FLY THE FRIENDLY SKIES
The airline industry continues to make headlines. When US Airways and America West announced that they were in talks about merging to create the biggest discount carrier, reporters turned to Robinson's corporate finance expert, James Owers. Owers' quotes appeared in USA Today, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, CBS Marketwatch, AFX Asia and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
RETAIL MERGING
A possible merger between Federated Department Stores and May Department Stores Co. could put Macy's, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor under one corporate roof and transform the retail landscape. Robinson's resident marketing expert, Ken Bernhardt, was tapped for his analysis on the news by The Boston Globe and the New York Daily News.
TROUBLE AT BOEING
Lalitha Naveen, assistant professor of finance and an expert on succession planning, was asked to comment when scandal-sensitive Boeing announced that it had asked its 68-year-old CEO, Harry Stonecipher, to resign as president and chief executive. Stonecipher resigned after an extramarital affair he was having with a female company executive became public. Naveen was quoted in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Chicago Sun-Times about the company's general lack of a succession plan.
GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Results of a study on corporate governance by Lawrence D. Brown, J.Mack Robinson Distinguished Professor of accountancy
and Robinson PhD student Marcus L. Caylor, received media attention from BusinessWeek and Dow Jones News Service.
FOLLOW THE ECONOMY
Economic issues such as
oil prices and lack of job
growth continue to dominate headlines, and Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center, remains a stable source for many local and national press outlets. Recently, he was quoted by USA Today, CNN, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, NPR, Reuters, Associated Press, The Baltimore Sun and network affiliate television in Atlanta.
Marketing
Prescription
Drugs
Ads for prescription drugs are running rampant on the broadcast airwaves.
This wave of advertising spawned several articles in USA Today about the proliferation of painkillers, sleep aids
and other remedies on TV. Pam Scholder Ellen, associate professor of marketing, was tapped by the national publication in three articles for her expertise.
MIDDLE-CLASS IMPACT ON HEALTH INSURANCE
Many middle-class workers are electing to enroll their children
in taxpayer-funded health-insurance programs instead of the more expensive plans offered by their employers. This trend may have impact on publicly funded programs. A Wall Street Journal article quoted William Custer, director of the Center for Health Services Research and associate professor of health administration, on this topic.
Calculating the Future
Financial calculators to help people determine how much a person needs for retirement permeate the Internet, but do they provide good advice? Conrad Ciccotello, associate professor and director
of graduate personal financial planning programs, talked about these tools in an article for the Dallas Morning News. The article was reprinted in the Albany Times-Union and the Calgary Herald.
