After years of toiling in college, particularly at the graduate level, and most particularly as doctoral students, four recent PhD graduates from the Department of Management and International Business in the College of Business Administration at Florida International University (FIU) will be starting their next semester in the role of teacher.
Despite the difficulties in the economy, Armando Borda, Abrahim Soleimani, Yu-Kai (Mike) Wang recently obtained excellent positions in universities around the world. Another new PhD, Sokol Celo, accepted a position several months ago.
Borda heads to Peru.
Armando Borda will be a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Management at Escuela de Administración de Negocios para Graduados (ESAN), located in Lima, Peru and a partner in the Chapman Graduate School’s Dual Degree network.
“I will teach strategic management, international business classes and entrepreneurship,” said Borda, whose dissertation was titled “Emerging Multinationals and the Interaction between Learning Capabilities and Host Country Factors: The Impact on the Number, Location and Survival of Subsidiaries.” His dissertation proposal was a finalist for the Academy of International Business (AIB)/Sheth Award for Best Doctoral Dissertation Proposal. He received the award at AIB’s annual conference, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2010.
He feels well prepared for the challenges ahead, noting that the department’s PhD program “has prepared me to be a better researcher and teacher. The foundation I have received at FIU encourages me to be proactive and look for potential explanations to business related problems.”
He was especially challenged when his children were born.
“To manage demands from my courses, professors and family was difficult,” he said. “Fortunately, the excellent quality and support of my professors and colleagues helped me overcome all the moments of stress.”
Soleimani travels west.
Abrahim Soleimani has accepted a tenure-track position as an assistant professor in the Department of Management in the College of Business and Public Administration at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington, where he will teach international business, business and society and strategic management.
“I’m looking forward to creating a live, enjoyable and quality learning atmosphere and to making my courses as applied and up-to-date as possible,” he said, adding that his research and teaching experiences at FIU will be helpful even as balancing those activities with the coursework was most challenging.
Soleimani, whose dissertation was titled “Essays on Corporate Reputation: Antecedents and Consequences,” also appreciated forming a supportive, sincere and collegial environment with friends in our group and the culture of sharing our experience with new groups.”
He and Celo and were two of only six winners of the International Management Division’s (IMD) Most Promising Dissertation Proposal Award at the Academy of Management (AOM) annual meeting in Montreal in August 2010.
Wang accepts position in Taiwan.
Yu-Kai (Mike) Wang, whose dissertation topic was the effects of firms’ environmental/institutional complexity and managerial capabilities on firm performance and executive compensation, will be a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Business Administration at Soochow University in Taiwan where he will teach strategic management and general management courses.
“In the department at FIU we have well-known professors as our mentors,” he said. “They guide us to develop our research interests and build our research fields. I look forward to applying what I have learned and to starting a new page.”
As the first student in his group to pass the comprehensive exam and to successfully defend his dissertation proposal, he completed the doctoral program within four years, a year quicker than many, and a pace that was not always easy.
“Since I expedited my doctoral study, I was challenged by preparing my comprehensive exam and dissertation proposal at the same time,” he said.
