Featured Stories March 2021
Nearly 100,000 community and business leaders from across the nation have signed up to take the free USF Muma College of Business' "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace" certificate program, offered later this month. The virtual program spotlights paths to making diversity, equality and inclusion a part of every workplace. Read more. To register, click here.
Melissa Seixas, president of Duke Energy in Florida, will be the next guest speaker at the Conversation with a CEO slated for April 1 at noon. The virtual format will feature Seixas, who took over the top spot at the utility giant last month, and Dean Moez Limayem in a casual conversation about her career path and life lessons that might resonate with others. Read more. To register, click here.
Hundreds attend the virtual 2021 Florida Supply Chain Summit, hosted by the Monica Wooden Center for Supply Chain Management and Sustainability at the Muma College of Business. Panel discussion topics ranged from driverless haulers to to Florida's coldchain to artificial intelligence in warehouses and supplying the states burgeoning space industry. Learn more.
USF students received a behind-the-scenes lesson in marketing and hospitality when the PGA Tour visited The Concession Golf Club in Manatee County for a four-day, nationally televised tournament. More than three dozen students assisted with marketing, merchandising and concessions as part of the PGA Tour World Golf Championships Mexico Championship.
Student Spotlight: Sara Atta's remarkable journey began in a culture in which only males received higher education. Now, the international student is poised begin a coveted internship at Goldman Sachs as an operations summer analyst with the financial corporation. In 2015, she made the move from Egypt to the U.S. and there was no looking back. Read more.
What is going on in the stock market? We keep hearing the names GameStop, Robinhood, Reddit. But what does it all mean for the average investor? To the seasoned investor? In what seems to be a never-ending saga of updates about the world of GameStop, USF Muma College of Business financial experts Dan Bradley and Leo Chen chime in. To read more, click here. 
Nearly 1,000 high school seniors attended, virtually, the annual USF Big Data Day earlier this month, said Kaushik Dutta, director of the School of Information Systems and Management. The event highlighted career paths within the information systems field for computer-savvy students and the paths that can help the youngsters prepare for them. Read more.
The Muma College of Business MBA program, already ranked among the best in the nation, was named one of the most affordable recently by Business Because. The publication listed the top-ranked programs in the nation and found that the USF MBA program was the second most affordable in the land. To read more, click here.
The Florida Small Business Development Center at USF shut down in-person training and events last year, but found that offering online and virtual training for small business owners and entrepreneurs exceeded the pace set in the year before the pandemic. As the nation begins to emerge from the lockdown, more people are seeking advice. Read more.
Cybersecurity Major Launched at Sarasota-Manatee Campus

The University of South Florida is offering a new major that provides students a pathway to high-paying careers in cybersecurity.

The Information Assurance and Cybersecurity Management program, which is hosted at the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus, is a unique major in the Muma College of Business that combines core courses in business with information assurance, cybersecurity management and analytics.

Students in the major attain valuable in-depth skills to work at an array of companies and large corporations, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. Learn more.
"I'm Speaking Series" Continues with Conversations that Inspire

The Women and Leadership Initiative sponsors multiple events throughout the year that focus on relevant topics. Designed to appeal to all genders, events are free and open to the public.

The series continues with Conversation that Inspire, offered virtually from 5-6:15 p.m. on March 18. For more information about the series, click here. To register, click here.
Sri Sundaram Talks about the Future of the St. Petersburg, USF's Role and More in a Recent Podcast.

Sri Sundaram, dean of the USF's Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance and the current chair of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, was a guest on the "Just Getting Started" podcast hosted by Catalyst. Sundaram also served as chair of the St. Petersburg Grow Smarter initiative (the comprehensive economic development plan) in 2019 and remains on the steering committee.

"St. Petersburg opens the arms and welcomes everybody," Sundaram said. "That's the intangible you don't have to talk about all the time. But you have to feel it to be a part of the city."

To listen to the podcast, click here.
Synapse Features the Collaboration of Jabil, USF and the Muma College of Business

The Synapse Summit, the top-rated event that features the state's leaders in innovation, concluded last week and one of the first sessions featured USF’s growing partnership with Jabil, a Fortune 150 industrial technology company headquartered in St. Petersburg.

The Muma College of Business and Jabil have joined forces on a number of collaborations, the most recent of which is the offering --free of charge -- of a certificate program on "Diversity, Equality and Inclusion," to begin later this month.

