Press Release – PITTSBURGH — As colleges and universities seek more creative ways to raise money, schools like the University of Pittsburgh College of Business Administration are turning to revered faculty members for inspiration.
The recent campaign to honor 30-year Pitt Business Professor Bob Atkin through the Robert S. Atkin Endowed Fund was so successful that it surpassed its original goal ($10,000) not once, but twice, raising a total of more than $21,000 to date.
Atkin, who is still actively teaching at Pitt, has acted as a teacher, mentor and trusted advisor to scores of students at Pitt.
“Few professors have had as profound and as far-reaching of an impact on educating future business leaders as Professor Bob Atkin,” said Audrey Murrell, associate dean at Pitt’s College of Business Administration.
The fund provides financial support exclusively to undergraduate business students in the College of Business Administration and was established in 2016 to commemorate Atkin’s 30-year teaching anniversary and will fund scholarships for students, travel grants for career development site visits in other cities, and student program support in the form of conference fees.
Atkin is an icon at Pitt’s undergraduate College of Business Administration (CBA). In fact, when the CBA was established in 1995, Atkin taught the first class.
For thousands of freshmen, his course “Managing in Complex Environments” is the initial point of entry into the BSBA degree and offers a boot camp in understanding how to be successful in business environments.
When the Global Business Institute opened its first location in Australia, Atkin was among the first faculty member to travel to Sydney to teach. He set the tone for how to apply a global perspective to the business courses offered abroad.
Atkin has taught many courses at the undergraduate, MBA, Executive MBA, and executive education level. He continues to teach today — and has now added the Pitt Business Honors Program to his repertoire. He teaches honors-enhanced, small group seminars for his Managing in Complex Environments course.
What His Students Are Saying:
“The dedication that Professor Atkin shows his students is unparalleled. He took the time to advise and mentor me during several critical decisions while at Pitt Business and post-college. He helped me see the whole picture and feel confident in my own abilities, ultimately resulting in me landing my dream job.”
– Cara Repasky Getz (BSBA ’10), Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Company
“His influence in my personal and professional development extends well beyond imparting his knowledge of core business concepts in the classroom. He has always been personally invested in helping me apply these concepts and has been a driving force in inspiring me to pursue my entrepreneurial goals.”
– Andrew Madden (BSBA ’10), Manager, Deloitte Consulting
About the Katz Graduate School of Business
Where theory meets practice – The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration leverages the opportunities created by our urban location and strong research culture to prepare students to be catalysts for change. Our mission is to merge communities of knowledge with communities of practice to create exceptional experience-based learning outcomes for students and relevant insights for business leaders. The Katz MBA program was established in 1960, although the business school’s roots go back to 1907, with the University of Pittsburgh’s Evening School of Economics, Accounts, and Finance. Katz was the world’s first to offer a one-year MBA program. That spirit of innovation guides us today and is reflected in the life’s work of the school’s namesake: the late Joseph M. Katz, a consummate entrepreneur, businessman, and Pittsburgher.
Katz graduates form a worldwide network — 23,000 Katz alumni live and work in more than 90 countries. That is to say nothing of the broader reach of the University of Pittsburgh, a world-respected leader across virtually all disciplines. That includes the undergraduate College of Business Administration, whose annual enrollment tops 2,000 students, and complements the nearly 1,000 students in Katz’s master’s and doctoral programs.Led by Dean Arjang Assad, the rigorous academic programs at Katz are based upon four key principles: experienced-based learning, collaboration, innovation and globalism.
