http://whitman.syr.edu/newsroom/Get the lastest news from the Whitman School.en-ushttp://whitman.syr.edu/Newsroom/News.aspx?id=1773Melvin T. Stith, dean of Syracuse University's Martin J. Whitman School of Management, has been appointed to the board of directors at Aflac Inc. Aflac, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Columbus, Ga., provides insurance products to more than 50 million people worldwide. Stith’s term began May 7. “We’re pleased to welcome Dr. Stith to the Aflac Inc. board,” says Aflac Chairman and CEO Daniel P. Amos. “Dr. Stith brings a wealth of leadership skills, management experience and financial acumen to our board and we look forward to his many contributions.” Stith currently serves as director of the board for the Beta Gamma Sigma International Honor Society; trustee of the Synovus Financial Corp.'s Leadership Institute and director of the Synovus Member Audit Committee; director and past chairman of the board of PHT Services Ltd.; founding director and vice chair of the grant making committee of the Jim Moran Foundation; director of the board for Flowers Food Corp. (as well as sitting on the corporation's compliance and governor's committee); and director of the Pathways Commission. In Syracuse, he is director of the Everson Museum of Art and Crouse Hospital boards, vice president of the Crouse Hospital Foundation and a member of the advisory board of Syracuse University's Institute for Veterans and Military Families and the local professional theater, Syracuse Stage. His previous corporate board experiences include serving as director for GMAC, the Florida Endowment Fund, JM Family Enterprises Youth Automotive Training Center, Tallahassee State Bank, Correctional Services Corp., Corporate and Estate Analysis Inc., Keebler Foods Co., Sprint/United Telephone Florida and Rexall Sundown Inc. Stith returned to his alma mater, SU, in January 2005 to become the Martin J. Whitman School of Management's 16th dean. From 1991-2004, he was dean and the Jim Moran Professor of Business Administration in the College of Business at The Florida State University, where he previously was associate professor and chair of the marketing department. In addition, he was a visiting professor in the School of Business and Industry at Florida A&M University from 1982-1985, and associate dean and assistant professor in the College of Business at the University of South Florida from 1977-1982.]]>Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttp://whitman.syr.edu/Newsroom/News.aspx?id=1771The South Side Innovation Center (SSIC) received the prestigious Dinah Adkins Incubator of the Year, General and Special Interest award from the National Business Incubator Association (NBIA). The NBIA is the world’s leading organization advancing business incubation and entrepreneurship, with more than 1,900 members in more than 60 nations. The SSIC is a program of the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University. The award, honoring the business incubators that exemplify the best in the industry, was presented during the NBIA's annual meeting on May 8, in Atlanta. It is the highest award given by the association to a general business incubator. “It is a tribute to the creative work being done at SSIC in helping all entrepreneurs from all backgrounds and interests develop and launch companies, and in the process reinvigorate our local economy,” said Melvin T. Stith, dean of the Whitman School. Each year, the SSIC provides hands-on counseling, training, and mentoring to about 1,500 existing and aspiring entrepreneurs, incubates 27 businesses, helps approximately 10 percent of its clientele to create a business entity (of which at least 30-50 begin operating within the first year), assists another 75-120 existing companies, and creates a minimum of 50 new jobs. SSIC programs have also aided 300 disabled or low-income individuals and helped them register 70 businesses, of which 51 are in operation. “We take great pride in what we do at SSIC,” said Bob Herz, director of SSIC. “Every day, we see people become empowered and take control of their economic futures. It is wonderful to be recognized for this work by NBIA.” Upon accepting the award, Herz said incubators "create value, though we call it by different names, such as 'jobs,' or 'wealth,' or 'entrepreneurship,' or 'skill set,' but at bottom, what we promulgate is the creation of value—value in products for the consumer, value in companies for the entrepreneur, and before all else, value in the individual. People who understand and appreciate their value can do anything." The SSIC provides a full array of integrated services to those interested in entrepreneurship, from the initial assessment of individual and professional skills and talents through development of a business plan, counseling and classroom training designed to ameliorate weaknesses and sharpen strengths, entity creation, loans, and market access, as well as office space and a full range of amenities at the incubator. Resident programs and centers at the SSIC include the Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (WISE) Women’s Business Center; the Entrepreneurial Assistance Center; the Syracuse Community Test Kitchen; Start-Up NY, for entrepreneurs with a disability, in collaboration with the Burton Blatt Institute; SBA Program for Investment in Micro-entrepreneurs (PRIME) for low- and very-low income entrepreneurs; Women of Faith in Business; SSIC Academy; NYSERDA training for low-income individuals and those who are unemployed or underemployed; and the Verizon Domestic Survivors Program.]]>Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttp://whitman.syr.edu/Newsroom/News.aspx?id=1772Natarajan Balasubramanian, assistant professor of management at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, has received the prestigious Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship Research, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation announced on May 1. The Kauffman Foundation established the Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship Research in 2008 to recognize tenured or tenure-track junior faculty members at accredited U.S. universities who are beginning to establish a record of scholarship and exhibit the potential to make significant contributions to the body of research in the field of entrepreneurship. Awardees receive a grant of $40,000 over two years to support their research activities. “We are fortunate to have Dr. Balasubramanian on our faculty, and we’re very proud of him. His research has been published in and cited by scholars in leading journals in both strategic management and economics, adding an important dimension to our research portfolio at the Whitman School of Management,” said Dr. Melvin Stith, dean of the Whitman School. “By extension, this recognition reflects the Whitman School’s strong commitment to academic research.” “This program will help launch a cohort of world-class scholars into the exciting field of entrepreneurship, thus laying the foundation for future scientific advancement,” says Robert J. Strom, director of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation. “The research produced by these fine scholars will be translated into knowledge with application for policymakers, educators, service providers and entrepreneurs.” In addition to his teaching and research at SU, Balasubramanian is also a research associate at the Center for Economic Studies of the U.S. Census Bureau. He is working on constructing the first comprehensive database of new ventures in the United States. Balasubramanian, along with six other exceptional scholars, represents the third class of Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellows. They will be honored at a reception during the Allied Social Science Association/American Economic Association annual meeting in San Diego on January 4-6, 2013. The Kauffman Junior Faculty Fellowship in Entrepreneurship Research is one of three academic recognition programs established by the Foundation to help build a body of respected entrepreneurship research and make entrepreneurship a highly regarded academic field. The other programs are the Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship Program and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship. For more information, visit www.kauffman.org.]]>Fri, 11 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttp://whitman.syr.edu/Newsroom/News.aspx?id=1770Beech-Nut Nutrition, an Upstate New York-based company that produces high-quality, nutritious infant and toddler food, learned and employed the online process improvement tool Six Sigma in collaboration with the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University. Six Sigma is a statistical tool that eliminates process variations in order to reduce costs and save companies money. Maclean Dunbar, a supply chain planner at Beech-Nut, went through SU’s online Six Sigma training this past fall and saved his company in excess of $782,000 while eliminating several rework issues within the Beech-Nut factory. “The Six Sigma program has been a great success for Beech-Nut,” says Dunbar. “We decided to focus my Six Sigma project on engineering improvements to the manufacturing system in order to help reduce rework. Our project objective was to decrease the rework per day from 3 percent (600,000 cases annually) of finished product to 1 percent (180,000 cases annually).” Within a few months of starting the program Dunbar was able to reduce the rework within the facility to 1 percent. The reduction in rework will save Beech-Nut more than $782,000 per year. “The tools we learned in the online Six Sigma class really helped us narrow down and determine statistically what the issues were within the process. Once we made the adjustments to the manufacturing system, we could determine if the improvements we made were working,” says Dunbar. In addition to Beech-Nut, 42 other companies over the past six years have been through the online Six Sigma course and have saved a combined $8.12 million. Six Sigma is one of the most effective problem-solving methodologies for improving business performance. The Whitman School of Management’s online Six Sigma Executive Education program has been designed for large and small organizations and the tool is applicable to any type of organization from government services to manufacturing. “The Six Sigma program at SU is a ‘well kept’ secret,” says Patrick Penfield, assistant professor and director of supply chain executive management programs. “Year after year, the return on investment from this training is phenomenal.” The next online Six Sigma class starts May 21. To sign up for the class or for more information on the program, contact Penfield at (315) 443-3428 or pcpenfie@syr.edu.]]>Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttp://whitman.syr.edu/Newsroom/News.aspx?id=1769The Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University honored several alumni, faculty, and students at its annual Jonathan J. Holtz Alumnus of the Year Award Ceremony here May 2. Colleen Arnold ’81 MBA, senior vice president of application management services for IBM, was recognized as the Jonathan J. Holtz Alumnus of the Year. Arnold began her career with IBM in 1981 and held various positions in the northeastern United States serving distribution and insurance clients. Currently, Arnold oversees IBM’s application management services (AMS), which provides clients with an integrated approach to managing their applications portfolios. Arnold is a member of IBM’s Performance Team of senior executive leaders and has served on rotational assignments as a member of the IBM Chairman’s Strategy Team and IBM’s Technical Leadership Team. Arnold also is an active member of the Whitman community, serving as a member of the Whitman Advisory Council (WAC). She returned to the school last November to deliver the IBM Centennial Lecture. “We are thrilled to honor Colleen as the 2012 Holtz Alumnus of the Year,” says Whitman Dean Melvin T. Stith. “She is an exceptional global leader who has made the Whitman School proud.” The Whitman School also recognized Mark M. Andreae ’68 BS, chairman and CEO of Clarke Power Services in Cincinnati, Ohio, and James Lee ’75 BA (A&S/EDU), the eastern New York market manager for Noco Energy Corp. in Buffalo, N.Y., with the 2012 Dean’s Citation for Exceptional Service. The Dean’s Citation recognizes alumni who exemplify what it means to be an outstanding Whitman School supporter. Andreae is a devoted Whitman supporter and a frequent lecturer in the school’s marketing classes. He is a member of the WAC where he serves on its Professorship Committee. Each year, Andreae hosts a lunch for WAC members and Whitman alumni in Cincinnati. Founded in 1964, Clarke Power Services is one of the largest privately owned companies in Ohio, providing maintenance services for transportation and distribution equipment. Lee has worked in the petroleum and energy industry for more than two decades. He is a longtime supporter of the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities program, founded at Whitman in 2007. Lee hosts the Annual Harold Lee Open Golf Tournament, in memory of his father, a World War II veteran, and donates some of the proceeds to the EBV program each year. Marc Ben-Ami ’00 BS of PwC, received the Young Alumnus of the Year award. A native of Hoboken, N.J., Ben-Ami is one of 10 family members to attend Syracuse University. After graduating in 2000 with an accounting degree, he earned his CPA certificate in New York where he began his career working in both the audit and DA&I divisions of PwC. Ben-Ami also is a member of the Joseph I. Lubin School of Accounting’s Alumni Council. The following Whitman faculty members and students also were honored during the ceremony: Whitman Faculty Research Award: Kris Byron, assistant professor of management Whitman Faculty Teaching Award: Susan Albring, assistant professor of accounting Oberwager Awards: Fernando Diz, the Martin J. Whitman Professor of Finance, and Frances Tucker, chair and associate professor of marketing and supply chain management Whitman Faculty Citation: E. Scott Lathrop, professor of marketing practice, and Scott Webster, the Steven Becker Professor of Supply Chain Management Guttag Faculty Award: Amiya Basu, professor of marketing Guttag Junior Faculty Award: Natarajan Balasubramanian, assistant professor of management, and Anna Chernobai, assistant professor of finance Whitman Alumni Club Russell J. Hamilton Scholarship Awards: Leena Chitnis ’12 MBA, Kyle Coleman ’14 BS, Adam Dukoff ’13 BS, Cineve Gibbons ’14 BS, Hillary Tucker ’14 BS Whitman Alumni Club Student CNY Business Start-up Award: James Barrett, James Barret Co. Whitman Alumni Club Membership Award: Richard Zaffuto ’14 BS Whitman Alumni Club Executive Committee Scholarship: Samuel Whitaker ’14 BS]]>Thu, 03 May 2012 00:00:00 GMThttp://whitman.syr.edu/Newsroom/News.aspx?id=1764The Graduate Management Admission Council® (GMAC®), owner of the GMAT® exam and the leading membership organization of graduate business and management schools worldwide, today awarded Syracuse University's Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and Whitman