Jeff Conant, department head and professor of marketing at Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday, June 30. Conant had built a career at Mays over the past 23 years, joining the faculty just prior to graduating from a PhD program at Arizona State University in 1986.
If a school can be judged by the success of its graduates, Mays Business School has something to brag about. While many Mays alumni have gone on to be successful business people, marketplace leaders, and academicians, a handful of top PhD graduates have achieved an exalted position that has a direct impact on the business leaders of tomorrow: dean of a business school.
Jeff Conant, former college athlete and current head of the marketing department at Mays, understands a coach’s motivating power and has harnessed it for his department. Since 2006, he has invited members of the A&M athletic department coaching staff to speak at the annual kickoff event for the marketing faculty and staff.
Improving the quality of education at Mays Business School at Texas A&M University is the goal of the differential tuition proposal, which will take effect in the fall 2008 semester. The plan involves a $610 increase for juniors and seniors in the business school each semester in addition to their university tuition.
There was a priceless expression of surprise on his face when Mays Business School Distinguished Professor of marketing Leonard Berry turned away from his students to find Elsa Murano, president of Texas A&M University, had entered his classroom. President Murano interrupted Berry’s lecture to present the speechless instructor with one of the university’s highest recognitions, the Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence award.
Texas A&M Distinguished Professors of Marketing Leonard L. Berry and Rajan Varadarajan have been selected as recipients of the 2008 Paul D. Converse Award. This honor from the American Marketing Association is bestowed once every four years to five scholars who have made a significant contribution to the science of marketing through their lifetime of research.
Jeff Conant, professor of marketing at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School, was recently honored by the Society for Marketing Advances (SMA) with their 2007 Sherwin-Williams Distinguished Teaching Professor Award.
