Featured Stories June 2021
The Muma College of Business, led by Lynn Pippenger Dean Moez Limayem, offered the "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace" certificate program that drew more than 135,000 registrants. In an exclusive AACSB blog, the dean details why it is important for colleges of business to take the lead in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. Read more.
Twenty-five of the best and brightest under 25 years old at the Muma College of Business emerged from a field of more than 100 this year. They represent those with excellent grades, engagement with the communities inside and outside the university and leadership skills. To read more about the remarkable students who made the list, click here.
Marketing Instructor Russell Clayton has some insights and advice for everyone who has worked from home for the past 15 months and who now faces a return to work. Clayton, an expert on workforce dynamics, admits we all got used to working from home and now some of us are unsure about how to go about coming back. To find out more about easing the transition, click here.
The annual USF Accounting Circle CPE Conference featured keynote speaker Joe Ucuzoglu, Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte US, which currently employs about 300 USF alumni. Conference registration was over 540 and 24 organizations sponsored the event. During the conference, Ucuzoglu also received the 2021 Lynn Pippenger Recognition Award. Read more.
A team of Vinik Sport & Entertainment Management grad students won first prize in the National Sports Forum case competition, beating a dozen other schools from around the globe. This is just in keeping with the Champa Bay theme and bringing the National Sports Forum Challenge Cup trophy to USF, said Samantha Hoo, a member of the team. Read more.
Anastasia Taylor, a grad of the Muma College of Business' School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, saw her chosen field collapse under the weight of COVID-19. But now there's an industry recovery and the school is also seeing a rebirth and renewed interest as more students are enrolling in the program that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees. Read more.
Exploratory Lab boot camp (ExLabs) graduated 15 Muma College of Business students from its first 100 percent virtual experience this May. The students took the initiative to create their various business plans and each group was given the objective of identifying a problem and solving it using Internet Of Things methods. The industry and type of project they chose was up to each group. Read more.
Richard Kopelman has come a long way from when he was 13, helping his mother make cold sales calls in South Florida, hawking pre-paid funerals.
Now, Kopelman, a USF alumnus, serves as CEO of Aprio, a nationally recognized, CPA-led business advisory firm headquartered in Atlanta. He was the guest at a recent Conversation with a CEO and talked about his life and career. Read more.
Chris Arroyo felt obligated to continue his education because he saw the difficulties his parents faced without college degrees. Throughout his time in school, Arroyo kept one overarching goal: to make his parents proud. Arroyo graduated in December with a bachelor’s degree in finance and this fall, he’s headed to Washington, D.C., to begin a master’s degree program at Georgetown University. Read more.
Florida Business Analytics Forum Focuses on AI, Biases in Health

Artificial intelligence identifies, screens and in some cases treats children with dyslexia. Algorithms now detect high-risk patients to funnel them into preventative care programs. Other algorithms can predict a patient’s mortality based on random scans of chest X-rays.

The gist of the topics covered at the Florida Business Analytics Forum last month was that artificial intelligence is making huge strides in the medical industry and the future looks even brighter. But there is a long way to go to perfect the technology that may be relatively unknown among the general population whose only glimpse of artificial intelligence comes from “The Terminator” movies. Read more.
Citing Ongoing Partnerships with USF, Williams Automotive Group Gifts $150,000

Williams Automotive Group this month announced a donation of $150,000 over three years to the USF Muma College of Business, $120,000 of which will go to the Center for Marketing and Sales Innovation operating fund and $30,000 of which will go to establish an endowed scholarship for sales students.

Mike Speigl, president of the group, is familiar with the center. He was a judge and active participant in the Selling with the Bulls competition this spring. The group also hired a student from the program as a full-time employee. “This is a big day for us,” said Moez Limayem, the Lynn Pippenger Dean of the Muma College of Business, at the donation event held at Tampa Honda, a dealership in the Williams Automotive Group.
Executive Advisory Council Member Inducted into 2021 Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame

Colleen Chappell, an alumna of USF, CEO of ChappellRoberts and valued member of the Muma College of Business Executive Advisory Council, was named to the Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame at the 33rd Annual Induction Ceremony last month. She is a Dale Carnegie graduate and accredited in public relations by the Public Relations Society of America.

