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SuΩolk Business
THE MAGAZINE FOR THE ALUMNI & FRIENDS OF THE SAWYER BUSINESS SCHOOL
FALL 2011

LOOK OUT

WORLD
Here Comes

SUFFOLK.
A decade later, the Sawyer Business School
is redefining global business education.

GLOBAL BUSINESS EDUCATION IN BOSTON | www.suffolk.edu/business

Suffolk Business
Fall 2011

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

THE DEAN’S MESSAGE

William J. O’Neill, Jr., JD ‘79
Dean

Morris McInnes, DBA
Associate Dean/Dean of Academic Affairs

Laurie Levesque, PhD
Associate Dean/Dean of
Undergraduate Programs

Theresa M. Malionek, BSBA ’89, MA ‘94
Director, Marketing & Communications,
Editor-in-Chief, Suffolk Business

Eliza Parrish
Director, Alumni Relations

Jen Woods
Copy Editor
Contributors

Christine Adams, BSBA ‘10
Lori Cullen
Rebecca Dienger
Steve Holt
Kristin Marquet
Sherri Miles
Pat Olsen
Jen Woods
Photography

John Gillooly
Carol Medina
Ilene Perlman
Creative Director/Design

Seth Sirbaugh
Suffolk Business magazine is produced and published
annually by the Suffolk University Sawyer Business
School. The magazine is distributed free of charge to
alumni, students, friends, parents, faculty and staff. The
views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors of the official polices of
the Sawyer Business School. We welcome your correspondence.
Please send submissions, questions and comments to:
suffolkbusiness@suffolk.edu. Visit us on the web at www.
suffolk.edu/business/alumni

Preparing Global
Business Leaders
THIS ISSUE OF SUFFOLK BUSINESS focuses on global business at the Sawyer Business School. It

has been 10 years since we established our mission of “Preparing Successful Global Business Leaders,” and we have accomplished much in the global business area since then. We launched two
internationally focused academic programs and a global travel series. We also increased faculty
with international work or research experience. More is outlined in the Cover Story on page 20.
Many Sawyer Business School alumni have become very successful leaders in the industry,
and our first feature article highlights a few of our faculty stars living and working abroad.
Next, we examine the international research of faculty members. Accounting Professors
Ariel Makevich and Lew Shaw received international recognition for their research on adopting a global accounting standard.
In our third feature, Professor Carlos Rufin writes about a major challenge facing global businesses today—achieving a combination of financial and social purpose. Rufin has been researching
the topic for several years. In the article, he focuses on utilities in developing countries.
In our fourth feature, BSBA alumnus John McDonnell, chief operating officer/executive
vice president of Patrón Sprits, teams up with Associate Professor of Marketing Giana Eckhardt
and Attorney David Woronov, partner at Posternak Blankstein & Lund LLP, to provide insight
on navigating corporate brand identity in China.
Finally, we look at the recent research of Professor David Silverstein of the Business Law
and Ethics department who has created a metric that quantifies the rule-of-law in a given
country and analyzes its impact on business.
Best regards,
William J. O’Neill, Jr., Dean
woneill@suffolk.edu

Lifecycle Environmental Impact of 1 issue
Wood Use - 7 tons less

Wastewater - 23,546 gallons less

Net Energy - 16 million BTU’s less

Solid Waste - 1,430 pounds less

Greenhouse Gases - 4,889 lbs CO_2 equiv. less
Environmental impact estimates were made using the Environmental Defense Fund Paper Calculator.
For more information visit http://www.papercalculator.org.

2/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2009

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

FALL 2011
COVER STORY: .. .................................................................. 20

Look out World, here comes Suffolk
A decade later, the Sawyer Business School is
redefining global business education. Read how
the Sawyer Business School has transformed
its curriculum to provide a practical, quality
education for today’s business leaders.
BY STEVE HOLT

FEATURE: . . ........................................................................... 27

Suffolk Business Leaders Abroad
International careers are achievable goals that
set in motion a challenging journey of academic
training, job opportunities, and a lifetime of new
experiences. BY SHERRI MILES
FEATURE: ............................................................................. 30

Adopting a Global Accounting Standard:
The Case of Israel

ALUMNI PERSPECTIVE: ................................................... 32

Bringing Power to New Heights: Reaching the
Poor with Private Capital
BY CARLOS RUFIN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF
STRATEGY AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

FEATURE: ............................................................................. 34

Brand Piracy
In an ocean of imitations, learn how to protect
your product when doing business in China
BY SHERRI MILES

FEATURE: ............................................................................. 38

Law Abiding Business
BY STEVE HOLT

BUSINESS SCHOOL NEWS............................................. 2-15
FACULTY UPDATE.......................................................... 16-19

BY LORI CULLEN
ALUMNI CONNECTIONS ............................................. 40-43
DONOR PROFILE: .............................................................. 45

Alan Dillaby (BSBA
’2010, MSA ’2011) and
Christine Adams
(BSBA ’2010)

www.suffolk.edu/business /1

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

NEWS & EVENTS

Right: Riverwalk
is the new home of
MBA-North Campus.
Below, Director
Heather Hewitt is
flanked by Professors
Abdelmagid Mazen
and Michael Arthur.
Far Right: Riverwalk
Properties in Lawrence,
Massachusetts

New North Campus
Location for Suffolk MBA
Convenient, Flexible Program Moves to Riverwalk in Lawrence
SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY’S SAWYER BUSINESS SCHOOL

has shifted its MBA program from North Andover to a
new, easily accessible location at Riverwalk Properties
in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
The Suffolk University MBA has long-established
roots in the Merrimack Valley. The new North Campus
offers year-round, full-time and part-time programs in
the evenings and on some Saturdays. Accelerated programs are available for attorneys, CPAs, and previous
business majors pursuing the internationally accredited Suffolk MBA.
The Merrimack Valley is home to more than 16,500
Suffolk University alumni, more than 6,000 of whom
hold degrees from the Sawyer Business School. They
provide a network of professional contacts for Suffolk
University MBA-North Campus students and alumni.
“We are pleased to continue providing business professionals in the Merrimack Valley with a quality, career-focused MBA program in an even more convenient
location at Riverwalk Properties,” said Business School
Dean William J. O’Neill, Jr.
Riverwalk Properties offers a complete business
environment, with 2,000 employees working for 200
companies in a campus-like setting that includes amenities such as restaurants, banks, and fitness centers.
2/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

The development occupies revitalized mill buildings
along the Merrimack River and is convenient to Route
495, the commuter rail, and bus service. Suffolk University MBA-North Campus classes will be held in
Northern Essex Community College’s state-of-the-art
classroom facilities, which opened in September.
“The Suffolk University MBA-North
“We are pleased to
Campus is pleased to
continue providing
offer its students a
business professionals
flexible program that
in the Merrimack Valley
fits easily into their
with a quality, careerprofessional lives in a
locale that offers all
focused MBA program in
the amenities of a
an even more convenient
brand-new business
location at Riverwalk
and educational setProperties.”
ting,” said Heather R.
Hewitt, director of the
Suffolk University MBA-North Campus. “We also are
pleased to be part of the revitalization of the riverfront,
a bright spot on the Merrimack Valley business scene.”
More information about the North Campus MBA program may be found
at www.suffolk.edu/mbanorth or by emailing mbanorth@suffolk.edu.

NEWS & EVENTS

Institute for Public Service –
Remodeled for Today’s Students
WITH A NEW NAME and revamped curricu-

lum, the Institute for Public Service (formerly Public Management) more accurately represents the student body it serves.
The Institute prepares students to become effective leaders in government, health,
and nonprofit organizations. “We emphasize
the development of knowledge and expertise,
enabling students to perform managerial and
administrative work at all levels of government and public service institutions,” said the
Institute’s Chair, Professor Richard Beinecke.
Although the Institute will still offer the
Masters in Public Administration (MPA) degree, the curriculum has been restructured
“to better reflect our students’ needs,” said
Beinecke, who is also a member of the
Healthcare Department.
Suffolk’s MPA program is one of only five
in New England that are accredited by the
NASPAA (National Association of Schools of
Public Affairs and Administration). It has attracted a diverse faculty that combines theory with their practical field experience.
The student body is also varied. Some
students have been working for 20 years,
while others enroll directly from undergraduate programs, are international students, or want to move from business into
the public sector. They have the option of
enrolling full- or part-time and can take
classes in Boston and Cape Cod.
Fewer Degree Requirements
The number of required classes has dropped.
Students enrolling in September 2011 only
need to complete 42 credits (14 courses) instead of 48 (16 courses). They will take eight
required courses and six electives.
A More Flexible Core Curriculum
The redesigned core courses will be broader
and cover common competency areas, which

will help students who change careers. Ethics, integrating sectors, and working
across boundaries will be emphasized in all courses. People in nonprofits often
work with government, and government employees often work with people in
business, and these changes will reflect that.
The Department is also adding an information technology course called Information-based Management. It is one of the four core courses on foundations
in public service, in addition to the three on managing public service organizations,
and a capstone course on strategic organization.
New Career Tracks
The MPA degree will no longer offer formal
“ e will continue to offer
W
concentrations in health policy, human rethe Masters in Public
source management, nonprofit management,
Administration (MPA)
and state and local government. Instead, to
degree, but we are
provide more flexibility, students will select
electives from the wide range of courses ofchanging the curriculum
fered by the Sawyer Business School and the
to better reflect our
University. Students with interests as diverse
students’ needs.”
as international health or museum management can individualize their programs.
“These changes will provide students with the core competencies they need
to work in any public service field. At the same time, the tracks will give students
the flexibility to develop more specialized skills in their area of interest,” said
Beinecke, who was recently promoted to department chair in 2010 and Full Professor in 2011.
The joint degree programs with other University departments will still be offered. These include: JD/MPA, MPA/MS in Mental Health Counseling, MPA/MS
in Criminal Justice, and MPA/MS in Political Science.
As an alternative to a full degree, students may earn the Certificate of Advanced
Study in Public Administration (CASPA), which tailors five MPA electives to meet
their needs. Before applying to Suffolk, students may also take a maximum of two
courses that can count towards the MPA.
The department offers a variety of internship opportunities, mentoring arrangements with Suffolk alumni, and fellowships in Boston and Washington, DC.
In addition, the organization sponsors networking events with alumni and distinguished speakers.
For instance, last October, the department launched the Moakley Breakfast
Series. The event is designed to carry on the late congressman’s legacy of public
service by bringing federal, state, and municipal leaders together to discuss important public policy issues. Congressman Barney Frank opened the series by
discussing the financial crisis of 2008.
For more information, visit www.suffolk.edu/MPA.

www.suffolk.edu/business /3

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

NEWS & EVENTS

Right: Suffolk healthcare
administration students
with Professor Peter
Rivard and then Staff
Assistant Alicia Vinal
at the Massachusetts
Hospital Association’s
Leadership Forum
in January 2011.

On the Move

Suffolk’s Healthcare Programs thrive with the growing healthcare industry
AS THE DEMAND for healthcare administrators increases,

Suffolk’s Healthcare Programs are expanding and innovating
to stay closely aligned with the industry’s needs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2018, the
number of healthcare administration positions will increase
by 16 percent. Consequently, leaders who can handle diverse
challenges, including adapting to healthcare reform, improving quality and controlling costs, and managing continual
innovations, will be essential.
To fulfill this need, Sawyer Business School offers a rigorous curriculum and real-world experience. Students can earn
a Master of Health Administration, a Master of Business Administration/Health, or a Master of Public Administration
with health courses.
Increasing Enrollment
From 2007 to 2011, enrollment in Suffolk’s Healthcare Programs jumped from 59 to 100 students. “Our cutting-edge
programs attract a diverse student body, with full-time and
part-time students from around the world,” noted Operating
Director of Healthcare Programs Richard Gregg.
Faculty with Healthcare Industry Experience
Drawing on their varied industry experience, the Healthcare
Programs faculty offer valuable insight on the challenges in
healthcare administration.
For instance, Lauren Williams is vice president of Patient
Care Services and chief nursing officer at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in Connecticut. Rick Beinecke held clinical
and management positions in several community mental
health and substance-abuse centers and was a senior planner
at Harvard Community Health Plan. Peter Rivard managed
ambulatory care services and facilities and was an administrator at a teaching hospital division. Rick Gregg was a man4/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

agement consultant to healthcare organizations and director/CEO of
the nation’s largest yoga and holistic health center. Liz Turner is a
nurse-attorney who practices healthcare law.
Last fall, the Healthcare Programs added two senior-level healthcare practitioners–Amy MacNulty and Althea Lyons. MacNulty is
president of a healthcare management consulting firm and was a principal for Noblis, a science, technology, and strategy organization. Lyons is vice president of Human Resources and Development at Northeast Hospital Corporation.
This summer, Mona Al-Amin
“ pplicants tell us they joined the faculty. Al-Amin taught at
A
the University of Florida and studies
have not been able to
healthcare delivery forms; organizafind anything like our
tional theory; and geographical variaMentor Program at any
tions in health services, quality, and
other school.”
strategic management.
This fall, the Healthcare Programs
welcomes senior-level healthcare
practitioners Shelagh Joyce, MBA ‘80, and Anne Marie Conway, MHA
‘00. Joyce is chief information officer for the Medical Department at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Conway is a nurse and former
executive with Shire Human Genetic Therapies.
The Healthcare Programs also have two Distinguished Guest
Lecturers: Jeanette Clough and Ellen Zane. Clough, MHA ‘96, is
president and CEO of Mount Auburn Hospital. Zane recently concluded her tenure as president and CEO of Tufts Medical Center and
the Floating Hospital for Children this fall, but is continuing as vice
chairman of the Board of Trustees. She is also an assistant professor
in the Department of Medicine, Division of Clinical Care Research
at Tufts University School of Medicine.
The faculty is committed to educating and inspiring students to
be effective change leaders in an evolving healthcare industry. “I can’t
think of people who are more qualified to teach healthcare administration than our faculty,” Gregg said.

NEWS & EVENTS

Hands-on Experience and Mentorship
Two of the Healthcare Programs’ most important initiatives
are the mentor and internship programs.
The Mentor Program matches new students with experienced healthcare professionals, most of whom are MHA
alumni. Since 2007, the number of matched students and
mentors has increased from 14 to 24.
This program is appealing because students can integrate
academic theory and professional practice. “Applicants tell
us they have not been able to find anything like our Mentor
Program at any other school,” Gregg said.
Suffolk also coordinates internships, which are required
for students who have no experience in the US healthcare
system. Students and recent graduates can also participate.
“Once an individual becomes a Suffolk student, he or she
becomes a life-long member of our Suffolk Healthcare community, and we help in any way possible. During the past year,
in addition to placing many students in internships, we helped
two graduates secure internships; one at Massachusetts General Hospital and the other at Tufts Medical Center,” said Gregg.
John Schwartz, a recent MHA graduate, is an IT audit
manager at Partners Healthcare System. Suffolk prepared
him to advance within his organization.
“I made a mid-life career change into the healthcare industry, and Suffolk’s MHA Program got me up to speed on the industry’s practices and challenges very quickly. By my second
year, I was better able to understand the industry dynamics,
which in turn allowed me to start contributing to the healthcare
community and its patient population,” Schwartz said.
Accessible Healthcare Experts and Events
The Healthcare Programs sponsor renowned guest speakers,
such as former Senior Vice President of Blue Cross Blue
Shield of Massachusetts Vin Sahney and then President and
CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Paul Levy.
Last year, a panel discussion on e-health innovation featured executives from Partners Healthcare, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.
This year, Suffolk members of the Institute for Healthcare
Improvement (IHI) and the American College of Healthcare
Executives (ACHE) hosted a panel discussion on patient
safety and quality that included executives from IHI and
Massachusetts General Hospital.
Many Suffolk students attend healthcare conferences off
campus, including the IHI’s Annual National Forum, the
Massachusetts Hospital Association’s Mid-Winter Leadership Forum (for which the Healthcare Programs are co-sponsors), and the ACHE Congress on Healthcare Leadership.
Some students who attended the Congress received financial
support from the ACHE of Massachusetts.
The Healthcare Programs are constantly evolving to meet
the needs of a dynamic industry. As Rick Gregg says, “Suffolk
Healthcare is on the move!”

