Faculty
Faculty Leadership
Professor Thomas Boyle
Dr. Thomas Boyle is a Professor of Management at the University of Southern Florida at Captiva (USF-Captiva) an innovative, accredited nonprofit institution of higher education committed to providing transformative education to students worldwide. With a passion for student success and a focus on fostering positive mindsets for the future, Dr. Boyle's research interests span leadership, entrepreneurship, ethical leadership, and creativity and imagination.
His pioneering work encompasses the development of groundbreaking learning and education models, designing customized courses that nurture unique needs and cultivate the exceptional qualities of mind and character among students. The MBA and Minds for the Future Program stands as a testament to his dedication to shaping exceptional individuals.
Dr. Boyle's expertise extends beyond academia, as evidenced by his authorship of the book "The Wonderbox: Making of an Innovator and Entrepreneur." His contributions to entrepreneurship discourse include articles and keynote presentations at prestigious institutions like the Chinese Academy of Management in Beijing and the Organization for Economic Development (OECD) in Trento, Italy.
Prior to joining the University of Southern Florida (USF-Captiva) Dr. Boyle held academic positions at renowned universities. At Pennsylvania State University, he spearheaded the design of the university's first Business Entrepreneurship program and served as a faculty member of the School of Engineering team that created a new minor in Entrepreneurship Engineering. ProfessorBoyle was a Visiting Professor at the International University of Monaco (IUM) as well as a Visiting Professor at the Insternational Summer University in Austria where he taught international students from over 25 different countries.
Dr. Boyle's entrepreneurial acumen and leadership skills were instrumental in the remarkable revenue growth of the MBA program at Seton Hill University, where he served as Assistant Professor and Director. His expertise in strategic management, global business environments, organizational behavior, creative leadership, and ethical leadership further enriched his teaching experience at Point Park University's MBA program.
Dr. Boyle's commitment to international engagement is evident in his role as a Visiting Scholar and Member of the Regional Advisory Board at the European Union Center of Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh. His dedication to fostering global learning and collaboration is an invaluable asset to the University of Southern Florida at Captiva and its students. From a business perspective, Professor Thomas Boyle was Director of Human Resources for the Carnegie Group- spin off of Carnegie Mellon University in the field of Software Development and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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Professor SamIR Nassif
Dr. Sam Nassif is Professor of Management at the University of New York in Prague and teaches courses in Leadership at the executive and management level. He is a member of the “Strategic Council for Attractiveness” of the Principality of Monaco government in the South of France.
Dr. Nassif is a former Provost and Dean of the American-European University in Monaco and the President of the “Centre for Research and Development” in Monaco. He has also directed and chaired panels for master’s and doctoral dissertations. His experience is broad in higher education as well as in the industry. He is consulting with a diverse group of companies in the area of leadership and organizational change.
Prior to becoming a professor, Dr. Nassif had twenty years of experience as a leader in organizations in industry and business. By working in the United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Monaco he has benefited from exposure to broad international cultures.
After completing his engineering studies at the “St Joseph University - Ecole Centrale de Lyon”, Dr. Nassif went to obtain a Master of Science at the “American University of Beirut” before finalizing his Ph.D. at the “University of Salford” in the U.K.
Dr. Nassif joined the I.C.F. (International Coach Federation) and earned a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential. He is a graduate of the International Coach Academy (I.C.A.). His field of expertise is in leadership and organizational change. He conducts education and training programs for management and has expertise in coaching managers and leaders.
On a personal level, Dr. Nassif actively participates in social organizations including the Knights of Sepulchre, Committee of Bioethics and at the Board of Administration of the Boy Scouts of Monaco, as well as the Christian Leaders and Entrepreneurs Association.
Finally, leaders who attest to his character have noted: honesty, integrity, respect, trust, patience, humor, and spirituality.
