The faculty, staff, and students are proud that the college maintained its AACSB International accreditation status for both business and accountancy. Fewer than one in three U.S. business schools and 178 accounting programs have this standard of excellence.

For the first time in the history of the college, the part-time MBA program was nationally ranked by Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Only 76 programs in the U.S. and four in Ohio qualified to be included in the 2011 ranking. In addition, the MBA program was selected for three consecutive years for inclusion in the Best 294 Business Programs for 2012 by the Princeton Review.

Students continued to set national records in a number of national case competitions. Accounting students placed in the final four for the 14th time at the 2011 Institute for Management Accountants (IMA) national competition. For the ninth consecutive year, students brought home top honors at the Society for Advancement of Management National Case Competition setting a record for top placement in the 19-year history of the competition. Six business students participated in this year’s Model UN competition in New York, achieving international recognition for 32 years. Three student organizations received national recognition from the following professional associations: Society for Human Resources Management Superior Merit Award Student Human Resources Club, for the ninth consecutive year; Beta Alpha Psi Accounting Honor Society, Superior Student Chapter 2009–2010; and the American Marketing Association Student Chapter Internal Communications Award in 2011.

Our faculty and staff continue to collaborate with business and government to strengthen the economic prosperity of the Dayton region and increase opportunities for our graduates. In 2010, our Small Business Development Center (SBDC) received the award for the most productive region and most productive center in Ohio due in part to the extensive collaboration of our faculty-led student projects that assisted small businesses in achieving their strategic and operational goals. And our International Trade Assistance Center (ITAC) was recognized as the most outstanding center in Ohio for 2011.

We are also proud of the student career placement opportunities that result from our partnerships with business and government. Sixty-nine percent of our 2010–2011 undergraduate class had jobs or expected to get jobs within one to three months after graduation. Another 13 percent will attend graduate school.

Last but not least, this issue of eConnections highlights some of the major successes of our alumni. Please also keep your fellow alumni up to date on your most recent accomplishments.

As the Raj Soin College of Business begins another successful year, feel free to contact me at (937)775-2437 or berkwood.farmer@wright.edu to learn about opportunities for partnering with our faculty, students, and alumni.     Thank you for your ongoing support. The faculty, staff, and I wish you a prosperous and rewarding new year.

Sincerely.

Berkwood Farmer, Dean

Wright State University’s part-time MBA program has been recognized in the Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Top Part-Time MBA Programs for 2011. The national ranking survey considers separate measures of student satisfaction, academic quality, and post-graduation outcomes.

All part-time MBA programs in the U.S. are eligible to participate in the survey.  Seventy-six programs met this year’s requirements for the nationwide ranking. Wright State’s program was ranked 11th among schools in the 12-state Midwest region and 61st overall. Three other Ohio part-time MBA programs are included in this year’s ranking, The Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business, University of Akron, and Case Western Reserve’s Weatherhead School of Management.

“Being included for the first time in this prestigious nationwide ranking survey further underscores the quality reputation of our business program,” said Berkwood Farmer, dean of the Raj Soin College of Business.

The complete list of Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Top Part-Time MBA Programs of 2011 can be found at http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/bs_ptmbarank_1110.html

Further details about the Raj Soin College of Business MBA program can be found at http://www.wright.edu/business/grad/mba/

According to the Bloomberg BusinessWeek website, students who have recently graduated or are nearing graduation are surveyed independently by Bloomberg about all aspects of their academic experience.

To gauge post-graduation outcomes, Bloomberg determines the percentage of student survey respondents from each school who say their part-time MBA program was “completely” responsible for their having achieved career goals. These can range from advancing a career with a current employer to finding a new employer or changing careers entirely.

To determine which programs are tops in academic quality, Bloomberg evaluates data provided by each school from six equally weighted measures: average GMAT score, average student work experience, the percentage of teachers who are tenured, average class size in core business classes, the number of business electives available to part-timers, and the percentage of students who ultimately complete the program.

The student survey contributes 40 percent of the final ranking, with academic quality and post-MBA outcomes contributing 30 percent each.

