UConn Professor and President Emeritus Philip Austin Says Uniting People Is Vital Skill for Young Business Leaders

UConn Professor and President Emeritus Philip E. Austin was reluctant to ask the governor and the state legislature for additional money after the state had generously given UConn some $1 billion for improvements.

But six years after the highly successful passage of UConn 2000—in which the state invested in the University’s facilities, faculty and growth—it became clear to Austin that another, large capital investment would take the school across the finish line.Continue Reading

Business Law Professor Carrafiello’s 51-Year Career

Teaching business law at the UConn School of Business for 51 years, turned out to be a delightful surprise for beloved Professor Vincent Carrafiello.

“I passed my state bar exam in August 1965, and started teaching at UConn in September,” he said. “If you told me then that I’d be spending the rest of my professional life at the University of Connecticut, I would have told you that you were crazy, and certifiably so!Continue Reading

“If the person next to you in class leans over and whispers, ‘I love you,’ you have to say: ‘Not until after class. I have to focus on Kochanek’s lecture now!'”

That’s one of the many witty remarks that Professor Richard “Dick” Kochanek has used to engage the 250 underclassmen in his “Principles of Financial Accounting” class.

Kochanek, who retired at the end of fall semester, is one of the most beloved and highly regarded professors at UConn. He has extremely high ratings from his students and is widely credited with turning their curiosity about accounting into a life-long career.Continue Reading

School of Business Alumnus Chairs UConn Foundation Board; ‘Let’s Be the Best… That’s What it Means to Come to UConn’

When alumnus Dan Toscano ’87 talks about the need for more scholarships to help UConn students, he speaks from the heart.

“I had some very discouraging moments when I was a student here and the tuition was due and I didn’t quite have it pulled together yet,” he recalled during a recent interview. “My wife, Tresa, and I had to fight to get through college financially. I remember those days vividly. I don’t want to see anyone else go through that.”Continue Reading

UConn’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans Helps Military Heroes Become Business Moguls

The UConn School of Business has a strong and proud history of serving the educational and career needs of military leaders and veterans, a tradition that dates back to its earliest days.

After WWII, the university offered business classes at Fort Trumbull in New London to serve returning GIs. The creation of a full-time MBA program on the Storrs campus in 1960, another milestone at the School of Business, occurred as a direct result of a contract to expand educational opportunities for members of the Air Force.Continue Reading

The late Saturday afternoon teaching time slot was considered by faculty to be the most brutal.

After a full week of work, Executive MBA (EMBA) students had been in class Friday evening and all day Saturday, and by the end of the second day were becoming weary. They needed a dynamic professor to pull them through, and that’s why Business Law & Ethics Professor Karla Fox always taught that final course.Continue Reading

As a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, Kevin Bouley ’80 is always searching for the next great innovation.

But what he really seeks—which is even more rare and a thousand times more intriguing—is the next great innovator.

“I spend a fair amount of time at UConn, visiting the labs and walking the hallways meeting with faculty, undergraduate students and graduate students, looking for that spark, looking for that student or faculty member who wants to build a business, wants to launch a company based on a technology they’ve developed in a lab,” he said.Continue Reading

Proceeds from Rob Hoskin’s 75th Anniversary Manuscript to Fund Scholarships

While delving into his family’s genealogy in 2010, UConn Accounting Professor Rob Hoskin realized the value of keeping track of one’s history, both big and small.

For the last five years, in addition to tracing his own roots, Hoskin has explored the vast and ever-changing history of the School of Business, which is celebrating its 75^th anniversary this academic year.Continue Reading