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Professor Jay Mitra
Jay Mitra is Professor of Business Enterprise and Innovation and Director of the Venture Academy at Essex Business School, University of Essex in the United Kingdom. He has acted as a Scientific Adviser to the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) as the Head of the Scientific Committee on Entrepreneurship for the OECDs Centre for Entrepreneurship and the LEED (Local Economic and Employment) Program at its Trento Centre and in Paris. He is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Luneburg, Germany, and has held Visiting Professorships at the University Externado. Colombia, the Institute of Management Technology, India, the School of Management, Fudan University, and the School of Public Policy at Jilin University, both in China, at Bologna University, Italy and EDHEC Business School, France. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the U.K. Jay Mitra also leads the International Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF), a unique network and forum for researchers, policy makers and business practitioners working on entrepreneurship, innovation and regional development issues. The IEF has organized seventeen internationally refereed conferences to date around the world, bringing together academic researchers, reflective practitioners and dynamic policy makers. Together they explore creatively the many dimensions of idea generation, opportunity development, resource mobilization, capability development, design-led practice, and sustainability which underpin entrepreneurial and innovative activity across silos and through networks.
Educated at Presidency College, Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, both in Kolkata, India and at the University of Stirling, UK, Professor Mitra trained in the private sector in the UK, worked as a Principal Officer for local government also in the UK, specializing in economic and business development, and taught at 3 other universities before joining the University of Essex. At Essex, he established three unique and highly successful Schools of Entrepreneurship and Business (SEB) in 2005 where he developed a unique portfolio of postgraduate programs on entrepreneurship and innovation and their significance for the private, public and social sectors, together with the first doctoral program in Entrepreneurship at the University. This achievement preceded his contribution to the creation of Essex Business School in 2008. He also created the first International Centre for Entrepreneurship Research (ICER) leading it since its inception in 2006, and which has now morphed into The Venture Academy, scoping entrepreneurship and innovation beyond research to generate new forms of learning and foster economic development, all involving students, academic staff, and institutional stakeholders. In 2014-15 he re-established the MBA program into a successful and viable project, increasing the student intake six times, and revised and reaccredited the course. These achievements follow the setting up of pioneering Centres for Entrepreneurship at two other universities in the UK. He has been involved as a principal investigator and as a collaborator in a wide number of international R&D and Knowledge Exchange projects in partnerships with universities, business organizations and public bodies from around the world.
He is the editor of the new Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, published by Sage. He is a member of various editorial boards of international refereed journals.
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Professor Nickos Daskalakis
Dr Nikos Daskalakis is Assistant Professor in Finance and Accounting in the Department of Public Administration at Panteion University in Greece. Dr. Daskalakis is an experienced researcher, having published in numerous top-rated academic journals and his publications enjoy a high level of awareness with more than 1,000 citations. His current scientific interests lie in the area of crowdfunding, blockchain applications in finance and SMEs access to finance. Professor Daskalakis has taught entrepreneurship, business planning, and leadership for new ventures at the International Summer University in Austria.
Dr. Daskalakis has held consulting positions at top European bodies for matters that regard financial services. He was a member of the European Crowdfunding Stakeholder Forum (ECSF), assisting the European Commission in developing policies for the area of crowdfunding (2014-2016). He served as a member of the Financial Services User Group (FSUG), consulting with the European Commission on matters that refer to users of financial services (2010-2016). Lastly, he was a member of the Banking Stakeholder Group (BSG) of the European Banking Authority (2013-2018), consulting with the Authority on actions concerning regulatory and implementing technical standards, guidelines and recommendations.
Dr. Daskalakis combines academic research with practical experience. He was Head of Market and Entrepreneurship Development at the Small Enterprises Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (IME-GSEVEE). Part of his role was to design and implement several consulting projects for SMEs and to represent the Confederation in various domestic and international areas for matters that mainly regard SMEs access to finance. Dr. Daskalakis is engaged in consulting with the Confederation relative to SME financing.
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Professor Claude Varley
Professor Varley teaches in the Business School at the University of New York-Prague.
From a business perspective, he is the President of Varley & C°, Monaco and Somodi in the Principality of Monaco in the South of France.
