Alan E. Hall Center for Sales Excellence Biographies

Alan Hall

Dr. Alan E. Hall

Chairman

Alan Hall is a founder and Managing Director of Mercato Partners, a top performing growth equity venture capital fund. Its focus is to invest in high-growth technology companies that need additional funding and expertise in marketing and sales. He is also a prolific angel investor and has over 50 personal investments in early stage companies. He is also the founder, chairman and former CEO of MarketStar Corporation, a global outsourced marketing and sales company with a focus on assisting high-technology companies increase sales. The company employs several thousand employees and generates billions of dollars annually for its clientele. He is an Ernst and Young and Mountain West Capital Network Entrepreneur of Year recipient. He is a frequent speaker, author of three e-books on entrepreneurship and a regular columnist for Forbes and Harvard Business Review.

David L. Ferro

Dr. David L. Ferro

Dean, College of Engineering, Applied Science & Technology

David L. Ferro has a unique mix of academic and corporate experience. He became dean of the college in 2011 after a 10-year stint as a professor in Computer Science. Prior to that he worked at Iomega as the Senior Manager of Ebusiness, a programmer/analyst in voice recognition at Unisys and a software engineer at companies such as Lotus Development, DRI/McGraw-Hill and Hayden Software. He holds a PhD from Virginia Tech and a bachelor's degree from UMass/Lowell, MA. He has academic and professional interests in UI/UX and the intersection of technology, business and society. He has published three books and lectured widely. Along with spending time with his family, he likes learning new things; his latest hobby is curling.

Dr. Brock Adams

Director

Dr. Brock Adams is currently serving as an Assistant Professor in the Professional Sales department at Weber State University. He previously taught at universities in Southern Utah, and Louisiana. He holds a B.S. in Mass Communication from Dixie State University, a Masters in Professional Communication from Southern Utah University, and a Ph.D. in Interpersonal Communication from Louisiana State University. His research interests include persuasion, higher education recruitment, and sports communication. His research has appeared in The Journal of Language and Social Psychology.