ST. PETERSBURG – Steve Diasio, an associate professor of instruction at the USF Muma College of Business, was named to Poets&Quants for Undergrads’ annual list of the Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors worldwide for 2022.
The list’s fifth edition, announced on Dec. 12, is published by Poets&Quants for Undergrads, an online news website for undergraduate business education. Professors were selected by the publication based on more than 500 nominations submitted by students, faculty, alumni, and administrators.
The selection criterion is based on a candidate having a remarkable impact on students, according to Poets&Quants. In addition, honorees often have a unique teaching style, have noteworthy influence on business practices, and have made impactful contributions to their field.
Diasio is known for his expertise in corporate innovation and his students rave about his originality in creating relevant, engaging, and transformative classroom experiences.
He has been teaching undergraduate business courses at USF since 2014. Some of the courses he teaches include Creativity and Innovation, Innovation and Dali, Management Design Thinking, and Improv for Business. These courses are open to all students and are embedded in the Center for Entrepreneurship course programming.
Diasio said he strives to be innovative in the classroom and he thinks that’s what makes him stand out.
“I believe that every student is talented and has the agency to create the future that they desire. My classes are designed in a way where students learn/discover this for themselves. This is transformative and changes the trajectory of what they believe is possible,” he said.
Before becoming a business professor, Diasio worked as a corporate innovator and change agent at a Fortune 200 firm.
“It was there that I witnessed the challenges that organizations were facing in order to innovate and stay relevant in the next era of technology-driven change,” he said.
Soon after he knew he wanted to be a business school professor.
“It was at that point I wanted to build tools and a body of work that could help managers to innovate and success in the future,” he said.
He describes his first time teaching as “liberating,” and wished someone would have told him that being a business school professor meant having “a student mindset.”
Outside of the classroom, he likes to vacation by walking the El Camino de Santiago. His favorite artists are Jim Morrison and The Doors.
If he had his way, the business school of the future would be more open and accessible to all students and be less of a luxury brand.
Diasio was previously awarded the USF Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for Civic and Community Engagement in 2017-2018 and the Tampa Bay Business Journal Top 50 Innovators on Fire award.
He earned a PhD in management science from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain; an MBA from Dominican University; and a bachelor’s degree in finance and trading from DePaul University.