Mia Gonzales Dean

Temple EMBA Class of 2004
Mia Gonzales Dean, Temple EMBA Class of 2004 Mia is the Assistant Executive Director for Support Services at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and The Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine – both part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS). Mia began her career in healthcare over 20 years ago as a physical therapist and prior to attending The Fox School, had advanced to administrative leadership roles in the Physical Therapy Department at HUP. Subsequent to her graduation in 2004, Mia served briefly as the UPHS Administrative Fellow and shortly thereafter was appointed to her current role in 2007.

How the EMBA program has helped you:
I am indebted to the Temple University EMBA program for providing me with a strong business and management foundation to help me successfully transition from a clinical-manager role in healthcare to a key role in hospital administration and operations for a top ten academic medical center. While my MBA degree enabled me to meet a minimal job qualification for my current role, more importantly, it provided me with the managerial and leadership acumen and skill to develop a team identity and strategic plan for a business unit that did not previously exist and embark on a journey of creating a high performing work force of nearly 800 team members in predominantly entry-level positions.

Primal Kaur

Temple EMBA Class of 2009

Primal Kaur is currently working as Clinical Scientist in the Global Clinical Development Team, Bone Therapeutic Area at Amgen. In this role, she is responsible for designing and executing clinical trials. Additionally, she supports the commercialization, innovation marketing and life cycle management for the product.

Prior to joining Amgen, Primal was Assistant Professor in the Division of Rheumatology; and Director of Osteoporosis Center at Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA. She served as Rheumatology and Internal Medicine faculty. She has published in peer reviewed journals and lectured at academic institutions. Dr Kaur was also instrumental in setting up Osteoporosis Center which provided diagnostic and treatment services to the patients.

Dr. Kaur received her medical degree from the Government Medical College, Patiala, Punjab, India. She completed his residency at Capital Health System, Trenton, NJ and Rheumatology fellowship training from Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. Primal also obtained her executive MBA degree from Fox School of Business, Temple University in Philadelphia.

How the EMBA program has helped you:
My MBA training has provided with me core understanding of business, and I apply the knowledge in day to day decision making while working under research and development area. I also utilize my business understanding while collaborating with marketing and other teams for commercialization and lifecycle management of the product.

Linda Simovic

Temple EMBA Class of 2009

Linda Simovic is an expert at bridging the gap between technology and business. She has successfully launched innovative software products for multiple firms, while at the same time managing the intricate technology behind the scenes. Getting her feet wet during the dot com era, Linda has since developed the First Lady of Pennsylvania’s website, built a monitoring network for MIT’s laundry room, wrote testing software for cell phone chips at Lucent Technologies, and oversaw the development and management of a database of over 5 million healthcare professionals. Today Linda can be found at Veeva Systems, overseeing and expanding their strategic partnership network, the Veeva Web, the first SaaS CRM application network for life sciences companies.

How the EMBA program has helped you:
Halfway through my Temple education I made the jump from Technology into a Strategic Business role. Having others in my class with similar roles and responsibilities made for a phenomenal support network and made my transition a success.

Robert Zeas

Temple EMBA Class of 2008

Robert Zeas, Temple University Class of 2008 manages nationwide promotions, market intelligence and competitive intelligence programs for Verizon’s Business segment. Robert began his career leading nationwide business sales and prior to attending The Fox School, had advanced from technical positions to join Verizon’s marketing organization supporting business strategy and competitive intelligence.

Subsequent to his graduation in 2008, Robert received an opportunity to manage his segment’s access strategy, national promotions and was elected to serve as Vice President on a Verizon National Diversity Board. Since graduation, Robert has served as a corporate mentor for U.S. Military thru partnership with the Verizon Foundation and American Corporate Partners.

How the EMBA program has helped you:
The Executive MBA program broadened my conception of corporate leadership, while also instilling strong financial and strategic competencies to more effectively manage in the corporate enterprise from a global and local perspective. Thru the investment made by my academic cohorts and Temple faculty – my most recent appointments have provided opportunities to directly manage and oversee ongoing national promotion and marketing research programs- whose activities have yielded over $28M revenue contribution to Verizon YE10.