Above: Stephen Gaudet; Professors James Cataldo, Gail Sergenian, and
Thomas Whalen; Erjola Hoxha; and Katrina Flynn.

FEI Honors Students
Three students awarded for achievements
THE BOSTON CHAPTER of Financial Executives International hon-

ored three Suffolk business students at an awards dinner attended
by students and faculty from Boston-area colleges and universities.
FEI, a worldwide association of high-level executives, named
Katrina Flynn the Outstanding Graduating Senior in honor of her
academic excellence and service to the Accounting Department
at the University’s Sawyer Business School.
Joining Flynn in receiving
honors were juniors Stephen
“ watched our students
I
Gaudet and Erjola Hoxha, both
network with the execu- of whom received scholarships.
tives at the dinner and
They were judged on the basis
realized once more that of academic achievement, community service, and a personal
even in a select group,
our students stand out.” statement.
"We in the Accounting Department are very proud of all three
students for what they’ve accomplished,” said Associate Professor
Gail Sergenian. “Many members of the scholarship committee approached me to praise the qualifications of the Suffolk nominees.
“I watched our students network with the executives at the
dinner and realized once more that even in a select group, our
students stand out,” said Sergenian.
FEI is the premier association for CFOs and other senior
finance executives. The organization provides networking, advocacy, and continuing professional education on key issues for
high-level executives in financial management and reporting.
The Boston Chapter of the FEI is the largest in the international association.

www.suffolk.edu/business /5

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

NEWS & EVENTS

Sawyer Business
School Associate
Dean/Dean of
Academic Affairs
Morris McInnes

High Honors

Morris McInnes Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
THE BOSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL honored Sawyer Busi-

ness School Associate Dean/Dean of Academic Affairs
Morris McInnes with the Gorham Brigham, Jr., Lifetime
Achievement Award at its annual Chief Financial Officer
(CFO) Awards Luncheon in July.
The award was named after the inaugural recipient
F. Gorham Brigham, Jr., a prominent community activist for businesses and charitable organizations. Each
year, it is given to a distinguished CFO who has made
a difference in Boston.
McInnes is a professor of Accounting at Suffolk University who is passionate about the finance industry. “I’ll
admit I did fall in love with accounting,” McInnes told the
Boston Business Journal, adding, “Everyone thinks it’s dull
and mundane, but it’s really the lifeblood of a society.”
Accounting is about more than just debits and credits. It
has real-life implications that affect commercial, labor,
and financial markets, he said.
McInnes earned his MBA and PhD from Harvard
Business School and specializes in the design of budgetary
control systems, linking strategy and operations, corporate financial management, and international financial
analysis and control.
Before joining Suffolk, McInnes taught at MIT’s Sloan
School of Management, Harvard Business School, and the
Manchester Business School in the United Kingdom,
where he was director of the PhD program.
In the classroom, McInnes draws on his industry experience, offering a global perspective and real-world cases. He
grew up in Scotland and served as a finance executive and
board member for several international organizations. He
was the CFO of a London Stock Exchange company and has
6/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

helped buy and sell companies and raise capital in London, New York,
and the Middle East. He also ran a financial services business that generated $6 million in annual earnings.
“Morris is an extraordinary teacher, due to his research, intellectual rigor, and corporate experience. His corporate experience has
immersed him in the finer points of international business. He is an
asset to the Business School and its students,” said Sawyer Business
School Dean William J. O’Neill, Jr.
As a dedicated professor and mentor, McInnes has contributed to
the success of Suffolk’s Accounting program. “Suffolk is proud to have
the highest CPA [Certified Public
Accountant] pass rate in the state
“ n the classroom, McInnes
I
of Massachusetts. Today’s best
draws on his industry
practices in accounting are a key
experience, offering a
component to the success of a
company,” McInnes said.
global perspective and
He is also the former presireal-world cases.”
dent of the Boston chapter of Financial Executives International,
a professional association for CFOs and other senior finance executives. He remains active in the organization.
McInnes has been published in several academic and professional journals, including Accounting, Organizations and Society,
The Accounting Review, Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Certified
Accountant, Journal of Management Studies, and Accounting and
the Public Interest. He has lectured and consulted on corporate
financial strategy and control in the United States, Argentina, Bahrain, China, Canada, India, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom,
and several other countries
McInnes plans to step down from his academic dean role at the
end of the year but will continue to teach full time.

NEWS & EVENTS

Award Celebrates Innovation
and Collaboration
Accelerated Cure honored for fostering innovation and collaboration
SUFFOLK’S CENTER FOR INNOVATION AND CHANGE
LEADERSHIP (CICL) honored the Accelerated Cure Proj-

ect at their November 7 annual Global Leadership in Innovation and Collaboration Award and recognition day
activities at the Sawyer Business School.
Each year, the award is given to an organization that
fosters and inspires innovation and collaboration. “Our
theme for this year’s award was ‘innovation and collaboration that saves lives,’ and that is what Accelerated Cure
is all about,” said Robert Defillippi, co-director of the
CICL and Sawyer Business School Professor of Strategy
and International Business.
Accelerated Cure Project encourages collaboration between research organizations and clinicians to learn more
about multiple sclerosis (MS). They collect and distribute
blood samples to scientists who are studying the disease. In
return, the researchers share their findings, which are compiled into a database known as the Cure Map.
“What stood out to us was how Accelerated Cure was
mobilizing a global network of medical researchers to
speed up the process of research underway to find effective therapies for multiple sclerosis,” Defillippi said.
Accelerated Cure Project and the CICL share a similar
goal, which is to “facilitate collaboration and information
exchange that will lead to new insights,” said Colette Dumas,
co-director of the CICL and Professor of Organizational Behavior and Management and Entrepreneurship.
Robert McBurney, CEO of Accelerated Cure Project, accepted the award on behalf of the organization. As part of
the award ceremony, McBurney discussed the organization’s
vision, collaborative practices, and effective information exchange. Participants learned how and why “formerly competitive or secretive organizations not accustomed to sharing
their hard-won data learn to make themselves and their data
accessible to other organizations to foster beneficial innovative practices,” Dumas said.
Alex Slawsby, a manager at the consulting firm Innosight,
moderated the discussion. Slawsby understands that innovation plays a vital role in solving business problems and de-

Robert McBurney, CEO of
Accelerated Cure Project

veloping business strategies. At Innosight, he helps organizations improve their innovation-driven growth.
Dumas also interviewed McBurney at the Suffolk University television studio about the importance of innovation in business. Their discussion will be posted on the
Sawyer Business School’s YouTube page.
The award is just one of several CICL initiatives to
integrate best practices of innovation and collaboration
within the research, teaching, and service missions of
CICL and Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School.
www.suffolk.edu/business /7

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

NEWS & EVENTS

Suffolk Alumna’s Entrepreneurial
Spirit Rooted in Sustainability
Julia Frost helped turn innovative idea into flourishing business
JUST TWO YEARS after graduating from Sawyer Business

(White Loft Studio photo) From left to right: Jennifer Frost, lead creative;
Lindsey Wishart, head chef; and Julia Frost (BSBA ‘07), business director
of CHIVE — Sustainable Event Design and Catering

8/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

School, Julia Frost was ready to take on a major entrepreneurial endeavor. Julia, along with her sister Jennifer
Frost and friend Lindsey Wishart, transformed an innovative idea into a thriving business called CHIVE Sustainable Event Design & Catering.
Before launching CHIVE, Julia gained valuable experience at Sawyer Business School. As president of Suffolk’s
Women in Business Club, she helped increase membership
and met with local business leaders to plan events and encourage community entrepreneurship.
After earning her BS in Business Administration in
2007, Julia accepted a seminar manager position at the
Global Learning Company. During her time there, Julia
coordinated an event to promote global business at Suffolk University. She booked Jack Keating, vice president
of The Timberland Company, as the keynote speaker.
Julia knew the event would draw a large crowd, and
she wanted to make it memorable. Knowing that Timberland’s ethic was rooted in sustainability, Julia called on
her sister for help. Jennifer studied interior design in college and also shared Timberland’s passion for the environment. Jennifer’s homemade food and handmade decor
had a lasting impression on guests.
Shortly after the Suffolk event, Julia and Jennifer
received catering and event planning requests from the
Mayor’s Office of Environmental and Energy Services,
the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Allendale
Farm in Brookline.

NEWS & EVENTS

“ e really love our jobs, and it’s because it has afforded us
W
such variety in our lives. Meeting new people, learning about
other sustainable businesses; it continues our education
beyond the classroom.”
It was after the fundraising event for Allendale Farm,
the first party that Lindsey helped with, that the business
came to life. “We realized that as a team, now was the time
to take advantage of the opportunities appearing before
us. We just went for it,” Julia said. “We never started the
business with a plan. It just grew organically.”
Julia, unlike her business partners, was not always
focused on food and sustainability. Jennifer and Lindsey, while students at Endicott College, had daydreamed about participating in a supportive and localbased food community in the North Shore.
With Julia’s business background and event planning
experience, she helped their idea become reality. Together, they created a business that brought local, delicious
food to a broad clientele and spread their values and practices to the masses, all while making a profit.
This was Julia’s dream come true. While at Suffolk, she
was most affected by her Social Entrepreneurship classes
because she respected the idea that businesses could operate
for profit, while still acting responsibly in all other areas.
They just needed a name. They chose CHIVE because, while brainstorming on a porch, they saw a chive
plant growing in the snow, with no support. They realized that the chive was a metaphor for their company:
the purple blossom is the design element; the green
stem is the unique, seasonal menus; and the roots
ground them with sustainable practices. Like the chive
plant, their business also rose out of nothingness—no
capital, no plan, no backers—it was just three women
taking an adventurous risk.
All of the products used at CHIVE contain minimalto-no packaging and are compostable, recyclable, or
reusable. As a zero-waste company, sourcing products
with little-to-no footprint is mandatory. “We’ve always
been committed to sustainability in that we source lo-

cally,” Julia said, referring to their dedication to local
farms, artisans, and fellow small businesses.
When they serve the food, they also make a point to
let guests know where the food came from, who they
partnered with, and how to compost and recycle to reduce trash. “Knowing who and where our food is coming from is of utmost importance to us, and that’s why
we share it with them,” Julia said.
In the beginning, CHIVE primarily hosted events for
higher education institutions, nonprofits, and other sustainable businesses. Over the past three years, the business
has steadily expanded, capitalizing on the public’s growing interest in environmental conservation. CHIVE now
hosts many more private events, ranging from intimate
dinner parties to large weddings and conferences.
Julia considers CHIVE’s steady growth an advantage
because they can ensure that the company never compromises its core values or cuts corners to meet the demand.
Their success shows that being socially responsible can
be profitable in a relatively short amount of time.
CHIVE is unique in that each partner has a different
area of expertise, while still sharing the same values. “The
beauty of having the three partners is that we all bring
something different to the table,” Julia said. With Jennifer’s interior design background, Lindsey’s food experience, and Julia’s business degree, the three have found
harmony in their talents and shared commitment to sustainability. “Each of us brings a very different perspective
and different skills,” Julia added.
“We really love our jobs, and it’s because it has afforded
us such variety in our lives. Meeting new people, learning
about other sustainable businesses; it continues our education beyond the classroom,” Frost said.
For more information, visit www.CHIVEevents.com.

www.suffolk.edu/business /9

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

NEWS & EVENTS

Entrepreneurship Program Combines
Knowledge, Experience, and Mentorship
Students apply theory to real-world situations
THE SAWYER BUSINESS SCHOOL’S Entrepre-

neurship Program bridges the gap between
classroom and boardroom. The curriculum
focuses on the foundations of business and
real-world experiences, including how to
build a company. 
Undergraduate students can earn a major or
minor in Entrepreneurship, and MBA students
can earn an Entrepreneurship concentration.
Students in the Entrepreneurship Program
experience the challenges of entrepreneurship
before actually starting a company. “Increasingly in the US, as well as in the emerging economies of India and China, the push to take action and create new businesses is the dominant
engine of economic growth. We have to help
our students understand that they are not only
capable of–but responsible for–building their
own economic success,” said Suzyn Ornstein,
co-founder of the program.
Students also develop the skills to succeed
in the corporate world. The Business School
promotes collaboration among students,
alumni, and faculty to devise solutions to
common business pitfalls, and fosters an entrepreneurial spirit in startups and existing
organizations. Exposure to real-world entrepreneurs provides students with an opportunity to find inspiration in their successes and
to learn from their mistakes.
Program’s Growth
With flexible course schedules, the Entrepreneurship Program has seen substantial growth
in the number of graduate students returning
to study entrepreneurship to start their own
companies, become entrepreneurial thinkers in
existing organizations, or take over an existing
family business. The undergraduate program
has also seen dramatic growth in majors and
minors, as it was nationally ranked within its
first five years of existence.
With the recent surge in unemployment,
the Sawyer Business School faculty recognized an opportunity to leverage its Entrepreneurship Program to help motivated indi10/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

viduals free themselves from the shackles of a depressed labor market. Faculty
members work to ensure that students are proactive about their futures and not
waiting for opportunities to fall into their laps. As the Director of Entrepreneurship Programs George Moker noted, “It is very rare in life that you find yourself
in the right place at the right time, and shame on us if we don’t help a student seize
his or her moment.” 
Experienced Faculty, Committed Mentors
Entrepreneurship faculty members are successful entrepreneurs and mentors. For
example, Moker is a CPA who manages a successful public accounting firm in Beverly, Massachusetts, that focuses on government-funded startups. Likewise, Ornstein
earned a PhD in business administration and has founded two startup companies.
The Entrepreneurship Resource Center
The Entrepreneurship Resource Center aims to inspire entrepreneurial thinking
in all undergraduate and graduate students and alumni. Located on the fourth
floor of the Sawyer Building, the Center provides a place for students to network
with peers, alumni, and faculty. For students interested in developing their own
companies, the Center also offers labs, workshops, and business plan competitions.
Networking
Connections are important. Through a variety of initiatives, the Center brings
people, new ideas, and resources together. With workspace available, students
can meet and work with other like-minded individuals and even hold board meetings for their startup companies. Networks developed in the classroom also lead
to hiring opportunities for students.
Business Plan Competition
The Sawyer Business School promotes the entrepreneurial spirit of its students by
providing them with the opportunity to design a business plan, implement their ideas,
and acquire funding. The School’s New Product Innovation Competition encourages
innovative thinking and develops business acumen amongst students. The winner
receives $50,000 in startup capital and in-kind services.  
Product Launches
Many students and alumni have launched successful ventures, including:
•  andy.com: Sells over 6,000 types of candy items from over 500 manufacturers.
C
•  oupMe.com: Offers Boston shoppers exclusive discounts for products and services.
C
•  umoSkinny.com: Provides articles specifically for college students.
S
•  deologie.com: Organic clothing line that donates two percent of its t-shirt revI
enue to the Acumen Fund.
•  ardStar Inc.: Startup revolutionizing the membership and reward card system
C
through the use of smartphones, with more than one million downloaded apps.
•  eekaboo Mobile: Uses smartphone geo-location technology for the delivery of
P
coupons, discounts, and promotions.

