Poole College Welcomes Six New Faculty Members

Poole College welcomed six new faculty members this fall, bringing expertise in accounting, analytics, economics, management, marketing, and supply chain management.

George Habek, Lecturer in Analytics, Department of Business Management

George Habek has more than 25 years’ experience in the areas of data processing and statistical analysis in an academic setting, and in consulting and corporate work with the latest SAS products. His consulting work included projects in a range of industries, including automotive, healthcare and life sciences, financial services, gaming and recreation, restaurant and food service, and agriculture and construction. Habek has published papers at the SAS Global Forum on the topic of disease and health care analytics, and predictive asset maintenance. He also has expertise in database marketing.

Prior to joining Poole College, Habek was a senior training consultant in the education practice at SAS Institute’s headquarters in Cary, N.C.

He received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics from Loyola University in Chicago and his master of science with distinction in applied statistics from the University of Chicago.

Ayse Kabukcuoglu-Dur, Assistant Professor of Economics, Department of Economics

Ayse Kabukcuoglu-Dur joins Poole College from the Koç University, İstanbul, Turkey, where she was assistant professor of economics from 2013 to 2018. Her fields of specialization include international macroeconomics, macroeconomics and monetary economics, and computational economics.

She previously had visiting professor and research roles at the University of Texas, between 2009 and 2017. In 2012, she completed a doctoral internship with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute. Her honors include the Richard Worle Endowed Fellowship in Economics and Turkish Petroleum Foundation Research Fellowship.

Kabukcuoglu-Dur received her doctorate and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Texas at Austin and her bachelor’s in economics from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Missy Makanui, Lecturer in Management, Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Missy Makanui joins Poole College with more than 25 years of industry experience in leadership and employee development, organizational development, strategic facilitation, learning and development, and organizational communications strategy.

Her experience includes designing, delivering, assessing and managing a variety of development programs in the software, academic, non-profit, hospitality, pharmaceutical and aerospace industries.

Makanui received her master’s in speech communication and her bachelor’s in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Irene Marnell, Lecturer in Supply Chain, Department of Business Management

Irene Marnell brings significant industry experience as an IT and supply chain executive to her role at Poole College, including roles in global sourcing and supplier relationship management with Syngenta R&D, IT supplier strategy, sourcing, negotiation and contract consulting with Shire Pharmaceuticals, and strategic sourcing and contracting with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

Her specialties include global supplier management, global team management, organizational leadership, strategic sourcing, supply management, global strategies and policies, business process improvement, negotiations and contracting, quality program and certification processes, project and program management, development of business cases, new process introduction, education and training.

Marnell received her master’s in supply chain and logistics from Pennsylvania State University, and her bachelor’s in education and art from Marshall University.

Rishika Rishika, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Department of Business Management

Before joining Poole College, Rishika Rishika was a clinical assistant professor of marketing at the University of South Carolina Moore School of Business. Prior to that, she was on the faculty at Texas A&M University, where she was assistant professor of marketing from 2009 to 2015, and was clinical assistant professor and lecturer prior to that. She also was a lecturer in economics at the University of Delhi from 1999-2000.

Her research interests are in the areas of social media marketing, online social networks, multichannel retailing customer relationships management, and marketing and public policy.

Her teaching interests are in marketing analytics, marketing research, pricing strategies, marketing strategy, new product development, marketing fundamentals and database marketing.

Rishika received her doctorate in business administration in marketing from the University of California, Irvine; her master’s in economics from the Delhi School of Economics, and her bachelor’s in economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi, India.

Robert Whited, Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting

Robert Whited previously was assistant professor of accounting at the Isenbeg School of Management in Amherst, Massachusetts. Prior to that, he was a research and teaching assistant at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

His research interest focuses on the role of the auditor in efficient capital markets, applied econometrics in accounting research, costs and benefits of financial reporting regulation, and economic incentives influencing auditor selection and auditor performance.

He received his doctorate from the University of Tennessee in 2014; his master of accounting from Wake Forest University in 2008, and his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in 2007. He received his certified public accountant designation in North Carolina, and was an audit associate with EY in 2009-2010.