UConn Today – After a dozen remarkable years at the helm of the School of Business, Dean John A. Elliott will step aside next month and return to the accounting faculty.
Elliott’s many achievements include creating new academic programs, expanding hands-on learning opportunities, championing the development of entrepreneurship programs serving all students, and expanding business education at regional campuses in Stamford and Hartford.
He spearheaded the rapid and successful pivot from in-person to online education at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, something he described as one of his biggest challenges.
His impact extends well beyond UConn, having mentored three associate deans who went on to lead business schools at the University of New Hampshire, Michigan State, and DePaul during the last three years.
UConn Today – Two years before he joined the UConn Men’s Soccer Team as a walk-on player, Jack Loura ’24 (BUS) was part of the “goal patrol,” a pack of ardent fans standing behind the opposing team’s net and heckling the goalie.
Loura wrapped up his college soccer career just a few weeks ago, devoting three years to playing for the team and serving as a co-captain. Today he’s pursuing a graduate degree in financial technology at the UConn School of Business. And he’s hoping to further his soccer career with the United Soccer League, parent company of the Hartford Athletic team.
UConn Foundation – UConn has certainly seen big changes over the past 58 years, but at least one thing remains constant: Lawrence Handler ’67 (BUS) just keeps giving back. Handler made his first philanthropic gift in 1968 and as he says, “there’s been no reason to stop.”
In honor of National Philanthropy Month, Handler recently answered some questions about what inspires him to stay involved with his beloved University.
UConn Today – After studying and working in Germany for a year, Michelle Buerkler ’24 (BUS) found herself in high demand in the job market. Potential employers were impressed by her willingness to take a risk, become fluent in German, and immerse herself in a new culture far from home.
Alumnus Rich Eldh ’81 and his wife Joyce Eldh are supporting 13 Bridgeport students who are pursuing their degrees from UConn through the Eldh Family Scholarship Fund. The couple recently attended the School of Business’ Hall of Fame ceremony with some of their scholars. Pictured from left are: Rich Eldh, alumna Jayde Lopez ’24, undergraduates Francesca Rameau, Stenielza Marseille and Elyjeh Ortiz and Joyce Eldh. (Contributed Photo)
Couple Provide Scholarships, Friendship, Encouragement to UConn Students
Alumnus Rich Eldh ’81 and wife Joyce Eldh will fund scholarships this year that will enable 13 students from Bridgeport to attend UConn. The couple will cover all tuition, not funded by scholarships or grants, as well as room, board, and spending money.
But beyond their financial gift, the Westport, Conn., couple is tremendously invested in those students’ careers and wellbeing.
They’ve taken their student-scholars bowling and out to lunch, invited them to be their guests at the School of Business’ Hall of Fame dinner while encouraging them to network with some powerful alumni, helped them with their LinkedIn profiles and thank-you notes—and even offered advice on what necktie would look best for a job interview. Continue Reading
Sharing Highlights of a Successful, Innovative Year
The 2024 Dean’s Annual Report is just dropping, and I’m excited to share some of the highlights and accomplishments at the School of Business this year.
Throughout our 20-page report, you’ll find articles, photos, employment statistics, and evidence of the boundless enthusiasm of our students, faculty, alumni and staff. Some of you will receive it in the mail, but in the interest of saving trees and reducing cost, it is also available online.
UConn Magazine – Working as the head of an investment management firm for 19 years, Steve Wilson found himself frustrated by the gender disparity he saw in the field. He wanted to hire women as investment professionals but struggled to find enough who were trained and qualified.
“I realized that colleges weren’t preparing enough women to enter the field,” Wilson explains. “I think it was a combination of a lack of awareness of career opportunities and perhaps, to some degree, self-selection — with too many fully qualified women thinking ‘I’m not good enough, so I’m not going to try’ or ‘It’s a hostile space, so why would I put myself out there?’”
Poets and Quants – The success of any MBA program makeover is in how quickly the new program establishes itself. By this measure, the restructuring at the University of Connecticut School of Business has been fantastically — perhaps even unprecedentedly — successful.
UConn shuttered its traditional two-year MBA in 2021 and redirected its resources into two 42-credit programs: a new 100% Online MBA and a part-time Flex MBA, the latter a hybrid program available in Hartford, Stamford, and online.