NEWS & EVENTS

Chef Doggity and his three canine friends create quick, healthy
recipes on the children’s television show “Noodle and Doodle.”

Career Paths
The Entrepreneurship Program emphasizes developing each student’s
business initiative as a springboard to
success in his or her chosen career
path. All business professionals face
challenges during their careers,
whether as consultants, entrepreneurs, investors, or executives. Students learn how to overcome these
obstacles and prepare themselves to
achieve their career goals.
Startups
A new idea is not enough; a fresh
concept at the heart of any startup
company must also have a strong
business model to thrive. Andy Miller is an Entrepreneur Studies program alumnus and founder of Mycardstar.com, a multi-million dollar
business that consolidates memberships and rewards on smartphones.
He lauds his education at Suffolk,
stating that the fusion of academics
with business principles taught by
successful entrepreneurs, prepared
him to build his startup company. An
active alumnus, Miller mentors students interested in forming startups.
Corporations
Students with entrepreneurship
backgrounds may also choose to enter the corporate sector. In particular, newly acquired businesses–
where entrepreneurship already
exists–often seek out strategic thinkers and hard-working employees
with strong leadership skills.
Social Entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship work can
pose challenges for even the brightest managers because such organizations often have limited financial
resources. Many students begin their
careers in social entrepreneurship
and later work as consultants, venture capitalists, or board members in
nonprofit companies.
For more information, visit www.suffolk.edu/
entrepreneurship, or contact Program Director
George Moker at gmoker@Suffolk.edu.

Suffolk Professor’s Kids Show
Has Recipe for Success
JOHN MCCOY, a Suffolk MPA and JD alumnus,

has a multifaceted career. He is an instructor
of Business Law and Ethics and director of
internships at the Sawyer Business School. He
also runs a private law practice in Hingham,
Massachusetts.
Five years ago, McCoy expanded his mosaic
career even further and began developing a preschool television program after receiving the
inspiration from his then five-year-old son Jack.
“I took the time to listen to my son, and he
told me about Doggity, a cooking dog. I
thought, ‘there are no fun cooking shows for
kids, and kids would love this idea.’ I was the
first to pitch this idea, and now it’s pretty
commonplace,” McCoy said.
Today, he is the creator, writer, and executive producer of Doggity’s, a two-minute segment on the children’s show “Noodle and
Doodle,” which recently won the Parent’s
Choice Gold Award.
Doggity’s is an animated cooking show for
kids. Chef Doggity and his three canine friends
create quick, healthy recipes with fun names
like “monkey freeze pops” (frozen banana
treats) and “spinning spinach salad tutu.”
KidsHealth provides oversight to ensure
that the foods are nutritional and safe for kids
to make at home. McCoy’s original creation,
Doggity’s Diner, was endorsed by US Surgeon
General Dr. Richard Carmona because it addressed the growing childhood obesity epidemic. McCoy hopes that teaching kids about nutritious foods at an early age will encourage them
to have healthier lifestyles in the long run.

According to McCoy, “the network provides great oversight with educational consultants, and of course, standards and practices, making sure that each episode we create
is educational, age appropriate, and in no way
encourages negative or unsafe behavior.”
McCoy, who studied film at the University of Miami, developed Doggity’s in collaboration with Klasky-Csupo, a Hollywoodbased multimedia entertainment production
company responsible for several famous programs, including “Rugrats,” “Real Monsters,”
and “The Simpsons.”
McCoy worked with an Emmy Awardwinning team on season one, including “Beavis and Butthead” Executive Producer John
Andrews, “Curious George” Producer Patty
Jausoro, “Rugrats” Designer Max Miceli, “Invader Zim” Writer Eric Trueheart, “Wonder
Pets” Composer J. Walter Hawkes, Animator
Sean Nadeau, and Culinary Developer Barbara Kirshner.
McCoy is currently executive producing
season two, working with BixPix Animation, and co-writing half of the episodes
with Dara Monahan, who took over for
Trueheart in the second-half of season one.
The original cast and Culinary Developer
Kirshner will also be a part of season two,
with J. Walter Hawkes’ music still providing the background.
“Noodle and Doodle” featuring Doggity’s
airs on Saturdays and Sundays at 9:20am and
11:40am on PBS Sprout. For more information, visit www.sproutonline.com.
www.suffolk.edu/business /11

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

NEWS & EVENTS

Just the Facts
Students at Sawyer Business School gain global insight in small, diverse classes

ENROLLMENT TRENDS FALL 2010

COUNTRIES SENDING HIGHEST AMOUNT OF STUDENTS

Undergraduate

2219

China

137

Graduate

1186

Saudi Arabia

63

India

57

UNDERGRADUATE MAJOR BREAKDOWN

Accounting

305

United Arab Emirates

42

Entrepreneurship

185

Venezuela

38

Finance

280

HIGHEST OUT-OF-STATE STUDENTS

Global Business

295

Connecticut

350

Information Systems

56

New Hampshire

324

Management

392

New York

177

Marketing

345

Rhode Island

155

Total States

42

GRADUATE MAJOR BREAKDOWN

Graduate Diploma in Accounting

59

NEW FRESHMAN PROFILE 2010

Master of Science in Accounting

120

Female

56.3%

Executive MBA

34

Male

43.7%

Global MBA

39

International

10.4%

MBA

352

RESIDENCE

Master of Science in Finance

42

% from Massachusetts

55%

Master of Public Administration

104

% from out of state

32.3%

Master of Healthcare Administration

73

FINANCIAL AID

Master of Science in Taxation

51

% receiving financial aid

79.3%

Total awarded

$30,343,445

PERCENTAGE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

Undergraduate

20.8%

Average package

$29,092

Graduate

18.5%

% receiving financial aid

73.2%

12/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

NEWS & EVENTS

Geoffrey West, a theoretical physicist and former
president of the Santa Fe Institute.

Greta Meszoely, director of the Center for Business
Complexity & Global Leadership and associate
professor at the Sawyer Business School.

Kathleen Engel, associate dean for Intellectual Life
and a professor of Law at Suffolk University.

Business Complexity
and Global Leader Conference
SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY’S Center for Business Complexity

and Global Leadership hosted a three-day symposium to
discuss the unique challenges and advantages of today’s
complex business world.
Businesses are rapidly evolving into complex networks,
where social, economic, and technological systems are interconnected. As their infrastructure expands, organizations change on fundamental levels, and it becomes imperative for business leaders to apply innovative strategies
and decision-making processes.
“Traditional tools and methodologies are no longer adequate
to address today’s business challenges.  A new framework of
thinking and tools and methodologies that incorporate this perspective are necessary,” said Greta Meszoely, director of the
Center for Business Complexity & Global Leadership and associate professor at the Sawyer Business School.
The Conference highlighted some of these new tools, which
provide insight into how multiple systems interact. Understanding complexity enables business leaders make more-informed
decisions that can help them improve returns on investments,
optimize efficiency, respond to unexpected changes, test innovations, mitigate risks, and predict cascading effects.

About 150 people attended the second annual “Business Complexity
and Global Leader Conference” on October 17-19 at Suffolk University.
The conference featured many presenters, including Alessandro
Vespignani, professor of informatics and computing at Indiana
University; Geoffrey West, a theoretical physicist and former president of the Santa Fe Institute; Kathleen C. Engel, associate dean
for Intellectual Life and professor of law at Suffolk University; Ren
Y. Cheng, a senior research advisor for Fidelity Management &
Research Company (FMRCo); Eric Bonabeau, the founder of Icosystem; and David Lazer, a member of the College of Computer and
Information Science and the Department of Political Science at
Northeastern University.
Last year’s conference was a huge success, attracting more than
100 attendees. The event’s popularity increased awareness about the
Center for Business Complexity and Global Leadership and its mission
to promote discussions among multidisciplinary thought leaders. “The
energy and momentum that emerged from our campus during the
proceedings not only continued to grow, but also brought a new interest in our work at Suffolk and the expansion of our current activities,”
said Meszoely, who presented at the conference this fall.
For more information, visit www.businesscomplexity.com.

www.suffolk.edu/business /13

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

NEWS & EVENTS

Experts Explore
Social Media
Business Strategies
Emerging technology offers innovative
marketing opportunities
“IS SOCIAL MEDIA A FAD? Or the big-

gest shift since the Industrial Revolution?” That’s the question Erik Qualman posed in “Social Media
Revolution 2,” the YouTube video that
welcomed guests to Suffolk University’s sold-out social media conference earlier this year.
Qualman, author of Amazon.com
best-seller Socialnomics, and global
vice president of digital marketing at
EF Education, was the academic keynote speaker at “Bridging the Gap: A
Mashup of Academic Frameworks &
Business Applications Conference.”
Social media, he said, is rapidly transforming business and marketing
strategies. “We don’t have a choice on
whether we do social media. The
question is how we do it,” Qualman’s
video pointed out.
Located in the heart of the city,
Suffolk University was the ideal location for the conference. “Boston
has become the hub of the inbound
marketing movement,” said Mike
Volpe, vice president of Inbound
Marketing at HubSpot, and industry
keynote speaker.
The conference brought together business leaders, marketers, and
academic experts, such as John
Deighton, Harvard University Professor of Business Administration;
Dan Zarrella, an award-winning vi14/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

ral marketing scientist; and Julia
Roy, a social strategist dubbed the
“Twitter poster girl” by Forbes Magazine. Panel discussions focused on
pertinent topics, including the return on investment of social media,
emerging Facebook strategies, and
search engine optimization.
For instance, technology journalist and social media consultant
Paul Gillin discussed marketers’
tendency to use the “push strategy”
in social media. “They try to sell
their product too aggressively, and
the audience ends up tuning them
out entirely,” he said. Instead, Gillin
recommends that businesses follow
a 7:2:1 ratio. “For every 10 posts, 7
should be helpful advice or interesting facts, 2 should be about what the

company is doing, and only 1 should
be an advertisement.”
Michelle McCormack, Owner of
LoveTheCool, offered advice to social
media novices. Some of the biggest
misconceptions about social media,
she said, are that it’s easy and free. “In
reality, it is simple, but it’s not easy.
Like offline, online relationships take
work and commitment,” McCormack
said, adding, “unless your time has no
value, it is not free.”
If a company can only use one
platform, McCormack recommends
Facebook, calling it “the most important social media network today.” She
also advised business professionals to
set up Facebook profiles and participate on the site regularly. “Monitor
successful Facebook pages and see
how they are engaging. Copy them,”
McCormack said.
Suffolk Students are Passionate
about Social Media
“Bridging the Gap” came together
thanks to three young Suffolk MBA
students with an unmistakable passion for social media. Pam Sahota
(@Pamsahota), Sean Zinsmeister
(@SZinsmeister), and Paul Schmidt
(@Drumming) grew up during the

Erik Qualman explores how social media is
changing the businesses landscape in his
Amazon.com best-selling book Socialnomics.

NEWS & EVENTS

evolution of social media and are interested in how new
media affects marketing.
“Things are changing at such a fast pace in the business world; it was important to look beyond the degree,”
Zinsmeister said. “People need to be constantly looking
for how they can add value to their MBA and educating
themselves on an ever-changing world around us. [Bridging the Gap] goes beyond the shiny new tools to how we
can use these new communication channels to create
more efficient, transparent, and higher-functioning business models,” he said.
The students worked closely with Associate Professor
of Marketing Meera Venkatraman to make the conference
a reality. Venkatraman was the driving force behind the
development of The Business of Social Media, a new Marketing course that debuted last fall. Sahota, Zinsmeister,
and Schmidt were among the first to enroll. “It is very
current and fresh because it has to have new material in
order to stay on top of the subject matter. I loved every
minute and encourage others to partake,” Sahota said.
Offered to both undergraduate and graduate students,
The Business of Social Media examines the transformation
of marketing practices with the advent of social media. The
class “allows students to share with each other and learn
from one another by writing collaborative wikis, blogging,
and receiving peer-to-peer feedback,” Venkatraman said.
“The students’ role with social media forces them to take a
more active approach to learning,” she added.
Catherine McCabe, the Department of Marketing
Chair calls the course “an integral part of the Department
of Marketing’s continuous focus on providing our undergraduate and graduate students with an innovative, timely, and rigorous curriculum.” The course is motivating and
engaging. “The success of the Social Media Conference is
a wonderful example of how cooperative and collaborative learning can enhance students’ educational experiences,” McCabe said.
Sahota, Zinsmeister, and Schmidt have recently graduated and accepted jobs that involve social media. Sahota
is the Marketing Communications & Social Media Manager for Intronis, a software company that does cloud
backup and recovery. Zinsmeister works closely with the
CEO of the startup company Rentcycle.com to structure
their marketing strategy. Schmidt is involved with artist
relations and marketing at SABIAN Cymbals Inc., a musical instrument company. He uses social media to increase
brand exposure and interact with customers.

Get Social!

Join Sawyer Business School’s
Global Network of Students,
Alumni, Faculty, and Staff
Connect with the Suffolk community and receive
live updates on industry news, upcoming events,
job openings, internship opportunities, and more

FIND US ON FACEBOOK
www.facebook.com/SuffolkBusiness

SUBCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL
www.youtube.com/suffolkbusiness

VISIT US ON FLICKR
www.flickr.com/groups/suffolkbusiness

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
www.twitter.com/SUBizSchool

JOIN OUR LINKEDIN GROUP
http://linkd.in/SuffolkBusiness

www.suffolk.edu/business /15

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

F A C U LT Y U P D A T E

Cristian Chelariu

Tammy MacLean

Brigitte Muehlmann

Miriam Weissman

Jane Zhu

Publications
BOOKS // Professor Carlos Rufin, and co-author have published

Private Utilities and Poverty Alleviation: Market Initiatives at the Base
of the Pyramid (pp. 250). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Professor Miriam Weismann published Parallel Proceedings: Navigat-

ing Multiple Case Litigation. First Chair Press.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDING // Professors Nizamettin Aydin, and
Jafar Mana, published Interfirm Power Structures and Controls: The

Moderating Effect of Credibility and Benevolence. International Academy of Business and Public Administration Disciplines.
Professor Cristian Chelariu and others published National Culture

and National Diffusion Rates of Mobile Telephony, in the conference
proceedings for the World Marketing Congress, Oslo.
PUBLICATIONS // Professors Michael Behnam, and Tammy
MacLean published, Where is the Accountability in International Ac-

countability Standards? A Decoupling Perspective, in Business Ethics
Quarterly, 21(1), 45-72.
Professor Michael Arthur and co-author, published, Interdisciplinary Ap-

proaches to Contemporary Career Studies, in Human Relations, 64(1), 3-17.

Professors Robert Defillippi and Mark Lehrer’s paper entitled, Econ-

Section of the AAA. http://www.bus.lsu.edu/accounting/faculty/
lcrumbley/jfia/Articles/v3n1.htm
Professor Brigitte Muehlmann has published, “The Travels of a T-

shirt in the World of Taxation: Teaching Multi-Jurisdictional Taxation,” in Issues in Accounting Education, American Accounting Association, 26(1), 67 - 87. aaahq.org/pubs/issues.htm
Professor Brend Bond and others have published a report on “Crime

In New Orleans: Analyzing Crime Trends and New Orleans’ Responses
to Crime” (pp. 47). Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Assistance, US
Department of Justice. http://www.nola.gov/GOVERNMENT/NOPD/
BJA-Crime-in-New-Orleans-Report-March-2011/
Professor Giana Eckhardt, and co-authors have published, “Values.

vs. value” in Strategy and Business, 62(Spring). Eckhardt and co-author
have also published “Global Yoga: Reappropriation in the South Asian
consumptionscape,” to appear in Marketing Theory.
Professor Jane Zhu’s article, “Integrating Marketing and Information

Services Function: A Complementarity and Competence Perspective,”
has been accepted for Journal of The Academy Of Marketing Science.
Professor Jim Angelini and Jim Peterson’s article, “Domestic Part-

omies of Scope Through Multi-unit Skill Systems: The organisation
of large design firms, will appear in British Journal of Management.

ner Employee Benefits for Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Partners in
the Era of Same-Sex Marriage: The Massachusetts Experience,” will
appear in Business Law Review, 44(Spring 2011). http://narbla.org/.

