IABD Abbass Alkhafaji Lifetime Achievement Award

 Robert (Rob) Page has been a tenured faculty member at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) since 1999. He has served at SCSU as Commissioner, the University Commission on Research and Scholarly Activity; General Education Review Task Force (co-chair); Faculty Senate; Faculty Academic Strategic Planning Committee; Undergraduate Program Review Committee; and Curriculum-Related Activities Committee, as well as others. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Business Management and Change. Rob has been a member of IABD since 2003. He has served IABD in the capacity as a reviewer, discussant, and session chair. Additionally, he has held the position of Track Chair of Entrepreneurship, Spirituality in Organizations, and Sustainability. He has also been the Strategy Committee Chair and Managing Editor of the Journal of International Business Disciplines between 2006 and 2008. Rob has always been willing to lend a hand or help in any way possible, but most of all Rob has spread the word about IABD. He has brought many members into IABD, including Margaret Goralski, Chulguen (Charlie) Yang, and Greg Robbins among others. Rob Page has truly been an advocate of the International Academy of Business Disciplines in every capacity. 

 Joseph “Joe” Horton has been a Professor of Economics at the University of Central Arkansas since 1994. He has served as the Dean of the College of Business from 1996 – 2001. Dr. Horton received his BA in History from New Mexico State University and his PhD in Economics from Southern Methodist University. He received a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University. He is the author of more than one hundred scholarly articles published in journals such as The Journal of Private Enterprise, The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, The Journal of Commerce and Management, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, and The American Economist. Dr. Horton’s colleagues from around the nation and the world have elected him to numerous offices in professional associations including President of the International Academy of Business Disciplines, President of the Congress of Political Economists International, President of the Pennsylvania Economic Association, President of Arkansas College Teachers of Economics and Business, and many more. He is currently Secretary of the Academy of Business Economics and a member of the Boards of the American Society for Competitiveness, the International Academy of Business Disciplines, and the Congress of Political Economists. 

Abbas J. Ali, Ph.D., is a distinguished University Professor and Professor of Management, Director, the School of International Management, Eberly College of Business, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He serves as the Executive Director of the American Society for Competitiveness. Ali has served as a visiting professor at King Saud University, the University of Sharjah, and as a senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of Jordan. His current research interests include global business leadership, strategy, foreign policy, comparative management, competitiveness issues, organizational politics, and international management. He has published more than one hundred sixty scholarly journal articles and more than 20 chapters in scholarly books. His articles were published in such journals as Academy of Management Executives, Business Horizon, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Psychology, Journal of Social Psychology, International Studies of Management & Organization, Journal of Small Business Management, Organization Studies, and Personnel Review, among others. In addition, he delivered more than 500 presentations at professional and academic meetings. He has authored or co-authored nine books, including, Handbook of Research on Islamic Business Ethics(ed) (2015), Edward Elgar Publishing; Business Ethics in Islam (2014), Edward Elgar Publishing; Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases (2011), Pearson Education; Islamic Perspectives on Management and Organization (2005), Edward Elgar Publishing; and Business and Management Environment in Saudi Arabia: challenges and opportunities for multinational corporations (2008), Routledge Publisher.

Ali is a recipient of several research awards and grants. He conducted several workshops and training sessions in the U.S. and abroad. Likewise, he delivered keynote addresses at several international seminars and conferences. Previously, he served as editor–in–chief of the International Journal of Commerce and Management, Advances in Competitiveness Research, Competitiveness Review and is currently editor of the Journal of Competitiveness Studies and Competition Forum. In addition, he serves on the editorial board of more than twelve academic journals. His commentaries on international events appear in various newspapers and on line media outlets. 

  Margaret A. Goralski received her PhD from the International School of Management in Paris France which included study at Temple University in Tokyo Japan and Fudan University in Shanghai China. Doctoral students from twenty-six different countries attended and participated in these international experiences as part of this immersive international education. Goralski is a full-time faculty member in the Entrepreneurship/Strategy Department in the Quinnipiac University (QU) School of Business and the newly appointed Coordinator of the Capstone Business Experience. She has taught courses in International Business, Management, Strategy, and Organizational Leadership, and in the MBA program, on campus and online. 

In addition to being Vice President of Publications for the International Academy of Business Disciplines; and editor-in-chief of the Quarterly Review of Business Disciplines, she is a Board Member and Senior Fellow of the American Society for Competitiveness; Treasurer of the Academy of International Business – US – Northeast Chapter; and a member of the UN PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) working group on the sustainability mindset. She has published in numerous academic journals worldwide and continues to write and publish on a vast array of topics. Goralski is currently a Faculty Senator, a member of the Senate Faculty Policy Committee, and a member of the Capstone Assessment Plan committee at Quinnipiac.

Prior to teaching at QU, Goralski traveled the world as an international businesswoman and co-founder of Global Markets India. She has spoken at numerous international business conferences and taught senior executives of multinational corporations about the cultural differences of doing business in India. In addition, she has written a small book entitled A Passbook to India, which was used by Loctite, Coca-Cola, et al. to train executives before sending them to India. On an entirely different topic, she has published a book entitled Death: A Practical Guide to the Choices that Lie Beyond with two co-authors. Goralski is currently co-writing a book chapter on ethics and artificial intelligence and is presenting at this conference a paper titled Uncovering the Workings of our Mind: Mindful Perceptions, Decisions, and Strategies and an All Session Panel with Ahmad Tootoonchi and Louis K. Falk entitled Teaching Online: The Pleasures and The Pitfalls. 

