MESSAGE FROM THE DEANAs we begin this academic year with a new university president, there appears to be a renewed enthusiasm for the College of Business as well. The College has established a number of exciting new initiatives. The School of Accountancy now

includes Computer Information Systems programs. This move was made because of accreditation requirements and it allows us to develop new cooperative programs that will be outstanding additions to the College.

I am proud to report that our enrollment numbers up this year. Our overall undergraduate enrollment is up six percent and our first-time freshmen enrollment is up 36 percent.

We will be honoring Keith C. Caldwell as the College of Business alumnus of the year on homecoming weekend. Keith is the Vice President, Finance of Murphy Exploration & Production Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Murphy Oil Corporation. He has been highly successful in his career and we are thrilled to recognize him for his numerous accomplishments as a graduate of the College of Business.

We will also recognize Steve Davison as the University’s Alumnus of the Year. Steve is a 1989 College of Business graduate. Steve is an entrepreneur, a lawyer, and a principle owner in Genesis Energy, LLP, his family’s transportation and petroleum products business.

We hope you will come back to the campus on Homecoming weekend, October 18 and 19, 2013. We encourage all of you to attend our homecoming reception on Friday, October 18 at 2:00 p.m. as we honor Mr. Caldwell as well as Mr. Davison. We welcome all alumni and friends to the College of Business tailgate at Joe Aillet Stadium starting at 1:00 p.m.

Thank you for your continuing engagement in the College of Business and its activities. We are very appreciative of our generous alumni and friends and especially the to the Kavanaugh and Davis families for their commitment to enhancing the experience for our students, faculty, staff, friends and alumni. Please make your plans now to be part of the College of Business for homecoming weekend.

Dr. James R. Lumpkin, Dean Chase Bank Professor

CLASS NOTES:

Dut LeBlanc, Accounting ’79, Partner, KPMG, LLC, and the global lead partner for AT&T has been named to the KPMG Board of Directors. Dut is a member of the College of Business Advisory Board.

W. Deryl Medlin, Accounting ’74, is attorney with McMichael, Medlin, D’Anna, Wedgeworth & Lafargue, LLC in Shreveport, Louisiana. After graduating from Louisiana Tech, Deryl began his career with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., in Baton Rouge. In May, 1978 Deryl graduated from LSU Law School and then moved to Shreveport to begin practicing law in the areas of estate planning, successions, and probate and federal income and estate taxation. He is married to Sonya Montgomery Medlin and they have three children, Andrew (32), Laura (29) and Phillip (15).

Drake Mills, Finance ’82, President and CEO of Community Trust Bank has been named the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Gulf Coast area. Drake is a member of the College of Business Advisory Board.

Katherine Taken Smith, DBA, ’86, received the Emerging Scholar Award at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. Smith is an Assistant Professor of Management and Marketing at Murray State University. Smith is the daughter of Shreveport resident Genita Taken and daughter-in-law of Ruston resident and retired Tech economics professor, Dr. Lawrence C. Smith, Jr.

Jack T. Taylor, Accounting ’73, has been named to the Murphy USA Inc. Board of Directors. Jack is the retired Chief Operating Officer-Americas and Executive Vice Chair of U.S. Operations for KPMG LLP. Jack is member of the College of Business Advisory Board.

RECOGNITION :Rob Blackstock, Assistant Professor of Economics, was named the 2013 Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award by the College of Business.

Pam Meyer – Assistant to the director of the School of Accounting and Information Systems was named the 2013 Outstanding Staff Member in the College of Business.

SEND US YOUR NEWSWe want to let your fellow Bulldogs know what’s happening in your life by printing your news in our “Class Notes.” Email your news to debrav@latech.edu and we will share it with everyone in our next quarterly newsletter. Thanks!

Alumni Newsletter

Fall 2013

THE IMPORTANCE OF HELPING OTHERS AND GIVING BACK

The Business Analytics Group of the Louisiana Tech University College of Business will host the first annual Business Analytics Day at the Louisiana Tech Shreveport Center on January 10, 2014. The event will feature two nationally renowned speakers. Bill Franks, Chief Analytics Officer of Teradata, and author of the book Taming the Big Data Tidal Wave, will open the day with a discussion of big data issues. Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter Alan Schwarz, National Correspondent for Education with The New York Times and author of the book The Numbers Game, who is best known for his series of articles exposing the risks associated with concussions among football players, will give the final talk of the day.