School of Management a $854,525 grant to fund implementation of customized management certificate and degree programs for veterans. The GMAC Management Education for Tomorrow (MET) Fund has awarded more than $7.1 million in grants to 12 organizations across six countries in the second round of its Ideas to Innovation (i2i) Challenge. The IVMF and Whitman will partner on the grant project to develop and begin the Veteran Employment through Modified Graduate Management Tracks (VET-MGMT), which will run July 2012-June 2015. Based on input from employers and collaboration with educators across various sectors, the project will design MBA-credit bearing and certificate coursework tracks from colleges and disciplines to leverage veterans' technical training and leadership experience in development of business leadership skills. This partnership includes faculty, staff, coursework and operations experience from several of the University's schools, colleges and programs, including the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, National Security Studies program, Global Enterprise Technology, Veterans Technology Program, David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, School of Information Studies (iSchool), L. C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Law, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and University College. The IVMF and Whitman developed the grant proposal in response to an earlier phase of the i2i Challenge, in which individuals were invited to answer the question, "What one idea would improve graduate management education?" In total, 17 of the 20 winning i2i concepts, announced in January 2011, will be implemented by the organizations that were awarded grants April 17. "The collaboration for this project will continue Syracuse University's leading commitment to veteran education," says James Schmeling, IVMF managing director and co-founder. "Partnering with each of these programs and colleges allows development of curricular tracks ideally suited to preparing veterans for management across several sectors, and builds on training and education acquired during their military service. Preparing veterans for management careers will enhance their ability to meet the needs of business and industry, and the social and private sectors, while advancing the veteran employment agenda." "The VET-MGMT project combines innovation in management education with veteran education, two important and historical strengths of the Whitman School and Syracuse University," says Whitman Dean Melvin T. Stith. "This collaboration between Whitman, the IVMF and SU's other schools and colleges provides expanded opportunities and curricular developments that will further benefit current and future SU student veterans and the companies that hire them." The i2i Challenge was created and managed by the GMAC's MET Fund, a $10 million initiative to advance business education around the world. Twenty-five proposals from seven countries were submitted in the second round of the challenge, which ran from January-December 2011. The grantees include business schools and organizations in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Italy, India and Botswana. "The foundation of the MET Fund has been that GMAC-starting with the GMAT exam and culminating in this phase of i2i grants-should be investing in and giving back to management education and its institutions. And not just giving back, but giving back in order to move management education forward," says David A. Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC. "The power of these grants is in the implementation of ideas that can reshape and revitalize management education worldwide, and that acknowledge the critical role that management education plays in training and developing business leaders who can have global impact." Additional information about the winning entries and organizations is available here. Information about first-round winners and ideas they generated is available here.]]>Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMThttp://whitman.syr.edu/Newsroom/News.aspx?id=1761Sixteen student teams are competing for a chance to turn their business dreams into reality during the Panasci Business Plan Competition. During the two-day competition, sixteen semi-finalist teams will be chosen to present to a panel of expert judges and community leaders on the first day, April 13th from 1:30-5:00pm. The five finalist teams will then compete for the grand prizes on the second day, April 14th from 1:30-5:00pm. The Falcone Center for Entrepreneurship and the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE) in the Whitman School of Management are hosting the 2012 Panasci Business Plan Competition on April 13-14 at the Whitman School. The competition includes teams from all disciplines across campus at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The competition is made possible through support from Henry A. Panasci, founder of Fay’s Drugs and former chairman of Cygnus Management Group, a venture capital and management consulting firm. The top three teams in the competition are awarded prizes of $25,000, $10,000 and $5,000 respectively, based on potential for growth and the attraction of outside financing. The Fetner Prize in Sustainable Enterprise awards $5,000 to the team whose plan would have the greatest positive impact on society and the natural environment. A new prize named the Holtz Prize in Global Enterprise will award $5,000 to the team whose idea represents a positive global impact. “Panasci is one of the premier cross-campus business plan competitions in the country,” notes assistant professor of entrepreneurial practice and competition mentor John Torrens.