“I meet finance students from all over country when they visit the trading floor. Without a doubt, Wright State students ask the most insightful questions, are the best prepared, and clearly understand the equity markets.”  – Doreen Mogavero, President & Chief Executive Officer, Mogavero Lee and Co.

You could see the genuine appreciation on the students’ faces as they graciously thanked Doreen Mogavero at an informal after-graduation gathering at Rike Hall in June. Mogavero had just been named an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at Wright State University’s 73rd Commencement. But her friendship with the Raj Soin College of Business, the Finance Club, and Department of Finance and Financial Services has been strong for years.

Each year Mogavero takes the time out of her busy schedule to meet with students from Wright State’s Finance Club during their annual trip to New York City and escort them to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, giving them a rare inside look at the operations of the age-old institution.

“I meet finance students from all over country when they visit the trading floor. Without a doubt, Wright State students ask the most insightful questions, are the best prepared, and clearly understand the equity markets.”

“It would be impossible for our students to even see the inside of the NYSE if it weren’t for Doreen’s willingness to so graciously host us, especially post 9/11,” said Marlena Akhbari, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Finance and Financial Services.

In 1980, at age 25, Mogavero became a member of the New York Stock Exchange. At the time she was the youngest member on the floor.

“When I walked through the doors of 11 Wall Street for the first time as a member and saw all those men, all older and certainly more seasoned than I was,” said Mogavero, “I had to make a choice. Do what I came there to do. Or leave and relinquish my dream. I chose to walk in the door, and I have never looked back.”

In 1989, she founded Mogavero, Lee & Co., Inc., the first and only floor-based direct access firm to be wholly owned and operated by women. Mogavero bought her NYSE seat in 1994 and was the only woman working on the floor to own her seat when the NYSE Group went public.

Wright State accounting students placed in the final four for the 14th time at the 2011 Institute for Management Accountants (IMA) national competition. The students’ analysis of the case and 15-minute video presentation earned the team the opportunity to be one of four teams nationwide to compete before the IMA panel of judges in Orlando.

This year’s team included Kate Lash, Master of Accountancy student, B.S.B. ’10; Jayme Overfield, senior in accounting, finance, and financial services; Brea Sheeks, MBA student, B.S.B. ’10; Brent Royer, senior accounting major and Corey Pennington, senior accounting major, B.S.B. ’11.

“We are extremely proud of our students’ capabilities and their commitment to excel year after year at the national level. Our students are self-selected, and devote their own personal time to prepare for the competition,” said James Greenspan, Ph.D., accountancy department chair.

This year’s case involved TransGlobal Airlines, a government-run airline in a country moving toward capitalism. In analyzing the case, the team had to address the sale of stock, first-time competition from other airlines, operational efficiency, and achieving profit goals as governmental subsidies were eliminated.

David Bukovinksy, professor of accounting and team advisor, said “Students begin working on the case during fall term. Our students a faced a double challenge with spring final exam week looming over their heads the same week their presentation was due at the national competition.”

Corey Pennington, senior accounting major and a participant in the 2010 national competition said, “This year’s calculations were very challenging. I was able to dig deeper into my accounting education and apply the skills and knowledge I’ve gained in the context of an economy drastically different from our own. Participating in the IMA competition is by far one of the most rewarding activities that I have experienced in college.” Pennington is leaving on a cross-country bicycle trip after graduation to raise funds and awareness for affordable housing and help build affordable homes across the U.S. He will begin Wright State’s Master’s of Accountancy program in the fall. Pennington is also student ambassador for the Ohio Society of CPAs and vice president of Wright State’s Beta Alpha Psi Chapter.

Jayme Overfield, a senior majoring in accounting, finance, and financial services said “Making it to the final four gave us the opportunity to work with students from other top programs and to network with managerial accounting professionals from diverse sectors and from all over the U.S. The experience of presenting to IMA professionals can’t be matched. It’s much more challenging than defending your analysis in the classroom.” Overfield has completed a tax internship with Delotte in Cincinnati and plans to start her MBA in the fall with the goal of getting her CPA and working in public accounting.

