Faculty:Zimpleman College of Business

Dr. Daniel Connolly is a professor of management and past dean at Drake University’s College of the Zimpleman College of Business in Des Moines, Iowa. He is a recognized global thought leader in the area of hospitality information technology. His teaching, research, and consulting interests focus on the strategic application of information technology and electronic commerce for business advantage. Dr. Connolly has authored or co-authored numerous publications, many of which have appeared in the job journals within his field, and he frequently presents his work at academic and industry conferences and universities around the world. His book Technology Strategies for the Hospitality Industry is the industry’s first book on technology strategy. Prior to joining Drake, Dr. Connolly served as dean of the School of Business Administration at Portland State University and as senior associate dean of the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business. He has served on the faculties of several major universities including the University of Denver, Michigan State University, and Virginia Tech, where he taught graduate and undergraduate courses in information technology, strategic management, finance, and hospitality administration. Before joining academia, Dr. Connolly spent nearly 8 years working at Marriott International’s corporate headquarters as an information systems analyst. In addition, he has consulted with numerous organizations in the hospitality, health care and technology sectors, and has more than 10 years of experience in hotel and restaurant operations.

Brad C. Meyer received his PhD in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University in 1989 and shortly after joined the business faculty in Drake’s Zimpleman College of Business. He teaches operations management, data analytics, and management science. From 2000 to 2014 he served as chair of the Management and International Business Department, and chair of Information Management and Business Analytics from 2014 to 2020. He was the CBPA co-director of the data analytics program at Drake from 2015 to 2020. His research focuses on continuous improvement and the use of technology in education. He has published in the Journal of Management, Interfaces, Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, the Journal of Management History and Engineering Economics.

Dr. Alanah Mitchell is the Aliber Distinguished Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Information Management and Business Analytics in the Zimpleman College of Business at Drake University. She holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Professor Mitchell’s research focuses on the design, implementation, and use of information and communication technologies for collaboration, specifically in global virtual teams. Additionally, she researches in areas of e-commerce and information systems pedagogy. She has published in such journals as Business Horizons, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, Electronic Markets, Information Technology and People, IT Professional, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, and Organizational Dynamics as well as others. Alanah is a Distinguished Member – Cum Laude of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) as well as a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). More information can be found on her website: https://www.alanahmitchell.com/

Matthew is an Associate Professor of International Business and Strategy at Drake University, and founding partner of Bâton Global LLC, a strategy and research advisory firm.

Matthew is a recipient of Drake University’s Madelyn M. Levitt Teacher of the Year Award and is Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. He has served as Executive Editor of the journal International Business: Research, Teaching, and Practice and is a Fellow of the largest national chapter of the Academy of International Business.

Matthew earned degrees in physics, math and an MBA from Rollins College. He earned his PhD in International Business from the University of South Carolina – the world’s leading program in international business. His research investigates the relationship between firm strategy, politics and religion in global markets. He has written and published extensively on these topics.

Matthew advises Fortune 500 companies, governments, educational institutions and non-profit organizations around the world. He has travelled, lived, and worked in more than 75 countries.

Research, teaching and consulting expertise:

• Strategy: strategic management systems, agility and facilitation
• Innovation: digital transformation, ideation, and data-analytics
• Leadership: workforce engagement, culture and coaching
• Research: benchmarking, scales and customized insights

Dr. Andrew Norman is Professor of Marketing at Drake University where he has served since 2003. With degrees from the University of Arizona (PhD, Marketing), Brigham Young University (MBA), and Arizona State University (BA, Communication), Dr. Norman’s work in marketing alliances and entertainment consumption has been published in top marketing journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Retailing. Dr. Norman also contributes research and content to Kotler and Armstrong’s Principles of Marketing and Armstrong and Kotler’s Marketing: An Introduction. His experience also extends to executive education courses for major corporations.

Dr. Radostina (Ina) Purvanova is a Professor of Leadership and Management at Drake University’s Zimpleman College of Business. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 2008. Her research interests lie in the areas of virtual leadership, high-quality work relationships, and women in the workplace. Her research has been published in prestigious management journals, including The Academy of Management Journal, Personnel Psychology, The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Business and Psychology, Group and Organization Management, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Human Performance, and Small Group Research. Dr. Purvanova teaches courses on Leadership and Personal Development, as well as Organizational Behavior, to both undergraduate and MBA students. Her central teaching goal is to help students grow as future leaders through learning more about themselves and about effective leadership. In her personal life, Dr. Purvanova is married to a fellow academician who teaches English Literature at Iowa State University. She has two children – Vassil and Kalida and is also the proud adoptive parent of Toby—a rather naughty cat.

Thomas Root holds four degrees including a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kansas. He has been teaching finance at Drake University since 1999. He has received the Graduate Teaching Award and the Zimpleman College of Business Research Award. He published in many academic journals such as Quarterly Journal of Accounting and Finance; Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences; International Business: Research, Teaching and Practice; International Research Journal of Applied Finance; Journal of the Academy of Business Education; Energy Economics; Journal of Financial Education; and International Review of Financial Analysis.

Associate Professor Solsma joined the Zimpleman College of Business faculty in fall 2013. Previously she had been an Assistant Professor at the University of South Dakota. Solsma holds a BS in accounting and a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of South Dakota. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi while teaching accounting courses as a graduate assistant for the University. Her primary research areas are in non-GAAP and other company disclosures.  She has presented her work at the American Accounting Association’s Annual meetings and published in the Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, the Journal of International Accounting Research, the Accounting History Review, the International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, the Rocky Mountain Law Journal, among others. She is a member of the American Accounting Association (AAA), the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), and the Association of Fraud Examiners (ACFE). She teaches courses in managerial accounting, advanced managerial accounting, financial accounting, and fraud examination.

Carl Vieregger is an Associate Professor of Management and researcher at Drake University. His professional experience includes more than 10 years of international management consulting (based in Europe) and private equity investments. Carl’s PhD is in Business and Corporate Strategy from Washington University in St. Louis, and the lead paper of his dissertation was awarded the Strategic Management Society Best Paper Prize for Practice Implications. His research focuses on corporate strategy, with an emphasis on resource allocation decisions of the top management team, and it has been published in the Journal of Management. Carl teaches the undergraduate capstone course in Business Strategy for all seniors in the CBPA, as well as the MBA course Corporate Governance and Ethics. Both classes emphasize real-world cases and in-class discussions. Prior to his PhD, he also earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and a B.A. from Northwestern University. Outside the classroom, Carl is the President of the Board of Directors at ArtForce Iowa, which empowers court-involved and immigrant youths in our community through the transformational power of art. Carl is an avid long-distance runner and has completed more than 20 marathons and half marathons — his favorite is the Napa Valley Marathon!