Last year’s Market Business highlighted a new dean, a new institute, and multiple impactful student experiences. As we prepare for another year of doing business with purpose, we’re also reflecting on the highlights of the past 12 months. All of our faculty and staff look forward to seeing our students again in 2025.
January: Former insurance company executive and state secretary joins Market Business as resident director.
The College of Business Administration has added Mark Afable as resident director of insurance.
Mr. Afable, a lecturer in financial practice, has a decades-long career in the insurance industry, culminating in serving as Wisconsin’s insurance commissioner from 2019 to 2021. He was also the Chief Legal Officer of American Family Insurance, a Fortune 500 company. A company headquartered in Madison.
February: Student-created market creator applies class content to side hustle
Student Made Marquette, which opened on February 1, 2023, features more than a dozen student creators selling everything from handbags to laptop stickers. Some of them are business students and are putting into practice the lessons they learned during their studies.
March: Market Business launches Certified Professional Banking Program
The Faculty of Business Administration has launched a new Certified Professional Banking program with a vision to further professionalize the banking industry and expand the pipeline of bankers.
The new program will be piloted at the end of 2024 and will provide all bankers with a common body of knowledge, including a curriculum focused on accounting, finance, economics and evolving technology.
April: Graduate Studies Committee approves new specialization for MBA, Master of Business Administration programs
Marquette University Graduate Education Board approves three new specializations in the School of Business’ highly ranked MBA program, new specialization in the Master of Business Administration program, and updates leadership certificate to provide core and elective structure I did.
Starting in the 2024-25 academic year, MBA students will be able to specialize in leadership, business and management analysis, and supply chain management. This brings the total number of specializations in the MBA program to nine. Students in the Master of Business Administration program have the option to add a specialization in leadership.
May: Marquette alumni couple pledges significant gift to establish interdisciplinary commercial real estate institute
Perry and Sheila Vis, founding members of Marquette University’s President’s Advisory Council, made a major gift to launch a new collaborative research institute, the Vis Real Estate Leadership Institute.
A multimillion-dollar gift creates one of the only interdisciplinary real estate institutes in the nation, leveraging the combined strengths and achievements of tradition and innovation of three colleges: Business, Engineering, and Law.
June: Operations and Supply Chain Management ranked in the top 10 by Gartner Inc.
The Market Operations and Supply Chain Management program was ranked in the top 10 in the nation by Gartner Inc., a leading technology and consulting research firm. The Supply Chain Management master’s program has moved from 17th place in the latest Gartner rankings to 7th place in Japan in 2022. The undergraduate program ranked 10th in the country, up from 19th in 2022.
July: Graduate School of Business named to Princeton Review’s list of best business schools
Marquette School of Business was named to the Princeton Review’s 2024 list of the nation’s best business schools.
The list includes 244 graduate-level business programs and was selected using a combination of institutional and student survey data on factors such as career outcomes, admissions selectivity, and academic rigor. This year’s survey data was collected from administrators at 409 business schools and more than 32,000 students enrolled in these schools’ MBA programs.
August: Andrew DeGuire welcomes students to campus for his first semester as Dean of the Keyes School of Business.
Andrew DeGuire was appointed Dean of the Keys School of Business in December 2023 and began his new role in early July. His first trimester began a month later. Mr. DeGuire, a 1993 graduate and former vice president of corporate strategy at Northwestern Mutual, will succeed interim dean Tim Hanley.
September: Grant Thornton’s former audit partner joins the university as a resident director.
The College of Business Administration has added Greg Lusk as its newest resident officer in accounting.
Mr. Rusk worked for the CPA firm Grant Thornton for 35 years, 23 of which were as a partner. During that time, Rusk advised more than 50 publicly traded companies and their boards of directors on audit, internal control, and accounting issues. He has assisted clients in initial public offerings of over $2.5 billion, public and private debt issuances totaling $10 billion, and over 75 mergers and acquisitions.
October: Deliberate Change: Unique business course brings Jesuit values to incarcerated students
The educational preparation program enrolls incarcerated students to study alongside undergraduate market business students. Practical instructor Dr. Manoj Babu teaches the program’s management course. His students study alongside inmates at Racine Correctional Facility every week during the spring semester.
November: Fast-growing: How Marquette B-schools are making a name for themselves in the Midwest and beyond.
This fall, we were grateful to have Poets&Quants, a leading business higher education publication, visit our campus and see all of the exciting new developments at our university.
“There’s something special about Marquette graduates, both undergraduate and graduate students, because they not only have great technical skills, but they are leaders who do the right thing, and in a very human way. “They’re also learning good leadership traits to be leaders who do that,” Dean Andrew DeGuire told Poets&Quants.
December: Business Class partners with charity to bring clean water to Guatemalan town
Students in Associate Professor of Practice Dr. Alex Mirovich’s marketing class are engaged in service learning for Global Partners Running Waters, a Milwaukee-based charity that raises funds to bring drinking water to communities in Guatemala. We are doing To date, GPRW has completed more than 150 water projects, improving the lives of more than 300,000 people.
