Mays Impacts

Mays Business School welcomes 11 new faculty members for the 2016-2017 academic year. Mays faculty members are consistently recognized for their research and teaching accomplishments.

Lemar Brown has joined the Executive MBA Program as an executive professor. She will be teaching the Capstone course. Prior to joining Mays, she worked as a business opportunity manager in Shell Upstream Americas, New Business Development, negotiating the divestment of Shell’s Eagle Ford Shale to Sanchez Energy. She received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA with an emphasis in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Matthew Call has joined the Department of Management as an assistant professor of management. Prior to joining Texas A&M University, Call worked as a research assistant at the University of South Carolina. He received a bachelor’s degree in finance from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of South Carolina.

Albert Cannella has also joined the Department of Management as a professor of management. Cannella was a Texas A&M faculty member 1989-2004. Prior to returning to Texas A&M, Canella served the faculty of Arizona State University as a professor and W.P. Carey School of Business Chair. Cannella received a bachelor’s degree from Tennessee Technological University, a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a doctorate from Columbia University.

Dwight Garey has joined the Department of Finance as executive director of the Commercial Banking Program and as executive professor. He is a graduate of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University, where he is a director of the Alumni Board of Directors and was president of the Alumni Board 2012-2015. He received a bachelor’s in finance from Texas A&M, a commercial banking diploma in commercial lending from the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University and an MBA from University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Michael Head has joined the Department of Accounting as a lecturer. He also serves as a risk management, internal control and operations consultant. Prior to joining Texas A&M, he held the resident instructor position in the accounting department at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Missouri – Columbia.

Brad Hepfer has joined the Department of Accounting as an assistant professor. Prior to joining Texas A&M, he worked for a Big 4 accounting firm performing tax accounting services for Fortune 500 firms. He received a bachelor’s degree, a master’s and a Ph.D. in accounting, all from the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business.

Chiraag Mittal has joined the Department of Marketing as an assistant professor. He was recently a research assistant at University of Minnesota and University of Arizona. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Ohio State University, a master’s degree in family and consumer sciences from the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Minnesota.

Marco Rossi has joined the Department of Finance as an assistant professor. Prior to joining Texas A&M, he was an assistant professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame. He received a master’s degree in economics from Duke University and a Ph.D. in finance from Pennsylvania State University.

Akshaya Sreenivasan has joined the Department of Marketing as a clinical assistant professor. She plans to complete her Ph.D. in mass communication at Pennsylvania State University this fall. Before joining Penn State, Sreenivasan worked as a broadcast journalist in India’s leading TV network NDTV. She also worked as a short-term consultant for infodev – The World Bank Group (Washington D.C.) on ICT-related projects. She received a bachelor’s degree in electronic media and communications from University of Madras and a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from University of Madras State University.

Hari Sridhar has joined the Department of Marketing as an associate professor and Center for Executive Development professor. Prior to joining Texas A&M, he was a Frank and May Jean Smeal Fellow and associate professor of marketing at the Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University. Hari serves as an area editor for Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and serves on the editorial review boards for Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Retailing and Customer Needs and Solutions. Sridhar received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore, a master’s degree in engineering management from Missouri University of Science and Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Jon M. Stauffer has joined the Department of Information and Operations Management as an assistant professor. He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University, a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, an MBA from University of Michigan – Stephen M. Ross School of Business, and a Ph.D. in operations and entrepreneurship from Indiana University – Kelley School of Business.

Dean Eli Jones recently announced appointments of new leadership. Duane Ireland was appointed to executive associate dean after serving in an interim capacity for the past year. Annie McGowan was named Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. Arvind Mahajan (FINC) will take the lead as associate dean for graduate programs and Mike Kinney (ACCT) will become assistant dean. Mike Shaub will become director of the Professional Program in Accounting (PPA).

Ireland served in an interim capacity for the past year. “The interim position allowed us to get to know each other as colleagues and close work partners and enabled members of the college to work more closely with Duane in his new role,” Jones said. “The feedback I received was very positive.”

Ireland is a University Distinguished Professor and holds the Benton Cocanaugher Chair in Business at Texas A&M University. He joined the Department of Management in Mays in 2004. Previously, he served two years as head of the management department.

