John B. and Lillian E. Neff College of Business and Innovation

At the confluence of business strategy, creativity, and innovation, is where you’ll find Daniel, with an agile mind, curious disposition, and collaborative spirit. Teaching within the University of Toledo’s Neff College of Business and Innovation, Daniel’s courses span the disciplines of business: management, marketing, technology, and innovation.

With one foot in the world of academia, and another in industry, Daniel is a “pracademic”, bridging the gap between theory and practice. In addition to teaching, Daniel works in industry for Nationwide on its innovation team where he serves as an Innovation Designer, creating new impactful products and services that people can’t imagine, and then can’t imagine living without. Prior, Daniel worked for Root Inc. (part of Accenture), a management consulting firm, bringing strategic change, interactive learning solutions, culture transformation, and engagement strategies to life for American Airlines, Fossil Group, Hilton Worldwide, Verizon, and numerous other Fortune 500 companies.

Insatiably curious? You’ve got him pegged. Want to talk about design, business, strategy, and learning? You'll need a chair (and a glass of water).

A creative by heart, and strategist by instinct, Daniel is a polymath who is never bored. On any given week you might find him:

• Chasing the morning’s first light on walks at 4:00 AM, soaking in the morning glow and those radiant colors that ignite the sky (admission is free and great seats are available everywhere, if one just gets up and looks up).
  
  
• Crafting innovations and innovators for some of the world’s most respected brands.
  
  
• Thrill-seeking on roller coasters that take him nearly 100 miles per hour with the lifetime ticket he won to Cedar Point.
  
  
• Envisioning tomorrow’s breakthroughs in technology and design, turning what-ifs into what’s next.
  
  
• Mentoring the bright sparks of the future, wise 20-somethings, as they design the mosaic of their life.
  
  
• Facilitating minds through new ideas and perspectives, while defeating his own margin of ignorance along the way.

Daniel strives to have the ambition to rise to any challenge, except broccoli, and isn’t typically fond of the status quo. In fact, he’s going to challenge you: send him a message and share a story.

• Masters of Business Administration (MBA),University of Toledo
• Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA),University of Toledo

Daniel brings a practitioner’s perspective and an educator’s heart to the classroom. With diverse experience spanning Fortune 500 firms, startups, consulting, and corporate innovation, his courses draw from real-world insight and a systems-level view of business. He has taught more than 20 sections in marketing, strategy, management, international business, technology, and innovation, bringing real-world perspective and interdisciplinary insight into every course — equipping students to think broadly, lead boldly, and learn by doing.

Classroom Manifesto:

"My goal for this lecture is to be as boring as possible.” — said Daniel never. Though a lecture may spark some similarities to a locker room pep talk, Daniel has a zeal for education and the learning process.

Why do we learn? It is simply to learn a fact or two about something?

No. It’s much deeper than that.

We learn — because we’re curious, because we’re hungry, because we want to understand our world just a bit better, understand others a bit deeper, and along the way, understand ourselves.

We learn — because everyone in any class knows something we don’t.

We learn — because behind every student is a professor, and every professor is a student.

We learn — because we’re all looking to defeat our margin of ignorance.

Watch and learn. Learn and grow. Imagine the unimaginable. And tomorrow, we’ll do it all again.

Welcome to a place where all questions are good questions, everyone is heard, and everyone is valued. Everyone.

Selected Courses:

• Marketing
  • Principles of Marketing
  • Digital Marketing
  • Marketing Research and Data-Based Management
  • Marketing Systems
• Management
  • Managerial and Behavioral Processes in Business
  • Principles of Management
  • Global Environment of Business
  • Managing in the Global Economy
  • Introduction to Business
  • Business Principles
  • Strategy
• Innovation and Design Thinking
• Technology
  • Microcomputer Applications in Business
  • Principles of Manufacturing and Service Systems

Textbooks: 

• Contemporary Business (20th Edition) – Wiley, 2024 View Book

• Contemporary Business: Canadian Edition (5th Edition) – Wiley, 2025 View Book

Note: Boone and Kurtz are listed as authors posthumously

Peer-reviewed articles:

Pfaltzgraf, D., & Insch, G. (2021). Digitally native, yet technologically illiterate: Methods to prepare business students to create versus consume. Journal of Applied Business & Economics. DOI: 10.33423/jabe.v23i2.4084

Pfaltzgraf, D., & Insch, G. (2021). Technological illiteracy in an increasingly technological world. Development and Learning in Organizations. DOI: 10.1108/dlo-12-2020-0235

“25 Years, 60 Patents, and More to Come” – Nationwide Innovation Milestone Feature (2025) Read article

“Business Faculty Member Serves as Lead Author on Contemporary Textbook” – UToledo Newsroom (2025)
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“Holiday Hypocrisy of Hickory Farms” — Toledo Free Press (2025) Read article

“Your Classroom is a Brand — What’s Yours?” – McGraw Hill Faculty Blog (2025)
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“Transforming Classrooms: Four Strategies for Dynamic Engagement” – McGraw Hill (2023)
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“How to Utilize Generative AI in the Classroom: When, Where, How, and Why” – McGraw Hill (2023)
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Most viewed McGraw Hill faculty article of 2023

“New Study Seeks to Transform How Technology is Taught” – The Toledo Blade (2021)
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“New Study Explores Digitally Native, But Technologically Illiterate Students” – UToledo Newsroom (2021)
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Pfaltzgraf, D., King, L.T., Barham, J.L., Hill, C.K., Hitt, R.D., & Hwang, A.H. (2024). Display screen with animated graphical user interface (U.S. Design Patent No. D1,053,894 S). United States Patent and Trademark Office. Issued December 10, 2024. Assigned to Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.

Pfaltzgraf, D., King, L.T., Barham, J.L., Hill, C.K., Hitt, R.D., & Hwang, A.H. (2024). Display screen with animated graphical user interface (U.S. Design Patent No. D1,053,895 S). United States Patent and Trademark Office. Issued December 10, 2024. Assigned to Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.

• Human-Centered Design
• Experience Design
• Digital Transformation
• Innovation Methods and the Creative Process
• User Experience Strategy
• Workplace Culture and Engagement
• Entrepreneurship and Business Model Innovation
• Learning Design