Contemporary Business, 18th Edition

During DAVE KURTZ’s high school days, no one in Salisbury, Maryland, would have mistaken him for a scholar. In fact, he was a mediocre student, so bad that his father steered him toward higher education by finding him a succession of backbreaking summer jobs, including picking peaches, loading watermelons on trucks headed for market, and working as a pipefitter’s helper. Unfortunately, these jobs had zero impact on his academic standing.

Then four years at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia, turned him around. Excellent instructors helped get Kurtz on sound academic footing, and his grade-point average soared—enough to get him accepted by the graduate business school at the University of Arkansas, where he met Gene Boone. Kurtz and Boone became longtime co-authors; together they produced more than 50 books. In addition to writing, they were involved in various entrepreneurial ventures. This decades-long partnership ended with Boone’s death in 2005, but Contemporary Business will always be the result of the diligent efforts of Boone and Kurtz.

SUSAN BERSTON was a campus tour guide at the University of California, Berkeley, during her college years, and the excitement of being immersed in an academic environment never waned. After completing an MBA at the University of San Francisco, Berston worked in the corporate banking division of a Japanese bank. Bit by the sales bug, she joined the sales force of printer R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company, where she realized her passion for satisfying customers, outsmarting competitors, providing creative solutions, and building relationships.

She returned to academia and campus life to eventually become a full-time professor at City College of San Francisco in 2005, where she teaches courses in introduction to business, management, and entrepreneurship—and where her father, also a textbook author, taught business for 45 years. Here Berston feels incredibly lucky to mentor her students, whether as a faculty advisor to Alpha Beta Gamma Business Honors Society, Net Impact, Kiva Microfinance Club, or as a member of the Academic Senate Executive Council and Board of Directors of the bookstore. For Berston, bringing ideas to life inside and outside of the classroom and creating a personalized and collaborative student experience with WileyPLUS is simply the icing on the cake.

Proud to continue the legacy of two of the industry’s most prolific textbook authors—David L. Kurtz and the late Louis (Gene) Boone, Berston welcomes the opportunity to hear from you with questions, comments, or feedback about Contemporary Business at [email protected].