “The Eastin Center programs view students in a holistic manner and give them opportunities to expand their skills in all facets of their lives.” Joseph and Monica Eastin were instrumental in the creation of the new center with a generous gift in 2014. Joseph Eastin, president and principal of ISNetworld, earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from OSU in 1992. Hudson learned about the Eastin Center in her freshman business orientation class. Hudson says she has enjoyed the many options the Eastin Center has provided to connect with successful business leaders. She is the daughter of Gregg and Janette Hudson, an administrative support specialist in the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship. Her mother encouraged and inspired her to attend the Spears School.

She stresses that it’s never too early to have a résumé. “I attended career fairs and spoke to some employers who asked for my résumé even though they knew I was a freshman. Knowing that you’re prepared so early impresses them, and it gets your foot in the door,” Hudson says. As a freshman, graduation is a long way off for Hudson, but she’s interested in the possibility of obtaining a master’s degree in business at the OSU Watson Graduate School of Management. Like Hudson, Stevenson also first heard about the Eastin Center in the business orientation class. The 19-year-old son of Jeff and Cindy Stevenson grew up in Katy, Texas. He decided to attend OSU because of the reputation of the sports management program. “And because the campus was absolutely amazing,” he says. His older sister Corinne is a senior speech pathology major at OSU. Stevenson is pursuing a double major in sports management and marketing.

“Go out and impress future employers not only with the amazing OSU degree you’ll earn but also with the excellent interpersonal skills you’ll develop that make you stand out against all other candidates.”

“I’ve always wanted to work in some branch of the sporting industry. Having the double major just opens up more options for me,” he says. “Although it’s a long way off and will take a lot of work, my goal is to work for a professional team. I hope to get into sports law and start by becoming an agent for athletes and one day to hopefully become a general manager for a professional team,” he says.

“She inspires me because even though she never attained a college degree, she never let that stop her from obtaining a job that — ANNA HUDSON she had her eyes set on. She has always encouraged me to do the Growing up, Stevenson was highly best I can while I am in college and to dedicate myself to working competitive in baseball and football. hard toward my future goals and all the things I hope to achieve,” And to him the Eastin Center is like a game: the harder you says Hudson. work, the more points you earn to ultimately win. Hudson says she’s learned etiquette skills at the Eastin Center. The points Stevenson refers to are the points that students can “I now know how to act, dress and speak at a formal dinner or earn as a part of the Eastin Center recognition initiative. gathering when representing either myself or the school,” she Freshmen who earn 1,000 points in each of 10 categories achieve says. the Eastin Center Readiness Recognition. “While attending Eastin Center events, I have expanded my “Many students are well on their way to achieving 10,000 points social networking skills and critical thinking skills to where I can in areas that will develop their skills to master career readiness,” talk and interact with those around me in an easy and consistent says Bryan Edwards, associate professor in the Department of manner,” she says. Management and director of the Eastin Center. “Get all the experience you can and be as involved as you can,” “We welcome and encourage all students to participate in Eastin she advises others. “The world seems like a smaller place after Center activities. Eastin Center 2.0 will launch in January 2016 making connections. And just one connection in college by and will expand to include all students who can earn Eastin attending one event, being a part of one club, or just being social Center recognition prior to graduation,” says Edwards. in general could change your future for the better. “Go out and impress future employers not only with the amazing OSU degree you’ll earn but also with the excellent interpersonal skills you’ll develop that make you stand out against all other candidates,” Hudson says.

engage@spears summer 2015

“Students will participate in events as a part of their Spears School classes to foster student learning and professional readiness, which is the mission of the Eastin Center.” @

OSU STUDY ABROA D & TR AV EL SPE A RS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS The CAGLE Study Abroad and Travel office provides a number of short-term programs for Spears School of Business students and those from other institutions. Course work is designed specifically for each of the diverse locations our programs offer. Some programs include in-country stays of 3-4 weeks while other programs include on-campus class work followed by 8-10 days of foreign travel. All courses are taught by Spears School faculty and directly apply to degree programs at OSU and other institutions.

WINTER BREAK - SPRING BREAK - SUMMER BREAK EARN 3-6 HOURS OF CREDIT - SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE

For exciting travel options visit http://spears.okstate.edu/studyabroad or call 405.744.5210

Engaging Students in Study Abroad and Travel

Under One Roof

Basement addition will give Spears School a single home after all BY TERRY TUSH

an Analla has felt like a floater even though she plays a vital role in the success of the Spears School of Business.

Analla, the assistant director of business graduate programs, and other staff in the Watson Graduate School of Management are housed in Gundersen Hall, not in the Business Building on Oklahoma State University’s Stillwater campus. The short walk across Morrill Avenue to the Spears School’s main office sometimes feels hundreds of miles long.

It’s not just the Watson Graduate School staff that often feels disjointed. For years, the Business Building has lacked the space to house all of the Spears School personnel; thus, faculty, staff and graduate students are housed in six different buildings in Stillwater — four on campus and two off campus. The new $75 million, state-of-the-art Spears School building will bring them all under a single roof. Ground was broken in November on the 140,000-squarefoot facility, and it should be completed in 2018. When it opens, all Spears School personnel will be housed together to serve more than 4,500 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students. “An important part of what we’ve heard

engage@spears summer 2015

from the beginning is the vibrancy of having the students and the faculty able to collaborate and work together,” says Nigel Jones, OSU university architect. “If we ended up with it just housing the faculty offices and some research, you wouldn’t have that collaboration. “So we needed to have the classrooms in the building as well, which brings the students and faculty together each day.” The planners chose to add a basement with about 40,000 square feet of useable space. It will include a large auditorium and six of the building’s nine classrooms. The main auditorium will be directly below the courtyard of the crescentshaped building, Jones says. “Usually the mechanical rooms are on the top floor,” says Mike Buchert, director of OSU’s Long Range Facilities Planning

office, which is working with Elliott + Associates Architects on the project. “In this particular building, which has a great view, we really wanted that space for other purposes, so we put the mechanical rooms down in the basement. It’s the perfect solution.” Buchert says the basement will give OSU a wind shelter on the east side of campus. There are 28 areas designated as shelter areas across campus, but none can handle more than about 1,000 people. “The new Business Building basement will hold 4,000 to 5,000 people and be the largest on campus,” Buchert says. It was important that the building on the eastern bookend of the main quad have the same look and feel as others across campus, Buchert says. “I think the other thing that’s important is we want a certain look on campus, a certain feel, and we want open spaces, courtyards. Without the basement, we had a separate building that wouldn’t have a courtyard and wouldn’t have the proper feeling,” he says. “Putting the basement in seems to fulfill everything that is our desire in our master plan. “It will be a vibrant building while also having places for people to gather outside

the building. It has open space and green spaces, and the buildings align with the legacy walk. By putting a basement in, it fulfills its look and function. On top of that, we have a tremendous wind-resistant structure that we can put several thousand people in during an event. So it was a plus, plus, plus in my mind.” The classrooms in the building will incorporate flexibility and interactivity. Movable furniture will facilitate various configurations, as the tiered classrooms will allow students to easily collaborate on projects and incorporate small-group exercises into class time. This flexibility reflects the curriculum’s handson, experiential-learning approach to prepare graduates for success in the modern workplace. “I think there are three things about the building that Oklahoma State and Spears School alumni would want to know,” Buchert says. “Number one, the library and student union are iconic buildings on campus, but this was not being designed as an iconic building. It’s neo-Georgian but it’s a different look, and if you see a picture of it you’ll know right away that that’s the OSU Business Building.

“Number two, in terms of its ability to help students learn and interact, it’ll be on the top of the lists of business schools in the nation. With what we’re incorporating, students can talk to one another, students can work together in groups, business leaders can come in and talk to students. … One of the priorities with this building is that we’ve designed it with a lot of flexibility. “The third thing is the technology in this building. We are putting in a lot of extra conduit because we don’t know what the technology is going to be 10 years from now. We want to have the ability to add future technological advances and not spend a lot of dollars, so we’re putting in a lot of extra conduits and other features in the building that don’t cost that much money but will help us with technology in the future.” Elliott + Associates Architects of Oklahoma City is the architect for the new building, and Manhattan Construction was selected by the Board of Regents as the construction firm. @

summer 2015 engage@spears

Erin Scanlan (second from left) with her family (from left): dad Shawn, sister Fallon and mom Kristen.

engage@spears summer 2015

BY DOLLIE ELLIOTT

rin Scanlan combined her love of working with people and using creativity to solve problems into majoring in both management and marketing at Oklahoma State University’s Spears School of Business. “They both ended up sticking as I began taking upper-division classes in these areas in the Spears School,” she says. In May, the native of Portales, N.M., graduated with bachelor’s degrees in management and marketing with a 4.0 grade point average. She also received the 2015 Raymond D. Thomas Award as the top senior in the Spears School. “Although Erin is the Spears School’s top graduate for this year and sought after by recruiters, she has chosen to pursue her servant leadership as a missionary for her church for the next two years,” says Mark Weiser, Regents Professor in the Department of Management Science and Information Systems. “Through these activities and just being the very special person that Erin is, she will continue to positively impact the lives of others just like she has for me and all the other people who have had the privilege of interacting with Erin during these few years at OSU.”

Scanlan will be a missionary for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), a national college outreach with a staff of over 600 and a presence on more than 100 U.S. campuses. “I’m really excited for the opportunities the next two years will hold. It’s going to be an incredible adventure, and I know the skills I have learned at OSU will greatly benefit me during my time with FOCUS,” she says. As a first-generation Cowgirl, Scanlan explains her choice of OSU: “The thing that set OSU apart from other universities for me was the absolute sense of community and family-like atmosphere. When I stepped foot on OSU’s campus my senior year of high school, I felt like the university actually wanted me here as a student. They wanted to help me succeed. “The people in Stillwater love this university so much, which I could see so clearly. That meant a lot coming from a girl who grew up in a small town in New Mexico,” she says. “It might sound cheesy, but I truly discovered so much about myself these last four years, and OSU helped foster that growth,” she says. “I learned that students can make the best of their college experience by combining academics with lifelong friendships,

PHOTOS / COURTESY ERIN SCANLAN

Erin Scanlan taking a different route after graduation

Erin and Fallon Scanlan are twins.

organizational involvement and more. I’m so grateful to have attended an institution that supports and encourages students to get involved in as many opportunities as possible to make the best of their college experience.” One opportunity Scanlan took advantage of was Oklahoma State’s study abroad program. In 2013, she spent a semester of her sophomore year at the University of South Australia in Adelaide. “The two words I would use to describe it would be challenging and rewarding,” she says. “My time abroad was one of the best experiences of my college career.” She also participated in a mission trip to Kingston, Jamaica. “Erin has an ever-present smile and a contagious optimism. Her wit makes everyone around her feel comfortable and at ease with themselves,” says Don continues summer 2015 engage@spears

Mitchell, lecturer in the Department of Marketing. “Her academic ability is echoed through all of the deserving awards she has garnered in the Spears School of Business, each much deserved.” “Easily, the biggest things I will miss from the Spears School are the faculty and staff members,” Scanlan says. “They have shaped and formed me more than I can put into words over these past four years. I can’t say thank you enough to these special people who have challenged me to new heights during my experience at OSU. “The faculty and staff members at OSU who stick out in my mind as stellar individuals are those who help students learn how to think for themselves, instead of teaching them what to think,” says Scanlan, naming Don Mitchell, Mike Thompson, Jerry Rackley, Andy Urich,

the Homecoming parade and the OSU vs. West Virginia football game on Saturday. “The entire weekend they couldn’t stop talking about how exquisite OSU was and how impressed they were with the tradition of Homecoming.” They were even more thrilled when their daughter was named the 2014 OSU Homecoming Queen. “I was shocked when they said my name over the loud speaker. The entire court was so incredible and deserving. I’m so humbled and honored to be recognized and very excited to represent OSU for the next year. I fell in love with Homecoming my freshman year at OSU, so experiencing my last Homecoming as a senior in this way was like a dream.” Both of Scanlan’s parents are coaches who instilled in her a solid work ethic, teaching

In addition to participating in various philanthropic activities both on and off campus, Scanlan has served in Business Student Council (vice president, professional chair and homecoming director); Pi Beta Phi sorority (chaplain, new member coordinator and assistant vice president of membership); Spears School Ambassadors (president and vice president of communications); Spears School Mentorship program; a Spears School scholar leader; FOCUS student leader; OSU Student Government Association (vice president and chief of staff, Fall 2011-Spring 2013), and Student Alumni Board (Spring 2012-Spring 2014). Scanlan also was named a 2015 Outstanding Senior, one of only 12 seniors chosen by the OSU Alumni Association. Scanlan has received several other honors,

“When I stepped foot on OSU’s campus my senior year of high school, I felt like the university actually wanted me here as a student. They wanted to help me succeed.” — E R I N S C A N L A N (second from left with friends in Prague, Czech Republic) Karen Flaherty and Ajay Sukhdial. “Erin Scanlan is the kind of student professors love to have in class because she is extremely bright and intrinsically enjoys learning,” says Sukhdial, associate professor of marketing. “It is obvious to me that, even though Erin has excellent grades, learning for her is not just about grades. Having a student like her motivates me to do the best job that I can in class. Also, in spite of being a high achiever, she is very humble and has an extremely congenial nature. I am very confident that she will continue to excel in whatever career path she chooses after completing her studies at the Spears School.” Parents Shawn and Kristen Scanlan made their first visit to OSU’s Homecoming this past fall. “They were in awe the entire weekend,” says Scanlan, who accompanied her family through Walkaround, Homecoming & Hoops, 12

engage@spears summer 2015

her to never give up on accomplishing big dreams. “My mother is probably one of the most positive people I know. She always has a smile on her face, but also is extremely competitive; both things taught me a lot growing up as a coach’s daughter.” She says her father’s work ethic is only matched by his love for family. “I like to think that I have such a good relationship with my family because I was raised in that mindset that family is prioritized over everything,” she says. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for my parents. From the beginning, they told me they would support me in whatever college I wanted to attend and whatever career I chose to pursue. I’m so thankful for the open line of communication that has always been present between my parents and me. I feel very blessed in that aspect, and I love them so much,” says Scanlan.

including membership in the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society and the OSU President’s Honor Roll (2011-2014). She is also a ConocoPhillips SPIRIT Scholar, an Outstanding Greek Woman for 2011 and 2013, an Orange Book honoree and an OSU McKnight Leader Scholar. “Erin has earned many accolades in her OSU career,” says Jerry Rackley, executive in residence in the Department of Marketing. “I’ve seen Erin graciously accept these wonderful honors and remain very humble about them, not letting them change who she is. Erin is a giving, caring, compassionate person who plans to use her education and talents to serve others doing ministry work after she graduates. Although my role in her life has been as a teacher, I’ve learned much from her example as a servant-leader. What a difference she will make in this world!” @

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Chakraborty teaches how to delve into data as a discipline

engage@spears summer 2015

“What the heck have I done to myself? … I thought I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.” — G O U TA M C H A K R A B O R T Y

continues

summer 2015 engage@spears

BY S O N YA C O L B E R G

ne beautiful autumn morning in 1986, Goutam Chakraborty stepped outside a classroom at the University of Iowa. The business grad student mentally sorted through his own personal big data file that had propelled him into a stark, new life.

