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 Dr. Etta G. Baranoff – Named Distinguished
Scholar
Dr. Etti G. Baranoff is an associate professor
of insurance and finance and has been teaching in the Virginia
Commonwealth University School of Business since 1995. She
teaches insurance, pensions, employee benefits and finance
topics to graduate and undergraduate classes. Prior to her
academic career, Dr. Baranoff was a Texas insurance regulator
for 12 years with specialty in rate regulation, solvency
studies and modeling and legislative issues. Her career also
includes experience with a life insurer, a Texas public risk
pool and consulting.
Dr. Baranoff lives in Austin and commutes to teach at VCU.
During those flights she completed many of her published
academic research and writing of the book “Risk Management
and Insurance.” that was published in 2003. Although
a textbook designed to reflect the dynamic nature of the
field of risk management and insurance for college students,
it also serves as a desktop reference for industry professionals
nationwide.
She regards the body of her work as “An Intellectual
Pursuit into Risk: Its Attributes and Impact on Insurers,
Firms, and Individuals.” Her ideas were summed up in
an interview with A. M. Best: “In the Spotlight: Professor
Says New Risk Management Textbook Connects With Holistic
Problem Solving” BestWeek and BestDay News on the
week of Sep. 2, 2003 and “Greater Than the Sum of the
Parts,” in Best’s Review, November 2003.
Dr. Baranoff noted in her Journal of Insurance Regulation (2004)
publication that “While risk and its management have
always been underlying concerns in business, government,
and private life, they have since attained new prominence
in a post-9/11 world. The magnitude of that day’s man-made
catastrophe changed the national consciousness, injecting
a new urgency into the fields of security and risk mitigation.
The increased awareness and intensity manifested itself in
the federal government’s move towards centralization
of homeland security …. The calls for centralization
of insurance regulation via federal chartering have intensified
as well, and a more holistic approach appears to be gaining
prominence.”
Through her work in academic, practical, and educational
areas of this field, she seeks to understand risk and explain
it effectively. Her research deals with risk on various levels
and intends to help management and public policy makers make
fundamental decisions. Her academic work began with creating
models to detect potential insurers’ insolvencies.
Her ongoing research looks at relationships among risk elements
of insurers; financial risk (capital structure), asset risk,
product risk, corporate structure risk, etc. She incorporates
the financial economic theories of transaction cost economics,
agency conflict theory, bankruptcy and regulatory costs hypotheses
with credible statistical models into her research.
Her third line of research moved the lens of the study
of risk into the determinants of asset allocations in the
life insurance industry and the performance of these assets.
She and her co-author regard this line of study as a breakthrough
in that they regard the investment portfolio of insurers
as one of the nation’s largest mutual fund. Their first
paper on this topic received an award from the International
Insurance Society this past summer (2004) and is published
in the Society’s seminar proceedings. Their second
paper was already presented in various forms. They just began
a new line of work looking into the impact of rating changes
of insurers on the market place.
Dr. Baranoff has spoken in many insurance and finance forums
and won various awards for her research. She is a member
of the prestigious Risk Theory Seminar and has published
in the Journal of Risk and Insurance, The Journal of Banking
and Finance, the Journal of Insurance Regulation and Contingencies
among others.
She received her Ph.D. in Finance with minors in insurance
and statistics from the University of Texas at Austin in
1993, and a BA in Economics and Statistics, University of
Tel Aviv, Israel, 1971; and is a Fellow of Life Management
Institute designation and distinction. She also earned a
teaching certificate in Social Sciences from University of
Tel Aviv in 1974.
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 Dr. Allen S. Lee - Received Award of Excellence
Allen S. Lee, Ph.D., is professor of Information
Systems and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies
in the School of Business at Virginia Commonwealth University.
He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral
degrees from Cornell University, the University of California
at Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Currently he is also Visiting Scholar at Indiana University
and holds appointments as Visiting Professor at the London
School of Economics and Honorary Professor at Queen’s
University Belfast.
His articles, book chapters, editorials, and conference
presentations have examined the use of research methods in
the scientific study of information systems, including interpretive,
positivist, qualitative, and case study methods. He has conducted
research seminars in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Hong
Kong SAR, the Netherlands, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa,
Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and throughout the United
States.
Prior to his appointment with tenure at VCU in 1998, he was Paul Paré Professor
of MIS at McGill University, where he also served as Associate Dean. He was
also Associate Professor of Information Systems at the University of Cincinnati
and Associate Professor of Management Science at Northeastern University.
An expert on case studies of information systems, Dr. Lee
recently retired from the MIS Quarterly editorial
board after 15 years, during which he served as associate
editor, senior editor, and editor-in-chief. He remains a
senior editor of MIS Quarterly Executive, which
targets executives as well as academicians.
Dr. Lee reads French and speaks Cantonese, a dialect of
Chinese.
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 Dr. Randall G. Sleeth – Honored for Distinguished
Service
Dr. Randy Sleeth, Associate Professor
of Management, came to VCU in 1975 and has worked with more
than fifty organizations, consulting, training, and speaking.
These groups have ranged from the United States Army to small
local clubs and churches, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra,
state agencies including Virginia Department of Mental Health
and Mental Retardation and the Virginia Department of Transportation,
and corporations.
Dr. Sleeth helped launch the School of Business Ph.D. program,
developing and teaching courses in Motivation and Leadership
and in Research Methods. He has served on fifteen VCU dissertation
committees and mentored students as researchers and teachers.
Dr. Sleeth has developed and taught masters-level and undergraduate-level
Organizational Behavior and undergraduate Project Management.
After serving on the task force that developed the VCU Fast
Track Executive M.B.A. Program, Dr. Sleeth has regularly
taught several sessions of the Project Leadership Module.
Dr. Sleeth has served as President of the VCU Chapter of
Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honor Society, faculty advisor
to Delta Sigma Pi Business Professional Fraternity, Committee
Chair for a local troop of the Boy Scouts of America, Coach
for the Chesterfield County Youth Basketball Leagues, and
local boards of directors. He serves on the Teaching Theme
Committee of the Academy of Management and on the Board of
Directors of the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society,
as Chairman of the Finance Committee and as official photographer
for the Society (including its award-winning brochure). Dr.
Sleeth regularly reviews Organizational Behavior and Project
Management textbooks for several publishers, and he reviews
conference papers for academic organizations. He has authored
or co-authored over 60 conference papers and journal articles.
Dr. Sleeth reviews for The Leadership Quarterly, Journal
of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Journal of Management
Education, Journal of Managerial Issues, and he serves as
a co-editor of the Organization Management Journal.
Dr. Sleeth has served as the Director of Faculty Multimedia
Support for the School of Business. His national team of
faculty have presented a series of Professional Development
Workshops at the Academy of Management Meetings on the use
of technology in teaching Organizational Behavior.
Dr. Sleeth’s internal service activities at VCU have
included the Institutional Review Board, Faculty Research
Grants-in-Aid Committee, Vice-President of the Faculty Senate,
Chairman of the University Council on Faculty Affairs, School
of Business Faculty Excellence Grant Review Committee, Business & Engineering
Task Force, Faculty Evaluator for the Biomedical Engineering
Senior Design Oral Symposium, Masters Program Committee,
Fast Track Program Committee, Department of Management Curriculum
Committee, Project Management Institute Scholarship Selection
Committee, Grade Appeal Committees, University Career Development
Council, and Chairman of Department Search Committees and
Tenure Committees.
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