A marketing professor at Indiana University Northwest’s School of Business and Economics has been named Small Business Advocate of the Year by the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center.
Since 2012, Subir Bandyopadhyay, Ph.D., has played a key role in the school’s organization of workshops aimed at helping local nonprofit organizations improve their communication strategies. Sessions conducted by Bandyopadhyay examined how to develop cost-effective branding strategies, how to make cost-effective use of social media, and how to develop marketing plans tailored for specific businesses or industries.
He also supervised student projects to provide marketing analyses for selected small businesses, headed a student project to build a marketing campaign for Mike Anderson Chevrolet, which serves several Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland cities, and assists the city of Gary in evaluating economic development proposals.
“It is a special honor because it recognizes my contribution, however small it may be, to the success of small businesses in Northwest Indiana, a region that has been economically challenged for many years,” Bandyopadhyay said. “It also reflects the commitment of IU and IU Northwest to the economic development of Northwest Indiana.”
Many of the workshops were supported in part by Innovate Indiana’s Council for Regional Engagement and Economic Development (CREED), including financial assistance from CREED’s Regional Economic Development (RED) Fund.
The RED Fund supports regional economic development efforts by providing competitively awarded grant funds to IU campus-led initiatives. Since November 2011, the RED Fund has awarded $32,550 in matching dollars to 17 programs from six of Indiana University’s nine campuses statewide.
Other workshop backers have included IU Northwest’s Center for Urban and Regional Excellence and the Legacy Foundation, a Merrillville-based, not-for-profit philanthropic organization.
“Our congratulations go out to Subir on this well-deserved honor,” said David Gard, assistant vice president for economic development in IU’s Office of Engagement and CREED’s manager. “We appreciate his efforts on behalf of IU Northwest and the Northwest Indiana business community and are glad that our RED Fund played a contributing role.”
The Small Business Advocate of the Year is one of several honors to be recognized at the 23rd annual E-Day Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards event. The luncheon is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12 in the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza at 800 E. 81st Ave. in Merrillville.
The event’s keynote speaker will be Ross Pangere, president and CEO of The Ross Group, a Portage-based construction firm. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased at www.edayleaders.com/luncheon.
Bandyopadhyay has taught at IU Northwest’s School of Business and Economics since August 2001. He earned his doctorate in marketing in 1994 from the University of Cincinnati and taught at McGill University and the University of Ottawa before arriving at IU Northwest as an associate professor. He became a full professor in July 2005.
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About Indiana University Northwest
As one of seven Indiana University campuses, IU Northwest leads the region as the premier, urban campus dedicated to serving the needs of more than 6,000 students from the state’s most diverse and industrialized region. Committed to helping its local Northwest Indiana communities thrive, IU Northwest is best-known for providing a personal, quality and affordable education close to home. IU Northwest positions its students to be leaders with more than 70 undergraduate, graduate and pre-professional degree options available from the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Health and Human Services, the School of Business and Economics, and the School of Education. The campus is also host to IU School of Medicine-Northwest, which actively involves students in research and local healthcare needs through its four-year medical doctorate program. For more information, please visit www.iun.edu.