Business Dialog

Our next faculty feature highlights Dr. Brett Kazandjian, an assistant professor in the Department of Marketing. He received his PhD from Mississippi State University in 2021 where he was a research assistant. He is currently teaching Strategic Marketing (MKTG 485) and Advanced Selling and Sales Management (MKTG 452).

 

Kazandjian places heavy emphasis on making his classes as close to real-life as possible and accomplishes that through various teaching methods. “For example, my strategic marketing students are doing a simulation where they are in charge of making strategic marketing decisions for their car brand while competing for market share against other students in the class.I hope that these practical exercises help students be more confident when they graduate and enter the professional world. Not only am I using practical exercise in the classroom,I am also trying to bring practitioners into the classroom to offer students a different perspective.”

 

Regarding transitioning to CBE he says “There were a few factors that made Towson the place I wanted to teach and research. I think that Towson offers a great balance between teaching and research, which I was hoping to find. Moreover, the opportunity to teach sales and contribute to the success of the sales competition were two of the deciding factors for me. In addition, the location made Towson very attractive!”

 

Kazandjian enjoys teaching and says “Teaching at Towson has been a fantastic experience. The students have been engaged throughout the semester and brought their own experiences to the class. I am happy to be teaching in person and get to know the students in my class.”

 

One of the things that he is looking forward to is creating a new sales course. He says “I would love to contribute to growing the offering in sales class by creating a technology sales course to dive deeper into the software used every day by most salespeople.”

 

Looking to the future Kazandjian says “I am focusing on tweaking my classes to make them better while also making progress on my research. I have research at different stages and I hope that some of them get published soon. I will be happy to share my work once it is accepted.”

 

Welcome to the Tiger family Dr. Kazandjian!

 

By: Millie Klefsaas

As CBE introduces our new faculty, we would like to place our spotlight on Joseph Wesolowski. Wesolowski is a certified public accountant and earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Loyola College, graduating summa cum laude. He holds a Master of Administrative Science from the Johns Hopkins University. Wesolowski currently teaches Principles of Financial Management (FIN331) and Essentials of Financial Management (FIN330).  “I have a lot of real life business experiences that I pass on to the students. This is what they get from me, the way things are done in the ‘real world” he shares. 

Before joining the College of Business and Economics,  Wesolowski most recently served as chief operating officer for Enterprise Community Investment where he directed and oversaw Bellwether Enterprise, Enterprise Mortgage Banking Operations and Enterprise Homes, Inc. Previously, Joe’s area of responsibility included the New Markets Tax Credit program and coordination of field production for all business lines at Enterprise. 

Wesolowski also has over 40 years of experience as a real estate professional. Formerly, he was chief financial officer of USF&G Realty Advisors, Inc. where he oversaw all financial operations. He served as executive vice president for a local real estate developer responsible for development, financing, leasing and management of owned real estate. Wesolowski was also a political appointee to Baltimore City as a real estate officer with responsibility for overseeing city government real estate acquisition, disposition, leasing, analysis and approval of all deal structures. 

Wesolowski shares that “After 42 years in the business world, I decided that teaching could be a great next step for me. I did teach a course at Towson as an adjunct approximately 20 years ago, so it was something that was not totally new to me.” Wesolowski is also using what he is teaching in class to apply to his own financial situation, such as with investing! 

So far in his time with CBE, Wesolowski has really enjoyed interacting with the students. “It has made me feel 40 years younger!” he exclaims. Even though he had to learn the new systems being used in teaching, he shares that it has become better with experience. 

While teaching at Towson, Wesolowski is most looking forward to watching the students progress into successful careers and life. “These are our next leaders,” he explains. 

Wesolowski says that his current goal is “to be the best Educator that I can possibly be!” Outside of teaching,Wesolowski also rides a Harley and loves to explore the outdoors. 

By: Emily Flinchum

Dr. Qing Yan is currently teaching Principles of Financial Management (FIN331) and Financial Institutions and Management of Risk (FIN430) in the College of Business and Economics as one of our new faculty members. Yan received her Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Arkansas in 2021. Yan’s research focuses on investments and machine learning. Her research has been presented at multiple finance conferences including Midwest Finance Association, Eastern Finance Association, and Financial Management Association annual meetings. During her Ph.D. studies, she has taught both undergraduate level and graduate level courses in finance. Before studying in the US, she worked as an investment consultant at one of the largest investment banks in China for three years.

 

Yan expresses that “in addition to the subject matters, I also hope students will learn how to learn.” 

 

When asked what led her to become a professor at Towson, Yan explains that CBE’s department of Finance’s emphasis on data analytics to prepare students for success in their careers resonates with her teaching and research interests. 

 

“Seeing the ‘aha’ moments from students when they see the connections between different concepts we have discussed has been the most enjoyable part of teaching at Towson” Yan shares. 

 

Outside of teaching, Yan is currently working on mutual fund performance prediction. Yan states that “I and my co-author find that mutual fund managers who have previously demonstrated better risk management skills deliver superior performance in the future.” 

 

Her professional goals include improving her teaching and helping “students feel learning finance is not only useful but also fun.” 

 

Yan is looking forward to the successful graduation of her students during her time in CBE. Outside of teaching and research, Yan also loves sketching and painting. Welcome to CBE Dr. Yan!

This semester the College of Business and Economics welcomed five new faculty members to the Tiger family. One of the five is Dr. Feng Cheng, an Assistant Professor of Business Analytics here at TU. Cheng received her Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management from Arizona State University.  She currently teaches EBTM 350 – Introduction to Business Analytics which she describes as “a class that uses data to discover patterns, trends, and therefore, make predictions to solve business problems.”