The focus of the Business Analytics Day will be on “Big Data” issues, and will feature a full slate of speakers from various institutions who will discuss the value of data analytics and how participants can make the most of available data. The program will be co-chaired by Drs. James J. Cochran and Tim Bisping, and the agenda for the day will incorporate meals, breaks, and a reception designed to allow for networking and interaction with experts in the field of business analytics. Cost of attendance for the day is $249 if registered prior to December 10, 2013 ($275 after). The registration fee includes meals and copies of the books Taming the Big Data Tidal Wave and The Numbers Game. Corporate sponsorships and group pricing are also available.

For more information on the Business Analytics Day, or to register, please visit www.business.latech.edu/bag, or contact the Office of Graduate Programs and Research at: 318-257-4528.

Dr. James Lumpkin, Dean of the College of Business recently announced that College of Business graduate, Randy Davis, provided a generous gift for landscaping and accoutrements for the new building, This gift is in memory of Louie Randolph Davis, Sr., the father of Randy Davis. The area surrounding the new building will be named Davis Memorial Garden to honor Mr. Louie Davis.

Louie Davis was born in Stephens, Arkansas where he met and married Edna “Tootsie” Davis. After high school, Davis was drafted into the Army then served in the Navy as well. Following his stint in the service, he began a lifelong career in the wholesale hardware business. He started his own company, South States, Inc., a wholesale hardware and building material distributor in 1970. His son, Randy, graduated from Louisiana Tech in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Randy joined his father full-time in the family business until 1987 when he decided to pursue other opportunities outside the wholesale hardware business. Louie Davis sold the company in 1994 and subsequently passed away in 2005.

“This is a wonderful gift from Randy Davis, Lumpkin said. “Randy’s willingness to provide an aesthetically pleasing environment surrounding the new building that will last for generations is simply outstanding. Areas on the east and west sides of the new building are very attractive, suitable gathering places for our vibrant student community as well as for various social events. We are deeply grateful to Randy for funding this much needed gift in memory of his late father, Louie Randolph Davis, Sr.

“In the current environment of repeated budget cuts to higher education, it is up to each and every alumnus to invest in the future of Louisiana Tech University,” said Randy Davis. “A great university can only become an excellent university on the shoulders of their alumni. I encourage you to make a tax deductible gift to a place you experienced some of the best years of your life.”

The commitment by the Davis family will advance the College’s Building Distinction fundraising campaign which has passed the halfway point toward its $4 million goal. The campaign supports the College’s need for an addition to the new building.

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS RECEIVES GENEROUS GIFT FOR LANDSCAPING

NATIONALLY RENOWNED SPEAKERS FEATURED AT BUSINESS ANALYTICS DAY

THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK AND TECH’S COLLEGE OF BUSINESS PARTNER TO PRESENT WORKSHOP TO LOCAL SCHOOLS

NEW COLLEGE OF BUSINESS MEET AND GREET RECEPTION

On Wednesday, September 4, the Business Student Association hosted a MEET and GREET event for new College of Business students. The students were invited to the College of Business building where they enjoyed pizza, met the BSA leadership, and were welcomed by Dr. James Lumpkin, Dean of the College. Afterwards, they went to the First-Year Academic Convocation where Dr. Les Guice, Ms. Allison East (SGA President), other university administrators, and notable alumni officially welcomed them to Louisiana Tech.

Building Distinction.

STEVE K. DAVISON – UNIVERSITY ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR The University has named Steve K. Davison University Alumnus of the Year. Steve is an entrepreneur and lawyer, is a principle owner in Genesis Energy, LLP, his family’s transportation and petroleum products

business. In addition, he is a developer of Squire Creek Country Club, considered one of the top-ranked golf courses and residential developments in the state of Louisiana, and he owns Twin Creeks Farms, a thoroughbred breeding and racing operation.

Steve is a 1989 graduate of Louisiana Tech University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management. He received his law degree in 1993 from the Mississippi College School of Law. Steve began his law career in New Orleans as a law clerk to Louisiana State

Supreme Court Justice James Dennis before returning to Ruston in 1995 where he began a private law practice.

