News & Events
Associate Professor Steve Lawton, MBA, named Oregon Executive MBA Academic Director
by Gregg Morris
Synergy as a business strategy is a concept so fundamental that it's become axiomatic to a successful corporate strategy. Ironically, few national MBA programs have adopted it as integral to their own academic pursuits.
Oregon Executive MBA has proven the practicality and importance of just such an educational relationship, at the post-graduate level.
Drawing a top "All-Star" faculty from three universities (The University of Oregon, Portland State University and Oregon State University) has brought more than just erudition and business savvy to hand for students of the highly-regarded Oregon program.
It's well-situated in the high-tech mecca Beaverton, Oregon to serve experienced leaders in semiconductor and test-instrument industries as well as professionals in small, family-run endeavors.
Oregon Executive MBA stands out as one of a handful of partnership—or "consortium"—MBA programs in the country, and for almost twenty years it has thrived under an academic model that few others have attempted.
This year, Associate Professor Steven J. Lawton, MBA, has taken the reins as Academic Director of the cooperative program. "It's all about relationships," says the new Director and MacArthur Foundation research leader, "and grasping your core competency."
In this case, that means focusing the best business practitioners and teachers on the Oregon Executive MBA students.
Since all of the students in the Executive program are established managers and leaders within their current companies, they bring considerable experience and insight to their studies. It's a powerful complement to the concept of "students teaching students," according to Lawton.
