Hi, I'm Amy Jones-Timoney with the University of Kentucky and today we are joined by the
new Dean of the Gatton College of Business and Economics, Simon Sheather.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you, it's my pleasure.
This is a wonderful facility, as so many people can see when they go by this direction, or
off Limestone.
So, let's go inside and kind of explore it a little bit.
Tell me a little bit about what makes this such a great facility for business education
for UK.
So, it's a 65 million-dollar facility, and the 65 million dollars was funded by philanthropic
gifts, 210,000 square feet, state of the art technology, there are more than 40 team rooms
where students can get together and actually work on projects together.
How is the Gatton College of Business and Economics trying to prepare UK students for
their futures?
Right, we do that in a number of ways, in a number of new and novel ways.
We have an international scholar program, for example, where students spend a semester
abroad and do an international internship.
You can do one of those internships in Sydney, Australia, that's where I worked and lived
for 18 years before moving to the U.S. in 2005.
We are walking towards what I think is one of the great things in this building.
If you look, you can see the stock ticker.
So, we have a student-managed investment fund that won a prize at the University of Georgia,
the best.
In fact, I'm not allowed to say publicly which indexes that fund has beaten but it's a chance
for students to participate in a real-world skill.
Well, tell me about the research that our students and faculty are working on to actually
have some impact on the real world.
Right, so the research here is quite broad if you think about all the areas, accounting,
economics, finance, and quantitative methods, management and marketing.
So, some really interesting examples, so the Supreme Court recently ruled that internet
retailers can be asked to collect sales tax so that could change the whole game of internet
retail.
As we all know, the federal tax laws have changed recently, so what effects are they
going to have on business?
Most people are doing more and more of their shopping online, what things can stores do
to attract people into the store and keep them in the store?
Crowdsourcing of earnings estimates, so, if you take a bunch of analysts and combine their
estimates, do you end up with a better prediction?
Networks, what kind of networks do the most successful companies have?
If you want to be an entrepreneurial company; how should you organize yourself?
Cryptocurrency, we have a guy who's an expert on cryptocurrency, some people say that’s
going to revolutionize the world a bit like Uber did to the taxi business.
We just hired a fellow who is an expert on health insurance.
So, one of the things I would like to do as the new dean is to record a bunch of videos
much like this one to point out, students and alumni to, to find out the latest and
greatest things.
So, I'm really proud of our faculty and their research accomplishments.
So, one of the things that's important to faculty is mentions of their work.
So, Google Scholar counts citations of faculty member's works and you can look up the University
of Kentucky and the number one cited faculty member is a faculty member from Gatton, we
have two in the top ten, and three in the top thirty.
So, I'm really proud of that and it’s quite amazing for a business school.
Absolutely, well, thanks for showing us the second floor of Gatton.
Now we'll head down to the first floor and talk a little bit more about how all this
discovery and information is being put out to the community and the state.
So, we've talked about research and now we're in the Venture Studio to talk a little bit
more about the economic development research and outreach that the college does.
So, tell us about that.
Sure, absolutely.
So, the Von Allmen Center for Entrepreneurship is a very important part of Gatton College.
Since 2015, we've run entrepreneur's boot camp, it's a way to foster startups.
The Tech Tribune published an article last week where it listed the ten best startups
in Kentucky in the last few years and three of the companies in that list started out
of where we're standing.
If you think about it, everybody needs to be an entrepreneur with their own career.
Absolutely.
The world has changed.
You don't go and find a company and stay there for 40 years, you need to learn how to manage
your own career and essentially be entrepreneurial with that.
I can tell when you talk about Gatton and when you talk about students and faculty you
have a passion for business education.
I do, I do.
I remember the first MBA class that I taught was in Sydney, Australia in 1989.
Wow.
I'm on LinkedIn and I'm very proud of the fact that the CEO of the largest supermarket
chain in Australia, the CEO of the biggest regional bank, a partner, the managing partner,
Asia-Pacific, of one of the big consulting firms, they all took my MBA class.
So, I look forward to developing that relationships with the students here.
As far as your students go, how are you making sure that when they graduate from the University
of Kentucky, that they're ready to go right into that new career.
It's the number one thing.
You can be the smartest student in your class, if you don't have job skills then that's going
to really limit you.
So, we have the Graham Career Center which we are walking towards.
The career center helps students find jobs and internships.
Literally, hundreds of companies came and did over 500 interviews.
We help students find an international internship in London, in Barcelona, or Sydney, its extraordinary.
So, they can get that experience not just here in the United States, but all over the
world.
I'm foreign so I'm biased but I think we live and work in a global economy and the fact
that you get an international experience is extraordinary.
You don’t really understand how the global economy works until you've lived and worked
in another part of the world.
That's such an important experience.
Yes, and they can get also, other career service, resumes, cover letters that kind of thing?
Well, if you think about it yes, how to write a resume, interview skills, the whole nine
yards.
All the basics, but that are important, that are important.
What are you most excited about in terms of starting as the leader of the Gatton College
of Business and Economics?
One of the things I want to do as the new dean is start an online MBA.
I want anybody who is qualified and lives in Kentucky to have the opportunity to obtain
the University of Kentucky MBA degree online.
The thing that motivates me most is competition, so I want Gatton to be ranked very highly
amongst business schools in the SEC.
It's pretty simple and what will we do in order to achieve that?
This is literally my first week so we're still working on plans, as we say in Australia,
I'm going to rub the corner of my crystal ball and reveal the online MBA program.
Ut also reveals other professional MBA programs with other colleges, with engineering, with
health, it's an exciting time, like I say, if you don’t have the business aspect, you
don’t have the whole nine yards.
Absolutely.
Well, thank you so much for taking time out and showing us around today.
My pleasure.
If you want more information on the College of Business and Economics, just visit the
website on the screen.