News Archive

Muma College of Business Faculty Continue to Rack Up Major Awards, Recognition

By Keith Morelli

TAMPA (July 15, 2019) -- Many Muma College of Business educators have earned endowed professorships and/or sit on journal editorial boards and/or have achieved the respected recognition from their peers. But a few have garnered even more prestigious accolades, such as distinguished professorial and lifetime-achievement-awards.

The most recent addition to the club is Bill Sutton, founding director of the Vinik Sport & Entertainment Management Program. He’s retiring at the end of this year and says he now is on a “farewell tour” that sent him to the TicketMaster Summit in Los Angeles last month, where he stopped to mark a milestone in his career.

“Recognized for his lifetime contribution to sports, Dr. William A. Sutton, an academician and sports marketing leader, was awarded the Albert Leffler Lifetime Achievement Award,” said the TicketMaster website.

“Dr. Sutton’s distinguished career includes notable academic appointments and extensive industry experience working with professional leagues, teams, organizations, brands, universities, agencies and facilities, including the NBA, NFL, Phoenix Suns, Miami Dolphins, Philadelphia 76ers, Tampa Bay Lightning, San Francisco 49ers and more.”

“I am on what could be viewed as my farewell tour,” Sutton said. “Receiving the award from TicketMaster – an organization whose leadership I hold in high esteem and which has been a partner/supporter of the Vinik program since its inception – was special.”

Two alumni of his program, including one who just graduated, are employed at TicketMaster, he said.

“That to me is an outstanding day,” he said, “and the truest reminder of what I consider my greatest lifetime achievement.”

Sutton’s career won’t end with retirement in December. He will join Elevate Sports Ventures and serve as dean of Elevate Sports Academy, a professional development program that is part of Elevate Sports Ventures.

Sutton is not alone in racking up life achievement, or similar awards. A number of current faculty members with the Muma College of Business have such awards and plaques on mantles and walls and that doesn’t include the 10 current faculty members who have been named Fulbright scholars.

Here’s a sampling of other faculty members who have received life achievement, or similar type, awards:

  • Jim Stock, marketing professor: USF Distinguished University Professor (2012), Frank Harvey Endowed Professor of Marketing (2008), Lifetime Achievement Award from the Reverse Logistics Association (2016), Special Lifetime Logistics Service Award from Yasar University in Izmir, Turkey (2011), Distinguished Service Award from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (2011), Eccles Medal from the International Society of Logistics (2003).
  • Alan Hevner, professor and Eminent Scholar in the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department: USF Distinguished University Professor (2017), Distinguished Science Alumni at Purdue University, his alma mater (2018); Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to Design Science Research (2009), Purdue University Department of Computer Science Outstanding Alumnus Award (2007).
  • Sunil Mithas, professor in the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department: World Class Scholar.
  • Jerry Koehler, professor of management in the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department: Florida’s Finest Award from then-Gov. Lawton Chiles (1998).
  • Walter Nord, professor with the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department: Distinguished Educator, Academy of Management (2002); USF Distinguished University Professor (2003).
  • Grandon Gill, academic director of the Doctor of Business Administration program and professor in the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department: inaugural winner of Zbigniew Gackowski Memorial Award for lifetime contribution to informing science (2014), Honorary Founding Member, Informing Science Institute (2013), USF Outstanding Faculty Award (2016) and the Ranulph Glanville Memorial Award for Excellence in Case Method and Cybersecurity (2018).

Here’s a list of Fulbright scholars who are current Muma College of Business faculty members:

  • Sajeev Varki, associate marketing professor, was awarded a Fulbright grant in April 2018 and traveled to Belarus to conduct marketing research. He teaches marketing strategy and research.
  • Tim Heath, marketing professor, was scheduled to take a Fulbright-sponsored visiting professorship at Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria, this year.
  • Anol Bhattacherjee, professor in the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department, traveled to India earlier this year on the Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair Award for 2018-19.
  • Dan Bradley, professor of finance, received a core scholarship in 2017 to the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE) Business School in the University Institute of Lisbon in Portugal. He holds the Lykes Chair in finance and sustainability.
  • Jerry Koehler, management professor who is retiring later this year, was named a Fulbright scholar in 2016 and lectured in 2017 about management in an MBA program for professionals at Belarusian State Economic University in Minsk, Belarus.
  • Grandon Gill, director of the Muma College of Business DBA program, used his Fulbright grant to travel repeatedly to the University of Cape Town in Rondebosch, South Africa, beginning in 2015, to teach faculty from various universities how to write case studies and use cases in their classes.
  • James Stock, marketing professor, traveled to the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland, on his Fulbright scholarship, lecturing and doing research on supply chain sustainability.
  • Rob Hooker, assistant marketing professor, received a Fulbright specialist grant and traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, to lecture about supply-chain management, conduct relevant research about how it's done there and open doors of collaboration.
  • Moez Limayem, dean of the Muma College of Business, was the recipient of administrative Fulbright scholarship in 2018. He traveled to Japan in June to explore the Japanese higher-education landscape.
  • Matt Mullarkey, instructor with the Information Systems and Decision Sciences Department and director of the DBA program, will travel to Ireland in the spring of 2020 to study smart city designs at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth; the Irish Innovation Value Institute, LERO Ireland and the Dublin City Council's Smart Docklands team.