Steve is an active alumnus. He has served as president of the Louisiana Tech Alumni Foundation; he is a member on the Louisiana Tech Athletics Council and is an adjunct professor in the College of Business. Steve has also served as a radio color analyst for Tech football and currently serves as a member of the Louisiana Tech Foundation Board of Directors.

Steve is a member of the College of Business Advisory Board. He has also been the recipient of the Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce Young Business Person of the Year Award. Steve resides in Choudrant with his wife, Sarah. He has four children, two sons and two daughters. Steve is the son of James and Dianne Davison of Choudrant, Louisiana.

A reception honoring Mr. Davison will be held on Friday, October 18, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the College of Business building, Rawle Conference Center, Room 220. This reception is open to the public and we invite everyone to attend.

James and Frances Kavanaugh believed in helping others. They instilled that concept in their children. Twenty years since their passing they are still helping others through the generosity of their children. The Louisiana Tech University College of Business is the recipient of a generous gift from the family of Richard James Kavanaugh, Robin Keeth Kavanaugh and Kay Kavanaugh McKneely in memory of their late parents, Frances Keeth and James Ransom Kavanaugh, Jr. The gift will assist the College in their fundraising efforts for an addition and will also name the College’s Undergraduate Student Services Suite.

James Ransom (J.R.) Kavanaugh, Jr. (1907-1986) was a successful Shreveport-area businessman and philanthropist dedicated to his family and his community. He believed in “helping people who want to help themselves.” The two qualities he considered most important in a person were honesty and willingness to work, and he led by example. In addition to spending over 50 years in banking, more than half as a bank president, he also farmed 1200 acres of land and raised three children alongside his wife, Frances. He studied business at Louisiana Tech from 1926-1929.

Frances Keeth Kavanaugh (1908-1991) was an example of grace and compassion who dedicated her life to her family and helping others. She always had a kind word to say and had a positive spirit that was contagious. She attended Louisiana Tech from 1926-1929, graduating with a

degree in education, cofounded the local chapter of the Kappa Delta sorority, and was named “Most Modern Girl” by the University.

J.R. and Frances met while at Tech, and were married on October 2, 1929. Their love was enduring, and their lives served as examples of dedication to family and community for all who knew them. They spent the majority of their years in Caddo Parish.

Their children, Richard, Kay, and Robin, attended Louisiana Tech University; their youngest son, Robin Kavanaugh, graduated from the College of Business in 1967. Robin Kavanaugh stated the following, “My brother, Richard, was always committed to honoring Mother and Daddy. After his death, we worked with Dean James Lumpkin and Debbie Van De Velde to make the dream of honoring our parents a reality. They were a great help in making his wishes come true.”

“The Kavanaugh’s very generous gift to the College of Business is highly significant,” stated Dr. James Lumpkin, Dean of the College of Business. “Not only does this gift provide necessary funding for the new addition but it also ensures that our students will receive their education in a state-of-the-art facility.”

The College of Business has plans for an addition to the new building and this gift is directed to the Building Distinction Campaign.

The College of Business has named Keith Caldwell, Alumnus of the Year. Caldwell has 26 years of finance and accounting experience in the energy industry and he currently serves as the Vice President, Finance of Murphy Exploration &

Production Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Murphy Oil Corporation. Murphy Exploration is engaged in crude oil and natural gas production activities in the United States, Malaysia, the U.K. sector of the North Sea and Republic of the Congo, and explores for oil and gas worldwide.

Caldwell, a certified public accountant, began his career with KPMG LLP and rose to the Senior Manager level prior to joining Murphy in 2001. He was an Assistant Controller in financial reporting from 2001 to 2006 for Murphy Oil Corporation in their home office in El Dorado, Arkansas. In 2007, he moved to Houston, Texas to serve as Manager of Finance for Murphy Exploration & Production Company and was promoted to Vice President in 2011.

Caldwell earned a bachelor’s of science degree in accounting in 1983 from Louisiana Tech University and has been married 30 years to Janet Gerami Caldwell, a 1982 graduate of Louisiana Tech University. They reside in Katy, Texas and they have three sons.

