Welcome!

My name is Karrie Thiel. I have lived most of my life in Southwest Florida.  I graduated from a small Catholic high school in Ft. Myers and attended USF for my undergrad, majoring in Public Relations. I spent some time right after graduation working with a few non profit agencies doing fundraising, ultimately ending up with Price Waterhouse in the HR department. In my 16 years with the firm, I've had an opportunity to experience every role there is in the HR area, which has provided me with the foundation of skills and knowledge to design global and national HR systems and processes.

While employed with Price Waterhouse I returned to USF for my MBA with a concentration in Quality, Organizational Design and Process Improvement.

I have been interested in pursing a doctorate degree for as long as I can remember, with the ultimate goal of teaching, to bring my real world experience to the classroom of our future leaders.  Over the years I have researched several different programs, mostly in the organizational design and management fields, but once I found the CWE program at USF, very quickly realized it was the right one for me because of the flexibility of the program and the variety of courses offered.  This program will allow me to continue and enhance my career with PwC while offering me the chance to contribute to the body of research in both theory and practice - a perfect blend of research and analysis with practical application and implementation.

Recently as part of my role with PwC I've had a chance to lead the transition of a portion of our offshoring and outsourcing efforts.  This business change has brought to the surface the need for training and education for our leaders that is different from anything they have needed in the past.  Leaders must maintain ownership of a process now in the hands of a team working in another country and continue to ensure high quality and timely service.  Cultural nuances and geographic limitations are just a few challenges that, if ignored as we develop our leaders, could significantly impair the relationship and ultimately the successful delivery of the service.

My specific research interests are focused on the formal evaluation, measurement, and implementation of the changes needed to support a global workforce, as I believe there is much that can be done to raise the bar of our current business skillset and I feel very strongly that preparation begins in the classroom.   The entry level, start at the bottom and work your way up jobs are shrinking, and traditional college to career paths need to be evaluated and improved so that our future generations are prepared to be successful in the global world they will face.  There is much to learn from other countries that are considered thought leaders in this area, and perhaps there are also key learnings from those countries who have strategically positioned their workforce to be a competitive provider of outsourced services.  What education and training are they providing their students to prepare them for remote service delivery?  How can we learn from their success (and failures) and apply it to our classroom curriculum and standard business training to better position our workforce for success?   Have our largest employers thought about what skills they will be seeking in their future hires and what can our educational system do now to prepare?  It is only through a strong partnership between the educational and business communities that we can ensure we have the leaders we need to remain globally competitive and ensure our future generations have a path to a career.