Tag: H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship

NSU Receives Two Milestone Accreditations

When Nova Southeastern University President and CEO George L. Hanbury II, Ph.D., unveiled NSU’s Vision, Mission, and Core Values, he challenged all the deans to work with their faculty and staff to obtain recognition from their respective accrediting bodies.

 That challenge was not only accepted, but today, we can announce that it has been met, as NSU’s H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship and Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine both earned the highest level of accreditation in their disciplines.

In the case of the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, NSU earned accreditation from AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) – the world’s largest business education alliance. With the accreditation, NSU joins the ranks of less than six percent of the world’s schools offering business degree programs. Currently, 980 institutions in 60 countries and territories have earned this prestigious accreditation, which requires a rigorous approval process. READ MORE.

As for the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine, it has been granted full accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME)—the nationally recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs in the United States and Canada. Achieving this final, essential approval involved a three-step accreditation journey, which included numerous site visits spanning more than six years. The accreditation grants NSU MD the privilege of officially conferring the Doctor of Medicine degree (M.D.) and state licensure upon its student graduates. READ MORE.

Posted 02/22/23

Learn About Businesses Amid Changing Social Norms, Feb. 9

The Farquhar Honors College and the Alvin Sherman Library present “The Open Classroom: Are Businesses Doing Well While Doing Good?”

Join us for an open discussion on how changes in social norms impact the free market and how firms can positively contribute to society while maintaining a profit.

  • When: Thursday, Feb. 9 at 12:30 p.m.
  • Where: Cotilla Gallery, Alvin Sherman Library, 2nd floor
  • Free and open to the public

Register here

The Open Classroom series features conversations with scholars from various disciplines who share their expertise on important issues and provide insightful perspectives rarely seen in the media.

Posted 01/27/23

Professor Employs Mindfulness in His Teaching Philosophy

Professor Arvind Gudi, Ph.D.

In a fast-moving, innovative business world, staying on the cutting-edge is an extremely valuable skill. Among the emerging business leaders are digital entrepreneurs – self-employed venturers who promote their businesses outside their local communities, relying on information technology and digital media tools to attract potential customers.

Professor Arvind Gudi, Ph.D., with the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, knows the ins and outs of this business strategy.

“My research is focused on digital entrepreneurship, knowledge management, knowledge integration in emergency management, and human-computer interaction,” he said.

“I received the President’s Faculty Research & Development Competition Grant in 2022 as principal investigator, and I’m currently developing collaborative research articles. The topic of the grant proposal is ‘Environmental Change due to COVID-19 and Digital Entrepreneurship.’”

Professor Gudi received the Excellence in Service Award from Dean Andrew Rosman of the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Digital entrepreneurs are able to pivot services, branding and pricing without suffering significant turnaround time. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon – four of the top five most valuable companies – are products of digital entrepreneurship.

Born in the state of Karnataka, India, Gudi’s family settled in South Florida more than 35 years ago. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration and Master of Science in Management Information Systems at Florida International University. He came to Nova Southeastern University about nine years ago.  Prior to his academic career, he has more than 20 years of experience in corporate management and consulting.

Gudi, who teaches in the Department of Decision Sciences, has been published widely in scholarly journals including the International Journal of Knowledge Management, International Journal of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, Behaviour and Information Technology, and Health Promotion International.

Since arriving at NSU, Gudi was honored with the Teaching Excellence Award for his pursuit of excellence in teaching and student learning in 2018-19. He also received the Service Excellence Award in 2021-22 for his outstanding service activities to NSU, corporate partners, and community members.

One of Gudi’s most prized innovations that he has brought to NSU was the creation of the Mindfulness Society, where he serves as a faculty coach and adviser for the professional and personal development of its members, which include faculty, students, staff, and corporate partners. Through the society, participants enhance their educational and professional pursuits through developing self-awareness, focus, concentration, perspective, mental agility, openness, intellectual curiosity, and other qualities.

“These are the essential characteristics to enable them to be effective and successful leaders, corporate managers, entrepreneurs, and engaged community members,” Gudi said.