A reception honoring Mr. Caldwell will be held on Friday, October 18, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the College of Business building, Rawle Conference Center, Room 220. This reception is open to the public and we invite everyone to attend.

KEITH C. CALDWELL - COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR

NEW FACULTY AND STAFF IN THE COLLEGE OF BUSINESSDr. Bill McCumber is a new assistant professor in the Department of Economics and Finance. Dr. McCumber received his Bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania and his Masters degree in finance from Southern Methodist University. Dr. McCumber recently completed his Ph.D. in finance from the University of Arkansas and will teach in the finance area.

Left to right: Dr. Bill McCumber, Dr. Hongmei Jia, and Dr. Kiran Desai.

The College of Business welcomes three new faculty as we begin the 2013-2014 academic year.

Dr. Kiran Desai has joined the Department of Management as a visiting assistant professor. Dr. Desai received his Ph.D. in business administration from Pennsylvania State University. He received his Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York University and a Bachelor’s degree from M.S. University of Baroda. Dr. Desai came to us from McNeese State University. He is teaching in the sustainable supply chain management program.

Dr. Hongmei Jia has joined the School of Accountancy as an assistant professor. Dr. Jia comes to us from the University of Kentucky where she recently received her Ph.D. in Accounting. She completed her Masters in Accountancy as well as her Bachelors in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville prior to completing her doctorate.

Lincoln Parish school teachers now have classroom resources and curriculum ideas to enhance their social studies and business curriculums thanks to staff from the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank and Tech’s College of Business faculty.

On September 14, Princeton Williams and Steven Clayton of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank met with educators in Lincoln Parish for a day-long workshop to provide curriculum development ideas and key classroom resources for Lincoln Parish School teachers from elementary through high school. The focus of the workshop was on the introduction and development of economics and personal finance into the public school curriculum for the purpose of enhancing the productivity of parish students as citizens. The key idea was how to help students develop critical decision making skills that require economic or financial reasoning.

Dr. Otis Gilley, Head of Economics and Finance in the College of Business coordinated this opportunity. Dr. Gilley stated, “We were thrilled with the interest from the various educators in the area. This is our first collaboration with members of the Dallas Federal Reserve but it appears it was a highly successful initiative.” Dr. Gilley went on to say, “There are already plans in the works to repeat the workshop next year and to include educators from many of the surrounding parishes.”

Over 20 attendees participated in a variety of exercises designed to bring economics and personal finance alive for students at all levels. The attending teachers were given access to a wide variety of classroom resources and detailed plans and examples for the use of those resources in a classroom setting.

Dr. James Lumpkin, Dean of the College of Business, applauded the leadership of Dr. Gilley with this initiative and expressed his desire for this type of opportunity to be made more accessible to educators throughout our region. Dean Lumpkin said, “We are pleased that our relationship with the Dallas Federal Reserve is providing new opportunities for students and high schools in the region.”

Dr. Rob Blackstock, Assistant Professor of Economics at Louisiana Tech University, and Cathi Cox-Boniol, Title 1 Coordinator for Lincoln Parish Schools, also participated in the event.

FACULTY ADVANCEMENT

AccountingAndrea Drake was appointed the Humana Foundation/McCallister Professor in Accounting.

Carol Shaver was appointed the Burton Risinger Professor in Accounting.

Jinyoung Wynn was appointed the Charles L. Farrar Professor in Accounting.

Economics and Finance

Tim Bisping was appointed the Jack and Peggy Byrd Professor in Economics and Associate Dean of Graduate and Research Program.

John Francis was appointed the Maurice R. Tatum Professor in Economics.

Jason Hur was appointed the Humana Foundation/McCallister Professor in Finance and was also promoted to Associate Professor of Finance.

Qin Lian was appointed the Patricia I. Garland Professor in Finance.

Qiming Wang was appointed the JPJ Investments Professor in Finance.

Management

Bryan Fuller was appointed the Humana Foundation/McCallister Professor in Management.

Son Le was promoted to Associate Professor of Management.

Marketing

Jim Cochran was promoted to Professor of Quantitative Analysis.

Laura Flurry was appointed the Max P. Watson, Jr. Professor in Marketing.

