Oil prices and air fares are at all time highs, while stock markets and customer confidence are dropping. What should organizations and their leaders do at times like these?
Smart business leaders retrench. In light of harsh economic times, they review their corporate strategies and take stock of their human resources – both personally and organizationally. What that means is that organizations invest in their people when faced with challenging business climates so that they're mobilized with new knowledge and business insights before the economy turns around.  In other words, now is the time for smart business leaders to educate and develop themselves and their high-potential employees.

Enter Fogelman Executive Education.

This fall, the Fogelman College of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis is rolling out nearly 20 programs designed to raise the performance and leadership skills of the Memphis Region's business professionals.  Emerging topics in leadership, marketing, technology, business processes, healthcare, ethics and accounting are available for open enrollment. Alternatively programs can be uniquely customized for your specific organization and your specific industry.

Most programs are one- or two-day seminars held on the University of Memphis campus.  You can now get world-class executive education (yes, our executive education faculty have been teaching in executive programs around the world for years) without leaving the office for extended time periods, and without incurring the expense and hassle of airlines, hotels, and meals on the road (of course we have the world-class Kemmons Wilson UofM Holiday Inn on campus if you insist on the hotel experience!).

For more information, please check out the executive education website at www.exec-ed.memphis.edu, email exec-ed@memphis.edu, or call Dr. Brian Janz at 901.678.5526.

Having launched the Customer-driven MBA program that offers a cost-free and stipend-paid rigorous MBA program with guaranteed employment in top Memphis-based companies for high-achieving students (customerdrivenmba.memphis.edu), Dean Dr. Rajiv Grover is ready to move forward with more customer-oriented initiatives.  The Fogelman College is determined to break out of the mold of the typical cookie-cutter business school and its next step in this direction is to offer unique new courses in partnership with the business community. 

The Fogelman College now announces a practical, very useful, and thoroughly relevant new finance course called, “The World of Global Finance.”  This course will be taught by Mr. Ross Glotzbach, a CFA charterholder.  Ross is a vice president at the Memphis financial services firm Southeastern Asset Management.  A native Memphian, Ross is a cum laude 2003 graduate of Princeton University with a major in economics and a certificate in finance.

Dean Grover who conceptualized the course said, “the key objective of this course is for students to learn how Finance ‘works’ at the individual corporation level, nationally and globally.  The course will bring together the students’ knowledge of micro and macro economics, accounting, and finance, to produce a holistic understanding of the real-world of finance.  Much of the course discussion will be derived from questions based on current events as reported in the WSJ, CNBC, Barrons, IBD, etc.” 

Professor Ron Spahr, the head of the Department of Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate, said, “Ross is uniquely qualified to teach this course.  It is rare to find a person who is competent to teach the practical ramifications of events that affect the integrated and complex financial world.”  “I am humbled by this opportunity and I’m really excited about teaching this course,” said Ross.  “Students should learn more about real work issues than what is in the textbooks, so they won’t have to start learning it on their first day of work.”

Other courses based on the same philosophy are being conceptualized.  Are you a Mid-South industry executive or expert who would like to contribute to the development of the next generation of business leaders?  Would you like to teach or co-teach a truly relevant course in The Fogelman College that will help make our students ready to add value in industry from day-one?  Then contact Dean Rajiv Grover at rgrover@memphis.edu or phone him at (901) 678-3633.

Memphis’ vibrant real estate community is partnering with the Fogelman College to produce leading-edge real estate degree programs and other initiatives.  A Real Estate Advisory Board, composed of some of Memphis’ leading names in real estate development and sales is forming to provide curriculum and programming advice to the real estate faculty of the Fogelman College’s Department of Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate.  Also in plan is the concept of providing the College’s real estate majors with internships through the good offices of the advisory board members.

The department offers a BBA in Finance with a Concentration in Real Estate and an MSBA with a Concentration in Real Estate Development.  It also includes the Center for Real Estate Research, which is supported by the Memphis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR) and directed by Professor Richard Evans.  Joining the department in the fall will be renowned real estate professor Mark Sunderman, a leading expert in mass appraisal systems and online programming in real estate, who will hold the Morris F. Fogelman Chair of Excellence in Real Estate.

