Please allow me to introduce myself...
I'm an associate professor of management information systems at the Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. I received my Ph.D. in management from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, then headed east to the Bloch School.
On a more personal note, I'm always ready to use my passport! I've been to more than 30 countries and I'm always read to visit additional places. For my first trip abroad I visited the Soviet Union and Poland back during the Iron Curtain days. Later, in college, I did the backpacking around Europe bit with friends a couple of times.
I visited South Korea for the 1988 Olympics. The next few years comprised a few short return trips to Europe. Then in 2003 I took a 5 week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia by myself and ended up riding more than 1,000 kilometers on the back of a motorcycle. In Spring of 2004, I guest lectured in Berlin, Germany and also visited Olomouc and Prague in the Czech Republic. During the summer of 2004 I took a trip to Thailand, Laos, and returned to Vietnam. In the spring of 2005 I taught a course at Euromed in Marseilles, France. Then in Summer of 2005 I visited Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda. The trip included a couple of safaris, an upclose visit with mountain gorillas, and a dip in the Indian Ocean.
During Spring Break 2007, I participated in a site inspection visit to the Republic of Korea. The purpose of the trip was to explore opportunities for Bloch School students to visit the ROK as part of a Bloch study abroad program. The trip encompassed Seoul, Jeju Island, Busan, and Ulsan. Companies and organizations visited include Samsung, Hyundai, the stock exchange, and the US Embassy.
In 2007 I accompanied a group of Bloch students to Sweden and Finland for a short term study abroad program. Dr. Christina Heiss was teaching the course. I assisted with logistics during the trip. And afterwards, I headed to Russia on my own for a couple of weeks hitting St. Petersburg, Moscow, and the Solovetsky Islands on the White Sea.
The next year I taught a section of a new course, "International Study in Business: Vietnam" during the Spring 2008 semester. At the beginning of June we headed to Hanoi and HCMC in Vietnam for a week. We visited companies and organizations including the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, Vina Capital, Manulife, Sacombank Securities, VietFund Management, Binh Thanh Hospital, Dentsu Vietnam, FPT, and VNPT.
I recently returned from a 7 month stay in Kathmandu, Nepal. As a Fulbright Senior Scholar, I lectured at the Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM) during the Spring and Summer 2009 terms. I taught three different sections of the required MBA core course in Information Systems. I hope to return to KUSOM during the Summer 2010 term.
But right before I return to KUSOM, I'll be accompanying the "International Study in Business: China" course being taught by Dr. Marilyn Taylor to Shanghai with optional side excursions to Beijing and Xi'an. The trip will be during the last week in May 2010. It'll be an amazing experience, in part due to the presence of Expo 2010 during the visit!
My travels have inspired me to renew my interest in photography. Back in college, I had an old Canon AT-1 SLR I used mainly for color slides and black & white photos. I even had my own B&W darkroom! I've been lugging around a Canon Rebel for the last few years, but am seriously considering stepping up to a 7D. Similarly, I'm moving on from PhotoShop Elements to full-blown PhotoShop Extended and Lightroom 2. Digital photography, here I come! I'm planning on showcasing some of my efforts here.
In addition to the photography gear, I love any and all technology. I've been using the Internet since 1991 and had my own web page since 1994. I love to get something working such as copying TV shows from one of my TiVos to a Treo 755p for mobile TV, exploring social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, finding applications for my Blackberry Tour or iPod Touch, or playing with my Garmin nuvi.
