Mark Joseph Kroll '77 '79
The Maurice Tatum Endowed Professor of Business and department chair at Louisiana Tech University, Mark Joseph Kroll began his teaching career at SHSU. Kroll also received his Bachelor (1977) and Master (1979) of Business Administration from SHSU.
He earned his Doctor of Business Administration degree in 1983 from Mississippi State University and began working as an assistant professor of management and director of graduate studies for SHSU.
He then moved to the University of Texas at Tyler, where he taught and chaired the management and marketing department for eight years, served as the acting dean of the School of Business Administration, and was named the George W. and Robert S. Pirtle Professor of Free Enterprise.
As department chair and acting dean at UT-Tyler, Kroll introduced course-sharing arrangements with area junior colleges, helped launch a new recruitment and admissions process, and jointly developed an MSN/MBA program with the School of Nursing as well as a new Health Care MBA program.
During his time at UT Tyler, the School of Business Administration achieved candidacy for accreditation to the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. The School of Business also negotiated and implemented a student exchange program with the Institute Technology Y De Estudios Superiores De Monterrey.
In 1999, Kroll was named a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in residence at the Hanoi School of Business, which is part of the National University of Vietnam. While there, he helped in the development of a graduate program in business. In addition, he has served as a visiting professor at the Instituto Technologico Y De Estudios Superiores De Monterrey in Guadalajara, Mexico.
During his time as a professor, Kroll has published over 50 refereed articles in the areas of strategic and general management in such journals as the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Strategic Management Journal. He has also published five textbooks on strategic management.
“When he was a student at SHSU, I taught him in English; and he was an extremely good, hard-working, and dedicated student,” his nomination form said. “Since that time, I have followed his career, and he is an asset to this university, for he is a graduate to be proud of.”
Kroll and his wife Nghi now live in Ruston, Louisiana.