With thirty years of managerial experience in industry (Assistant to the Vice-President, Control and Finance, American-Standard, Europe, President of American Hospital Supply Corporation, Benelux, President of Coca-Cola bottling companies in the south of France), concurrent with fifteen years of lecturing and consulting in Accounting, Finance, and Human Resources, Claude Varley has formerly taught at IUKB, Switzerland and UNYB, Belgrade, Serbia, and still heavily involved in teaching at multiple universities and business schools in Europe (NYC in Athens, Greece, UNYP in Prague, Czech Republic, UNYT in Tirana, Albania, and IUM in Monaco). He also delivers seminars on management in Switzerland and Albania. He has developed courses and seminars in Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Financial Management, Budgeting, Auditing, Internal Control, and Executive Search. He is a former President of the Board of Directors of the American International School in Nice, of the American Chamber of Commerce Côte d’Azur/Monaco and a former Vice-President of the Monaco Ambassadors Club.
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Adjunct Professor Arta Istrefi
Ms. Arta Istrefi is a Country Officer for the Swiss Entrepreneur Program in Kosovo. She is teaching, mentoring and connecting women entrepreneurs to resources that can help them succeed. Arta has extensive experience in start-ups in Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegouina providing guidance on new venture creation. She is a PHD candidate at South Eastern European University.
Publications:
• Accepted online; Istrefi A., Komodromos M., Zeqiri J., Hasani V., The role of entrepreneurial marketing and digital transformation on women’s entrepreneurial intentions in Kosovo
• http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJTEL.2024.10063470
• Istrefi-Jahja, A., & Zeqiri, J. (2022). The Impact of Digital Marketing and Digital Transformation on Brand Promotion and Brand Positioning in Kosovo’s Enterprises. ENTRENOVA - ENTerprise REsearch InNOVAtion, 7(1), 244–255. https://doi.org/10.54820/UPQN1850
• V. Ramadani, A. Istrefi-Jahja, J. Zeqiri and D. Ribeiro-Soriano, "COVID-19 and SMEs Digital Transformation," in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 70, no. 8, pp. 2864-2873, Aug. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TEM.2022.3174628. keywords: {Companies; COVID-19;Social networking (online);Pandemics;Industries;Mathematical models;Loading;Brand positioning; brand promotion (BP);digital marketing (DM);digital transformation (DT);Kosovo},
Participation and presentation at the International Turkic World Congress on Social, Humanities, Administrative and Educational Sciences with tittle ‘Empowering women entrepreneurs :A digital transformation approach in marketing perspective’ of authors Arta Istrefi, Vjosë Latifi, and Agron Hajdari, 11-13 May 2024; you can access to the Proceedings Books: https://www.turkicworldcongress.com/;
Fetai Besnik; Istrefi Arta; DO WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS ACCELERATE ECONOMIC GROWTH: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS APPROACH. SEEU, Tetovo, RNM, 2022
11. Awards:
Winner of the university scholarship for all years of studies at the University of Pristina "Hasan Pristina" at the Faculty of Economics.
Winner of Business Case Competition, WUS Austria, Vienna 2019
Winner of Chevening Scholarship
12. Mobility
Completion of mobility at POLIS University in Albania (2022
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THOUGHT LEADERS
In the MBA program, the published works of the following “thought leaders” such as articles, books, videos are used for instructional purposes in the MBA program.
PETER DRUCKER
Father of American Management
Claremont Graduate University
Peter Drucker Institute
Charles Handy
Managing Philosopher
Former Professor
London Business School
NANCY KOEHN
Professor
Harvard Business School
TERESA AMABILE
Professor
Harvard Business School
JAMES MARCH
Emeritus Professor
Stanford School of Business
DANIEL GOLEMAN
Author of the best-selling book, Emotional
Intelligence
RONALD HEIFETZ
Lecturer in Public Leadership at Harvard University
Kennedy School
HOWARD GARDENER
Professor
Harvard Graduate School of Education
JOHN KOTTER
Emeritus Professor
Harvard Business School
DAVID MC CULLOUGH
Historian, Pulitzer Prize Winner
Warren Bennis
Emeritus Professor of Business
Stanford University
Materials in the MBA courses are adapted from “thought leaders “such as articles, cases, and books.
"We make discoveries, breakthroughs, and inventions in part because we are free enough to take risks, and fail if necessary. Private spaces are often where we extract the gains from attempts and misses."
--Professor Sarah Lewis, The Rise
Harvard University
African and African American Studies