She has made lasting impacts on the community by serving as a board member for the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Council (chair/executive board), American Marketing Association Professional Chapters Council (national member), Tampa Bay American Marketing Association (president) and Feeding Tampa Bay (development/marketing chair).

The Hall of Fame induction recognizes exceptional individuals – visionaries – who have distinguished themselves through their contributions to the Tampa Bay Community.

Faculty Spotlights
Alumni Careers
Lin Jiang and Dezhi Yin received the 2021 William A. Owens Scholarly Achievement Award from the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology for an Academy of Management Journal paper published in 2019.

Greg Smersh is now director of Real Estate Studies in the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance. He has served as faculty advisor for the Real Estate Society at USF since its inception in 2015.

Jared Williams' paper, "Stock Market Anomalies and Baseball Cards" won The Financial Review Editorial Board Best Paper Award for 2020.
Dan Bradley co-authored two papers that were published in two top journals. "Does Analyst Coverage Affect Workplace Safety?" appeared in AFA 2019 Atlanta Meetings Paper and "Non-Deal Roadshows, Informed Trading, and Analyst Conflicts of Interest," was in AFA San Diego Meetings Paper.

Cihan Cobanoblu, director of the M3 Center on the USF Sarasota-Manatee campus, co-authored a paper titled "What an Analysis of Covid-19-Related Lawsuits Shows About the Future of Hotels and Restaurants," that appeared in Hospitality.net.

Pavla Ozkul, director of Employer Relations and Study Abroad in the Collier Student Success Center, was quoted in a story that appeared on WTVT in Tampa about how the post-pandemic job market is shaping up for graduates.

Hao Wang, a marketing doctoral student, and marketing professors Anand Kumar and Doug Hughes, director of the School of Marketing and Innovation, won the 2021 James M. Comer Award for the Best Contribution to Selling and Sales Management Theory for the article: “Effectual Selling in Service Ecosystems,” published in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.
Pallavi Gopee (’18, Business Administration) has taken a job with Google as a recruiting coordinator in Austin, Texas. She previously was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Brittanie Bakken (’20, MBA, '18, Marketing) has started a job as a simulation technician with Mohawk Industries. Previously, she served as a graduate teaching assistant in the Muma College of Business. She was a 25 Under 25 honoree in 2020.

Reece Anderson (’16, MS in Sport & Entertainment Management; '15, MBA) was named corporate partnerships director with the NHL's Florida Panthers. He previously was the director of corporate partnerships with the Vinik Sports Group, the parent company of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

David Filer, ('98 MBA; '93, Finance) is now serving as a chief information officer with ProVest. He previously served as an executive consultant and before that was the vice president of risk and quality at Nielsen.

John McKay, ('92, Accounting), has joined Neal Land & Neighborhoods as a financial and community development manager in a role in which he provides financial reporting and project financial analysis. He previously served as director of real estate services with Rizzetta & Company. 
DEI in the Workplace Certificate by the Numbers:

The "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Workplace" certificate program recently concluded with more than 135,000 registrants. In the end, 62,463 participants completed the full program and received the certificate and badge -- far more than the average for such programs. As a comparison, Raymond James Stadium's capacity is 65,618.
In Other News ...
Welcome to “Inside USF: The Podcast,” created especially for University of South Florida faculty, staff and alumni. For busy alumni, this is a way to learn about the important work taking place across the university's three campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee. Every other Friday, listen to an interview with a member of the faculty or staff about their expertise and their contributions, including in ground-breaking research, inspiring community service efforts, the arts, athletics and much more. Meet the people who are helping make USF America’s fastest-rising public university. Read more.
Dates to Remember
Most in-person events have been canceled or postponed because of the threat of spreading COVID-19. The university will soon resume in-person events beginning in the fall semester. Here are some events scheduled in the near future:

  • Aug. 27, Muma College of Business Scholarship Luncheon, time and location to be announced.
  • Sept. 9, noon, Conversation with a CEO, featuring Mike Sutton, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Pinellas and West Pasco counties. The event is free, but registration is required. To register, click here.
  • Oct. 26, noon to 1;30 p.m., the Monica Wooden Center for Supply Chain Management and Sustainability open house is set to take place in the Muma College o business atrium.