Price Newsletter - June 2021

Friends,

This month’s newsletter marks an important milestone for me – my one-year anniversary as dean of the Price College of Business. While this past year presented unprecedented challenges, it also yielded unprecedented gains. In the video below, I recap some of Price College’s greatest achievements in a year like no other.

A New Season of Advancement Leadership

Price College recently welcomed Jared McDuffey as our new Executive Director of Advancement. Jared replaces Kristen Lazalier, who will continue advocating for Price College as a Principal Gifts Officer at the OU Foundation. Jared is a proud Oklahoma native and OU alum. He joins us after spending over a decade in fundraising roles in higher education and non-profits in New York City. You can read more about Jared below.

In-Person Opportunities

Last month, we were excited to present the graduating classes of 2021 and 2020 with in-person, socially distant commencement ceremonies in the Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium and Lloyd Noble Center, the first such ceremonies since 2019. We’re also pleased to announce that fall study abroad is conditionally approved for more than a dozen countries and territories. We anticipate additional locations will open up as well.

Making education affordable and accessible is core to our mission at OU and Price College. Please consider giving to our Momentum Scholarships, which support undergraduate students, or to our Do More Sooner® Scholarships for MBA students. Both scholarships allow students to focus more on their studies and less on financial concerns while obtaining the education necessary for success.

Price Student-Athletes Named Big 12 Candidates

Two Price College student-athlete seniors have been announced as Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year Award candidates. Women’s tennis athlete Ivana Corley is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship and venture management, and football athlete Pat Fields is pursuing a bachelor’s/master’s degree in accounting. Award winners will be announced June 17.

OU Features Outstanding Price Senior

Ali Al Khayer, an outstanding senior in Finance and Management Information Systems, left his home in war-torn Damascus, Syria, to pursue his dream of higher education at the University of Oklahoma. OU featured his story in a short video this spring.

OU Leadership & Volunteerism Recognizes Price Student

MIS+MIT student Zareen Khan received the Campus Life Award from the OU Leadership & Volunteerism department. Campus recognition awards are presented to 30 juniors and seniors campus wide who have excelled in areas of scholarship, character, leadership, and service.

Entrepreneurship Teams Claim Share of $158,000 in Prizes and Scholarships

Six student entrepreneurship teams took home awards in April’s i2E Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup, including 1st-3rd places in the High Growth Undergraduate Division and interview awards. Awards, video, and more are available on the Love’s Cup Facebook page.

Student Team Places Second in International Case Competition

A team of four Price students placed second in April’s Southbridge Access International Case Competition for their insight into how a Costa Rican hotel and resort company should proceed in light of global vaccine availability.

IBC Students Catch Local Spotlight

Students from the First Fidelity Integrated Business Core program were featured in a new interview piece on Oklahoma’s News 9. The student company, More Than OK, has produced a new color-changing LED sign reading, “Boomer Sooner.”

OU Launches Women Impacting Supply Chain Excellence Club

Natasha Bennett hosted the first Women Impacting Supply Chain Excellence club meeting with special guest presenter Leslie Keating, a former SVP of PepsiCo and the current EVP of supply chain at Advanced Auto Parts. Price College established WISE to help attract more women into the field of supply chain management.

Price Welcomes New ED of Advancement

Last month, OU journalism alum Jared McDuffey joined the Price College team as Executive Director of Advancement. McDuffey brings nearly 10 years of fundraising experience in New York City, where he led fundraising teams for Fordham Law School, Brooklyn Law School, Long Island University, and, most recently, The Nature Conservancy.

Price Recognizes Outstanding Seniors

In a small, socially distant ceremony, more than 30 Price College seniors received Outstanding Senior Awards. Students were nominated by their respective divisions based on their exceptional academic achievement. Photos and video of the ceremony are available for viewing online.

First Fidelity IBC Teams Raise $15k for Charities

Three student teams from the First Fidelity Integrated Business Core raised more than $15,700 for three local charities, donated over 1,600 hours of personal time to community service events, held six canned food drives for the OU Food Pantry, and delivered over 1,000 meals for Meals on Wheels, all in the short span of 15 weeks during a pandemic.

MBA and EMBA Programs Rank High in CEO Magazine

CEO Magazine has ranked our MBA a Tier One program in North America and our EMBA in Energy program #48 in its new 2021 global MBA rankings.

EMBA in A&D Scores First Ranking

College Consensus ranks our Executive MBA in Aerospace and Defense #1 in their 2021 Most Unique MBA Programs, the new program’s first national ranking.

Jeremy Bellah’s third article in his series about developing a standards-based project management information system was published in the PM World Journal.

Stella Seyb’s two co-authored papers, one on business model research, and one on crowdfunding, have been accepted for publication by the Academy of Management Review and the Academy of Management Discoveries, respectively.

Kevan Jensen’s co-authored article, A Preliminary Examination of the Effectiveness of Assessment Questions in Detecting Dishonest Behavior, has been accepted for publication in the American Accounting Association’s Journal of Forensic Accounting Research.

Mark Bolino’s co-authored article, Bringing the Great Outdoors Into the Workplace: The Energizing Effect of Biophilic Work Design, was published in the Academy of Management Review.

Kaimee Kellis’ co-authored article, Cultivating Evidence‐Based Pathways for Cannabis Product Development: Implications for Consumer Protection, has been published in the American Business Law Journal.

Collen Baker’s article, Entrepreneurial Regulatory Legal Strategy: The Case of Cannabis, also has been published in the American Business Law Journal.

Lubomir Litov’s co-written article on stock IPOs was published in LexBlog, Oxford University’s Legal Blog, and Columbia Law School’s Blue Sky Blog, and was mentioned in a Bloomberg article. He also accepted an invitation to present on the paper at the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Summer Institute 2021 Corporate Finance conference.

Maryam Fathollahi’s co-authored paper, Anticompetitive Effects of Horizontal Acquisitions: The Impact of Within-Industry Product Similarity, was accepted for publication in the Journal of Financial Economics.

Tom Lumpkin served as guest presenter at the DCU National Centre for Family Business’s STEP Project Global Consortium in Ireland on the topic, “Family Firms as Civic Wealth Creators.”