Brent Royer, senior accounting major, found that the most challenging aspect of the case was breaking the costs down for each market segment and then down to the exact cost for each one-way flight. “We spent over 50 hours on the cost analysis alone. Working with other students who were highly focused and determined made the whole experience a lot of fun. I grew by working on the analytical and strategic aspects of the case and by meeting new friends and working as a close-knit team”. Royer has completed an audit internship at Deloitte and currently works at BHA, his family-owned business, in an operations, sales, and accounting role.

Brea Sheeks, an MBA student, who received her B.S.B. in 2010 with majors in accounting and finance, found that prioritizing their analysis was the most challenging aspect of the case. The students had to make tough choices to stay within the 15-minute time limit while being creative and engaging in their video production and backing up their key recommendations.

Kate Lash received her B.S.B. in 2010 with majors in accounting and finance. She also participated in the Wright State 2009 and 2010 teams selected for the Final Four and is a student ambassador for the Ohio Society of CPAs. Lash will complete her Master’s of Accountancy this summer and begin a full-time position with Clark Schaefer Hackett. Lash enjoyed the challenge of responding to the case competition judges’ question at the national IMA conference. “With not knowing the question in advance and just five minutes to respond, we had to know the case inside and out and be able to problem-solve on the spot.”

The students were given several pages of financial statements, operating statistics, flight schedules, and cost information. They were required to complete a SWOT analysis, segmentation analysis for the city-to-city, regional, and international market; determine the breakeven passenger volume; recommend a strategy for the airline; and prepare a formal presentation to the airline’s executive committee.

The IMA was founded in 1919 as the National Association of Cost Accountants and currently represents over 60,000 members. IMA’s mission is to provide a forum for research, practice development, education, knowledge sharing, and the advocacy of the highest ethical and best business practices in management accounting and finance.

Wright State University’s Raj Soin College of Business has an enrollment of 1,200 undergraduate students and over 500 graduate students. The college is accredited by AACSB International, the highest accrediting body for business and accounting programs. Just one in three business programs and 173 accounting programs nationwide have achieved this accreditation.

Team Members hometowns, high schools and newspapers:

Kate Lash, McArthur, Ohio; Vinton County High School; Vinton Country Courier

Jayme Overfield, Clyde, Ohio; Clyde High School; The Clyde Enterprise and Fremont New-Messenger

Corey Pennington New Richmond; New Richmond High School; Cincinnati Enquirer

Brent Royer, Dayton, Ohio; Alter High School; Dayton Daily News; Kettering Oakwood Times

Brea Sheeks, Hoytville, Ohio; McComb High School; The Courier

Raj Soin College of Business students once again achieved top honors at the Society for Advancement of Management Annual National Case Competition, with the undergraduate and graduate teams finishing second and third, respectively, in their divisions. This is the ninth consecutive year that Wright State has placed in the top three in the nation, setting a record in the 19-year history of the competition.

The two Wright State teams competed March 31–April 3 in Orlando against 29 teams in the undergraduate and graduate divisions.

Rebekah Wysong and Kristin Hunter represented the undergraduate team; Lindsey Bailey, Sara Lange, and Amber Dues served on the graduate team.

This year’s national competition focused on Whole Foods Market, the natural and organic retail grocery chain.

The students’ goals were to determine a strategic vision; recommend actions the company should take to improve, sustain, turn around, or correct performance; and prepare a strategic plan for the next three to five years. Teams were judged on their analysis of the problem, assessment of alternatives, recommendations for action, presentation quality, and responses to questions.

“This case competition provides our student teams the opportunity to analyze and make recommendations on real-world business problems from the corporate world,” said Lisa Crawford, management instructor and the team’s advisor. “I’m extremely proud of the hard work and dedication our Wright State students put into this case competition, and their work is clearly reflected in these outstanding awards they continue to receive.”

Editor’s Note:
Kristin Hunter is from Fairborn, Ohio, and is majoring in management/human resources.

Rebekah Wysong is from Englewood, Ohio, and is majoring in accounting and finance.

Sara Lange is from Hamilton, Ohio, and is pursuing a master’s in business administration.

