The Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech will present three Wachovia Distinguished Speakers in February and March.

Paul Maglio, senior manager of service systems research at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., will speak on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 3:30-4:30 p.m., in 1045 Pamplin Hall. His lecture is titled "Services Sciences, Management, and Engineering: A Next Frontier in Education, Innovation, and Economic Growth."

Otis Thomas, dean of the Graves School of Business and Management at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Md., will speak on Thursday, Feb. 16, 3:30-4:30 p.m., in 1045 Pamplin Hall. His lecture is titled, “The Need for Leadership.”

George Nolen, president and CEO of Siemens Corporation and member of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors, is expected to speak in late March. Details of his talk will be announced later.

Maglio’s group encompasses social, cognitive, computer, and business sciences. It aims to create a foundation for basic and applied research on how people work and create value-mechanisms of individual and group behavior, as well as processes, practices and technologies developed to support specific business goals.

Since joining IBM Research in 1995, Maglio has worked on programmable Web intermediaries, attentive user interfaces, multimodal human-computer interaction, and human aspects of autonomic computing. He holds 12 patents and has published more than 60 scientific papers in computer science and cognitive science. He holds a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego.

Thomas has been dean and professor at Morgan State University’s business school since 1988.. He is a member of the Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International International’s board of directors and has chaired one of its accreditation teams. He is also a member of the board of governors of Beta Gamma Sigma, the honor society serving business programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International.

Thomas was previously at Howard University’s business school, where he taught and served in various administrative positions. He received a bachelor’s degree from Fort Valley State College; a master’s degree from Indiana University; and a Ph.D. from American University.

Nolen first joined Siemens in 1982, and today leads the $16.6 billion, 65,000 employee company. Siemens is a leader in healthcare technology and information management, power generation and transmission, automation and controls, lighting, information and communications technology, transportation and building technologies.

The Wachovia Distinguished Speaker series in the Pamplin College is made possible by a grant from Wachovia Bank. Past speakers have included senior executives from Goldman Sachs International, AT&T, GE, IBM, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Ferguson Enterprises.

Virginia Tech’s nationally ranked Pamplin College of Business offers undergraduate and graduate programs in accounting and information systems, business information technology, economics, finance, hospitality and tourism management, management, and marketing. The college emphasizes the development of ethical values and leadership, technology, and international business skills. A member of its marketing faculty directs the interdisciplinary Sloan Foundation Forest Industries Center at Virginia Tech. The college’s other centers focus on business leadership, electronic commerce, and organizational performance. The college is committed to serving business and society through the expertise of its faculty, alumni, and students. It is named in honor of Robert B. Pamplin (Class of 1933), the former CEO of Georgia-Pacific, and his son, businessman and philanthropist Robert B. Pamplin Jr. (Class of 1964).

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