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VOL. 5 , No. 11 November 2009 |
Success Stories Start Here |
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As we are preparing for Thanksgiving, we truly are grateful for the support and involvement of all of our stakeholders—students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends. For many, this season has been a difficult and stressful one, and we understand that. The economic horizon, however, is now beginning to offer encouragement. It is my hope that at this time of the year, you will be able to share special time with family, friends, and associates. Many have helped us along the way, and we are blessed for their involvement in our lives. From all of us who work in Halpin-Harrison Hall, we offer you our warm thoughts and wishes.
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Dean & George
Edward Durell rboxx@su.edu
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___________________________________________________________________
The follow statement was given by David Abraham, Byrd School
of Business MBA student, on the 25th anniversary of the naming
of the Byrd School of Business. “A World War II veteran, a statesman, a
senator, a business man, and a father. A man of the highest stature and
a man of character. A man with strong determination, a dedication to
excellence, and a commitment to serve others. A leader. How fitting it
is that our business school be named in honor of such a renowned
individual—Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr.
The Byrd School of Business is a very special place to me. I came here in the fall of 2004 not really knowing what to expect, but my decision was the best one that I ever made.
It has not always easy. I did my fair share of completing challenging and thought provoking assignments. Professor Bruce Gouldey’s Investment and Portfolio Management class required me to complete a 20 year forecast of a financial industry firm. Professor Jim Wong’s Organizational Behavior course asked me to survey 500 students from the University on their levels of perceived self-efficacy. Dr. Charles Pineno’s Accounting for Decision Making and Control class asked us to analyze every single aspect of the balanced scorecard, along with other intriguing topics.
But ladies and gentlemen, you know what? I thank each of my Byrd School professors for tough, challenging courses and assignments. It has made me a better person with an understanding of business with a global perspective and through the eyes of a principled leader.
I want to take this time and opportunity to say thank you. Thanks to the dedicated and caring professors in the Byrd School. Thanks to you for building a challenging curriculum that has pushed my thinking and decision making abilities to new heights. I now see the entire world in a completely different light. Thanks to the staff in the School who care for me as an individual. Thanks to our student body with whom I work on a daily basis through team projects and other types of assignments, to our Advisory Board who work semester after semester to build a higher quality institution, and to our alumni for their continued support and commitment. A special thank you must go to Dr. James Davis, our former president, and to the Board of Trustees for having the foresight to ask Senator Byrd to be our namesake.
The Byrd School will always have a special place in my heart. I’ve learned so much and gained so many valuable skills and competencies. Through my experiences, I have been able to acquire a number of internships with companies such as Wells Fargo Financial, New York Life, The Boys and Girls Club of America, and Project Hope. I have been able to obtain leadership experiences that will serve me well in future days such as the president of the Student Investment Club. Having been a position coach for the University football team and Millbrook High School, a mentor to the Boys and Girls Club and Daniel Morgan Middle School, and having been the public speaking competition champion my sophomore year, my educational experience at Shenandoah University, and more particularly the Byrd School of Business, has been simply phenomenal.
This is a high quality institution with skilled professors, staff, and administrators. I will take away many life lessons, as well as a true global perspective on life and our broader society. The mission of the Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business is to educate its students to become successful, principled leaders with a global perspective. At this institution, that is exactly what they do. I am proud that I was pushed to be the best that I can be. My thinking and perception were challenged. Thank you for making me the man that I am today. Senator Byrd, please know it is an honor to tell everyone with whom I come in contact, I am a proud member of the Byrd School family. Thank you for giving me the privilege to use your name.” ________________________________________________________________________
“It is an honor for me to give the keynote speech on this illustrious occasion in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and City of Winchester, named after the city where William the Conqueror was first crowned King of England in 1066. I have participated more modestly in a number of events during this great year for anniversaries.
And, so to 1984—25 years ago today—when your business school was named after Virginia’s famous son, Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr. Like all the other great and good anniversaries, Senator Byrd—and the business school bearing his name—all have one thing in common. They are not just any anniversaries—they all mark not only moments of change in their lives and times; they all stood, and led, at the very threshold of profound, historic change.
I believe this is no less true for the business school and Shenandoah University. You are, for one day, all entitled to reminisce on and celebrate your achievements of the past 25 years.
But the next 25 years starts tomorrow, when you resume the mission that both the school and university intend to carry well beyond this valley, to the world and to its next generations. You now stand at the threshold of great changes in the business world.
