Costello College of Business News

As a transfer accounting student, Neil VanHaaften, joined the Student Ambassador program at George Mason University School of Business to get know his peers and professors, especially because he was attending virtually for his first semester.

A team of students from George Mason University School of Business’ master of science in real estate development (MRED) program recently won the NAIOP MD/DC Chapter’s 2022 Capital Challenge. This year’s win marks the program’s fifth victory in the Capitol Challenge in the last ten years.

Already an accomplished marketing executive, Patricia Mejia, returned to Mason to attain the master of science in technology management, graduating in 2012. Mejia is now the chief marketing officer at GoTab Inc., which provides food and beverage establishments with e-commerce solutions, a service increasingly in demand.

Gregory Unruh, academic director of Mason’s brand-new chief sustainability officer certification program in Executive Development, has been training sustainability leaders for decades.

​​​​​​​The Center for Real Estate Entrepreneurship in the School of Business at George Mason University established the Opportunity Scholarship to support diversity and inclusion in the real estate industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is awarded each fall to one or more incoming first-year master’s in real estate development student(s) from groups underrepresented in the real estate industry and/or those contributing to diversity and inclusion in the real estate industry and George Mason University.

The Impact Fellows Program, which is run through the School of Business’s Business for a Better World Center, focuses on helping students learn about how to help businesses achieve sustainable goals,

Beginning this year, the number of awards have been increased for full-time faculty members. The faculty cited for 2022 come from five Mason schools.

On Friday, June 3, more than 20 participants from business schools across the country joined Mason marketing faculty for a day-long Marketing Research Symposium at the IDIA Classroom Space in Vernon Smith Hall, Mason Square. In addition to research talks, there was a panel discussion on digital transformation in retail featuring three industry experts.

Due to the pandemic, virtual learning has helped the George Mason School of Business meet learners where they are. We spoke with Rishi Vajpeyi, a student in the George Mason University School of Business’ online master's in technology management program (MSTM), about his experience.

Katharyn White is vice president of Federal Ecosystem at IBM, and co-academic director for the Chief Marketing Officer Program for George Mason University’s Executive Development Program. Recently, we had the opportunity to catch-up with White to learn more about her work with Mason’s Executive Education program and her take on the industry.

In business, a specialist strategy can sometimes be riskier than a generalist one. Competing in only one industry leaves firms highly vulnerable to heightened income volatility, with extreme gains and losses, often alternating in quick succession. Innovative firms, whose business models are based on heavy R&D investments with uncertain returns, are especially affected by these fluctuations. Kelly Wentland, assistant professor of accounting, discusses this issue.

With her client expertise, people skills, and work ethic, Andrias White Murdaugh, MBA ’15, has risen quickly through the leadership ranks. While many young professionals must undergo extensive on the job learning, she believes that the education she received at Mason, at the undergraduate and graduate level, prepared her to be an immediate and impactful leader in the industry.