Julie Moulard was appointed the Balsley-Whitmore Professor in Marketing.

The Eighth Annual Marbury Lecture Series in Ethics was held on Tuesday, September 24, 2013 in the Davis Auditorium of the College of Business. This year’s speaker featured Mr. Kenny Guillot, Vice President and Resident Director of Merrill Lynch in Monroe, Louisiana. Mr. Guillot is a 1988 finance graduate from the College of Business at Louisiana Tech University.

Mr. Guillot addressed the importance of ethics in business practices. Guilllot stated that as he began his career he let status and money be the driving factor to his success but as he

became more successful he experienced personal issues that made him reassess the importance of happiness over financial success. His message to the students was that money does not always bring happiness.

Success can be achieved in different ways so it is important not to let money be the determining factor in career decisions. He also stressed the importance of being aware of the type of decisions you made which can affect your future. Today, social media allows for instantaneous results. Students and people as a whole expect instant gratification. Student have access to a whole host of social media tools and what they post can result in future career success. With this in mind, Kenny strongly urged students to make good ethical choices relative to social media access.

The Marbury Lecture Series was established to honor the late Willam Ardis Marbury, Jr. and Virginia Lomax Marbury longtime business executives and graduates of Louisiana Tech University.

“SIGNIFICANCE” FEATURES ARTICLE BY GRADUATE STUDENT IN JUNE 2013 ISSUE An article by Lauren M. Brewer, a doctoral student and research assistant in the Marketing and Analysis Department, and Dr. James J. Cochran, Bank of Ruston, Barnes, Thompson, & Thurman Endowed Research Professor and Professor of Quantitative Analysis at Louisiana Tech University, is featured in the June issue of the popular magazine Significance. In the article, “August’s child is … favoured by fortune,” Ms. Brewer and Professor Cochran discuss statistical efforts, including their own, to isolate the relative age effect over a variety of academic and athletic endeavors. The article is based on ongoing research by Brewer and Cochran.

About Brewer and Cochran’s article, Significance Editor Julian Champkin said ‘The research about relative age effect is a surprisingly important one, and one of those ideas that seem obvious once people like Lauren Brewer and Jim Cochran have had the insight to point it out, but which goes un-noticed until then. It is perhaps to be expected that the youngest children in a kindergarten would fare less well than classmates who are almost a year older; what is not so expected that the effect persists so long, into the teenage years and after, and in so many different areas of life. The authors’ analysis of high school swim teams and their meta-analysis of statistical papers has put before us an important phenomenon that brings about inequality and that affects many people. It is

now up to educators and social planners to try to find ways of addressing it.’

Significance, which is published six times annually by the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association, aims to communicate and demonstrate in an entertaining, thought-provoking and non-technical way the practical use of statistics in all walks of life and to show informatively and authoritatively how statistics benefit society. Articles are largely non-technical and hence accessible and appealing to the general public. The June 2013 issue also includes articles on the impact of neonicotinoid insecticides on bee populations, the use of shape analysis to assess the damage in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, how the understanding of the way the atmosphere mixes as it moves aids in determination of the sources of various pollutants, and why a football team sometimes plays better without its best player.

Brewer is in her fourth year of doctoral studies in marketing and is researching how stereotypes and innuendoes influence service encounters for her dissertation. Cochran, who received his Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Cincinnati in 1997 and joined the Louisiana Tech College of Business faculty in 2000, is considered a leading authority in the areas of sample based and Bayesian optimization, statistical methods, computational statistics, statistical learning, and mathematics education.

2013 MARBURY LECTURE FEATURED KENNY GUILLOT

RESEARCH ROUNDUP

School of Accounting & Information Systems

Dr. Ted Englebrecht, Harold J. Smolinski Eminent Scholar Chair and Professor of Accounting recently published the following articles with both current and former Tech doctoral students. They include the following:

