Although this campaign has concluded, it's easy to give to Ohio University and support the The Cynthia and Hugh Sherman Scholarship.
In Summer 2019, Dr. Hugh Sherman announced his intent to step down as dean of Ohio University’s College of Business at the end of the 2019-20 academic year. Due to COVID-19 and its impact on the search process, Sherman stayed onboard, providing leadership to the college and supporting the campus community in these unprecedented times.
Sherman has served as dean and the Corlett Chair of Strategy for the last 13 years. In those 13 years, he has brought the Ohio University College of Business to new heights, invigorated student development programs, and left lasting impacts on the community.
Sherman assumed the role of dean in August 2007. As the dean, he focused on student outcomes including professional competencies, experiential education, and career placement. OHIO's College of Business was one of the first business colleges to make it a requirement that all graduating students required an internship or internship-like experience.
Building on the success of the Ralph and Luci Schey Sales Centre, Sheman created three more centers to offer professional development and leadership opportunities, create access to real business projects, as well as access to internships. To further assist OHIO's Business Bobcats, he recruited top talent to build a best practice career services function within Copeland Hall.
The result? The COB increased the enrollment of undergraduate students from 1,650 students to more than 2,600. In the last year that Bloomberg Business Week completed the rankings (2016), the COB was listed as the 15th best undergraduate public business college. This ranking was heavily based on student outcomes including student placement at the time of and 90 days from graduation, along with recruiter’s evaluation of the quality of graduates they hired.
Sherman also identified the opportunity to develop a suite of graduate programs to serve working professionals who were traveling and bringing up young families. The result was that our graduate enrollments went from under 50 to more than 1,000 students. This made OHIO an early-mover into the hybrid and on-line modality for graduate programs as well as helped to develop closer partnerships with major corporations throughout Ohio.
Senior Brody Gilliand — a marketing, MIS, and sales student who's also co-chair of The Ralph and Luci Schey Sales Centre — shares the impact Sherman has had on him and the COB.
I never realized someone at Dean Sherman’s level would be able to sit down with a high school student and their family and connect the way he does. It is so inspiring to see the way he can articulate the strategy of our college to the family while at the same time making it relevant and exciting to the student by connecting it all together with the student experience. Prospective families leave meetings with Dean Sherman feeling inspired, impressed, educated, and most importantly, cared for. I always LOVED doing visits with him, I felt like we made the best team!
Dean Sherman does a wonderful job listening to advisors outside of the college and keeping up with rapidly changing industries. This is incredibly important as those industry professionals are providing insights into the skills necessary for Ohio business students to have when they graduate. Because Dean Sherman listens and works with the leaders in the college to implement these insights into our curriculum, students have classes that are more valuable and relevant, creating more opportunities, ultimately giving us a stronger ROI on our education!
The College of Business has experienced much success over the last several years including its recent reaccreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). In addition to recognizing the college’s positive culture and research progress, the accrediting team also commended the process and commitment to the college’s five-year strategic plan.
Today, OHIO’s College of Business is home to more than 3,800 Business Bobcats, more than 150 full-time faculty and staff, and more than 30,000 alumni around the globe. The college has not only earned top rankings for its undergraduate and graduate programs, but also for its centers of excellence including the Schey Sales Centre, Center for Entrepreneurship, AECOM Center for Sports Administration, and Robert D. Walter Center for Strategic Leadership.
“I’m grateful to Ohio University for the opportunities I’ve been given to make a difference in the lives of our students,” Sherman said. “I’m confident that the college will continue to deliver an outstanding experience for our students.”
In a note to COB faculty and staff, Dean Sherman shared his confidence that the college is on the right track. “We’ve made great progress together,” Dr. Sherman said. “We’re recruiting more students, and more diverse students, than ever before. We’re launching new graduate and undergraduate programs every year, all while improving the student experience. Faculty are producing meaningful research and establishing important relationships with their students. Our retention and graduation rates remain some of the highest across campus, and our graduates are earning outstanding employment opportunities.”
Over the course of his career, Sherman has inspired countless students, alumni, and contacts with his leadership style. His impact has inspired a group of alumni and friends to offer matching gifts.
Thanks to the generosity of this group, gifts are being matched 1:1 up to $30,000.
That's why now is a great time to make a gift in honor of Dean Sherman. Give today to double the impact of your gift — thanks to the generosity of your fellow Bobcats.