Gies College of Business

Gies Business News and Stories

Explore the ideas, people, and impact shaping Gies College of Business. From faculty research and student experiences to alumni achievements and donor impact, these stories highlight how our community is advancing business knowledge and creating real-world change.

Gies Business announces first class of AI Faculty Fellows

Jun 11, 2026

The program supports our world-class faculty in developing discipline-specific AI curriculum content, and in designing and testing new models for teaching, learning, assessment, and research.

Accountancy Business Administration Faculty Finance Research

iVenture alumnus DoubleSpot modernizes recreation management for campuses and communities

Jun 10, 2026

Inspired by his internship with the Los Angeles Dodgers and supported through the iVenture Accelerator, Sean Chang built software that streamlines scheduling, registrations, events, rentals, and facility operations into one platform.

Alumni Entrepreneurship Student

Why sharing failures can make you better at your job

Jun 08, 2026

Gies Business scholars Clara Chen and Laura Wang find that employees who are encouraged to openly share their failures are more willing to take creative risks and often perform better on challenging tasks.

Accountancy Faculty Research

Do FTC affiliate disclosures activate persuasion knowledge and build credibility on YouTube?

Jun 03, 2026

Study finds disclosure policy resulted in an overall decline in user engagement. But, paradoxically, affiliated content with disclosures had higher engagement than affiliated content without it.

Business Administration Faculty Research

Beardsley, Gao, Lagaras named Gies Advanced Study Scholars

Jun 01, 2026

The Gies Business Advanced Study Scholars program recognizes promising assistant professors whose research track record to date has proven to be outstanding.

Accountancy Business Administration Faculty Finance Research

Agritourism hub Agrivoy claims Voitik Prize at Cozad New Venture Competition

May 28, 2026

Jeff and Forough Haskel, two University of Illinois iMBA students from Texas, turned a frustrating search for a Wyoming ranch vacation into a startup idea called Agrivoy — an “Airbnb for agritourism.” After developing the idea through the Cozad New Venture Competition, Agrivoy won the $3,000 Voitik Prize for online MBA-led teams.

Business Administration Entrepreneurship iMBA Student

Healthcare Innovation: How one iMBA student is improving the birthing experience

May 27, 2026

Galina Mihalkina, a Gies iMBA student, helped develop PeriAssist, a medical device aimed at reducing trauma during difficult childbirths by filling a gap between existing tools. As the project’s business lead, she handled strategy, stakeholder mapping, and commercialization, helping the team win awards and move toward funding and patents.

Business Administration Entrepreneurship iMBA Student

What the MBA "Fire Sale" conversation is missing – and what we've learned from doing this differently

May 26, 2026

What we hope is that affordability becomes a permanent feature of more programs, not a temporary response to enrollment pressure.

Accountancy Alumni Business Administration Faculty Finance Student

Fonseca named to Poets&Quants 2026 Best 40-Under-40 Business Professors

May 21, 2026

Fonseca is an economist focused on household, development, and labor finance. Much of her research examines how finance shapes labor, jobs, and mobility – where and how we work.

Faculty Finance Research

From AI tutors to simulations, Gies Business faculty reimagining how business skills are taught

May 20, 2026

Gies College of Business is using AI tutors and simulations to personalize learning, improve teaching, and shift focus from technical skills to communication and decision-making.

Business Administration Faculty Finance Student

Why review images help reduce online shopping returns

May 18, 2026

Customer review photos that show products in real-world use help shoppers make better decisions, significantly reducing return rates. Retailers can lower costs and improve customer satisfaction by encouraging more authentic, visual reviews instead of focusing only on ratings.

Business Administration Faculty Research

The future of business education with Dean Brooke Elliott & Poets&Quants Founder John Byrne

May 13, 2026

What’s next for business education in the age of AI? In this unique conversation, Gies College of Business Dean Brooke Elliott sits down with Poets&Quants Founder John Byrne to discuss affordability and innovation in higher education, the future of MBA programs, online learning, artificial intelligence, global talent.

Accountancy Alumni Business Administration Faculty Finance Student

Gies College of Business
515 East Gregory Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: 217-300-7327