In Memory of Michael Houston

谨以此文，悼念我们亲爱的Michael Houston

缅怀他对CHEMBA 所做的贡献

May He Rest in Peace

 "BECAUSE OF MICHAEL HOUSTON, THE CARLSON SCHOOL IS A LEADING GLOBAL BUSINESS SCHOOL"

When Michael Houston stepped down as associate dean for Global Initiatives in January 2020, the Carlson School had been transformed by his large vision and steady work as a builder of programs and capacity. His two decades of leadership dramatically increased the scope, profile, and impact of the school’s global programs.

Houston held the Ecolab-Pierson M. Grieve Chair in International Marketing since 1997 and retired in May after a distinguished career as a scholar and administrative leader.

“Thanks to Mike’s effort, leadership, and ingenuity, the Carlson School’s reputation has been cemented as a leader in global education,” says Dean Sri Zaheer.

When he arrived in Minnesota in 1986, Houston was not a likely candidate for an international role. He remembers when, as chair of the Marketing Department, he was invited to introduce the school’s first international marketing course.

“The first time I was asked, I said no. I thought ‘marketing is marketing,’” Houston remembers. “But then I went on to introduce that course and teach it!”

As the Carlson School’s associate dean for faculty and research, in 1992 Houston chaired an international task force for the school and subsequently became director of its international programs. He taught marketing in Poland and became instrumental in furthering the success of the Carlson School’s first joint executive MBA abroad in partnership with the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland, established in 1994.

“My interest just grew,” says Houston. “I could see that teaching in Warsaw was having a big impact on our faculty.”

It wasn’t long before Houston became a driving force in establishing the Vienna Executive MBA program in 2000 and built it into a top-ranked program in the world, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary this year. That was followed in 2001 by the China Executive MBA program with Lingnan University in Guangzhou and in 2017 by the Doctor of Business Administration program with Tsinghua University in Beijing.

More programs meant more Carlson School faculty members could gain experience in more places around the world. As an early skeptic, Houston was a credible ally and became a proponent of intercultural excellence.

As a scholar, Houston focused on international marketing and global branding in the classroom and in research. He lectured and taught students and business professionals from Minneapolis and Vienna to Singapore. Thoughtful and even keeled, he chaired and built the Marketing Department, won awards, and edited top journals in marketing research.

The Carlson School’s international stature rose, too, and Houston played a major role in making it so. While taking on such big tasks as interim co-dean of the Carlson School for 15 months and chair of the New Building Committee, he kept its international initiatives on a path of steady growth for 25 years.

Creating opportunities 

In 2008, the Carlson School became the first public business school in the nation to incorporate an International Experience for all undergraduate students in the curriculum. That was made possible by Houston and his staff, led by Anne D'Angelo, assistant dean of Global Initiatives, who introduced stand-out courses for undergraduates, from Europe to Costa Rica and India. They increased education abroad options so effectively that nearly half of Carlson School undergraduates took part before the curriculum change. An International Experience soon became part of the graduate program curriculum, as well.

To support the growth and quality of programs and partnerships at every level, Houston grew the International Program Development Office into the Carlson Global Institute (CGI) in 2011. As his many roles in the Carlson School over the years contributed to his strong systems perspective, his vision and approach continue through CGI.

Mark Bergen is an international expert on pricing who credits Houston with not only bringing him into the field of marketing from economics but also changing his life and teaching. He first taught in Warsaw, later in China.

“It’s opened my eyes to the way business is done in many places,” says Bergen. “I’ve brought so much back into my classes here. I changed the cases I taught, and I brought back the practice of small groups. Now I open with global examples to give students an idea of all the things going on.”

Today the Carlson Global Institute has 16 Carlson School faculty-led programs, 39 semester exchanges with business schools around the world, a robust global EMBA portfolio, and a network of alumni, friends, and supporters.

Mark Bergen concurs. He has worked with Houston in CGI, in marketing, and as an associate dean.

“Mike builds things, and he has built CGI into a fantastic and amazing thing,” says Bergen

-- "CGI 2019-2020 YEAR IN REVIEW"