Launching Leader to Leader Series

Alan Fishman, cofounder and chairman of Beech Street Capital, has had a long and distinguished career in banking and finance. He was named chairman and CEO of Independence Community Bank in 2001 and, after its merger in 2006, appointed president and COO of Sovereign Bank. During the financial crisis, he served briefly as CEO of Washington Mutual Bank.

Next month, Alan will share his thoughts on his industry and on leadership in the first installment of the School of Business’ new Leader to Leader Breakfast Series.

The series starts October 3, 2011 at the Alys Stephens Center (from 7am to 8:15 am) and continues through summer 2012, bringing top-level corporate leaders together to discuss current business issues and trends. Our speakers are all either School of Business alumni or business leaders who are committed friends of our School. For the 2011-12 series, these will include:

• Daryl Byrd, President and CEO of IBERIA Bank

• Declan O’Beirne, Vice President and CFO of John Hancock Financial Services

• Michael F. Golden, President and CEO of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp.

• Susan Story, President and CEO of Southern Company Services

• William M. Walker, Chairman, President and CEO of Walker & Dunlop

These exceptional innovators represent a variety of experience and industries, but all share the UAB School of Business’ commitment to leadership and service. We are thrilled to be able to engage the business community with this leadership series, and hope it stimulates a broader dialogue on important issues of our complex times.

If you have any questions or would like additional information please call my office, 205.934.8800. You may also contact Erik Kahill at the School of Business, kahill@uab.edu or 205.996.5399.

Changing Lives Through Service-Learning

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Wilcox County, Alabama to see first-hand the unique and life changing service learning project of six UAB School of Business students and their two exceptional faculty members—matched with a diverse group of twenty high school students. This is one of two highly significant School of Business service-learning projects ongoing this summer that is using experiential hands-on learning to truly touch lives in many special ways.

While helping to lead a UAB discussion on economic growth and health issues last fall, I was privileged to meet a group of community leaders from Wilcox County. They urged me to visit their beautiful county to discuss ways the School could assist with their economic challenges. Along with Associate Dean Eric Jack and several respected School of Medicine faculty and staff members, we travelled to Wilcox County and spent a day experiencing the natural beauty and gaining a better understanding of the economic issues of this area.

After reviewing the needs in the area, the School committed to engage our students and faculty in a project to stimulate entrepreneurial activities in Wilcox County. After significant planning, led by instructor and executive-in-residence Mickey Gee, six UAB students (Olu Dosunmu-Ogunbi, Calvin Burchfiel, Daniel Owens, Gabrielle Hood, Eboni Thomas, Lewinale Harris and Derrick Strong) and two faculty members (Nathan Oliver and Jacob Gelber) arrived in Camden, Alabama on July 18^th to work with a group of diverse high school students (10 from the public school and 10 from the private school), along with a teacher from each high school. They spent the next two weeks working together to revamp several local web sites and implement social networking tools to: (1) Stimulate the sale of local artwork including magnificent quilts and baskets and (2) Create excitement in the state and region to attract more tourists to the beauty and natural resources of Wilcox County. This fall they will continue the efforts related to online social networking/marketing as well as developing a preliminary plan for a small business incubator. The $40,000 cost of this project was paid by the School of Business—as an investment in service learning and a life-changing experience for 30 students and four faculty members.

Back in Birmingham, a group of 20 UAB students, under the guidance of Professor Steve Yoder, continue to work on distributing $250,000 in grants and forgivable loans to individuals and families suffering from tornado damage. A group of very generous anonymous local community leaders donated the funding to UAB and asked that the forgivable loan program (insert hyperlink) be managed by the School of Business and used as a service learning experience for students. This project will continue into the 2011/2012 academic year.

We are taking our skills and passions into the real world of hurts and hopes. Our students are changing lives, including their own. We are proud! The many fruits of these and other service learning experiences through the School will continue to be reported to you in future messages.

Expanding Scholarship that Enhances Teaching and Service

The School has been active over the past few years in expanding our scholarship with the purpose of becoming a school internationally recognized not only for its exceptional teaching and professional and community interactions, but also for our life and industry changing research. Excellent universities serve many constituencies and do not sacrifice, but enhance the quality of their many missions. Our world-class UAB Academic Medical Center (AMC) is a classic example of scholarship excellence that facilitates and enhances the teaching and service components of a university.

Using AMC as a role model, the UAB School of Business has spent the last several years taking steps to raise the bar on research that is imperative to the growing recognition as a destination school, while balancing the simultaneous and complementary critical focus on excellence in teaching and service:

(1) We have dedicated added resources in support of on-going faculty research-with over $200,000 of added annual funding for research data and summer research grants.

(2) In the last 30 months we have recruited 17 new teacher-scholars, exceptional faculty from top-tier Schools of Business such as The University of Missouri, Florida State, U Mass, Georgia Tech, The University of Georgia, Texas Tech, and the University of Illinois. And like many of our respected scholars who are also exceptional teachers and mentors to industry - a previous blog post discussed the excellence of Dr. Tom Powers as a true teacher-scholar over a 25-year career at UAB - the new teacher-scholars also bring many years of industry experience that facilitate their contribution to the experiential learning of our students.