Months earlier, the young marketing executive had been chauffeured around his hometown of Calcutta, India. His employer, a tobacco company, also paid for his luxury apartment and handed him a $10,000 travel and entertainment budget. “What the heck have I done to myself? What have I done?” he said to himself that day. At 27, he had effectively tossed those amenities out the polished limo door to become another poor college student eating ramen noodles in a $250/month efficiency apartment. “I thought I’d made the biggest mistake of my life,” the Oklahoma State University marketing professor says with a laugh, sitting in his neat office in the Business Building on the Stillwater campus. The founder of the data mining certificate program in OSU’s Spears School of Business says he had moved to Iowa City to stay just long enough to get a master’s degree in statistics and a doctorate in marketing. Then he’d return home to Calcutta. But, unexpectedly, his passion kicked in to help students make sense of complicated data and use it to help businesses and possibly even the world. And that changed everything. “It was unplanned. … Most of my fellow schoolmates back in engineering school still don’t believe that’s what I do these days,” says Chakraborty. “They say, ‘No! It can’t be!’” Now, the internationally recognized data mining and analysis expert has found his true calling as an American father … of about 700 kids. 16

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Besides his own two teenage sons, Chakraborty’s family includes his “second set of kids” who have gone through his big-data certification program in the past 10 years. A few years after joining OSU as a quantitative marketing professor in 1991, he worked with Dr. Marilyn Kletke, nowretired professor in the Management Science and Information Systems program, to launch a graduate-level data mining certification program, combining aspects of engineering, statistics and business with other disciplines. The core level certificate requires students to complete 12 credit hours of specialized courses, with the expert level certificate requiring up to 21 credit hours. Chakraborty said few students are able to manage the master’s degree requirements and instead complete the 21-credit-hour level of expert certification. Sponsored by business analytics software provider SAS, the stand-alone graduate certificate program attracts students undertaking master’s programs in various disciplines. “If you like playing with data, if you like solving a problem, if you have intellectual curiosity and you have some bent of mathematical aptitude, this is the best field you can think of,” Chakraborty says. FILLING THE GAP As technology throws more and more data at business people, the issue of how to make sense of everything has grown. In a 2011 study, research and consulting firm McKinsey and Co. discovered a yawning gap in that arena of the business world. First, the firm identified a U.S. shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep, deep analytical expertise. Second, it identified a massive need for 1.5 million people who are not as deeply trained but know how to use data tools and techniques to make better decisions — the gap Chakraborty’s program helps fill. “We can boast as much as we want, saying we have the best program,” says

Chakraborty. “But let’s talk about validation from the marketplace.” In the past 10 years, his students have presented 160 papers and posters at various conferences. Twenty-one OSU students have been honored with best paper or best poster awards. In fact, OSU students have nailed 12 top prizes in the SAS-sponsored Analytics Shootout, one of the largest analytics conferences in the world. “We have been on the stage every year,” says Chakraborty. “There is not another university in the U.S. that has that record.” CASE STUDIES Among numerous projects, Chakraborty’s students are working on a massive data problem for a Las Vegas casino company. For three of the company’s properties over about three years, students are examining what promotional materials work and which efforts waste time and money. The work involves millions and millions of records and hundreds of columns. “It’s something that is hard to manipulate and to make sense of. But, actually, if you ask me, that’s not a very big data problem,” Chakraborty says. “It’s not, because a truly big data problem could be billions of records. But from a teaching point of view, a few million is fine.” He laughs. “You go from a mess of something to something managers can understand and take away and put into action,” he says. “And that’s really what we try to teach in the program.” His students are also working on a social media effort, examining Twitter and social media to see how public sentiment shifted as the Ebola story evolved. They’ve found people shifted from feeling scared to mad to learning about preventative efforts. The students examine the data and create “sentiment mining models” to track people’s sentiments about the topic. continues

One Strong Lineup

grams to meet the needs of students and the industry. Two

The Spears School has significant bench strength in analytics,

graduate-level certificates are available in marketing ana-

with several professors teaching and doing research as well

Thanks to this strength in analytics, OSU offers several pro-

lytics and business analytics, and the MBA program allows

as Goutam Chakraborty.

for specializations in marketing analytics and data analytics.

Ramesh Sharda, vice dean of the Watson Graduate School

Most of the current analytics coursework has been available

of Management, and Dursun Delen are co-authors of the leading textbooks in analytics (www.pearsonhighered.com/ sharda/). Sharda and Delen are also known for their work on

as an analytics specialization under the Master of Science in MIS program. Going forward, the Master of Science in MIS program will include a specialization in Data Science.

applying data mining techniques for forecasting success of Hollywood movies. Sharda serves as the executive director of Teradata University Network, a group of academics that shares teaching and learning resources in analytics, and teaches a new course in Big Data technologies. Rick Wilson, head of the Spears School’s Department of Management Science and Information Systems (MSIS), and Sharda were pioneers in applying neural network techniques to predict if a firm would go bankrupt. Wilson is well known for applying analytics in sports, and he teaches a very popular prescriptive analytics class in the MBA program. Bryan Hammer joined the Department of MSIS in 2014. He is developing health care analytics applications with OSU’s new Center for Health Systems Innovation.

“You go from a mess of something to something managers can understand and take away and put into action.” — G O U TA M C H A K R A B O R T Y

Students listen to Goutam Chakraborty’s lectures. summer 2015 engage@spears

SOLUTIONS BUILD CAREERS Such projects and those OSU certificates have helped students find good jobs with well-known companies across the United States and beyond. “If you ask me a company name, I can look it up on my database and say, ‘Yep, there’s someone from our program with that company,’ ” Chakraborty says. Discover Card Financial Services, Capital One, SAS Institute and JP Morgan Chase have each hired 10 to 13 data mining and analytics students. Love’s Travel Stops, Bank of Oklahoma and QuikTrip are just a few Oklahoma employers who’ve hired these students. He knows this through feedback from employers and because many students stay in touch. “I’ve reached the point in life where it doesn’t really matter what I do. But what my students do makes more of a difference to me. When they’ve done well, that’s what I’m most proud of,” Chakraborty says.

tell him, “Dr. C, what you’ve taught us, I still use it.” And … “Dr. C, I still have your notes.” And … “I still go back and watch some of your videos.” Chakraborty shakes his head in amazement and gently tucks those moments away into his personal big data file, along with memories of the straight-A report cards brought home by his biological kids and all the bits of touchstone evidence that they are good people. Oh so slightly, Chakraborty pauses — a moment of reflection, perhaps. “I’m very happy that I left the corporate world and became a professor — because I think that’s my calling,” he says. “If anything, I’ve learned in life, you just have to follow where life takes you,” he adds. “If you are curious enough, passionate enough, you will find yourself.” @

He recently visited a former student at his Oklahoma office and learned the young man had built a model that his boss recognized as an opportunity to create $1 million in additional revenue for the company. Indeed, he says some of his proudest moments occur when former students

New master’s program on track A Master of Science in Business Analytics program has been approved by OSU regents and is awaiting approval from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. If the program gets final approval by the middle of June, the first classes are expected to begin in the fall semester. “I’m excited. Very excited,” says Goutam Chakraborty, marketing professor and founder of OSU’s Data Mining Certificate Program. “I think it will let us do what we haven’t been able to do before — to say we have a dedicated master’s degree in business analytics.” The master’s degree, building on the coursework required for the current expertlevel certificate, would require 37 credit hours for full-time students and 33 credit hours for working professionals taking courses online. “The foundation is already there, and that’s why it makes sense to do it,” says Chakraborty. In the last few years, roughly 100 universities have begun offering analytics degrees, Chakraborty said. “And the jobs are asking for degrees in analytics. And so our students will be at a disadvantage,” he says. Employers are already showing great interest in the master’s degree. With the program application, Chakraborty submit-

“I’m very happy that I left the corporate world and became a professor — because I think that’s my calling.” — G O U TA M C H A K R A B O R T Y

engage@spears summer 2015

ted letters of support from several companies based in and out of Oklahoma. The sponsor of the certificate program, business analytics software provider SAS, will also sponsor the master’s coursework, which will incorporate finance, accounting, information science, industrial engineering, statistics and other disciplines. “There will be more interdisciplinary courses,” says Chakraborty. “But the foundation remains the same.” — Sonya Colberg

SPEARS SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

MENTORING PROGRAM Making a Difference in the Life of a Student

WHAT IS THE MENTORING PROGRAM? The Spears School of Business Mentoring Program provides an opportunity for Spears School alumni and friends to interact with Spears School graduate and undergraduate students (protégés). Protégés develop professionally from the mentors’ skills, support, experience and coaching. The Mentoring Program runs concurrently with the fall and spring semesters. Program communication is anticipated to be largely by phone or email, but meeting at least once in-person or via Skype is highly encouraged. It is suggested that mentors and protégés communicate at least bi-weekly during the four-month Mentoring Program.

Join and complete a profile at: OKSTATE.CHRONUS.COM

If you have questions, please contact: Brandy Polo External Relations Officer, Spears School of Business brandy.polo@okstate.edu

To Our Distinguished Guests

We Extend A First-Class Welcome

To sign up as a speaker or request a speaker visit, spears.okstate.edu/sssb. Spears School Speakers Bureau sssb@okstate.edu | spears.okstate.edu/sssb

Professional relationships between external constituents and the faculty and administration in the Spears School of Business are important to the school’s mission. The Spears School Speakers Bureau provides Spears School of Business faculty and students with an opportunity to merge business and academics by hosting distinguished alumni and friends as speakers.

Louis Lacarbonara has taken his business of restoring and selling used sneakers to OSU’s Student Startup Central, the Spears School’s business incubator facility.

engage@spears summer 2015

PHIL SHOCKLEY / UNIVERSITY MARKETING

Restoring used sneakers — for a tidy profit — becomes OSU student’s first business

BY TERRY TUSH

s a high school senior, Louis Lacarbonara felt a call to be different. While many of the graduates from White Plains (N.Y.) High School were deciding to attend college nearby at Hofstra, Syracuse or a State University of New York campus, Lacarbonara’s entrepreneurial spirit kicked in.

Thanks to an assist from longtime family friend and former Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Scott Brooks, Lacarbonara spent the past four years at Oklahoma State University. “When I was looking for schools, a strong entrepreneurship program was a must,” says Lacarbonara, who earned a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship with a minor in marketing from OSU’s Spears School of Business in May. OSU was the first school to officially accept Lacarbonara, and in January 2011, the high school senior and his parents flew to Oklahoma for their first visit to the Stillwater campus.

“In New York, no one really goes that far away to school,” he says. “So I decided to go against the norm, meet new people and come to Oklahoma State and pursue entrepreneurship.” It didn’t hurt having a friend nearby in Brooks, who spent seven years as head coach of the Thunder before his dismissal in April. “He would come pick me up, or he’d have someone drive to Stillwater to pick me up. He was my safety net. Without him, I wouldn’t be here. I needed that safety net because I don’t have any family here,” says Lacarbonara, who is, of course, a big Thunder fan. His dad, Antonio Lacarbonara, owned an Italian restaurant in White Plains. Brooks came in to eat one night during his NBA playing days. “(Brooks) loved Italian food, and they instantly clicked,” the son says. But the No. 1 reason he chose to travel nearly 1,500 miles to attend OSU was the School of Entrepreneurship. continues

summer 2015 engage@spears

“I worked in my grandfather’s pizza shop growing up, and I also worked for my dad as a waiter in his catering business,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur. I never wanted to work for someone.” That desire turned into a dilemma for Lacarbonara when he returned to OSU in August 2013 after spending the summer in New York. He was bringing a vehicle to OSU, but his mother insisted he foot the gasoline bill himself. Not wanting to work for someone else, Lacarbonara began looking to start his own business. Surfing the Internet, he came across a young boy from California selling “beater boxes,” an assortment of shoes in different sizes and different conditions. “The kid said he was going to make $200. My initial reaction was, who is this kid?” After more research, Lacarbonara spent $1,000 to purchase boxes of shoes. “Two boxes came in with some good shoes — LeBrons, Jordans, Durants — but I made sure I got size 13 shoes, my size, just in case I didn’t sell any so that I would have shoes to wear for a while,” he says. He shouldn’t have been concerned. He would clean and restore the shoes to nearly new condition, and sales followed. By November, he set up an Instagram account, named his business Direct Kicks and began building inventory. But it wasn’t until 2014 that Lacarbonara got serious. “It really wasn’t until February or March when I really decided I can do this and make some money,” he says.

“I don’t regret leaving New York for OSU one bit. I could do without the Oklahoma weather, but I love Oklahoma State. I’ve had great teachers both in the Spears School and across Oklahoma State.” — LOUIS LACARBONARA

Monthly revenue for the first five months of 2014 was $1,000 to $2,000, Lacarbonara says. But marketing the restored shoes online saw his business take off. His Instagram followers increased from 3,000 to more than 7,000, and his ability to devote all of his energies to Direct Kicks pushed his revenue to $6,000 a month. When he returned to OSU in the fall, Lacarbonara joined Student Startup Central, the Spears School’s business incubator facility that provides office space, resources and services for student startups. Working alongside other student startups was invaluable, he says. In addition, Richard Gajan, the Thoma Family Clinical assistant professor in the School of Entrepreneurship, and Pat Henriques, Distinguished Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Riata Center for Entrepreneurship, counseled him. “Louis has all of the very best traits of a successful entrepreneur,” says Henriques. “He has a tremendous work ethic that is matched only by his passion for his business and his drive to provide his customers with the best product possible. He is eminently coachable and applies his lessons-learned with discipline and enthusiasm.”

