Keynotes/Presentations
The Bentley faculty has an impressive record of keynotes and presentations at premier conferences around the world. They have served as experts on a range of topics including: branding and diversity, managing information systems, online politics, global outsourcing strategies, auditing, banking and finance. Their expertise has been sought out by top managers in the public and private sectors, and they have addressed CEOs of Fortune 500 companies worldwide, deans of the top business schools and scholarly experts.
July 2011
Senior Lecturer in Computer Information Systems Mark Frydenberg is presenting at the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) International Conference e-Learning 2011, held July 20 to 23 in Rome, Italy. His paper entitled “Who are These People, and How Do We Work Together? Creating an Environment for Global Collaboration with Information and Communication Technologies” focuses on the use of web-based collaboration tools in an environment simulating international teams.
Frydenberg is also presenting at the Campus Technology 2011 conference in Boston July 25 to 28. One session explores ways to update course instruction with the latest and most useful new Web 2.0 tools. The interactive session looks at ways to stay up-to-date in the rapidly changing realm of Web 2.0 apps, and shares best practices for integrating tools in the college classroom. In a second presentation, Frydenberg explores ways to incorporate mobile phones into the classroom, with a focus on educational phone apps and best practices for using them in the classroom, and instruction on how to build apps.
June 2011
Senior Lecturer in Computer Information Systems Mark Frydenberg is presenting at the International Conference on Information Systems (i-Society 2011) on June 27 to 29 in London. His paper entitled “Learning for 21st Century Skills” focuses on developing life-long digital literacy skills using information and communication technologies.
May 2011
On May 25, Associate Professor of Political Science Jeff Gulati moderated the webinar, “Combating Human Trafficking in the United States,” sponsored by Harvard University. Hundreds of people from around the world took part in the interactive online conference, as panel members tackled challenges and lessons learned in combating human trafficking from victim-centered, enforcement, and prevention perspectives. Gulati framed the discussion around the efficacy of the current four paradigm approach — prosecution, protection, prevention, and partnerships; and on recent initiatives and policies.
Senior Lecturer in Computer Information Systems Mark Frydenberg was a virtual presenter for the Campus Virtual Technology 2011 conference on May 12. The presentation looked at how the web has evolved in order to get a better sense of what the web is becoming and its implications for our institutions. He also shared examples of several current web trends, technologies and tools as they apply to higher education environments.
April 2011
Associate Professor of Information and Process Management Alina Chircu, and Jane Fedorowicz, Rae D. Anderson Professor of Accounting and Information Systems, were keynote speakers at Americas' SAP Users' Group (ASUG) New England Chapter Meeting in Norwood, Mass., on April 14. As part of a joint presentation on the SAP University Alliance program and its benefits for ASUG members, Fedorowicz and Chircu presented an overview of Bentley University’s school profile, program history and content with SAP, and benefits to students and employers.
Professor and Chair of Mathematical Sciences Rick Cleary presented at the Mathematical Association of America Spring 2011 Seaway Section Meeting, held in Rochester, New York, April 1 to 2. The presentation, “Some Non-standard Applications of Mathematics to Sports,” focused on examples in which branches of mathematics, not just statistics, can be used to consider sports related questions. Specific examples included: using probability to model rare events; some graph theory and operations research to consider a scheduling question; an optimization problem involving a basketball pool; and elementary topology related to the rules of several sports.
March 2011
David Simon, Stanton Professor of Finance, was a featured speaker at the Boston Securities Analyst Society Meeting on March 10 in Boston. The presentation examined various strategies for hedging the risks associated with the increasingly frequent extreme market selloffs (Black Swan events). Strategies include adding commodities, Volatility (VIX) Futures contracts, and out-of-the-money S&P 500 Index put options to equity portfolios. These hedges tend to be prohibitively expensive, and more moderate approaches were offered for dealing with the risk of large stock market declines.
January 2011
On January 7, Charles Hadlock, professor of mathematical sciences and Trustee Professor of Technology, Policy, and Decision Making, was a featured speaker at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, hosted by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). He presented an analysis of technical and management aspects of the BP Macondo oil well disaster and discussed similarities to other major industrial accidents.
