Joseph M. Manzo
In Business series editor and author of Microsoft Office Excel 2007 In Business and Microsoft Office Access 2007 In Business
Joseph began his career in a family-owned business in the garment center of New York City where he managed production plans for knitted textiles sold in the domestic market. Since then, he has worked with several U.S. corporations in the manufacturing, retailing, consulting, and finance industries. He has held positions in Strategic Planning, Information Systems, and Merchandise Planning and Buying. The use of Microsoft Excel and Access was an integral part of managing information and making decisions throughout his career. He developed a high level of expertise in these applications and eventually trained business professionals as a manager in the information systems division of a multibillion dollar retail corporation.
Today, Joseph is a teacher and independent consultant. After practicing business for several years, he moved his career into academia by developing and teaching the Excel competency program at Lehigh University’s prestigious College of Business and Economics. He also teaches the Introduction to Business class for first-year business students at Lehigh. In his consulting practice, Joseph develops strategic plans for new businesses, and develops desktop IT solutions for business performance reporting and analysis. He received an MBA with a concentration in Information Systems Management from Lehigh University and attended Rutgers University for his undergraduate degree.
Dee R. Piziak
Author of Presenting with Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 In Business
Dee Piziak is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and at Concordia University. She teaches various information systems courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
Dee holds a B.S. in Computer Information Science from the University of Florida and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
In addition to teaching, Dee is an Information Technology professional. She has held sales and marketing positions at IBM Corporation, Ameritech, and EMC Corporation. She is currently an Assistant Director for Field Development Systems at Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Chris J. Rhoads
Author of Communicating with Microsoft Office Word 2007 In Business
Dr. Rhoads (“CJ”) is President and CEO for ETM Associates, Inc., which specializes in helping companies make better decisions regarding business management and information technology. She is also Associate Professor in the College of Business at Kutztown University, where she shares her knowledge in a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses. CJ is a dynamic speaker and sought-after guru on improving business through information technology. She has been widely published, including several instructional manuals, and is a regular columnist for several business publications.
CJ developed her extensive knowledge through a combination of startups and Fortune 500 companies in the financial industry. Prior to starting ETM Associates, she served as Chief Technology and Operations Officer for CommerceLinks.Net, a startup specializing in Live Video Customer Service technologies. During the height of the Internet bubble, she utilized her talents as Chief Technology Officer of Millstar, an E-commerce software development company specializing in online catalogues of highly complex product sets for click and mortar companies. Her large company experience was garnered as Vice President of First USA and MBNA, where she provided internal consult to senior management on technology decision-making topics.
CJ started her career by building Computer Educational Services, a highly successful computer training and consulting firm that eventually merged into Verso Technologies, a publicly traded company. She has a doctorate in Educational Technology from Lehigh University and a Master’s degree from Temple University.
