After candidate interviews for the Houghton County administrator position on October 16, the county board voted to offer the job to current county finance director Chelsea Rheault ’22 (B.S. Accounting). Rheault was praised for her strong financial management skills and her contributions over the past three years
Read more in the Daily Mining Gazette.
Michigan Sea Grant has announced that Master of Engineering Management candidate Ola Ayeni has been named a finalist for the 2025 class of the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship.
The Knauss program matches graduate students and recent graduates with host agencies in Washington, D.C., such as congressional offices, the National Marine Fisheries Service, or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For one year, fellows work on a range of policy and management projects related to ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources. Fellows can be placed in the federal, legislative or executive branches.
After spending six years as a network infrastructure engineer and another six as an environmentalist and circular economy practitioner in Nigeria, Ayeni wanted to strengthen her skills in sustainability and leadership. This led her to pursue a master’s in engineering management at Michigan Tech — a program where she could combine her technical expertise with managerial insights.
In addition to being a graduate student, Ayeni is also the founder of a social enterprise called Hopcyku, which won the Social Impact Award during the 2024 Bob Mark Pitch Competition. Hopcyku’s work focuses on waste diversion and pollution prevention through the principles of the circular economy.
Ayeni’s passion for sustainability and waste management perfectly aligns with broader environmental conservation goals, which inspired her to apply for the Knauss Sea Grant Fellowship. She is honored to join over 1,680 fellows who have, over the program’s 45-year history, significantly contributed to environmental policy and management, building impactful careers in national policy making.
Ayeni is also deeply thankful to Sarah Isaacson (GS) for providing unwavering guidance and support throughout the Knauss Fellowship application process. Isaacson’s commitment ensured Ayeni had everything she needed to succeed. She would also like to express her gratitude to Robert Hutchinson (COB) for his recommendation and ongoing support throughout her time in Houghton.
Read more in the Michigan Sea Grant press release.
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Former Michigan Tech basketball player and assistant coach Ben Stelzer ’15 (B.S. Finance) was mentioned by The Daily Mining Gazette in a story about his appointment as assistant coach for the Santa Cruz Warriors. During Stelzer’s career with the Huskies, he finished as the program’s all-time leader in 3-pointers and was also named NCAA Division II All-American, Academic All-American and Midwest Region Player of the Year.
Soonkwan Hong, associate professor of marketing in the College of Business, is an invited editorial advisory board member of the Journal of Social Impact in Business Research, which was founded in July 2024.
The journal explicitly responds to AACSB’s new standards, which underscore “Societal Impact” as encompassing “…activities undertaken by business schools that over time lead to meaningful, discernible change for the betterment of people, economies and the environment” (AACSB and Societal Impact: Aligning With the AACSB 2020 Business Accreditation Standards, February 2023, p.2).
Researchers are invited to submit publications with ongoing or future research that discusses social impact. The journal is particularly interested in the works that:
In addition, the journal has issued a call for papers for an upcoming special issue. View the CPF.
Please contact Hong with questions.
Michigan Tech alumni Denny Socha ’86 (BS in Mechanical Engineering) will present a lecture on Thursday, October 10, 2024, at 9:30 am in ChemSci 101. The talk is part of a Principles of Marketing (MKT3000) class instructed by Junhong Min, Associate Professor of Marketing.
In his talk, Socha will discuss STP marketing—Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning— a marketing model that helps businesses identify and target their audience, and position their products to be more effective.
Also, on October 10, Socha will share his career success journey with the American Marketing Association (AMA) student organization at 5:30 pm in AOB 101. Pizza and drinks will be served.
Socha’s visit to campus is part of the Time & Talent initiative of the Michigan Tech Office of Alumni Engagement, which aims to connect successful MTU alumni with students, faculty, and staff through guest lectures, presentations, and learning opportunities.
Socha worked in consumer research and product research throughout his 26-year career at General Motors. He retired as Senior Manager, Global Product Research.
Denny Socha is a marketing professional with over three decades of experience working in the automotive industry. Most of his experience, which also included four years in Switzerland with the GM Europe marketing team, supported Chevrolet with Brand and Advertising Research. Providing the customer insights behind such memorable campaigns as An American Revolution, Chevy Runs Deep, Find New Roads and Real People/Not Actors, his efforts were recognized by the Advertising Research Foundation with the prestigious David Ogilvy Gold Award. Denny is a member of the Advertising Research Foundation and Association of National Advertisers. Denny has been married for 35 years to Kristi and they have three children. He enjoys traveling with family and snowboarding.