Kent Nakamoto is the head of the marketing department, and the Pamplin Professor of Marketing.  He joined Virginia Tech in 1997. Kent holds a B.S. from the California Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.  He is the recipient of several prestigious awards for his research on consumer preference formation and its implications for strategic, managerial decision making, including the Journal of Marketing Research O’Dell Award (1994, 1999), and the Journal of Consumer Research Best Paper Award.
Kent has taught courses in the undergraduate, MBA, and executive programs, and he works actively with graduate students as a mentor and collaborator on research projects, including theses and dissertations, resulting in several refereed publications.

 

Rajesh Bagchi is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Pamplin College of Business. Rajesh has taught Consumer Behavior and Marketing Research at the undergraduate level and Marketing Research Methods and Applications in the AQ Bridge Program. Rajesh’s research interests are in two broad categories. On the one hand, Rajesh works in the area of judgment and decision-making. Some of his recent projects in this area involve investigating the role that errors in numerical processing play in affecting consumer value judgments. On the other hand, Rajesh is also interested in examining the role that facial features and expressions play in affecting inter-personal interactions in Marketing transactions, such as in negotiations and service exchanges. Rajesh received his Bachelors degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai in Civil Engineering and his Masters degree from the University of Cincinnati in Environmental Engineering. Rajesh worked in several start-ups before pursuing his Doctoral degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Rajesh was a fellow at the AMA-Sheth Marketing Doctoral Consortium in 2006.

 

Eloise Coupey is an associate professor of marketing, assistant head of the marketing department, and director of the bridge program’s marketing track.  She holds a bachelor’s degree, with honors, from Harvard, and a doctorate in business administration from Duke.  She has been at Virginia Tech for fifteen years.  Prior to that, she was on the faculty at the University of Illinois.
Eloise has taught all levels of courses, including undergraduates, doctoral students, MBA’s and executives.  She is the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including the Holtzman Award for Outstanding Educator (2006, 2009).  She has also developed several new courses, and written a textbook for Prentice-Hall on strategies for digital business.
With a research emphasis on consumer decision making, Eloise has published over thirty refereed papers in marketing journals and proceedings, including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Business Research, and Psychology & Marketing.  At present, she is conducting research on consumer perceptions and strategies for managing privacy online, and on the ramifications of behavioral targeting for consumer privacy. In her spare time, Eloise raises orchids and real kids.

 

Chung-kue (Jennifer) Hsu has been teaching at Virginia Tech as a marketing instructor since 2004. She received her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from National Taiwan University in 1990, and her Ph.D. degree in Business Administration from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998. She worked as an assistant brand manager at Kimberly-Clark Corp. in Taiwan following her graduation from college. Prior to moving to Blacksburg, she served as a visiting assistant professor at Rutgers University and later as an assistant professor at Montclair State University. She currently teaches Consumer Behavior and Advertising at the undergraduate level. She has developed 20-plus current events and internet exercises as part of the Prentice Hall Learning on the Internet Project (PHLIP). Her research interests also focus on advertising and consumer behavior. Her publications have appeared in the Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, and the Journal of Product and Brand Management.

Jim Littlefield is a professor of marketing.  His productive career, coupled with his interest in aspects of international marketing, has spanned four decades, and more than four continents.  Littlefield has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, Illinois, and a B.S. from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.  Much of Littlefield’s research has been focused on social marketing issues in developing countries, and he has conducted research projects in Albania, China, Sri Lanka and Turkey.  He also leads numerous study-abroad groups from Virginia Tech to China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, and Spain.

Jane Machin has been a member of the Virginia Tech Marketing faculty since 2006. Jane received her bachelor's degree in Russian and German and Business from the University of Wales, Swansea and her PhD from the Wharton School of Business at The University of Pennsylvania. Prior to graduate school, Jane worked for six years for Unilever Plc, a Fortune 50 company, overseeing the brand development of several products in the UK, the US and internationally. Jane keeps her hand in the "real world" by consulting for companies such as Pfizer and HSBC.