The full list of Real Estate Advisory Board members is:

Kevin Adams
Chief Executive Officer
C.B Richard Ellis

Jon Albright
Investec Realty Services, LLC

J. Walter Allen, MAI
Managing Director
Integra Realty Resources Memphis

Ron Belz
Belz Enterprises

Russell (Rusty) Bloodworth
Executive Vice President
Boyle Investment Company

Tim Bolding
President of MAAR Educational Foundation
and
Executive Director
United Housing, Inc.

H. Eric Bolton          
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mid-America Apartment Communities

Ed Brundick, Esq., CIMA®
Director, Operations & Reporting
Wealth Management Services
Private Client Group
Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc.

Jerry Gillis
President, CEO
FaxonGillis Homes, Inc.

Steven L. (Steve) Guinn
Highwood Properties Inc.

Larry Jensen
President & CEO
Commercial Advisors, LLC
Cushman and Wakefield Alliance

Mr. Richard (Dick) Leike
Crye-Leike

Mr. Ronald E Poe
Chair of Education Committee
Memphis Area Association of Realtors
Poe Firm PC the Law Firm

Joseph L. Steffner,  SIOR, CCIM, CPM
President
Grubb & Ellis Co., Memphis

Mr. Henry Turley
Henry Turley Co.

[Click here for more information]

The Fogelman College faculty will be well represented this spring at the 2008 Faculty Convocation as five professors will be receive major University Awards.

David Allen, Associate Professor of Management, and Emin Babakus, Professor of Marketing have been selected for First Tennessee Professorships. This faculty award program, funded by the First Tennessee Foundation, is designed to help the University retain its best and brightest faculty and to advance the University’s goal to become a major urban research university. First Tennessee Professorships are awarded for three years and include stipends that recipients can use for salary supplements or professional expenses. Awardees are selected based on the quality of the faculty member’s teaching, research and service/outreach, with priority given to faculty contributing in all three areas.

Professor Allen holds a Ph.D. from Georgia State University and joined the management faculty in 1998. His primary research interests include the flow of people into and out of organizations and the role of technology in human resource management. A prolific publisher, Allen’s research has been consistently placed in the top academic journals in management.

At the U of M since 1985 after completing a Ph.D. from the University of Alabama, Professor Babakus’ research interests include quality and customer satisfaction measurement, services management and marketing issues. His numerous research articles have been published in the leading journals in marketing.

Nancy Mardis, Associate Professor in the School of Accountancy, is one of two University faculty members selected for the Thomas W. Briggs Foundation’s Excellence in Teaching Award. These prestigious awards of $5,000 are provided to recognize outstanding undergraduate teaching and an overall commitment to undergraduate education. Professor Mardis (J.D., The University of Memphis), who began her career at the University in 1989, teaches legal environment and business law also teaches personal finance in the Department of Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate.

William Smith, Professor of Economics, has been selected for the University of Memphis Alumni Association Distinguished Research Award in the Social Sciences. A Fogelman College faculty member since 1993, Professor Smith earned his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia and is recognized as an outstanding researcher. His work explores the interplay between financial theory, growth theory, and macroeconomics, and his high-quality scholarship has resulted in numerous publications in leading journals in economics.

Irvin Tankersley, Associate Professor in the School of Accountancy, is a 2008 recipient of the University of Memphis Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award. Professor Tankersley has served the Fogelman College and the University of Memphis for over 30 years. Recognized as an outstanding teacher in legal environment and business law courses, he has been an active advocate for development of the Honors Program in the Fogelman College. An effective and popular instructor in both the undergraduate and master’s program, “Tank” earned his J.D. at Tulane University in 1972.

These award recipients will be recognized at the 2008 Faculty Convocation on Wednesday, April 23 at the Rose Theatre at 2:00 p.m.