October 7, 2020
In the News
The Personal Financial Planning program has been ranked number 44 in the country by WealthManagement.com. The program began in 2017 and continues to grow and introduce more career options to USF students.
Finance Professor Richard Borghesi was cited in a recent Washington Post article that covers compensating collegiate athletes and the racial inequality that exists among different sports. Borghesi is quoted saying, "No convincing argument has been made that players should not be compensated far more than they currently are.”
Professor Robert Tiller recently published "Forgotten Faces: Family Caregiver Voices." Watch the introductory video here. The book walks you through the stories and lives of four caregivers to cognitively impaired family members. The book is now available in hardcover, softcover and e-book (Nook at Barnes & Noble, Kindle at Amazon).
Professor Murad Antia's opinion column was published in the Tampa Bay Times. The piece covers the economy over the past three years in comparison to the three years prior.
Upcoming Events
Oct. 23, 10-11:30 a.m.: The Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance will host a series of brown-bag, virtual seminars. Please follow our social media pages for more details.
Oct. 30: Tiedemann-Cotton Dean Sri Sundaram will speak at the Leadership in the Age of Personalization virtual summit. The summit will feature experts in industries including health care, corporate America and higher education.
In case you missed it
Sept. 30, Dean Sri Sundaram took some time out of his day to answer frequently asked questions from Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance students. Be sure to follow us on social media so you don't miss the next one!
The Dean's Corner
It is hard to believe that we are at the mid-point of the fall semester. University of South Florida’s mitigation efforts have been successful in helping keep the incidences of COVID-19 cases to one of the lowest levels among public universities. All of our classes are offered in a fully online or hybrid (in person and online) modality. This has helped us deliver the courses in a safe manner for both students and faculty. After Thanksgiving holidays, we will be operating fully remotely and students will complete their semester online. As we plan the schedule for spring we have adopted a similar approach that affords us the flexibility needed to adapt to any environment. 

The financial impact of the pandemic on the university budget will result in $36.7 million budget reductions for the current fiscal year. This cut reflects an 8.5 percent reduction in state funds for this year. In addition, USF President Steve Currall has announced the additional cuts for the next fiscal year. This will have significant implications for the USF Muma College of Business and the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance. But every challenge provides us an opportunity to innovate and re-imagine ourselves. I will be working collaboratively with our college and campus leadership team to approach these budget reductions in a strategic manner. 

Kudos to our students who have successfully navigated these challenging times and our faculty and staff who continue to do an amazing job. I want to commend everyone’s efforts to deliver a rich learning environment for our students during this pandemic. 

We are thankful for the continued support from our community and university partners. We all look forward to returning to campus and meeting everyone in person sometime in 2021!

Best,

Sri Sundaram
Tiedemann-Cotton Dean
Donor Contributions

Ellen Cotton donated $100,000 to the Ellen Cotton Fund for Student Engagement. This gift supports the goals and objectives of student organizations within Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance including equipment and supplies, participation and travel for competitions, support for individual and small group projects, including community outreach projects, and miscellaneous expenses.
Student Spotlights
Kirill Pervun began the PhD in finance program in 2016 and over the past several years he has presented his research at a number of conferences. Most recently, Pervun presented his paper, Athlete CEOs and Corporate Outcomes, at FMA (New Orleans, 2019), SFA (Orlando, 2019), Florida Finance (Orlando, 2019), EFA (Boston, 2020 canceled due to COVID-19). The paper shows that firms managed by chief executive officers with a background in competitive sports are more profitable, invest more in long-term projects and take on less debt. A second study, "Excellence in Motion: Athletic CEOs and Corporate Social Responsibility," co-authored with Ninon Sutton and a group of researchers from Hong Kong, finds that athlete-CEO-run companies have significantly higher corporate social responsibility ratings. Another research paper, "From Athletes to Entrepreneurs: Participation in Youth Sports as the Precursor of Future Business Endeavors," co-authored with Dirk Libaers and Ninon Sutton, reveals that former youth athletes with background in individual sports, but not in team sports, are three times more likely to start a business and become entrepreneurs. 
Hung Dang received an undergraduate degree in finance at USF and soon enrolled in the Master of Science in Finance program. His career goal is to become a financial analyst. While an undergraduate, Dang worked as a financial services intern for Mott and Associates. Dang was a member of the of the Junior Achievement Association where he taught students age 11 to 17 how to budget, save, invest and how to control their own financial futures and careers.
Alumni Spotlight
William Atterbury was a student-athlete at USF from 2015-2020. Atterbury received his undergraduate degree in finance, and continued on to earn a master’s degree in entrepreneurship. The offensive guard was named a 25 under 25 student in April 2020 and is now working at a Fortune 500 insurance firm, Western & Southern. He has recently taken his licensure exams that will allow him to do more in personal finance.

On Sept. 25, the Muma College of Business recognized Atterbury at the Executive Advisory Council meeting where he thanked USF for the opportunities he had through the athletics department as well as Muma College of Business.

“To have the luxury to say I already have a job, I owe that all to USF and the people of this community who have taken such good care of me over the past five years, the coaches, advisers, and professors that I’ve had,” Atterbury said.
Faculty Spotlight
Professor Murad Antia has been teaching at USF for more than twenty years. Currently teaching financial statement analysis, Antia hopes that students walk away from his class with the ability to read and analyze financial statements and understand the language of accounting.

In addition to his commitment to teaching, Antia has dedicated his research to the nation’s economy. Just last year, Antia shared his predictions with us for the economic future. This year he has been working to publish articles that explain the state of the economy before the COVID-19 pandemic. His most recent column published by the Tampa Bay Times covers the economic performance of the past three years under our current administration. Antia hopes “to set the record straight,” as we get closer to the election.
Employee Kudos

Julie Harding is the coordinator of academic advising for the Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance on the USF St. Petersburg campus. She was recently contacted by a new aluma who thanked her for her help in achieving her goals -- and ahead of schedule. The aluma, a busy mother, expressed her gratitude to Harding.

Our advisors play an essential role in the success of our students. Thank you, for your continued dedication to USF as you celebrate your 14th year on the St. Petersburg campus this October.
Faculty Publications
Sanchez, E. Jr. & Oh, J. (2020) "The unexpected and stickiness behavior of institutional investors in index funds" Managerial Finance, Volume: ahead-of-print Issue (2020) ISSN: 0307-4358 Online ISSN: 1758-7743 | Click to read

Pantzalis, C.& Meng, Y. (2020) “Foreign-Born Resident Networks and Stock Comovement: When Local Bias Meets Home (Country) Bias” Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis
USF Muma College of Business
Kate Tiedemann School of Business and Finance