Louis Lacarbonara has taken his Direct Kicks shoe business to shows in Oklahoma City, Dallas and Wichita, Kan.

engage@spears summer 2015

With the help of the Spears School mentors, Lacarbonara reevaluated his marketing strategy. Instead of posting photos of his shoes each time he would get a new pair ready to sell, he restocked every two weeks to build anticipation among his now 15,500-plus Instagram followers. He also took Direct Kicks on the road to shows in Oklahoma City, Dallas and Wichita, Kan.

The results paid off. His first-quarter 2015 revenue nearly equaled all of 2014’s. Lacarbonara says he hopes to surpass $150,000 in revenue this year. “When I came back in January, that’s when I began thinking long term,” he says. “I do everything myself, but if I want to start thinking about hiring a team then I need to begin thinking about the operations. My true value is making the deal. I know the market for every shoe, every style, every condition and every size. So after graduating, can I hire a team and expand into a national business?” Lacarbonara pays an average of $100 for a used pair of shoes. The most he’s ever paid was $400 for a pair of 1985 Air Jordan 1, considered one of the most iconic sneakers of all time. He then charges his customers anywhere from $140 to $400 a pair, depending upon what they are and the amount of work required to restore them. He recently sold a pair of Air Jordan 11 Pantones for $475 and another for $450. A pair of Doernbecher pink cancer research shoes and a pair of Dr. Doom shoes, the signature model in Nike’s Fantastic Four collection, each went for $450 as well. “I know my prices are the best. Whatever the market price is, I’ll price it under because I want the sale,” said Lacarbonara, who generally keeps 100 pairs of shoes in his inventory. “If it’s a beat-up pair of shoes, I’m looking for a 50 to 60 percent margin versus if it takes no work, I’ll take 15 to 20 percent just because it’s an instant sale.” Lacarbonara could join his grandfather Nick in re-opening a New York pizzeria, but he is choosing to focus on Direct Kicks. “He is my biggest role model. He taught me entrepreneurship,” he says of his grandfather.

Top Five Seniors The Spears School of Business created a new award in 2015 to add to the tradition of recognizing academic excellence. The top five seniors from each of the seven academic departments were recognized during the 62nd Annual Honors and Awards Banquet in April. ACCOUNTING Caroline Brooks, Plano, Texas Cole Higbee, Clinton, Okla. Tyler Miller, Okarche, Okla. Collin Nolte, Wichita, Kan. Nina Williams, Gainesville, Texas, and Oklahoma City ECONOMICS AND LEGAL STUDIES Bidemi Ogunoiki, Enid, Okla. Cooper Page, Overland Park, Kan. Alex Watkins, Okarche, Okla. Michael Whaley, Oklahoma City Jeremy Wilcox, Tulsa ENTREPRENEURSHIP William Andrews, Perry, Okla. Breckyn Davidson, Bixby, Okla. Louis Lacarbonara, White Plains, N.Y. Scott McCurley, Overland Park Michael Sears, Mulhall, Okla. FINANCE Katlyn Ford, Ponca City, Okla. Brian Friloux, Tulsa

But the 21-year-old became an entrepreneur at Oklahoma State.

Ryan Murry, Edmond, Okla.

“Louis will be an incredibly successful entrepreneur,” says Henriques. “Direct Kicks is just the first of many businesses that he will start and grow. I expect we will see him on the cover of Inc. magazine before he turns 30. He’s a fabulously talented, hardworking young entrepreneur.”

Ryan Tatum, Edmond

Lacarbonara says, “I don’t regret leaving New York for OSU one bit. I could do without the Oklahoma weather, but I love Oklahoma State. I’ve had great teachers both in the Spears School and across Oklahoma State.

Catrina Rockholt, Broken Arrow, Okla.

“Just by taking the extra entrepreneurship classes, I came to view my business as an actual business and began looking at it long term. I was able to develop it into something bigger than what I originally thought. The Spears School has definitely made me more passionate about entrepreneurship and makes me want to take my business to the next level.” @

Blake Phillips, Allen, Texas MANAGEMENT Adam Gleason, Meade, Kan. Kara Laster, Shawnee, Okla. Amber Livingston, Chicago Erin Scanlan, Portales, N.M. MANAGEMENT SCIENCE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS Rebekah Abrams, Broken Arrow Leia Gray, Dallas Trevor Greer, Laguna Beach, Calif. Corey Hadley, Edmond Dillon Horinek, Ponca City MARKETING Adam Gleason, Meade Josh Gleason, Edmond Taylor Kolbeck, Wichita Andrew Romans, Stillwater Erin Scanlan, Portales, N.M. summer 2015 engage@spears

CEPD speaker coordinator manages to incorporate much into her life

Business is all in the McKinney family BY DOLLIE ELLIOTT

y the time 8-year-old Logan McKinney and his 4-year-old brother Lane enroll at Oklahoma State University, they will have been raised on 120 acres of land filled with roaming cattle. And they will spend their spare time showing pigs and riding horses — a promise from their parents Doug and Mandy McKinney. Doug and Mandy will have spent their spare time perusing their passion of running a successful auction business, while she continues managing programs at the Spears School of Business and he continues working as a technical director in the oil and gas industry. Mandy, a Del City, Okla., native is a program manager in the Spears School’s Center for Executive and Professional Development (CEPD). She earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the Spears School in 1997. Doug earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from OSU in 1995 and a master’s degree in agricultural leadership from Stephen F. Austin University in 2002.

engage@spears summer 2015

It’s no secret that the McKinneys are an OSU family. Mandy’s brother and sister are OSU alumni, and she also has several cousins who attended. She and Doug, a native of Porter, Okla., met at the Tumbleweed, a popular Stillwater dance hall. “I was standing with a friend next to the dance floor, looking to see who was there to dance with and suddenly a stranger took my hand and led me onto the dance floor. About halfway around, he asked me, ‘Wanna dance?’ ” That was almost 20 years ago. The couple celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary earlier this year. “At the time, I couldn’t remember his name, so I called him my good dancin’ boy for about a week,” Mandy laughs. “We started dating, and the rest is history.” In 2010, they started McKinney Auctions. The McKinneys conduct numerous auctions, large and small, on site and hold a quarterly consignment auction at their newly purchased 120-acre tract of land in Wagoner County.

After the sale of their current home in Stillwater, they will build a house on the new property that will also serve as their main auction site. The McKinneys will raise cattle and keep their promise to the boys, allowing them to raise pigs and ride horses. Doug is well known for his extensive knowledge in the agriculture industry and carries his expertise into the auction marketplace. He understands the value of personal property and can get the information needed to successfully buy and sell. “That’s what makes our auctions so successful,” Mandy says. At auctions, Doug plays the role of owner, operator, head auctioneer and customer service manager. “To Doug it’s all about providing good customer service to the consigners and buyers,” says Mandy. “He may be approached 50 times a day by random buyers who have questions about certain items, and he takes care of them all. “I manage the office end of the business,” she says. “There are many details on the continues

“I love my job here… It is hard work and challenging at times, but it is also fun and rewarding. The people are what make it such a great place to be.” — M A N DY

M C K I N N E Y, W I T H H U S B A N D D O U G A N D S O N S L A N E A N D LO G A N

MIKEY NEELEY / SPEARS SCHOOL

summer 2015 engage@spears

back end of an auction that no one sees,” very similar to a CEPD program. “We take care of everything behind the scenes to make the big things happen. “Auction day at McKinney Auctions is 12 to 14 hours of controlled chaos,” says Mandy, who spends auction day in a registration trailer that’s been transformed into a hightech mobile office with computers, printers and an Internet connection. While Doug and Mandy are busy with their auction duties, Logan and Lane explore the auction yard under the watchful eye of Doug’s mother, Rita McKinney. Susan Mahaffey, Mandy’s mother, also helps with the boys. But they aren’t the only family on site. “Doug’s dad Marshall also helps tremendously with the auction,” says

GENESEE PHOTO

Mandy McKinney and her grandfather, Charles Ballard, visit with Condoleezza Rice during her Executive Management Briefing trip to Oklahoma.

Mandy. “We have cousins, Dale and Karen Powell, who are also heavily involved. Doug’s nephew Jarrod often helps. Also his brothers, Aaron, and Steven and his wife, Terry help when they can. This last auction, my sister, Mayme Mockabee, helped me in the office,” she says. As a young couple, the McKinneys lived in East Texas where Doug was a county agriculture extension agent. But after 11 years in Texas, the desire for their infant son, Logan, to be closer to his grandparents drew them back to Oklahoma. Doug was hired onto the faculty with the OSU Animal Science Department as a beef cattle specialist and Mandy started as a program coordinator with CEPD. “We moved back home on Logan’s first birthday,” she says. 26

engage@spears summer 2015

Mandy was a work-study student in the Spears School’s Support Services office as an undergrad. “I absolutely loved my work in Support Services,” she says. “So when we had a chance to come back to Stillwater after being in Texas for 11 years, we took it. And when I had the opportunity to come back and work at the Spears School again, there was no question — I had to take it.” When the family moves to Wagoner County, Mandy will be more than 100 miles from Stillwater. Fortunately, she’ll have the opportunity to join other CEPD staff members at the OSU-Tulsa office. “I am grateful to CEPD Director Julie Weathers for allowing me the flexibility to work from the OSU-Tulsa office while keeping my same duties as program manager,” she says. “I didn’t want to leave

gain knowledge to use in making daily decisions as well as gain a better understanding of world affairs,” she says. “What I enjoy most about EMB is meeting and working with the successful and interesting business leaders — some more memorable than others,” says Mandy, who remembers being surprised with Ben Stein’s choice of restaurant —the Waffle House — when he spoke in 2014. The Center for Executive and Professional Development, the outreach branch of Oklahoma State’s business school for 62 years, provides over 210 d ifferent innovative executive and professional development programs to more than 15,000 people each year. Weathers, who has led the Spears School’s outreach branch since 1994, says it’s

“There are so many to mention — cousins, aunts, uncles. If you are in the McKinney family, consider yourself roped in.” — MANDY MCKINNE Y

CEPD, and we were so excited when she said I could stay.” “I love my job here in CEPD and the Spears School. It is hard work and challenging at times, but it is also fun and rewarding. The people are what make it such a great place to be,” she says. CEPD hired Mandy as a program coordinator in June 2008. In March 2013, she was promoted to program manager. One of her roles is to coordinate the Executive Management Briefings in Oklahoma City. The program allows Oklahoma professionals to interact with some of the world’s most influential business and political leaders to enhance quality leadership here. “Our hope is that by bringing these speakers to the state that our participants

through the hard work of Mandy and others that CEPD’s unique programs continue to make a difference. “Mandy is a very organized individual who has great follow-through and a love for OSU and marketing our executive and management development programs through the Spears School of Business,” says Weathers. “She meets high expectations in offering quality programs with our faculty, conferences on specific industry topics, and our outstanding speaker series. She is a joy to work with, a great team member, and has a very positive attitude toward co-workers, faculty and clients in carrying out our programs in a highly effective manner.” @

connect with us

Undergraduate Studies Enrollment, Spring 2015

Total Enrollment: 4,562

Female: 1,835 (40%)

Male: 2,727 (60%)

Management Marketing Accounting Finance Management Information Systems General Business Undeclared Entrepreneurship International Business Economics University Studies

By Major

1,168 901 757 677 417 286 238 228 214 144 18

26% 20% 17% 15% 9% 6% 5% 5% 5% 3% 0%

(Note: Double majors are included in both categories, thus these numbers add up to more than the total enrollment of 4,562 and more than 100 percent of enrollment.)

First Generation College Students

engage@spears summer 2015

21%

978 students

Top 10 Employers (Alphabetical order)

AT&T Cerner ConocoPhillips Ferguson EY Loveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Travel Stop ONEOK Verizon Phillips 66 Williams

Students From 54 Countries

2 7

7 2

4,284 Top 10 countries

United States 4,284 China 93 South Korea 45 Vietnam 21 Saudi Arabia 17 Mexico 15 India 8 Canada 7 United Kingdom 7 Malaysia 5

3 5

Countries with one student â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Aruba, Angola, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ireland, France, Gaza Strip, Haiti, Hong Kong, Iraq, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Libya, Mongolia, Mali, Oman, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Taiwan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Students From 45 States 33

1 1 6

1 0 7

6 33 102

2,727

28 2

20%

892

5 9

60%

1 5

3 5 2 1

3 2 0

6 2 14

5 17

summer 2015 engage@spears

Graduate Studies Enrollment, Spring 2015

74%

26%

Male: 679

Female: 240

Total Enrollment: 919 Male 393

MBA Master’s in Accounting

118 44

Total 511 73

Master’s in Economics and MQFE

Master’s in Entrepreneurship

119

Master’s in MIS and MSTM

MBA

$74,500

engage@spears summer 2015

Recent Top Placements

Energy Finance Data Science

147 102

Program curriculum revised to allow completion in 16 months for fulltime students.

Fulltime MBA Median Salary Two new concentrations are being developed.

