For 10 years, Ed Tiryakian has taught some of the most popular MMS courses offered. One of these courses, Managerial Finance, is not a course that at first glance sounds particularly intriguing. So what is it about professor Tiryakian that he is able to take what some might view as challenging or less interesting topics and make them, not only interesting, but some of the most valuable courses students remember after leaving?
Ed Tiryakian ('83) has had an illustrious career that has spanned multiple different industries. Beginning his career at Paine Webber and UBS, he spent 20 years working in investment banking before moving into other industries. He then spent multiple years as a high profile sports agent for multiple former Duke players, including Christian Laettner and Johnny Dawkins. He later joined the European Union for a 2 year stint working on a white paper about a one currency system before leaving to receive a Master in Finance and starting his own private equity firm in 2005. Even now as a teacher, he continues working on other projects, including cofounding Fandex with another Duke Alum in 2017 and serving as a regular contributor for Forbes Magazine covering sports business and finance.
One of the things that keeps Tiryakian at Duke is how much he enjoys interacting with students. He says of teaching his classes, “there is this energy and interaction between someone who wants to learn and someone who knows something.” It is that energy and interaction that has kept Tiryakian excited about teaching for 10 years and kept students excited about his courses. Tiryakian’ s courses, Business of Sport and Managerial Finance have attracted over 1000 students, many of whom continually name the courses as some of their most beneficial. Recent graduate Kyle Wellner said that studying under Professor Tiryakian was “truly eye-opening” as he was able to better learn the economics of all sides of the sports industries.
Over the course of his teaching, one of the primary changes he has noticed is how entrepreneurial today’s students are. “I’ve had to adjust my course accordingly to get away from more traditional corporate finance to corporate finance with a more entrepreneurial slant to it.” Even as students’ general interests and career interests may change over time, he is still encouraged by students every semester that the desire to learn never changes and he is always met with students who are singularly focused on their goals.
But even with this newer influence on entrepreneurship he has seen from students more in the last few years, he is adamant to teach students the skills they will need regardless of the business path they take. He tells his students, “even if you have the greatest idea in the world and it is changing lead into gold, you still need a business plan to do it. Some of these [students] have great plans, but you still need to know how finance works, and I think they get that.” Because of this emphasis, he shares that his courses, and specifically Managerial Finance works as a good prep course for students who are getting ready to matriculate into the business world.
Markets Management Studies