Assistant Professor of Marketing Dr. Christopher Porter’s paper, “Asymmetric Adaptability: Dynamic Team Structures As One-Way Streets,” appeared in the October issue of the Academy of Management Journal. Aside from this latest publication, Porter’s research has previously appeared in Academy of Management Journal, International Journal of Conflict Management, Journal of Applied Psychology,Journal of Management, and Police Quarterly. His research interests include team composition and processes, performance appraisals and feedback interventions, workplace fairness, and police performance management.

Associate Professor of Finance Dr. Sorin Sorescu’s paper, “Short Sale Constraints, Difference of Opinion, and Overvaluation,” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. Joining Mays in 2002, Sorescu’s research interests focus on stock market anomalies and behavioral finance. His research has appeared in publications such as the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking.

The Texas Society of CPAs honored Dr. L. Murphy Smith, professor of accounting, with the Outstanding Educator Award. The award recognizes Smith’s notable contributions to the field of accounting. His academic record includes 18 books, more than 120 professional journal articles and more than 100 professional meeting presentations in the United States and abroad.

Smith has long championed the need for ethics education and is nationally recognized for his work in ethics. He has given ethics presentations to numerous classes, continuing professional education programs for practicing accountants and national conferences.

“Educators must do all that they can to encourage students to do the ‘right’ thing, even in difficult circumstances,” Smith says. “This encouragement will serve them well in their college years and in their future careers.”

Students had an opportunity to interface with investment professionals at the fall 2004 Tanner Fundworkshop. Seasoned executives offered critiques and feedback of the students’ research and fund management activities, in which they have been involved throughout the semester.

Students in the advanced finance course manage the $250,000 Tanner Fund using the Reliant Energy Securities & Commodities Trading Center. Dr. Tim Dye, director of the center, believes the experience of managing the fund, coupled with the interaction with investment executives, provides the students a great learning opportunity.

“The Tanner Fund gives students a unique opportunity to apply what they’ve learned by making real investment decisions with real consequences,” says Dye, who advises and instructs the Tanner Fund. “One of the strengths of our guest panel is the diversity in perspective that they bring to our campus.”

The workshop’s executive panelists included: Wayne Green, vice president of investments, Smith Barney/Citigroup; Dr. Theresa Green, registered associate, Smith Barney/Citigroup; David Jennings, equity trader, Bridgeway Capital Management; Stephen Brewer, president and CEO, Brewer Capital Group, LLC; Christopher Graeter, Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC; Jacob Stroud, associate, FTI Consulting; and Nathan Hall, analyst, Wells Fargo.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Tanner ’53, who provided the gift to establish the Tanner Fund, also attended the workshop.

Mays’ Center for the Management of Information Systems (CMIS) has announced the winners of its 10th annual case competition. The 2004 competition, sponsored by Anadarko, ExxonMobil, EDS, Dell and Capgemini Energy, challenged teams of undergraduates and graduate students to solve a business problem posed by an actual company.

Students had one week to prepare a proposal for an offshore development center, based on real-life situations faced by information technology companies nationwide. The teams competed in separate undergraduate and graduate divisions and then presented their ideas to judges in several elimination rounds.

The 2004 competition undergraduate winners were Brian Burnett, Don Hannemann and David Jacobs. Graduate student winners included Subit Mathew, Raghav Shreyas Murthi and Sloane Whiteley.

Assistant Director Dr. Linda Windle and Recruitment Coordinator Sonia Garcia with the Undergraduate Program Office have been chosen namesakes for Aggie Access, a 300-member learning community for Texas A&M freshmen.

Students, staff and former honorees nominate the namesakes, who serve as mentors to the participants. Freshmen involved in the program include first-generation students, Regents Scholars and national merit and commended students.

Earlier this year, Windle was honored as an inaugural recipient of the Texas A&M President’s Award for Academic Advising. Garcia joined Mays in 2003 from Michigan State University, where she is a doctoral candidate in higher education administration.

To learn more, visit Aggie Access.

Professor and Coleman Chair in Marketing Dr. Venky Shankar’s paper, “An Empirically Derived Taxonomy of Retailer Pricing Strategies,” was voted runner-up for the 2004 Journal of Retailing Best Paper Award. Co-authored with Journal of Marketing editor Ruth Bolton, this paper focuses on pricing strategies, particularly pricing at a brand-store level as opposed to a store or chain level.

Joining Mays this fall from the University of Maryland, Shankar received the Krowe Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1997, 2001 and 2002. He won the IBM Faculty Partnership Award in 2001 and the Paul Green Award for Best Article published in the Journal of Marketing Research in
1999.

Distinguished Professor of Management Dr. Michael A. Hitt has been elected president of the Strategic Management Society, an international organization that focuses on the development and dissemination of insights on the strategic management process.

Holder of the Joe B. Foster ’56 Chair in Business Leadership and the C.W. and Dorothy Conn Chair in New Ventures, Hitt has authored more than 200 journal articles and co-authored or authored more than 20 books. He is a past president of the Academy of Management and has garnered numerous awards throughout his career, including the 2001 Irwin Outstanding Educator Award.

Sarvadi shared with Mays undergraduate and graduate students some of the lessons he’s picked up in his career, including how he overcame two failed business ventures before co-founding Administaff in 1986. Mays’ Center for New Ventures & Entrepreneurship presented Administaff Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Paul J. Sarvadi the 2004 Conn Family New Venture Leader Award.

“What it really takes to be successful is to have faith to see it through,” he told Mays students upon receiving the award. “You have to believe that what you offer is a service to someone else.”

Under Sarvadi’s leadership, Administaff, which provides human resource solutions for small businesses, has grown into a nationwide company that he took public. Sarvadi has served as president of the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations and was named the National Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the service category in 2001. In 1995, he was selected Houston’s Entrepreneur of the Year for service industries.

When Brandon Coleman, Jr. graduated with a BBA in marketing in 1978, he left Texas A&M aware of the impact faculty members can have on a young mind. It was the influence of Professor Herb Thompson that inspired Coleman’s successful career in marketing as well as his motivation for establishing the Brandon C. Coleman, Jr. ’78 Chair in Marketing.

Coleman was honored at a recent dedication ceremony, along with the faculty member, Professor of Marketing Dr. Venky Shankar, who Coleman hopes will impact Aggies in the way Thompson impacted him.

“Making a gift like this is not about me; it’s really about (all of) you,” Coleman said at the ceremony. “Large gifts are not merely a sign of someone’s ship coming in. Someone has to touch a person along the way for you to have any inclination to make a gift to Texas A&M.”

For Shankar, being the first recipient of the Coleman Chair is truly an honor. He hopes to use the resources the position provides to create and share new knowledge with the marketing discipline as well as with Mays students in the classroom.

“I’m greatly honored and humbled,” said Shankar, who joined Mays this fall from the University of Maryland. “These kinds of endowments really make a lasting impact, not just on the faculty members or the school, but also on our community as a whole. I’ve been truly impressed with the caliber and passion of the faculty members, the students, the alumni, the donors and the staff.”