The Center for Financial Literacy and Education, in conjunction with the Finance Department, received an Executive Training Program Gift for $38,000. Finance Faculty Brant Hammer, Frank DeGeorge and David Fragale will teach a 15-week program to a group of burgeoning portfolio managers from United Bank. This partnership was initiated through the 2019 Bank Summit and cultivated further due to a long-standing relationship with finance Professor Paul Speaker.
Life-changing
Working as a program manager at Honeywell seems like a sweet enough gig, but imagine expanding your technical skills and knowledge base while in that position. Scott Branham chose that path when he enrolled in WVU Online’s Business Data Analytics program. Read more about Branham’s journey here.
Welcome to the Hall
Three West Virginians with careers in energy, restaurant franchising and industrial service are the newest members of the West Virginia Business Hall of Fame.
First Pitch
Supported by Silicon Valley CEO Ray Zinn, the first ZinnStarter Pitch Competition, hosted by the LaunchLab, gave aspiring collegiate entrepreneurs an opportunity to win cash to build their ideas into the next groundbreaking product or business. Winners included: First place ($2,500): Emma Adams, WVU animal and nutritional sciences major, and her business idea PetRecord, which provides universal medical records for pets in emergency situations; second place ($1,500): Cameron Keefe, global supply chain management major, and her idea ThermoRoller, which combines physical massage with temperature control to relieve sore muscle pain; and third place ($1,000) to the team of Austin Davis, Anne Byer and Emily Thomas, from the University of Charleston, and their idea Second Chance, a program that helps give active control back to people with quadriplegia and paraplegia.
No Dessert - or Dinner
One of seven West Virginians don't know where or when they’ll get their next meal. Food deserts are defined by the USDA as areas that lack fresh and healthful foods, and these are found throughout the state in impoverished areas lacking grocery stores, farmers’ markets and healthy food providers. John Saldanha, Sears chair in global supply chain management, is addressing this West Virginia problem head-on with his supply chain technology students. Read more in an upcoming edition of our magazine.