“The Mindfulness Society fosters an innovative learning environment toward self-development, transformation and value-based lifestyle.”

Gudi started the society in 2017, because he saw something critically missing in the education experience.

“My observation and experience in the academic and business environment is that everything we do is necessary and required but not sufficient for us to have fulfilling and successful lives,” he said. “I believe that we need to develop education systems that are integrated and holistic,

be aligned with the vision and mission of HCBE Best for our World TM.”

When it comes to teaching, Gudi focuses on making learning not only holistic but inspirational and never-ending.

“As teachers and researchers, we are in a unique and responsible situation where we can make a significant impact on students in particular, and society in general,” he said. “My goal is to inspire students so they continue the process of learning even after they have completed the program and are able to apply the lessons learned in their personal and professional lives. A great teacher once said, ‘A student is like a lamp to be lit and not a bucket to be filled.’”

Posted 01/22/23

Professor Equates Student Success with Knowing the Individual

Professor Bahaudin Mujtaba with his students

If there is one thing that Professor Bahaudin Mujtaba, D.B.A., has learned during his years in higher education is the complexity of teaching a diverse group of students.

“We often go into the classroom with the assumption that all students have the same capabilities and credentials to be in the classroom,” he said. “However, the reality is that there is always some degree of variance among learners and some students learn differently even though they have the same credentials as others sitting next to them.”

Bahaudin Mujtaba, D.B.A.

Mujtaba came to Nova Southeastern University in 1998 as an adjunct faculty member and joined full-time as director of undergraduate business programs and an assistant professor in 2002. He then served as a director of Institutional Relations and Accreditation at the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship for two years, then as Management Department chair for six years.

Mujtaba was born in Khoshie, a small district in eastern Afghanistan, and was raised in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was one of six children in a family that fled his home country during the early 1980s during the Russian invasion. His father worked as a civil engineering professor at Kabul University, while his mother took care of Mujtaba and his siblings. The family eventually settled in Florida.

“My father has been working as a civil engineer in Florida since 1983,” Mujtaba said.

As a teenager, Mujtaba says he had no plans of following in the academic footsteps of his father.

“When my father was a university professor, I used to see him grade papers and prepare lesson plans all hours of the night,” he said. “As such, I did not want to be a university professor when I was a teenager.”

But when Mujtaba received his doctorate degree from NSU in Business Administration in 1996, professors asked him to lecture on business ethics to doctoral students for four hours a week. The experience changed his perspective on teaching.

“Since I was a management development specialist and I facilitated three to five days leadership and management workshops for corporate managers, teaching business ethics to doctoral students was interesting and enjoyable,” he said. “Then the university asked me if I could teach a master’s course for the entire semester; so, I did, and it was fun. I wanted to continue doing it.

“After three years of adjunct teaching during evenings, online and weekends, I retired after 16 years of working in corporate America and transitioned into academia on a full-time basis. It has been a fun ride ever since.”

Mujtaba says his relationship with his students is a partnership and joint learning process where he lectures, facilitates, and encourages collaboration regarding various management and leadership topics in the modern workplace.

“My expertise is in business ethics, training, diversity, cross-cultural management, and leadership development,” he said.

When asked about his attraction to NSU, Mujtaba emphasizes the “flexibility” of the NSU working culture. Here, he says, he can teach in various modalities and travel worldwide to learn, speak, and conduct research.

“I have had the pleasure of traveling, presenting, and/or lecturing at many different continents and countries such as China, Jamaica, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Japan, Afghanistan and many others,” he said, adding that he also served as a cultural consultant on the 2007 Oscar-nominated movie “The Kite Runner.”

Mujtaba’s research focuses on creating awareness regarding ethical and moral management practices. The power of good research resides in the ability to find factual answers to dilemmas based on evidence and critical thinking, he says.

“I have written extensively about effective leadership, coaching, equity, inclusion, diversity, avoidance of discrimination, and the creation of a healthy work environment for all workers in an organization and society,” Mujtaba said.

