West Virginia University
Business
MAGAZINE

The_Ticker

2023 2022 2020 2019
Shelby Toompas Heather Richardson Mikenna Pierotti Jake Stump
SHOW ALL ARTICLES
Photo of Eric Mason in town hall

A Mountaineer in Town Hall

A Mountaineer in Town Hall

|

Some people take their business public. Chambers College alumnus Eric Mason took his business to the public. 

In 2020, Mason was named chief financial officer of Quincy, Massachusetts – his hometown, and a city with a population of over 101,000. He was 26 at the time, equipped only with an undergraduate degree in economics from the Chambers College. 

Four years later, Quincy's budget has grown to more than $500 million. Mason now manages the largest pension obligation bond in Massachusetts, and recently issued a bond via blockchain, a first for the American public sector. 

Between historic firsts and unprecedented success, Mason also found time to return to Chambers for his master’s degree in economics. 

"Being a public sector CFO by its nature requires many interdisciplinary skills to ensure that every public dollar generates the greatest return for the taxpayer,” said Mason. “The Chambers College curriculum's prioritization of specialization while contextualizing it within a broader business framework has been invaluable in my career.” 

Written by:

A Test Above the Rest

When it comes to the cybersecurity industry, the CISSP – Certified Information Systems Security Professional – is one of the most sought after certifications individuals can receive. In fact, in Britain, the CISSP certification counts as a masters degree. That is how prestigious it is. 

Read Article

Fans Arrive Like Butterflies

Large, one-off events such as music concerts can create economic impacts not seen from professional sports, suggests rockin’ research by Joshua Hall, chair and professor of economics. Hall and Justin Parker, a 2020 Ph.D. economics graduate, found that Pearl Jam’s Seattle “Home Shows” in August 2018 generated $58 million in additional hotel revenue and $9 million in hotel tax revenue. That dwarfs Seattle Mariners baseball games ($140,000 in additional hotel revenue on game days). Their research was published in the Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights.

Read Article

The Hall

The West Virginia Business Hall of Fame posthumously honored coal industry billionaire and philanthropist Chris Cline and three other state business leaders who have led widespread growth.

Read Article

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. 

Read Article

Economics graduate honored with Order of Augusta

Senior William Turman was honored with the Order of Augusta, WVU’s highest student award. An economics major from Barboursville, Turman has had an extremely active WVU career, participating in the Army’s Reserve Officer Training Corps, the Student Government Association and the Chambers College’s Behavioral Economics and Situational Testing (BEAST) Lab, which he also named. His next steps include being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army, interning with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and pursuing his graduate studies in economics.

Read Article

View All Articles