My
undergraduate degree was in Industrial Engineering from the
University of Florida. I did an intership with ABB at a plant in
Florida manufacturing power supplies for Motorola cell towers and
IBM mainframes. My primary responsibilities there were to
create ISO 9000 processes for the manufacturing line and to program
a system to manufacture and track product labels. Prior to my
system, products frequently left the factory with duplicate serial
numbers.
Concurrent
with my undergraduate degree but following my ABB internship, I
earned an MBA degree at UF. My focus in that degree was in Finance
and Strategic Management. I had some wonderful professors at
UF, some of whom invited me to earn a Ph.D. After rejecting
their offer, I worked at Ford Motor Corporation. While that
was a good time and an interesting environment, I found myself
spending more time wandering around the University of Michigan
campus than worrying about Ford. Consequently, after a
semester in The Netherlands, I began my Ph.D. studies in 2001.
I completed my degree in 2006 specializing in corporate governance,
entrepreneurship and the behavioral theory of the firm.
Fellowships from the Kauffman Foundation and Booz Allen Hamilton,
financial support from the Public Utility Research Center
and wonderful support
from my committee (Wei Shen, Henry Tosi, Srikanth Paruchuri, Sandy Berg
and Mark Jamison) helped me land my first academic posting at West
Virginia University, where I was on faculty for 4 years prior to
joining OleMiss's faculty in 2010.