CHARLES H. WHITEMAN
Whiteman, the John and Becky Surma Dean of Smeal,
assumed leadership of the college in 2012. He has nearly
40 years of experience in higher education and business.
A YEAR AGO, we introduced you to State of Business, a new publication for alumni and friends of the Penn State Smeal College of Business. In those pages, we shared many of the things that make the Smeal College unique, from expanding opportunities for graduate business education to making the business case for sustainability to how philanthropic support for students and faculty enhances the work that we do here.
These last seven years at Smeal have been among the most rewarding of my professional career. Smeal’s reputation is built around leading-edge research and transformative academic programs, but it is our commitment to honor and integrity, sustainability, and diversity that makes Smeal unique. Beginning with the Starting Out section, we’ll introduce you to just a few of the many extraordinary people and programs that make our community so vibrant.
You’ll meet Michael J. Farrell ’71 ACCTG whose visionary gift to endow the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship 20 years ago laid the groundwork for Penn State’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. And you’ll meet Smeal student Ben Yan, the inaugural student CEO of the Saxbys Experiential Learning Café, located here in the Business Building. The Smeal café, the largest student-run café in the Saxbys operation, complements Smeal’s entrepreneurship programs. Ben exemplifies the type of student who studies at Smeal: he is hard working, intellectually curious, and globally minded.
Last fall, I sat down with Bruce Schock ’70 BA, ’73 M.A. ECON and his wife, Donna ’73 ACCTG, as they signed a $1 million estate commitment to create the Bruce R. Schock Professorship in Finance. It was quite moving to listen to the Schocks talk about their Penn State experience and the impact that business faculty had on the trajectory of their careers. In this issue, you will learn about the faculty that are influencing a new generation of students as part of Smeal’s Business Core—introductory courses in finance, management, marketing, and supply chain that are required of every Smeal student.
In recent years, I have had the opportunity to connect with some of our internationally based Smeal alumni as I have traveled on behalf of the Association to Advance Collegiate Business Schools. In the coming year, I hope to visit with even more of our graduates across the globe and learn more about the myriad ways Smeal is making a global impact. You can read about how strong business acumen and a passion for improving lives drives just a few of our more than 88,000 alumni to impact their communities and causes in innovative, forward-thinking ways.
Looking ahead, we hope to share even more stories with you on Smeal’s social media channels. If you are not currently following Smeal, I encourage you to join us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to stay up to date on what is happening at the college.
I hope that you are as proud to be a part of the Smeal community as I am. Through your volunteer commitments, recruiting efforts, and financial support, to name just a few, you are transforming the opportunities we can offer our students and faculty.
Regards,
Charles H. Whiteman
John and Becky Surma Dean