Wake Forest Taps Iacovou to Lead Business School

Photo: flickr.com

Wake Forest University went with an internal candidate to replace Steve Reinemund as dean of the business school, selecting Charles Iacovou (right) to lead the program. Iacovou, currently the school's vice dean, will start July 1. In a release, Dean Reinemund called Iacovou "the natural choice" to make Wake Forest "a world-class school of business."

You can find Iacovou's bio and other credentials by clicking here. And we have included a copy of the letter that Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch sent to announce Iacovou's promotion:


Dear Wake Forest University School of Business Alumni,

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Charles Iacovou has accepted my invitation to serve as the next Dean of the Wake Forest University School of Business, effective July 1. Guided by members of the Board of Trustees, Board of Visitors, faculty and staff, Provost Rogan Kersh chaired a national search for a leader of impeccable experience and an appreciation for the power of a well-rounded business education in a collegiate-university setting. Throughout the process, Dr. Iacovou distinguished himself as the best choice for Wake Forest.

Since joining the School of Business' leadership team in 2007, he has served in a number of senior administrative roles, including Director of the Full-time MBA Program, Senior Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Senior Associate Dean of Faculty. For the past two years, he has served as the School's Vice Dean. In this capacity, he has had oversight responsibility for undergraduate, graduate and non-degree programs. He also has been responsible for faculty affairs, academic centers and all administrative and professional staff functions of the school.

Under his leadership, the School of Business faculty and staff formulated a strategic framework for business education at Wake Forest between 2012-13, which is currently being implemented. This followed Dr. Iacovou's successful efforts to co-lead the integration of the graduate and undergraduate business schools at Wake Forest.

Upon learning of Dr. Iacovou's selection, outgoing Dean of the School of Business and soon-to-be Executive-in-Residence Steve Reinemund said, "Charles is the natural choice to build upon what our faculty and staff envisioned as the ideal model for business education in the 21st Century. I am confident Charles will take Wake Forest to the next level as a world-class school of business."

Before joining Wake Forest University in 2001, Dr. Iacovou led an electronic bank, Laiki eBank, in Europe. Additionally, Dr. Iacovou has provided strategic planning, management consulting, and leadership training services to firms in the financial services, international trade, logistics, media and other industries. As Professor of Management, Dr. Iacovou has received numerous teaching and research awards from students, alumni and faculty.

Dr. Iacovou was a faculty member in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University from 1997 to 1999. He received his Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of British Columbia and his B.S. degree in Business Administration from the University of Vermont. he completed his undergraduate studies with the support of a scholarship administered by the Cyprus Fulbright Commission.

I am excited for and confident in the future of the Wake Forest University School of Business under Dr. Iacovou's leadership. Please join me in congratulating him on his new role.

Sincerely,
Nathan O. Hatch
President

A Look Inside the Mind of a Lego Genius

Last week, I pointed out a video of Nathan Sawaya, a former lawyer in New York who quit his job (and six-figure salary) to become a Lego artist. In 2004, he won Lego's nationwide search for a Master Model Builder, and he now builds commissioned pieces for celebrities like Conan O'Brien and entities such as the New York Public Library.

We recently took the family to see an exhibit of Sawaya's work. It is amazing what you can do with 1.5 million Legos and enough creativity. One thing that I liked about his approach ... he carries a sketch pad with him everywhere so he can jot down ideas whenever they strike! It is a simple and solid idea that we should all employ.

Sawaya has several recurring themes, including the notion of people breaking through the mundane to discover their full potential. Creativity and the power of the human mind also play major roles in his work.

The Lego artist's story, along with his work, brings to mind  the mantra of Wake Forest University's Schools of Business under the leadership of Dean Steve Reinemund: People need to discover their passion and "find their fire" when it comes to pursuing their life's work.

Sawaya has two studios: one in New York and the other in Los Angeles. Each studio houses millions of Lego blocks in assorted colors. Sawaya builds 2D pieces that double as wall art and 3D pieces that look like they could have been created by a three-dimensional printer.

During our tour, we were told that Sawaya does not get any discounts from Lego for his block purchases.

I found that surprising. Lego should find a way to collaborate with Sawaya. Can you imagine the money to be made if they could agree on a licensing deal where Lego gave Sawaya free or discounted blocks in exchange for the rights to market miniature versions of his pieces?

They could either be kits, with smaller Legos to accommodate scale, or molded sculptures to resemble his work.

The photos were taken at the Graham Public Library and Children's Museum in Graham, N.C.

Think Twice Before Reneging on Your Internship

BusinessWeek recently put out an article looking at how business schools are cracking down on students

By Paul Davis

who accept, then back out of, internships. These relationships are critical to MBA programs and administrators are mindful of how reneging on internships can impact a school's reputation.

