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Nathan Wright wears many hats at B&E. His undergraduate degree in management makes him an alumnus; his enrollment in the Master of Science in Industrial Relations (MSIR) program makes him a student; and he also plays roles as instructor, graduate assistant and president of the  WVU Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

Wright said that his role in SHRM has taught him the important lessons of teamwork and leadership. One of only four graduate students recognized as a SHRM Foundation Scholar, Wright was recently  featured in the Winter 2013 edition of SHRM's  Student Focus magazine, a publication distributed globally to roughly 16,000 members, for a story about the WVU chapter's meeting with West Virginia State Senator Bob Beach. Beach visited with the chapter to discuss HR issues and internship opportunities in the West Virginia Legislature. Wright said he was very excited to have the WVU Chapter displayed in such plain view to a SHRM audience of great size.

This month, more than 160 graduates recently joined the B&E alumni family.

As part of that celebration, more than 200 attendees honored the College's newest graduates at a Convocation Breakfast held the Mountainlair on the morning of Convocation on December 9.

A team of B&E's top marketing students traveled to the corporate headquarters of Taziki's Mediterranean Café in Birmingham, Ala., as a semifinalist team in the first-ever Taziki's Collegiate Marketing Challenge. After a top three finish in the preliminary round, which started with 24 teams, the WVU team finished second overall.

WVU team leader Lori Crist and teammates Jaime Siudak, Sara Willingham, Jordan Wilcox, Danielle Lemon and Rachelle Purych traveled to Birmingham to present their marketing proposal to the Taziki's board of directors and executive team. Marketing student Joni Koay was also a team member, although she did not travel for the final proposal presentation in Birmingham.

West Virginia University students Dom Mirto and Valerie Bennett will be the first-ever Mountaineer representatives to participate in the Final Round of the World Collegiate Sales Open. A total of 20 students from around the world have qualified for the chance to compete at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., in February. The 20 finalists will represent 11 colleges and universities, and each has made it through three grueling preliminary rounds.

The College of Business and Economics is building more international bridges through faculty visits abroad.

One example is Richard McFarland's November trip to Italy and Germany. An associate professor of marketing, he was invited to participate in the Star Scholar program at the  University Bocconi in Milan, Italy.

Frank DeGeorge could teach finance students how to throw a baseball.

He is most well-known for teaching financial statement analysis and business finance to graduate students and undergrad students at the College of Business and Economics, but his pitching records still stand at Robert Morris University all these years after his 1982 graduation from that institution.

MBA students at the College of Business and Economics learned best practices for interviewing job seekers in a new program last semester.

The 20-hour program was designed specifically for graduate students to help them gain skills to enhance their employment opportunities, said Joyce Heames, Chair and Associate Professor of Management and Industrial Relations.

West Virginia University’s College of Business and Economics will receive an in-kind gift valued at more than $245,000 from the Microsoft Corporation.

The gift was given through the Microsoft Dynamics Academic Alliance program, and consists of two kinds of accounting software plus annual support for that software.

A team of top marketing students from  West Virginia University’s  College of Business and Economics will travel to the corporate headquarters of Taziki’s Mediterranean Café in Birmingham, Ala., as a semi-finalist in the first-ever Taziki’s Collegiate Marketing Challenge.

A group of six students will present their marketing proposal to the Taziki’s Board of Directors and executive team on Friday, Dec. 14. They will compete against teams from Samford University and the College of Charleston for the chance to win $5,000. The top three teams were selected in a preliminary round out of a total of 24 teams from universities nationwide.

“You know, in life, if you’re mentally and physically fairly sound, one of the greatest attributes is curiosity. You want to ask questions.”

Those were the words of Joseph A. Hardy III at West Virginia University on Dec. 4 for the College of Business and Economics as part of the B&E Distinguished Speaker Series. Hardy, whose entrepreneurial desire took him from selling home-grown vegetables door-to-door as a college student to founding 84 Lumber Company and the renowned Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, delivered his fiery, entertaining and emphatic message to hundreds of students in the Mountainlair Ballrooms.