Annie McGowan was named Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion. Effective Sept. 1, McGowan will head the new Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which aims to realize Mays’ strategic vision as a vibrant learning organization that respects differences and embraces connectedness. “Annie will work with members of our college in the areas of cultural sensitivity and inclusion, diversity in student recruitment and retention and community relations,” Jones said.
McGowan is an associate professor of accounting and has served as the director of the Professional Program in Accounting (PPA) at Mays since 2008. Mike Shaub, Clinical Professor of Accounting, will take over as PPA director when McGowan steps into her new role.

“I am very excited to lead Mays Business School’s strategic effort to foster an inclusive environment where future leaders develop the cultural integrity to honor and leverage individual differences to achieve a competitive advantage,” McGowan said. “If academic institutions are to sustainably supply sufficient numbers of trained graduates to meet the needs of the workforce, diversity must be embraced as a mission imperative. Further, empirical evidence confirms that more diverse learning environments lead to improved problem solving and critical thinking skills because students that learn in them are better able to conceptualize multiple perspectives.”

McGowan will report to Dean Jones and work closely with Christine Stanley, Vice President and Associate Provost of Texas A&M University.

Changes were also announced in top administration of Mays MBA programs, which will have two academic leaders for the first time.

Finance Professor Arvind Mahajan will take the lead as associate dean for graduate programs and Accounting Associate Professor Mike Kinney will become assistant dean. Both positions begin Aug. 1.

After many years of distinguished service in various leadership roles including serving the past year as the interim associate dean for graduate programs, Bala Shetty, an information and operations management professor and holder of the Cullen Trust for Higher Education Chair in Business, will return to a faculty position.

Mahajan, a Texas A&M faculty member since 1980, is a Texas A&M University System Regents Professor, Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence and Lamar Savings Professor of Finance. He has served as director of the Aggies on Wall Street Investment Banking Program and the MS (Finance) Program, and as associate director of the Center for International Business Studies and the Center for International Business Education and Research.

Kinney is a KPMG Fellow. He teaches in the MBA and Executive MBA programs and the executive development programs, and has taught in the PPA. He currently serves as coordinator of the Ph.D. Program in Accounting.

Sixteen veteran entrepreneurs from across several states spent hours last week studying and learning the ins and outs of launching their new business endeavors through Texas A&M University’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) program. After presenting their business plans to their peers and esteemed mentors, the participants each went home excited to begin their personal and professional passions, taking along with them the wisdom, advice and much-appreciated guidance shared with them over the eight-day residency.

In its ninth year to be hosted by Mays Business School’s Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE), the 2016 EBV program once again served veterans with a military service-linked disability who have started or are interested in starting their own business. The national EBV program was launched in 2007 by the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, and in 2008, added Texas A&M University to a consortium that now includes 10 additional universities across the nation. Each university in the consortia makes a strong commitment to support this nation’s veterans and help to guide them down the path of starting and maintaining a successful business venture.

At Texas A&M, the EBV week is filled with expert lectures, one-on-one mentoring from volunteer entrepreneurs, access to tremendous resources, a lot of food and a full dose of the Spirit of Aggieland. …Read more

Dwight Garey ’67 has joined the Commercial Banking Program at Mays Business School as executive director. He will lead the program, which provides well-trained talent to the banking industry while introducing Texas A&M University students to outstanding career opportunities. The program combines academics and industry exposure, and every student enrolls in a summer internship.

Garey is an executive professor in the Department of Finance at Mays. He will teach banking-related courses in Commercial Credit, Enterprise Risk Management, and Sales of Financial Products and Services. In addition, as executive director, Dwight will promote the mission of the Commercial Banking Program with a focus on increasing enrollments and revenue generation.

He was involved in the formation of the Commercial Banking Program. From the beginning, he served on the Executive Council of the Banking Advisory Board, and was head of the program’s Bank Membership Committee. …Read more

Within Mays Business School at Texas A&M University resides the highly-ranked Master of Real Estate Program—a degree that comes with a nearly perfect 100 percent job placement record, access to industry leaders and automatic induction into the Aggie Real Estate Network, an alumni group that provides graduates with professional development opportunities.

