Honoring Broad faculty for exceptional scholarship, service and teaching

Broad Spartans are driven to make a difference. For our faculty, that drive encompasses a passion for student success and a dedication to improving the community through scholarship, service and teaching.

Each year, the Broad College hosts a faculty recognition dinner and investiture ceremony to showcase and honor faculty academic achievements, including reappointments, promotions and excellence in teaching. Endowed positions, made possible by significant contributions from our alumni and donors, are a highlight of the event.

“In an economic and social landscape that seemingly changes at light speed, society looks for landmarks which we can use to guide us toward a better tomorrow. Those landmarks include the Broad College and its people,” Judith Whipple, interim dean of the Broad College, said.

“People see our faculty working with tomorrow’s leaders to ensure they can adapt, adjust and overcome; they see our researchers making sense of the rapid change around us and identifying opportunity amid the chaos; and they see our donors making a commitment with their time and treasure to empower us so we can empower others and ensuring that those landmarks will endure.”

At this year’s investiture ceremony, faculty endowments from 2020, 2021 and 2022 were honored, as the COVID-19 pandemic had prevented in-person celebrations.

2020 Endowed Faculty

Accounting and Information Systems

Kevin Markle received the Deloitte/Michael Licata Fellowship in Taxation and Isabel Wang became the Deloitte/Michael Licata Professor in Accounting. The Deloitte & Touche/Michael Licata Endowed Fund for Accounting honors Licata, a 1973 graduate of the Department of Accounting and Information Systems, and the invaluable contributions he made to the welfare of Deloitte & Touche and Michigan State University during his lifetime.

Anjana Susarla became the Omura-Saxena Professor in Responsible AI. The Omura-Saxena Professorship in Responsible AI honors Glenn Omura, retired associate professor in the Department of Marketing and former associate dean for MBA and master’s programs. Omura is recognized for his work on market creation and entrepreneurial marketing, particularly those driven by emerging technologies. The professorship was made possible through a gift from CognitiveScale Executive Chariman Manoj Saxena (MBA ’91) with hopes of growing a world-class program in responsible AI at Broad.

Finance

Stephen Schiestel became the Frederick S. Addy Professor of Practice. Fred and Marilyn Addy both received their undergraduate degrees from MSU in 1953; Fred went on to receive a master’s in marketing from the Broad College in 1957. He believed that the best professors help attract the best students and that creating a community of talented teachers and students helps create a strong college.

Management

Quinetta Roberson became the John A. Hannah Professor of Organizational Behavior. The John A. Hannah Distinguished Professorship was first announced in 1966, in honor of Hannah’s 25th year as president of Michigan State University. Hannah was an ambitious, insightful and caring leader whose commitment to the true mission of a land-grant university helped bring MSU to worldwide prominence. John A. Hannah Distinguished Professors, much like Hannah himself, are educators who help strengthen their disciplines as well as strengthen MSU’s ability to solve global problems through research, scholarship, creative activity and teaching.

Supply Chain Management

Whipple and Stanley Griffis became the Donald J. Bowersox and Robert W. Thull Professors in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. This endowment was originally established to honor Bowersox for his outstanding contributions to research and teaching during his career at MSU. Fulfilling an opportunity to fully fund the endowment, Thull, a 1973 general business administration graduate, credits MSU and the Broad College for providing him with the foundations of his career success.

Anand Nair became the Eli Broad Professor in Supply Chain Management. Funded by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Eli Broad Professorships were created to attract prestigious faculty and top students to MSU. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation works to advance entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science and the arts. Mr. Broad was renowned for his tireless philanthropic efforts and lifelong commitment to giving back, and Mrs. Broad continues this legacy.

2021 Endowed Faculty

Hospitality Business

Michael McCall became the Hilton Hotels Fellow. In 1989 at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago, a check was presented by Carl T. Motteck (BA ’51), president of Hilton Hotels Corporation, to what was then called the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management and today as the School of Hospitality Business. This represented the first installment in a commitment by Hilton Hotels Corporation to create the Hilton Hotels Professor of Hospitality Financial Management.

Karthik Namasivayam, director of the School of Hospitality Business, became the John and Becky Duffey Professor of Hospitality Business. John Duffey, a 1982 accounting graduate, and Becky Duffey, a 1982 graduate in medical technology, longtime supporters of Michigan State University, enhanced their impact by creating the John and Becky Duffey Professorship of Hospitality Business. In 2016, John remarked, “It is vital in this challenging and competitive environment for alumni to step up and give back to Michigan State University. As proud alumni … we understand that attracting and retaining the best educators is key to attracting and developing the next generation of business leaders.”

Management

John Hollenbeck became the Eli Broad Professor of Business. Funded by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Eli Broad Professorships were created to attract prestigious faculty and top students to MSU. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation works to advance entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science and the arts. Mr. Broad was renowned for his tireless philanthropic efforts and lifelong commitment to giving back, and Mrs. Broad continues this legacy.

Gerry McNamara became the John H. McConnell Professor in Business Administration. John H. McConnell graduated from MSU in 1949 with a general business bachelor’s degree. He went on to become the founder of Worthington Industries, a steel processing company. He established this endowed position to give back to the institution that was instrumental in his success.

2022 Endowed Faculty

Accounting and Information Systems

Ken Bills became the Plante Moran Faculty Fellow. This endowment recognizes the commitment and successful collaborations between Plante Moran and MSU. Many Spartans have begun and had successful careers with Plante Moran, and in kind, the Plante Moran Faculty Fellowship is a hallmark of the firm’s partnership with MSU.

John (Xuefeng) Jiang received the Eli Broad Professorship in Accounting. Funded by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Eli Broad Professorships were created to attract prestigious faculty and top students to MSU. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation works to advance entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science and the arts. Mr. Broad was renowned for his tireless philanthropic efforts and lifelong commitment to giving back, and Mrs. Broad continues this legacy.

Michelle Nessa became the Main Street Capital Endowed Faculty in Business. Vincent D. Foster has served as the chairman of the board of directors of Main Street Capital Corporation in Houston, Texas. The firm and its predecessor entities have founded and invested in numerous privately and publicly held companies. Prior to these ventures, Foster was a partner and Southwest U.S. director of mergers and acquisitions for Arthur Anderson and is a 1978 alumnus of the Department of Accounting and Information Systems. The goal of the endowment is to support and recognize excellence in undergraduate education.

Finance

Ryan Israelsen, Hao Jiang and Dmitriy Muravyev received the A.J. Pasant Fellowship. A.J. (Tony) Pasant graduated from MSU in 1949 with a degree in economics and was the founder of Jackson National Life. He established an endowed faculty position to encourage student and faculty interest in the insurance industry; the fellowship also supports additional faculty fellows in the Department of Finance.

Marketing

Suman Basuroy became the Fishbeck and Morgan Faculty Fellow. James O. Fishbeck graduated from MSU with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering in 1966, later returning to earn his MBA in 1970. Fishbeck and his wife Lee A. Morgan, also an enthusiastic MSU supporter, have been together for over 25 years. Even though they have been longtime donors to MSU, they wanted to make a significant contribution to the business college because Fishbeck’ s MBA degree, in combination with his BSEE degree, made it possible for him to pursue a successful career that required both business and technology skills. They chose to provide this endowment to help strengthen the college’s ability to attract and retain the best professors.

Richard Spreng became the United Shore Financial Services Faculty Fellow in Sales. United Shore Financial Services is a leader in both the wholesale and retail mortgage lending industry. The organization believes in sales as a pivotal and critical aspect of a business enterprise. To further the academic and professional development of sales as a career and academic discipline, United Shore Financial Services is making this commitment to MSU and the Broad College as a visible and tangible endorsement.

Outstanding faculty service

At the ceremony, Spreng also received the John D. and Dortha J. Withrow Teacher-Scholar Award, which has been made possible through substantial contributions from the Withrow Foundation since 1992. Withrow awardees are faculty who have achieved the highest level of distinction for service to MSU through excellence in teaching and scholarship.

“Rich has been an instrumental member of the Department of Marketing since 1991,” Whipple said. “He has taught courses at all levels — undergraduate, masters and doctoral — and I was a benefactor of his teaching through a doctoral seminar. I remember the course very fondly, and it inspired me to always keep the customer’s experience — even though we didn’t quite call it that at the time — as a paramount consideration. Rich has continued with that philosophy in keeping students’ experiences paramount to this day.”

Spreng is an engaged and thoughtful contributor to the Broad College. Among his many accomplishments are co-founding the sales leadership minor and serving as the academic director of the college’s top-ranked Master of Science in Marketing Research program, which he founded in 2010. He has taken on leadership roles within the college, including interim chairperson of the Department of Marketing from 2019 to 2021, and, as of September, associate dean for undergraduate programs.

Other announcements at the ceremony included faculty promotions, reappointments and 53 faculty teaching awards for undergraduate required and elective courses, MBA courses and Executive MBA courses.

University-level recognition

Beyond the college-level celebration, select Broad faculty were also recognized at the 2022 Michigan State University Investiture for Endowed Faculty. Of the 36 Spartan faculty members honored on Sept. 14, six were from Broad, receiving recognition at the university level.

Accounting and Information Systems

• Anjana Susarla
• Isabel Wang

Hospitality Business

• Karthik Namasivayam

Management

• Gerry McNamara

Supply Chain Management

• Anand Nair
• Judith Whipple

With each of these recognitions — within the college and beyond — it’s clear that Broad Spartans are driven to make a difference through exceptional scholarship, service and teaching.