Merrimack Talks Business: The Girard School

EPISODE 18: Interview with Christina Tarpy

In this episode, we sit down with very special guest Mrs. Christina Tarpy, our faculty support coordinator within GSB, who joined to talk about her love for Merrimack College. Not only is Mrs. Tarpy a Double Warrior herself and proud MC mom, but she's been a super-energetic staff member of GSB for about 7 years so far. During our conversation, Mrs. Tarpy mentioned her international management undergraduate studies at Merrimack, her co-op programs at The Boston Globe as well as Disney, and her growth mindset and courage to come back to GSB graduate school while having family responsibilities in addition to a full time job. A wonderful role model for our Warriors, Mrs. Tarpy shares many great suggestions for current students to become more professional and leads by example through her own work ethic. I personally don’t need to mention how important she and her work are to the Girard School - all of our faculty colleagues truly appreciate her help day in and day out - it's earned her the nickname “Magic." If you are interested in this conversation, please tune into this episode and hear from "Magic" herself, Mrs. Christina Tarpy.

If you have any questions, please visit our quick survey so we can answer your inquiries in a future episode.

EPISODE 17: Professor Omer Unsal

In this episode 17, we are talking to our very special guest Professor Omer Unsal about his journey to becoming a Finance professor and how he started working at Merrimack College in 2017. During this conversation, Professor Unsal shares his research interests in corporate finance, more specifically topics like corporate governments, legal challenges related to lobbying or lawsuits, firm’s green patent filing and its impact on financial performance. He even talks about an interesting topic he calls “green washing,“ describing firms negatively impacting the environment while simultaneously building a positive public image. Besides research, he has a strong passion in teaching using the latest technology and services, and he is constantly adopting the latest trends in teaching as an educator. As his colleague, I am impressed by his positive mindset and fast pace in embracing change for the benefit of students; especially during a hard time like COVID, it truly shows his dedication to this career. If you are interested in this conversation, please join the episode and hear the great journey Professor Unsal shared with us!

If you have any questions, please visit our quick survey so we can answer your inquiries in a future episode.

EPISODE 16: Professor Maria Sannella

In this episode 16, we invited our very special guest Professor Maria Sannella to join and chat about her career in higher education. Prior to joining Merrimack College as a Marketing professor, Professor Sannella obtained a degree in Curriculum and Administration from Boston College and had been working at Boston College for more than 10 years. After retiring from BC, she joined Merrimack and has started another fantastic journey with us, primarily teaching our Intro to Business and Marketing Principles class about 8 years now, not to mention a couple of other classes from time to time. From sharing her experiences, you can certainly tell that Professor Sannella has an incredibly strong passion in the education of future generations, from elementary school to college. She is full of love and support to the students around her, and that made her a very delightful person to be with and a role model for students to look up to. If you are interested in this conversation, please tune into this episode and hear the stories Professor Sannella shared with us!

If you have any questions, please visit our quick survey so we can answer your inquiries in a future episode.

EPISODE 15: Professor Fan Chen

In this episode 15, we are fortunate to be joined by our very special guest, Professor Fan Chen, Associate Professor of Finance in our accounting and finance department. In this episode, you will hear about Professor Chen’s interesting education journey, his top-notch best paper research in studying conflicts of interests among managers in the mutual fund and hedge fund settings. We also talked about how “social celebrities'' and nontraditional investors such as CEO Cathie Wood in ARK ETFs, WallStreetBets in Reddit.com influenced the stock market in their own ways. Will these new trends affect how things are run in the traditional sector of retail stock and mutual funds? If you are interested in this conversation, please join the episode and learn from Professor Chen in the episode, coming up. 

If you have any questions, please visit our quick survey so we can answer your inquiries in a future episode.

EPISODE 14: Professor Michael Hyman

In this episode 14, we are fortunate to be joined by our very special guest Professor Michael Hyman, our Assistant Professor of Accounting in GSB's accounting and finance department. You will hear about how Professor Hyman decided upon and has enjoyed the process of learning and working in accounting over time, and his insightful comments on whether innovations and machines are going to take over the accounting job in the future. If you are a student interested in accounting and thinking about pursuing a degree in accounting, please join this conversation with us, and hopefully you can learn something new besides our sentimental recall of past memories as students. 

If you have any questions, please visit our quick survey so we can answer your inquiries in a future episode.

EPISODE 13: 2nd Round of Q&A with Dr. Eric Zheng

In this episode 13, the host of Merrimack Talks Business, assistant professor of Marketing, Yilong Eric Zheng, Ph.D., addresses different kinds of questions student have asked the GSB podcast. Topics discussed include the stock market and personal investment as well as specific new courses and concentrations being offered at the Girard School of Business (GSB).

If you have any questions, please visit our quick survey so we can answer your inquiries in a future episode.

EPISODE 12: Interview with Kimberly Valente, Valerie Macksoud, Morgan Phipps, Joe Jenkins and Advising-Related Q&A

In this episode 12, we have the honor of being joined by four important staff members from GSB's Lucey Center for Business Advising to discuss academic curriculum and career advising questions students asked us. Our guests are newly-appointed assistant dean of operations, advising analytics and director of the Lucey Center Kimberly Valente; undergraduate business academic advisor at the Lucey Center, Valerie Macksoud; business career advisor Morgan Phipps (she/her pronouns); and assistant director of career services and adjunct professor at the business school, Joe Jenkins.

If you have any questions, please visit our quick survey so we can answer your inquiries in a future episode.

EPISODE 11: Apply to Grad School

Want to apply to grad school? In this episode 11, the host of the podcast assistant professor of Marketing Yilong Eric Zheng, Ph.D. talks about the general components (e.g. degree types, changes for the aptitude test requirements, general materials for grad school application, scholarship application, interview) needed to apply to different kinds of graduate school programs, and how to prepare for this upcoming application season for the academic year of 2021-22 in terms of timeline.

If you have any questions, please visit our quick survey so we can answer your inquiries in a future episode.

EPISODE 10: Professor Sirkwoo Jin

In this episode 10, our special guest is associate professor of Management and chair of the management department, Dr. Sirkwoo Jin. Along with him is the host of the podcast, assistant professor of Marketing Yilong Eric Zheng, Ph.D. to discuss Dr. Jin’s research, teaching and service experience to Merrimack students and community. Dr. Sirkwoo Jin has a very unique and great taste in movies and jazz, and he is a philosophical thinker of the world around us. Between them, they talk about how the movie the Matrix, V for Vendetta, The Shawshank Redemption, and the general theme of positive and negative (ambivalent feeling) affect individuals and organizations as a whole.

EPISODE 9: New Year Q&A with Dr. Eric Zheng

Happy New Year! In this episode 9 New Year Special Q&A, we are turning our focus to students' questions sent to us and trying to address them. These kind of Q&A sessions will be released in between the GSB faculty interview episodes and will be our new and unique way to connect with our current student, future student and parent listeners. Please send us your questions to GSB faculty and staff to Dr. Eric Zheng at zhengy@merrimack.edu. Thank you!