Our Faculty: Experienced Executives and Teachers

The faculty of the Institute consists of seven faculty members from the School of Business, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Informatics at USC Upstate. Most are seniors veterans of the corporate world representing over 100 years combined business experience–much of it at the executive level. We provide real-world applicable knowledge combined with leading-edge thinking on new and powerful solutions to complex corporate challenges

Dr. Richard L. Routh

Director of the Institute for CIO Excellence

Dr. Routh is the Director of the Institute for CIO Excellence and also a full-time faculty member in the Department of Informatics at USC Upstate. He currently teaches courses in Corporate Communications and Executive IT Management to help graduating seniors understand the challenges that face a corporate CIO and how to communicate in a political corporate environment as business strategists. He has also taught courses at the undergraduate level in LAN, WAN, Information Security, and JAVA programming. Dr. Routh has served as adjunct technical advisor to the Cabinet of the President of the United States (Reagan Administration-1988), as founder and first Director of the U.S. Army's Artificial Intelligence Training Facility (1985-1988), as an e-commerce and business strategy consultant for a broad cross-section of business and industry (1988 - present), and as the president of a successful dot.com business which rose to be the top retailer in a niche sporting goods market, and was sold at a profit in 1999. He has numerous publications including the authoritative chapter on "Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Systems" in the prestigious H.B. Maynard's Industrial Engineering Handbook and his most recent book The Power of Role—The Upside of Corporate Politics.

Dr. Ron Fulbright, Chair

Department of Informatics, USC Upstate

Dr. Fulbright has over 23 years of experience in computer engineering, software engineering, robotics, collaborative solutions, the Internet, WWW, and information technology. As the first chair of the Department of Informatics at the University of South Carolina Upstate, Dr. Fulbright is currently leading the development of novel multi-disciplinary graduate and undergraduate programs in applied information technology. During the last 10 years, Dr. Fulbright has held senior and executive positions in the information technology field. Prior to joining USC Upstate, Dr. Fulbright was the senior architect at a global collaborative solutions company called IT Factory designing solutions for Fortune 200 companies. In the mid-1990’s Dr. Fulbright was president and CEO of IntraWeb Services, a pioneering Internet solutions and Web site development company. Earlier in his career, Dr. Fulbright was a software engineer and industrial automation engineer with Fluor Daniel and Sverdrup Technologies. Previous research experience includes autonomous underwater vehicles at Penn State University and autonomous mobile robotics at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Fulbright has authored some 30 papers, articles, and technical reports.

Dr. Steve Caldwell

Assistant Professor, School of Business, USC Upstate

Steve has 28 years experience as an Information System professional, many of those years as a CIO with executive level responsibilities for the design, development, and implementation of strategic and operational business practices involving significant technological innovations. Much of this experience involved organizations within the consumer products industry such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola bottling systems. Steve was founding President of Data Ventures, LLC, a data mining company supporting strategic brand marketing for many companies, including Coca-Cola, Proctor and Gamble, Food Lion, Kroger, Franklins Supermarkets. Steve received his BS in Mathematics from Huntingdon College, an MS in Mathematics from Auburn University, and a Ph. D. in Management from Georgia Institute of Technology. Steve has lectured extensively at the graduate and undergraduate levels on "why people do what they do." Currently, Steve is on faculty at USC Upstate School of Business Administration and Economics and consults with Brand Velocity, Inc. Steve’s background provides a unique perspective involving both physical and social sciences in addition to extensive experience in organizational change and innovation, information technology (IT) management, executive team decision-making and leadership, and new start-up ventures.

W. Eugene (Gene) Merkle

Marketing Professor in the BJU School of Business

Gene has over 30 years experience as a marketing professor. He also has been an active marketing consultant for the last 25 years. Gene’s consulting engagements are many and varied including working with IT departments to increase their business acumen. Gene has developed or overseen the development of numerous marketing plans for many different types and sizes of businesses. In 1970, Gene completed a B.S. in Business Administration, with concentrations in marketing and economics, from Illinois State University. In 1978, he completed his MBA from Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, also with concentrations in marketing and economics. He currently serves as a marketing professor in the BJU School of Business. One very notable credential of Gene's is that he is a CIE course graduate with a full CIE level 2 certification--so our CIE students know he has addressed and succeeded in all the same challenges they face as they go through the CIE program.

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Dr. Michael Jilling

Professor of Economics, Emeritus, USC Upstate

Dr. Jilling is an internationally renowned authority in international economics. He is a popularly sought after lecturer and visiting professor in Universities in Europe as well as a Professor Emeritus in the University of South Carolina system. Dr. Jilling has been on the faculty of both the main campus of the University of South Carolina Columbia and the University of South Carolina Upstate since 1974. Additionally, he has developed and taught international economics to business executives of the Milliken company in Spartanburg, LaGrange, New York, and several cities in Germany and the United Kingdom. He is the author of many scholarly publications in the area of international economics to include two books: (1)  Foreign Exchange Risk Management in US Multinational Corporations. UMI Research Press, 1978. and (2) The Impact of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No.8 on the Foreign Exchange Risk Management Practices of American Multinationals: An Economic Impact Study. Financial Accounting Standards Board, 1978. With T.G. Evans and W.R. Folks. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in economics from the University of Akron, OH, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of South Carolina Columbia.

Dr. Lizabeth Zack

Assistant Professor of Sociology, USC Upstate

Dr. Zack is a full-time faculty member in the Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice and Women's Studies at USC Upstate. She teaches courses on the subjects of politics, cities, religion, social movements, identity and conflict from an international and comparative perspective. She has over a decade of teaching experience at a variety of institutions in the south and northeast, including three years as an instructor at the Audrey Cohen School of Business in New York City. Her research has focused on political conflict around the world. She has lived, worked and traveled in Europe and the Middle East.