World-Class Instruction
Faculty in the Leading Next Level Growth program are leaders in their fields of study, from strategic thinking and leadership to financial and digital trends. The world-class instructors will bring cutting edge theories and practical, execution-focused strategies and tactics into the classroom to provide a hands-on, real-world experience.
Simon Peck, PhD
Simon Peck’s research centers on the link between corporate governance and organization performance, characteristics of the board of directors and top management, and the firm’s competitive advantage. Peck’s work looks closely at topics of executive compensation contracts, board composition and structure, and how top executives do strategic planning.
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Melvin Smith, PhD
Melvin L. Smith is a Professor in the Department of Organizational Behavior and Faculty Director of Executive Education at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. Smith holds a BS degree in General Management and Accounting from Purdue University and an MBA in Marketing from Clark-Atlanta University. He received his PhD in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management from the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business.<br><br>Smith’s research and teaching focus on leadership and emotional intelligence in the workplace, as well as social exchange relationships, social networks, and leadership development through executive coaching.<br><br>Smith has provided training and/or consulting services to executives in the United States, Canada, Scotland, Dubai, New Zealand, India and Trinidad. In addition, he has served as a visiting professor at ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain where he co-taught a senior executive education course on emotionally intelligent leadership.<br><br>Prior to completing his doctoral work at the University of Pittsburgh, Melvin spent more than fifteen years in a series of sales/marketing management, and organization development positions with a number of Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Pepsi-Cola, and H.J. Heinz.<br><br>Smith is co-author of the book <i>Helping People Change</i> (with Richard Boyatzis and Ellen Van Oosten). He has also published in a variety of journals including: Harvard Business Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Journal of Management Development, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and Organizational Dynamics.
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James Gilmore, BS
As co-author of The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019), Jim Gilmore literally wrote the book that spawned worldwide interest in experience design, customer experience management, and experiential marketing. Tom Peters has called The Experience Economy “a brilliant, absolutely original book,” and 800-CEO-READ named it one of “The 100 Best Business Books of All Time.” The volume is now published in 19 languages.<br>Gilmore’s book, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want (Harvard Business School Press, 2007), contends that businesses must learn to manage authenticity as a distinct business discipline. In March 2008, Time magazine featured the core of this thinking on authenticity in its cover story on “10 Ideas That Are Changing the World.”<br>Gilmore’s most recent book is Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills (Greenleaf Book Group, 2016). A prequel to Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, the book describes a similar metaphorical tool using “Six Looking Glasses” to foster greater innovation through improved observation.<br>Gilmore is co-editor of Markets of One: Creating Customer-Unique Value through Mass Customization (Harvard Business School Press, 2000). The book’s selection of ten HBR articles serves as a primer on the subject of “efficiently serving customers uniquely” via mass customization capabilities.<br>Gilmore’s ideas have been featured in numerous articles on business strategy and innovation for such publications as Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Investors Business Daily, among others.<br>Gilmore is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He began his career with Procter & Gamble and then spent over ten years consulting with Cleveland Consulting Associates and Computer Sciences Corporation, heading CSC Consulting's process innovation practice. He is a Batten Fellow at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, where he teaches a one-week course on the Experience Economy. He is also a Visiting Lecturer in Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, where he teaches an intensive course on cultural hermeneutics. He previously served as the 2002-2003 Dean Helen LeBaron Hilton Endowed Co-chair at the College of Family & Consumer Sciences at Iowa State University.
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Youngjin Yoo
Youngjin Yoo, PhD, is the Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft Professor of Entrepreneurship and professor of information systems in the Department of Design & Innovation at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. He is the faculty director of xLab. He is also a WBS Distinguished Research Environment Professor at Warwick Business School, UK. He is an AIS Fellow.<br><br>He has worked with leading companies including Samsung Electronics, LG, Goodyear, Sherwin Williams, Progressive, Moen, American Greetings, Bendix, Intel, Ford Motor Company, Andersen Consulting, IDEO, Gehry and Partners, University Hospitals in Cleveland, American Management Systems, Lotus, NASA, Parker Hannifin, Poly One and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.<br><br>He teaches digital strategy, digital transformation, and design.
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Casey Newmeyer, PhD
Starbucks within Barnes and Noble, Dell with Intel inside, and FedEx Kinko’s are examples of brands joining together to form a partnership. Casey Newmeyer, PhD, focuses her research on brand partnerships and alliances such as co-brands and brand acquisitions. From the perspective of a marketing manager, she outlines how such brand pairings impact the firms involved and their existing branded products and services. A second stream of research focuses on brand and consumer relationships and identities. In general her work links consumer attitudes to managerial decision making. Prior to transitioning to a career in academia in 2011,
Newmeyer worked in marketing roles for companies such as FedEx, XM Satellite Radio, and Northrop Grumman.