The publication highlighted an case at Georgia Tech, where two students reneged on their initial internships when better opportunities surfaced. BusinessWeek notes that the students were barred from career services and can no longer meet with career advisers or on-campus recruiters.

Georgia Tech isn't the only business school program that has taken a hard-line stance on internship defectors.

• At Harvard, students who back out of an internship run the risk of losing access to career services and permanent loss of alumni privileges, including reunions.
• MIT's Sloan School of Management also has a policy that can strip a student of recruiting privileges if he or she welshes after accepting a job.
• Wharton has a tough policy that requires you to meet with a member of the school's career management advisory staff even if you are simply thinking about reneging on an accepted offer. "Our goal is not to prevent students from making optimal career choices," the school's policy states. "But rather to counsel students on the handling of this difficult situation to help them minimize the negative impact of their decision."
• Finally, Columbia makes it clear that students who renege must undergo the Dean's Disciplinary Process, where consequences range from receiving a warning to dismissal from the school.

Lessons From a Lego Guru

The other day, I received an email with a video of Nathan Sawaya, a former corporate lawyer who quit his job to focus exclusively on playing with Legos. Playing is quite an exaggeration ... Sawaya has his own website and creates amazing brick sculptures from a variety of businesses, nonprofits and celebrities. His work is on display at museums.

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In the following video, he discusses his transition, sharing some sound advice for people who want to abandon their routine and alter the trajectory of their careers. His talk ties in nicely with a blog from a couple of years ago that covered a talk from a high-ranking Lego executive at Wake Forest University.

Sawaya's talk is part of an 11-minute video that is well worth watching:

How Jim Early Realized His Passion for Barbecue

I love to hear stories about people who, over time, discover a way to devote the time and effort necessary to fully realize the potential behind their passions. I recently posted a couple of blogs about Nathan Sawata, a former corporate attorney who abandoned his profession to pursue a career (and lifestyle) as a Lego sculptor. You can revisit my posts on Sawata, and watch a speech he gave, here ... and here.

Earlier today, I had the pleasure of listening to another former lawyer, Jim Early, discuss how he eventually left his law practice after 40+ years to devote his life to cooking. More specifically, he commits his time to promoting barbecue (or barbeque or BBQ, depending on where you're from).

Photo: www.jimearly.com

In a nutshell, Early decided around 2000 to research the art of barbecue in North Carolina. He would work 16-hour days Monday through Thursday as a trial attorney, then ride off in his Blazer in search of BBQ joints across the state. Over seven months in 2001, he drove 22,000 miles, ate at nearly 230 barbecue restaurants (both East and West styles) and invested more than 4,000 hours writing a book on the business.

Early had a great observation from his travels, which included every county in the state. He would start every Friday morning finding people and asking them where they went to go eat barbecue. What did he find? That most of the spots had horrible food. Early, an experienced attorney, realized that he was asked people the wrong question.

As it turned out, many people sent him to the closest restaurant ... or the cheapest because that was what they had the time or money to invest in dining. So he quickly changed his question, asking people where they would go to eat BBQ if they were celebrating a special occasion, such as a birthday. The results were much more reliable after that.

Amazing how your results can vary, and your projects can falter or fail, if you are asking people the wrong questions. This is applicable in so many areas: marketing, sales, R&D.

I am also quick to seize on stories that help me better understand various business, so I paid extra attention when Early discussed what it takes for a barbecue shack to produce authentic pit-cooked BBQ. Of the 228 places he ate, only 30 actually used a fire pit to prepare their barbecue (though many tried to give the appearance that they did).

Why did only 13% of the barbecue shacks in the sample use pits to cook? Look no further than costs and liability. According to Early, it can take up to four years to train a pitmaster (the person who oversees the cooking) and then you have to pay them. Restaurateurs also have to buy costly chimney filtration systems, clean up ash regularly and carry extra insurance for pit-cooked BBQ.

So Early found that a number of places would advertise pit-cooked but would actually just toss a little pork fat on an otherwise dormant pit to throw off an "authentic" smell. "Things aren't always what they seem," he said.

Let's go back to the topic of passion. About five years after researching and writing his book, Early took the initiative to form the North Carolina Barbecue Society. Less than a year later, seeing a need for the fledgling group, he quit his law practice after 43 years to devote full-time attention to the society.

These types of stories are encouraging for me as I look to pursue other passions, whether it is blogging and social media or my fledgling interest in beer brewing (which I hope to write more about as I learn more and make my first batch). It is certainly worth everyone's time to regularly evaluate their careers and assess whether their current trajectory is in line with their passions!