December 2010
Associate Professor of Philosophy Ranjoo Seodu Herr was invited to present at “Confucian and Liberal Perspectives on Family, State, and Civil Society,” an international conference sponsored by the City University of Hong Kong December 6-7. Her presentation, “Confucian Family for a Feminist Future,” will demonstrate that, while historical manifestations of the Confucian family have been patriarchal, retrieving the true meanings of Confucian ideals as envisioned by Confucius and Mencius can promote feminist ideals of gender equality and women’s well-being.
University Distinguished Professor Robert Galliers will be the keynote speaker at the 21st Australasian Conference on Information Systems in Brisbane, Australia, December 1-3, 2010. His address, “Information Systems as a Field of Study: Still Born or Still Developing?” will explore many of the different perspectives on information systems, from those who consider it a simple utility or learning tool to those who value it as an academic discipline of growing importance – one that has significance in relation to the key organizational, societal and ethical concerns of the 21st century.
November 2010
Professor of Marketing Rajendra Sisodia was the keynote speaker at the 9th Annual International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) Asia-Pacific Forum in Mumbai, India, on November 15. Sisodia focused on the evolving ideas of holistic health and well being and how businesses across all industries should focus on improving the quality of life for all their stakeholders.
On November 5, Professor Sisodia was the keynote speaker at the 1st Asian Forum for UN PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) in Seoul, South Korea. He spoke on “Conscious Capitalism and the Future of Management Education” to an audience of business school deans, faculty and administrators from across the Asia-Pacific region.
October 2010
Senior Lecturer in Information Systems Mark Frydenberg was a keynote speaker at the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) International Conference WWW/INTERNET 2010, held October 14 to17 at “Politehnica” University of Timisoara in Romania. His presentation, "From the Information Super Highway to the Cloud: An Incredible Journey" shared examples of emerging Web trends, technologies, and patterns and explored possibilities when both data and applications live on the Web. Frydenberg focused on how society’s creation of overwhelming amounts of information – due largely to the dynamic information sharing created by Web 2.0 -- has led to the critical need to organize, search, and understand Web content.
Professor of Management Hans Thamhain was a keynote speaker at the Project Management Institute Annual Symposium, held October 23-27 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The address, “The Future of Team Leadership in Complex Project Environments,” presented organizational conditions most conducive for building and sustaining high-performing teams, and actionable suggestions to project managers who must effectively function in these complex environments.
Dean of Arts and Sciences Daniel Everett presented “Life among the Pirahãs” at the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna, Austria on October 11. Recounting the eight years he and his family spent living among the Pirahã people, an Amazon native tribe, Everett shared how the experience changed his life on many levels, including better understanding the close connection between culture and language. He says the deep and important lessons he gleaned came from the Pirahãs’ unique way of living and dealing with their problems. Everett observes: “Their humor, happiness, cheerful atheism, and toughness have made my life better. And I think that the lessons I have learned are worth passing on to others.”
On October 6, Professor of Marketing Rajendra Sisodia presented on Conscious Capitalism at the Women’s International Networking Conference in Paris. The Conscious Capitalism model encourages businesses to operate with a higher purpose that goes beyond profit maximization, and to be rooted in something meaningful to the world. A pioneer of the model, Sisodia supports business managed from the perspective of all stakeholders; society, partners, investors, companies and employees.
September 2010
Professor of Management Hans Thamhain was a keynote speaker at the Project Management Institute’s 10th International Project Management Conference and Symposium in São Paulo, Brazil, September 13 to 15. During the presentation, “Managing High-Performing Project Teams in the Global Enterprise,” he explored specific barriers, drivers, critical success factors, and organizational conditions most conducive to high team performance in complex and often technology-intensive project environments. The discussion provided insight into the dynamics of complex project environments, and the functions that drive team performance, and offered specific suggestions for getting cross-functional collaboration and commitment, and for building and sustaining high-performing teams in complex project environments.