Professors Robert DeFillippi, and Laurie Levesque’s paper, Innova-

Professor Ariel Markelevich, has published “RFID and EPC Tech-

Professor Brigitte Muehlmann, and others have published, “Detect-

Professor Susan Atherton’s paper, “Shift in the Balance of Power: Boards’

tion Integration and Crossing Disciplinary Borders in Curriculum
Assessment and Program Development, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice, 11(1), 8.
nabusinesspress.com/jhetpopen.html
ing Fraud in the Organization: An Internal Audit Perspective,” in the
Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting, the Journal of the FIA
16/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

nologies Enable a New Era of Inventory Management, in Strategic
Finance. Professors Markelevich and Lew Shaw have published,
“Conversion from National to International Financial Reporting Standards: The Case of Israel,” in CPA Journal.
Executive Compensation Decisions After Disney,” will appear in Business
Law Review/North Atlantic Regional Business Law Association.

F A C U LT Y U P D A T E

New Faculty Appointments
AMY BLITZ

VISITING ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Amy Blitz joins Suffolk as a visiting associate
professor of Management & Entrepreneurship.
Blitz earned a PhD from Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) and has more
than 20 years of experience in academia and
the business industry. She has worked for
various organizations, including IBM, Ernst
& Young, and Harvard Business School. Her
areas of expertise include entrepreneurship,
innovation, and strategy.
Blitz is currently a partner at Innovation
Collaborative, where she researches, writes,
and advises companies on innovation and
strategy topics. Her work has been featured
in Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street
Journal, MSNBC, PBS, and other leading
media outlets worldwide.
ARON DARMODY

VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Aron Darmody joins Suffolk University as a
visiting assistant professor in the Marketing
Department. Darmody is earning his PhD in
Marketing at the Schulich School of Business,
York University. His areas of expertise include
retail, cultural studies of marketing practice,
identity, consumer creativity, and virtual consumption. Darmody will be teaching
Marketing Tools and Analysis at the undergraduate level.
GRETA MESZOELY, PHD
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Greta Meszoely joins Suffolk University as an
associate professor in the Strategy and
International Business Department at the
Sawyer Business School. She is the director of
the Center for Business Complexity & Global
Leadership and is a fellow in the Center for
Innovation and Change Leadership.
Meszoely studies complex adaptive systems and sustainable governance in businesses and societies around the world. She
has been involved in community and economic development in the US, women’s rights

and economic development in Zimbabwe,
human rights in Egypt, democratic elections
in Palestine, and water resources management in the Sahara.
Meszoely earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, a master’s degree in political science, and PhD in law, policy, and society
from Northeastern University.
JAMES NEBUS

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

James Nebus joins Suffolk University as an
assistant professor of Strategy and International
Business. He has 10 years of experience in the
international management industry and 26
years of experience in the computer industry,
where he held management positions in hardware and software engineering, systems architecture, product management, and product
marketing. He also served as an assistant professor of management at the University of South
Carolina for six years.
Nebus’ areas of expertise include international management, commercialization of innovations across borders, political economy,
knowledge management, and managing innovation. Nebus earned his PhD in International
Business/Business Strategy and MBA from the
University of South Carolina.
MONA AL-AMIN

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Mona Al-Amin joins Suffolk University
as an assistant professor of Healthcare
Administration. Al-Amin earned her PhD in
Business Administration with a focus on risk,
insurance, and healthcare management at the
Fox School of Business, Temple University, in
Philadelphia. She earned her MPH and BS in
Medical Laboratory Technology at the College
of Health Sciences, American University of
Beirut in Lebanon.
For the past two years, she has been an assistant professor in the Department of Health
Services Research, Management, and Policy,
College of Public Health and Health Professions,
University of Florida in Gainesville. She has also
taught at Temple University.

PAOLO PETACCHI

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Paolo Petacchi joins Suffolk University as an
associate professor in the Accounting
Department.
Petacchi earned his doctorate degree in
Business Administration (Accounting) from
the Cattolica University in Milan, Italy. He
has several years of teaching experience at
universities around the world, including the
University Cattolica, the University of
Massachusetts at Dartmouth, the University
of Michigan, and the University of Florida.
Beginning this fall, Petacchi will be teaching
the graduate course Corporate Financial
Planning and Control.
PAUL PUSTORINO

EXECUTIVE IN RESIDENCE

Paul Pustorino joins Suffolk University as an
executive in residence in the Accounting
Department. Pustorino, a Sawyer Business
School alumnus (BSBA ’73), is a retired partner of Grant Thornton LLP. He has 38 years
of accounting, auditing, and consulting
experience. He served as the engagement
partner responsible for directing Grant
Thornton’s services to private and public
companies, government-sponsored enterprises, regulators, and other federal agencies. He was also the national managing
partner for Grant Thornton’s Financial
Institution’s Clients. During his career,
Pustorino raised over $1 billion in initial
public offerings (IPOs) for his clients.
SEBAHATTIN DEMIRKAN
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Sebahattin Demirkan joins Suffolk University
as an assistant professor of Accounting.
Demirkan became interested in teaching
shortly after he earned a bachelor of arts in
Economics/Management. He went on to
earn his PhD at the University of Texas,
Dallas, and has taught at Northeastern
University, Binghamton University, and
Bentley University. His areas of expertise
www.suffolk.edu/business /17

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

F A C U LT Y U P D A T E

by Rebecca Dienger

include international accounting, auditing, and
strategic management.
SOKOL CELO

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF STRATEGY &
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Sokol Celo joins Suffolk University as an assistant
professor of Strategy & International Business.
Celo has over 20 years of teaching experience.
His areas of expertise include international business, managerial decision-making, and institutional
change.
Celo earned his PhD from Florida International
University. He was one of six doctoral students to
win the International Management Division’s Most
Promising Dissertation Proposal Award at the
Academy of Management (AOM) annual meeting
in Montreal in August 2010.

From left to right: Sawyer Business
School Dean William J. O’Neill, Jr. with
retired professors Gail Sergenian,
Laurie Pant, and Warren Briggs

STEPHANIE LAWSON
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Stephanie Lawson joins Suffolk University as
an assistant professor in the Marketing
Department. Her areas of expertise include
collaborative consumption, co-production,
services, and sustainability.
Lawson earned her PhD in Business
Administration with an emphasis in Marketing
at Florida State University (FSU). Earlier this
year, Lawson’s excellence in teaching at FSU was
recognized with the Outstanding Teaching
Assistant Award.

PROMOTIONS
Congratulations to the following faculty
who have been promoted to Associate
Professor with tenure:
BRENDAN BURKE, Public Administration
BENJAMIN NGUGI, Information Systems and

Operations Management

KARÈN SIMONYAN, Finance

Congratulations to RICHARD BEINECKE who
has been promoted to Chair and Professor
for Public Administration.

18/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

Sawyer Business School Faculty Retire
A RETIREE’S RÉSUMÉ can be a lot to digest. The neatly bulleted list of research,

scholarly work, and service projects succinctly communicate a lifetime of qualifications and achievements. But the white space is where the real action lies; where passion, personality, and experience transform pedigrees into legacies. Suffolk University attracts talented, committed, and accomplished individuals who educate, inspire,
and leave indelible marks behind.
Warren Briggs, Gail Sergenian, and Laurie Pant have 71 years of collective experience working at Suffolk and another half century at other institutions of higher learning. What they leave behind in academic enrichment, facility improvement, student
investment, and professional precedent will perpetuate indefinitely.
Pant’s career began at Suffolk in 1991, after she placed third in the nation on the
Certified Management Accountant exam. She has since published more than 30 papers
on behavioral accounting and ethics, many with colleagues, including Sergenian, and
has made dozens of research presentations. She also served as editor of Issues in
Accounting Education, the number-one journal of its kind. As department chair, Pant
initiated accreditation by the AACSB. Of the 2,000 business schools in the nation, only
about 10 percent have accounting accreditation.
Pant was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the mid 1990s. While this
slowed down her research career, she turned her focus to curriculum, infusing
courses with two guiding principles: accounting is a language (or the “distillation
of human experience”), and aspiring accounting professionals must take responsibility for economic actions.
“The sub-prime mortgage scandal shows that business schools abrogated our duty
when we taught students techniques without the attendant responsibility,” Pant said.
As her research and teaching duties wind down, the phone is ringing with new
opportunities. Pant will commit some time in the fight against Parkinson’s and also
expects to help the Accounting Department as Suffolk moves into its next era.
Fellow Accounting Professor Sergenian leveraged her previous experience to help
students prepare for successful business careers and contributed to strategic planning
and curriculum development at every level. In her own courses, she immersed stu-

F A C U LT Y U P D A T E

CAREERS

AT-A-GLANCE
DR. LAURIE PANT
DBA, CMA, Med, MBA
Professor of Accounting
20 YEARS OF SERVICE

dents in projects that emphasized communication skills, team learning, and an
awareness of present-day business issues.
Sergenian devoted much of her time to
advising the Boston Metropolitan Student
Chapter of the National Association of
Black Accountants, the premier mentoring
association for professionals of color in
finance and accounting. Student members
have particularly benefitted from participation in NABA’s case competition, for which
Sergenian specifically developed a course
in case analysis and presentation skills to
prepare them. The school’s reputation has
been enhanced by its significant presence
in every activity of NABA.
The increasing diversity of students is
something Sergenian appreciates because
it brings new and different perspectives to
the Suffolk community. She has served on
diversity committees with Financial
Executives International on local and
national levels. Similarly, she applauds the
Business School’s global focus and said her
time with students in China, Prague,
Senegal, and Bangladesh was “life-changing” for all involved.
“I celebrate diversity and the professional and personal development that
results from exposure to other cultures,”
said Sergenian, who plans to continue her
involvement with the Knowledge
Globalization Institute after retiring.
Briggs’ career has been influenced by
global and cultural experiences, having
spent time consulting and teaching in
Germany and leading seminars in
Argentina, Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong
Kong. He came to Suffolk from heady high-

tech experiences—witnessing the early
developments of computers and navigational systems at MIT, immersed in the
milieu of the historic Apollo Project, doing
research at Rand Corporation on the Air
Force missile program, and consulting with
the brightest minds in the industry.
Game for all things innovative and
exploratory, Briggs crossed the threshold
to education when asked to teach
“Introduction to Management” to engineering undergraduates at MIT. Thus
began a history of innovation in higher education: developing Bentley College’s
Waltham campus and the “new” Sawyer
Building at Suffolk University; establishing
CIS departments and degree programs at
Northeastern, Bentley, and Suffolk; developing high-tech facilities; and promoting
international business education.
When there wasn’t money to showcase
the importance of emerging software,
Briggs opened his own wallet. He organized the first global internship programs
for Suffolk in China. Even as he prepares to
leave, he is formulizing policy for emeriti
faculty, to stay connected and contribute
some more.
“MIT’s pragmatic tradition and focus
on real applications has had an enduring
influence on many alumni,” said Briggs,
who is currently planning his 55th reunion.
“I’m also impressed with how some of my
early mentors, now emeriti, remain
involved. My final initiative is to join other
universities with an established policy to
both recognize prior contributions and
encourage continuing engagement with
the institution.” SB

•  nitiated successful AACSB
I
accreditation
•  ignificant body of work in accounting ethics
S
research
•  nown for time spent helping colleagues
K
and advising students.

“I have loved being part of a school that
strives to be better.”
DR. GAIL SERGENIAN
PhD, CPA, MBA
Associate Professor of Accounting
19 YEARS OF SERVICE

•  ddressed professional decision making
A
through research
•  dvanced academic rigor through curricuA
lum and strategic planning committees
•  nown for commitment to National
K
Association of Black Accountants

“How lucky I am to have had a
career I loved!”
DR. WARREN BRIGGS, PhD, MBA
Professor of Information Systems and
Operations Management
32 YEARS OF SERVICE

•  ounded the CIS department and initiated
F
online education
•  esigned case-discussion and video
D
conferencing facilities
•  nown for innovation and development of
K
departments and curricula in CIS

“I remain especially proud of
their development and continued
prospects.”

www.suffolk.edu/business /19

20/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

LOOK OUT

WORLD
Here Comes

SUFFOLK.
A decade later, the Sawyer Business School
is redefining global business education.
BY STEVE HOLT

“The Sawyer Business School is preparing
the way for global leaders of tomorrow
and supporting leaders of today,”
– SAWYER BUSINESS SCHOOL DEAN WILLIAM J. O’NEILL, JR.

www.suffolk.edu/business /21

LEFT TO RIGHT BSBA student Luther Yee,
Emily Pytka, and Jessica Pereira Amado

INTERNATIONAL AFTERSHOCKS from the re-

cent global financial crisis begin to subside, skeptics
of globalization’s significance must now acknowledge its industry-altering power. In good times and
bad, our world is more connected now—economically, culturally, technologically, politically—than at
any time in history.
Knowledge and ideas now circle the globe in
milliseconds. Collaboration thought impossible a
half-century ago now happens every day. Like it or
not, globalization is reality now. Companies and
professionals will either embrace a global focus, or
they won’t. The latter will inevitably be left behind.
In 2001—before Google or Twitter or The
World is Flat—the Sawyer Business School set out
to ensure that each student graduates with a global mindset. This year marks the 10th birthday of
the school’s global mission, a statement permeating every lecture, trip abroad, project, paper, and
internship. The mission reads:

W
 e create a learning environment that enables
our students to emerge as successful leaders in
the practice of global business and public service.
The school is effectively fulfilling this goal. On top
of high-profile recognition from publications like Financial Times and Princeton Review, student consultation with international Fortune 100 firms, and everincreasing numbers of international students and
faculty, graduates of the Business School are beating
out their peers for coveted jobs and internships.
The school’s administrators, faculty, and students agree that one thing is clear: the Business
School’s best days are ahead.
22/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

FROM A GREAT SCHOOL TO A GLOBAL LEADER

For almost 75 years, Suffolk has offered students a
quality business education in downtown Boston,
“the hub of the universe.” The School of Management opened its doors to America’s future business
leaders in 1937. The MBA degree program was added in 1948. New England’s first Executive MBA program began in 1975, and the MBA Online program
followed in 1999—another New England first.
At the dawn of the new millennium, however, it
was clear that globalization was changing business
and commerce irreversibly. Visionary leaders—most
notably incoming Dean William J. O’Neill, Jr.—recognized an opportunity to expand the Business
School’s reach and strengthen its impact by establishing it as a global place.
Dean O’Neill remembers sitting in planning
meetings with faculty, asking, “What kind of curriculum do you put together that’s going to expand
the students’ global mindset?”
International immersion would be crucial, so the
Business School significantly expanded its Global
Travel Seminars and international internships. The
school created the Strategy and International Business
Department and added an undergraduate major in
global business. On the graduate level, the core curriculum of the MBA received an international shot in the
arm, and the career-focused Global MBA was created.
Welcome to the Sawyer Business School: Business education 3.0.
SUFFOLK BUSINESS: A MINI UNITED NATIONS

At the orientation for new MBAs, Assistant Dean Lillian Hallberg has groups of students stand up by country and say, in their native tongue, “Good morning. I’m

www.suffolk.edu/business /23

LEFT TO RIGHT Alan Dillaby (BSBA
’2010, MSA ’2011), Christine Adams
(BSBA ’2010), Carol Medina (BSBA
’2010), BSBA student Luther Yee,
Emily Pytka, and Jessica Pereira Amado

