BOONE—Four Appalachian State University faculty members in the Walker College of Business have received the college’s 2007 Award for Excellence.

Dr. Ivan Roten received the award for teaching; Dr. John Whitehead was honored for his research contributions; and the award for excellence in service was presented to Dr. Ron Marden. Bryan Toney was honored as the outstanding non-tenure track faculty member.

Roten is an associate professor in the Department of Finance, Banking and Insurance and directs the college’s Financial Planning Center. Roten was instrumental in obtaining approval from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. to offer a registered undergraduate program and an executive certificate program to Appalachian students.

Ron Marden, left, John Whitehead, Ivan Roten and Bryan Toney have been honored by the Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University. Marden was recognized for his service to the college, Whitehead was honored for his research contributions, Roten was recognized for his teaching and Toney was honored for his contributions as a non-tenure track faculty member. (Appalachian photo by Photographer Mike Rominger)

Roten is a certified financial planner and serves on the Financial Planning Association of Charlotte Board of Directors. In addition, he serves as the program director for the FPA of Charlotte.

Roten holds M.B.A. and Ed.S. degrees from Appalachian State University and received a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 2001. Roten was a lecturer at Appalachian from 1991 until 1998 and rejoined the faculty at Appalachian in 2001 as an assistant professor. He was named the Financial Planning Center director in 2005.

Research award recipient John Whitehead is a professor in the Department of Economics.

Whitehead’s main areas of research are environmental valuation and natural hazard mitigation. His research has been published in more than 50 economics-related journals, including Applied Economics, Southern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Journal and the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

Whitehead serves as an associate editor of Marine Resource Economics and on the editorial review board of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. He is also a member of the Scientific and Statistical Committee of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council and president of the American Fisheries Society’s socioeconomic section.

Whitehead received a master of arts degree in economics in 1987 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1990 from the University of Kentucky. He joined the faculty at Appalachian in 2004 as associate professor after teaching at UNC Wilmington for three years and East Carolina University for seven years.

Ron Marden, a professor in the Department of Accounting, was recognized for his service to the college.

Marden has served on several Walker College of Business committees, including the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Honors Advisory Committee. He also has served as faculty advisor to Beta Alpha Psi, the national accounting honor society for accounting majors, for which he was awarded Best Faculty Advisor of a club from Appalachian’s Center for Student Involvement and Leadership in 2007.

Marden also has been exceptionally active in the university community. Among other roles, he has served as a member of Appalachian’s Graduate Thesis Award Committee and the Center for Undergraduate Research Committee.

Marden received a master of accountancy from Florida Atlantic University and a Ph.D. from the School of Accountancy at the University of South Florida. He came to Appalachian in 1995. Marden is a certified public accountant and a certified internal auditor.

The recipient of the non-tenured faculty award, Bryan Toney, is an instructor in the Department of Management and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship.

Toney joined the management faculty in 1997, bringing to the classroom more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and entrepreneurship educator. In 2001, Toney designed what is now the Carole Moore McLeod Entrepreneur Summit, currently in its sixth year.

Before joining the faculty at Appalachian, Toney was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the DuPree Center for Entrepreneurship at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Toney is also the founder and former CEO of Information Management Inc., a software development and systems integration company based in Atlanta, which successfully completed projects for clients such as Federal Express, Apple Computer, CNN, Coca-Cola, Home Depot and Disney.

Toney received a master of science in management with a concentration in finance from Georgia Institute of Technology.

The business school’s faculty excellence awards are presented annually. Winners receive a monetary prize and a bronze medallion of the university seal.

The awards are made possible by a contribution from G.A. Sywassink, CEO of Standard Holding Company of Charlotte.

###