September 2024 Newsletter from the USF Muma College of Business

Music exec Mathew Knowles talks 'Building the brand of Beyoncé' at Conversation with a CEO | Read more→

Could sampling healthy food bites at big box stores be bad for you? New research by Dipayan Biswas published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science looks at how sampling can lead to unhealthy choices.

The Florida SBDC at USF won the 2024 Region of the Year award during the State Performance Awards conference. The center won for delivering 21,481 hours of consulting to 3,401 small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Congratulations to the 2024 USF Alumni Award winners. The honorees include Jay Nault, the Distinguished Alumni Award; Byron E. Shinn, the Donald A. Gifford Service Award; and Monica Wooden, the Class of '56 Award.

The Muma College of Business kicked off the fall semester with free Week of Welcome t-shirts. The new academic year brings a new dean, new majors, and nearly 8,800 students.

Omar Soliman, co-founder of College Hunks Hauling Junk, shared his entrepreneurial story at the Conversation with a Founder event hosted by the USF Nault Center for Entrepreneurship.

Watch the video→

A new partnership between USF and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will help develop careers in sports, including one graduate fellow in the USF Vinik Sport and Entertainment program.

Greg Smersh, the Exide Professor of Finance and Real Estate, is holding the fifth annual Business Ethics Essay Competition. Writers can win up to $1,000 by responding to the topic, "Ethical Issues with AI."

USF's full-time MBA program is ranked No. 67 in the nation and No. 34 among public institutions, according to Fortune's "Best MBA Programs for 2025." USF moved up 11 spots, landing it among the "most improved."

Student Spotlight: Mason Thomas. A finance major and president of business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi, Mason Thomas is taking on leadership roles at USF while aiming for a future in corporate law.

Student Spotlight: Yadyra Guzman

Yadyra Guzman, a marketing student on the Sarasota-Manatee campus, writes about how USF's Center for Career & Professional Development set her on a path to success. Read more .

USF podcast features new dean

David W. Blackwell, the new Lynn Pippenger Dean at the Muma College of Business, is a featured guest on Inside USF: The Podcast where he talks about being a first-generation college student and his priorities for the college. Listen to the episode .

Faculty Spotlights

Ehsan Sheybani, a professor in the School of Information Systems and Management on the Sarasota-Manatee campus, was selected as a 2024 Fulbright Specialist.

Manish Agrawal, a professor in the School of Information Systems and Management, will have his NSF-funded software EdVision adopted by Florida Atlantic University.

Daniel Bradley, a professor in the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance was quoted in a CNBC story about Trump Media stock.

Kerry Myers, an associate professor of instruction at the Lynn Pippenger School of Accountancy, was featured on The Economics of Everyday Things podcast.

K. Doreen MacAulay, a professor of instruction in the School of Information Systems and Instruction, was quoted in a New York Times story about books to make caregiving more manageable.

Lei Wedge, an associate professor at the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance, was quoted in a news story about new rules for real estate agents and in a story about renting versus buying a home.

View more faculty notes

Alumni Updates

Kyle Free (‘24, MBA) was promoted to sourcing and contracts manager for Publix Super Markets.

Robin Snell (‘18, BS, Personal Finance) launched her own registered investment advisory firm, Nested Financial & Tax Planning.

Jamie Grant (‘14, Sport & Entertainment MBA) is the assistant vice president for strategy and operations at the NFL Players Association.

Orzumand Khodiev (‘18, BS, Marketing) is a supply chain program manager at Google. He is a former USF Muma College of Business 25 Under 25 Award honoree.

Jill Schiefelbein (‘23, DBA) has a new book coming out in November titled “Effective Business Communication for Dummies.”

Erika Langhans (‘06, BS, Accounting, ‘08, MAcc) is the new chief financial officer at the City of St. Petersburg.

Archie Hill (‘22, EMBA) published his first book, titled “Voice, Value, and Variety: The 3V’s of Recruiting and Retaining Adult Leadership in Boy Scouts of America.”

View more alumni notes

In Other News

The University of South Florida’s Supply Chain Innovation Lab has secured a phase 2 research study to identify truck staging locations to improve freight logistics in Tampa Bay communities.

The new state transportation project builds upon an initial project completed this past summer that looked at truck staging needs for short-term parking in the Tampa Bay area so truck drivers can safely wait for their delivery window.

The project’s second phase starts this fall and has a two-year completion schedule.