UConn Today – Any company that strives to be profitable and successful needs to include women and other diverse representatives in its leadership. Yet even in the most forward-focused organizations, women may still face obstacles to inclusion.
Sameer Somal, a tech entrepreneur and the co-founder of Girl Power Talk and Girl Power USA, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping you women become leaders in business and society, will share his experiences and perspective on empowering women during the next Equity Now presentation on Nov. 19. The event is sponsored by School of Business.
Left to right, Martin Mende, Gergana Nenkov, Anita Rao, and Michael Posner.
The Marketing Department at the UConn School of Business hosted its 12th annual Voya Financial Colloquium on the topic of “Social Responsibility and Impact in Business.” The event, held on Oct 25th, 2024, brought together researchers from diverse perspectives to discuss the role of business in economic, social and environmental sustainability.
“This year’s topic is near and dear to our hearts, as it dovetails with the soft launch of our new MS program in Social Responsibility and Impact in Business. In our program, we think of this as encompassing many areas – it’s not just environmental sustainability, but also economic and social sustainability, as well as fair labor practices, and more,” said UConn Marketing professor Christina Kan, who organized the event.
The colloquium featured four distinguished speakers – Professors Martin Mende, Gergana Nenkov, Anita Rao and Michael Posner – each of whom approached the topic from a different lens – including marketing and law – as well as different methodologies – including experimental and econometric approaches.
The colloquium fostered an energetic discourse between speakers and participants. Faculty and doctoral students from all over the UConn campus attended, including marketing, law and the Human Rights Institute. Also in attendance were guests from UMass and URI.
Below are profiles of the guest speakers and an abstract of their presentations:
Martin Mende, the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation Professor in Services Leadership at Arizona State University, provided an overview of multiple papers at the intersection of a sustainable future and financial inclusion. He first discussed how the United Nations (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can serve as a fruitful foundation for impactful marketing research, and the areas in which consumer research has made progress, as well as opportunities for future research. Second, he described how financial inclusion is critical for progress toward many of the SDGs. He presented insights from field studies on how mainstream banks can more successfully operate in banking deserts by increasing consumers’ perception of communal financial orientation. He also shared results from a series of studies on racial discrimination in financial loan services.
Gergana Nenkov is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Carroll School of Management, and Affiliate Faculty at the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Boston College. Her presentation featured research on how to enhance environmental sustainability. While the “3Rs” of sustainable living – reduce, reuse, recycle – have been widely promoted, consumer practices that reduce consumption waste by extending products’ lifespan have more direct environmental benefits. Professor Nenkov shared research identifying strategies to extend product lifespans through encouraging consumers to: 1) reuse and 2) repair their products. She found that transformation salience (i.e., giving products a new life by transforming them) can be harnessed to increase the duration of product usage. She also shared insights that promoting repair behavior as a commitment to one’s products can be an effective communication strategy, especially among a brand’s loyal consumers, who are particularly inclined to upgrade rather than repair their branded possessions.
Anita Rao, the Beyer Family Associate Professor of Marketing at Georgetown University, explored how animal welfare labels impact consumer demand for fresh meat products in the German grocery retailing sector. Her research approach exploits the quasi-experimental variation in consumers’ exposure to the label to measure the impact on (i) choices of meat labeled with the highest animal welfare standard, and (ii) the change in the willingness to pay for meat associated with the highest animal welfare standard. Her findings reveal that the share of households’ meat purchases with the highest animal welfare standards goes up by 2.19 percentage points and the willingness to pay increases by 0.31 (EUR/500g) for the average German household after the label introduction. Altogether, her research speaks to the notion that consumers are actually willing to change their behavior when presented with accurate information on the conditions under which animals are raised.
Michael Posner is the Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics and Finance at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and the Director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at the School, the first-ever human rights center at a business school. He offered a thought-provoking presentation on human rights in business. He noted that over the last 30 years, there has been increasing attention to the obligations of global companies to protect human rights in their business operations. Initially most companies drew the line at abiding by local laws in the places where they do business. Gradually many companies have come to realize that they need to do more. As the European Union starts to build a more ambitious global regulatory model, Professor Posner assessed the current state of efforts to promote human rights as a core business priority, especially for large multinational companies.
