MBA students Awinyi Muma (left) and Justin Harper both won Excellence Awards on Honors Day at the College of Management. Beril Toktay, associate professor of operations management, accepts the Brady Family Award for Faculty Research Excellence from Gary Jones, GMGT 1971. Phil Spessard, senior director of development (second from left), won the Verlander Family Award for Staff Excellence. He's pictured with (from left) Dean Steve Salbu and Chris (IM 1971) and Karen Verlander.

Georgia Tech College of Management honored faculty, students, and staff who exemplify excellence on April 22 at the College of Management's Second Annual Honors Day.

"Established last year, our Excellence Awards play a key role in motivating our entire College community to reach greater heights of excellence and in rewarding truly outstanding performance," says College of Management Dean Steve Salbu. "The dedication and drive of our many impressive people have taken us far in our mission to become the world's preeminent business school for management and technology."

Creation of these awards wouldn't have been possible without donor support, Salbu adds. Most awards included $5,000.

Faculty award winners include:

• Beril Toktay, associate professor of operations management, who won the Brady Family Award for Faculty Research Excellence.

• Han Zhang, associate professor of organizational behavior, who won the Brady Family Award for Faculty Teaching Excellence. The two aforementioned awards were funded by Charles W. Brady, IM 1957, chairman emeritus of Invesco.

• Jonathan Clarke, associate professor of operations management, who won the James F. Frazier Jr. Award for Teaching Excellence. Frazier, IM 1971, is a founding partner of the firm Frazier and Deeter and an accounting lecturer in the College.

Student award winners include:

• Laurens Bujold, a senior management major, who won the John R. Battle Award for Student Excellence. This award was funded by Lewis A. Patterson III, IM 1968 and CEO of BPU Associates LLC, in honor of the late John A. Battle, a vice president of The Dow Chemical Company, who helped make it possible for Patterson to attend Georgia Tech.

• Daniel F. Manning, a sophomore management major, who won The Dow Chemical – P.C. McCutcheon Prize for Outstanding Student Achievement.

• Alex Young, a senior management major, who won the Jennifer R. and Charles B. Rewis Award for Student Excellence in Accounting. The Rewises, who both graduated from the College in 1992, are accounting executives with Ernst & Young.

• Ayinwi R. Muma, a first-year MBA student, who won the Gaye Gwinn Sims Memorial Award for Student Excellence. This award was funded by friends of the late Sims, a 1986 industrial engineering graduate of Georgia Tech, who was COO of Atlantic Investment Company.

• Justin S. Harper, a second-year MBA student, who won the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship – Cowan – Turner Student Leadership Award. This award was created in honor of William B. Turner, IM 1943, director emeritus of W.C. Bradley Co.; and Joel H. Cowan, IM 1958, president and chairman of Habersham & Cowan, and the William B. Turner Chair in Servant Leadership.

• Jeremy Hutchison-Krupat, a PhD student in operations management, who won the Ashford Watson Stalnaker Memorial Prize for Student Excellence. This award was established in memory of the late Stalnaker, IM 1961, MS 1962, who served as a faculty leader in management science at Georgia Tech.

Staff award winners include:

• Philip D. Spessard, senior director of development, who won the Verlander Family Award for Staff Excellence. The award was funded by Karen and Chris A. Verlander, IM 1970, who is senior vice president of corporate development for Associated Industries of Florida.

• Valerie L. Mastrangelo, manager of undergraduate programs, who won the Stephen P. Zelnak Jr. Award for Staff Excellence. Zelnak, IM 1969, is chairman, CEO, and president of Martin Marietta Materials.

The awards were presented during a formal luncheon at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center at which the College also recognized past winners of the business school's Alumni Awards as well as the holders and benefactors of scholarships, fellowships, and endowed chairs and professorships.

© 2012 Georgia Institute of Technology