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HomeAchieversOverby Holds Inaugural Kennedy Chair of Excellence

Overby Holds Inaugural Kennedy Chair of Excellence

Jeff Overby-LThe Belmont University College of Business Administration (COBA) has given Dr. Jeffrey W. Overby the inaugural Edward C. and Helen J. Kennedy Chair of Excellence. Overby is an associate professor of marketing and serves as the director of the Center for International Business.

The Chair of Excellence was created through a generous gift from Helen J. Kennedy. The Edward C. and Helen J. Kennedy Chair of Excellence provides funding for a permanent chair in a business discipline within the College of Business Administration. The chairman must demonstrate proven success in the classroom, high quality scholarship and meaningful service to the Belmont community and beyond. The chairman also is expected to be a positive role model and mentor for the professional development of his or her colleagues.

Overby’s responsibilities include teaching marketing and international business at the undergraduate and graduate levels, expanding Belmont’s international business major, establishing study abroad relationships with foreign universities, and promoting internationalization within the College of Business Administration and the greater Nashville community.

He regularly teaches in international study programs, which includes recent study abroad trips to Spain, France, United Arab Emirates, Poland, South Korea, South Africa and Botswana. He serves on the Board of Directors of the International Business Council of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, Sister Cities of Nashville, Round Table Inc., and the Tennessee World Affairs Council. Overby was the lead author and administrator on an $189,000 grant from the Bureau of International Education to internationalize the curriculum and to develop international-oriented co-curricular activities in COBA.

Overby obtained a Doctorate of Philosophy in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, a Master of Business Administration from Millsaps College, and a Bachelor of Science in French from Mississippi State University. He has also studied at Odense University in Denmark, Birbeck College in England, Clemont-Ferrand, France and the Najafi Global Mindset Institute at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. His academic research interests are in the areas of international marketing, international business strategy, cross-cultural consumer behavior and the ethics of globalization. He has published in a number of leading journals, including the Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management, The CASE Journal, Marketing Theory, and the International Marketing Review.

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