24/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

happy to be here in the Suffolk MBA.” It’s not unusual, she says, for languages from 25 or 30 countries to
be represented.
“It’s so amazing, because what you end up
with is a mini U.N.,” said Hallberg, who directs
both the MBA and the Global MBA programs. “I
tell them, ‘This is not just your Boston neighborhood. This is your global neighborhood that you
are now taking part in.’”
The curriculum matches the international diversity of the graduate student body. The Executive
MBA—named in 2009 by Financial Times as one of
the top-95 programs in the world—requires students to attend a one-week Global Travel Seminar.
The MBA curriculum was beefed up to include a
capstone course on global management and the infusion of international business into each of the core
courses. The Global Travel Seminars program expanded to include more offerings to MBA students.
Perhaps most significant, however, was the creation in 2003 of the Global MBA, which builds on the
MBA core with additional international business electives, a concentration in either International Finance
or International Marketing, a one-week Global Travel

Seminar, and a three-month, full-time internship outside the student’s home country.
Students hailing from 10 nations comprised Suffolk’s Global MBA class in 2010. They accepted summer
internships in 10 countries, each immersing themselves
full-time into the company and culture and completing
projects that added value to their sponsoring organizations. Greek international alumna Konstantina
Tsouroufli, GMBA ’10, entered the Global MBA to transition from a career in engineering to finance. Her internship in the Fixed Income Division at State Street
Global Advisors in Boston led to a full-time position.
“The internship program introduced me into the
world of finance and allowed me to make the connections that I would eventually need to obtain a
rewarding full-time position,” she said.
It’s no wonder Princeton Review placed Suffolk among the top-15 graduate programs in global management.
GLOBAL TRAVEL SEMINARS:
“A LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE”

Patrick Lynch’s was just one in a stack of applications for a prestigious law internship at Framing-

ham-based Bose Inc. Corporate law positions are notoriously
competitive because of the uniformly high caliber of nearly
every applicant. “A lot of law résumés look the same coming out
of law school,” said Lynch, JD/MBA ’10.
But Lynch’s stood out, and he landed the internship. The difference? His consulting work with international corporations in
Germany while on a Global Travel Seminar in 2008.
While in Germany, Lynch and his classmates consulted
with giants Lufthansa, Adidas, and the Volkswagen Group.
They toured their headquarters, discussed current challenges in the companies with top executives, and worked in teams
on possible solutions. After a half day of intense brainstorming and research, Lynch and his team presented their ideas
to the executives, receiving immediate feedback.
“I think those experiences made my résumé stand out above
the rest,” Lynch said.
Besides Germany, students can choose from about five
seminars each semester. But it wasn’t always this way. Until
the school expanded its Global Travel Seminars in 2001, it
offered just one or two destinations. Today, undergraduate
and graduate students study in places like London, Israel,
Turkey, and Scandinavia, beefing up their training with robust cultural immersion and site-specific coursework, focusing on current business issues with top national firms. Students are given the opportunity to pick the courses that relate
to their interests, both geographically and content-wise, said
Michael Behnam, program director and associate professor
of strategy and international business.
“The students won’t be experts in that culture through one
course,” said Behnam, who leads the popular seminar in his native Germany, “but we try to give them the opportunity to do
something hands-on that they would never learn in a Boston,
campus-based course. For some of the students, this has been a
life-changing experience.”
It certainly has been for Lynch. He recently completed another legal internship with French company Altran Inc., a position he earned because of his internship at Bose. He now lives
in Providence, Rhode Island, and is studying full-time for the
bar exam. He’s well on his way to achieving his dream position:
in-house legal counsel with an international corporation.

“I believe my experience with Professor Behnam and my time
in Germany helped me get started on the right foot,” Lynch said.
UNDERGRADUATES: GLOBAL FROM THE START

Kait Capone and Aaron Lumnah, sophomores at Sawyer Business School, have only been in Boston for one year, but already,
they’re immersed in its multiculturalism, innovation, and ambition.
Capone, who is from Hamden, Connecticut, jumped right into
a number of business clubs on campus and plans to eventually open
a global chain of restaurants. (“I could never sit at a desk all day,”
she said.) Lumnah, from Plainville, Massachusetts, serves as the
International Business Club treasurer and maintains a 4.0 GPA.
They’re two of the sophomore class’s finest, and both were members of Suffolk’s Global Business Living Learning Community—an
initiative launched last fall in which 10 global business majors are
selected to take classes together, attend networking events and field
trips, and even live in the same residence hall.
“They are establishing friendships with each other and exchanging information and dreams,” said Carlos Rufin, associate
professor of strategy and international business and director of
undergraduate international programs. “The feedback I’m getting is highly positive.”
Both star students in high school, Lumnah and Capone credit
the strength and focus of the Business School for their choosing
Suffolk, where both double-major in entrepreneurship—a program
requirement. “Students need an additional set of skills,” Rufin said.
Global business students are required to participate in at
least one Global Travel Seminar and take a foreign language.
Lumnah thinks he will travel either to France or Spain. Capone
is settled on Italy, with its countless family-owned businesses.
That is, unless she changes her mind.
“I would also love to go to Asia. That’s such an up-and-coming center for business,” she said. “So we’ll see.”
Suffolk’s image has evolved from being merely a “commuter
school,” as evidenced by an undergraduate business population
that has increased by 65 percent since 2001. Every undergraduate
will leave with a strong global foundation. The general undergraduate business curriculum now features entry-level and capstone
courses with an international focus, and professors must discuss

www.suffolk.edu/business /25

Sawyer Business School Dean
William J. O’Neill, Jr.

global issues in nearly every other course. Many students’ experiences are shattering their preconceptions
about life in the business world.
“There’s so much more to [business] than a boring desk job,” Lumnah said. “You don’t have to necessarily be at a desk. It doesn’t have to be boring.”
FACULTY SHAPING STUDENT WORLDVIEWS,
BUSINESS PRACTICES
In his 2005 best-seller, The World is Flat: A Brief

History of the Twenty-First Century, Thomas
Friedman describes in fascinating detail an
unlikely force behind rapid globalization: supply
chains. Welcome to the specialized world of
Associate Professor Kuo-Ting (Ken) Hung, chair
of the Information Systems & Operations Management Department. Hung’s research is helping
to streamline the flow of goods at major international companies.
“When you begin to peel back the layers of distribution and manufacturing, you realize that the
products we have were assembled using parts from
many different countries, thousands of miles away,”
said Hung, who is applying his knowledge toward
the creation of a concentration in global supply
chain management for the MBA.
Born in Taiwan and having worked in Singapore,
Hung is one face in a rapidly diversifying Business
School faculty. “We have significantly increased the
number of international faculty or faculty who focus
on doing research internationally,” said Dean O’Neill,
26/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

who believes internationally focused professors now
make up half of the faculty.
Encouraging faculty research of international
business will be the focus of the Business School’s
next initiative—the Center for Global Business. The
center will also help get that research into the hands
of industry leaders.
“We not only want to be building internationalization within but sharing that with the outside
world,” said C. Gopinath, who will direct the new
center. “This will be both an internal and an external center.”
FORGING AHEAD

What lies ahead for the Business School? For Dean
O’Neill, it boils down to exposure within the business
community, but not from billboards—flesh and bones.
“I could go out and spend all kinds of money on
advertising, but in reality, it’s the students,” Dean
O’Neill said.
The school is expanding its internship program
in an effort to get more Suffolk students into top
companies in the area. Dean O’Neill said his dream
is for employers to look first to Suffolk to fill their
open positions. Similarly, he wants Suffolk to be
first-to-mind for prospective business students. He
emphasizes much work is left to do.
“We’ve developed a reputation, but we’ve got a
long way to go,” Dean O’Neill said. “Frankly, I think
we’re about a third of the way of where we should
really be, but we’re getting there.” SB

BY SHERRI MILES

Business Leaders

ABROAD

World travel. Global education. International careers. For some, these are
only exotic ideas and adventurous thoughts; for others, they are achievable
goals that set in motion a challenging journey of academic training, job
opportunities, and a lifetime of new experiences.

M

eet five Suffolk alumni working in positions of leadership and innovation around
the world. As graduates of the Sawyer Business School, they acquired a global
business mindset and learned to be culturally sensitive, respectful of customs
and differences, and confident in their abilities to adapt and achieve. These are some of
the many students who came to Suffolk with far-reaching ideas and left with the skills to
be influential entrepreneurs, researchers, and executives on the world stage.

When BILL DOBSON, BSBA ’86 arrived at
Suffolk, he wanted to be a Boston sports
writer. One year and a life-changing cooperative education position later, he had a
new goal in mind. His co-op experience as
an import-export consultant with a small
international freight forwarding and customs
brokerage firm led him to prepare for a
career in corporate international finance,
and he’s never looked back.
Dobson now runs Thailand’s largest operator of fitness, yoga, and wellness centers—
California WOW Xperience in Bangkok. Serving as the executive vice president and chief
financial officer and company secretary, Dobson was recruited in 2005 to corporatize the
company and prepare for its listing on the
Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).
Prior to California WOW, Dobson worked
for almost 20 years in the information technology industry. He held finance positions at
multinational companies, including Digital
Equipment, Compaq, and Hewlett Packard.

He has lived in Asia since 1990, when his
career with Digital Equipment took him from
the US to Japan, and then to the company’s
Asia headquarters in Hong Kong. Since then,
he has worked in seven countries, including
Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia,
and his current home of Thailand.
“Each country and its culture are different. What works in the west may not work in
the east and vice versa. People are very proud
of their culture and heritage, which you must
be respectful of at all times. I’ve learned to
adapt my leadership style to gain trust and
acceptance from my working colleagues, customers, and partners,” Dobson said.
For instance, in Thailand, there is a
strong emphasis on sanuk, which is the idea
that life should be fun. Conflict, displays of
anger, and blaming others are discouraged.
During disagreements, people generally
smile or use the phrase “mai pen rai” [pronounced “my pin rye,” meaning “it’s nothing,”
or “no worries”], Dobson said.
www.suffolk.edu/business /27

Cecila Danielsson

Successful global business leaders are able to be persuasive
while also being sensitive and respectful of cultural differences.
It’s important to “learn to compromise and create a “win-win”
situation so that neither party loses face, and mutual respect and
trust is gained in the process,” Dobson said.
On the island nation of Singapore, CHIP SALYARDS, EMBA ’00,
knows how to create a “win-win” situation. He is a skilled sales
professional who enjoys detecting his customers’ needs and investigating solutions. This passion has served his 20-year sales
career well. His work has led him to Boston, New York City, and
finally to Singapore, where he is vice president of sales in the
Asia Pacific region for BMC Software, a seller of business automation and compliance software.
“We’re a US-based company doing business internationally,”
said Salyards. “We have to take into consideration the customs
of other cultures, learn how they want to do business, and find
out their expectations.”
For example, in Singapore, a culture more focused on relationships than the US, Salyards learned that sales happen gradually over time and might not be in line with quarterly results.
They don’t do anything short term, he noted, and trying to sell
too much and too hard hasn’t been effective. Other countries in
the Asia-Pacific region have unique characteristics. In China,
customers may engage in drinking games, while in India, alcohol
and meat are not usually consumed. In contrast, “Australia is so
much like America from a business perspective; it’s very easy to
do business there,” Salyards said.
Salyards’ Executive MBA education prepared him for his
international role. “It opened my eyes to the importance of all
the functional departments and has reimbursed me 10 times
over. I chose Suffolk because I liked the blue-collar type working atmosphere of the very real people there from public policy
to finance. The school was strong technically, and the professors
remain important to me today,” he said. Professor Richard Torrisi,
who led a Global Travel Seminar to Aix-en-Provence France,
and Professor Thomas O’Hara were both influential in Salyard’s
career. “Having [O’Hara] talk about central banks and the euro
helped me with currency concerns in my job today when we
actually peg the currency rates for a full year,” Salyards said.
For others starting out in a new country, Salyards offers a tip
that helped him when he arrived in Singapore: “Write down
28/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

Chip Salyards

everything you think you know and think you’re going to observe. Then put it in an envelope, seal the envelope, and open it
six months later. For six months, just listen and ask a lot of questions. After that, open the envelope and see how different your
perceptions were from reality. Seventy percent of my assumptions were wrong.”
During her year in Spain, NICOLE GOKSEL, BSBA ’02, didn’t
have that advice. But after spending a year at Suffolk’s Madrid
campus in 2000, she returned to America a “global citizen”—her
perspective forever changed and her biggest dream to work
abroad. She declared a major in international business and her
closest friends lived all around the world.
“My dream became a reality a little over a year ago,” said
Goksel, who now lives and works in Turkey. In 2010, Goksel
created Celestial Medya, providing photography, social media,
and web design services for small- to medium-sized Turkish
businesses. “Companies in Turkey are still trying to understand
how web design, social media, and search engine optimization
can affect their businesses. From my experience, the Dot Com
sector in Turkey is like the Wild West; it’s quickly changing, but
there are lots of opportunities.”
She is now in the process of setting up a Limited Liability
company for a new online business to help families, specifically women. According to the World Economic Forum,
equality between women and men in Turkey stands out as
one of the lowest ranking countries, 128th place out of 134
countries, she stated, adding that women’s participation in
the labor force is extremely low.
“With my business partner, our objective is to create the
first online service in Turkey that connects families searching
for domestic services and the people offering them in a safe
and cost-effective manner,” said Goksel. “These domestic
services include nannies, babysitters, mother’s helpers,
housekeepers, elderly caretakers, cooks, and tutors.” Her objective is to support professional women and help the women offering services to grow professionally.
In her own social circle, Goksel has female doctors, lawyers, and managers, and she often has to remind herself there
is another “Turkey.” “I think it is common to see multiple
societies exist within one country,” she said. “Over time, the
woman’s role will change and improve due to globalization.

Bill Dobson

Nicole Goksel

I have no doubt about this. I just hope that our business can
be part of the change and make an impact.”
CECILIA DANIELSSON, MBA ’02, had a dream of her own: return

home to Sweden after completing her MBA and work for one of
the big Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies—
companies that produce regular consumables such as food and
drink, paper, cosmetics, and other popular products.
In 2005, she joined Nestlé Purina in Sweden as a Supply
Planner. Four years later, after moving into finance, she received
an offer to transfer to the Nestlé Nordic head office in Copenhagen, Denmark, part of the world’s largest FMCG company,
Nestlé, and maker of such brands as Nescafé, Nesquik, Purina,
KitKat, and After Eight.
“My current role is Head of
Nestlé Nordic Finance Supply
“ et your point across
G
Chain Controlling. I have a team
and be persuasive
of three supply chain controlwithout making
lers responsible for all categomistakes and/or being
ries in all Nordic countries. We
culturally insensitive.
are part of finance, but our misLearn to compromise
sion is to support supply chain
and create a “win-win”
and procurement in becoming
more cost efficient,” said Dansituation so that
ielsson. “It is this link to supply
neither party loses
chain that makes my role so exface and mutual
citing! I truly enjoy my work,
respect and trust is
and it really feels like a dream
gained in the process.”
come true.”
Danielsson credits the Suffolk MBA for providing a realworld multicultural experience. “I was exposed to many different cultures in my classes, and I made friends from all over the
world—many of whom I still have contact with. To get this international experience was an eye opener since Sweden was
quite homogeneous at that time. At Nestlé Nordic, we are more
than 15 different nationalities within Finance and four different
nationalities in my team. Since we are multicultural in the office,
it is reflected in the business culture as well. Most of the managers are non-Danes, and it is clear that all departments have their
own culture, depending on their acting manager—Italian, German or French, or other nationality.”