Ph.D. programs

Female

• • • • •

ExxonMobil Sandia Labs Quorum ISNetworld PricewaterhouseCoopers

Executive Education Center for Executive and Professional Development (July 1, 2014–June 30, 2015)

223

17,500

Programs

Participants

1,070 Hours Conferences by City

Popular On-Site Topics • Creating and Developing High Performance Teams • Critical Thinking: Leading Innovation and Value Creation

Out Of State 14%

• Editing and Proofreading • Energy Value Chain • Ethics Awareness • Evaluating Financial Performance of Oil and Gas Companies • Fine Tuning Your Business Writing

Stillwater 14% Other Oklahoma Cities 15%

• Increasing Productivity through Accountability • The Power of Influence • Service Quality

Oklahoma City 31%

Tulsa 26%

• Understanding Business Analytics • Using Our Talents to Lift Performance

179 Days of Programming Custom-Design Programming 45%

55%

Public Programs/Webinars

Select Corporate Clients • Anadarko Petroleum

• Phillips 66

• Chesapeake Energy

• QuikTrip

• ConocoPhillips

• State of Oklahoma

• Devon Energy

• Tinker Federal Credit Union

• ISNetworld • Matrix Services • Municipal governments

• The Charles Machine Works

summer 2015 engage@spears

Learning to

engage@spears summer 2015

Veterans program gives participant tools for expanding his business

BY DOLLIE ELLIOTT

ohn Register, who spent a week in February on Oklahoma State University’s Stillwater campus participating in the Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, dreamed of becoming an Olympic athlete — and he made it come true. Today, Register is a U.S. military veteran, the associate director for Community and Veterans Programs for the United States Olympic Committee and the U.S. Paralympics Division, an entrepreneur, an inspirational speaker, a personal trainer, a coach and a Paralympian. But in the mid-1980s, Register was a four-time All-American and a member of four national championship track and field teams at the University of Arkansas

under legendary coach John McDonnell. After graduating in 1988, Register wasn’t sure what he was going to do with his career but he knew he wanted to continue running track, especially the 110-meter hurdles. He enlisted in the Army to become part of its World Class Athletic Program, which allows service members to train for two or three years prior to an Olympics. His training was going well, and he qualified for the Olympic trials in 1988 and 1992. But his Olympic aspirations were put on hold while he was deployed to the Persian Gulf War. Returning from Saudi Arabia, he had less than 11 months to train and qualify for the Olympic team in the 400-meter hurdles. Register made the most of that time. He was improving his time so much that he was projected to quality for the Olympic trials in 1996. Register had just been accepted into Officer Candidate School and had high hopes of realizing his Olympic dreams until May 17, 1994, in Hays, Kan.

Register was near the end of a training session. As he cleared the final hurdle, his leg landed awkwardly and “something went wrong,” he says. His leg seemed to have snapped. Register hyperextended his left knee, sending his patella (kneecap) three inches above his femur. The dislocation caused a disruption in an artery, leading to a blockage behind his kneecap. He lay there on the track, his leg bent back for 90 minutes before an ambulance arrived. Two hours later, he was flown to see a vascular surgeon in Wichita, Kan. Seven hours

later, he underwent surgery, but it was too late. The lower half of his leg had gone more than 10 hours without blood flow and had started dying. Register could keep his left leg by fusing the knee and use a walker or wheelchair for the rest of his life. Or he could get the leg amputated and learn to use a prosthetic leg. “I knew it had to be an amputation,” he says. He credits his wife, Alice, for giving him the strength to make that life-changing decision. “She says, ‘You know what, John? We are going to get through this together. It’s just our new normal.’ “So I began to think about the new normal. I realized, it’s not about what I had lost but the opportunities that still existed for me,” Register says. And so, he adjusted to the new normal. Register swam for physical therapy at San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center, went through the Transition Assistance Program, and began to work for the Army’s Morale Welfare and Recreation program as a sports specialist in the World Class Athletic Program — the very same one where he was an Olympic hopeful. “The swimming was invigorating, and I somehow managed to make the 1996 Paralympic team in swimming,” he says, finally becoming an Olympic athlete. In Atlanta, he saw athletes running on artificial limbs and decided that his next goal would be to compete as a track athlete in the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Register became a two-time Paralympic athlete, winning a silver medal in the long jump and setting the American record in the process. Today, Register is the associate director for Community and Veterans Programs for the U.S. Olympic Committee and the U.S. Paralympics Division. He develops and implements promotional strategies to increase awareness for athletic opportunities through Paralympics for wounded service members. continues

summer 2015 engage@spears

Register uses his story as a platform in his business, Inspired Communications International (ICI), which focuses on inspirational keynotes and training sessions to help businesses and individuals overcome adversity and create a new normal. In February, Register was on the Stillwater campus for the Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, hosted by the Riata Center in the School of Entrepreneurship. He and 24 fellow veterans learned how to start or expand their businesses from professors throughout the business school. Register particularly

wanted to learn how to better help athletes he meets in his position with the U.S. Olympic Committee and to improve ICI. One of ICI’s missions is to help businesses better their employees’ lives. Although he’s had a lot of success with his company, he still had a lot to learn, he says. That’s where the Veterans Entrepreneurship Program came in. “I hoped to learn what it takes at the boot camp,” says Register. “My expectations are to learn everything I possibly can, to get not only the blueprint right but all the pieces I need for my business model.

“There are phenomenal professors here at Oklahoma State, great team and staff here at the Entrepreneurship program that are really truly authentically giving to the veteran population.” He says it was a great experience learning with fellow veterans. “I’ve learned that there are a lot of resources out there, and I don’t just have to be a one-man shop and do it all myself,” he says. “Programs like this give veterans an opportunity to really shine, showing the skills they’ve learned through this stressful environment that we call the military.” @

“There are phenomenal professors … at Oklahoma State, great … staff here at the Entrepreneurship program that are really truly authentically giving to the veteran population.” — JOHN REGISTER

engage@spears summer 2015

SUPPORT THE

veterans

SUPPORT THE

veterans entrepreneurship program WE NEED YOUR HELP! VEP is completely free to our veterans. Your donations enable us to cover all costs of transportation, accommodations, meals and instruction.

To make a contribution: OSUGiving.com/VEP

SPEARS SCHOOL RESEARCH

Finding Shareholder Activism Pays Off looking at the long-term performance

Of the 33 Icahn targets studied, a dozen

of shareholder activism by hedge funds.

companies were bought out, three were

“We generally find that it’s positive. It works to the betterment of firms,” Rao says. “A lot of these activists receive some scathing criticism, some of which has appeared in editorials in The Wall Street Journal. And what we find is perhaps this criticism may not be valid,” Rao adds. Critics have accused Icahn of swooping in on companies such as Oklahoma’s Chesapeake Energy, buying a controlling interest, demanding changes then selling his shares before moving on. In the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Rao’s team published findings about companies Icahn targeted over two decades. Call Carl Icahn ruthless or smug. Call him activist shareholder or corporate raider. OSU finance professor Ramesh Rao’s research has found that the multibillionaire also deserves a tag not often associated with his name —shareholders’ best friend. Rao, who holds the Paul C. Wise Chair in finance, and his students in the Ph.D. in Business for Executives program are

Researchers found the stock price rose about 10 percent when Icahn announced

delisted, and 18 continued as independent, publicly traded firms. Independent companies typically saw a stock price increase in the short term but suffered an average 60 percent decline after two years. Researchers suggest businesses fending off Icahn without following most of his suggestions may be to blame. For Chesapeake, the share price has soared more than 25 percent since Icahn swooped down for a second time in May 2012. He pushed reform and wrote that the board had failed in “dramatic fashion.” Rao’s related line of research found that labor union activism also positively influences companies. “I think the conclusion is that most forms of shareholder activism, wherever it may be emanating from, whether personalities

that he was taking a position in a target firm.

like Carl Icahn or from labor unions, they

“We find in general that they’ve met with

are generally done in the right spirit — to

pretty positive returns to shareholders

maximize the value of the firm in the long

over the year or so that he’s targeted

run,” Rao says.

them,” Rao says.

Shareholder activism may not be a bad omen for a company and its investors, Rao says, adding it may be an opportunity. @

Researchers found the stock price rose about 10 percent when Carl Icahn announced that he was taking a position in a target firm. 36

engage@spears summer 2015

S TO R I E S BY S O N YA C O L B E R G

Determining the ‘Why’ of Unethical Behavior Wang watched in shock as corporate

Interest in diversity, Wang’s other line of

fraud and scandal at Tyco International,

research, came naturally to the daughter

Enron and other companies destroyed

of Taiwanese parents who raised their

lives and careers in the early 2000s.

child in Boston and central Illinois. “I

“When I was in graduate school, there were a lot of explosions on the ethical

feel very diverse, I guess,” she says with a laugh.

front,” says Wang, an associate professor

Wang found mixing up people of, say,

in the Department of Management at the

different cultures or political persua-

Spears School of Business.

sions at work benefits employees and

“I wanted to know why people weren’t responding to this negative behavior, and how did it get to this point?” she says.

companies. It seems diversity makes people smarter. “Diversity can have a very positive impact

This line of Wang’s research provides

on group performance,” Wang explains,

insight into why business misconduct

her hands flying and eyes brightening

may occur and escalate. Her team’s

behind black-framed glasses.

study has shown that people reward honesty more often and intensely than they punish deception.

Her research suggests, in anticipation of meeting someone of a different race, for example, a person starts preparing

A Tyco executive funded a $2 million

The research also suggests the tendency

harder and smarter — ways that benefit

toga party and $6,000 shower curtain

to go easy on deception may allow these

group performance.

with the company’s money. Enron leaders

problems to escalate.

ordered underlings to “cook the books”

Wang said part of the issue is how incen-

more thoroughly,” Wang says. “Then when

tives are put together so that people will

you meet as a group with this person,

strive to get a reward even if it means

you actually perform better because of that.” @

to hide misdeeds. Cynthia Wang just had to know why.

cutting corners to get there. “It’s not

“You actually analyze the information

always bad people,” she says.

Her team’s study has shown that people reward honesty more often and intensely than they punish deception.

summer 2015 engage@spears

SPEARS SCHOOL RESEARCH

Going Everywhere the Oil Industry Needs Her When her work demanded a helicopter

industry report any payments made to

ride over Australia’s treacherous Bass

a government.

Strait, graveyard to hundreds of wrecked ships, Wright adapted.

ment of Nigeria, that information would be

ambassador in search of global debauchery

reported by government and by project

or goodwill. She is a Spears School of

to the public,” Wright says.

of a better way. She holds the Anadarko Petroleum Chair and is the Lanny G. Chasteen Professor. Despite numerous wild adventures, Wright considers her research in oil and gas just as exciting. gas companies act upon financial statements. She wondered what information has the biggest impact on the company’s stock price — income statements, When an oil company refused to pay

announcements or changes in untapped

bribes to Somalian pirates who hijacked its

oil and gas reserves.

When the route from a Venezuelan hotel through crime-riddled barrios to the airport required a convoy of a main car, backup car and armed security car, she persevered.

The idea is to force governments to reveal what happens to money received from oil and mining companies. With three decades of experience, Wright maintains the confidence to handle accounting issues that come up as near as Oklahoma’s oil fields and as distant as

She is researching how investors in oil and

answered the call to action.

bonuses and import duties to the govern-

Wright is not a secret agent or foreign

Business accounting professor in search

ship loaded with steel, Charlotte Wright

“For example, if you pay taxes, oil and gas

that pirated ship. The Taiwanese oil company ultimately avoided negotiating with the Somalian pirates, as required by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and ordered another shipment of steel for its drilling operations. The pirates released the first shipment

“Announcements about reserves or dis-

but the company could not return either

coveries, significant changes in your

multimillion-dollar shipment, resulting in

reserves, were in every case more signif-

complicated financial issues for Wright

icant than the changes we observed in rela-

to unravel.

tion to announcements about earnings,” says Wright, who was recently selected as an OSU Regents Professor.

Wright jokes she’s ready to write another book — with a title of “How Did I Get Myself Into This?” @

Another research area focuses on “publish what you pay,” in which the international petroleum industry and mining

“Announcements about reserves or discoveries … were in every case more significant than the changes we observed in relation to announcements about earnings.” — CHARLOTTE WRIGHT

engage@spears summer 2015

S TO R I E S BY S O N YA C O L B E R G

Reaching Out to Cut Poverty One aspect of his study revolves around

And Kazianga’s research found the schools

U.S. government-funded “girl-friendly” pri-

needed to offer extra incentives. So girls

mary schools in rural villages of Burkina

who attended school at least 90 percent

Faso in West Africa.

of each month received about 11 pounds

Child labor is part of life in West Africa. A

of rice and a half-liter of cooking oil.

startling 42 percent of children between

“The result turned out to be very sur-

5 and 14 in Burkina Faso must work,

prising,” says Kazianga.

according to a recent U.S. Department of Labor report.

“Not only did they enroll more girls but they enrolled more boys in school. And

The few lucky children who do get to

their learning outcomes were very fan-

attend school are usually boys. The

tastic,” he says.

girls work.

One female student who attended a girl-

“They’re taking care of younger siblings.

friendly school even happily accepted an

They’re working with their mothers in

invitation to visit the White House a few

the field,” says Kazianga, who teaches

years ago, he adds.

in the Spears School’s Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business.

Kazianga is eager to return with his research team to Burkina Faso in 2015

Attending school had to be just about

to gather more data for the ongoing

Oklahoma State University associate

as attractive as the immediate benefit

project.

professor Harounan Kazianga wants his

of harvesting big baskets of sorghum or

research to lead to more education for

corn to help the family survive, he found.

girls around the world — and less pov-

His research found girl-friendly elemen-

erty as a result.

tary schools had to be accessible to rural

Kazianga’s research looks at economic

villagers and have separate toilets for

factors that prevent families in low-income

boys and girls. More female teachers and

countries from escaping from poverty.

gender-sensitivity training were bonuses.

“We want to see not only did they finish elementary school, what happened when they transitioned to middle school? How persistent are the gains?” he says. “It’s already significant to see some gains in two or three years. But there’s also the question to what extent will they persist over time?” @

“The result turned out to be very surprising. Not only did they enroll more girls but they enrolled more boys in school. And their learning outcomes were very fantastic.” — HAROUNAN KAZIANGA

summer 2015 engage@spears

Graduate finds inspiration in alumni stories

WORDS WISDOM of

BY TERRY TUSH

engage@spears summer 2015

yler Schooley believes one of the best learning experiences as an Oklahoma State University student was hearing Spears School of Business alumni share their stories.

