Biography
Dr. Michaels is Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the University of Central Florida. He served as Department Chair for 23 years. His Ph.D. degree in Marketing is from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. In his tenure at UCF, he has held Department Chair, Associate Dean and Executive Director (EDC) administrative appointments. He served on the Branding and Marketing Advisory Board for AirTran Airways.
Dr. Michaels has held tenured faculty appointments at the University of Kansas, Indiana University Kelley School of Business and the University of Central Florida. His research interests include sales force motivation, performance, control and compensation issues. Dr. Michaels co-chaired three international conferences on the topics of Professional Selling and Sales Management in Orlando. He is past editor of the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management and currently serves on the senior advisory board of that journal. His research has been published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Education Review and The Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, among others.
Dr. Michaels’ teaching interests span the topics of sales management, professional selling, marketing strategy and marketing management. While at Indiana University, he designed and delivered an acclaimed selective-entry course that integrated the topics of professional selling and sales management. This concept was the precursor to the formation of the Professional Selling Program at UCF. He won the Alpha Kappa Psi Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence at IU. In 2007, the American Marketing Association awarded Dr. Michaels the Don McBane Special Recognition Award for extraordinary commitment to service to the marketing discipline.
Prior to entering academe, Dr. Michaels held sales and product management positions in the greeting card industry. Prior to that, he served in the U.S. Army. He consults on such issues as marketing strategy, customer satisfaction, sales force performance, goals/quotas, motivation and compensation.