Faculty Profile
Welcome to my Homepage. My name is Souren Soumbatiants, I have been at Franklin University since December 2007. Since September 2010, I serve as the Program Chair for our new major in Business Economics. In the Winter term of 2012 we celebrated our program’s first graduates.
I graduated with honors from the Department of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University in 1993. I went on to continue my studies in the US and earned a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics from the University of Texas at Dallas in December 1994. As my interests shifted more towards business education, I completed Masters of International Business Studies (MIBS) degree from the University of South Carolina in May 1997. The program has been consistently ranked by the US News & World Report as the U.S. premier program in international business, consistently earning the first or the second place ranking. As a part of the degree I worked as a Research Assistant for Frank Russell Company. I was awarded Allen B. Dickerman award for academic performance superior to all foreign students in the Unified Business Program of the Master In International Business Studies Program.
In June 1997 I joined East Point Holdings, Ltd. as a Financial Manager. As a part of my work responsibilities I worked with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on a variety of projects in Eastern Europe with a combined value of $35 million. Constanta Grain Terminal in Romania was a project that I oversaw from signing the initial agreements to starting the operations. As I gained experience in the economic development, I decided to go back to the University of South Carolina to earn my Ph D In Economics. My area of specialization are international economics, industrial organization, and public choice.
As I was finishing my doctorate degree at South Carolina, I joined the faculty at the Lincoln Memorial University as Assistant Professor of Business in August 2002. In addition to teaching the courses in economics, finance, statistics, management, and research, I put together a program on forecasting US Presidential elections, and presented at a number of conferences my research on the subject. A paper I co-authored with Dr. Henry W Chappell and Dr. Eric Johnson, “Using State Polls to Forecast U.S. Presidential Election Outcomes”, was presented at the Public Choice Society Meetings in Baltimore, MD (March 2004), and published in Public Choice 127:1-2 (April 2006), pp. 207-223.
After a brief assignment as a Deputy General Director for Development at Sistema Finleasing, a daughter company of the Moscow Bank for Reconstruction and Development (MBRD), I came to Franklin University as the Lead Faculty for Economics and Finance in December 2007.
Currently, I manage ECON 210 Introduction to Microeconomics, ECON 220 Introduction to Macroeconomics, ECON 321 Intermediate Microeconomics, ECON 322 Intermediate Macroeconomics, ECON 420 Forecasting, ECON 450 History of Economic Thought, and ECON 495 Sustainable Economic Growth. I also serve as a Lead Faculty for MBA 723 Managerial Economics.
Additionally, I serve as the Faculty Advisor to Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) organization on campus. Please check out our web page at: www.franklinsife.org !
My research interests include Public Choice, Industrial Organization, International Economics, Economic Development, and Network Economics.