Current Students | Faculty and Staff | Alumni | Parents

School of Business

PLU Business Venture News-Spring 2008

PLU Business Venture News

Spring 2008

PLU Business Network Logo

Brock joins School of Business as dean


An expert in marketing, management, and organizational behavior has been named dean of the School of Business at Pacific Lutheran University. James L. Brock, 63, has had a distinguished career in higher education administration, teaching, and writing. He has been the dean of business schools in Pennsylvania and Montana and has been a corporate marketing executive.

PLU Provost Patricia O’Connell Killen announced the appointment in mid-March.

“Jim Brock brings just the expertise we need to provide proven leadership to our talented business faculty and to take full advantage of our new facilities in PLU’s Morken Center for Learning and Technology,” Killen said.

Brock sees the position as an opportunity to “help galvanize the PLU School of Business and strengthen the high quality reputation that PLU carries regionally and nationally.”

“The challenge and the great opportunity in coming to PLU is providing continuity of leadership on three levels: inside the business school, in the interface between the business school and the larger PLU community, and with several external constituencies, including alumni, employers and business leaders in the region, and prospective students,” he said.

Brock served 11 years as dean of the Sigmund Weis School of Business at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, stepping down last year to return to teaching.

He was vice president of marketing at Pacific Steel & Recycling, a steel and distribution company in Great Falls, Montana from 1991 to 1996. He was business dean at Montana State University for five years beginning in 1987. Prior to that he was a marketing professor at Montana State for seven years and held academic posts at Oakland University in Michigan and Michigan State University.

Brock has written many articles for scholarly journals and presented numerous conference papers. Most recently, he coauthored an article for publication on awareness and redemption behavior with respect to credit card reward programs.

He earned his Ph.D. in Marketing from Michigan State University, his MBA at San Francisco State University, and his bachelor’s degree in marketing from University of California (Berkeley).

Brock succeeds William Frame who has served as interim dean of the PLU School of Business since September.

NEWS

Undergrads meet alumnus in China


Undergraduate students on Professor Thad Barnowe’s J-term trip to China had the opportunity to meet up with PLU alumnus Eric Gardner (BBA ‘98) in Hong Kong.

china alum Gardner provides management consultation services to clients in south China and a number of other countries. He invited Barnowe’s J-term class to his apartment and painted a picture of his career path so far.

“The students really appreciated the opportunity to see a PLU graduate working in an international setting," Barnowe said.

Alumni updates


Mr. Jeffrey K.H. Niu (MBA/TIM ‘03), now a Ph.D. degree candidate at University of North Texas, has accepted a job offer from California State University at Sacramento as an assistant professor of business. The position will begin in September 2008.

Darrel Bowman (BBA ‘87) is now the CEO of mynetworkcompany.com located in downtown Tacoma. He was recently installed as the Chairman of the Board for the StrykerRaiderFund.org, whose goal is to raise $15 million to fund a memorial park on Fort Lewis for all of our fallen soldiers.

Bowman was also re-elected for the fifth year as the Chairman of the IT and Emerging Technology Skills Advisory Panel for the South Puget Sound. Their goal is to work through Pierce County Careers Connections to shape the technology curriculum throughout the high schools, community colleges, and universities in the South Puget Sound

Jon Soine (BBA '58) has just completed a very successful year as the President of the Whatcom County Association of Realtors and has been elected as the Washington Realtors VP-Elect of Government Affairs and the Washington Realtors Executive Board, representing the 25,400 Realtors in Washington State on all real estate legislation and matters affecting homeowners.

Soine has also been appointed on the Executive Board of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, a coalition of 130 business and environmental groups (from Boeing and Microsoft to Green Peace) founded by Governor Mike Lowery and Dan Evans, and they successfully raised $100 million for parks, trails, waterfront easements, and farmland preservation efforts affecting every city and county in Washington. He has helped dedicate many of these parks and trails throughout the state.

Stig-Asbjørn Pedersen, former PLU undergrad, is currently working on completing his MBA and master thesis. Pedersen started his bachelor degree in business at Bodø College University in 2003. He completed two out of three years in Bodø before attending PLU in 2005 as an exchange student. After completing his bachelor degree, Pedersen carried on with his MBA in Bodø, and will complete this in December 2008. His thesis will focus on the differences between US and Norwegian print and advertising in magazines.

Faculty accomplishments

Congratulations to Dr. Susan Harmon, marketing professor, for being the 2008 recipient of the Regency Advancement Award!

MBA students visit national business magazine

vietnam

MBA students, led by Professor Quoc Pham, visited The Saigon Times during their 10-day international experience in Vietnam in January. Professor Susan Harmon also accompanied the students.

“We met with the editor—a fascinating man who had a broad perspective of the changes in Vietnam over the past 20+ years. He spoke not only to business and journalism issues, but also to broader changes in Vietnam culture.”--Harmon

Click here for The Saigon Times article on their visit.

Papacek and Ramaglia retire

Georgia Papacek, Assistant to the Dean, and Dr. Judy Ramaglia, Professor of Accounting, will retire at the end of May. Papacek has served as Assistant to the Dean for 15 years. She looks forward to traveling and welcoming a new grandchild to her family. Ramaglia has been a professor at PLU for 26 years. She looks forward to traveling the US with her husband Tony, as well as spending some time in Italy.