In her career, Danielsson uses skills acquired from her MBA
courses. For example, in Professor Suzyn Ornstein’s course,
Leadership and Team Building, Danielsson learned that selfawareness is a precursor to leadership success. She added, “To
practice and discuss different leadership styles and learn success
stories, as well as failures, is something I still think about in my
current role today.”
US Merchant Marine Officer CHRISTINE ISAKSON, GLOBAL
MBA ’08, knows a few things about leadership. Navigating ships
and carting cargo around the world are not everyday activities
for most people. But for Isakson, it was her job. “That hands-on
experience of being a crucial cog in the great economic machine
has been priceless,” she said. “It continues to give me unique
insights in my research.”
Isakson is currently completing a PhD in Economics and
Management at Copenhagen Business School, where she was
offered a PhD Fellowship in the Department of Innovation and
Organizational Economics during an internship at a consulting
firm in Copenhagen, Denmark. “Broadly, I am interested in labor
mobility as it relates to innovation and entrepreneurship.”
One thing Isakson has learned about entrepreneurship, and
conducting business internationally: a person’s character really
matters. “How you come across as an individual often carries more
weight than who you work for, or the deal you are trying to make.
Whether it comes to sharing ideas in an innovative process or putting together a partnership, it often boils down to you, how much
they trust you, and how genuine they sense you are,” she said.
Coming from industry, Isakson is finding her way in academia with help from her Suffolk professors. “I am extremely grateful for the continued support and mentorship I receive from Robert DeFillippi, chair and professor of Strategy
and International Business, and Michael Behnam, associate
professor of Strategy and International Business,” said Isakson. “They continue to assist me in navigating the world of
academia and provide a deeper understanding of the nuances between the US and European research environments.
I feel so fortunate to have strong ties in both the US and European academic communities, and while the scholars at the
Sawyer Business School have already taught me the language
of business, they continue to be there as supportive mentors
as I learn the language of academia.” SB
www.suffolk.edu/business /29

ADOPTING A

GLOBAL
ACCOUNTING
STANDARD:
THE CASE OF ISRAEL
BY LORI CULLEN

I

n 2008, the financial world stood at attention when Israel
announced its intention to adopt global accounting standards to prepare public company financial statements. It
was an aggressive move designed to make Israeli markets more
transparent and negotiable for international venture capitalists
and savvy investors.
With implications for the United States, which still uses its
national Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP),
Israel’s announcement came at the perfect time for Lewis Shaw,
chair and associate professor of accounting at Suffolk University Sawyer Business School. He was set to start a semester-long
sabbatical at the University of Haifa, where he could observe
the transition first-hand.
“I thought the story we saw in Israel would be of interest
to people in the US by potentially forecasting the kinds of
problems one might encounter if the US undergoes the same
conversion,” said Shaw.
THE CHALLENGE OF INTERNATIONAL INVESTING

Home may be where the heart is, but the potential for higher
returns, faster growth, and greater exposure to emerging economies and currencies has investors looking abroad.
While there’s little investors can do to curtail potential pitfalls like political uncertainty in developing countries, the risks
posed by lack of transparency and information may be decreased
by adhering to a core set of accounting standards, such as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). These standards, which were developed by the International Accounting
Standards Board (IASB), are becoming the global standard for
public company financial statements.
30/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

Ariel Markelevich, associate professor of
accounting (left) and Lewis Shaw, chair and
associate professor of accounting at Suffolk
University Sawyer Business School.

To date, at least 120 countries have adopted or are in the
process of converting to international standards, and 90 countries have fully conformed, according to the American Institute
of Certified Public Accountants. In the US, while the Securities
Exchange Commission has not set a specific timetable for requiring publicly listed companies to use IFRS, convergence
measures continue to render US GAAP and IFRS more similar.
For now, however, converting to IFRS remains a hot topic.
“The disadvantage is that a country gives up some control
over accounting regulations. So instead of the country deciding
what the accounting rules will be, IFRS does,” said Ariel
Markelevich, associate professor of accounting at the Sawyer

Business School. “On the other hand, converting to IFRS allows
a country to file financial documents anywhere in the world.”
Many companies have adopted eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), a digital language designed to provide a
common, electronic format for business and financial reporting.
Instead of treating financial information as blocks of text, XBRL
applies unique identifying “tags” to pieces of financial data. The
information can be searched, selected, exchanged, and analyzed
by computers and downloaded—typically into a spreadsheet such
as Excel—by analysts, regulators, and investors.
When a country adopts both IFRS and XBRL, investors gain
the ability to cross borders, Shaw said. A reduction in countryby-country disparity in financial reporting gives investors a better understanding of foreign financial statements because they
know how the numbers were measured. Second, the ability to
download those numbers without the need to know the country’s language provides investors with comparable information
for informed decisions. It’s the ultimate goal.
EYES ON ISRAEL

Markelevich and Shaw teamed with a third researcher, Hagit
Weihs, adjunct professor at the Brandeis International Business
School, to focus on the benefits and challenges of adopting IFRS,
especially when coupled with XBRL.
In order to more easily compare information reported on
specific line items in IFRS documents, the team used information they could download as XBRL documents and hired Israeli graduate students to collect the data.
Because explanations about line item changes were not included in the XBRL data, the students had to read the footnotes
within the original financial documents that had been submitted
to the Israeli Securities Authority (ISA) before the ISA converted the documents to XBRL.
The students spotted information from the original financial
statements that had been omitted in the XBRL versions and
other disparities.
All in all, Markelevich and Shaw found that about one-third
of all Israeli public companies had some kind of inconsistency
between their XBRL and original PDF filings.
“I said, ‘This is huge! This is not what we were looking for,
but it’s really interesting,’” Shaw recalled. “So we stopped everything on the other project and started collecting data on the
errors, classifying various types.”

Although neither Markelevich nor Shaw believed the errors were intentional, the findings were significant: line items
did change, most significantly for company rankings relative
to their sectors.
For instance, if a company were ranked based on its return
on assets (ROA), significantly different results would be seen
with the Israeli GAAP and IFRS. Accounting rules do not change
the underlying situation of the company, so fundamentals
should not change with different accounting methods.
If all companies changed, or all accounts increased or decreased—that is, if all companies were affected the same way—
people would just get used to the different levels (one-year
volatility), said Markelevich. But he and Shaw discovered that
companies and sectors were affected very differently.
The pair wrote and made public a working paper on the Social Sciences Research Network. After Markelevich’s photo and
the study’s results made headlines in Israel’s largest financial
newspaper, The Marker, and in the International Herald Tribune,
the ISA contacted them.
In December, Markelevich and Shaw traveled to Israel to
share their research results with ISA and XBRL leaders. They
were also invited to present
their findings at the University of Haifa and Tel Aviv
Suffolk has always
University.
“Clearly, no one was hapbeen enriched by the
py about it,” said Shaw. “ISA
wanted to know how the
experiences of faculty
mistakes occurred so as not
to repeat them, and they are
with achievements
working on fixing them.”
As illustrated by Israel’s
both inside and outexperience, adoption of global accounting methods and
side of academia
the accompanying transmission language of XBRL may
not occur without bumps.
XBRL and IFRL are in their infancy, but both Markelevich and
Shaw consider them to be the future of accounting.
This research has produced several academic papers. The
first of which, titled “Conversion from National to International Financial Reporting Standards: The Case of Israel,” has already been accepted for publication in The CPA Journal.
“All of these things we are studying are supposed to make
it easier for global investing. If all countries are using the same
accounting standards and all companies are providing downloadable financial reports that you don’t need to know a foreign
language to interpret, the rationale is, it’s supposed to be easier,” said Markelevich. “There have been lots of studies that
try to figure out if that’s true or not. Our research is our contribution to that story.” SB
www.suffolk.edu/business /31

BRINGING POWER
TO NEW HEIGHTS:

Reaching the Poor with Private Capital

BY CARLOS RUFIN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF STRATEGY AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

A

s China and India shift the world’s economic center of gravity from the North Atlantic to Asia, another major movement is also happening in the
global business industry. Businesses are becoming increasingly essential in poor areas of the world.
The world’s poor are increasingly defined by their interactions with corporations. The poor may provide raw
materials or subcontracted labor for corporations or consume the corporations’ products, from Coca-Cola to the
soap operas of Brazil’s TV giant Rede Globo.
But how can corporations take up the place of governments and provide an increasing range of items to the poor
on a financially viable basis? Without a financially acceptable return, corporations will have to limit their efforts to
philanthropic initiatives, and the needs of the poor will
remain unfulfilled. Achieving such a combination of financial and social purpose is one of the major challenges
32/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

facing global businesses today and one that Carlos Rufin,
associate professor of Strategy and International Business
at Suffolk University Sawyer Business School, has been
researching for several years.
His work has focused on utilities—essential services
such as water, sanitation, and electricity in developing
countries. Many utility companies were privatized in the
1990s as governments sought to overcome the corruption
and financial limitations that had crippled these companies under public ownership. One of the major challenges
for utilities has been to provide service to the poor.
Unlike other types of companies, which can decide
whether or not they want to offer products that the poor
can buy, utilities have no such choice. They are typically
required to provide service for all, and with good reason—
access to clean water and reliable energy have a huge impact on relieving poverty and improving quality of life for

Achieving a combination of financial and social purpose is one of the major challenges
facing global businesses today.
the poor. In addition to the lack of access to private, sanitary toilets, obtaining potable water and fuel for cooking
are among the heaviest burdens of the poor.
Privatization has been far from a success everywhere.
Ongoing political interference, macroeconomic crises, and
managerial incompetence have led to the failure of many
privatized companies. Some privatized or corporatized
companies, however, have developed highly innovative
and successful models for providing access to these basic
services for the poor.
Rufin recently completed a research project for
LIGHT, the electric utility of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He
documented best practices worldwide in the supply of
electricity to urban slums.
Like many cities in developing countries, Rio has a
very high proportion of low-income residents. Perhaps
one-third of the 12 million people in the metropolitan area
live in slums or informal settlements with self-built housing, mostly located on swampy ground or steep hillsides.
The spontaneous nature of these communities has left
them with a chaotic layout of narrow, unpaved streets.
Access to utility services is usually through illegal connections. A household may have a legal connection and a
meter, but it may also tap illegally into the water and electricity distribution networks due to financial hardship. To
make things worse, many favelas have been poorly policed
for decades and are now controlled by heavily armed
gangs of drug traffickers.
While the situation in Rio’s slums may seem extreme,
it is actually quite typical of urban slums around the
world. Moreover, with massive migration of the world’s
poor from the countryside to the city, poverty is rapidly
becoming an urban phenomenon throughout the planet;
the world’s population is already more than 50 percent
urban. Hence, the challenge of providing basic living conditions for the urban poor is, to a large extent, the challenge of tackling global poverty.
Rufin’s study of the efforts made by the most innovative electricity companies around the world, such as
Spain’s Endesa and Iberdrola, or AES from the US, showed
that a financially and socially sustainable business model
for supplying the urban poor includes two key components: helping the poor increase their incomes, and paradoxically, helping them manage or even reduce their consumption of electricity.
Utility companies have realized that theft and delinquency for their services often stems from the financial
hardships experienced by the poor. Yet, the cost of service
cannot be easily decreased. For water companies, it is
largely set by the fixed investment required to treat and
distribute water; on the electricity side, generating one
kilowatt is often dictated by world fuel prices, particu-

larly that of oil. Hence, increasing affordability is a matter
of reducing consumption.
The good news is that for the poor, even more than for
other segments of the population, cutting consumption is
not only more financially and socially sustainable, but it
is also more environmentally sustainable. The reason is
that the poor are very inefficient consumers of water and
electricity. Self-built housing means that electricity cables
and water pipes are slapped together with unsafe materials prone to leakages, fires, and contamination.
Managers at Iberdrola’s subsidiary Coelba in Bahia, Brazil, discovered, for instance, that slum residents obtain refrigerators discarded by the families for whom they work as
domestic servants. These refrigerators are older, more inefficient, and less insulated than new units. Hence, innovative
utilities have realized that investment in energy efficiency in
slum households brings positive financial returns for the utility, as well as social and environmental benefits.
Helping raise the income of the poor is a bigger challenge, particularly for utility companies, which after all,
are not social welfare agencies. But some utilities are successfully experimenting with ideas that, in retrospect,
appear disarmingly evident.
Endesa’s subsidiary Coelce in Ceará, Brazil, implemented a very successful recycling program that allows
all customers, including the poor, to earn discounts on
their utility bills by collecting recyclable materials and
bringing them to collection points set up by the utility.
In fact, customers can choose whether to keep the discount to themselves or transfer it to a charitable organization of their choice.
Another of Endesa’s subsidiaries, Codensa in Bogotá,
Colombia, has pioneered the delivery of microcredit and
other financial products to Bogotá’s poor. Codensa realized that its customers’ payment record constituted a
valuable credit history on which to base lending decisions.
Codensa’s success has led to widespread emulation across
Colombia, rapidly increasing access to financial services
by the poor in Colombia.
The above are only a limited sample of the innovations
being introduced by utilities around the world in order to
make their services accessible to the poor. The ideas that
Rufin presented to LIGHT’s senior management were
well received, and he expects the company to roll many
of them out as the city gears for the 2014 World Cup and
the 2016 Olympic Games.
More broadly, as markets in the world’s high-income
countries mature, one of the leading edges of corporate
innovation will be in the development of new business
models to extend the benefits of the globalizing world to
the poor. The Sawyer Business School is already engaged
in the leading edge of this wave. SB
www.suffolk.edu/business /33

BY SHERRI MILES

IN AN OCEAN OF IMITATIONS, HOW TO PROTECT
YOUR PRODUCT WHEN DOING BUSINESS IN CHINA

John McDonnell (BSBA
’83), chief operating
officer and executive vice
president of Patrón Spirits

W

hether you’re on Canal Street in
New York City or Nanjing Road in
Shanghai, utter the right brand
name and you can be deep in the basement
of a hair salon, snack house, or t-shirt shop
in a room bursting with fake bags and watches. In China, however, it doesn’t stop there:
knockoffs are haggled over in open “fake
markets,” sold in malls with spinoff storefronts—Buckstar coffee, Pizza Huh, Hike—
and hawked on Taobao, China’s eBay, often
for one-tenth of the price of the real product.
Doing business in a country that tolerates
counterfeits, knockoffs, and lookalikes can
seem daunting, but with the right preparation, a brand can compete for real in the
fastest-growing economy in the world.
WILL THE REAL CHIVAS PLEASE STAND OUT?

It’s 2:00am in Taipei, Taiwan, and John McDonnell’s phone is ringing. This is not an unusual event since friends back home in America often forget the clock is different on the
other side of the world. But this time, it’s the
local police. They’ve captured guys in a garage
filling empty Chivas Regal Scotch bottles with
colored water and resealing them.
“That is true counterfeit,” said McDonnell,
BSBA ’83, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Patrón Spirits. “Imagine
what happens to your brand when someone
buys a bottle of Chivas and they get that Godawful taste in their mouth.”
At the time, McDonnell was country
manager for Joseph E. Seagram & Sons and
living in Taipei, Taiwan. “We went and
rounded up all the brands that copied Chivas Regal in the marketplace. There were
34/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

Giana Eckhardt, associate professor of
marketing at the Sawyer Business School

123 different look-alikes in Taiwan. I
brought my sales force into the conference
room where I’d lined up 20-30 of the
brands, and I said, ‘Please tell me, which
one is Chivas Regal?’ My sales people
couldn’t pick out the real Chivas. They
couldn’t tell me the brand they sell in the
marketplace. That’s how close these lookalikes came to Chivas Regal. The wheels
came off the bus.”
The first thing McDonnell did was train
his sales force in the differences between the
real product and the fakes, pointing out the
subtle variations of the look-alikes and teaching them the value of the brand. A 12-year-old
scotch has to be aged a minimum of 12 years,
for example, and will taste significantly different from colored, flavored water.
“It was very important that they went out
to the retailer and educated them as well,”
said McDonnell. “There are many different
wholesalers: people ride around on Vespa motorbikes selling liquor to people or use their
garages; it’s not the traditional route to market. It’s the wild, wild west,” he said.
In 1996, Chivas sold 250,000 cases in Taiwan, but by 2001 the numbers had dropped
to 25,000 cases. “We never cut back the advertising. The case drop was attributed to the
knockoffs that people were buying. We know
from extensive research and taste tests that
what happened to Chivas Regal could have
been prevented. It’s all because we didn’t register the trade dress properly.”