The graduate program allows students to explore a variety of concentrations within the industry while gaining the fundamental knowledge of commercial real estate.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in finance from Texas A&M, Cydney C. Donnell ’81 was able to succeed in an industry she loves. Now, as director of real estate programs and an executive professor within the Department of Finance, Donnell has witnessed firsthand the booming success of the master’s program.

“Thirty-five years ago when I was a graduate, real estate in Texas was headed into a major oversupply. However, I entered the industry at a time when leaders wanted to prove that commercial real estate could be run ethically and professionally,” said Donnell. “I am so proud of the transformation of our industry and I want our students to become the new leaders of the revitalized real estate world.”

Donnell’s enthusiasm for the Master of Real Estate Program goes beyond words and sentiment. Recently, she gave $1 million to the Texas A&M Foundation to support the program’s teaching, research, service and professional development activities, with $750,000 earmarked for matching funds. She will double the value of future donations of $25,000 or more from the Cydney C. Donnell ’81 Faculty Fellowship.

As a former member of the Texas A&M Foundation Investment Advisory Committee, Donnell has worked with the Foundation before. However, this time, she was able to ensure the future of the Master of Real Estate program within Mays and establish a lifelong legacy at Texas A&M.Two other graduates from Texas A&M—Preston Young ’02 and Malcolm Stewart ’73—are also supporting the program with major gifts.

Young, a regional managing partner for Stream Realty Partners, committed $100,000, while Stewart, chief operating officer at Camden Property Trust, established a fund with an additional $100,000 toward the program. Both gifts will be matched with a $100,000 gift from the Cydney C. Donnell ’81 Faculty Fellowship.

Originating 45 years ago in the agricultural economics department, the program has grown in size, recognition and popularity. Since then, it has migrated to the Department of Finance at Mays Business School, developed a diverse course structure, and formed an advisory board of real estate professionals.

Graduates go to work in a variety of careers, from real estate development to lending and capital markets. All leave with enhanced knowledge of finance, real estate law, economics, market analysis and negotiation.

“If Mays wants to excel and provide the best education for our students, we have to offer more: specialized degrees, program enhancements and affordable tuition,” said Donnell. “These funds allow us to enhance a student’s educational opportunities by bringing industry leaders into the classroom, sending students to attend industry events or allowing them to participate in competitions.

What everyone should understand when donating to Texas A&M University is that all funding ultimately helps bring a top-notch educational experience to our students at an affordable cost. My Texas A&M education prepared me for success in the real estate market and I hope to bring the same opportunity to these young people in our program.”

By Ashley Wagner ‘18

More than 80 veterans with disabilities will converge on the Texas A&M, UCLA, and Syracuse University campuses in July to leverage the valued skills gained from military service and learn the basics of business ownership during the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV).

The Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University (IVMF) and nine other EBV consortium schools across the country deliver the EBV Program to post-9/11 veterans with service-connected disabilities, who desire to develop the skills and tools needed to launch and maintain successful businesses. Assistance from the U.S. Small Business Administration, corporate partners and donors allows participants to attend the EBV program cost-free.

Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, and Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management will both run their respective EBV programs July 16 through July 23. UCLA’s Anderson School of Management is holding its EBV program from July 9 – 17, 2016.

EBV is a three-phase program, beginning with a three-week online instructor-led course where participants shape business plans and learn business language. During the second phase, participants will complete an intensive eight-day residency at each university, learning the ‘nuts and bolts’ of business ownership from established entrepreneurs and educators. Following the residency, EBV graduates will receive access to a year-long support and mentorship program through EBV Technical Assistance – managed by the IVMF.

The Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship (CNVE) at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School has proudly hosted more than 190 veterans in the program since its launch. In a format somewhat similar to the bootcamp they know, EBV @ Texas A&M is an intense and rigorous program that forces its participants to carefully scrutinize their business concepts and complete a series of training modules designed by Texas A&M faculty to help them plan for a successful and profitable venture.

CNVE also engages a wide variety of successful entrepreneurs from throughout the community and state to mentor each student throughout the program. Through its fundraising and volunteer coordination efforts, CNVE proudly conducts its annual EBV program at no cost to its veteran participants, offering them a unique and valuable educational experience and providing their businesses a competitive advantage that many would pay substantially to receive. All EBV program expenses, textbooks, access to resources, and transportation/lodging/meal expenses are covered entirely by individual, corporate, and University sponsors.



