Michael Sullivan received Ph.D. in Finance from Florida State University in 1989, an MBA from the University of Florida in 1982, and a B.S. in Accounting from St. John Fisher College in 1979. His publications in academic journals are related to corporate governance and international finance and include publications in the following journals: Journal of Banking and Finance, Financial Management, the Financial Review, the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, and the Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance. Dr. Sullivan was a Fulbright Scholar to the Philippines in both 1998 and 2005. Additional teaching experience includes Florida State University, Auburn University, the University of Hawaii, De La Salle University (Manila, Philippines), Rangsit Univeristy (Bangkok, Thailand), and Thammasat University (Bangkok, Thailand).
What inspires you to teach?
Teaching provides me an opportunity to have some impact on young adults. My goal for each class is to motivate students to learn the logical underpinnings of finance and find ways these concepts can be applied to their career and personal lives.
How do your research pursuits benefit students in your classroom?
My research revolves around the investigation of corporate governance issues for both domestic and international economies. This provides me certain insights and examples I use to invigorate my lectures.
When you are in a slump for inspiration, what do you do?
I go home and hang out with my 5-year old son. That puts everything into perspective and I find his imagination inspiring.
How do you motivate students who are in a slump?
I try to get them to think big picture and to try to reduce difficult topics into logical, manageable parts.
When a student comes to you and they know they want to major in business, but just aren't sure about a specialty, how do you help them?
I describe what I know about the different areas of business and career possibilities, and I encourage them to get as many points of view as possible. I discuss my general philosophy that what the student should be doing is setting themselves up for a career in a profession they are passionate about. In many cases a university education is just the first step in the exploration process in finding that career that fits best.
If you were Donald Trump:
What criteria would you use in picking your team of winning young apprentices?
I would look for someone with passion, curiosity, and confidence in their abilities.
What notable business executive would you fire right now? Why?
Yahoos CEO Jerry Yang. I believe he has committed the cardinal sin of managing a corporation, which is that he has made major decisions that are not in the best interests of Yahoos owners (stockholders). Jerry Yang is tasked with running Yahoo in owners interests, but through his refusal to listen to takeover proposals and negotiate with Microsoft he has greatly hurt Yahoos stock value.
How do you infuse real world examples into your curriculum?
This is a very easy task when teaching finance. One can look at The Wall Street Journal or various online sites and pull out numerous real world examples that pertain to the days topic. For example, I often use Steve Wynn as an example when discussing corporate governance and how the separation of management and control is oftentimes distorted.
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