“I always found myself being inspired by the successful OSU alums coming into the school and speaking to us. It was motivating to hear them telling us how they made it after graduating from OSU, how they were in the same position as we are a few years ago, and what they had done with their careers,” says Schooley, whose life from his hometown of Enid, Okla., to Stillwater and eventually to Kampala, Uganda, is a story worth telling. Schooley grew up in Enid before becoming a fourth-generation OSU Cowboy. His great-grandfather Lloyd Long attended Oklahoma A&M; his grandfather former state Sen. Ed Long met his grandmother at OSU; and his parents, Keith Schooley and Donna Lawrence, his sister and numerous cousins are also OSU graduates. He recalls a childhood of driving from Enid to Stillwater for Cowboy basketball games with his grandfather. “Those trips during the days of head coach Eddie Sutton infused the OSU spirit deep within me, as the energy inside Gallagher-Iba Arena was unparalleled,” he says. Grandfather Ed Long introduced Schooley to Africa when they visited the Congo together on a mission trip with their church. “That trip definitely planted a seed in me,” says Schooley. The Congo was the first of Schooley’s international trips during his college days. He spent a summer doing mission work in Japan and took backpacking trips throughout Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Central America and South America. He spent a Semester at Sea, traveling to 10 countries in 100 days aboard a cruise ship with 700 students. During his four years in college, he visited more than 30 countries. So how could he afford all that travel? He ran his own ticket-resale business. “During my time in college I made about $20,000 selling event tickets,” he says, “and I used that money to help finance most of these trips.” He graduated in December 2007 and interned for U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and for Calvin Burgess, a serial entrepreneur from Guthrie, Okla., who owns Kenya’s largest rice farm. By the end of that summer, he decided to go to Africa to start a business. Schooley finally decided on a destination in Uganda. “In Uganda, something felt right. It was actually the fastest-growing

OPPOSITE PAGE: Tyler Schooley and business associate Anatoli Kamugisha took a business trip to Dubai, UAE.

GDP growth rate in Africa at the time, and I felt like it would be easier to plug in and start a business,” he says. On Sept. 3, 2008, he landed in his new hometown of Kampala, the capital and largest city in Uganda with a population of nearly 1.25 million. He soon opened Inflate Africa, the first inflatable products distributor of its kind in the country (think air dancers at car washes, inflatables used by car dealerships, etc.). Over the next several years, while running Inflate Africa on the side, Schooley tried his hand at other business ventures. Then Inflate Africa clients began asking for more than inflatables, seeking corporate gifts, logo merchandise, promotional items, etc. Schooley took advantage of this opportunity, refocusing his efforts and rebranding his company in May 2013 as Rocket Products (www.rocketafrica.com). “To be honest, I had about five years of failure, and there were a lot of lessons to learn,” he says. “In Africa, to succeed in business there’s one word that supersedes all other words, and that’s persistence. Only the people who are extraordinarily persistent, that stick through it and really learn how to do business here effectively, make it.”

Rocket Products is now one of the leading logo merchandise companies in east Africa. After sales of around $100,000 in 2013, revenues grew to $700,000 in 2014, and Schooley is expecting to sell about $1.2 million in products in 2015. He projects $3 million in revenues in the next three to five years.

Tyler Schooley poses with Ugandan colleagues Francis Lubuulwa and Willis Mujjwiga.

“I would say we are the leader in Uganda and Rwanda. We just entered Kenya last September, which is by far the largest market in the region,” he says. Rocket Products landed a licensing deal with Shell late in 2014, which covers six African countries but could be expanded. “I think our biggest accomplishment in terms of credibility is the Shell license. This puts us on the map in our niche. When I’m in the United States and with companies who do the same business we do, and I tell them our major clients are Shell, Coca-Cola and other major multinational brands, they’re stunned,” he says. “To get those type of contracts and deals, you had to be in the industry 30 or 40 years ago when the industry started in the States. So for a 30-year-old to have met last week with the communications director and the executive assistant to the president for CocaCola Africa and hear they want to work with us, it’s a great thrill.” @

summer 2015 engage@spears

Alumna doesn’t let much stop her on the road to success

The Numbers Win BY DOLLIE ELLIOTT

mong the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University graduates making a difference professionally and personally is Tara Rains, whose passion for accounting inspired her to overcome great obstacles.

When she was a toddler, Rains was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. She has been in a wheelchair since early childhood, but she has never let that slow her down. At a young age, she had a knack for numbers. “I was told, before I knew what accounting was, ‘You’re going to be an accountant someday.’ “My parents were always supportive. They wanted me to go far; they knew I could go far. They’ve never looked at my disability as a hindrance,” says Rains, who has even gone white-water rafting with her parents and older brother Tyler. “My brother, Tyler, who sees humor in everything, has always uplifted my spirits 42

engage@spears summer 2015

and kept me laughing. He really helped me on my bad days,” Rains says. In 2003, Rains was diagnosed with a rare nerve condition that prevented her from attending high school. After several experimental treatments and 16 surgeries within 18 months, she was determined to return to school. She ended up spending half her junior year and her entire senior year homebound, but she still maintained a 4.0 grade-point average. “I took some classes in high school, fell in love with accounting and never changed my degree plan once,” she says. Health issues forced her to wait to go to college after graduating from Jenks High School in 2005. As soon as she was able to return to school full time, she earned an associate degree from Tulsa Community College in 2007. Rains then decided to enroll at OSU-Tulsa. “I chose OSU-Tulsa not only for the convenience — I had also visited other universities in the area — but OSU just felt like

Tara Rains says she uses her accounting education from OSU every day at her job at ONEOK.

PHOTO / DOLLIE ELLIOTT

a good fit. I knew of the accounting program’s good reputation and knew it would be an easy transition to the master’s program, my ultimate goal,” she says. One of Rains’ first accounting classes at OSU-Tulsa was Intermediate Accounting I, taught by Bill Schwartz, associate professor in the School of Accounting. “He was pretty intimidating. I felt like he was there to make or break you,” she says, calling him one of her favorite professors. “He said, ‘I’m not here to be your friend; I’m here to make you an accountant.’” Schwartz challenged his class to come back and thank him when they passed the CPA exam on the first try. “And I did pass on the first try, and yes, I did go back and thank him. I said, ‘Thank you, you were right,’ ” she says. “I told him to keep up what you’re doing.” “I appreciated his hardcore accounting outlook because it set a great foundation and prepared me for the rest of my education and work career.”

“But OSU was willing to help me in any way. There were curbs where they were needed, grab bars in the correct places, automatic doors. It was a great experience.” — TA R A R A I N S

Rains completed her bachelor’s degree in accounting with minors in finance and management at OSU-Tulsa in 2011. Her next challenge was earning a master’s degree in accounting, which is only offered on the Stillwater campus. For her first semester, she decided to commute to Stillwater using BOB (OSU’s daily commuter bus that shuttles students, faculty and staff between OSUTulsa and Stillwater). Her parents were nervous about this plan, but they eventually agreed. After that first semester, Rains and her vocational rehab specialist persuaded her parents to allow her to move to Stillwater so she could complete the program on campus. It would be the first time Rains would live away from her parents.

having a fireside chat. You could tell that she wanted to be there and wanted you to succeed in her class,” Rains says. Wright encouraged Rains during her first semester in Stillwater. “She and Bob Cornell (head of the Accounting Department) gave me their cell phone numbers and said, ‘We know we’re closer than your parents in Jenks. If you need anything at anytime, call us.’ ” Rains said Wright even set up a Skype account so she could attend class remotely if needed. “Luckily I never had to use it,” says Rains. Other faculty members, “Angela Spencer, Monika Turek and others in the accounting department, all really impacted my education,” she adds.

Rains also benefited from OSU’s Disability Resource Center, where she could get extended time to complete tests, “although I usually finished the test about the same time everyone else did,” she says. “But OSU was willing to help me in any way. There were curbs where they were needed, grab bars in the correct places, automatic doors. It was a great experience.” In 2013, Rains successfully completed the master’s program in accounting, achieving the academic goal she had set for herself many years ago. And that 4.0 GPA she had in high school? She extended it all the way through her master’s. In January 2014, Rains joined ONEOK in Tulsa as a staff accountant in the natural gas liquids pipeline segment. Her favorite part of her position is that she gets to apply the skills she gained at OSU in her everyday work. “I love my job,” she says. “When I was interviewed, they asked if I had any specific interests, and I said, ‘I want to put to use those basic accounting skills that I learned.’ ” “The accounting coursework at OSU was challenging but it was definitely rewarding. They set a great foundation for my career,” Rains says. @

She adds that the OSU staff and faculty gave her the support, accommodations and sense of community she needed to feel comfortable. Rains is grateful for the encouragement of her parents and OSU accounting faculty members Charlotte Wright, Carol Johnson and Bob Cornell. “Charlotte Wright’s so interesting. She’s knowledgeable about the oil and gas accounting subject; it was almost like

COURTESY OF TARA RAINS

“The transition from living with my parents to moving to Stillwater was a little difficult for everyone. Of course, more for my parents than for me,” she says. “They wanted me to check in a little more than I did, just like any other kid going off to college, but it worked out great.”

Tara Rains (center) celebrates her graduation with (from left) Bill Schwartz, associate professor and Judy Johnson Professor in the School of Accounting; Carol Johnson, associate dean of strategic management and measurement; Bob Cornell, head of the School of Accounting and Wilton T. Anderson Chair in Accounting; Rains; Charlotte Wright, Anadarko Petroleum Chair in Accounting and Lanny G. Chasteen Professor; Angela Spencer, assistant professor and W. Haskell Cudd Professor; and Alyssa Vowell, clinical assistant professor. summer 2015 engage@spears

The Spears School celebrated 100 years of business education at Oklahoma State University in 2014. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a look at the yearlong celebration in photos, clockwise from top left. 1 . A 40-foot-by-40foot banner is unveiled from atop the classroom annex at the conclusion of the groundbreaking on Sept. 5. 2. Pistol Pete joins Spears School students, faculty and staff during a flash mob prior to the groundbreaking. 3. OSU President Burns Hargis welcomes guests to the 100th Anniversary reception. 4. More than 200 Spears School alums and friends participate in the 100th Anniversary Golf Classic at Karsten Creek in August. 5. An ice sculpture of the 100th Anniversary logo impresses guests at the reception. 6. Pistol Pete participates in the ball drop at the Golf Classic.

Building Business Success for 100 Years 2

Welcoming Wozniak Apple co-founder wows Oklahoma crowds

BY TERRY TUSH

teve Wozniak’s travels had taken him all over the world but he had never set foot in Oklahoma. Until this spring. The co-founder of Apple Computer made two trips to Oklahoma within a couple of weeks of each other.

In March, he served as a judge at the Oklahoma regionals of the FIRST Robotics competition in Oklahoma City. In early April, he spoke to nearly 4,000 people in Stillwater, Tulsa and Oklahoma City as part of the Spears School of Business speaker series. Wozniak participated in a question-and-answer session in front of about 2,000 OSU students, faculty and staff at the Stillwater Global Briefing inside Gallagher-Iba Arena on April 6. He also

engage@spears summer 2015

spoke to nearly 1,000 in the business community at the Tulsa Business Forums the next morning, then captivated an audience of more than 900 that afternoon at the Executive Management Briefings in Oklahoma City. “We are so pleased to be able to bring in speakers such as Steve Wozniak to the state of Oklahoma as part of our outreach mission,” says Julie Weathers, director of the Center for Executive and Professional Development, which coordinates the speakers programs. “The corporate and organizational sponsors who help fund these opportunities for the forums and briefings provide the opportunity for executives, managers, leaders and students to hear these outstanding business and government leaders who have

made such a difference in our nation. The historical aspect of

person on the Apple payroll from the creation of the company

hearing these speakers firsthand who have changed the future

on April 1, 1976, until today.

of our nation is monumental.”

The Tulsa Business Forums and the Executive Management

Wozniak was informative and entertaining during the sessions,

Briefings are presented annually by the Spears School of

telling stories about his life and his days at Apple. His topics

Business, along with corporate sponsors. They are coordinated

ranged from how he and Steve Jobs started Apple Computers

by the Center for Executive and Professional Development.

in the 1970s to his thoughts on how soon artificial intelligence may be available (he believes it could happen by 2045).

Other speakers during the 2014-15 school year were David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times and a commen-

“If they ever do get intelligent, maybe they’ll look upon us as

tator on the PBS NewsHour and NPR, and Karen Hughes, a

the gods who created them; maybe they’ll look upon us as the

strategic adviser to President George W. Bush in 2001-02 on

pet dogs that built them to take care of us,” he said. “I’m sort

policy and communications who managed the White House

of thankful I won’t be around.”

offices of communications, media affairs, speechwriting and

He used his engineering skills to develop Apple’s first prod-

press secretary.

ucts, including the Apple I and Apple II computers. A self-

The OSU Speaker Series in Stillwater is sponsored by the

proclaimed nerd, he admitted to being star struck when he

Spears School, the SGA Speakers Board and the Office of

met actor Jim Parsons, who portrays Sheldon Cooper on

the President.

CBS’ The Big Bang Theory, a show he made a guest appearance on in 2010. Wozniak also wrote programming for video games, starting with the first one, Pong, and the first universal remote control.

For information on future Tulsa Business Forums and Executive Management Briefings, visit CEPD’s website at cepd.okstate.edu. @

While Wozniak left Apple in 1987, he has retained a presence with the company, saying he receives a $50 check weekly. After Jobs died in 2011, the 64-year-old Wozniak is the only

PHOTO / BLAKE BRASOR

PHOTO / MIKE SIMONS, TULSA WORLD

summer 2015 engage@spears

Pete says,

“THE WORLD NEEDS MORE OSU COWBOYS.” You can help us find the next generation of Cowboys by identifying potential students. You provide the contact information. We do the rest.

OSU is committed to energy savings Sustainability and energy management are among OSUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top priorities. Since 2007, OSU has cut its utility costs more than $32 million. Utilizing the Cowboy Wind Farm, OSU is able to supply about 71 percent of its electricity needs through green power every year. Visit energy.okstate.edu to learn more about how to help OSU save energy today.

OSU is focused on bright minds, building brighter futures and the brightest world for all.

PHOTO / PHIL SHOCKLEY, UNIVERSITY MARKETING

“We want to improve the way rural patients are managed. … Ultimately we want OSU to be recognized nationally as the Silicon Valley for rural health innovation!”— W I L L I A M P A I V A Center for Health Systems Innovation focusing on rural challenges

klahoma State University’s

professionals to practice in rural set-

providers while creating solutions tai-

Center for Health Systems

tings. And now CHSI is working to iden-

lored to their unique needs.

Innovation (CHSI) is

tify problems and implement solutions

embracing the challenge

to improve medical care for patients in

medicine include access to technology,

of improving rural health care.

rural areas.

Some of the hurdles involved with rural

CHSI, with operations in Stillwater and

to emergency medicine,” says Paiva.

health care include:

Tulsa, was created with an endowment

“Many things unique to rural America

from OSU alumnus Neal Patterson, the

make management of patients in those

founder, chairman and CEO of Cerner

settings more complicated than in

Corp., a health care information tech-

urban markets.”