When it comes to teaching, Mujtaba emphasizes possessing the capacity to develop others and help students achieve their goals and learn at the same time. He notes that achieving such a goal is a balancing act with its fair share of challenges that necessitate understanding the academic dynamics of individual students.

“One challenging element of teaching has been adapting to the diverse learning styles of sometimes 20 different students in the same classroom and seeing that all of them can achieve the same outcomes using a different pace, separate exercises, and/or person-based accommodations,” he said. “When diverse students with different learning styles can all achieve excellent outcomes in the classroom at the end of a semester, that is what I consider success.

“When I see students graduate and make positive contributions to society, well, then that is just additional healthy icing on the Publix Bakery cake,” he added.

Posted 12/12/22

LEC Conference Connects, Engages, And Inspires

NSU’s Learning and Educational Center (LEC), under the direction LEC’s executive director, Diane Lippe, Ed.S., hosted a two-day virtual conference that showcased a variety of NSU educators presenting on a wide array of topics. The theme for the conference was, “Connect, Engage, Inspire,” and it gave NSU faculty and staff an opportunity to share their knowledge and practices with other educators at the university. Presentations covered teaching strategies, technology tools, BEDI (belonging, equity, diversity, and inclusion) practices, student engagement, and more. Some sample presentation titles were: “That’s Debatable: How to Create Better Writers Using Micro-Debates,” “Developing and Using Vision Statements to Enhance Course Design and Improve Student Outcomes,” and, “Connecting Faculty and Student (Re)Engagement with Relationship-Rich Education.”

Presenters represented the Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice, the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences, the Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine, as  well as the Writing and Communication Center and the Learning and Educational Center. The conference also included two highly engaging presentations by Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs, Ron Chenail. According to conference organizer Marti Snyder, Ph.D., “Opportunities such as this year’s virtual conference facilitate sharing of teaching and learning best practices across NSU. We were thrilled to have 250 registered attendees representing all NSU colleges and many offices. We are grateful to our attendees, presenters, LEC staff, and the LEC Advisory Council for their contributions to this successful event.”

Congratulations to the Learning and Educational Center for organizing and hosting the 2022 Teaching and Learning Conference!    To watch the video recordings of the conference presentations, please visit the conference playlist here. You can also visit the Learning and Educational Center’s website here.

Posted 12/11/22

Scholarship Is Game-Changer for Ukrainian Business Student

Maria Minenko sits with the statue of H. Wayne Huizenga.

As Russian forces assaulted her home country of Ukraine earlier this year, Maria Minenko’s dreams of an education at Nova Southeastern University were under fire as well.

With her father’s business struggling, Maria emailed the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship to alert administrators of her financial battle to stay enrolled.

“I was supposed to actually end my studies and take a gap year until further notice,” she said. “Because of the war and since my dad wasn’t able to pay for school now, I told the school that I was leaving.”

But the college would have other plans for the 20-year-old business management major.

A few weeks later, Maria would receive an email that would put her life back on course. She was notified that she had received the college’s Hall of Fame Scholarship and would no longer have to worry about her studies being interrupted.

“I was in shock,” she said. “I had to ask my mom, my sister, and my friends to read the email back to me because I couldn’t believe it was real. I felt like it was a dream or a joke of some sort. Everything turned around when I received the scholarship.”

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When Maria was a little girl, things were different in Ukraine. Quite different. She was born in Odessa, the third most populous city in the country – a city known as the “pearl of the Black Sea.” Before the war, Odessa was also known for its majesty, relaxing environment, and safety.

Maria and her father

Her family fared well in those times. Her mother, Illona, looked after Maria and her four sisters, while her father, Vitaliy, ran a family business in the hotel and shipping industry. Often Maria tagged along with her father, learning the ins and outs of various sectors of his operations. When not with her father, she turned her attention to the beach, spending time with family, school, studying languages, and acrobatics.

In the summer of 2015, Maria, her mother, and her sister Vilena moved to Miami. There she attended middle school and high school at NSU University School. Hooked on South Florida, Maria applied to college at NSU.