Asbed Kotchikian, lecturer in global studies, was the keynote speaker at the September 19 dedication of the Cleveland Armenian Cultural Garden at Rockefeller Park Cultural Gardens in Cleveland, Ohio. In the address, Kotchikian shared his extensive knowledge of Armenian history and extolled the virtues of the 33 men and women whose names are inscribed on the monument. The Armenian Cultural Garden is the newest addition to the extensive Cleveland Cultural Gardens – founded nearly 100 years ago. Set in Rockefeller Park between Lake Erie and University Circle, the gardens include sculptures and memorials representing more than twenty four nationalities. The Armenian Garden is the most recent acquisition in this virtual monument to a living, organic landscape in Cleveland.
On September 14, University Distinguished Professor Robert Galliers was a keynote speaker at the 5th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems, held in Tel Aviv, Israel. His presentation, “Information Systems as a Field of Study: Out with the Old; In with the New,” reflected developments in the field of information systems and the need for change in the way we teach and research the subject, given recent technological advances and radically different organizational arrangements in the virtual world of the 21st century.
Sue Newell, Cammarata Professor of Management and director of the PhD program, was a keynote speaker at the European Doctoral Programmes Association in Management and Business Administration Annual Meeting and General Assembly held September 5-7 at ISCTE Business School, Lisbon University Institute in Portugal. Newell explored the need for different designs for doctoral programs and how they are influenced by the institutional context, including the need for flexibility in programming to suit different contexts. She discussed various aspects of both U.S. and international programs.
During September, Professor of Marketing Rajendra Sisodia presented on Conscious Capitalism at venues in Europe, including at a plenary session and a special session at the Strategic Management Society annual international conference in Rome; and a plenary session at the Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) 9th Annual Colloquium in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Conscious Capitalism model encourages businesses to operate with a higher purpose that goes beyond profit maximization, and to be rooted in something meaningful to the world. A pioneer of the model, Sisodia supports business managed from the perspective of all stakeholders; society, partners, investors, companies and employees.
August 2010
On August 9, University Distinguished Professor Robert Galliers was keynote speaker at the 8th Annual Conference on Information Science, Technology & Management hosted by the University of Tampere, Finland. His address, “Information Systems Strategizing: Then and Now,” reviewed developments in theory and practice over the past 40 years, and presented a future agenda for the strategizing process that takes into account the need for agility, given the dynamics of the marketplace and rapid technological developments, together with concepts of exploration and innovation, alongside technological exploitation.
July 2010
On July 12, University Distinguished Professor Robert Galliers participated in a radio discussion on university education by China Radio International. The discussion centered on university education, particularly on business schools in China and how they compare to the West and other emerging economies such as India. Professor Galliers contributed a global perspective by drawing on his extensive experience from living and working in the US, UK, France and Australia.
July 2010
Mark Frydenberg, senior lecturer in computer information systems, was a panelist at the Campus Technology Executive Summit in Boston on July 19. The purpose of the panel was to discuss the impact of new technologies on the 21st century campus. The program was organized by Campus Technology magazine, and sponsored by CDW-G, a leading provider of technology solutions for business, government, education, and health care. The summit brought together higher-education technology executives, administrators, and faculty for a day of discussion on trends, and general directions where technologies are heading, and how to use them effectively for innovative education.
June 2010
On June 2, University Distinguished Professor Robert Galliers was keynote speaker at the summer session of the Innovation Value Institute at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. His presentation, “The Case for Increasing IT Skills: The Role of Educational in Professionalising ICT and Bringing the CIO to the Boardroom Table,” questioned the efficacy of IT topics in business schools to strike the right balance between the technological, organizational, managerial and strategic issues, and to benefit both the IT profession and the boardroom. He also explored how to attract more students to IT courses, and how to raise awareness among business school deans on the importance of IT.
April 2010
Professor and Chair of Mathematical Sciences Richard Cleary was invited to speak at the spring 2010 meeting of the Indiana Section of the Mathematical Association of America on April 9 to 10 at Franklin College. His presentation, “Some Non standard Applications of Mathematics to Sports,” explored how mathematics can be used to consider sports related questions. Specifically, he went beyond the more popular statistical analyses to less well-known applications, including: using probability to model rare events; graph theory and operations research to consider a scheduling question; an optimization problem involving a basketball pool; and elementary topology related to the rules of several sports.
