It is with great pleasure that we announce Dr. John Bantham, Professor of Management and Quantitative Methods, as the Interim Chair for the Department of Management and Quantitative Methods.  He will begin his duties on July 1, 2012.  Dr. Bantham joined Illinois State University in 1997 as an Assistant Professor.  He has a Ph.D. degree in Business Administration from Syracuse University in Operations Management.  He also has an MBA from Syracuse University and a BS in Chemistry from Union College.

Dr. Bantham has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses while at Illinois State including: Enterprise, Operations Management, Quality Control Management, Project Management, and Contemporary Business Perspectives.  Prior to pursuing his Ph.D. Dr. Bantham worked at General Electric as a Quality Control Manager and Genigraphics Corporation as the Director of Manufacturing.

Dr. Bantham’s research interests include various streams of research related to trust and satisfaction in buyer-seller relationships and communication behaviors in interorganizational exchanges.  He has published journal articles in various outlets including the: Journal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, and the Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior.  He also has many refereed proceedings papers and refereed presentations.

He has been active in departmental, college, and university service opportunities including: the DFSC, the COB Curriculum Team, COB Coordinating Team, the CFSC, the MQM Student Awards Committee, the University Teaching Committee, the University Graduate Council, and the University Curriculum Committee.  Dr. Bantham is also the recipient of the Manahan Family Award for Teaching Excellence in the COB.  Dr. Bantham noted that “I am looking forward to working with my colleagues in my new role as interim chair.  I am confident that, together, we can make a great academic institution even better.”