Greg is Chair of Communication Studies at Emerson College in Boston, and Co-Director of the Emerson Blanquerna Center for Global Communication. He also has taught at Tufts, Yale, and Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations – Barcelona. As Chair, he and colleagues initiated MA Programs in Public Relations, Political Communication and Sports Communication, Global Marketing Communication, a joint Health Communication program with Tufts School of Medicine, collaborative global programs in Barcelona, and Rosarito, Mexico, and presently establishing immersive academic programs in Australia, Hong Kong, India and Chile. 

He received his B.A, M.A., and Ph D at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was Phi Beta Kappa, an NDEA Fellow, and a participant in the Big Ten Traveling Scholar Program with graduate work at Illinois, Wisconsin, and the University of Southern California. He has an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. 

His dissertation “A Rhetorical Analysis of Selected Interpretations of the May 1970 Kent State Incident.,” spawned further creative projects, including a play Kent State: A Requiem, a book Mayday: Kent State, NBC’s Emmy Award-winning “Kent State”, VH1’s Behind the Music, five documentaries and over a hundred speaking appearances globally. He is the co-author of Tom Bradley: The Impossible Dream and has been the editor of the American Behavioral Scientist’s election issues for every presidential election since 1988.

Payne has authored academic and popular articles, book chapters and proceedings and has participated in forums, conferences and conventions internationally on topics related to political communication, crisis communication, strategic diplomacy, health communication, and sports communication. He is on the Advisory board of the Journal of Health Communication, Media Ethics, Public Relations Journal, Journal of Promotional Management. 

Payne has served as speechwriter for political leaders in the U.S. and abroad, including Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Robert Dole, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, Queen Noor of Jordan, Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, numerous CEO’s and heads of international organizations and UNICEF. He has consulted with the U.S. State Department, Department of Defense, Department of Treasury, City of Boston, City of Los Angeles, National Republican Institute, National Institute of Health, Atomic Energy Commission, Center for Disease Control, Bechtel, Fidelity Investments, Formula One, among others.  

This year's Abbas Alkafaji IABD Lifetime Achievement award goes to Reza Eftekharzadeh. Reza is the 6th winner of IABD's most prestigious award. Past winners include, in order: Robert Page, Joseph Horton, Margaret Goralski, Abbas Ali, and Gregory Payne. 

Reza was born in 1954 and is married with three children. He received his MBA from St. John's University and his doctorate from City University of New York in 1985. He is currently a Professor at his Alma mater, St. John’s University. Reza is a consultant in the financial area, has published numerous articles, and is an invited guest speaker at many international events. 

Reza has served the International Academy of International Business as both a Track Chair and Treasurer for 30 years. He has been ethical, reliable, and an incredible moral compass for this organization. Reza has maintained the fiscal health of IABD and has established himself as a trustworthy individual who is beyond reproach. Reza has earned the respect and admiration of everyone he has come in contact with over the past 30 years, and he has served numerous past Presidents with distinction, including Abbas Alkafaji himself. 

I have been lucky enough to have had Reza by my side for the last 8 years. I wish him well, and I thank him for his loyal service and dedication to IABD. 

 Joseph J. Horton II, 78, of Conway, Arkansas passed from this life on January 25, 2015. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee on November 7, 1936 to the late Joseph Julian and Nina (Williams) Horton. Joseph earned his Associates from Lon Morris, Bachelor's in history from New Mexico State, and a PHD in Economics from Southern Methodist University. 

He served as the Dean of Business at multiple Universities and most recently worked at the University of Central Arkansas as an Economics Professor. Joseph attended Wesley United Methodist Church in Conway and had also attended a professional meeting on every continent except for Antarctica. 

He is survived by his loving wife, Linda Langley Horton of fifty years, their three children; Joseph Julian Horton III (Joanna), David Douglas Horton (Stacey), Anne Gaponenko (Vadim), nine grandchildren, one brother, Dr. Douglas Horton, and numerous friends. A Funeral Service will be held at Wesley United Methodist Church in Conway on Thursday, January 29, 2015 at 2 p.m. Visitation will be held from 5-7 pm at Roller McNutt Funeral home in Conway on Wednesday evening. Online Guestbook, www.rollerfuneralhomes.com. 

 Mr. Felix Abeson, age 72, of Randallstown, transitioned Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Abeson was born January 22, 1948 in Nigeria. He was married to Mrs. Clementina Abeson. Calling hours will be Thursday, March 26, 2020 from 3:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Vaughn C. Greene Funeral Services, 8728 Liberty Road, Randallstown, MD (21133). The Celebration of Life Service for Dr. Abeson will be held Saturday, March 28, 2020, Services for, will be held The funeral will be held 10:00 am on Saturday, March 28, 2020 at Arlington Baptist Chuch, 3030 N. Rolling Road, Windsor Mill, MD with officiating. The interment will take place at King Memorial Park, Windsor Mill on Saturday, March 28 at 1:00 pm. following services.

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It was in 1977 that I first met Phillip W. Balsmeier. He was my instructor and was fun to listen to him. He was gifted with a good sense of humor and was very alert in the classroom. I had never seen him in a bad mood; always smiling and joking. This set him apart from other professors.  Years moved fast and I moved to another state. I heard that he had moved from West Virginia to Louisiana.

After many years, one day at a conference I saw him leaving the hotel with Janet. I called him and exchanged cards. Since that day we organized several academic conferences, and he was a big help in reviewing papers submitted to academic journals that I edited.  He was instrumental in the success of the International Academy of Business Disciplines and served on its Board of Directors and as one of its presidents. Further, he served on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Competitiveness.  During his career in academia, he helped many young scholars and provided them with unlimited professional and moral support.

 It is sad that Phillip passed away. He was a gentleman and scholar;  always cheerful and uplifted, courageous and caring. In academia, you find only a few people who openly speak their minds and challenge orthodoxy; Phillip was one of them. God bless him and grant him a place in paradise. May God bless his family and his lovely wife, Janet.