Accounting professor Rick Jonsen believes that it is “God’s timing” that brought him to Eastern from the huge multinational company Johnson & Johnson, where he worked from 1997 until 2009.
Recently, Jonsen and his wife transferred from California to New Jersey for his post as the Director of Talent Acquisition for Pharmaceutical Businesses.
“We recruited scientists, physicians, … sales people and executives for Johnson & Johnson,” Jonsen said.
Unlike many professors here, Jonsen is completely new to Eastern.
He went to undergraduate school at San Francisco State University and majored in geography, recreation and humanity. Following his graduation, he worked for a state park until he found himself in a different field.
“I went west to California and worked in retail and became the store manager at Eddie Bauer,” Jonsen said.
He explained that this was when he discovered that he enjoyed the relational aspect of the position and went to the University of San Francisco to earn a master’s degree in human resources and organizational development.
At this point, Jonsen was considering taking a break and earning his PhD. He was looking for nearby universities when he came across Eastern’s Web site which had a vacancy posted for an accounting professor.
Without wasting any time, he applied for the position. His past experience made him the perfect candidate for the job and he was hired in the spring semester.
Since Jonsen will be teaching here this fall, he decided to put his dream of pursuing his PhD on hold until another year.
“Being able to join Eastern and teaching here has been a fulfillment of a long time aspiration,” Jonsen said. “I have always wanted to teach.”