“The experience has been beautiful,” she said. “I love it – everyone is helpful, and I have learned a lot about multiculturalism and business as well as the world of writing.”

Maria and her mother

Maria credits her mother and father for what she sees as a foundation for her future success.

“I have been inspired by my mom to be strong, patient, and intelligent, and inspired by my dad to work hard in business and never give up no matter what obstacles come my way,” she said.

Overcoming obstacles is now a day-to-day mission for Maria’s father. His shipping and hotel businesses have ground to a halt, leaving him with saddled with high costs and no profits. Meanwhile, drones have been raining on the city around him.

Following in her father’s foot steps, Maria has focused her studies on management and entrepreneurship and says she feels that NSU is the right place to unlock her aspirations.

“I would like to focus on business,” she said. “I’m thinking of working in the hospitality industry and doing something similar to what my dad does with hotels and construction, but I’d also like to have a restaurant of my own. That’s the plan for now.”

While counting her blessings, Maria says the war continues to test her family. The last time she visited Ukraine was January, just before the invasion.

Maria and “Granny”

“It’s been a bit crazy because some of our family fled Ukraine when the war started, and thankfully we had some family in nearby countries that helped them escape like my siblings,” she said. “My dad and his business have been affected tremendously, since he’s basically using what money he has to maintain what he has left, and we don’t know what’s coming next.”

In addition to her father, Maria’s grandmother also has chosen to stay behind. Like many of the older Ukrainian residents, her grandmother has defiantly held her ground despite the unrest.

“She insists on staying, but I talk to her every day,” Maria said. “She’s my best friend.”

Despite her grandmother’s stubbornness, Maria says she still has one way to get her to South Florida.

“She’s promised to be my maid of honor at my wedding,” she said with a smile.

Posted 10/23/22

Hall of Fame Event Honors Regional Business Leaders

On Tuesday night, October 11, 2022, Nova Southeastern University’s H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship held hits 33rd annual Entrepreneur and Business Hall of Fame event to celebrate the accomplishments of three exceptional leaders: Joe McDonnell, CEO/chairman of Great Innovations LLC; Mario Murgado, president & CEO of Murgado Automotive Group; and William M. Murphy, president of Douglas Management & Realty, Inc.

This year, the event returned to the Rick Case Arena on NSU’s campus for an induction dinner event, co-chaired by past Hall of Fame inductees James Donnelly, founder and CEO of The Castle Group; Keith Koenig, co-founder and CEO of City Furniture; and Alan Levan, chairman of BBX Capital.

Joe McDonnell

For years, Joe McDonnell’s product inventions have not only saved thousands of Americans lives, they have also made many Americans literally – and figuratively – breathe easier. They also have helped many shop safer, and made homes shine and look new again. The founder of Great Innovations, iShopSecure, and For Life Products, this entrepreneur has spent his life creating products, and building brands including carbon monoxide detectors, an online identity authentication platform, and most recently manufacturing and marketing humidifiers, fans, and air purifiers in addition to many other consumer products. McDonnell has taken his many inventions to TV shopping networks, where he began promoting his Rejuvenate® cleaning and restoration product line which he launched in 1999 and remains very popular today at all the major home centers and hardware stores throughout the world.

Mario Murgado

Mario Murgado embodies the American Dream, arriving in the U.S. just short of his 4th birthday in 1966, during the Cuban freedom flights. Raised in Chicago with Midwest values that have served him throughout his life, in 1978 his family moved to Miami where his passion and love of cars guided him to work at Braman Imports. There more than 20 years, Murgado worked his way up from salesman to president and CEO, before starting his own dealership. Today with 41 years’ experience in automotive retailing, Murgado serves as owner, president and CEO of Murgado Automotive Group, one of the most successful auto-dealership groups in South Florida. Murgado generates over $1.2 billion in annual revenues and employs over 730 people in Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey, representing brands including Alfa Romeo, Audi, Bentley, Buick, Cadillac, Ferrari, GMC, Honda, Infiniti, Maserati, Mazda and Volkswagen.

