As a new Management & Entrepreneurship professor at the Sawyer Business School, M. Nesij Huvaj is looking forward to helping students gain a holistic understanding of business. “I will challenge them intellectually and try to pull them out of their comfort zones to consider various facets of business,” he said.

Beginning this fall, Huvaj will be teaching Writing the Business Plan, a core requirement for all Entrepreneurship students. Throughout the course, students create viable business plans that explicate a potential venture’s business model, management team, organization, customers, markets, competitors, operations, and risk.

In today’s dynamic, global business climate, it is imperative that entrepreneurs innovative and are prepared for future changes in the industry. Huvaj hopes to enable his students to “capitalize on new opportunities and address the emerging issues of tomorrow,” he said.

Huvaj, who recently earned a PhD in Management, specializes in strategic entrepreneurship and inter-organizational relations. “I am particularly interested in innovation and modularity in product design, organization structure, and inter-firm alliances,” he said. He is currently researching the structure and outcomes of inter-firm alliances.

Boston, known for its international thought leaders, medical and technological centers, and cultural institutions, offers a wealth of opportunities for Huvaj’s research and teaching. Suffolk’s location in the heart of the city “helps connect the classroom to the business world, both locally and globally,” he said.

Huvaj was also impressed with Suffolk’s hands-on approach to learning, small classes, and the faculty’s involvement with student enterprises. He is excited to work with Suffolk’s dedicated faculty members, who have helped students and alumni launch nearly 30 successful ventures. “I am looking forward to engaging with my students at a substantive level and making an impact on their lives,” Huvaj said.

Huvaj became interested in business shortly after he earned his bachelor’s degree in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey. He worked as a commercial credit portfolio specialist at Garanti Bank and then an R&D project evaluation specialist at TTGV. He later served as publishing director and general manager at METU Press. “My interest in learning about business in general, and entrepreneurial firms in particular, increased when I had the opportunity to run a small firm myself,” he said.

He went on to earn his MBA from Purdue University and PhD from the University of Connecticut. “I greatly enjoyed my experience in class, sharing what I learned with my students and learning from them,” he said. Huvaj looks forward to exchanging ideas with his students at Suffolk.