• “A Distributional Analysis of Cain’s 999 Tax Plan: Annual and Lifetime Income Considerations” (with X. Chu, Nicholls State University, and Y. Kuang, University of Houston), accepted in the August 2013 publication in Advances in Taxation.• “Qualified Conservation Easements: An Analysis of the Valuation Dilemma and Perpetuity Requirement” (with B. Dowis, Current student), The CPA Journal, August 2013, pp.2-8.• “Taxpayers’ Perceptions and Gender Effects on the Innocent Spouse Equitable Relief Provisions” (with K. Pierce, Morehead State University, and W. Chiang, University of Houston,) Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research, 2013, Volum316, pp.205-240.• “An Assessment of Patterns of Coauthorship for Academic Accountants within Premier Journals Edited Outside the U.S.: Evidence from 1995-2009 (T. Chu, Nicholls State University, F. Coleman, Bowling Green State University, and R. Martin, Private Practice), Journal of Applied Business Research, Volume 29, Number 4, July/August 2013, pp.1077-1092. This paper also received the outstanding research paper award at the Annual Southeast American Accounting Association Meeting.• “A Practical Assist in Distinguishing Debt from Equity” (with W. Chiang, University of Houston), The CPA Journal, January 2013, pp.52-55.

Dr. Englebrecht along with C. Holcombe and K. Murphy, both current Tech doctoral students, presented their research entitled: “An Empirical Assist in Determining Reasonable Compensation in Closely Held Corporations” at the 2013 Las Vegas International Academic Conference on September 22-25, 2013.

Department of Management

Correction: At the 2012 Southern Management Association Meeting in November, Professors Marcia Dickerson and Cristie Fuller (rather than Becky Bennett), along with Hettie Richardson (LSU) and Tech DBA graduates Guclu Atinc, Drake University, and Yasemin Ocal, University of Auburn-Montgomery, were awarded best paper in the research methods track for our paper titled: Missing the Mark: Problems with Marker Variable Choice, Reporting and Interpretation in the Detection of Common Method Variance.

Department of Marketing and Analysis

Dr. James J. Cochran, Bank of Ruston, Barnes, Thompson & Thurman Professor and Professor of Quantitative Analysis along with Lauren M. Brewer, a doctoral student and research assistant in the Marketing and Analysis Department were featured in the June issue of the popular magazine Significance. In the article, “August’s child is…favoured by fortune,” Ms. Brewer and Professor Cochran discuss statistical efforts, including their own, to isolate the relative age effect over a variety of academic and athletic endeavors. The article is based on ongoing research by Brewer and Cochran. Significance, is published six times annually by the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association.

MARKETING PROFESSOR’S ARTICLE FOCUSES ON COMMITTED RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN IN THE RETAIL SECTOR

How do men and women come to be in committed relationships – at least with retailers and service providers? Dr. Barry J. Babin, chair of the department of marketing and analysis and the Max P. Watson professor of business, recently addressed this question in his

latest article entitled, “Negative Emotions, Value and Relationships: Differences between Women and Men,” published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 20, 471-478. With M. Griffin, A. Borges and J.S. Boles.

The research suggests that men and women do not become loyal in the same way. The key to loyalty for men is repeated behavior. Once a male consumer repeats a behavior, he tends to become loyal and committed to that decision. After all, it’s a decision made and having to consider alternatives challenges the quality of that decision. On the other hand, women like to shop around. Even after repeating behavior, women like to consider options. In this sense, building loyal clientele amongst a largely female marketing segment can take more of an elaborate process. While the research doesn’t suggest that either men or women experience more negative emotions when shopping, the results do suggest that women respond more to negative emotion. For women, negative emotions lead to reduced value perceptions and reduced loyalty. The results do suggest that building commitment among female consumers may be more complex than for male segments. Thus, businesses need to consider the makeup of their market segments when building relationship marketing strategies.

BUSINESS PROFESSOR SPEAKS AT UNITED NATIONS

Dr. James J. Cochran, Bank of Ruston Barnes, Thompson, & Thurman Professor and Professor of Quantitative Analysis at Louisiana Tech University, served as guest speaker at the United Nations. On August 2, Cochran addressed the Statistics

Division in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the UN. In his talk, “Statistics Without Borders, the International Operations Research & Statistics Education & Applications Initiative, and Pascal’s Triangle of Research for Africa,” Cochran addressed his work as a co-founder of Statistics Without Borders, the international initiative he established to improve the quality of applied mathematics education and encourage the use of mathematics to resolve societal issues in developing nations, and his efforts to establish a network of researchers who will collaborate on research problems across cultures in Africa.Dr. James Lumpkin, Dean of the College of Business stated, “This is an outstanding opportunity for Dr. Cochran and certainly speaks to the expertise and knowledge Dr. Cochran offers to other colleagues as well as to business students at Louisiana Tech University.”Cochran, who received his Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Cincinnati in 1997 and joined the Louisiana Tech College of Business faculty in 2000, is considered a leading authority in the areas of sample based and Bayesian optimization, statistical methods, computational statistics, statistical learning, and mathematics education.