Amber Dues is from St. Henry, Ohio, and is pursuing a master’s in business administration.

Lindsey Bailey is from New Bremen, Ohio, and is pursuing a master’s in business administration.

“I believe teaching is a privilege,” said Dewett. “I believe teaching is about changing lives for the better. I have no idea why you would be in the classroom if your goals were anything less.”

In the last 10 years, Dewett has won no fewer than 10 teaching awards, including the Faculty Teaching Award presented by the MBA cohort class of 2010 and the Faculty of the Year Award presented by the Chinese MBA cohort of 2007. Twice he has won the Outstanding Graduate Faculty Teaching Award from the entire MBA program.

Dewett was recognized in 2006 with the President’s Award for Faculty Excellence: Early Career Achievement for his teaching, research, and service.

A professor of management, Dewett teaches a number of undergraduate and MBA classes, mostly on leadership topics. He routinely earns glowing student evaluations. He says there’s never a week that goes by where he doesn’t receive emails from former students wishing to reconnect.

“They say thanks for helping me land the job, receive the promotion, handle the conflict, improve my resume, start the company, or change my career,” said Dewett. “Nothing is more fulfilling than seeing these outcomes.”

His influence goes beyond the classroom. He’s an exceptionally active speaker, trainer, and consultant. He has been quoted in media publications ranging from The New York Times and Chicago Tribune to BusinessWeek and CNNMoney. Dewett is the author of 21-refereed publications, a book chapter, and two books on the field of leadership.

“In 30 years of teaching, I have yet to see a better classroom teacher than Todd Dewett,” said Raj Soin College of Business Dean Berkwood Farmer. “His enthusiasm, his excitement, his commitment to teaching all comes through loud and clear.”

“The question all day was would I make the fifth jump that evening. I figured the law of averages said that I was pretty much done with cigarette rolls, and so I did the jump,” McCullough said. “It was a close call, and I think I’ve always had an attitude that nothing’s guaranteed; nothing’s a given.”

McCullough has also landed safely in the corporate world.

Today, the Wright State University graduate is president and CEO of Career Education Corporation (CEC), a for-profit secondary education company that takes in roughly $2 billion in annual revenue and employs about 14,000 workers.

CEC operates fully accredited universities, including online institutions; 17 culinary schools; 38 allied health schools that teach surgical technology, nursing, dental hygiene, etc.; and art and design schools that teach interior design and related skills.

McCullough’s ascent in the corporate world began at the Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, where he spent time in marketing and later ran the company’s laundry detergent business in Venezuela. Next, it was on to chewing gum at Chicago’s William Wrigley Jr. Company, where he oversaw 3,300 employees and was responsible for the business in North and South America. Then, he ran a division of Abbott Laboratories called Ross Products, a world nutrition leader with 5,300 employees and more than $2.6 billion in annual sales.

When McCullough (B.S.B. Management, ’81) arrived at Career Education Corporation as CEO in 2007, the company was experiencing earnings disappointments and other turbulence. McCullough determined that CEC’s rapid growth had resulted in costs rising faster than revenues.

“So what I’ve done over the course of the last couple years is rebuild the leadership and management structure and work to take unnecessary costs and bad business habits out of the business and ultimately make sure the culture is one that puts students first,” he said. “And with those things, we’ve managed to get ourselves back on track.”

McCullough said the most surprising thing about running CEC is the sheer volume of decisions he faces daily—decisions that affect employees, shareholders, constituent groups, and others.

“You have to be pretty nimble,” he said. “You have to be able to compartmentalize things.”

McCullough has learned some painful, but valuable, lessons in his corporate career.

“I’ve been faced with failure, and fortunately I’ve been able to bounce back because I’ve looked at myself in the mirror and tried to be objective as much as I can about what caused the issue,” he said. “You can shrink from it, or you can rise above it.”

McCullough grew up in a military family. His father, a Dayton native, was in the Army. McCullough spent most of his boyhood in Germany, where his father was stationed. There were also stints in Virginia and Kentucky.

McCullough started college, but then dropped out. He began working as a door-to-door salesman and eventually returned to the family home in Dayton.