Jane brings an applied approach to her Integrated Marketing Communications classes, which she teaches in the Fall. In the Spring she re-balances her academic focus by teaching a doctoral level seminar in Consumer Behavior. Her research interests focus on how consumers make decisions when they do not know they want - so called rejection based decision making. She applies her research in domains such as medical decision making and food choices with the ultimate goal of helping consumers make healthier, more informed choices. She is married with two boys (three if you include her husband).

 

Joe Sirgy is a management psychologist (Ph.D., U/Massachusetts, 1979),Professor of Marketing, and Virginia Real estate Research Fellow at VirginiaPolytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He has publishedextensively in the area of consumer behavior, marketing/quality‐of‐life, andbusiness ethics. He is the author/editor of many books related to consumerbehavior, marketing communications, marketing and society, and quality of life.He co‐founded the International Society for Quality‐of‐Life Studies (ISQOLS) in1995 and is currently serving as its Executive Director. In 1998, he received theDistinguished Fellow Award from ISQOLS. In 2003, ISQOLS honored him as the Distinguished QOL Researcher for research excellence and a record of lifetimeachievement in QOL research. He also served as President of the Academy ofMarketing Science from which he received the Distinguished Fellow Award inthe early 1990’s and the Harold Berkman Service Award in 2007 (lifetime achievement award for serving the marketing professoriate). In the early 2000’s, he helped co‐found the Macromarketing Society and the Community Indicators Consortium and currently is serving as a board member of these twoprofessional associations. Furthermore, he is the current editor of the QOLsection in the Journal of Macromarketing and the editor‐in‐chief of AppliedResearch in Quality of Life. He received the Virginia Tech’s Pamplin TeachingExcellence Award/Holtzman Outstanding Educator Award and UniversityCertificate of Teaching Excellence in 2008.

 

Donna C. Wertalik is a member of the Marketing Department at Virginia Tech, Faculty Advisor of Pi Sigma Epsilon and President of SPEAK Advertising Group, LLP.

She holds a bachelor of science in marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University, as well as other degrees and certifications in the areas of marketing, strategy, and market research. Donna  has more than 18 years of industry experience and has worked for organizations such as Nestle Corporation, Schering Plough and Glaxo Smith-Kline, as well as key advertising firms such Ogilvy, CommonHealth, and Pace, Inc., a division of McCann.

Donna is an innovative, achievement-oriented senior manager with diverse corporate and academic experience, training, and acquired skills in the identification of marketing opportunities, brand management, and product development experience. Her background and experience emphasize her commitment to bottom-line profitability and market-share growth through strategic brand positioning. Recently, Donna received a National Telly award, and her work has received recognition from the National Advertising Federation (Addy's) in 2006, 2007, 2008.  Through her company, SPEAK Advertising Group, she has authored the paper, "Market Research Versus Brand Research" (2007).

 

Richard E. Sorensen is the Dean and Professor of Business Information Technology in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Prior to this position, he served nine years as dean of the John A. Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University. During his tenure there, the college was accredited by AACSB International.

He was awarded a bachelor of science in Electrical Engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (Polytechnic University), and holds an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in Management from the New York University Stern Graduate School of Business.  His work has been published in Administrative Science Quarterly, Supervision magazine, Proceedings of the Conference on the Implementation of OR/MS Models at the University of Pittsburgh, Katz Graduate School of Business, and Proceedings of the Conference on the Implementation of Computer-Based Decision Aids at MIT's Sloan School of Management.  He is also a contributing author to Implementing Operations Research Management Science, published by American Elsevier Publishing Company. Full Resume

 

Frank Smith is the director of Management and Professional Development within Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business.  MPD provides educational and consulting services to businesses, governments and non profit organizations throughout the United States.

He holds a bachelor of science in industrial management from Fairfield University and an M.B.A. from the University of Maine.  Smith has more than 25 years of industry and academic experience leading management and professional development organizations.  He was previously the director of the executive MBA programs at both Oklahoma State University and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.. Full Resume