ELDM - People
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Dr. Rick Schuhmann is the director of the Engineering Leadership Development minor. He joined Penn State in 1994 as advisor to the Leonhard Center Envisioneers. Before his appointment as ELDM Director, Dr. Schuhmann was an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. |
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Bob Beaury received a B.A. degree from Rowan University and an M.S. degree from Boston University. He is one of the founders of the Ideas to Action organization and acts as the prime facilitator for the Entrepreneurs Boot Camp. From 1992 to 2001, Beaury was the President and CEO of Broadband Networks, Inc. Starting with six employees, he grew the company to $10M in revenues and more than 70 employees. Prior to joining BNI, Bob was the Director of Marketing for C-Cor.net, responsible for the company's product management, sales engineering and development activities. He has extensive sales, marketing and international business experience having also worked at General Instrument and Kulicke & Soffa.
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Wesley Donahue is an Associate Professor affiliated with both The College of Engineering and the College of Education, and he is the Director of Management Development. In his role at Penn State, Dr. Donahue is responsible for leading a department of full-time and part-time faculty and administrative staff. |
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Dr. Ann Echols joins ELDM from the Smeal College of Business at Penn State. Dr. Echols is currently researching the impact of social networks on the performance and survival of business firms, especially in the venture capital industry. Dr. Echols also examines how firms strategically manage technology during periods of uncertainty. Prior to joining Smeal College, Dr. Echols taught at Virginia Tech, where she completed doctorates in Strategic Management and VTE Policy Studies. While at Virginia Tech, Ann worked with the Small Business Economic Development Center, and the Pamplin Center for Executive Education. Her dissertation research at Virginia Tech focused on entrepreneurial activities. One study profiled high school graduates' entrepreneurial traits and predicted self-employment; the other study examined how venture capital firms' networks impacted venture capital-backed start-ups after going public. Before returning to graduate school, Ann worked as an accountant in several capacities-serving as a small business tax return preparer, as a land development accountant for 12 multi-million dollar private Webbed entities, and in a comptroller role for several firms subcontracted to the Palm Beach County, Florida, Tourism Development Council. Ann's bachelor's degree is in Accounting, and her MBA emphasized accounting and finance courses. Dr. Echols is a member of the Academy of Management and the Strategic Management Society.
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Matt Poese (pronounced Pay-zee) earned his Ph.D. in acoustics at Penn State, and is one of the founders of ThermoAcoustics Corporation. ThermoAcoustics Corp. designs refrigeration systems which use sound waves instead of mechanical or chemical systems. The technology is under commercial development and may expand into home heating and cooling, as well as several other applications, in the future. Before becoming a Penn State graduate student in 1995, Poese earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Cincinnati and worked for BMW and Deloitte & Touche.
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