About the Previous Author

About Stephen Skripak

Stephen J. Skripak is (retired) Professor of Practice in Management at Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech (2005  – 2021) and former Associate Dean for Graduate Programs (2006-2014). He is a senior executive with 25 years of business leadership experience, including positions as General Manager and Chief Financial Officer with divisions of Fortune 500 companies. His background includes financial services, consumer packaged goods, apparel, and industrial companies, with emphasis in turnaround situations. He was the lead contributor and subject matter expert for the 2016 and 2018 editions of Fundamentals of Business, and reviewed the 2020 and 2022 versions of the book.

Lead Contributor

Ron Poff is Assistant Professor of Management Practice in the Management Department at Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech, where he teaches management courses. He began his career as an enlisted member of the US Navy Reserves before entering his primary career in supply chain operations then sales and marketing, where he served in executive roles with large corporations for over 25 years. As an entrepreneur, he then founded his own marketing agency. His education includes a B.S. in Business Management, M.S. Marketing, and a Graduate Certificate in eMarketing. He is the project lead, chief contributor, and coordinator of contributors for the third (2020) and fourth editions (2022) of Fundamentals of Business.

Contributors to the Fourth Edition

Howard Haines is Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Management at the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. His research includes understanding the successful skills and strategies of experienced/expert entrepreneurs and how they can be used in experiential education to teach novice entrepreneurs. He is the past Associate Director of the Apex Center for Entrepreneurs working with student founders and helping instructors across campus to bring entrepreneurship into their classrooms. He has also set up and taught entrepreneurship training and degree programs at various accelerators and universities. Prior to his time in academia, Howard worked in various leadership roles in startups, small-medium sized businesses, and in larger corporate entities like Amazon and American Express. He is a Ph.D. Candidate in Entrepreneurship and contributed all of the new material to Chapter 7: Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development in the fourth edition of Fundamentals of Business.

John Andy Travers is Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Management at the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech and an Instructor in the Department of Management at Radford University. He holds an MBA from the University of Missouri – Columbia. His work in industry includes working as the General Manager for the Roanoke Valley Wine Company, at US Foods as a Division Director of Operations then as a Regional Director of Ethics and Compliance. He also worked as the Director of Operations for Orvis and worked closely with Orvis UK. He contributed new material for the fourth edition to Chapter 4: Ethics, Chapter 14: Marketing, and Chapters 16: Hospitality and Tourism Management

Editorial Team

Kindred Grey is the OER and Graphic Design Specialist at the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. She is a Virginia Tech graduate with majors in Statistics and Psychology. Kindred’s creative abilities are demonstrated in the visual elements of the book: cover art, interior color palette selection, and creation of new and adapted figures. She designed with color contract and accessibility in mind. Her contributions have resulted in a text that is accessible to a wider range of readers, uses visual content to illustrate and more clearly convey conceptual information, and which is more lucid and visually cohesive. She also updated the figures and tables which were reviewed, revised, or replaced through the course of the project to reflect the most current data available. Kindred transferred newly drafted text from a collaborative writing environment into the Pressbooks publishing software, and followed through with the detailed work of formatting, editing, and proofreading. She has worked on the third and fourth editions of Fundamentals of Business.

Anita Walz is Associate Professor, and Assistant Director of Open Education and Scholarly Communication Librarian in the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. She received her MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has worked in university, government, school, and international libraries for over 20 years. She is the founder of the Open Education Initiative at Virginia Tech and the managing editor of several open textbooks adapted or created at Virginia Tech, many of which may be found here: https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/70959. She has provided overall planning, project coordination, day-to-day supervision, and oversight of the book since its inception in 2016.

Past Reviewers / Contributors

Anastasia (Katy) Cortes is Instructor of Management at Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech. She has over 25 years of management and business teaching experience at Virginia Tech and Hollins University. She is also a contributing author to OpenStax’ Management, Denis Collins’ Business Ethics: Best Practices for Designing and Managing Ethical Organizations, and the Testbank for Fundamentals of Business. She was critical to the review, content improvement, and layout of the first edition (2016) of Fundamentals of Business. Without her, the first edition of Fundamentals of Business (2016) and thus, subsequent editions would not exist.

Jonathan De Pena was a student reviewer for the 2016 edition.

Lisa R. Fournier, PhD is an Adjunct Instructor of Management at Pamplin College of Business. Lisa brings a blend of practical experience and academic research to the classroom. Her business journey began as an entrepreneur during her undergraduate at Western Carolina University. After selling her first business in imprinted sportswear, she worked in several emerging-growth companies as a strategic implementer throughout the 2000s. She has worked in a variety of industries, including healthcare informatics, criminal justice, beverage, auto, and others. She holds an MPM in project management (Western Carolina). In 2012, Lisa was awarded a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership from Regent University. She went on to start and operate a benefit corporation and entrepreneurial learning lab for four years in downtown Norfolk, VA. On divesting the assets to the local Norfolk community, Lisa brought her experience to Virginia Tech, where she teaches social entrepreneurship and business classes. Lisa’s contributions to the 3rd edition (2020) of the book include review, substantive edits in several of the chapters, and contribution of original text.

Lauren Holt was a recent Virginia Tech graduate with degrees in Professional and Technical Writing and Biological Systems Engineering at the time of her contributions to the 2020 version of this book. Lauren’s contributions to this textbook include Pressbooks editing, copyediting, and cover design.

Sarah Mease is the former Digital Publishing Assistant at Virginia Tech Publishing at the University Libraries at Virginia Tech and contributed to the 2020 edition of the book. Sarah provided review and feedback regarding proposed original figures for the book. Sarah holds a BA in English from Virginia Tech.

Nina Lindsay was a student reviewer for the 2016 edition.

Kathleen (Katie) Manning was a recent graduate of the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech where she majored in Accounting and Information Systems at the time of her contribution to the book. She started her professional career in Fall 2020 at Deloitte in their Risk and Financial Advisory practice. Her contributions to this textbook include review from a student perspective, substantive additions regarding the chapter on Accounting, and assistance with editing and formatting.

Richard Parsons is Professor of Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Management at Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech. He is a senior executive in the hospitality industry with over 30 years at Marriott hotels in financial, brand and corporate sectors. He contributed to the 2016 edition of the book.

Sachi Soni was a student reviewer for the 2016 edition.

Michael Stamper is Data Visualization Designer and Digital Consultant for Arts at the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Michael provided review and feedback regarding proposed original figures for the third edition (2020) of the book, including an emphasis on color contrast and accessibility. He holds a BA in Graphic Design and Art History, and a Masters in Fine Arts with an emphasis in Interactive, Graphic, Information Design and Data Visualization, both from Indiana University-Bloomington.

Gary Walton is Professor of Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Management at the Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech. He has thirty nine years in the hotel industry including twenty three years as the General Manager of the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center. He contributed to the 2016 edition of the book.

Blake Warner was a second year student in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech during the time of his contribution to the text (2018). He is majoring in both Management and Finance. He is a part of many programs at Virginia Tech, including the Honors College Student Council and Pamplin Global Mentors. His contributions to this textbook include assistance with editing and formatting, as well as providing fresh ideas and insight on how to emphasize diversity throughout the text.