“My mother made me promise I would go back to college,” he said. “When I told her I would do it, she said she wanted me to do it that day.”

McCullough ended up enrolling at Wright State. He took morning classes so he could work jobs in the afternoons and evenings. He also joined the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).

“I think back and it’s clear to me that my experience at Wright State changed my life,” McCullough. “I got a solid foundation from a business point of view by going to the business school. But I also got a solid foundation of leadership experience by participating in ROTC.”

McCullough went on to become a lieutenant in the Army, first serving as an infantry officer and then with the Presidential Honor Guard. He pulled duty at the White House and Pentagon, and commanded the ceremonial guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

Then it was on to grad school at Northwestern University; then the corporate world.

McCullough said he’s faced adversity over the years, suffered disappointments, been passed over.

“But what I’ve told people is that the race ultimately is won by the people who are strong and the people who are well prepared and who are willing to take risks,” he said.

McCullough applauded Wright State and other business schools for emphasizing ethics and morality.

“It’s unfortunate that we have to teach those things, but I think that’s missing in many schools,” he said. “What I’ve learned over the course of the years is if you focus on quality, if you focus on the best product, if you focus on doing the right things, it comes back around in positive business benefits.”

McCullough said the most valuable leadership lesson he’s learned over the years is the importance of supporting your employees and recognizing that they come to work trying to do their best.

That lesson harkens back to McCullough’s Army days at Fort Bragg, N.C., when one cold and rainy February day a commanding general came to review the troops. The general asked one of McCullough’s drivers what he thought of the field exercise.

“He said, ‘Sir, it really sucks,’” McCullough recalled. “He said, ‘I don’t think this is infantry weather. I could sure use a Snickers bar.”

A few days later, a box with 30 Snickers bars arrived for the driver. A note from the general said, “Share these with your buddies.”

“Now, I don’t send out a bunch of Snickers bars,” McCullough said, “but I think if you’re attuned to what people need and are looking for, you can motivate them in ways that sometimes even they don’t understand.”

Andrea Kunk, a 30-year-old with an MBA from Wright State University, took the reins as CFO of Dayton-based Peerless Technologies Corp. in 2006 – a mere six years after her father founded the company.

Peerless Technologies works with government clients in defense contracting. With that comes a lot of financial regulations, which provides a challenge, Kunk said.

“There is another layer of complexity with which we have to make sure our procedures are in line,” she said.

Recently, the up-and-coming financial leader helped Peerless Technologies restructure its employee 401K plan from a scheduled vesting period to a 100 percent immediate vesting. She also revamped the company pricing strategy, which already has brought in more contract awards this year, compared to 2010.

At the same time, the company has added more than 40 employees in a year to equal 100, and Kunk said, with several plans in the pipeline, she expects the hiring spree to continue.

In her free time, Kunk enjoys working out and running. She recently competed in the U.S. Air Force Half Marathon, held annually in Dayton. She lives in North Dayton with her husband.

Reprinted from the Dayton Business Journal, Sept. 23, 2011

A plaque celebrating a hole-in-one sits on the bookshelf in the office of Michael Bridges, president of Peerless Technologies Corporation.

The 51-year-old Bridges says the ace occurred “way back when” during one of the first rounds of golf he ever played. After teeing off on the par 3, 14th hole at Twin Base Golf Course on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Bridges’ ball vanished.

“We looked and we looked and we looked,” he recalled. Exasperated, Bridges was tramping back up the course across the green and preparing to throw down a new ball when he pulled up the pin and there it was—a hole-in-one. It turns out that hole-in-one wasn’t the only one for Bridges. But the second ace had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with smarts, skill, and hard work.
Bridges hit a hole-in-one with Peerless Technologies, a high-tech, military-focused research and consulting company that in 10 short years has steadily swelled to 100 employees and operations in six states.
Peerless is a family affair. Bridges’ daughter, Andrea Kunk, is the chief financial officer. His son, David, worked at the company managing its information and communication systems, until his recent commission as a cyberspace operations officer in the Air Force.