 

When asked about her time so far at CBE she said “So far, I have been very much enjoying teaching at Towson University in many aspects. One of my favorites is interacting with the diverse students at TU. It gives me lots of satisfaction and joy from conveying a useful technique or a problem-solving insight.” 

 

Cheng is passionate about her subject, students, and Towson. When asked what led her to become a professor Cheng shared “I am always enthusiastic about teaching and research which essentially is a professor’s main job. Also, I used to live, study, and work in the Baltimore area. So joining Towson is coming back home for me.” 

 

Moving forward, Cheng says “My current future goal is to carefully read the literature from Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens, winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics this year.” Specifically she is reading/working on the methodology/business analytical tools developed by above winners “to better reveal the causal relationships among various entities in this world.”  

 

In closing Cheng shared “I look forward to the unique opportunity to learn from my students and their diverse experiences.Thanks for this opportunity to introduce myself to the Tiger Family!” 

 

Welcome Dr. Cheng, CBE is excited to learn and grow from your knowledge and experience!

 

By: Millie Klefsaas

For alumnus Mark Fahmy, Towson was the first step in his pursuit of higher education. After graduating from Towson in the spring of 2019, Fahmy pursued the next step, his master’s from Georgetown University. However, Mark Fahmy did not stop there, currently he is a Ph.D. candidate for law and public policy at Northeastern University in Boston.

Q: Tell us about your time at TU.

A:  I really have a lot of appreciation and gratitude toward Towson University  for pushing me to challenge myself to graduate in three years. I have no idea what I’d be doing right now if I had graduated in spring of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic began to emerge and disrupt the course of everyone’s lives.

 

Q: What impacted you the most during your time at Towson University?

A: During my time at Towson, I started off in the business administration program and was looking to specifically concentrate in either finance or economics. It was my freshman year when I was taking a microeconomics class that I was able to get connected with one of my professors who was a technical advisor at a company that at the time was called the Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI), under Towson University. She was working there and jointly teaching at Towson. I decided to ask her if she could put me in touch with any of the internship or recruitment specialists at RESI, and I was fortunate enough to interview with them and work with them in the spring of 2017, just after my first semester at TU. That experience was really one of the biggest hallmark moments for me, something very memorable. I had an opportunity to contribute to the regional economic research that TU was supporting and providing more broadly throughout the greater Baltimore area. That experience actually helped to jumpstart a lot of my career choices and professional trajectory. After I interned at RESI, I worked at Morgan Stanley. I also had another internship with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which was my overture into the federal service. I was really fortunate to get all of those opportunities from the TU network at a pretty young age. Towson did a very good job of encouraging students, challenging them and providing them with good resources and opportunities to build a solid network.

Q: Which class in CBE most influenced your academic and career trajectory? 

A:Environment of Business (LEGL 225)

 

I took Dr. Iotina’s class my freshman year. It was just before I started my first internship, and it really gave a very informative scope into the legal environment in the business world. We had opportunities to go to circuit courts, monitor cases and do very engaging and experiential work outside of the classroom, but we also got to learn a lot more about the legal frameworks that are used and applied in the business world. That was something that was really enticing to me, mainly because it’s a very critical component when you do work at an institution. [It’s important] to be cognizant of what you are legally bound to, and I’ve always kind of aspired to go into legal reform. Iontina’s class, specifically, was one of the benchmarks in my undergraduate studies that gave me that impetus to pursue it further.

 

Q: What pros and cons have you seen going straight through your degrees?

A: Personally, I received a lot of guidance that if you intend to go into graduate school, you ought to do it while you can. I definitely do like to plan ahead and as I started working in the federal service, I saw my career accelerating very quickly. I realized that the higher up I move within the company, the more challenging it will be for me to create an opportunity to go back to school. Also, I noticed in the Agency [Department of Homeland Security] that they put in a lot of effort and investment into young and entry level personnel, so it was a good opportunity to commingle my academic pursuits with my professional pursuits. I know that the two do supplement each other because when I’m in class, I’m able to speak on the institutional experience, and when I’m at work, I’m able to apply a lot of theoretical and applicable concepts from the coursework in my day to day job. I think it was better for me to go straight through my education and matriculate right out of undergrad and masters.

 

Q: What are your future goals? 

A: I definitely want to stick around in the federal service. I do really like working for the government. It’s definitely one of the institutions where you can have a very meaningful and visible impact in the area of responsibility in which you’re working. I definitely intend on staying for maybe 10, 15, 20 years. We’ll see how that career progression and trajectory goes, but beyond that, I would really like to go into teaching. Specifically, some policy courses, or even some legal courses at the undergraduate or graduate level, but I have plans for that much later down the road once I have some experience.

 

Q: What advice would you give current students? 

A: The advice I would provide future students with is to be intentional about fostering a rapport with your professors, particularly those that are teaching in disciplines you are either interested in exploring further, conducting research in, and/or eventually working in. That was certainly the most formatively enriching aspect of my college experience, and was able to seamlessly balance it with active social & academic dynamics.

 

In closing, Mark had this to say, “I really just want to thank you for the opportunity. I have so much gratitude for CBE and Towson, and I love having the opportunity to come back and speak. This alumni spotlight means a lot to me.” 

 

Mark Fahmy is currently the Portfolio & Public Engagement Manager for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and is a great example of the trajectory of excellence on which CBE has sent countless alumni. We look forward to watching Mr. Fahmy’s career and know there are many outstanding accomplishments to come. 

 

Written by: Millie Klefsaas