The participants in EBV @ Texas A&M strive to follow in the successful footsteps of their preceding graduates, like Lt. Col (ret.) Boris Robinson (Round Rock, TX), owner of T3 MultiSports. Robinson proudly leverages his EBV training, along with leadership skills he gleaned from 26 years of military service, to provide personal development and coaching services that promote fitness, healthy lifestyles and camaraderie through triathlon training for young athletes.

Shortly after graduating from EBV in 2014, T3 MultiSports was recognized with the Entrepreneurial Veteran award at the Texas Governor’s Small Business Forum. Another notable success story belongs to Abraham Negron (Spring, TX), whose company, Fidelis Solutions, aims to transform the Career Placement Services model to place more veterans and military spouses into the workplace. In less than one year since graduation in 2015, Fidelis has secured job placement partnerships with more than 17 major employers throughout the Houston area.“EBV has produced more than 1,313 graduates since 2007, of whom 68% have launched a new venture after completing the EBV program,” said Tina Kapral, Senior Director of Education and Training at IVMF. “The IVMF at Syracuse University is excited to work with UCLA and Texas A&M again to support our nation’s veterans and help them create and maintain their own small businesses.”




Celebrating its 10-year anniversary this July, the EBV program was launched at Syracuse’s Whitman School of Management in 2007. Since the original class, the IVMF has expanded the EBV Program to ten universities throughout the U.S. In addition to Syracuse University, UCLA, and Texas A&M University, the EBV Program is also offered at the following universities:

• College of Business at Florida State University
• Krannert School of Management at Purdue University
• School of Business at the University of Connecticut (UCONN)
• J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University (LSU)
• School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University
• Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University
• Trulaske College of Business at the University of Missouri

For more information, please visit https://mays.tamu.edu/center-for-new-ventures-and-entrepreneurship/about-ebv-at-texas-am/.

Lorraine Eden, a management professor at Mays Business School, is the first-time recipient of the Woman of the Year award from the Women in the Academy of International Business (WAIB). The WAIB executive board unanimously chose Eden for the award and presented it to her at the annual Academy of International Business (AIB) meeting in New Orleans in June.

The Woman of the Year Award recognizes a female WAIB scholar for her service to WAIB, to the AIB and for high-quality research in an international business discipline. 

The WAIB is a special-interest group within the AIB that promotes networking among members and supports global female talent through discussion and research. Eden founded the organization in 2001 at the annual AIB meeting in Sydney, Australia. The special-interest group has since grown to having over 800 members worldwide.

“I am honored and humbled to receive this award,” Eden said. “You could knock me over with a feather when I found out about it! I’m not sure I have done anything to deserve this, but I am delighted to have been selected.”

Amanda Bullough, President of WAIB (right), presents the first Woman of the Year award to Lorraine Eden.

Eden has been an active member of the AIB for many years. She held the position of track chair at the 1998 Vienna meetings, AIB Vice President from 2000-2002 and Program Chair of the 2002 Puerto Rico meetings on Geography and International Business. She was elected a Fellow of the AIB in 2004 and has served on several Fellows committees. She also served as chair for the 2010-11 AIB presidential committee. In 2012 she received the AIB President’s Award for her contributions to AIB and the field of international business.  

“We are all quite excited about presenting this award to you,” Amanda Bullough, president of WAIB, told Eden at the conference. “We all admire what you’ve done for women in the AIB over the years. I for one am certain that many junior and mid-career women scholars look up to you.”

This award comes just after Eden’s appointment as president to the AIB board. She will serve as as president-elect for the 2016-17 year, president from 2017-18 and past president from 2018 to 2019. 

At Mays Business School, Eden holds the Gina and Anthony Bahr ’91 Professorship in Business in the Department of Management. She teaches courses on Transfer Pricing, Multinational Enterprises and the Economics of International Business.