William M. Murphy

William M. Murphy built his career in the building industry. A licensed real estate broker in Florida and New York, Murphy is president of Douglas Management & Realty, Inc., a full-service real estate investment company he founded in 1990. Throughout his career in South Florida, Murphy has owned, operated and/or developed in excess of 3 million square feet of office, retail and industrial property, as well as 7,500 multifamily units. His investment and development projects in Fort Lauderdale include the Capital Bank Center, a 200,000 square foot office project; the 550 Building, a 100,000 square foot office project; Executive Court at Jacaranda and Executive Court at Cypress Creek, 90,000 and 60,000 square foot office projects respectively, among other signature South Florida developments.

The event featured a special presentation from past Hall of Fame inductee Armando Codina, executive chairman of Codina Partners, as well as a tribute to H. Wayne Huizenga. NSU President and CEO George L. Hanbury II and Dean Andrew Rosman also spoke at the event. Presenting sponsors for the 2022 Entrepreneur and Business Hall of Fame Induction were Great Innovations, LLC, and The Bergeron Family of Companies.

Posted 10/13/22

Business Spotlight: Professor Stays Knee-Deep in Research

Rebecca Abraham, D.B.A., has been with Nova Southeastern University for more than 30 years.

If you happen by the office of Professor Rebecca Abraham on the fifth floor of the H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship and her door is cracked, you’ll likely find her behind a desk immersed in papers. At first glance, she might seem a bit overwhelmed, but don’t mistake her paperwork for clutter – Abraham is in her element.

Abraham moved from India to the U.S. in 1986.

You see, Abraham, D.B.A., a finance professor at Nova Southeastern University, prides herself in research and publishing, and she does so extensively.

Besides authoring some book chapters, Abraham’s research publications have appeared in the Review of Accounting and Finance, Journal of Economic Studies, Journal of Business and Leadership, International Journal of Finance, Applied Economics Letter, and the Journal of Risk and Financial Management.

“Research is the creation of knowledge,” she said, adding that her work has appeared in the fields of international economics, mathematical finance, and international finance. “Our economy can only advance over time if we find new ways of doing things, evaluate and retain the best of existing products and procedures.”

The daughter of a dean, Abraham attended a boarding school in southern India that was run by British missionaries. It was there that she took her initial interest in math, which would later become the basis of her research in financial mathematics. She also took an interested in teaching and researching economic and financial issues. Among the courses she teaches at NSU are Banking and Financial Institutions and Advanced Financial Management.

Abraham moved from Kerala, India, to California in 1986, where she attended Alliant International University in San Diego, Calif. There she received her Doctorate and Master’s in Business Administration. Soon after she settled in South Florida, where Abraham has lived in Fort Lauderdale for the past 33 years.

“I’ve always admired the level of freedom enjoyed by Americans, and the high degree of openness to new ideas here,” she said.

Abraham joined the Farquhar Center at NSU in the Fall of 1989, where she began teaching undergraduates and graduates such courses as corporate finance, investments, portfolio theory, financial management, business strategy and policy, and quantitative methods. When NSU’s undergraduate business program merged with its graduate business program in 2001, Abraham transitioned to the College of Business and Entrepreneurship.

In recognition of her exemplary work, she earned the first Farquhar Center Award for Teaching Excellence in 2000, and the Teacher of the Year Award from the business college in 2006.

During her years in higher education, Abraham says NSU has been a good fit because of its “emphasis on practice.” Abraham says her students and the lifelong friendships she has established with many who have gone on to graduate have helped solidify NSU as her home.

NSU’s “innovative delivery of instruction” also has been important, Abraham says.

“Education is offered days, evenings, weekends, and in clusters, where the faculty travel to corporate sites to deliver instruction,” she said. “Such flexibility is more common now, but wasn’t in the past.”

Abraham says the university’s overall approach to education has helped her balance her passion for teaching with her passion for research collaborations. which extend as far as India, Bangladesh, Alaska, Wisconsin, and South Africa.

And when she not immersed in teaching and research?

“I enjoy reading classics,” Abraham said.

Posted 07/18/22

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