COCHRAN TO SPEAK AT CONFERENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Dr. James J. Cochran, Bank of Ruston, Barnes, Thompson, & Thurman Endowed Research Professor and Professor of Quantitative Analysis at Louisiana Tech University, will give the plenary presentation at the 55th Conference of The South African

Statistical Association (SASA, http://www.sastat.org.za/). The SASA and the Department of Statistics and Operations Research at the University of Limpopo-Turfloop Campus will host the conference (http://www.sastat.org.za/sasa2013), which will take place on November 4-8, 2013 in Polokwane, Limpopo Province, South Africa. As SASA was established in 1953, the 2013 Conference also marks the Association’s 60th Anniversary. Furthermore, this marks the first time that a historically disadvantaged university will host a SASA Conference, and the SASA and University of Limpopo are using this conference to enhance the quality of learning for their students and open doors in the University of Limpopo’s efforts to establish further collaborative work and partnerships with other institutions of higher learning and industry.

When asked about Cochran’s participation, 2013 SASA Conference Chair Maseka Lesaoana said, “As the University of Limpopo began preparation to host the prepared South African Statistical Association’s 55th annual conference, first expert that came into mind to be invited to give a plenary talk was Professor James Cochran of Louisiana Tech University. How many speakers can you find who are highly regarded for research in two disciplines?

And he has had a great impact on the region. For example, when we hosted the Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA) Conference in 2010, he offered a pair of two-day preliminary conference workshop and a plenary talk as a guest speaker. These workshops and the plenary talk attract many conference participants from other SADC countries, in particular Zimbabwe. Most importantly, during that plenary talk he recommended the hosting of ORSSA 2011 in Zimbabwe, which was warmly accepted. Indeed ORSSA 2011 took place at with great success at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, hosted by ORSSA in collaboration with the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Zimbabwe.”

The SASA Conference is aimed at increasing the public’s mindfulness of the impact of statistics on all aspects of society, predominantly to young people, by promoting statistics as a profession. The mission of the SASA, which is to facilitate advancement of statistical knowledge and promote applications of statistical theory in all spheres of life and hence contribute positively to the development of South Africa, will be enhanced by this conference. Another important goal of the 2013 SASA conference is to encourage the creation and maintenance of collaborative relationships between scientists from southern Africa and western nations.

Cochran, who received his Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Cincinnati in 1997 and joined the Louisiana Tech College of Business faculty in 2000, is considered a leading authority in the areas of sample based and Bayesian optimization, statistical methods, computational statistics, statistical learning, and mathematics education.

UPDATE FROM EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAM

Hello, Tech alumni! We are still actively recruiting for our next Executive MBA cohort, taught in Shreveport, due to begin in March of 2014. Tech’s Executive MBA program is academically equivalent to the regular MBA program, but it caters to working professionals who cannot easily attend a “traditional” program on campus.

We offer our classes on Friday evenings and all day Saturday, roughly every other week through the academic quarter, subject to holidays and other conflicts. The Executive MBA program also recognizes that those who have been out of school for some time may well be a bit rusty (the bad news), but also have a wealth of experience (the very good news), and so our professors approach the EMBA classes with empathy for your “rust”, but also great expectations due to your practical knowledge and experience.

If you have been feeling a bit in a professional “rut,” or if you simply want to burnish your resume for the next stage of your career, our EMBA program may be for you! For further information, please check out our website: www.business.latech.edu/emba, or feel free to contact me via e-mail (jbennett@latech.edu) or phone (318-257-4464). Applying is easy! What are you waiting for? Hope to hear from you soon!

J BennettEMBA Director and Lecturer in Economics and Finance