• Limited access to care without driving long distances. • Chronic shortages of physicians. • Higher risk of such chronic conditions as cardiac disease and diabetes among rural residents. But with two research teams in the field, a database with 50 million patients and the collaboration of OSU experts, William Paiva, Ph.D., the center’s executive director, is confident

nology company based in Kansas City.

access to subspecialists, and access

Paiva has brought an entrepreneur’s

“Thanks to the vision and generosity of

mindset to the center’s strategy. He

Neal Patterson and the leadership of

sees CHSI’s mission as devising tech-

William Paiva, I look forward to the OSU

nological and data-driven solutions to

Center for Health Systems Innovation

improve patient care and strengthen

making life-saving contributions to rural

the financial picture for rural clinics and

health and to Oklahomans,” says OSU

medical practices.

President Burns Hargis, who sits on the

“We want to improve the way rural

about finding real solutions for rural

CHSI internal board of directors.

health care problems.

Launched in 2012, CHSI is a partner-

ultimate goal is to improve care and

OSU has long focused on improving

ship between OSU’s Spears School of

reduce costs.”

health care for rural Oklahomans, including through the university’s Center for Rural Health, which trains OSU medical students to practice medicine in rural areas, and the Center for Health Sciences, which educates and trains doctors and health care

“Some of the challenges facing rural

engage@spears summer 2015

Business in Stillwater and the Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa. Through CHSI, the two schools have created a convergence of business, information technology and health care management to identify obstacles faced by rural care

patients are managed,” Paiva says. “Our

One of the center’s most important tools is also part of Patterson’s donation to OSU. Along with the endowment establishing CHSI, he granted CHSI access to a database of more than 50 million patient records from participating Cerner client hospitals

known as the Cerner Health Facts.

are extremely fortunate to have been

A second CHSI research project

The blinded data, meaning all iden-

granted access.”

involves the study of health care

tifying patient information has been removed, includes clinical events and admission, laboratory, pharmacy and billing data. It also includes patient age, sex, weight and race. According to Paiva, OSU is the only university in the nation that has access to the entire set of data contained in the Cerner database, giving CHSI and OSU a powerful research tool.

In December 2014, CHSI launched a groundbreaking study of silent (asymptomatic) atrial fibrillation in rural populations. The cardiac disease often goes undiagnosed until it leads to a stroke. Research has shown that early diagnosis and treatment of A-fib can substantially reduce strokes. The CHSI study is examining the incidence of silent A-fib and management of

delivery and the conditions that affect and impede workflow in rural clinics. Researchers are surveying 30 clinics in the state to examine management practices to identify ways to improve efficiency, and thus care, and reduce costs. Rural clinics are under severe financial stress, according to Paiva, and must find innovative new ways to operate in order to survive.

In one example project, CHSI’s anal-

patients in rural settings with the goal

The focus of CHSI is on identification,

ysis of the Cerner data identified dif-

of improving their outcomes and low-

innovation and implementation — the

ferences in outcomes for rural versus

ering the cost of treatment.

three “I’s,” Paiva said, adding that the

urban patients. A study of the data of patients diagnosed with atrial fibrillation following a stroke found that those in rural areas experienced lower survival rates.

The center is teaming with doctors in the OSU Rural Health Network in Oklahoma to screen for silent atrial fibrillation using a new, FDA-approved

center is not just about finding issues, but identifying and implementing solutions to overcome obstacles to improving care.

handheld electrocardiogram that

“We’re focusing at the clinic level

“We ask the question about survival

attaches to a smart mobile device

because we want to work with primary

rates for rural and urban patients

such as an iPhone, making it ideal for

care professionals who are closely

with all else being equal, and the rural

use in rural health care settings. Once

engaged with their patients across

patients in our studies expired much

these previously undiagnosed patients

lifespan and diagnoses,” says CHSI’s

quicker than those in urban mar-

are identified, they are monitored

Marjorie Erdmann. “Rural primary care

kets,” Paiva says. “In addition, we saw

while their condition is treated. The

providers manage higher risk, more

female patients had lower survival

researchers are examining how these

complicated patients and are on the

rates than male patients. In another

patients are managed, says Paiva, the

financial hook for the success of their

study, we looked at factors driving up

lead investigator of the A-fib study.

clinics, so they’re motivated to try

length of stay and total charges for

To date, the study has screened more

new things.”

patients receiving total knee replace-

than 100 patients older than 65 years

ment. Candidly, there is almost a limit-

and identified three living with undi-

less number of questions you can test

agnosed A-fib. The goal is to enroll

in these datasets, and CHSI and OSU

25 patients and track them over

research and innovation can make a difference including improving care continues

PHOTOS / WILLIAM PAIVA

12 months.

CHSI is also looking to see where their

Above left: An FDA-approved handheld electrocardiogram attaches to an iPhone in a new technology that can improve the quality of health care in rural areas. Above right: James Bauders uses the iPhone with the handheld electrocardiogram. summer 2015 engage@spears

for those suffering from mental health

that affect rural health — cardiovascular

“We continue to peel back layers of the

issues. Of course, behavioral health

disease, obesity, hypertension — are

onion to understand the differences

affects all segments of the American

linked to and accentuated by mood dis-

between care delivery in rural versus

population, but again, those living in

orders and mental health problems.”

urban markets,” he says. “Ultimately

rural areas face steep obstacles to receiving adequate treatment.

Paiva says focusing CHSI’s efforts on rural and Native American populations

we want OSU to be recognized nationally as the Silicon Valley for rural health innovation!”

“Behavioral health is an especially crit-

fills an important niche in Oklahoma

ical issue in rural markets because of

and fits well with OSU’s land-grant uni-

For more information about the Center

the lack of mental health professionals,”

versity mission.

for Health Systems Innovation, visit chsi.okstate.edu. @

Paiva says. “And many of the diseases

SSB to honor alumni at Hall of Fame banquet

he Spears School of Business

financial advisory services firm serving

Edmon Low Library is named in her

will recognize some of its

corporate and private equity clients.

honor.

A Tulsa native, Michael is founder and

In addition, the Greenwood Tennis

managing director of Carnegie Capital

Center, a 50,000-square-foot facility

LLC, a financial advisory services firm

with six indoor courts and 12 outdoor

serving corporate and private equity

courts for OSU’s men’s and women’s

Five Oklahoma State University alumni

clients. He previously served in var-

tennis teams, is named after the couple.

will be inducted into the Spears School

ious public company senior executive

Hall of Fame, and three others will be

positions, including vice president-

honored as Outstanding Young Alumni.

finance of Energy Transfer Partners,

most distinguished alumni at the 2015 Hall of Fame ban-

quet on Nov. 6 at the ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center in Stillwater.

Michael L. Greenwood and Anne Morris Greenwood, Carlos Johnson, George Krull and Greg Massey will be honored for their successful careers and contributions to OSU as the 2015 inductees into the Spears School Hall of Fame. The Outstanding Young Alumni award recipients will be Prafulla Chaudhari, Jeff Ronsse and Evan Tipton. The annual Spears School Hall of Fame Banquet recognizes OSU graduates who have distinguished themselves in their professional careers, displayed effective leadership, made exemplary contributions to their communities and freely given meritorious service to others. Michael and Anne Greenwood are longtime supporters of OSU and the

chief financial officer of Heritage Propane Partners, chief financial officer of Alliance Resource Partners, and a mergers and acquisition executive for MAPCO, the Penn Central Energy Group and the Williams Cos. Michael also serves as an OSU Foundation trustee, as an SSB The Associates member and as an OSU Research Foundation board member. A native of Carnegie, Okla., Anne serves as a community volunteer after retiring from a corporate accounting career with several Fortune 500 companies. She devotes countless hours as a volunteer, many to the OSU community, including as the inaugural chair and a board member of Women for OSU, president of Friends of the OSU Library, a board member of the OSU

Michael graduated from OSU with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1977 and earned an MBA from the University of Tulsa in 1980. Anne also attended OSU before completing her bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Tulsa in 1978. The Greenwoods reside in Stillwater. Carlos Johnson is a longtime supporter of OSU, serving over the years as chairman of the School of Accounting advisory board, the Spears School’s Associates, and on the board of governors for the OSU Foundation. Johnson earned his master’s degree in business education from OSU in 1966, and also a doctorate in accounting and business education in 1977 from what was then known as the College of Business. He spent seven years as head of the school of business at East Central University in Ada, Okla., before entering

Friends of Music and a member of the

public accounting.

He is the founder and managing

OSU Athletics Council. The Anne Morris

He spent 25 years as a partner with

director of Carnegie Capital LLC, a

Greenwood Reading Room in OSU’s

KPMG before retiring. He remains

Spears School.

active professionally, serving as the

engage@spears summer 2015

Anne and Michael Greenwood

Carlos Johnson

George Krull

Greg Massey

chair for the National Association of

academic career, Krull was a member

Chamber of Commerce. He has also

State Boards of Accountancy, which

of the OSU School of Accounting

served on the Board of Regents for

represents 55 boards of accountancy

faculty.

OSU/A&M College, the Oklahoma

before various legislative bodies at the state and federal levels, and served 10 years on the Oklahoma Board of

He has been honored for his contributions by numerous organizations,

Transportation Authority, and REI of Oklahoma, Inc.

including being inducted into the

Massey received his bachelor’s degree

School of Accounting Hall of Fames at

in finance from OSU in 1987. He lives

In 1992, he was inducted into the

both Oklahoma State University and

in Durant, Okla., with his wife, Kay, and

Oklahoma Accounting Hall of Fame,

Ohio State University, and is an hon-

they have three children, Blake, Brooke

and in 2012 was recognized with the

orary alumnus of Northern Illinois

and Corbin.

Public Service Award of the OSCPA. In

University.

Accountancy.

2011, Johnson was recognized by the AICPA for a career of distinguished service in public advocacy. He and his wife, Pam, reside in Oklahoma City. They have three children and six grandchildren who regularly attend various OSU sports activities with the Johnsons. George Krull served as a partner in the executive office of Grant Thornton LLP, where he worked with the implementation of the firm’s automated audit and control software, and he was the firm’s chief learning officer. He retired in 2000. Since retirement, he volunteers to improve the quality of collegiate business and accounting education.

Krull and his wife, Nancy, reside in

financial economics, is the Americas

children, 10 grandchildren and a great

head of risk analytical quality assur-

granddaughter.

ance for MSCI Inc. in New York City.

Greg Massey is chief executive officer

Jeff Ronsse, a 1999 graduate with

of First United Bank & Trust Co., a $3

a bachelor’s degree in accounting,

billion financial services organization

is partner, accounting and auditing

operating in more than 60 locations in

director and recruiting director for

Oklahoma and north Texas.

BKD CPAs & Advisors in Tulsa.

He served in numerous roles across the

Evan Tipton, who earned bache-

financial industry prior to joining First

lor’s degrees in business adminis-

United in 1990 as vice president/com-

tration and management in 2008,

mercial lending. He was promoted to

is producing manager for the Scott

president in 1993 and was named CEO

McCoy Insurance Agency and the 2015

in 2003, a position he has held the past

chairman of Tulsa Young Professionals

12 years. Under his leadership, First

(TYPros).

United has grown from $223 million in assets during the past 22 years to more

late Wilton T. Anderson, head of the

than $3 billion in total assets today.

master’s degree from the business school in 1966, and his doctorate from Michigan State University. Early in his

with a master’s degree in quantitative

Wheaton, Ill. They have three grown

Krull was recruited to OSU by the accounting program. He earned his

Prafulla Chaudhari, a 2008 graduate

Massey is Chairman of the Durant (Okla.) Industrial Authority, Imagine Durant, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Oklahoma State

The Hall of Fame event begins with a 6:30 p.m. reception followed by the dinner at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 6. For more information, contact Mary Wanger at 405-744-5064 or mary. wanger@okstate.edu. @

summer 2015 engage@spears

Tom Coburn

Martha Eining

Dan Gilliam

John Meinders

Jade Walle

School of Accounting Honors Five

our outstanding gradu-

Distinguished Alumni for 2014-15 at the

Martha Eining is the David Eccles

ates from Oklahoma State

banquet.

Professor and director of the School of

University’s School of Accounting were honored

in April as Distinguished Alumni during the 2015 Wilton T. Anderson Hall of Fame Awards Banquet at the

Robert Cornell, the head of the School of Accounting in the Spears School of Business, says, “We are delighted to honor these four outstanding School

Accounting at the University of Utah. She teaches in the area of fraud and auditing at the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels.

of Accounting graduates at this year’s

She has received teaching and/or

Wilton T. Anderson Hall of Fame and

service awards from the American

This year’s inductees into the School of

Awards Banquet. Each of these indi-

Accounting Association, the Utah

Accounting Hall of Fame are:

viduals represents the highest levels of

Association of CPAs, and the David

professional excellence exemplified by

Eccles School of Business, including the

Oklahoma State University graduates.

National Accounting Educator of the

We are proud of their achievements

Year award presented by the American

and appreciate their ongoing support

Women’s Society of CPAs in 2012.

ConocoPhillips OSU Alumni Center.

Tom Coburn, a 1970 OSU School of Accounting graduate who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001 and the U.S. Senate from Jan. 3, 2005 to Jan. 3, 2015. Martha Eining, director of the School of Accounting at the University of Utah, received a doctoral degree from Oklahoma State in accounting in 1987. Dan Gilliam, a 1979 OSU School of Accounting graduate who is the internal audit manager for Phillips 66 in Houston. John Meinders, a 1987 OSU graduate who earned bachelor’s degrees in accounting and computer science. He is audit partner and head of the energy practice office for Grant Thornton in Tulsa. In addition, Jade Walle of Tulsa was honored as the Beta Alpha Psi

of the School of Accounting.”

Eining’s professional experience

Tom Coburn retired earlier this year

includes small business consulting,

after serving the state of Oklahoma for

auditing and serving as a systems

nearly 16 years. A longtime Muskogee

administrator. She served as Grant

doctor, Coburn entered politics in the

Thornton LLP’s first National Professor

late 1990s.

of Residence and a consultant to the

A three-time cancer survivor, he announced in January 2014 that he would step down from the Senate because of health issues. While at OSU, he served as president of the Business Student Council and was one of the Top 10 Seniors in the College of Business Administration. Coburn and his wife, Carolyn, a graduate of OSU and former Miss Oklahoma, were married in 1968.

