Harlan named AFG Chair of Excellence

Jim Harlan has recently entered the position of AFG Chair of Excellence in Business and Technology and has been named professor of practice. 

“I think ETSU is maybe the best kept secret in the Appalachian highlands,” said Harlan. “There is so much here, so much capability, particularly within the college of business and technology.”

Harlan is an East Tennessee native himself as well as an alumnus of ETSU. 

While earning his degree at ETSU, Harlan worked for Eastman Chemical Company. 

After years of experience Harlan returned as an executive-in-residence in ETSU’s College of Business and Technology. 

“It was a gift,” said Harlan. “I was so energized by the students, by the subject matter and I’m a baby boomer and I’m teaching predominantly gen-Z, a few millennials. So just the difference in the way we approach problems, the way we think, all that was very exciting to me.”

On Sept. 14, Harlan was named AFG Chair of Excellence in Business and Technology. Harlan explained that the chairs of excellence were set up by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

“These chairs are endowed, so in other words there is an endowment that basically pays for the Chair of Excellence,” Harlan said. “And the hope there then is that they can sustain projects, sustain investment into the region and be an advocate for ETSU.”

With struggles of COVID-19, lower enrollment and budgets-cuts, the endowment assists the chair and its performance throughout the year. Harlan says the role of the AFG chair is to help the technology and business departments in the college of business and technology thrive together.

“I think the role of the AFG Chair is two things,” Harlan said. “One to help integrate and drive synergy between the technology and business departments. For instance, in the business college you get management, marketing and accounting and finance and economics. You know in the technology side you got the engineering, engineering technology, computer science. But when you run a business all of those functions work together to help a business grow and sustain performance. And so, we are fortunate here that we have all of those functions together in one college.”