Walton College Dean Candidates to Hold Open Forums

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Four candidates for dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas will visit campus over the next four weeks for interviews and public forums.

The four candidates are Sarah Gardial of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; David Urban of Virginia Commonwealth University; Stephen Mangum of Ohio State University; and Eli Jones of Louisiana State University.

Sarah Gardial, vice provost for faculty affairs and professor of marketing at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will speak at an open forum from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23, in the auditorium of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development. Gardial, the Beaman Professor of Business at the University of Tennessee, received her doctorate in marketing, with a minor in social psychology, from the University of Houston in 1986, after earning a B.S.B.A. and an M.B.A. from the Walton College. She has served as vice-provost at Tennessee since 2008. She was associate dean for academic programs at the University of Tennessee College of Business Administration in 2004-2008 and also has been assistant dean in charge of the full-time M.B.A. program. Her primary expertise and research interests are in the areas of customer value and satisfaction, the decision processes of customers and consumers, consumer information processing and buyer-seller relationships. She is the co-author of the book Know Your Customer: New Perspectives on Customer Value and Satisfaction

David Urban, executive associate dean of the school of business and professor of marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University, will speak from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 30, in the Reynolds Center auditorium. He received a bachelor of science in commerce from the University of Virginia and holds both a master’s degree in psychology and a doctorate in business administration from the University of Michigan. Urban has been executive associate dean of the business school at Virginia Commonwealth since 2010 after serving as interim dean of the business school in 2009-2010. He formerly had a joint appointment as director of the Survey and Evaluation Research Laboratory in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth. Urban's primary research interests are in customer satisfaction, retailing and distribution channel management. He has published over 30 articles in publications such as the Journal of Advertising Research, Industrial Marketing Management and Human Resource Management, among others

Stephen Mangum, senior associate dean and professor of management and human resources at Ohio State University, will speak from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 6, in the Reynolds Center auditorium. Mangum received his doctorate in economics in 1984 from George Washington University, where he also earned a master of philosophy in economics. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Utah. He has served as senior associate dean since 1996 and was interim dean of the business school in 2007-2009. Mangum has published in a variety of professional journals, including Labor Law Journal, American Journal of Economics and Sociology and the Industrial and Labor Relations Review. His research topics are diverse: military manpower, national training policy, returns to post-school occupational training, regional economic development, physician migration, contingent employment and poverty. Mangum serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Manpower. His work in international human resource development includes activities in Mauritania, Oman, Northern Ireland, India, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.

Eli Jones, dean of the business college, Distinguished Professor of marketing and holder of the E.J. Ourso Endowed Chair in Business at Louisiana State University, will speak from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 13, in the Reynolds Center auditorium. Jones earned his undergraduate, M.B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M University, receiving his doctorate in 1997. Jones has been widely published in major marketing journals and is co-author of the books Selling ASAP: Art, Science, Agility, Performance and Strategic Sales Leadership: BREAKthrough Thinking for BREAKthrough Results. Jones’ research primarily focuses on issues related to the changing sales force – sales force diversity, sales force change management and sales force technology adoption and performance, salesperson motivation and buyer-seller relationships. Before becoming a professor, Jones worked in sales and sales management for three Fortune 100 companies. In March 2009, he was named a Mays Business School outstanding alumnus.

A half-hour reception will follow each of the open forums. Complete vitas for all of the candidates are available online at http://waltoncollege.uark.edu/dean-search.asp.