March 2010
Jahangir (Jay) Sultan, Gibbons Professor of Finance, presented “Portfolio Diversification During Financial Crisis: An Analysis of Islamic Asset Allocation Strategy,” at the Ninth Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance on March 27-28, 2010. Based on a paper co-written with Maher Milly, a Bentley alumni and analyst at Ivory Investment Management, L.P., Professor Sultan demonstrated how an Islamic stocks only portfolio would have outperformed conventional equity portfolios during the recent credit crisis. In particular, he says, Islamic stocks have low leverage due to prohibition on paying or receiving interest, resulting in more real asset backing than non-Islamic stocks. The paper is forthcoming in a book of proceedings published by the Harvard Law School.
University Distinguished Professor Robert Galliers presented the keynote address at the UK Academy for Information Systems 15th Annual Conference 2010, held March 23-24 at Oriel College, University of Oxford. His presentation, “Information Systems and Trans-Disciplinarity: Reflections on the centrality – or otherwise – of the IT artifact,” considers past debates and future directions for the field Information Systems. While the IT artifact is an important component of the field, Galliers argued that it is a component only, advocating for the continuing broadening of the field, to include trans-disciplinary perspectives and such key considerations as societal and ethical implications of rapidly developing technologies.
February 2010
Sue Newell, Cammarata Professor of Management and director of the PhD program, was the keynote speaker at the Asia Pacific Research Conference on Project Management, February 25-26 at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. The address, “Changing The Discourse On Projects And Project Management,” will examine how rethinking projects can potentially help better understand and manage interpretations of projects and achievements. Key aspects of rethinking include project boundaries and end point; and the role of lessons learned databases, project management tools, and templates.
January 2010
On January 28, Tony Buono, professor of management and sociology and coordinator of the Bentley Alliance for Ethics and Social Responsibility, presented a four-hour faculty workshop at the Kogod School of Business, American University in Washington, D.C. Buono’s presentation focused on the role of the Alliance at Bentley, the myriad activities associated with its core centers and programs, and Bentley’s annual Global Business Ethics Symposium and Business Ethics Teaching Workshop.
November 2009
On November 18, Jahangir (Jay) Sultan, Gibbons Professor of Finance, was a panelist at a Harvard Law School event that critiqued “Petrodollar Recycling, Islamic Finance, and Economic Development,” a presentation by Mohamed El-Gamal, chair and professor of economics at Rice University. The program focused on why oil-rich nations are challenged to use their resources to promote regional economic development; how Western financial institutions recycle vast oil revenues; and a comparison of the Saudi style of Islamic finance to recycle petrodollars and the liberal style focus on industrial development and poverty eradication.
Jeff Gulati, assistant professor of political science at Bentley, joined representatives from academia, government, and non-governmental organizations on a panel at Careers in Combating Human Trafficking, a seminar held on November 23 at the Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Gulati discussed how academics can make a difference in combating human trafficking, and ways to help raise awareness and influence public policy. The program was co-sponsored by the Initiative to Stop Human Trafficking, Harvard Kennedy School Human Rights Student Professional Interest Council (PIC), and the Kennedy School Student Government.
October 2009
Professor of Marketing Rajendra Sisodia presented on Conscious Capitalism at two Austin, Texas, locations during October: the University of Texas, and the Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism conference. His business model encourages companies to operate with a higher purpose that goes beyond profit maximization, and to be rooted in something meaningful to the world. It supports business managed from the perspective of all stakeholders; society, partners, investors, companies and employees.
September 2009
Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences Victoria Steblovskaya presented at the Twentieth Crimean Autumn Mathematical School-Symposium, Crimea (Ukraine), September 17-29, 2009. She shared the results of work done with Bentley professors Lucy Kimball and Norman Josephy, entitled “Optimal Non-self-financing Hedging in a Discrete Time Incomplete Market.” The study focuses on non-self-financing trading strategies in a primary no-arbitrage condition and secondary conditions on portfolio risk and return. She also presented the scholarly work at SPA Berlin 2009: 33rd Conference on Stochastic Processes and Their Applications, in Berlin (Germany) on July 27-31.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy Axel Seemann presented Sources of Trust: Reasons, Feelings, and the Participant Stance at the conference, Ethics and Politics Beyond Borders: The Work of Onora O’Neill, held September 24-26 at the British Academy in London. Professor Seemann explored the commonality between rational trust and its noncognitive alternative, and examined Richard Holton’s account of trust as a ‘participant stance.’