All three are graduates of Wright State University, as is Bridges’ wife, Marcia. Even Andrea’s husband, James Kunk, is a Wright State grad. And Peerless is filled with employees who call Wright State their alma mater.
Michael Bridges graduated from Wright State in 1981 in systems engineering, mechanical options. It was a well-rounded technical discipline that didn’t lock him in to any one thing.
“It gave me a fundamental solid education that I could take in many different directions, and that’s what I did,” he said. “I had the training to become a specialist, but took it in a direction of becoming more of a generalist in terms of business.”

The direction Bridges took was to build a 20-year career in defense contracting, working for firms from San Diego to Washington, D.C., before returning home and then starting his own company in 2000.
Bridges borrowed the name of his father’s company—Peerless Transportation and Storage—then called on his daughter to set up an accounting system and lay other groundwork for the new business. He also enlisted the help of The Entrepreneurs Center, a Dayton technology business incubator that nourishes startup companies.
Barbara Hayde, president of The Entrepreneurs Center, said Bridges instantly immersed himself into doing all the right things.
“He’s an excellent salesperson. And he’s a risk taker,” said Hayde. “It’s not one bit of surprise to me that he’s as successful as he is.”

Peerless headquarters, which sits just outside the fence line of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, hums with scientists and engineers working on computer, human-performance, and intelligence technologies for the military and other federal clients. More than half of the company’s professional staff holds security clearances.
“We do some classified programs, but I would say much of that is much more mundane than you would think,” Bridges said. “But the ‘mundane’ adds up to protecting the country.”
Peerless is currently working on a program for the Department of Homeland Security. It involves developing computer software for building owners that will enable them to determine the best locations in buildings to install sensors that detect the release of chemical or biological weapons by terrorists.
For example, said Bridges, the software would point the operators of Wright State University’s Nutter Center to the prime places to temporarily install such sensors if President Obama paid a visit.
Peerless was among six companies that recently won a $93 million Air Force contract to provide medical, computer, and financial support for the transfer of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine from Texas to Wright-Patterson as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Act.
The aerospace school examines the stresses of aircraft and spacecraft travel on the human body. In addition to the 1,100 jobs that will be transferred or created at Wright-Patterson, the move is also expected to generate as many as 250 contractor-related jobs for doctors, nurses, molecular biologists, and other professionals.
Peerless announced the contract award during a news conference at Wright State. The company’s subcontractors include Wright State, the Wright State Research Institute, the Boonshoft School of Medicine, and the medical school’s Division of Aerospace Medicine.

Bridges grew up in Dayton and began attending Wright State when he was still a senior at Stebbins High School. Before he graduated from Wright State, he put in several stints at Wright-Patterson, working in the Flight Dynamics Lab and at the Air Logistics Command Headquarters. Bridges later moved to the Aeronautical Systems Center, where he worked on the F-16 jet fighter program.
Bridges’ affection for military aircraft is hard to hide. The walls at Peerless headquarters are lined with photos of military planes, including the exotic Bird of Prey, a black-project aircraft designed to demonstrate stealth technology.

There is also a tribute to aviation history. Wooden propellers hang motionless on the walls of the main stairway as if frozen in mid-spin. And a faded handbill trumpeting Charles Lindbergh’s national tour following his famous trans-Atlantic flight peers out from behind a glass frame.

The headquarters is a stone’s throw from Wright State, which was more than just a center of learning for Bridges. He met his wife-to-be, Marcia, at the school library, where she worked as a summer hire. The two were married a year later and currently live in a country home near Yellow Springs.

Marcia Bridges, who graduated from Wright State with a degree in biology in 1983, recently completed her master’s degree in counseling and hopes to use the family’s horses to do equine therapy, in which horses are used to promote emotional growth.
Son David graduated from Wright State with a business degree in Management Information Systems (MIS) in 2006 and completed the Master of Information Systems cohort in 2010.
The couple’s daughter, Andrea Kunk, graduated from Wright State in 2004, also with a business degree in MIS and then earned her MBA from Wright State in 2007. She has been invited to become a part of Wright State’s newly formed Information Services/Supply Chain Management Council.