So where do I as a geophysicist fit in? What bearing does my presentation have on your business school’s mission and future? Is your anniversary and my professional field just a coincidence—to make the best of for a few minutes and then forget? After all, there are many strands to business and the work of your school.
Well, I believe this is no expedient coincidence. We are experiencing the most serious global financial crisis in history. And, we are told we will pay for the global financial bailouts for a generation—your generation.
We are on the threshold of what is internationally recognized as unprecedented dangerous climate change, driven by human disturbance, of those same natural cycles, at rates and to extents Earth may not have experienced before and with consequences threatening global and political security.
What opportunities does this create for business education? The market failure that leads to global warming (such as the global financial crises) poses a challenge for two reasons. Both crises have the same cause: those who exploit the resource demand impossible rates of return and invoke debts that can never be repaid, and they live in collective denial over their likely consequences. Both crises also feed each other through the application of common rules: unsustainable resource extraction at rates beyond those of replenishment causes eventual stock collapse.
I believe we can draw strong parallels with Senator Byrd’s reputation for fiscal discipline. Concern for the trading of funds that did not exist (in the case of the credit crunch) equates with the environmental resources and quality we steal from our children’s generation with no prospect of repayment (in the case of climate change). Both crises take what we cannot afford. And, worse, we take from people and future generations who did not ask to be part of the deal.
Both crises were foreseen for two or more decades. Both were ignored and their regulation avoided through collective denial. If we were too late to prevent the global financial crises, and even now seem incapable of applying necessary procedures to prevent a recurrence, we must not be guilty of the same negligence over climate change whilst there is still time to act.
So how might this new and challenging world we are entering influence the direction of the Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business? How will you respond? What are the opportunities, as well as the risks? You are clearly ready. Your mission defines an undergraduate curriculum preparing students to operate in a dynamic, ever-changing personal, social, and economic environment.
The first and perhaps most obvious impact may be on the teaching applications of fiscal, monetary, and trade policy and economic and market reform in climate change mitigation and management: carbon taxes, emissions trading, carbon reduction preferential tax/interest incentives, carbon offsetting and discounting, and climate-related overseas development aid. Is this covered in your mission statement? Yes, with a solid educational foundation built on sound business principles, the Byrd School looks forward to its future of graduating principled leaders who will redefine the nature of business.
Business education, combined with science and technology partners, will also need to educate and inform corporate, national, and international governance on climate change policy and legislation. Coherent academic-professional/science-business programs need to connect representative constituencies such as corporate executives, policy makers, employees, and members of the public across business, industry, agriculture, local and regional government, service providers, planners, and civic society.
Finally, a commitment to the mitigation, adaptation, and management of the impacts of global climate change requires the unequivocal adoption of corporate and social responsibility at a global scale, and demands we look beyond our own borders and times and seek to establish international and intergenerational justice.
In asserting your mission statement and the University’s strategic objective of enhancing the commitment to the environment, I believe you have the right ideas, motivation, ingenuity, and appetite to build even greater achievements in your next 25 years on the successful foundation we celebrate today.
Senator Byrd, your business school, Shenandoah University—from Oxford University, I congratulate and salute you on your 25th anniversary.”
____________________________________________________________ JOHN A. ALLISON, IV RECEIVES ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD
John A. Allison, IV, Chairman of
the Board of BB&T Corporation, received the Byrd School’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award on November 4, 2009 in Halpin-Harrison Hall. Having
grown a small business into a large financial institution, Mr. Allison
credits much of his success to the core values of BB&T—honesty,
integrity, justice, reason, independent thinking, reality, productivity,
teamwork, self-esteem, and pride. Mr. Allison explained that these values
guide daily relationships with customers, employees, shareholders, and
the general communities
in which their organizations are located. He stated that employees of BB&T will conduct business only in accordance with the highest ethical, legal, and moral standards.
In addition to receiving the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Mr. Allison visited with the seven Byrd School BB&T freshmen scholars who are a part of the BB&T Moral Foundation of Capitalism program at Shenandoah University. The $150,000 grant encourages a discussion of the moral foundations of capitalism among students, faculty, and the larger community. During the question and answer session with the freshmen scholars, Mr. Allison explained the importance of rational individualism, creativity, independent thinking and a limited role of the government as a protector of peace. He stated that BB&T has been focused on helping people learn, grow, and become critical thinkers—that of investing in education which will have a positive impact on people in businesses and society
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