To read more about the Synapse segment, click here.
The USF Center for Entrepreneurship Ranks in the Nation's Top 20

For a decade and a half, The Princeton Review has ranked the graduate program at the University of South Florida’s Center for Entrepreneurship among the top 25 in the nation. The center, housed in the Muma College of Business, was recently ranked No. 18 in the nation and No. 9 among public universities. The program ranked higher than any other did the Southeast. To view the list, click here.
Sport & Entertainment Analytics Conference Set for Later this Week

The University of South Florida's Sport & Entertainment Analytics Conference is scheduled from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on March 18 and, for the first time, will be a 100 percent virtual event.

The annual conference, hosted by the Vinik Sport & Entertainment Management Program, provides a platform for students and industry professionals to discuss the important role of analytics in the global sport and entertainment industries.

The conference this year welcomes back Pulaski Academy football coach Kevin Kelley as the recipient of the 2021 Innovator in Analytics Award.

"Coach Kelley’s analytically driven coaching style has garnered nine state championships," said Mark Mondello, a professor in the program who coordinates the event. "In addition, as the conference theme is “What’s Next,” we also have sessions examining how sport consumption has changed and measured by the media and also the emergence of various forms of gambling."

To learn more and to register, click here.
Faculty Spotlights
Alumni Careers
Robert Tiller, director the Personal Financial Planning Program, was quoted in MoneyGeek earlier this month talking about liability-only car insurance. To read the piece, click here.
Murad Antia, finance instructor, wrote an opinion column recently discussing U.S. economies under both Democratic and Republican presidents. The piece was in the Tampa Bay Times. Read more.

Dejun "Tony" Kong, faculty director of the Bishop Center for Ethical Leadership, was featured recently in Florida Trend, talking about his teaching philosophy and how he effectively passes financial knowledge into students.

Russell Clayton, marketing instructor, recently collaborated on an article for Harvard Business' Inspiring Minds delving into what reading fiction can bring to the table in business education.

Dipayan Biswas, professor with the School of Marketing and Innovation, was awarded the “Outstanding Mentor” award, recognizing him for outstanding mentorship of PhD students.
Kimberly Higgins (‘20, Marketing, Management), has taken a job with Goldman Sachs as an operations analyst. She previously interned at Goldman Sachs and BlueGrace Logistics.
Macy Baker ('20, Supply Chain Management) now works as a materials planner for Refresco Beverages, where she is responsible for ordering all raw materials to be delivered to Refresco's Beverage Production and Co-Packing Plant in San Antonio, Texas.

David DeLeon (’14, Marketing) was selected as an Outstanding Young Alumni by the USF Alumni Association. DeLeon is a captain with the U.S. Air Force. He will be honored with other honorees at an awards ceremony scheduled for April 22.

Anthony "Tony" Morrison ('14, General Business Administration) was chosen as an Outstanding Young Alumni by the USF Alumni Association. Morrison is a senior producer for Good Morning America Digital. He will be honored with other selectees at an awards ceremony later this month.
In Other News ...
USF’s Delta Sigma Pi - Theta Phi business fraternity won three provincial awards in 2018-19, and was recently awarded two additional provincial awards for 2019-20. "This is great national recognition for the Muma College of Business," said Rick Kelso, instructor with the School of Marketing and Innovation and faculty adviser for the fraternity. 
The 2021 Fast 56 awards event presented by the USF Alumni Association has been rescheduled for Sept. 10, which allows for more time to nominate a Bull-led business and to complete the application form. Click here to view eligibility criteria. Nominations close on May 28. Click here to nominate a Bull business. Applications are due June 1.
An interdisciplinary team of researchers at USF has pooled its expertise and resources in order to help influence the effectiveness of public health messaging related to COVID-19. Researchers are collaborating with public health agencies and businesses to combine neuromarketing and biometric tools from the Center for Marketing and Sales Innovation neuromarketing lab with expertise in social marketing and health communications from the College of Public Health and Zimmerman School of Advertising. Read more.
Dates to Remember
Most In-person events planned for the near future have been canceled or postponed because of the threat of spreading COVID-19. Here are some virtual events scheduled in the near future:


  • March 15, 5-6:15 p.m. the I'm Speaking Series features Sky Indehen, Hillary Van Dyke and Gypsy Gillardo. To register for the virtual event, click here.

  • March 16, noon until 1 p.m., info session for prospective graduate students. To register, click here.

  • March 18, 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., the Sport and Entertainment Analytics Conference takes place. Read more.

  • April 1, noon, Conversation with a CEO featuring Melissa Seixas, state president of Duke Energy Florida. The event is free, but registration is required. To register, click here.

  • April 22, 6 p.m., the 2021 Outstanding Young Alumni Awards ceremony will be held. This hybrid event feature pre-recorded special guests and speakers along with a live question-and-answer session with the 2021 award recipients. To register, click here.

  • May 21-22, the Accounting Circle CPE Conference will take place in a virtual format. Watch for registration details.