Researchers work to revolutionize how health care institutions clean surfaces

“Technology boot camp” is how Virender Sharma, a professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center School of Public Health, describes his experience at Innovation Corps (I-Corps), a National Science Foundation (NSF) program that helps scientists bring their discoveries out the laboratory and toward the commercial market.

“One thing I discovered during this process is that the science is only 20 percent of it,” Sharma said. “The other 80 percent is just business—how you sell it, how you make deals.”

Sharma’s work using ferrate ions—which are iron ions that have lost four or more of their electrons—as a disinfectant has been shown to be extremely successful in the lab, and he was starting to wonder if it was time to make a commercial product.

“I think Dr. Sharma was disappointed when he found out that I wasn’t a consultant who would tell him if his technology has value,” said Chuck Hinton, director of NSF I-Corps at Texas A&M, which is part of Mays Business School’s Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship. “He was going to have to figure that out for himself, and that is the key of this program.”

Although other Texas A&M Health Science Center researchers have participated in regional I-Corps programs, Sharma and his team are the first to participate in a national cohort. The other members of the team were Jashanpreet Singh, a postdoctoral fellow in Sharma’s lab who served as the entrepreneurial lead on the project, and Chetan Jinadatha, an assistant professor at the Texas A&M College of Medicine and chief of infectious diseases at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple.

Jinadatha’s work focuses on infections acquired in hospitals and other health care settings, which sicken 722,000 people and kill about 75,000 per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Examples of this type of infection include Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile. “Between 40 and 50 percent of such infections are related to improper cleaning of surfaces,” Jinadatha said.

Current disinfectants are effective at cleaning surfaces but have an off-putting odor and can cause damage to hospital equipment and materials and irritation of eyes and skin. “You also have to read the directions carefully,” Jinadatha said. “They have to be sprayed on a surface, left to sit for a period of time, and then wiped off, or they do not disinfect properly.”

The team completed more than 110 in-person interviews in five weeks with stakeholders and potential customers, including hospital environmental services workers (housekeepers), infection control practitioners, physicians and hospital administrators.

“One great thing we learned is that so many fellow Aggies want to help you,” Sharma said. “They were ready to meet with us, and I was really surprised about how nice everyone was and generous with their time and opinions.” Through this extensive interview process, the team was able to learn what issues people were having with existing cleaning products and what a new product would have to do in order to make their lives or jobs easier.

“This program is invaluable for helping faculty members evaluate the market opportunity and customer need for their technology,” Hinton said.

In this case, Sharma and the rest of the team found that because busy people tend not to have time to spray a disinfectant and let it sit for several minutes, the infectious pathogens aren’t being destroyed, and they go on to infect the next patient.

“I was surprised that there is a real problem with these disinfectants in hospitals,” Sharma said. “They’re often not being properly used, and so they’re not working.”

Ferrate doesn’t have these limitations. Sharma has recently patented his liquid ferrate technology, which solved the inherent issues related to stability of ferrate in solution form, and now needs to be tested for its commercial viability as a surface disinfectant for health care facilities. The team sees the next step as the creation of a spray disinfectant of the ferrate solution.

“There is interest in the product, but we need more data before we can start a small business or collaborate within existing companies to commercialize the product,” Sharma said. The team’s next step is to apply for an Accelerating Innovation Research (AIR) grant that will allow them to further develop their research.

“I’m even more committed to ferrate than I was before,” Sharma added.

Singh was awarded best entrepreneurial lead and the most improved. “That’s really a big deal,” Hinton said. “I’m really extremely proud of this team. They went in prepared and worked hard and ended up being the best one there.”

By Christina B. Sumners, Texas A&M Health Science Center

The inaugural class of Mays Business School’s Master of Science in Business program that starts July 6 brings together 41 students from a wide range of disciplines.

The curriculum provides knowledge in a wide array of disciplines, such as accounting, finance, management, information systems, international business, and entrepreneurship. Students entering the 11-month program must have bachelor’s degrees from a field other than business and less than 18 months of work experience after completing their undergraduate degrees.

The inaugural class of the MS Business program

“We are venturing into the unknown and trusting we’ll deliver something fantastic for you,” academic director ’Jon Jasperson said during an opening reception for the program. “We have had so much fun planning to bring this to fruition. I think it’s going to be amazing.”

…Read more