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.

Mollner uses mathematical theory to solve real-world problems

Sep 18, 2026

New Gies finance professor Josh Mollner uses mathematical theory to study how modern trading systems affect market liquidity, pricing, and retail investors. After a decade at Northwestern, the award-winning teacher joins Gies to expand his market-design research and collaborate with its finance scholars.

Research Faculty Finance

Rise of alternative credit adds another layer to US household debt concerns

Sep 17, 2026

Rising US credit card debt tells only part of the story of household financial stress. Gies Business finance professor Avantika Pal says consumers are increasingly supplementing traditional borrowing with alternative credit products such as online installment loans and short-term cash advances.

Research Faculty Finance

The Always-On Professor: How Gies Business uses AI avatars

Sep 16, 2026

Gies College of Business has best testing AI-generated faculty avatars for four years to update lectures quickly, translate content, answer course questions, and provide interactive practice and coaching. The goal is to give students current, accessible, around-the-clock support while freeing professors to focus on advising, research, and personal interaction.

Student Accountancy Business Administration Faculty Finance

PODCAST: How Gies Business scales experiential learning to every student

Sep 15, 2026

Dean Brooke Elliott joined the Changing Higher Ed® podcast to discuss how Gies Business scaled experiential learning from a selective offering into a curricular requirement across every program, and what it cost on the staffing, funding, and governance side to make it hold.

Podcasts Student Accountancy Alumni Business Administration Finance Faculty

PODCAST: When Influencers use AI to interact with fans and consumers

Sep 15, 2026

A study of 225 prominent Weibo influencers found that clearly labeled AI-generated replies encouraged users to comment on later posts, including sponsored content. They worked best when they matched the influencer’s voice, addressed the specific comment, arrived after a believable delay, and were used selectively.

Podcasts Business Administration Faculty Research

Faculty Entrepreneurial Leadership Program welcomes 4th cohort

Sep 14, 2026

Designed to help faculty innovators enhance the commercial and social impact of their research, FELP is a selective professional development program that imparts entrepreneurial knowledge and self-efficacy without requiring prior startup experience.

Entrepreneurship Faculty

Chen joins Gies Business with mission to make tax more accessible

Sep 11, 2026

Former Deloitte tax consultant Shannon Chen joined Gies Business as an assistant professor of accountancy, seeking a career with lasting purpose. Through award-winning teaching, she makes complex tax concepts approachable and helps students see accounting as a path to opportunity.

Research Accountancy Faculty

Bucheli wins Richard M. Hodgetts Award for work in management history

Sep 10, 2026

The award recognizes scholars who have made substantive contributions to scholarship, teaching, and service in the field of management history.

Research Business Administration Faculty

Study shows that AI can lower the cost and increase the speed of clinical drug trials

Sep 08, 2026

Generative AI models could help researchers use real-world patient data to identify promising treatments more quickly and potentially reduce the cost and time of clinical drug trials, while giving human experts a transparent way to validate AI’s reasoning.

Research Faculty Business Administration

Karneisha Wolfe receives 2026 Wildman Medal Award

Sep 03, 2026

Wolfe and her coauthors' award-winning work finds that committees are increasingly assigned responsibilities beyond their traditional role, which can improve governance while also creating overwork, weaker oversight, and a “box-checking” mentality.

Research Accountancy Faculty

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