WHO'S WHO?

• Facutly Bio - Mary Sully de Luque
• Staff Bio -Berkley Elizabeth Roberts

• Department Bio - Academic faculty tutors

Faculty Bio

Mary Sully de Luque

Quick Facts:
• Assistant Professor of Management and Research Fellow in the Garvin Center for Cultures and Language
• Serves as academic co-director of Project Artemis
• Received a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and International Management from the University of Nebraska

A two-week trip to Asia in the 1990s completely changed Mary Sully de Luque’s career path.

“It was a life-changing experience for me,” says Sully de Luque, who was a master’s degree candidate observing a group of businesspeople involved in the specialty grain industry. “On that trip, it became apparent that there was much about business that was culturally contingent. After that trip I completely changed from focusing exclusively on U.S. domestic companies to expanding this focus to international and multinational companies.”

Today, she continues to investigate the marriage between cross-cultural behavior and management, sharing research and hands-on project experience with students. In one project with a large multinational chemical corporation, Sully de Luque helped identify the reasons for distinct response differences among Latin American and European employees to the same survey questions administered annually by the corporation. The research, she says, helped the company better understand that cultural contingencies, as well as management practices, contributed to the disparity.

In Sully de Luque’s Global Leadership class, students have the opportunity to practice similar skills themselves. Not only do they assess the real-life leadership scenarios of their classmates, but they also develop individual leadership development plans. In the Consulting Tools course, co-taught with Mary Teagarden, students engage in consulting projects with global corporations in both the profit and not-for-profit sectors.

“Part of understanding what consulting is about is learning how to conduct an assessment,” Sully de Luque says of the practical experience students gain. Consultants from small and large corporations, she says, also provide consulting advice and evaluate student consulting solutions to real company issues.

The U.S. citizen, whose husband is from Peru, says she’s attracted to developing countries. “I really enjoy working in these countries particularly, as they are intriguing to me,” Sully de Luque says. “It’s exciting to see the importance of leadership and how it can affect change. You can see the dramatic changes that occur from decisions that are made by leaders.”

Staff Bio

Berkley Elizabeth Roberts

Quick Facts
• Program Manager of Open Enrollment Programs for Corporate Learning
• Studied in Taxco, Mexico and Barcelona, Spain
• Thunderbird employee for 2 ½ years.
• Received her bachelor's degree from UC San Diego.

Berkley Elizabeth Roberts reports to Bonnie Cameron Wells and Jan Mueller. She recently joined the program side of Corporate Learning after working with Thunderbird Learning Consulting Network as a research consultant, where she was involved in numerous business intelligence projects and cross-cultural and negotiation work. In her new position as program manager, she is responsible for the management of the sales and marketing of Corporate Learning's open enrollment programs. Roberts is studying for the GMAT so she can take advantage of Thunderbird’s MBA program while she works.

In her spare time, Roberts works with the Arizona Department of Education as a Thunderbird representative for the American Competitiveness Initiative, a program approved by state legislators to promote international education in Arizona. She is also involved in the AZ Peace Alliance, an organization committed to passing legislation that promotes the creation of a federal Department of Peace in the United States. Her background is primarily in bilingual education and ESL. Roberts also teaches a Spanish management course at a local community college.

Department Bio

Academic faculty tutors

Academic faculty tutors, often referred to as facilitators, are responsible for preparing and delivering the faculty facilitated learning sessions with instructions from the lead professor. This may include leading discussions of readings, reviewing cases or facilitating exercises and other activities provided by the lead professor. The format for these sessions may include oral review of reading questions that students will hand in to the facilitator in written form at the beginning of each session.

Facilitators must have an MBA, some teaching experience and/or experience in distance learning education and technologies. All must be fluent in English. Facilitators must attend the entire class period with the students.

“By being a facilitator, I challenge myself when assisting the faculty, sharing with and learning from students, while always maintaining a global mindset approach,” says facilitator Alberto Gonzalez.

Each receiving site has a facilitator who is selected by the Thunderbird or Tecnologico de Monterrey professor. A facilitator’s term consists of seven class sessions every other weekend. Academic faculty tutors learn from the professors by reading the materials and cases and participating in online discussions with the students.