“This year’s semi-finalist teams represent some of the best and brightest from the many colleges here at Syracuse University who are looking to launch or grow their companies.” Notable winners of previous Panasci competitions include thriving businesses Dream Water, an all-natural liquid sleep supplement which was presented on “Shark Tank” following their first-place win at the competition; Rylaxing LLC, named one of America’s Coolest College Start-ups by Inc. magazine and whose signature product is the Rylaxer; and Funk ‘n Waffles specialty café and music venue located in the South Crouse Alley of SU’s Marshall Street businesses. For more information, contact Lindsay Wickham, Falcone Center events and communications manager, at (315) 443-3550 or lwickham@syr.edu.]]>Fri, 13 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMThttp://whitman.syr.edu/Newsroom/News.aspx?id=1760A team of MBA students from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University has placed first in the annual Duke MBA Games benefitting the Special Olympics. The games, hosted and presented by Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, concludes a year-long fundraising effort and brings together 12 business schools from across the country including Duke, Purdue, UNC Chapel Hill, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Virginia to compete alongside Special Olympics athletes in an range of activities including Tug of War, 50 yard relay, business suit relay, and trivia among others. The team from Whitman raised over $8,000 for Special Olympics North Carolina.  Team members included Mohit Diwan (team leader) ‘12 MBA, John D’Agostino ‘12 MBA, Mike Reszka ‘12 MBA, Reema Amin ‘12 MBA, Dafra Sanou ‘12 MBA, Sumeet Batra ‘12 MBA, Courtney Ostrout ‘12 MBA, Weston Ijames ‘13 MBA, Eliza Spencer ‘13 MBA, Tina Wilson ‘13 MBA, Asel Otunchieva ‘13 MBA, Rebecca Schied ‘13 MBA, Stephen Neff ‘13 MBA, Shayna Blumenthal ‘13 MBA, Ishita Bhattacharjee ‘13 MBA, Michelle Le ‘13 MBA, and Joshua Schultz ‘13 MBA.  ]]>Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMThttp://whitman.syr.edu/Newsroom/News.aspx?id=1759A student team representing the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University recently participated in a Supply Chain Case Competition at Rutgers University, Friday, March 30th. The Whitman team, comprised of Shubhankar Goel '13 MBA, Will Murray '13 MBA, Diederik van Houten '13 Eng Mgt, and Han Zhang '12 MBA, presented the case, "Pakistan Energy Crisis:  Breaking the Vicious Cycle," dealing with the challenges of economic development in the face of a weakening energy infrastructure.  Other participating schools included Lehigh University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Penn State University, Rider University, Rutgers University, and University of Maryland.]]>Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMThttp://whitman.syr.edu/Newsroom/News.aspx?id=1757Burak Kazaz, associate professor of supply chain management at the Whitman School of Management, has been named one of this year’s Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professors by Syracuse University. Kazaz, who also is a Whitman Teaching Fellow, is the first professor from the Whitman School to earn the honor. The Meredith Professorships were established in 1995 by a bequest from the estate of Dr. L. Douglas Meredith ’26 BS (A&S) in order to recognize and reward outstanding teaching at Syracuse University. Jonathan Massey, associate professor in the School of Architecture, also received a Meredith Professorship. They will be honored during a ceremony at the Goldstein Alumni & Faculty Center on April 5. “Burak is an outstanding teacher whose dedication to his students reaches beyond the classroom,” says Whitman Dean Melvin T. Stith. “We are thrilled that he has received this most deserving honor.” Kazaz, who received the Whitman School’s teaching innovation award in 2011, teaches MBA and doctoral classes in addition to his undergraduate supply chain management courses. His work on managing uncertainty and risk in supply chain management can be found in premier journals, such as Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and Production and Operations Management. “I am honored to receive the Meredith Professorship; however, seeing my students succeed in their professional life is my most cherished accomplishment,” Kazaz says. ]]>Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT