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| He asked me to put a picture of Brad Pitt... Instead I decorated our photo with stickers! |
Alan or as
I prefer, Al, was one of my first interviewees. I was a bit nervous gearing up
for the interview because in the back of my mind I really wanted to apply for
the MBA program which he oversees. Al is THE Dean of Business, Leadership and Psychology
at Marymount California University.
Al is actually
a doctor! He has an MBA and PhD in Business Administration, from Kent State
University, and a Juris Doctor from the School of Law at DePaul University.
Before business administration, Dr. Al pursued engineering and received a
bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University (formerly
General Motors Institute).
Dr. Burns has
over 25 years work experience in the corporate world and academia. His corporate career includes technical and leadership
positions in R&D, Engineering and Manufacturing at various supplier
organizations to the automotive and heavy duty construction equipment
industries. In higher education, he has
worked in administration over the past 5 years after spending many years as a professor
teaching and designing courses in business, technology and law. His areas of expertise and interests include Knowledge
Management, Intellectual Property and IT Law, Digital Marketing, Information Systems
and Technology, Organizational Leadership, Business Strategy and Organizational
Development.
He’s a busy
guy… we are lucky to have someone with such a wide variety of expertise!
The Juicy Stuff....
Al is very
excited about his place at Marymount California University. It is a breath of
fresh air to be able to have discretion over changes made to the curriculum. Al
thinks it is very important for a Dean to be able to freely make improvements
where he sees fit. As I’ve previously outlined, Dr. Al is highly experienced,
so it is fantastic for the students that his voice is heard.
Al is a technologically
trendy dude and one of the benefits of this quality is that his programs and
curriculums are as current as possible. He describes the MBA program as “technologically
innovative” and strives to provide real world tools for data projects. Dr. Al
shared with me the typical schedule for a first year MBA student. I was
surprised, coming from a science background, that there were labs…! I was sad
at first because I’m excited to be out of the white lab coat and away from the
petri dishes, but what he described to me was that these labs are research
oriented. The labs he designed are to teach students an aspect of research that
most MBA programs don’t. Aside from the papers and business plans required in
most programs, his students will be able to learn the real world tools to help
them succeed in a greater variety of areas.
Not only
was it exciting to hear the great plans Al has for this program, but it was
also encouraging and quite enticing. I think I’m SOLD. Thanks Al! Looking forward
to getting Statistics waived over the summer ;-) wink wink, hint hint
Oh and the
secret is…. Very few people know that he is a twin. When I asked whether he was
a fraternal or identical twin he said “My brother says fraternal. Thank God.”
Al is not sure what he means by that…
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