Trade dress is the appearance of a product
and its packaging. It needs to be protected as
much as the trademark, which is the name,
symbol, and motto legally identifying a company or its product. Without the trade dress
properly registered, the shape, label, color,
design, and other packaging of the product
can be copied. In the case of Chivas, counterfeiters found 123 ways to copycat the original,
making minor variations in box packaging,
name and age changes on the label, and subtle
modifications to label design. For consumers
not proficient in the English language, the
knockoffs appear the same.
“In my business, there’s nothing positive
about this. My product is being consumed
into the body. If you go to a restaurant and
order a Diet Coke, and it doesn’t come in a
bottle or can and doesn’t taste right, you ask
for something else. If someone asks for Chivas Regal, and they get something that
tastes like colored water, they say, ‘What
else are you serving?’ Once people start
drinking it and it’s not what they expected,
you lose that customer forever.”
After Taiwan became a member of the
World Trade Organization in 2001, it no longer allowed this practice. Today, however,
there remains a secondary market in China
and Taiwan where a bottle of Chivas Regal
empty is worth $10 to counterfeiters to be refilled, and sold again.
In 2005, McDonnell joined Patrón as the
COO. Having had his fingers burned with
the Chivas Regal experience, he took all the
steps that Seagram didn’t take to protect its
trade dress and trademark. “Right away, I
knew when we wanted to go into Asia with
Patrón, we had to register the name, trademark, trade dress, bottle, label, URLs, online social clubs, everything.”
“The value of the company has grown because we own the trademark and trade dress
in all these markets,” said McDonnell. In five
and a half years, sales have grown from
200,000 cases to 1.75 million cases. “Five
years ago, the value of the company was $150
million. Today, in 125 countries registered
with our trademark, the brand is worth $4 billion.” Patrón still isn’t sold in mainland China,
although it has been registered there, because
the government hasn’t yet allowed 100 percent agave tequila to be on the market. When
that day comes, McDonnell is ready.
A PLACE FOR FAKES

One day while visiting Shanghai, Giana Eckhardt, associate professor of marketing at the
Sawyer Business School, made it her goal to

Take aways
lessons

•  S trademark law is atypical
U
•  hink international early
T
•  rioritize markets
P
•  egister all aspects of trademark, trade dress
R
•  egister website URLs, social clubs
R
•  et quality legal counsel
G
•  reatively protect brand integrity
C

observations

•  emand for counterfeits is strong
D
•  urchasing counterfeits is acceptable
P
•  akes can signal brand desirability
F
•  onsumers are savvy about counterfeits
C
•  inimal cannibalization of brand
M
•  inimal brand dilution
M
•  rand signals are important
B

strategies

•  ontact the registry early
C
•  e careful of your Chinese name
B
•  e vigilant in looking for copycats
B
•  heck for cybersquatters
C
• 
Consider hiring a third party to monitor
Taobao Internet shopping site
•  ducate employees on brand value
E
•  erify your partners
V
•  et contracts in Chinese and English
G
•  pecify damages in contracts
S
•  eek administrative legal route
S

find and buy a real DVD. She spent all day looking but never found one. In China, real DVDs
can be purchased at a mall or department store,
but often those retailers aren’t centrally located or easily accessible. “In many product
categories, it is difficult to find the real thing,”
said Eckhardt, an expert on brands and consumer behavior in China. “You might want to
watch the real Black Swan movie and not the
fake one, but it’s actually quite difficult to navigate this in the marketplace.”
Counterfeit products exist everywhere. In
a study Eckhardt conducted that looked at attitudes toward counterfeits in eight countries,
she found that in China, counterfeits are a
normal part of everyday life, and the reason is
tied primarily to a view of consumer ethics
quite different from what is seen in the US.
For example, many Chinese consumers do
not understand the concept of intellectual property—the idea that a company can own the way
something should look. They don’t see the “LV”
www.suffolk.edu/business /35

BRAND PIRACY

of a Louis Vuitton bag as property that can’t be
used. “This is not really a concept that people
buy into,” said Eckhardt. “They say, ‘If a local
company can use that design on another piece
of leather, it shouldn’t make any difference.’”
Egalitarianism is also very much a part of
the picture. Respondents in Eckhardt’s study
said: “We earn RMB and American people
earn dollars. We don’t earn as much as everyone else, so we shouldn’t be expected to pay
those prices. We deserve to pay only a dollar
or two for the counterfeit items because there
is such an income discrepancy. We can’t afford the real thing.”
Lack of resources doesn’t create lack of
desire, especially when people all across the
country are exposed to advertisements for
global brands on the Internet and television.
The Chinese want to buy these brands to be a
part of the global community, but from simply
an economic perspective, many don’t have the
means, and that’s where counterfeits begin
and consumer ethics end, Eckhardt said. She
discusses these and other findings from her
study in the recent book, The Myth of the
Ethical Consumer, co-authored by Eckhardt,
Timothy M. Devinney, and Pat Auger.
Interestingly, the counterfeit marketplace
creates its own status hierarchy. Consumers
pay much more for fakes that aren’t noticeably fake. This quality range corresponds to
social standing in China and progresses from
fake to real, secretary to CEO.

CHINESE NAMES:
getting it right
Phonetic:

Mercedes-Benz in Taiwan “Ben-Tze”
means Stupid to Death, or Stupid to the
Point of Dying (bad); BMW or “Bao-Ma”
means “precious horse” (good)

Conceptual:

Revlon “Lu-Hua-Nong” means “dense dew”
from a famous poem; Porsche “Bao-Shi-Jie”
means “swiftness to ensure short time”

Or mixed:

Lancome “Lan Kon” means “orchid” and
either “cardamon” or “red nails with balsam blossom”; “Hummer:” “Han Ma”
means “husky valiant horse”

36/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

“People are so savvy about counterfeits in
China,” said Eckhardt. “They aspire to own the
real thing when they can afford to do so. ‘Yes, of
course I buy the fake because I can’t afford to
buy the real,’ they say, but there is a flip side: ‘As
soon as I can afford to buy the real one, I will.’
There is an aspiration to have that, and to have
all the trappings that demonstrate it’s real. You’ll
see people carrying handbags that still have the
price tag on it just to signal, this is real.”

David Woronov, partner
at Posternak Blankstein
& Lund LLP

PROTECTING YOUR BRAND

The Chinese government has taken measures
to prevent counterfeiting, but it’s still the
“wild west” in many respects due to the vast
size of the country and a population larger
than the US and Europe combined, making
enforcement difficult.
Chinese regulations protect trademarks
and commercial names and designs. Applicable laws include the Trademark Law, Unfair
Competition Law, and the Product Quality
Law. China is a member of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO), and party to
the Madrid Protocol, all requiring members
to honor international trade rules and intellectual property rights.
An important distinction that sets China
apart is its approach to trademark registration. “China is a “first-to-file” jurisdiction,”
said David Woronov, partner at Posternak
Blankstein & Lund LLP. “This means there is
a horse race immediately to go to Beijing to
the trademark registry and to register. Most
other countries have the “first-to-use” standard.” The first-to-file law allows for “wellknown” marks registered elsewhere (Starbucks, McDonald’s, etc.) to be given priority
if someone else registers them in China first,
but lesser-known marks are vulnerable to being snatched up and registered by anyone who
believes a brand might have future value.
“The value of your name and your brand
has totally come home to roost for international businesses in the last 10-15 years,”
said Woronov, a specialist in international
business law. “Businesses are realizing that
having a brand out there, in and of itself, can
be worth billions.”
Woronov advises clients to contact the
registry early and register the trademark,
company name, and product name in Chinese and English before someone else does,
and before the mark becomes generic. “Be
careful of your Chinese names!” he warns.
“In China you can try to do an English name
in Arabic letters, and come up with what

sounds, to you, like your name in Chinese
(phonetic translation) or you could do a
conceptual translation that may not sound
anything like your name but carries the
same meaning or has a good message.”
Once registered, businesses need to be
vigilant about their brands, Woronov said.
“Consider hiring a third-party service to monitor trademark and domain name registrations,” he said, “and monitor Taobao for knockoffs of your product—it is a huge online
resource for sales to the middle class in China.”
It also helps to educate employees on the
value of their brand. In Chinese culture, gifts
are highly valued when celebrating Chinese
New Year, marriage, the birth of children, new
homes, and other major events, Woronov said.
“You don’t give a pirated piece of merchandise
to somebody as a gift—it’s considered a loss of
face, and your reputation will be sullied, possibly for the rest of your life.”
Lastly, get contracts in Chinese and translate them into English. Specify damages in the
contracts because courts will not infer damages, unlike in the US. If you need legal enforcement, seek administrative legal routes
that give “equitable remedies.” The infringer
is fined (criminally) and shut down, but few
damages are paid to the brand owner. This
quick action may be preferable to lengthy and
expensive litigation in Chinese courts that are
clogged with cases. (Courts in Shanghai have
20,000 cases in front of them.)
The best way to protect the integrity of
a brand in China is to be prepared, develop
relationships, and have good contacts,
Woronov said. SB

By Rebecca Dienger

Poised for Success
With first-hand experience, students transform
knowledge into professional skills
STUDENTS AT SAWYER Business School
are ambitious, always seeking opportunities to
test their skills in the real world.
Many students, like Suffolk alumna
Mary DesBois, study abroad, contribute to
student organizations, and work for corporate executives before graduation. They
embrace theory, but also crave the opportunity to apply themselves.
“People who are willing to go the extra mile
can gain so much from the Suffolk experience,”
DesBois said. “What has given me the greatest
competitive advantage is the strong network
I’ve built through a combination of involvement
both inside and outside the classroom.”
According to DesBois, the model of accessible faculty, many of whom remain active in
their respective fields, serves students well and
is often the conduit for real-world experiences
through their industry contacts. DesBois has
initiated her own opportunities as well. As a
student, she managed Sawyer Business School’s
social media channels, served as president of the
student-led Professional Marketing Association,
and worked as a study abroad alumni ambassador and Sawyer ambassador.
An internship at Hill Holliday, one of the
top full-service advertising agencies in Boston, bolstered DesBois’ confidence. She conducted social media research for one of the
largest pharmaceutical companies in the
world and performed live market research
and website analyses.
Studying in Australia in 2009 was a “cornerstone to my experience at Suffolk,” DesBois said.
It offered her insight into the logistics and possibilities of working in travel, tourism, and education with an international company.
“I’ve found that I prefer to work where the
action is,” said DesBois. “If you are willing to put
yourself out there and work hard, amazing opportunities come along.”
Luke Auen’s amazing opportunity was
becoming a finalist in the 2010 New Product
Competition. Auen, a recent Entrepreneurship

graduate, created a development plan to commercialize his product, a fitness shaker bottle
with compartments for storing supplements.
“I believe this product has enormous potential in the fitness industry because many people
deal with the inconvenience of carrying supplements to and from the gym,” said Auen, who
works out 4-5 times a week and plays basketball,
football, and golf.
“As an entrepreneur, you are very passionate
about your ventures, but you sometimes struggle to see them from others’ perspectives,” said
Auen. “The competition gave me the chance to
bring my idea forward and get feedback.”
Auen values the advice of his professors
and classmates and incorporated some of
their suggestions into his business plan.
“Their positive reactions motivated me. It was
the fire I needed.”
Auen said the contest required inspiration,
motivation, and patience to develop his concept,
which has served him well as he moves through
the process of commercialization.
“The skills I’ve acquired in the Center for
Entrepreneurial Studies have given me the confidence to start my own business,” Auen said.
“We have covered it all from opportunity matrices, financial planning and feasibility outlines,
to business plans, bootstrapping, and social entrepreneurship.”
Recent graduate Bianca Geigel came to
Suffolk University fresh from a technology internship with Rudy Giuliani’s presidential committee. While at Suffolk, her goal was to complete an internship with a large corporation.
Geigel eventually became the first intern
for PepsiCo’s Northeast region food service
division. She spent six months as a customer
development manager for the metro Boston
area, working with area distributors, identifying opportunities for merchandising products, and ensuring customer satisfaction with
four major brand lines.
Geigel’s daily interactions with hundreds
of small business owners gave her insight into

the way people manage their businesses on a
day-to-day basis and the kinds of decisions
they have to make.
Many students seek professional experience to gain transferrable skills and compete
for jobs, but Geigel, who has worked 25-35
hours a week since she was a freshman, believes internships and part-time jobs provide
students with business knowledge that helps
them in the classroom.
“I understood concepts that much better
and took so much more away from my classes
after working at Pepsi and was a much better
student for it,” Geigel said.
Geigel now works as an associate accounting
analyst for Fidelity, where she also completed
an internship. 
Patrick Coelho graduated with a double
major in Finance and Global Business and
was immediately hired by Julio Simões Logistica, Brazil’s largest logistics company,
based in São Paulo.
According to Coelho, experiences with the
Collegiate Investors Association (CIA) and contributions to the start-up of the nonprofit resume-builder PeopleHelper.org gave him an
edge in the job market. His travels between the
US and Brazil also expanded his appreciation
for the global marketplace. Coelho’s parents are
Brazilian, and while they reside in the US, summers were always spent abroad.
As a junior, he coordinated student excursions to Wall Street, and as a senior, he served
as CIA president and personally invited financial industry executives to speak on campus.
“We wanted to teach our members how to
understand and trade in world markets. Most
importantly, we wanted to prepare Suffolk’s future entrepreneurs with modern investment
skills and techniques,” Coelho said.
As co-founder and chief financial officer of
People Helper Inc., he tackled business development, revenue generation, grant researching,
partnership development, and marketing. He
not only learned about social responsibility, but
he also promoted it. Coelho’s role as a senator
in the Student Government Association for
three years demonstrated his leadership ability.
He is now participating in a one-year talent development program designed by JSL to develop
the future leaders of the company. SB
www.suffolk.edu/business /37

Professor’s Research Highlights
Global Impact of Law and Ethics Department

BY STEVE HOLT

A

Suffolk professor in the Department of
Business Law and Ethics has created a
metric to do what no one has done previously: quantify the rule-of-law in a given country
and analyze its impact on business.
David Silverstein’s Rule-of-Law
Metric enables researchers to track
and compare the relationship between a nation’s rule-of-law (based
on the Heritage Foundation’s “Index
of Economic Freedom”) and the free
practice of business. Silverstein was
able to graphically illustrate, for instance, a correlation between the
precipitous decline in rule-of-law
over the last decade in Venezuela and
Zimbabwe and a resulting economic
and business deterioration. The
study, co-authored by graduate fellow Dan Hohler, was published in the
winter 2010 issue of the American
Business Law Journal.
Silverstein asserts that businesses
must “live by tomorrow’s law,” an38/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

ticipating changes in business legislation—a principle he says has been
virtually ignored in business management training.
“Business managers are not typically taught to try to factor legal
change into their planning,” Silverstein said. “That’s always been a mystery to me because we teach our business students that the essence of
budget management is anticipating
the future. We do that in all kinds of
areas—we teach them to anticipate
changes in wage rates, interest rates,
raw material prices.”
If more companies had anticipated the 1970 formation of the US
Environmental Protection Agency,
for example, many corporations

might have avoided financial and legal penalties later on. Not
only did the EPA establish penalties to discourage environmental degradation, but it could also retroactively penalize companies for questionable practices.
Silverstein also concluded that legal uncertainty and
growing government regulations inhibit the willingness of
businesses to take risks. This may be especially true in the
United States, whose Rule-of-Law Metric Silverstein and
Hohler are currently researching. Although conclusive data
are not yet available, Silverstein suspects they will indicate a
deterioration of American rule-of-law, and thus a negative
effect on its business climate.
He cited the ongoing debate over the so-called “net neutrality” as a prime example. With the Securities and Exchanges
Commission leaning toward forcing broadband companies to
license their infrastructure to competitors, Silverstein argues
that this is “the kind of government intervention and regulation
and uncertainty that simply discourages business investment.”
DEPARTMENT: MAKING ETHICS “SECOND NATURE”

Silverstein’s article exemplifies the global reach of programming and faculty research within the Department of Business
Law and Ethics. Initially established as the Department of
Business Law, the department added “ethics” to its name in
2004. In an era where names like Enron, Madoff, and Blackwater have brought corporate law and ethics to the forefront
of national attention, the department’s mission has never
been more important.
A critical component of doing business is to “remind people
of the American ethics of honesty and dependability and trust,”
said Department Chair Anthony Eonas. He also stressed that it
is important to “protect yourself from others who don’t have
the same ethical conduct.”
Incisive research, of course, is a main area of influence. In
addition to Silverstein, Associate Professor Mark S. Blodgett’s
papers on the emerging global business trends and ethics programs are slated to appear in a future issue of the Journal of
Business Ethics. Associate Professor Miriam Weismann’s article
about regulating unlawful corporate behavior appears in the
January 2011 issue of Journal of World Business.
The department’s most significant outreach to the business
community comes through its Center for Global Business Ethics
and Law, which “offers educational programs for the business
and financial community, the public, and members of academia
in the Boston area,” said Center Director Weismann.  

