The ultimate backwards professor

By Sean Harvey ’10
Published Monday, July 18, 2011

 

Ron Weissman ’07 ’08 describes himself as a “backwards professor” because of the path his career has taken. He worked his whole career without a college degree and decided to go to college after he had already retired from a very successful business life.

 

After 40 years in corporate America, Weissman retired in 2002 from his position as executive vice president of Office Depot. He then enrolled at Lynn and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 2007. In 2008, he graduated from Lynn with a master’s in business with an international focus.

 

Since receiving his master’s degree, Weissman has decided to share all of his practical knowledge with students by becoming a professor. He first worked as a professor at Lynn and now also teaches at University of Phoenix.

 

Weissman has been a successful professor because of his real world experience. “I like to go over the theory, but there is a huge gap between the theories in a text book and what happens in real world business. I cover the theory, but interact with students about how it really is in the corporate world. My international experience also helps because there is not much about that in our textbooks,” said Weissman.

 

Weissman’s teaching skills were recognized when he recently was named the recipient of the Faculty of the Year award in the School of Business at University of Phoenix.  When asked about receiving the award, Weissman said, “I was very surprised. I have only been teaching at University of Phoenix for 15 months. I did not know I was going to receive an award, but it is very nice to be recognized.” Weissman has been teaching undergraduate courses in advanced marketing and MBA course in marketing at University of Phoenix . He has taught international business and statistics courses at Lynn.