Alumni Build Management School's Research Excellence
(from left) Suresh Sethi, Ph.D. - Operations, Vijay Mookerjee, Ph.D. - Information Systems, Ashiq Ali, Ph.D. - Accounting and Brian T. Ratchford, Ph.D. - Marketing.
Behind every endowed professorship is a great professor. Behind the Charles and Nancy Davidson Distinguished Professorships are four - Ashiq Ali, Vijay Mookerjee, Brian Ratchford and Suresh Sethi - world-class scholars in their respective fields of accounting, information systems, marketing, and operations management.
UT Dallas School of Management alumni, Charles and Nancy Davidson established the professorships in 2006 to ensure that the school would retain and attract top business talent.
"All the elements for success are coming together: great students, staff, leadership and facilities. But of course success also requires financial support, and that's where all of us play a role," said Charles "Chuck" Davidson.
In August the Davidsons demonstrated their commitment again to the school when they helped its advisory council raise money for an additional professorship with a gift of $250,000 that has the potential to be matched 50 percent by the State of Texas.
The Davidsons met at UT Dallas and married after graduating in 1980, he with a master's degree in management and administrative sciences, and she with a bachelor's degree in business and public administration. Both are 2008 Distinguished Alumni recipients, members of The UT System Chancellor's Council, and the School of Management's Advisory Council. Mr. Davidson is president, CEO and chairman of the board of
Noble Energy in Houston.
Ashiq Ali, Charles and Nancy Davidson Distinguished Professor in Accounting, says the endowment supports his research on the efficiency of information on stock prices, corporate financial disclosures and earnings forecasts. Ali found that firms in more competitive industries tend to have more interdependent investment strategies with rivals, and therefore prefer less informative disclosure policies in order to avoid providing competitors with strategically useful information.
Being named a Charles and Nancy Davidson Distinguished Professor in Information Systems, Vijay Mookerjee says "is a sign of recognition to the external world." Mookerjee researches social networks, information security, content delivery systems, and software development. The appointment supports his travel to conferences and guest lectures and helps him purchase software, computer equipment and reading materials.
Charles and Nancy Davidson Distinguished Professor in Marketing,Brian Ratchford, examines the Internet's impact on consumer research, retail markets and the price dispersion in Internet and "brick and mortar" retail markets. The endowment has given him more time for his research. In 2007 Ratchford received the John D.C. Little Award, one of the Society for Marketing Science's top prizes, for a study that showed new products need to take into account the needs of the retailer as much as the consumer.
Suresh Sethi, Charles and Nancy Davidson Distinguished Professor in Operations Management, also is director of the school's Center for Intelligent Supply Networks. The Davidsons' support has allowed him to collaborate on research and disseminate the findings at important conferences.
Sethi's researches supply chain management, inventory and consumption-investment models with incomplete information, and dynamic game models in advertising decisions. Sethi has received numerous awards and honors. In 2008, he was named a distinguished alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