“These programs address the major corporate governance
issues that impact business in the interconnected global and
domestic marketplaces,” she said.
The Center’s annual spring symposium features international thought leaders speaking on contemporary cases in
business ethics. In 2010, Bernard Madoff whistleblower
Harry Markopolos addressed the role of business ethics in
rebuilding financial integrity.
The 2011 symposium featured New York Times financial columnist Ross Sorkin. Author of the 2009 bestseller Too Big to Fail,
Sorkin identified and assessed the regulatory changes being put
into place to achieve financial reform and explored whether the
private sector self-regulation can
be implemented successfully. An
expert panel included federal
“ usiness managers
B
regulator and prestigious memare not typically
bers from the private sector.
taught to try to factor
A business ethics advisory
legal change into
group is also in the works,
Eonas said. “Along with our
their planning. That’s
existing real estate law advialways been a myssory group, one tied to ethics
tery to me, because
should greatly contribute to
we teach our business
our efforts in reaching the
students that the
boardroom,” he said.
essence of budget
While undergraduates may
management is
not major in Global Business
Ethics and Law, every underanticipating the
graduate is required to take
future. ”
Principles of Business Law, and
a number of related classes are
available as electives. Students may also participate in Global
Travel Seminars to locations, such as Prague, Athens, Morocco,
and China, to assess real-life ethics cases in international firms.
In a global climate, Eonas said the goal is for students to
learn how to comply with the laws of the United States and
understand how standards vary from country to country. As
graduates enter a business climate where profit too often
trumps propriety, what hopes do Eonas and his faculty have of
accomplishing these goals?
“We can only continue training the students who come
through our programs to recognize different ethical dilemmas
and be able to make it second nature to decide what’s ethical
and what isn’t,” he said. “We want to get our students out there
to influence the companies they go to work for.” SB
www.suffolk.edu/business /39

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

ALUMNI CONNECTIONS

Greetings Fellow SBS Alumni,
AS WE WRITE THIS LETTER, the freshmen class strolls the corridors of

Suffolk with excitement and anticipation and with their usual pedagogical expertise, faculty provide them with the education and experience
they need for the rigors of the professional world they will soon enter.
We believe the education received and the connections made while
at Suffolk helped us all better manage the obstacles and challenges we
confront in our professional lives. If, as an alumni population 63,000
strong, we worked as a community in service to each other and to our
alma mater, imagine the impact.
Given the additional challenges we currently face in our lives, there is
no better time to reconnect and engage with the Suffolk community than
now. Networking and relationships have always been a critical element to
professional success and to each of us achieving our goals. In our 6-degreesof-separation world, what is the likelihood that the person sitting beside
you on the train, in a coffee shop, or down the hall, share the same alma
mater? We are part of a powerful network of professionals who share a
Suffolk education. The strength of that education, of that “brand” lies in
the connectivity of its alumni to each other and the institution.
Therefore, this letter is a call to action. We want to rally the men and
women who proudly place Suffolk University, and especially the Sawyer
Business School on their resumes, to reach out and make the broader community a bigger part of their lives. There are many ways to rekindle connections: provide an internship, invite students to “shadow” you in your
workplace, respond to the requests from deans and faculty, network with
fellow Suffolk alumni. Whatever you do, stay connected and involved.
Over the years, many of you have been involved and your participation
and generosity have made a difference that is greatly appreciated. We thank
you and hope you will continue to support Suffolk in any way you can.
We have learned that a strong brand is “a promise” and differentiates
the product from all the other products on the playing field. We need to
continue to work on what differentiates Suffolk from all the other business schools out there, and your time, energy, and ideas will help us do
that. Time is precious, so please participate any other way that you can.
There is no doubt, when you need help the Suffolk community will be
there for you – with all of our involvement, we’ll be all the stronger.
We look forward to welcoming all of you back.
Patricia (Trish) Gannon, MPA ’97
President
Sawyer Business School
Alumni Board of Directors
Eliza Parrish
Senior Director of Alumni Engagement
Sawyer Business School

Call for Nominations
Sawyer Business School Alumni Trustee
AN ALUMNI TRUSTEE on the University Board of

Trustees represents each of Suffolk University’s three
schools and their respective graduates. Nominations
are held sequentially so that all schools are equally
represented. This year, the Sawyer Business School
will undergo its nomination and selection process.
Alumni Trustees are appointed to a three-year term.
As a member of The Board of Trustees of Suffolk
University, the Alumni Trustee is appointed to serve
the best interest of the University and its alumni.
Examples of the primary criteria/experience that
are sought include:
•  eadership in one’s own field(s) and/or other
L
affiliations
•  emonstrated prior commitment to Suffolk
D
University
•  ommitment to raise funds for the University
C
•  ommitment to advance the mission of the
C
University
•  trong interpersonal and communication skills
S
Principal Responsibilities of a Suffolk University
Alumni Trustee:
•  articipate at trustee board meetings four
P
times a year
•  erve as active members on selected trustee comS
mittees to include the Alumni Trustee Committee
•  ttendance at school-based Alumni Association
A
meetings, as schedule permits
•  articipation in Trustee Annual Fund, with a miniP
mum giving commitment of $2500.00
•  epresent the interest and needs of alumni to the
R
Board of Trustees
Please submit the name of your Sawyer Business
School nominee, along with a brief biography and
statement of intent to:
ELIZA PARRISH
Senior Director of Alumni Engagement
Suffolk University
73 Tremont Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108
Or via email: eparrish@suffolk.edu, no later than
February 1, 2012.

40/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

ALUMNI CONNECTIONS

Institute for Executive
Education: Events Recap
Panelists visit Suffolk for Institute for Executive Education Events

1.

2.

1. Panelists at the “Leading the Business of Clean Energy” event discussed the challenges and advantages of building a green economy. Left to right: Nick
d’Arbeloff, vice president of Enterprise Energy Management at EnerNOC; Judith Nitsch, president of Nitsch Engineering; Bryan Koop, senior vice president
and regional manager of Boston Properties; James W. Hunt, III (JD ’00), chief of Environmental & Energy Services of the City of Boston; and Mindy Lubber
(JD ’83), president of Ceres. // 2. Last September, executives discussed the importance of networking and mentoring at the “Women Making a Difference
in Finance” event. Left to right: Marybeth Celorier, director of Finance at Foley Hoag LLP; Lourdes German, vice president of Municipal Finance at
Fidelity Investments; Bonnie Monahan, vice president and treasurer for Dunkin’ Brands Inc.; and Donella Rapier, chief financial officer for Partners in
Health. // 3. Speakers at the “Leading the Business/Human Resources” event included (left to right): Arthur Bowes (MBA ’80), senior vice president of
Human Resources at North Shore Medical Center; Russ Campanello, senior vice president of Human Resources at iRobot Corporation; Lisa KellyCroswell, senior vice president of Human Resources at Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Helen Sayles, senior vice president of Human Resources at Liberty Mutual Group; and Michael Barretti (MBA ’82), director of the Institute for Executive Education and Life-Long Learning at Suffolk. Althea Lynos (MBA ’89),
vice president of Human Resources & Development at Northeast Hospitals, moderated the event.

42/ Suffolk Business Magazine FALL 2011

BY JEN WOODS

ALUMNI CONNECTIONS

Left to right: Senior Fellow at Suffolk’s Center for Public Management Richard
Kelliher, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Sawyer Business School Dean William J.
O’Neill, Jr., Melrose Mayor Robert Dolan, and Salem Mayor Kimberly Driscoll.

Sawyer Business School Dean William J. O’Neill, Jr. (left) talks with the
Hon. Harry Hoglander (right), chair of the National Mediation Board and
Suffolk University Law School alumnus.

Moakley Breakfast Series
Public service talks celebrate late congressman’s legacy
TO CARRY ON the public service legacy of late

Congressman John Joseph Moakley, the Institute of Public Service and Center for Public
Management hosted four assemblies, collectively called the Moakley Breakfast Series.
Moakley, a Suffolk University Law School
alumnus, made a lifetime commitment to
public service. He served as a Massachusetts
state representative, Senator, and member of
the Boston City Council. He is highly regarded for his accomplishments in housing, historic preservation, environmental protection,
transportation, healthcare, veteran and elderly services, education, and human rights.
The Moakley Breakfast Series brings federal, state, and municipal leaders together to
discuss pertinent public policy issues. The
events gained the interest of several prominent and influential people.
Congressman Barney Frank kicked off the
series last October at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in South Boston. He discussed the financial crisis of 2008
and criticized government leaders for a lack
of financial oversight.
Frank also spoke about the Dodd-Frank
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection
Act, which he co-sponsored with Senator
Chris Dodd of Connecticut. The bill was
signed into law in 2010 and is designed to promote financial stability in the United States.
Frank said he hopes it will improve financial
accountability and transparency and protect
the American taxpayers by ending bailouts.
At the second meeting in November, a panel

of Massachusetts mayors discussed municipal
healthcare reform. Speakers included Salem
Mayor Kimberly Driscoll, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, and Melrose Mayor Robert Dolan.
The city officials advocated giving cities
and towns the authority to change healthcare
plans outside of collective bargaining. They
suggested that the reform would lead to substantial savings, which would preserve jobs in
their communities.
In March, the third series featured the
Hon. Harry Hoglander, chair of the National
Mediation Board and Suffolk University Law
School alumnus.
Hoglander’s talk, “Madison, Massachusetts, and Mediation: Collective Bargaining
During Crisis,” was timely, as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker had recently signed a controversial bill that would take away collective
bargaining rights from state union employees.
Hoglander focused on how the bill would impact federal and state public employee unions.
Hoglander, who was involved in labor
relations as a pilot for Trans World Airlines
(TWA), also discussed a Mass Bay Commuter Rail dispute that was before the National
Mediation Board.
The final series in June, entitled “Changing State Government,” featured several Suffolk University alumni. Panelists included
Suzanne Bump, State Auditor; Andrea Cabral,
Suffolk County Sheriff; Mary Beth Heffernan,
Secretary, Executive Office of Public Safety &
Security; and Rachel Kaprielian, Registrar of
Motor Vehicles. SB

Congressman Barney Frank kicked off the
Moakley Breakfast Series last October and
discussed the financial crisis of 2008.

www.suffolk.edu/business /43

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

DONOR PROFILE

Edward Terino
MBA ’84
S
uffolk MBA alumnus Edward Terino is
an accomplished, senior-level business
executive who is passionate about innovation and improving education.
Terino, president of GET Advisory Services LLC, currently serves as a director for
several public companies’ Boards. He is a director at S1 Corporation, a financial services
technology company; Baltic Trading Limited,
a maritime transportation company; and
SeaChange International, a video-on-demand technology company. He is also a
founder and investor in Novium Learning
Inc., a start-up post-secondary vocational
education company.
Many business school graduates, Terino
said, “need to be more creative and better
prepared to navigate change.” One of his goals
is to help transform the learning experience
so that graduates are “better equipped to deal
with personal and professional challenges
that they will face throughout their careers.”
Terino found a partner for his approach
to business education in Sawyer Business
School Professor Robert DeFillippi, director
of the Center for Innovation & Change Leadership. DeFillippi heads a faculty initiative
that examines ways to promote innovative
thinking and change. A major aim of the Center is to incorporate the topic of innovation
across the business curriculum.
“Innovation can play a vital role in solving
business problems and developing business
strategies,” said Terino, who established an
endowment to support the Center. “Successful business professionals must lead their
organizations through complex changes, or
the business won’t survive.”
Terino’s passion for innovation and education stems from his professional background. He served over 10 years in senior
management roles at Houghton Mifflin’s
Educational Publishing Division and over 10
years in executive positions at information
technology companies, including Art Technology Group and Applix, Inc.
Terino’s ability to innovate and adapt has
enabled him to implement new technologies
in many areas, such as budgeting, forecasting,

financial and management reporting, product
development, sales force automation, customer service, inventory management, and
distribution management. Terino has also led
successful merger and acquisition projects,
strategic growth initiatives, and turnaround
efforts for many organizations.
“Successful business leaders focus on
continuous improvement and are open-

minded, innovative problem-solvers who
adapt quickly,” Terino said. SB
If you would like to know more about the Center
for Innovation & Change Leadership or other programs and initiatives in the Sawyer Business School
that are advanced by private contributions, please
contact Philip Cunningham, Director of Development at 617.573.8441 or pcunningham@suffolk.edu.

“Under the leadership of Dean William O’Neill,
the growth and development of the Suffolk University School of Management has been nothing
short of remarkable,” said Terino, who has contributed to Suffolk since 1999. His endowment
fund will help business students apply innovation and change leadership skills in business.

Suffolk University / Sawyer Business School
8 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108-2770

SUFFOLK BUSINESS

UPCOMING EVENTS 2011-2012

Institute for Executive
Education Presents:
Leading the Business of
Global Non-Profits
11:45am-2:00pm, December 8
Contact Julie Schniewind:
617.305.1902
www.suffolk.edu/execevents

Institute for Executive
Education Presents:
Women Making a
Difference in
Entrepreneurship
11:45am-2:00pm, February 28
Contact Julie Schniewind:
617.305.1902
www.suffolk.edu/execevents

Center for Global Business
Ethics and Law Presents:
Annual Sustainability Award
March 21
Contact Eliza Parrish:
617.994.4231

Institute for Executive
Education Presents:
Women Making a
Difference in Healthcare
Innovation
11:45am–2:00pm, April 11
Contact Julie Schniewind:
617.305.1902
www.suffolk.edu/execevents

Moakley Breakfast Series
June 8
617.573.8330