DU’s Daniels College of Business faculty experts available for many topics
With the holidays upon us, you may be planning stories about holiday travel, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, holiday spending, credit card debt, charitable donations and tax preparations. The University of Denver Daniels College of Business has several experts ready to talk about these issues:
- Employment/HR issues during the holidays
Cindi Fukami, professor of management, is an expert in organizational behavior and human resource management. She can comment on employee productivity during the holidays, end-of-year bonuses,
strikes, lay-offs, unions and labor disputes.
“There are a lot of distractions for employees and employers at this time of year,” Fukami says. “How do employers balance flexibility and compassion while at the same time ensuring productivity among their work forces?”
Note: Cindi is available after Nov. 30.
- Charitable donations, end-of-year giving/planning
Rick Leaman, professor of accountancy, is a tax expert. He’s also an attorney and has served as a tax partner and manager for KPMG Peat Marwick.
Sharon Lassar, director of the School of Accountancy, is a tax expert, publishing working in the Journal of Accountancy, Journal of Taxation and the CPA Journal.
- Holiday travel – airlines, hotels
Karen Xie, assistant professor of hospitality management, is an expert in hospitality technology. She can speak on how technologies such as autonomous cars, digital assistants (e.g., Amazon’s Alexa), and peer-to-peer home-sharing platforms (e.g., Airbnb) will make easy the holiday planning and traveling.
“Finding affordable hotels can be challenging for those planning to travel this holiday season. Review sites like TripAdvisor, Expedia or even Airbnb can be helpful if travelers are savvy. Online reviews from previous customers and replies from the hotel managers (or hosts in Airbnb’s case) can tell a lot about the value of the properties, tricks to secure the most decent deal, the logistical do’s and don’ts for a stay, and the best ways to save money.”
Note: Karen is not available from Dec. 8 – 12.
- Holiday travel – lodging and restaurants
David Corsun, director & associate professor at the Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality management, is an expert on hotel and restaurant trends.
Note: David is traveling Nov. 23-Dec.3, but can be available for a phone interview with advance notice.
Holiday shopping, Black Friday, credit card debt
Ali Besharat, associate professor of marketing, studies consumer behavior. His current projects explore how financial decisions can be translated into sub-optimal choice preference, unhealthy consumption and overspending. He also researches brand alliance, effectiveness of marketing communications and branding within digital environments, competitive advertising and brand phonetics.
Note: Ali will be unavailable Dec. 28-Jan. 2.
- Holiday advertising
Gregory Wagner, teaching associate professor, is a 30-year veteran of the ad wars, serving as creative director at four D’Arcy and Leo Burnett’s offices in St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit and Denver. Wagner believes that creative advertising sells.
“’tis the season to be shopping, retailers hope. Will a healthy stock market spur healthy sales? We’ll certainly see more online shoppers, more stores struggling (Sears, Target, Toys R Us … say it ain’t so, Santa!) and more Thanksgiving Day sales, Black Friday and Cyber Monday marathons.”