Adjunct faculty are by definition part-time employees. While they may be considered as part-time, their impact on our students is certainly long-term and enduring.  Our adjuncts are selfless business “all-stars” who teach courses in their areas of expertise. They provide a strong practitioner perspective that our students embrace.  The School of Business is fortunate to have 29 of them.  Here’s a description of a few of them:

• Tommy Baker, President and CEO of Baker Motor Company, School of Business Entrepreneur-in-residence and serves on our Board of Governors, co-teaches “Seminar in Entrepreneurship”
• David Morgan, President and CEO of Litton Entertainment, also serves on our Board of Governors, teaches “Business of Television”
• Leonard Hutchinson, president of the Charleston area Wells Fargo Bank, teaches “Intermediate Finance”
• David Holscher, general manager of the North Charleston Coliseum, Performing Arts Center, Charleston Areas Convention Center, teaches an Events Management course
• Garth Cook, director of leadership development and training for the Boeing South Carolina site, teaches “Management and Organizational Behavior”
• Everett Wilcox, partner of Alston & Bird, teaches “Negotiation”
• James Davis, assistant dean for finance for the South Carolina College of Pharmacy, teaches a series of “Public Purchasing” courses.
• Richard Bilas, former president of the California Public Utilities Commission, teaches “Environmental Economics”
• Cynthia Grosso, founder of the Charleston School of Protocol and Etiquette, teaches “Business Etiquette”
• Arthur Richek, financial executive with more than 30 years of general and financial managerial experience, teaches “Introduction to Financial Management”
• James Kindley, founder of UNBLOCKS, a consultative/teaching firm specializing in providing companies with assistance in improving their new product development programs, teaches several strategic planning courses
• Skip Martin, attorney at law, teaches several courses, including “Franchising & Contracts in the Hospitality and Tourism Management Industry”

Based on the conversations I’ve had with many of our adjunct faculty, they seem to get as much out of the classroom experience as the students do.  They tell me that they enjoy interacting with young minds and playing a part in their future.  On behalf of the entire College of Charleston, and especially the School of Business, I can’t tell these “volunteers” how much we appreciate their taking the time to share their expertise with our students.

In the School of Business, we strive to offer many more courses than our faculty can handle. Our core faculty of 62 tenured/tenured-track professors offer a variety of courses. But there is another group of faculty that teach courses who are usually working other full-time jobs at an executive level. Some of them are considered “adjunct faculty”, others are referred to as “entrepreneurs-in-residence” or “executives-in-residence”.

Some of you may have read a recent article in The Post and Courier (02/06/12) about one of our graduates, Jeff Lucas, and his new video social networking site called Fipeo (short for Finding People).  The site evolved out of his desire to bridge gaps between people and make more cross-cultural connections possible.  According to the article, It will help people with a purpose, like learning a new language, moving to a new location, meeting people with the same hobby, etc. to record a video message of what they’re looking for and upload it on Fipeo.com.  Jeff’s got partners and investors around him, but has a long way to go before the company’s up and running and in the black, but he seems to be on his way to greatness.

As a School of Business, we will continue to inspire minds to be creative and able to develop sensible business plans.  It seems with Jeff, mission accomplished.  He was a business administration major, with a concentration in Real Estate and Entrepreneurship.  When he wasn’t in class, he was often either in a foreign country or participating in our Schottland Scholars program.  This program gave him the chance to learn through experiential education (company visits, mentors, guest lectures).

To enhance our commitment to entrepreneurship training, I am delighted to mention that we recently unveiled our new Center for Entrepreneurship, under the leadership of Dr. David Desplaces, assistant professor of entrepreneurship. I felt before we re-opened the Center, we needed an experienced director to make it distinctive and excellent.  David is that person.

He launched the University of Hartford’s Institute for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development and has been involved with his family’s oil business, becoming director of both management service and holding companies specialized in oil services and outsourcing in the Middle East. He also served as the Middle East affairs trade mission specialist for the SC Department of Commerce. If that’s not enough, he is the faculty advisor of the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and is the co-founder of Possibilities without Borders, a non-profit organization, which offers international service learning projects by providing participating students, faculty, community members, and other partner organizations the necessary resources to achieve each project’s goals.

I am confident that our entrepreneurship and other programs that promote innovation will have a huge impact on the business world.  We need to continue producing graduates like Jeff Lucas, which we have done (consider Justin McLain, CEO of Endeavor Telecom; Jessica Gibadlo, CEO of Harry Barker; Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi; Sara Hays, CEO of YuDu Guru, just to name a few), and will continue to do for years to come.

As Dean of the School of Business on a campus proudly grounded on liberal arts and sciences, it is interesting to see how much business permeates our campus leadership. First, consider President George Benson. He’s a former business dean at the University of Georgia and Rutgers University. He serves on several corporate business boards and always takes a strategic, business approach to setting and implementing the vision of our campus. Second, Provost  and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs George Hynd. He, too, takes a business approach to running the academic side of our campus. He has a strong background in psychology, which comes in handy when coordinating the operations of five Schools.  Third, Greg Padgett is the chair of our Board of Trustees and he serves on the School of Business Board of Governors. Greg is Chief Financial Officer of Fennell Holdings. His business experience is vital to managing our campus leadership.  (Many of our Board of Trustees members are current business men and women.)

Fourth, George Watt is Executive Vice President of Institutional Development and has a lengthy corporate background (with over twenty years with First Union Corporation and IBM).  Fifth, Steve Osborne, our Executive Vice President of Business Affairs has almost thirty years of  experience with the SC Budget and Control Board and currently serves as our Chief Financial Officer.

Heck, even Coach Bobby Cremins is a graduate of USC’s business school. (We hope Bobby has a quick recovery and continues to lead the Cougars on the basketball court.)  When you add all 47 of our School of Business Board of Governors, it is evident that business is an integral part of our campus.