Thompson takes care of business

Amanda Thompson

AT A LARGE UNIVERSITY with a business school that prides itself as small, collegial, and friendly, Amanda Thompson (MBA ’06, PhD ’10) is someone everyone knows by name.

Alumni may recognize her from numerous appearances in Krannert Magazine over the last five years, including stories on golf etiquette for MBAs, the Global Supply Chain Management Initiative (GSCMI), student organization
updates, and last issue’s cover photo.

But with the arrival of her son, Dante, just before the holidays, Thompson is happily taking second billing as faculty, staff, and students who’ve known her for years gush over her baby boy.

“Dante is the biggest time management challenge I’ve had at Krannert, but he’s so peaceful and calm,” she says. “He sleeps for several hours most afternoons, which is very conducive for my research.”

Thompson began her journey in Casper, Wyoming, where she excelled in the classroom and on the basketball court, earning a National Merit Scholarship and the state’s “Gatorade Player of the Year” award as a high school senior.

Given the choice of athletics at a small college or academics at a larger, more diverse university, she chose the latter, Texas A&M, a peer institution to Purdue where she earned a BS in industrial engineering and met her husband, Craig.

The next step was a university with a strong business school for Thompson and a veterinary medicine school for her spouse, who now serves on Purdue’s faculty in comparative pathobiology.

West Lafayette was on the short list and Thompson began as a member of the first entering class in Rawls Hall. After completing her MBA, she helped launch GSCMI with Prof. Ananth Iyer, the school’s Susan Bulkeley Butler Chair in Operations Management. Next came Krannert’s doctoral program in finance, where she works closely on research with Prof. Mara Faccio, the Hanna Chair in Entrepreneurship.

Thompson also holds great respect for Prof. Diane Denis, Krannert’s Duke Realty Chair in Finance. “She’s a phenomenal role model, and not just academically. She has a successful career, a wonderful family, and has always been supportive of my goals and aspirations, both professionally and personally.”

And Thompson hasn’t given up on athletics. She played intramural volleyball and basketball at A&M and has been on the court in both sports for Purdue intramural contests, even through the early months of her pregnancy.

She’s also been a winner in the classroom, earning a doctoral student teaching award in her first semester behind the lectern.

“Krannert has become my extended family,” she says. “I can’t think of anywhere else I’d like to be.”

— Eric Nelson