Newmeyer received her PhD from the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, and her MBA from the Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College. Her publications have appeared in the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice and Journal of Academy of Marketing Science. She has presented on numerous occasions at the American Marketing Association Winter Educators Conference.
In the classroom, Newmeyer teaches Marketing Management, Marketing and Supply Chain Management, among other courses. She has received the Nancy and Joseph Keithley Fellow in Business Marketing, as well as several Intramural Research Funding awards.
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Harlow Cohen, PhD
Harlow Cohen is a professor of Organizational Behavior and is also the faculty director for the MS in Positive Organization Development & Change (MPOD) program. Cohen teaches courses in Strategic Thinking, Organization Design, Effective Consulting & Implementation Methods, and Individual Field Projects which is the capstone course in MPOD. He has been nominated multiple times for the Weatherhead Teaching Excellence Award. In addition, he has been a faculty coach for the MBA Action Learning Program, and is a certified coach in Developing Leadership through Emotional Intelligence.
Cohen’s doctoral degree in organizational behavior and his master’s in organization development and analysis are both from Case Western Reserve University. Prior to returning to his alma mater as a professor, he was president of Integrated Profit Solutions, a change management consulting firm; a senior consultant and project manager for Robert H. Schaffer & Associates; vice president of organization planning and development for Ameritrust Company, N.A.; senior vice president of operations and administration for Boykin Management Company; and director of human resources for Cole National Corporation and Cole Consumer Products. In addition to his executive background, Cohen’s consulting assignments have spanned a broad range of industries, serving clients like Panther Expedited Services, Abarta, Laketran, Manufacturers Alliance for Performance & Innovation, The Society of the Plastics Industry, TRW, Allied Signal, Ford, Schuller/Manville, Navistar, Mohawk Industries, Sherwin-Williams, Utilimaster, Dekko International, ASC Incorporated, Ricerca Inc., and National City Corporation.
Cohen has written articles for the Academy of Management Executive, the Advanced Management Journal, Human Resource Professional, Cases in Organizational Development, and Cornell Quarterly on topics that range from tapping into an organization’s hidden potential and generating bottom line results to identifying and developing managerial high performers, maximizing the contributions of human resource professionals, and enhancing team effectiveness. Cohen has also published a book entitled, The Dinosaur in the Living Room: Achieving Positive Change by Tackling the Obvious (2005). More recently he designed and copyrighted three different strategic decision making simulations on disruptive innovation, performance, and industry leadership.
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Scott Fine
Scott Fine is a former strategic consultant, investment banker, public company CFO and private equity business owner. As such, Fine understands value creation as advisor, manager and owner. His background guides his research, where he works to answer several key questions. How does value get created? How is a firms financial strategy and corporate strategy linked? How has the shift in company decision-making power from corporate owners to private equity and hedge fund investors altered the way value is created and distributed? Fine's research focuses on developing classroom materials, including case studies, and internal papers addressing these questions. Appointed to Weatherhead School of Management in 2003, Fine's has taught over a dozen different courses across most of the school's programs. Current courses include Cases in Finance, Contemporary Issues in Management, Corporate Finance, and Financial Strategy and Value Creation and Projects in Corporate Finance.
Fine has served on the board of directors of many for-profit companies and not-for-profit institutions, including, currently, EGC Enterprises, the Chautauqua Hotel Company and Moreland Courts Condominium Association.. Fine's academic roles have included that of faculty advisor and mentor. He has also provided service to the school and the University, including in a number of leadership positions.
At the University level, he has been nominated for the J. Bruce Jackson, MD, Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring, the Carl F. Wittke Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence and was awarded the USG Undergraduate Teaching Award. He has also received school level teaching excellence awards at the undergraduate and graduate level. Fine received his MBA from Stanford University after completion of his BA at Cornell University.
Gary Hunter, PhD
Gary Hunter, PhD is the Founders Chair in Marketing and Data Analytics and Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. Gary previously served on the marketing faculty at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Hunter holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, an M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee, and a B.S. from the US Military Academy at West Point. Prior to his doctoral studies, Gary worked over 10 years for the US Army, PepsiCo, and Procter & Gamble. His research interests center on sales technology and strategic account management. Gary's publications appear in the Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, Marketing Letters, and the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and include three award-winning papers. His service includes terms on the Editorial Review Boards for the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, and the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management.