Audit Research Group for KPMG Peat Marwick, assisting in the development of support tools for the determination of management fraud. Dan Gilliam has held management positions with both ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 over the past 36 years, including internal auditor, several staff analyst positions, accounting director, refinery finance manager, assistant controller, manager of corporate accounting and manager of corporate affairs.

engage@spears summer 2015

Those positions took him and his

Meinders was active in the Alpha

Walle earned both his bachelor’s and

family all over the United States before

Tau Omega fraternity and many

master’s degrees in accounting from

they returned to Houston in 2013.

other campus activities, including

OSU with a minor in international busi-

OSU’s Blue Key, a student honor and

ness. A leader while an OSU student

service society.

(1991 to 1996), he was president of the

A loyal and true OSU Cowboy, Gilliam is past chairman of the OSU Alumni

Golden Key National Honors Society,

Association and the Spears School of

The Distinguished Alumni Award

Business Associates. He also served

was established in 1979 to recognize

on the School of Accounting Advisory

OSU School of Accounting graduates

Board. In addition, he has been on

who have achieved exceptional suc-

the executive committees of the State

cess in accounting, bringing recog-

Chamber of Commerce, the Oklahoma

nition to Oklahoma State University

“Jade consistently exceeds our expec-

Heritage Association, and Leadership

and the School of Accounting. It is

tations for the dedication and sup-

Oklahoma.

dedicated to Wilton T. Anderson, the

port we hope School of Accounting

founding father of the OSU School of

alumni will provide back to students

Accounting. It is the highest honor the

and faculty,” says Cornell. “He has

School of Accounting can bestow on

had an incredibly successful career

an alumnus.

both domestically and abroad, and he

John Meinders spent the first 12 years of his professional life with Arthur Andersen, including a three-month stint in Romania in 1992. He joined the oil and gas company Lariat Petroleum in early 1999. Two years later, Meinders became U.S. controller with Vintage Petroleum, another Tulsa energy firm. He has been an audit partner and head of the Tulsa energy practice office of Grant Thorton, continuing to work primarily with energy companies, since joining the firm in September 2006.

Jade Walle was recognized for his dedicated service to Beta Alpha Psi

an officer in his fraternity, consistently on the Dean’s List, a Beta Alpha Psi officer and a representative on OSU’s Business Student Council.

encourages our students to pursue a similar path.

and his mentorship to the students

“We recognize that our success as

of the OSU School of Accounting.

educators is derived in part from the

He has spent the past 19 years in

partnership we have with our alumni

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Assurance

because they are able to provide

and Global Capital Markets practices

career opportunities and sound advice

in Tulsa, London and Houston, spe-

to our students. In this regard, Jade Walle is among the very best.” @

cializing in midstream, master limited partnerships, and exploration and production.

Accounting professor’s son honored at game of Tristan’s life now is playing on the

OSU School of Accounting

Tulsa Jammers wheelchair basketball

associate professor Bill Schwartz and his wife,

Alison, was the honorary cancer survivor recognized by OSU Coaches vs. Cancer prior to the Cowboys’ victory over the Kansas Jayhawks on Feb 7. Tristan, 13, was diagnosed in January 2014 with an inoperable tumor on his brain stem. In the last year, he has completed 30 proton radiation treatments and 42 initial treatments of chemotherapy. His treatment plan also included 10 months of higherdose chemo, which he finished late in February 2015.

PHOTO / BRUCE WATERFIELD, OSU MEDIA RELATIONS

ristan Schwartz, the son of

The OSU Coaches vs. Cancer recognized 13-year-old Tristan Schwartz as the honorary cancer survivor at the Feb. 7 men’s basketball game. With him are parents Alison and Bill Schwartz and Pistol Pete.

Tristan enjoys hunting and fishing on

team; last year, it was ranked 11th in the nation. Tristan’s tumor has taken away his ability to walk without assistance, but it has not taken away his courage or his faith. He is a source of strength and inspiration to all who meet him. He is a Christian who lives by the verse Psalms 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” @

his family’s property, and his favorite holiday is the Fourth of July. A big part summer 2015 engage@spears

Watson Graduate School honors 3 faculty members

hree Spears School of Business faculty members were recognized for their outstanding performance in

the classroom during the 2015 Watson Graduate School of Management Scholarship and Awards Banquet on April 19. Ajay Sukhdial received the Outstanding MBA Faculty Award; Cynthia Wang, the Greiner Graduate Excellence in Teaching Award, and Rick Wilson, the Chandler Frates and Reitz Teaching Excellence Award. “These professors are among the best any program can hope to have,” says Ramesh Sharda, vice dean of the Watson Graduate School. “They motivate and challenge our MBA students, they cover difficult topics but in an engaging fashion, and their classes introduce current topics and relate management theories and models to practice.” Ajay Sukhdial, associate professor in

Ajay Sukhdial

Cynthia Wang

Rick Wilson

the Outstanding MBA Faculty Award,

Rick Wilson, professor and head

based on nominations from MBA

of the Department of Management

students.

Science and Information Systems and

Cynthia Wang, associate professor in the Department of Management, received the Greiner Graduate Excellence in Teaching Award. Created in 1987, the Greiner Award recognizes an outstanding graduate faculty member annually through nominations

W. Paul Miller Professor of Business Administration, won the Chandler Frates and Reitz Teaching Excellence Award, presented annually to the outstanding MBA faculty on the OSU-Tulsa campus. Wilson also won the Chandler Frates and Reitz award in 2010. @

by students and fellow professors.

the Department of Marketing, received

New center aims to improve customer experiences One consumer survey says 89 percent

“We think that a win-win-win out-

retailing, personal selling or services

of respondents started doing business

come is possible for customers, front-

marketing.

with another company following a poor

line employees and the companies

customer experience.

that employ them,” says Brown, a pro-

According to Consumer Reports, 64 percent in one survey left a store in the prior year because of poor customer service, and 67 percent hung up the telephone after calling a customer service line without getting their problem solved. Does it have to be this way? Todd Arnold and Tom Brown, directors of the

fessor in the Department of Marketing. “We want to discover the truths that underlie successful customer-employee interactions and train future managers to create satisfied customers and satisfied employees.” The Center for Customer Interface Excellence was designed with three primary objectives in mind:

recently created Center for Customer

To provide specialized education

Interface Excellence (CIE), say no.

for students interested in careers in

engage@spears summer 2015

To enable industry partners to provide input into the training process and to connect with some of the best prospective recruits. To provide a connecting point for scholars who study issues relevant to customer-employee interaction and the host of influences on these interactions. Housed in the Department of Marketing in the Spears School of Business, the center was created after department head Josh Wiener recognized the

synergies among several faculty mem-

Karen Flaherty, for example, has been

between an organization’s frontline

bers. Although they were approaching

studying personal selling and sales

employees (sales, service or retail) and

the subject matter of customer inter-

management issues. Arnold’s focus

its customers.

action from different directions, each

has been on retail management and

focuses on marketing employees at

retail employees. Brown has been

the boundaries of the organization,

studying services marketing and ser-

and has been for more than a decade.

vices employees. The context may be

For more information, visit cie.okstate. edu. @

different but the focus is the same — the point of connection, or interface,

Sharda leading Watson Graduate School Longtime Spears

Technology Management 2015 by the

Sharda earned his undergraduate

School of

website Top Management Degrees.

degree from the University of Udaipur

Business professor Ramesh Sharda has been named vice dean of the Watson Graduate School of Management

Also, the OSU online MBA program and the graduate business programs offered online were recognized in January as some of the nation’s best. The OSU online MBA program was selected No. 41, and the graduate busi-

in Rajasthan, India, before coming to the United States. He earned a master’s degree in engineering from Ohio State University, and an MBA and his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

ness programs (excluding the MBA)

He has held several positions during

were ranked No. 46 in the 2015 U.S.

his 33 years in Stillwater — assis-

News & World Report’s Best Online

tant professor, associate professor

Education Program rankings released

and currently Regents Professor of

in January. The Spears School is one

Management Science and Information

of only four business schools in the

Systems, ConocoPhillips Chair of

Sharda served as interim vice dean

United States in which 100 percent of

Management Technology, and director

from December 2013 until June 2014,

the full-time MBA students received

of the Institute for Research in

when he accepted the full-time posi-

jobs within three months after grad-

Information Systems and Management

tion. He joins the Spears School exec-

uation, according to U.S. News &

Science and Information Systems.

utive leadership team of Dean Ken

World Report.

at Oklahoma State University. He will coordinate all of the school’s graduate programs, including the MBA and Ph.D. in Business for Executives programs.

Eastman and Associate Deans Carol Johnson and Karen Flaherty.

“We have strong graduate programs

He is also serving as the director of the Spears School’s Ph.D. in Business for

including our innovative Executive

Executives program and coordinating

“We are delighted that Dr. Sharda has

Ph.D. program, a large analytics-

the Spears School’s collaborations

accepted the position as vice dean

focused MS and certificate program,

with universities in India.

and look forward to the contributions

and an MBA program that provides

He has received several awards,

he will make to the Watson Graduate

educational opportunities around the

including the Spears School of

School and the Spears School,”

world, but our goal is to take these to

Business Greiner Graduate Teaching

Eastman says.

the next level of excellence and prom-

Awards twice and the University

inence. With support from Chuck

Regents Distinguished Research

Watson and other OSU alumni, we will

Award. He also received interna-

be able to launch and support initia-

tional recognition in January 2012 at

tives in the Watson Graduate School

the Jewels of Rajasthan in the World

of Management that serve our stake-

event, where influential individ-

holders well,” Sharda says.

uals who originate from the state of

The Watson Graduate School has received national recognition in the past few years for its success stories. Just recently, the OSU online master’s degree in management information systems was listed No. 14 in the Top 50 Online Master’s Degrees in Information

Rajasthan in northwestern India were honored. @ summer 2015 engage@spears

PHOTOS / BLAKE BRASOR

Clockwise from top right: A hand is painted blue. A student adds her handprint to the top of the mural. The finished mural is in the Business Building lobby.

Leaving Their Mark OSU STUDENTS USE THEIR HANDPRINTS ON A MURAL

But this wasn’t going to be just another

the two-day event, and their handprints

mural painted by a professional. Spears

will become a part of the history of the

Oklahoma State University’s Spears

School students, faculty and staff par-

current Business Building, which has

School of Business was facing a chal-

ticipated in painting the mural — one

seen thousands of OSU students since

lenge when its classrooms were closed

handprint at a time — during a two-day

it opened in 1966.

in December. With the school’s five

period in late March.

classrooms due to be torn down this

“Our goal was to make this more than

Brown, who is majoring in international

spring as work begins on a new $76 mil-

just the painting of a mural but an

business. “I think it is so cool that I got

lion Business Building, how were Spears

event that would bring the Spears

to be a part of it. I think it’s going to be

School faculty and staff going to stay

School community together,” says Ken

awesome that when I’m older I can say

engaged when students had limited

Eastman, dean of the Spears School.

to my grandkids that my hands are on

reasons to come to the building?

that wall.”

The answer appeared literally right

#SpearsLeaveYourMark, the school’s

The participation of students, faculty

before Spears School officials’ eyes

Marketing and Communications staff

and staff shows the excitement around

when construction crews built a new

reached out to the student body, with

the Spears School as construction

16.5-by-10-foot wall in the lobby of the

the assistance of the Business Student

starts on the state-of-the-art building.

Business Building to prepare for the

Council. The student council provided

demolition of the longtime classrooms.

free hot dogs, chips, cookies and drinks

The blank wall led to discussions on

to all participants, and all students

how to best use it. A mural of the

received a free #SpearsLeaveYourMark

new Business Building was the over-

t-shirt after leaving their handprint on

whelming choice for the wall, allowing

the wall.

all who walk through the lobby a view

The response was overwhelming.

of what to expect when construction is

Hundreds of students participated in

completed in early 2018.

Using social media and the hashtag,

“The mural is awesome,” says Holly

engage@spears summer 2015

“The mural has just turned out unbelievable. When we first thought of the idea, it’s kind of hard to conceptualize that you can make a mural from handprints. But when you see it done now, it’s just amazing,” Eastman says. @ To see a video of the mural going up, visit okla.st/1D7DeN2.

Analytics Offerings in the Spears School On-campus and online options available

DEGREE OPTIONS CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS WITHIN MBA PROGRAMS Master’s of Science in Business Analytics *

MBA Option in Marketing Analytics

Graduate Certiﬁcate in Business Data Mining

Master’s of Science in MIS Data Science Option *

MBA Option in Data Analytics *

Graduate Certiﬁcate in Marketing Analytics

INDUSTRY COLLABORATION • •

IBM Academic Alliance InterWorks

• •

SAS® Teradata University Network

* New program and options pending State Regents approval.

Watson Graduate School of Management 102 Gundersen Hall | Stillwater, OK 74078 Phone: 405.744.9000 Email: spearsmasters@okstate.edu Web: watson.okstate.edu/dsba

RETIREMENTS He sets high ethical standards and then

for me to be involved with the political

expects even more from himself,” says Raj

side of higher education and state gov-

Basu, vice president for Academic Affairs

ernment,” Trennepohl says. “After I had

Gary Trennepohl,

at OSU-Tulsa. “In an era increasingly at

served as president for 10 years, I finally

former dean of the

ease with mediocrity, he sets the oppo-

decided that I wanted to return in a fac-

OSU College of Busi-

site example we need from our leaders.”

ulty role for the reason I first got into this

ness Administration

A highlight in his OSU career was the

and more recently

establishment of the OSU-Tulsa campus.

During his career, Trennepohl taught over

the ONEOK chair in

“Today, most people are not aware of the

3,500 undergraduate and graduate stu-

finance and regents

political difficulties that had to be over-

dents in subjects including one of his favor-

service professor, retired in January after

come to establish the campus in 1998

ites: portfolio management and theory.

a 38-year academic career that includes

legislation, and then to work out the

a decade as Oklahoma State University-

details of relationships between OU, NSU

Tulsa’s first president and appointments

and Langston over the next five years,”

at five major universities in four states.

Trennepohl says. “My working career was

Since January 1977, he held faculty and

in academics, and I quickly had to learn

administrative appointments at OSU, Texas

how to operate and create success in a

A&M University, the University of Missouri-

political environment.”

