Business alumna now dean at top-ranking
Malaysian research university  Western Michigan University alumna Dr. Samsinar Md-Sidin visited campus in November and recalled fond memories while touring East Campus, where she studied marketing and economics in the early 1980s.
Now the dean of the Graduate School of Management at the Universiti of Putra Malaysia in Selangor, Samsinar not only earned her bachelor’s degree at WMU (December 1983)—she met her future husband, Mohammad Fuad Abdul-Samad, who was also a marketing student, through their service to WMU’s Malaysian Student Association. He was the group's president and she served as its assi
Samsinar was encouraged by two cousins who attended WMU to study education and statistics to come to Kalamazoo for college. She arrived on campus as a freshman in 1980. "I came to Kalamazoo as a young girl and my stay here was a turning point in my life," she said. "At first, it was overwhelming, especially learning the American culture, but I was very motivated and the professors were so friendly and took a personal interest in me. That was so different from school in Malaysia. WMU has been instrumental in developing my passion in academics and it feels very good to meet and communicate with my former teachers after all these years." She took a marketing research course in 1983 taught by retired WMU Professor Jay Lindquist, who she visited with while in Kalamazoo, during the final semester of her bachelor’s degree. She said Lindquist was the first of her professors to inspire her to become an academician. She completed an MBA at the University of Arkansas in 1985, and then returned to Malaysia to serve as a marketing lecturer for four years. To achieve her goal of becoming a professor, she returned to the University of Arkansas to earn her Ph.D. An active and productive researcher and teacher, Samsinar is an internationally recognized resource person in consumer behavior, completing more than 15 research projects and presenting more than 100 papers in her two decades in the field. "I have studied Malaysian families and how family life has changed for many years," she said. "My research has pointed out that women have become more important as income earners, are better educated, and women having a career has become more acceptable to our society." 
Dato' Sharifa Mohammed Ismail, president of the Institute of
Marketing Malaysia, Dr. Zack Quareshi and Dr. Sidin Samsinar The UPM Graduate School of Management enrolls about 600 MBA and 120 Ph.D. students. About 3,000 undergraduates are enrolled in the university's business school. To meet increasing demand for the university’s MBA program, Samsinar was on a tour of many United States’ business schools in search of professors and advisors in marketing and management to serve as visiting faculty at UPM. "The Malaysian government funded a new complex in our management school that has a small hotel and a conference-center atmosphere," she said. "We have restructured our MBA program so visiting professors can come for six weeks instead of a semester. That has made it possible for us to attract world-renowned researchers, and we hope to be the first university in Malaysia to earn AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accreditation." Samsinar is also interested in developing collaborative research projects between UPM and WMU. She said both universities’ business schools offer strong management and finance programs and potential opportunities for joint research in those areas. Dr. Zahir Quraeshi, a WMU business professor since 1978 and chair of the International Business Education Committee in the Haworth College of Business, hosted Samsinar’s visit. According to him, her former professors and department records recognize her as "one of the best of our students"—acing exams and graduating with honors. "We hope to link faculty research interests at UPM with faculty research interests at WMU," said Quaraeshi, whose teaching, research and consulting interests are in the areas of international business and marketing. "We are exploring what will be mutually beneficial." While living in Kalamazoo, Samsinar said she was "adopted" by Marion Joyce, mother of Dr. Richard Joyce, a WMU communication professor, who retired in 2004. "The university arranged for me to spend a lot of time with Marion’s family," she said. "She had a room in her house where she made a special place for me and other students to pray. I learned to pick apples and strawberries and a lot about watching birds. I love birds now." Married to her "best friend" in 1987, the two WMU alumni have a son studying engineering at the University of Kentucky and an 11-year-old daughter, Sabrina who Samsinar believes is a "future WMU student." Abdul-Samad began his career working for IBM and other information technology companies, but he now ownsbusinesses in petroleum and information technology industries.Universiti of Putra Malaysia WMU Haworth College of Business |
