Colorado State University Professor of Marketing Named New Associate Dean for Academic and Executive Programs

Ajay Menon, associate professor of marketing in the College of Business at Colorado State University, recently was named associate dean for Academic and Executive Programs. Menon, whose expertise is in customer care management, is focusing his energies on two important areas: examining all aspects of the academic program for the College and serving as a liaison from the college to the corporate world.

"For the College of Business to move from its current Top 100 rating to a Top 50 rating, the College will need to achieve a new level of excellence by national standards," said Dan Costello, dean of the College of Business. "The new associate dean for Academic and Executive Programs must lead this effort both on and off campus. Professor Menon, with his outstanding accomplishments in the marketing field, is very well suited for this job.

The role of corporate liaison is a new responsibility for this position, but a very important one, Menon said. By keeping his finger on the pulse of the needs of the marketplace, the college will be better able to shape student curriculum and tailor programs to meet the needs of both the students and business.

Menon said that the choice location of the university and the vibrant economy of the region are attracting more students to the College’s graduate and undergraduate programs.

"We have an excellent group of faculty and staff who are committed to the academic integrity of our programs," Menon said. "I’m confident that collectively they will help make the business program at Colorado State one of the premiere educational opportunities in the country."

Menon, who believes an important goal of the university is to "teach students the skills for learning," has been teaching international marketing, strategic market planning and new product development and management at Colorado State since 1991. He was named Professor of the Year in the College of Business for 1993-94.

Menon is a strong advocate of research. One article he wrote, "Enviropreneurial Marketing Strategy: The Emergence of Corporate Environmentalism as Market Strategy," recently was named by the World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute as one of the most frequently cited articles on environmental issues in business. The article was published in the January 1997 issue of the "Journal of Marketing."

His research papers won awards from the American Marketing Association in 1999, and his work in product quality won a national award for best research paper in the "Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science."

Current research interests include examining the motivations and outcomes of customer loyalty behavior across industry types; understanding sources of effectiveness in strategy implementation; and analyzing the performance effects of time-based strategies.

Menon cited the learning environment and the impact of education on people’s lives as his motivation to teach.

"When you’re around students, you have the added bonus of staying young mentally," he said. "University life is an ideal place to exercise intellectual freedom and to experiment with ideas."

Menon received a bachelor’s in chemistry from the University of Bombay in India in 1982, his master’s in business administration from the University of Texas in 1986, and his doctorate in marketing from the University of North Texas-Denton in 1991.