Columbia and Arizona State University.

“Then-OSU President Jim Halligan made

nalism school to teach financial concepts

In 1995, Trennepohl left Texas A&M to

the right decision when he selected Gary

to business journalists around the country.

become dean of what would be the Spears

Trennepohl to guide OSU-Tulsa through its

School of Business at Oklahoma State.

formative years,” says Gary Clark, senior

Gary Trennepohl

“OSU is a special place with special people. My work at OSU the past 20 years has been extremely rewarding, and I’ve been given opportunities that I never dreamed I would have. For me and my family, OSU

OSU. “Gary had the respect of academics and earned the respect of Tulsa civic and business leaders as he worked tirelessly to meet higher education needs in Tulsa.”

will always have a special place in our

Trennepohl oversaw the successful tran-

hearts,” Trennepohl says.

sition of OSU-Tulsa from the University

While he was dean, the business school consisted of 83 full-time faculty in five departments and enrollment totaled 3,800 students in undergraduate, MBA,

Center at Tulsa. He was instrumental in securing $45 million in funding from Vision 2025 and state and private sources for the state-of-the-art Helmerich Research Center.

master’s and Ph.D. degree programs.

“Dr. Trennepohl has left an enduring legacy

Trennepohl provided leadership with major

at Oklahoma State University,” says OSU-

emphasis on development activities and

Tulsa President Howard Barnett. “As presi-

the University Capital Campaign.

dent, he was a trailblazer who cemented

He oversaw fundraising projects that led to 13 endowed positions and programs ranging from $250,000 to $1 million. Another milestone during his tenure was full AACSB re-accreditation in 1998. In 1999, Trennepohl became the first president of OSU-Tulsa after four years as dean of the College of Business Administration. “Gary Trennepohl is a consummate public servant and a man of towering integrity. Karen Ward accepts an award at the 2009 fall convocation.

vice president and general counsel at

engage@spears summer 2015

the university’s presence in Tulsa and as a professor, he educated and inspired thousands of students as a leader in finance education. We will miss him and his devotion to preparing students for success both in and out of the classroom.” After serving as president for 10 years, in January 2010 he returned to teaching finance courses both in Tulsa and Stillwater.

field — to teach and work with students.”

“I enjoyed the senior-level class, which draws on most investment topics that students study,” says Trennepohl, who also taught thousands of professionals in various executive development programs. Since 1983, he has teamed up with a colleague at the University of Missouri jour-

Trennepohl has co-authored two collegelevel finance textbooks and more than 30 professional journal articles. Most of his research focused on using equity options to manage risk in portfolios. Trennepohl also enjoyed supporting students outside the classroom. He has been an adviser to several student organizations including the Student Chapter of the Financial Management Association (FMA), the Business Student Council, and the Alpha Kappa Psi and Beta Gamma Sigma honor societies. Among his peers, Trennepohl has held several leadership positions, including program chairman and president of FMA, and membership on the boards of many non-profit organizations and city and state commissions. Recently, he was reappointed by the governor to the Board of Trustees for the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System. Trennepohl has also consulted for pension funds, corporations and college foundations. Since 1987, he has served as a visiting faculty member for the Options

“My time as OSU-Tulsa president was very

Institute at the Chicago Board Options

rewarding, challenging and unpredict-

Exchange, teaching portfolio strategies

able. It was a great learning experience

to institutional investors.

He served for seven years on the

State University in 1971 and a doctorate

being given the opportunity 20 years

City of Tulsa Economic Development

in finance from Texas Tech in 1976.

ago to come to OSU,” says Trennepohl.

Commission, the Metro Tulsa Chamber Board, and the Tulsa Area United Way. He’s a member of the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals and Leadership Oklahoma (Class XIV) and chaired the board of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. In 2009, he was named Tulsa Man of the Year by the local chapter of the American Red Cross. Recently, Trennepohl was selected to be inducted into the Tulsa Historical Society’s Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2015. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame in 2013 and received the Greiner Undergraduate Teaching award from the Spears School in 2014. He was honored with the Loyal and True Award at the OSU 2014 Awards Convocation in Stillwater. He has been recognized as an OSU-Tulsa Founder. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Tulsa in May 1968, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force and served from 1968 to 1974 in the United States, Southeast Asia and Europe. He received a regular officer appointment in 1971, and was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal and Air Force Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster. He earned an MBA from Utah

He and his wife, Sandra, were married

“Go Pokes!”

in Tulsa in 1968 and have two daughters and two grandchildren. As for retirement, he says, “For most of us in professional occupations, retirement is really a change in daily routine. We continue to be as busy as ever, it’s just that you get to do pretty much what you want to do.” He will continue working with OSU doctoral students and the OSU Foundation. He will also continue on the boards of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System Board of Trustees, and teaching at the CBOE. “The main difference is that

Karen Ward Karen Ward, assistant director in the Center for Executive and Professional Development at the Spears School of Business, will retire in July after 40 years at Oklahoma State University and 39 years with the center. In 1969, Ward lived in Enid, where she met and married her husband. He was stationed at Vance Air Force Base and was taking extension classes from OSU through the GI Bill. The couple moved to Stillwater in 1974.

Sandra and I will do more traveling.

In 1975, Ward was hired to work in OSU’s

We enjoy cruises and will take a 14-day

Legal Counsel office. When the office was

European river cruise this summer and

dissolved, she went to OSU University

a Mediterranean cruise in fall,” he says.

Extension. The Business Extension office

“We also will have time to visit our two

in the College of Business asked her to

grandchildren, one in Tyler, Texas, and

join the staff temporarily. Ward went to

the other in Choctaw, Oklahoma.”

work for Bob Hamm, director, and Jim

“OSU students and graduates are wonderful people. Sandra and I have made many dear friends in the OSU family

Hromas, associate director of the Business Extension, which became the Center for Executive and Professional Development.

over the past 20 years and appreciate

“I really enjoyed working on the various

their loyalty to the University and the

courses and programs that the office

support they have given us. I appreciate

provided,” says Ward, who was offered a permanent position in January 1976. Ward has enjoyed working with Lee Manzer, professor in the Spears School, on many corporate onsite programs. “I’ve known Karen for close to 40 years and we are close friends,” says Manzer, a longtime professor in the Department of Marketing. “I put on many programs on how to improve service. You could look in the dictionary under excellent service and there would be a picture of Karen Ward. She is always responsive, always kind, always proactive, and always puts others’ best interests in the forefront rather than her own. I believe she has helped create CEPD’s culture, which is great customer service. As Karen retires,

Karen Ward with former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw.

continues summer 2015 engage@spears

RETIREMENTS a lot of institutional knowledge will go

individuals we serve. We have enjoyed

along with her. I can’t give enough acco-

some busy but great times.”

Reta Crane

She has been honored with the Staff

Reta Crane, an

CEPD also provides training and con-

Advisory Council Leadership Award and

administrative sup-

ferences to government officials. She

the A/P Staff Distinguished Service finalist

port specialist II in

assisted with the CPA Review Course and

award from OSU. She was the first recip-

the dean’s office,

the United States Information Agency

ient of the College of Business A/P Staff

retired after 18 years

program with the late Gerald Lage, and

Outstanding Service Award. Ward has

with th e S p e a r s

other grants and contracts.

also been recognized by the Stillwater

School of Business

lades about Karen Ward.”

She also worked on many special events such as the 30th and 60th anniversaries of the center, the MBA 50th celebration, and the 100th anniversary of the Spears School of Business. In October 2000 she was named assistant director of CEPD. In 1996, Ward helped develop and coordinate the Tulsa Business Forums speaker series for the Tulsa business community. This gave business professionals and MBA students the opportunity to hear business leaders on current issues. Ward and others have worked to bring

in the Stillwater area with the American

Oklahoma State University.

Cancer Society and many other nonprofit

Crane earned her bachelor’s degree in

organizations. In 1992, she was named an Honorary City Clerk by Yonkers, N.Y. she says. “When people heard that I was

teaching certificate from the University

going to retire, they asked me if I had my

of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.

bucket list. I didn’t, but being the list maker

For four years, Crane taught elementary

I am, I have one now including relaxing, reading, spending more time with my family and grandkids, helping families of lost veterans in some way since they have given their lives for us, and spending time on each of the coasts of the U.S.”

Cindy Conway

is very loyal and giving to the univer-

Cindy Conway, administrative support spe-

sity and the Center for Executive and

cialist in the Department of Management,

Professional Development,” says Julie

retired in March. She spent 22 years in the

Weathers, director of the center. “She

Spears School of Business at Oklahoma

has been such an integral member of our

State University.

team and has devoted a major portion of

First hired in March 1988, Conway worked

ment development and outreach in the business school occur in a quality way in our state and we will miss her dearly.”

school. She was employed in the wordprocessing center, assisting many of the faculty throughout the school, and she was a senior information specialist for

such as calling on companies in the Tulsa

research and financial services before her

area to be a sponsor of the series,” says

most recent position in the Management

Ward, who is grateful for their support

Department.

of the program, OSU, the Spears School

Conway created record-keeping forms still used in the college today. Her exper-

“What I will really miss are the individ-

tise with D2L (Desire to Learn) software

uals that have been part of the Business

was helpful to many throughout the busi-

Extension/CEPD family over the years.

ness school.

They have all worked very hard and have been committed to providing great professional customer service to all of the

in several capacities at the business

“There will be many things I will miss

and the Center.

engage@spears summer 2015

from Oklahoma State University. She also obtained an elementary education

“Karen is an outstanding person who

her life in making executive and manage-

family relations and child development

“I do wish the best for the CEPD family,”

over 100 nationally known speakers to the Tulsa business community.

and 30 years with

Volunteer Center for her many efforts

classes in the Stillwater area. Crane accepted her first position at OSU with Fire Protection Publications, where she was employed for 10 years. In 1992, she was named the Fire Protection Publications Employee of the Year. Crane went on to work for the Psychology Department as a financial assistant for three years. “Having a degree in FR&CD and being given the opportunity to work for the Psychology Department was a real joy,” she says. “Both were great jobs with wonderful people.” Crane joined the business school in 1997 as a senior administrative support specialist. “My position with the Spears School has given me many opportunities to meet and work with a diverse group of people. We are one of the largest colleges on campus; however, everyone shows a genuine interest in each other,” Crane says. “Reta Crane is one of the most considerate and helpful staff members with whom I have ever worked,” says Karen Culton, personnel manager in the Spears School. “She is always happy to assist with any task and very good with our staff and students. Reta is excellent at training and very patient in providing answers to questions. She cheerfully sends reminders to assist students and supervisors to meet

payroll deadlines and helps them to pro-

In 1991-1992, Ho was a visiting scholar

management. We will definitely miss his

vide necessary paperwork. I have valued

in the Department of Operations and

contributions to the school’s mission.”

Reta’s comments and have found her to

Systems Management at the Chinese

be a true team player, pitching in when-

University of Hong Kong. After returning

ever needed to help us achieve our goals

to OSU, he became a full professor in the

and get things done.”

Department of Management Science and

In 1998, Crane received the Human

Ron Miller Ron Miller, an asso-

Information Systems.

ciate professor in

Resources Star Performer Program

During his time as a faculty member of

the Department of

Certificate, and in 2012 she received

the Spears School of Business, Ho taught

Finance, retired in

the Ambassador Program Certificate of

thousands of undergraduate students

January after 34

Achievement from OSU. In 2008, she

in several courses, including operations

years with Okla-

was honored with the Spears School of

management and managerial decision

homa State Uni-

Business Outstanding Staff Award.

theory. He also taught production/oper-

versity.

“Although, I will miss working for the Spears School, I am looking forward to spending time with my family. We plan to travel and see the USA, family and friends. Also, we have home improvement projects planned,” Crane says. Crane is learning to play golf, since her husband, Mike, is an avid golfer. She also plans to return to painting oils. “I will miss Reta’s cheerful presence and wish her the very best as she and Mike enjoy some well-deserved time with family and friends,” says Culton.

David Ho David Ho, a professor in the Depart-

ations management, manufacturing and planning control, advanced production/ operations management, and advanced managerial decision theory at the graduate level.

Miller earned a bachelor’s degree in finance in 1972 and an MBA with an emphasis in finance in 1974 from the University of Missouri. In 1982, he earned a doctorate in finance from the University

Ho’s professional service included serving

of Missouri with topics in risk manage-

on the editorial board for the International

ment and insurance, data processing and

Journal of Business and Strategy and

quantitative methods.

as an associate editor for Management Review: An International Journal. He is a member of the Decision Sciences Institute, INFORMS and the Asia Pacific Decision Sciences Institute.

He began his career in the Department of Finance of the Spears School of Business in the fall of 1981. While at OSU, Miller taught hundreds of students in several finance topics

Ho’s research interests include system

including business colloquium, interna-

nervousness in manufacturing informa-

tional finance management, principles

tion systems, distribution requirements,

of retirement planning and selected

planning systems, appointment sched-

MBA topics.

uling and uncertainty buffering strategies.

“Ron Miller has been the ideal col-

ment of Manage-

His work is published in more than 40

league. Throughout his tenure at OSU

ment Science and

trade journals/newspapers and over

he was always willing to take on any task

Information Sys-

40 academic journals including the

to help the Finance Department,” says

tems , retired in

European Journal of Operational Research,

John Poloncheck, head of the Department

June after 32 years

International Journal of Production

of Finance. “When we needed a course

at OSU.

Planning & Control, International Journal of

taught, he volunteered to teach it. When

Production Research, Journal of Business

we needed someone to represent the

Logistics, Management Science, Omega:

department on a committee or task force,

The International Journal of Management

he did it, always putting the interests of

Science, and Production and Inventory

the department ahead of his personal

Management.

interests. When we needed advice on a

Ho earned a bachelor’s degree in management science from National Chiao-Tung University in Taiwan, an MBA from the University of Georgia and a doctorate in production and operations management from Michigan State University. He began his extensive career at the Spears School of Business as an assistant professor in the Department of Management in 1983 and became an associate professor in 1987.

“David has been a stalwart performer for the Spears School for over 30 years,” says Rick Wilson, head of the Department of Management Science and Information Systems. “He is an internationally known

complex problem or issue, he provided thoughtful and considered input. He was a great team player, a great educator and scholar. We will miss all that he contributed to the department.” @

scholar in supply chain and operations

summer 2015 engage@spears

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