A Note from Chamu Sundaramurthy, Chair of the Management Department

Chamu Sundaramurthy, Ph.D.
Professor and Department Chair

Management Advisory Board July 2020 Virtual Meeting

The 2019-2020 academic year will be marked by our faculty’s flexibility and extraordinary commitment to our students during this unprecedented time.  We continue to learn, grow, and hone our skills in supporting them during this time.  I would also like to take this opportunity to highlight the many accomplishments of our department during this academic year.

Expanded Management Department Advisory Board: 

• Welcomed 8 new members to our advisory board this year. Many thanks to Stan Sewitch, our board chair, and the executive committee for spearheading this initiative! This expanded strength will be pivotal for our success in the coming year and beyond.

Curriculum Enhancements & Faculty Addition:

Aztec Consulting Program

• Launched the redesigned internship course, a core class for Management majors, with professionalism and career management elements.
• Offered Human Resource Analytics course, a new elective for Human Resource Management (HRM) majors, designed and taught by Justin Wiegand, our new HRM tenure-track faculty member we welcomed this year. 
• Completed redesign of our nationally recognized specialization in entrepreneurship, bolstering meaningful hands-on experiences through cooperation with the Zip Launch Pad and the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center. Received a $72,000 internal grant to begin piloting changes from Spring 2020.
• Received a $22,000 grant from the City of San Diego to support the Aztec Consulting Program. This is the sixth consecutive year of support, for student-led consulting with local veteran, women and minority-owned businesses. 
• Received approval of the Master of Science in Global Business Development (MSGBD), new graduate program developed jointly with Marketing Department and Center for Advancing Global Business (CAGB).
• Hired tenure-track entrepreneurship faculty, Parisa Faridian (Florida Atlantic University), who will be joining us from Fall 2020.

SHRM Outstanding Chapter Award

Student Group Continues to Excel:

• Student chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) received the 2019 national SHRM Outstanding Chapter Award, given to the top 12 student chapters in the U.S, the fifth time in the past six years that the chapter has received this recognition.

Management Faculty Accolades:

• Under the academic leadership and engagement of Management faculty, the Center for Advancing Global Business (CAGB), hosted the Academy of International Business (AIB) West Chapter which attracted 70 scholars around the world attending 12 competitive sessions, plenaries and panels.
• Under the executive leadership of and engagement of Management faculty, the Lavin Entrepreneurship Center in partnership with The George Washington University, hosted the California Educators’ Conference online (due to COVID-19) attracting 1,126 attendees from across 65 countries, 28 U.S. states, from 875 organizations.
• Mike Sloan, Lecturer - Most Influential Faculty Award from 2019 Outstanding Student in General Business. 
• Dr. Amy Randel, Professor - Outstanding Reviewer Award from a top journal in the field, Academy of Management Review. 
• Dr. Gabi Eissa, Assistant Professor - Outstanding Faculty Award, from the University of Wisconsin (prior affiliation) MBA Consortium 2019.
• Dr. Valerie Alexandra, Assistant Professor - Received two awards at the Association of International Business 2020 conference: Best Theory Paper Award for her paper, "Individualism-Collectivism Cultural Differences in Performance Feedback Theory" (Rhee, M. Alexandra, V., and Powell, S.) and Best Reviewer Award. 
• Dr. Taekjin Shin, Associate Professor - Assigned Time Award for Mid-Career Faculty from the SDSU Office of the Vice President of Research and Dean of Graduate Affairs.
• Dr. Dwarka Chakravarty, Assistant Professor - Awarded $10,000 from the SDSU University Research Grants Program (UGP) for the project entitled ”Global Cities, Co-Ethnic Clusters, and Performance: Equifinality and Optimal Distance".

The upcoming year will continue to pose challenges, but we remain fully committed to supporting our students and expanding opportunities for their success.

Dr. Chamu Sundaramurthy