(3) We have materially expanded the participation of our faculty in healthcare research with several business faculty members now actively participating in major healthcare research efforts and grants in the School of Medicine. These scholars are following the example set by Professor Emeritus Dr. Jack Duncan, an exceptional long-standing healthcare scholar in the School of Business.

Find more about UAB’s commitment to civic engagement, service learning and research from UAB President Dr. Carol Garrison.

Pay It Forward

A recent letter received from a second-year business student, who was awarded a scholarship by the School of Business, exemplifies how our scholarship donors provide crucial life-changing opportunities for some of our students.

The scholarship recipient has been raised by a single mom and the family, while blessed in many ways, has needed to be a shepherd of very modest financial resources. This scholarship gives some degree of certainty to the student and his mom that he can continue their joint dream for his graduation. Leaving school for a semester to garner tuition dollars will not be his destination in the fall—he will stay in school and thus greatly increase the likelihood of completing his degree. This experience occurs often at UAB, but never fails to bring me back to the reality of our very special core mission to create opportunity for students to seek their life- changing destinations, resulting from an excellent education and a supportive and caring faculty and staff.

Where do we garner these key scholarship dollars? It is provided by our alumni, many of whom contribute to the Dean’s Leadership Fund, the School’s annual gift fund. Donors also include past and present faculty, and friends who understand the need to “pay it forward” – to help provide assistance to the next generation. Each year, I am privileged to interact with many of our scholarship donors. Their most common reason for giving is simply caring —a desire to replicate the life-changing support they received decades ago when they were struggling to complete their education. UAB and the School of Business have a long legacy of being a place where enhanced professional and career destinations are started for students of very modest economic means. As we end the academic year, we will have many year-ending events where we honor next year’s scholarship recipients and their donors. It is so special to see joy and hope in the students. But, I always see greater joy and many tears in the eyes of the donors. The donors almost universally know of no greater joy than being able to pass on the opportunity for a new and better destination for our exceptional students.

Times are still very difficult for many UAB students. We need your help in this great destination-changing effort! I look forward to seeing a special joy in your eyes. Yes, I am with pride asking for your help. Please join me and my wife Phyllis as scholarship donors at UAB by making an investment in our students through the Dean’s Leadership Fund.

If you are a current donor or past scholarship recipient, I welcome any story that you may want to share to help others understand how important this effort is to future generations of UAB School of Business graduates.

Experienced Teacher-Scholars Continue to be Leaders in the School of Business

Dr. Tom Powers joined UAB in 1985, after receiving a Ph.D. in Marketing from Michigan State University. Prior to his doctoral studies, Tom was marketing manager with Ford Motor Company, holding progressive assignments in sales, product forecasting, and distribution. Thus, he brings both academic and real-world lessons to his classroom and to his scholarship. Early in his career at UAB Tom established a reputation, supported by 25 years of very positive testimony from students, as a caring, rigorous, and committed teacher—both at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Last week I had the pleasure of sitting with Tom when he received recognition for 25 years of exceptional service to UAB and the School of Business. Tom was especially excited, as he had just received notice from a respected peer-reviewed business journal that a part of his recent research portfolio was accepted for publication. I then learned that 25 years ago Tom had set a professional goal to have 100 peer-reviewed journal articles in the first 25 years as a professor. He had met the goal that day! Tom sees the need to be current in the technology, theory, and practice of marketing. His consistency of pursuing research year after year reflects both a genuine pride in his professional commitment to the profession and to his students---but also reflects his daily passion for discovery.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Powers for his exceptional career and for his consistency in scholarship over a sustained period of 25 years. But fear not. Tom is not retiring or slowing down. His passion for discovery and teaching is unquenched. He told me at the celebration of his 25 years of service that he loves this fine institution we call UAB, and he loves his work with fellow scholars and students. This gives us all pleasure, as we know he blesses us all with his exceptional professional demeanor and his vey contagious excitement for discovery.

An Exceptional Team of Faculty

In our continued recruitment for individual faculty members we are focused on the term “an exceptional faculty”---meaning an exceptional TEAM of faculty members that collectively meet the learning needs of our students and the mission of the School to be active players in the life changing research of UAB. Balance is a key goal in building an exceptional faculty. Balance is needed in their special fields of knowledge, skills relevant to teaching and research, and passions/commitments to service. We also seek to build a diverse faculty team which is representative of the students and communities we serve. The one consistency we seek is commitment to be fully engaged in a collegial community---i.e., we seek faculty members who understand our balanced and diverse mission and will work hard to contribute to multiple phases of our mission. We seek faculty who have a passion for both student learning and the pursuit of excellence in research. Both commitments are equally critical to the mission of UAB.

With regard to student learning we seek faculty who have a dynamic presence in the classroom and a strong commitment to see each and every student succeed. As you will see in the video, Faculty Receive an A+ from Fall Graduates, our faculty are recognized for providing excellent instruction along with compassionate consistent motivation. We unfailingly meet our students where they are and build their confidence as well as exceptional technical and critical thinking skills needed to succeed.