Graduate Programs : MBA : Sustainable Business : Faculty
Murray Silverman
Professor Silverman is a professor of management in the College of Business. He teaches in the areas of business & society, strategic management, and business & the natural environment. A primary focus of his teaching and research has been the impact of business organizations on the natural environment and what they are doing and can do to become more environmentally sustainable. In 1995, he developed a graduate seminar—BUS 857: Business Management and Environmental Leadership—which he teaches every Spring semester. In 2000, he developed an undergraduate course—BUS 450: The Greening of Business—which is a General Studies course, an elective for College of Business students, and an elective for Environmental Studies majors. It is offered every fall semester. He received his M.S. in Industrial Administration from Purdue University’s Krannert School and his Ph.D. in Business from Stanford University.
Tom Thomas
Professor Thomas is an associate professor in the College of Business. He teaches in the area of the social, political, ethical and legal environment of business. He began his academic career as an assistant professor in the University of Washington's School of Business Administration, where he spent eight years teaching courses in business, government, and society, environmental management, and the politics of business regulation. While there, he conducted research primarily in business political strategy and corporate environmental management, and co-founded the first MBA Environmental Management program in the U.S. He received both his Ph.D. (in Business & Public Policy) and his M.B.A. from University of California, Berkeley. He also received his Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Michigan.
Bruce Paton
Professor Paton is an associate professor in the College of Business. He teaches in the areas of business & society, business & the natural environment, and social dimensions of sustainability. His early career included experience in government and in environmental consulting. At Hewlett-Packard, he ran a corporate product stewardship program and led training and business planning processes for the corporate manufacturing and corporate environmental health and safety groups. His primary research interests focus on corporate voluntary environmental initiatives and innovative policies to influence corporate environmental performance. He recently developed an undergraduate course MGMT 655: Business Innovation to Meet Emerging Needs—which focuses on business responses to global poverty and emerging markets. He received his Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from U.C. Santa Cruz and his M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Peter Melhus
Professor Melhus is an assistant professor in the College of Business. He teaches in the area of the social, political, ethical and legal environment of business. In 1998 he completed a 25-year career with Pacific Gas & Electric Company, the last eight directing environmental policy for the company. His primary research interests focus on institutionalized incentives for corporate social and environmental responsibility and the relationship of corporations to their external constituents. While lecturing at San Jose State University in 2005, he developed a graduate course which helped students understand why public and private-sector environmental planning is in the self-interest of the business community. He received his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from U.C. Berkeley and his M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.
Denise Kleinrichert
Professor Kleinrichert is an assistant professor in the College of Business. She teaches in the areas of business ethics, and business, society and sustainability. Her career includes corporate experience in risk management and human resources in the insurance, hospital, and banking industries. She has published in the areas of corporate community initiatives, corporate social responsibility and accountability, sustainable business, MBA business education, and board director risk and transparency, with continuing work in student attitudes regarding corporate responsibilities. She has developed and taught undergraduate and graduate business ethics, society and sustainability courses at the University of South Florida and SFSU. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Philosophy, and M.L.A. in Social & Political Thought from the University of South Florida. She has her B.A. in Economics from Indiana University.
