Inside the Initiative

Our Team

Melissa Carrier, Executive Director

Melissa Carrier joined the Smith School in the spring of 2006 after 11 years of leading organizational growth for technology companies ranging from Fortune 500 to early stage start-ups. She brings broad experience across corporate and product-line positions including acquisitions and divestitures, venture investments, partnerships, new product launches, system implementations and cause related marketing programs. After nearly 3 years with the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, Melissa designed and launched the Center for Social Value Creation. She is responsible for the center's strategic direction across co-curricular programs, curricula, research and career. Melissa also created and grew the Social Ventures Consulting Program which has served nearly 90 students and 36 non-profit organizations since its inception.

Carrier arrived from AT&T, where she served as Finance Director for AT&T Mergers and Acquisitions. While at AT&T, she also led investments for the company's corporate venture fund. In this role, Carrier had lead responsibility for managing the investment pipeline, analyzing financial and market data, performing on-site due diligence, and executing deals. During her tenure at AT&T, she also served as the Product Manager for the MVNO wireless data content offering/platform as well as Manager of Strategy and Business Development for AT&T Consumer Services.

Carrier began her career as a process consultant for Andersen Consulting. During this time, she worked with U.S. and European clients on business process design and ERP system implementations. Subsequently, she served as a Director at two startup technology companies focused on web-based business-to-business strategies. Immediately prior to obtaining her MBA, Carrier led strategic development of core processes for SAP's Global Solution Center.

Carrier received a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Ohio State University and an MBA with Honors in Finance and Strategic Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

She currently lives with her husband, two boys, and a flat-coated retriever in Potomac, MD.

Julie Lloyd, Assistant Director

Juliet (Julie) Lloyd joined the Center for Social Value Creation in 2009 after completing a master's degree in public relations, with a focus on corporate social responsibility and sustainability, at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Prior to graduate school, she was the owner and director of communications of an independent record company in Boston, successfully releasing two albums internationally and securing licensing and placements in high profile media including MTV, Clear Channel Radio, and The Boston Globe.

Julie began her career in higher education as an International Student Advisor at the University of Rochester, facilitating compliance with federal immigration regulations and overseeing multicultural programming for the university’s international student population.

A native of Rochester, N.Y., Julie received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Rochester. She is also an accomplished singer/songwriter and pianist, and currently resides in Howard County, Md. with her fiancé. 

Faculty Committee

G. Anandalingam, Dean
Dean Anand identifies sustainable innovation as a priority in developing business leaders ready to meet the varied and mutable challenges of a global 21st century economy. Under his leadership, Smith’s world-class programs and research reflect the core values of socially and environmentally responsible organizational stewardship.

Bob Krapfel, Associate Dean of MBA & MS Programs
In addition to serving on the faculty committee, Dr. Krapfel leads the graduate field projects, giving students the opportunity to solve complex problems or explore new initiatives in business and environmentally sustainable organizations. He also teaches the Global Studies course Energy Infrastructure Investment, an investigation of three contrasting models of public-sector /private-sector relationship in the energy infrastructure segment of the economy.

Shreevardhan Lele, Ralph J. Tyser Distinguished Teaching Fellow of Decision Sciences
Dr. Lele teaches several courses relating to social value creation, including Managers in Society: Values and Institutions, an elective on sustainability and managerial ethics, and Social Responsibility in Business. He emphasizes the development of a personal set of aspirational values while analyzing business using economic, legal and ethical frameworks.

Brian Nelson, Tyser Teaching Fellow, Logistics, Business and Public Policy
With research interests in social enterprise and corporate governance, Professor Nelson was involved in facilitating the Smith School’s participation in the Ashoka Changemaker Campus program. He also teaches a variety of courses at the Smith School, including Social Responsibility in Business and Global Business Citizenship.

Faculty Thought Leaders

Bob Baum, Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship, Management & Organization
Dr. Baum’s relevant research includes the role of business schools in serving as thought leaders in social responsibility and corporate accountability (see Rhonda Reger, below), and the strategic value of employee health care. In addition, he teaches several courses that incorporate social entrepreneurship, including electives New Venture Creation, New Venture Financing, and our MBA core course Integrative Business Plan Competition.

Gary Cohen, Lecturer, Logistics, Business & Public Policy
In addition to teaching in the Freshman Fellows program, as a principal of Forward Action Coaching, LLC, Professor Cohen assists businesses and organizations in the public and private sectors successfully execute sound business strategies and achieve overall objectives.

Curt Grimm, Dean’s Professor of Supply Chain and Strategy
As the faculty advisor for Net Impact, Professor Grimm oversees the MBA student club’s operation as a hub for networking and career-oriented activities related to developing a broader perspective of leadership and entrepreneurship for economic, social and environmental change. In addition, his involvement in the curriculum includes teaching Global Economic Environment, which outlines issues of globalization including environmental concerns and job losses.

David Kirsch, Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, Management & Organization
Dr. Kirsch’s research interests include global environmental management systems and the role of entrepreneurship in the emergence of new industries. He teaches the course New Venture Creation, which incorporates social entrepreneurship and ethics in new ventures.

Stephen Loeb, Ernst & Young Alumni Professor of Accounting and Business Ethics
An internationally known scholar in accounting ethics, Dr. Loeb taught important topics relevant to the current business environment, including corporate social responsibility and stakeholder concerns over questionable business practices or environmental impacts.

Vojislav Maksimovic, Dean’s Chair Professor of Finance
Maksimovic’s research interests include banking systems in emerging economies, and how a country’s legal and institutional environments influence the financing and investment by firms. His recent research has focused on the drivers of international perceptions of property rights, including institutions, legal systems, and ethnic differences, and the differences in access to capital among small and large firms in developing countries.

Rhonda Reger, Associate Professor, Management & Organization
Dr. Reger’s research (together with Bob Baum and Lori Kiyatkin) look at the disparity between businesses and business schools in the area of social and environmental responsibility. Dr. Reger seeks to uncover the viability of wind energy, the economic and non-economic barriers to its implementation, and to suggest public policy and business strategy recommendations to governmental policy makers and executives in the wind energy industry.

Rachelle Sampson, Assistant Professor, Logistics, Business & Public Policy
Professor Sampson teaches The Economics of Sustainability, an MBA elective that explores the market failures that lead to problems such as pollution and overuse of natural resources and the policy solutions that exist. [Link to July appearance in Smith Business Close-Up]

Jim Sanders, Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship
Professor Sanders, currently Director of New Ventures at Honeywell International, has expertise in new venture creation and experience developing entrepreneurship programs in developing countries. He teaches several courses, including International Entrepreneurship, which includes casework on social and environmental international impacts, and an elective in Social Entrepreneurship, in which students develop business plans for social sector startups.

Lemma Senbet, William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance
Dr. Senbet’s research interests include corporate governance and bank financing in emerging economies.

Robert Sheehan, Academic Director, Office of Executive Programs
Rob Sheehan has eighteen years of experience as the CEO of two different national nonprofits. His research focuses on leadership, strategy and organizational effectiveness in the nonprofit sector, including applying for-profit competitive strategy in nonprofits.

Hugh Turner, Tyser Teaching Fellow, Logistics, Business & Public Policy
Dr. Turner, Faculty Champion of the Smith School’s prestigious Freshmen Fellows program, teaches multiple sections in the program including the required Practicum in Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility.