This Issue

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Here's the latest issue of SMEAL Zine, a monthly electronic magazine designed to keep alumni and friends in touch with the latest news and information from Penn State's Smeal College of Business' nationally ranked programs and world-renowned research centers.
 

Stock Options Motivate Employees

Creating carve-outs gives share prices a boost and improves executives' performance, according to recent research on the topic co-authored by Randy Woolridge and James A. Miles of the Department of Finance. The professors found there is an average bump of five percent in parent companies' share prices when stock option plans for subsidiary executives are announced. There is substantial improvement in sales growth, investment expenditures, and profitability subsequent to the carve-out, too.

Future of Business Education

Business educators must embrace radical new strategies and alliances in order to survive, to become more relevant, and to solve critical shortages of Ph.D. faculty. Those are some of the more relevant conclusions of a new report issued by a task force of business school leaders. Dean Judy Olian, a member of The Executive Committee of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), chaired The Management Education Task Force. The task force was established to examine critical issues facing the management education industry. The report, "Management Education At Risk," is online at www.aacsb.edu/publications/metf/METFReportFinal-August02.pdf,
and is featured in the current issue of BizEd at www.aacsb.edu/publications/bized/default.asp

Students Create Trading Room Alumni Newsletter

Undergraduate and MBA students teamed together to create and launch, The LionTrader, the official newsletter of the Trading Room. "LionTrader was created to further strengthen relations with Penn State's alumni in the financial markets. Through awareness of the activities of the Trading Room, interviews with alumni, and profiles of aspiring students, we hope to make Penn State and the world's stock exchanges seem a little closer," explains William Gushard, LionTrader's editor-in-chief and a sophomore majoring in finance.

New Smeal Chair in Management

Donald Hambrick, one of the world's most widely cited strategic management thinkers, has joined Penn State as the new Smeal Chair in Management. Prior to arrival at Penn State on May 1, Hambrick was the Samuel Bronfman Professor of Democratic Business Enterprise at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business. Hambrick takes over the reins as faculty champion of the Strategic Consulting Portfolio, a brand new specialty area being offered in the Smeal MBA Program.

Executives Warm Up to Hot Topics

Penn State Executive Programs is now rolling out 1 to 2 day seminars called "Hot Topics." The seminars allow the University to bring together experts from across academia, industry and government agencies, thereby creating a customizable platform made up of thought leaders to address issues relevant to the management of corporations and government organizations. The first in the series, Risk Management and the Threat of Bioterrorism in the Food System, was held on May 2, 2002.

New Faces

Mr. F. Robert Wheeler, III has accepted the position of Assistant Dean and Director of the internationally ranked Smeal MBA Program. Wheeler is currently the Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Professor Russell Barton will assume the role of Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Programs. Wheeler and Barton will start in these positions in July. More information on Wheeler is online at www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/may02/dean.html;
and additional biographical background on Barton is at www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/may02/russell.html.

Alumni Society Board Announces New Members

Four alumni were elected to the Smeal College of Business Alumni Society Board during its recent annual meeting. Lynn Kennedy Cruser (BS, Management '83) Solomon Hunter (MBA '84), Elena Kholodenko (BS, Business Logistics/IB '96) and Stewart Stumpo (BS, Marketing '78) will each begin three-year terms of office on July 1, 2002.

Dinner to Honor Accounting Professor

A special reception and dinner in honor of Professor Robert W. Koehler will take place 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 12 , at the Penn Stater Conference Center and Hotel. Koehler is the PricewaterhouseCoopers' Faculty Teaching Fellow in Accounting and associate professor of accounting. He will retire on June 30, 2002, after 39 years of service to the University. Tickets for the event are $40 per person. The reception begins at 5:30 in the Penn Stater's Terrace. The dinner is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. in President's Hall III & IV.

Media Round-Up

Members of the Smeal College faculty are regular contributors to the world's news media.

Class Notes & Events

For information on your classmates and other Smeal alumni, visit Class Notes at www.smeal.psu.edu/alumni/classnotes.html. You can receive regular updates on events by completing the "Alumni Information Form" found online at http://java.smeal.psu.edu/jsp/alumni/info.jsp.

New Address?

Change your address, phone and other information at www.alumni.psu.edu/membership/address/default.htm.

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