The best and brightest of UConn School of Business were honored Friday morning, April 25 at the 2014 School of Business Awards & Honors ceremony. Honorees, family and friends gathered in the Dave Ivry Seminar Classroom at the School of Business in Storrs for the annual celebration, where 2014 Student Hall of Fame Fellows were recognized, Ackerman Scholars were awarded, Faculty Awards were presented, and new members were officially inducted to the Beta Gamma Sigma honor society.

Following an introduction by Assistant Professor in Residence Clifford Nelson, Beta Gamma Sigma faculty president, awards were presented by School of Business Dean John Elliott and Associate Dean Larry Gramling, who personally congratulated the recipients on their achievements.

Guest speaker Marcia Marien, CPA, ’84, partner at O’Connor Davies, LLP, spoke to the honorees about the responsibility that comes with being a gifted student. Marien, an active member of the Connecticut Society of CPAs (CTCPA), encouraged inductees to “share their gift” by volunteering at organizations that need them and using their talents to help others.

Following the talk, the 101st Annual Beta Gamma Sigma New Member Induction ceremony took place.

About Beta Gamma Sigma

Beta Gamma Sigma is an international scholastic honor society that provides the highest recognition a business student anywhere in the world can receive in a baccalaureate or post-baccalaureate (graduate) program at a school accredited by AACSB International.

The objectives of the society are to encourage and honor high academic achievement by students of business, foster in its members an enduring commitment to honor and integrity, pursuit of wisdom, and earnestness, and to support the advancement of business so as to encourage life-long learning.

The induction ceremony follows a networking reception earlier this month which brought together Beta Gamma Sigma alumni, faculty, and current business students. Alumni spoke to their experience with the international honor society including professional connections, career opportunities, and academic prestige. Dean Elliott spoke to the prominence of the Beta Gamma Sigma organization in the business industry and its value to the UConn School of Business.

Please join us as we congratulate the following award winners and initiates:

2014 STUDENT HALL OF FAME FELLOWS

Undergraduate Program – Robert Byron Bunda, Paul R. DeSalvo, Kimberly A. Halpin

Hartford EMBA Program – Gregory J. Lancaster

Waterbury MBA Program – Nita F. Drakatos 

Full-time MBA Program – Michael Maczka

Hartford MBA Program – Sarah B. Jeffrey 

Stamford MBA Program – Tiffany Betz

MS in Accounting Program – Ricki Livingston

Ph.D. Program – Lauren D’Innocenzo

MS in Financial Risk Management Program – Sourav Sengupta

MS in Business Analytics and Project Management Program – Arda Zuber

2014 FACULTY AWARDS

Best Paper – Nicholas Lurie

Research Excellence – David Souder

Graduate Teaching – Girish Punj

Undergraduate Teaching – Eugene Salorio

Teaching Innovation – Shantaram Hegde, Nora Madjar

Service – Eugene Salorio, Zeki Simsek

Ackerman Scholars – Continuing from Fall 2013 to Spring 2015 – Sulin Ba, Joseph Golec, XinXin Li, Zeki Simsek, Jan Stallaert

Ackerman Scholars – New for Fall 2014 to Spring 2016 – Xue Bai, Qing Cao, Jose Cruz, Gary Powell, Suresh Nair

2014 BETA GAMMA SIGMA INDUCTEES

Undergraduate Inductees
Susana Arslanov, Stephannie Bennett, Andrew Bernardin, Stephen Birbiglia, Andrew Butterworth, Cassandra Dixey, Rebecca Ferland, Austin Flynn, Patricia Haire, Emily Jepson, Kevin Kibbey, Ryan Lange, Peter Liptack, Erica Luther, Anastasia Matskovich, Shannon Murphy, Jennifer Paris, Dayana Peykova, Akanksha Singh, Melissa Smith, Kristy Solomon, Erick Zadanowski, Yue Zhu

MBA Inductees
Guru Anginthayya, Kenneth Audo, Jennifer Bui, Donald Butts, Swatee Chachra, Harsh Chheda, John Cooley, Christopher Gaito, Eric Gehrmann, Sarah Jeffrey, Christopher Jones, Ruchi Karania, Amber Kocay, Lauren Kramer, Pronpong Lueang-A-Papong, Kelly Mirmina, Richard O’Keefe, Tugba Onder, Erik Peterson, Sunil Rao, Joshua Reed, Mitchell Riccione, Lisa Rinta-Tuuri, Peter Safe, Erin Santa, Ryan Sexton, Thomas Smith 

Executive MBA Inductees
Gregory Lancaster, Alvaro Santos, Caroline Ward

MSA Inductees
Dionne Conrad, Wei Dai, Jonathan DeAngelo, Jonathan Fraser, Zhechao Jin, Jaimie Kowalsky, Patrick Lee, Ricki Livingston, Michael McFarland, Ashley Muraswinski, Karishma Patel, Allen Ryan, Srishti Sarin, Anthony Spinnato, Hong Su, Ke Yao, Chenyue Zhang

Ph.D. Inductees
Jeff Carlson, Lauren D’Innocenzo, Norman Massel, Lei Wang, Tingyu Zhou