October 2024 Newsletter from the USF Muma College of Business

The Florida SBDC at USF is on-site at several Mobile Assistance Centers to help small businesses affected by Hurricane Milton. Owners can apply for economic injury disaster loans, physical disaster loans and emergency bridge loans to help rebuild and recover.

Due to Hurricane Milton, USF has rescheduled its homecoming festivities. The college's Homecoming Parade Watch Party is now set for Friday, Nov. 8. The event includes food and drink samples from local eateries. Registered guests receive an event T-shirt.

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The new crop of high-growth startups are taking part in the third FinTech|X Accelerator program. The program is hosted by Tampa Bay Wave and the Muma College of Business and aims to nurture 10 fintech startups with resources, mentorship, and connections over 90 days.

Business leaders engaged with faculty from the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance to discuss the rapidly evolving field of fintech. The event included short presentations on research.

Congratulations to USF's Bellini Center for Talent Development for being named an honoree in the supporter category of the 2024 Tampa Bay Inno Awards, which celebrate local innovators.

Student spotlight: Jalen Anderson, a master's student studying fintech and a soccer player at USF, was featured in Forbes magazine discussing his goal of pursuing a career combining finance and AI.

Congratulations to USF's Mikyoung Lim, a PhD student in marketing, for winning the prestigious 2024 Association for Consumer Research-Sheth Foundation Dissertation Award.

Applications are open for the 2025 ReliaQuest Labs. The program is for USF juniors, seniors, and graduate students interested in a career in cybersecurity.

Student Spotlight: Justin Kwitchoff. The finance major landed four internships and already has a full-time job lined up after his spring 2025 graduation.

Alumni Spotlight: Alyssa England

Alyssa England earned three degrees from USF and completed the SHRM Essentials of Human Resources class to grow as a recruiter at Kerkering Barberio. One-third of the accounting firm's team are USF alumni. Listen to what alumni say about working for this top-ranked, locally owned CPA firm. Watch video. Read more.

New McKibbon co-op cohort begins

The USF School of Hospitality and Tourism Management began the second year of the Cooperative Learning Program with a new group of talented students. In partnership with McKibbon Hospitality, students get hands-on experience working alongside industry leaders.

Faculty Spotlights

Seckin Ozkul, an assistant professor in supply chain management, was quoted in WUSF and Bay News 9 regarding the impacts of the port workers’ strike and in Freight Waves about the state’s gas supplies ahead of Hurricane Milton.

Shivendu Shivendu, an associate professor in the School of Information Systems and Management, was interviewed by Bay News 9 about the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut.

Lei Wedge, an associate professor at the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance, was quoted in a Tampa Bay Times news story about the Federal Reserve’s rate cut.

Jean Kabongo, an associate dean for academic affairs, accreditation, and compliance, was appointed to the Graduate School of Business Leadership advisory board at the University of South Africa.

Dipayan Biswas, the Frank Harvey Endowed Professor of Marketing, was featured in news stories in Yahoo Life, Bay News 9, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about research on whether free healthy food samples promote better eating habits.

Jong Chool Park, an associate professor at the Lynn Pippenger School of Accountancy, was featured in the CLS Blue Sky Blog of Columbia Law School.

View more faculty notes

Alumni Updates

Matthew Harvey (’19, BS, Management) has stepped into the role of Drone in the Box Operations Lead at Florida Power & Light.

Glenn Genereux (’93, BA, Accounting) joined EBizCharge as a strategic partner for accounts receivable integration solutions. Genereux has been consulting on a year-long bankruptcy and forensic audit involving fraud.

David Reali (’09, BA, Accounting) was named one of Bradenton's Best in the tax services and accounting firms categories for 2024. His firm, David J. Reali, PLLC, was also a 2024 Manatee Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year Award nominee.

Kayla Fineran (’13, BS, Marketing, ’15, MBA/MS, Sport and Entertainment Management) is the new head of partnerships at Satisfi Labs. She is a former USF Muma College of Business 25 Under 25 Award honoree.

Simone King (’15, MS, Marketing) founded her business, M.A.D. JUICE LLC.

Bisma Balouch (’19, BS, Finance, ’21, MS, Information Systems and Decision Sciences) is a senior business analyst at Raymond James. She is a former USF Muma College of Business 25 Under 25 honoree.

Joshua Goldberg (’13, BS, Finance, Accounting) is a senior data scientist at Amazon.

View more alumni notes

In Other News

The University of South Florida is recognizing Professor Marvin Karlins' 50th anniversary on the USF faculty with a display featuring several of his authored and edited books.

Karlins is the longest-serving active professor in the Muma College of Business and the second-longest-serving professor at the university.

The library display also includes Karlins' USF President's Award, two Teacher of the Year Awards from the college, and recognition for his two decades of work in the aviation industry. Karlins will also be included in USF's oral history project.

The display is on the fourth floor of the Tampa campus library during its visitor hours through October.