During September, Professor of Marketing Rajendra Sisodia presented on Conscious Capitalism at various venues, including Beaver Country Day School (Chestnut Hill, Mass.); the University of Southern Maine - L.L. Bean/Lee Surace Colloquium Series; Harvard Law School; Waltham Rotary (Mass.); and the Boston Human Resources Council. The model encourages businesses to operate with a higher purpose that goes beyond profit maximization, and to be rooted in something meaningful to the world. A pioneer of the model, Sisodia supports business managed from the perspective of all stakeholders; society, partners, investors, companies and employees.
August 2009
During August, Professor of Marketing Rajendra Sisodia presented on Conscious Capitalism at the Ethics & Compliance Officers Association, and the MIT Alumni Association/MIT Entrepreneurs Association. Pioneered by Sisodia, Conscious Capitalism is a model that takes into account all stakeholders and encourages businesses to operate with a higher purpose that goes beyond profit maximization, and be rooted in something meaningful to the world.
July 2009
Professor of Marketing Rajendra Sisodia presented at the greaterthan conference in Portland, Maine, on July 27. He discussed Conscious Capitalism, a model that encourages businesses to operate with a higher purpose that goes beyond profit maximization, and to be rooted in something meaningful to the world. A pioneer of the model, Sisodia supports business managed from the perspective of all stakeholders; society, partners, investors, companies and employees.
June 2009
Professor of Marketing Rajendra Sisodia spoke at the EABIS 3rd Annual Leaders Forum in Brussels on June 4. The theme of the forum was “The Challenges of Governance: Exploring New Paradigms for the Role of Business in Social, Economic and Political Governance.” In his presentation entitled “Conscious Capitalism is the Answer,” Professor Sisodia underscored the need for businesses to adapt to changing human and societal needs by embracing the tenets of Conscious Capitalism: higher purpose, stakeholder orientation and servant leadership.
In addition to speaking at EABIS, Professor Sisodia spoke on Conscious Capitalism at several European business schools, including: INSEAD (France), Erasmus (Rotterdam) and Henley (Reading, England). He also traveled to India, where he spoke at three of the country’s elite Indian Institutes of Management in Bangalore, Calicut and Indore, and to corporate audiences in Mumbai and Bangalore.
Vice President for Student Affairs Kathleen Yorkis was the keynote speaker at the NASPA (National Association of Student Personnel Administrators) Region I International Conference entitled Impact of Internationalization on Student Services, held at University College Dublin (Ireland) June 11 to 13. Her address, Espousing a Global Mindset, presented the three major components of student affairs -- student life, student services and student development -- and challenged participants to examine their own and their institution’s mindset of expectations for international student experiences, with an emphasis on the importance of staff participation in international travel. Attendees were challenged to identify relationships between offices that are responsible for student international experiences and to further identify areas of potential cooperation and collaboration.
Philip DesAutels, director of academic evangelism at Microsoft and a Bentley PhD student, was a headline speaker at the 2009 Globe Forum, held on June 4 and 5 in Stockholm, Sweden. His talk was based on the Bentley University working paper Green Digits: Toward an Ecology of IT Thinking, which DesAutels co-authored with Pierre Berthon, the Youse Chair of Marketing; Cynthia Clark Williams, associate director of the PhD program; and Brian Donnellan of the University of Galway, Ireland. The paper will be a chapter in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Information Systems, to be published by Oxford University Press. The handbook editors are Provost Robert Galliers of Bentley University and Professor Wendy Currie of Warwick Business School (U.K.).
March 2009
William Wiggins, associate dean of business for academic affairs, joined a panel discussion at the annual MBA Conference sponsored by the European Foundation for Management Development. He spoke on current challenges for MBA program directors. AESE Business School in Lisbon, Portugal, hosted the gathering in March.
January 2009
President Gloria Cordes Larson was a featured speaker at WAVE: the first Women’s Added Value in the Economy Forum, held in January in Geneva, Switzerland. The Career Women’s Forum (CWF) organized the event. Founded in 1982, CWF works to unite and facilitate networking among women professionals, while supporting and promoting gender diversity in economic, political, and other sectors of society.
