Don White
Retired Professor of Management
University of Arkansas
Last week, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Professor Don White, retired professor of Management at the University of Arkansas. Some of you may remember him as he taught at CIMBA for many years at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
CIMBA enriched his personal and professional life so much that he has continued coming back even after he retired from teaching. This may also have something to do with the fact that, with the help of staff at CIMBA, he wooed a local Italian woman, and they have been together for the last twenty-two years. Their willingness to help him translate messages was invaluable since, as he puts it, he only “knows enough Italian to get into trouble, but never enough to get out of it.”
For him, this is one of the aspects that makes CIMBA so unique. Here, you become a family as you go through the innovative program that emphasizes creativity and pushes you to learn and grow. As Professor White puts it, “I’m going to spend the afternoon here because I love to learn, and I know I’ll learn something here. When you learn, you grow. When you stop growing that’s when they start throwing the dirt on you.”
In response to what advice he could offer former, current, and prospective students, he had the following to say:
“Be a sponge. You don’t have to agree with everything … [Just remember] you’re not in a position to judge, but you are in a position to analyze and make decisions. When you leave this program that’s what you will be asked to do, [so] learn to look at a situation, analyze that situation, and make the best decision possible based on the best analysis possible. That’s very different from judging. Evaluate the situation and make decisions about the future that will keep you on the right path. All of that, and of course, learn good wines. You are in Italy after all.”