University of Missouri – Kansas City
The Bloch Executive MBA at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC) historically enrolls a higher percentage of women than the national average, and this year one of its female graduates reached a new level of accomplishment.

Esther George, who graduated in 2000, became the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in its 97-year history.   

George received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Missouri.  She is also a graduate of the American Bankers Association Stonier Graduate School of Banking and the Stanford University Executive Program.

At a recent EMBA alumni coffee, George said that she sees her primary role as an advocate for community bankers in her region, and she will share those views in Washington. "It is a privilege to have this opportunity to lead the bank as it continues to fulfill its key missions of conducting monetary policy, providing financial services, and supervising and regulating financial institutions," says George. "The financial and economic landscape is changing in our region and around the world, and I am mindful of the challenges ahead. I am honored to be selected to serve."

In other EMBA alumni news, Anne Hartung Spenner, who received her degree in 2011, recently was named vice-chancellor of marketing and communications for UMKC.  She will direct marketing, branding, and communications efforts at UMKC and will play a key role in developing a comprehensive strategic communications plan, working collaboratively with constituencies throughout the University and the system. She has broad experience in leadership, customer relations, and oversight of both traditional and non-traditional communications programs.

Duke University
Duke University's Fuqua School of Business is assisting Nazarbayev University (NU) in Kazakhstan in creating a business school. NU will gain access to Fuqua leadership, faculty, and staff expertise as it builds a business school from the ground up in Kazakhstan's capital city of Astana.

The agreement can be best described as a consulting arrangement. While some Fuqua faculty will teach at the school in the first couple of years, NU will grant its own degrees. The target date for the launch of an MBA program at Nazarbayev University is September 2012.

Fuqua currently has a presence in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; London, England; New Delhi, India; Shanghai/Kunshan, China; and St. Petersburg, Russia. The relationship with NU is an outgrowth of Fuqua's involvement in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), first announced in 2008.  

On an admissions/recruiting visit to Kazakhstan, Fuqua staff members met with the Ministry of Education and were asked to bid on a market study to explore the potential for a business school.  Ultimately, Fuqua's proposal was accepted, and following an initial assessment report in early 2010 that recommended an MBA program structure, both schools signed a mid-term agreement. Effective July 2011, this agreement takes both parties through the next year of program start-up activities.

In other news, William Boulding has succeeded Blair Sheppard as dean of The Fuqua School of Business. Boulding will serve a two-year term; the university will conduct an international search in the second year of his term.

Blair Sheppard, whose tenure as dean began in 2007, declined reappointment to a second term and stepped step down Aug. 1 to assume a new role in fundraising and business development for Duke Kunshan University. Under Sheppard's leadership, Fuqua saw improvements in student quality, selectivity, and placement. The Cross Continent and Global Executive MBA Programs were redesigned, paving the way for new global opportunities. A new master of management studies (MMS) program also has proven successful and popular.

Boulding, who joined the Duke faculty in 1984, has held a number of leadership positions at Fuqua, including his most recent stint as deputy dean and previous roles as senior associate dean for all programs and associate dean for the Daytime MBA Program. As the school's chief operating officer, Boulding oversaw academic programs, student services, operational support, admissions, career management, information technology, and Fuqua’s global teams.

Boulding is a past recipient of multiple teaching awards and has been cited for teaching excellence in the BusinessWeek Guide to the Best Business Schools. He is also a recipient of the Bank of America Award, Fuqua's highest faculty honor for excellence in teaching, research, leadership, and service.
 
Northwestern University
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management has completed a 10,000-square-foot expansion of its Miami campus to meet the rising demand for students who are seeking a premier monthly Executive MBA Program. And, while Kellogg’s Miami students traditionally begin their two-year program every January, the school welcomed its first fall cohort of 33 new EMBA students in September 2011.
 
The enlarged campus includes an oval-shaped classroom with stadium seating, 11 study-group rooms, an expanded faculty lounge, and an alumni center that is open to all Kellogg and Northwestern alumni.

The expansion is a tangible testament of the success of the program in the region, says Carolina Piña, associate director of the school’s Miami campus. Kellogg established its Coral Gables campus in 2006, and the program grew quickly. Two years later, the Miami Executive MBA Program expanded for the first time and moved into a larger space.

Miami EMBA students travel to Miami once a month to attend classes and in-person tutorials and to work in study groups. They also participate in four intensive “live-in” weeks during the course of two years. About 30 percent of all Miami students travel from outside the U.S. to attend the program. Many of these international students hail from Peru, Colombia, and Chile, and some travel from as far as France and the United Kingdom.

Simon Fraser University
Now in its second year, The Americas MBA for Executives option involves four educational institutions: the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada; Owen Graduate School, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee; ITAM in Mexico City; and FIA in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The option has been well received at the Beedie School of Business, with 13 students from the 2011 EMBA cohort registering to take part in the second-year optional international cohort of students from all four schools. The option has helped spur a 30 percent increase in EMBA enrollments over last year at the school.

The first installment of the program will take place in Vancouver, Canada, at the school in August, as the cohort of 60 students from all four schools meet for the first time. In Vancouver, they will study global strategy and cross cultural management and be introduced to the business and culture of Canada and in particular, Vancouver, Canada’s Asia-Pacific gateway.
 
Stetson University
The eighth cohort from Stetson University’s Executive MBA Program visited Johannesburg and Cape Town last June, and the students learned new perspectives on business while discovering the history and rich culture of the South African cities.

Apartheid was the most riveting aspect of South Africa’s history for most of the students. For student Raul Herrera, the highlight of the trip was visiting the Apartheid Museum.

“I am so amazed how far the people of this country have come in the last 15 years when it comes to race relations,” says Herrera. “Apartheid was one of the most oppressing forms of government mankind has ever seen. South Africa has an amazing power to forgive and move forward.”

The business visits were very productive, said Stuart Michelson, program director. “Vodacom, especially, was first-class,” says Michelson. “The top leaders of the company took the time to meet with us, and after having just unveiled the company’s new marketing campaign, they were eager to share their strategy and findings.”

While on the trip, executives engaged in a philanthropic activity of their selection, which involved visiting the residents of Oakhaven Home for the Aged. “I could see that visiting with the seniors meant a lot to them,” says student Eric O’Leary. “Sharing time with the seniors was very rewarding.” The students donated $200 to the residents for them to use as needed. The residents chose to put the money toward starting their own hair salon.

University of Tennessee
Latin America was a popular destination for University of Tennessee (UT) MBA students.

UT’s Aerospace & Defense MBA students traveled to Brazil for the 2011 international immersion. Executive MBA for Strategic Leadership students visited Chile and Argentina, and Professional MBA students visited Chile.
 
In other news, Mandyam Srinivasan, Pilot Corporation Chair of Excellence, recently published his third book, Building Lean Supply Chains with the Theory of Constraints. The book presents key principles for systematically building and managing a lean supply chain by integrating the management philosophies of Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Lean.
 
In addition, UT’s Global Supply Chain Institute formed an advisory board of senior supply chain executives from 30 companies. The board solicits advice on domestic and global supply chain programs at UT Knoxville and connects senior supply chain executives to discuss supply chain trends and benchmark best practices.

Arizona State University
The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is about to break ground on a new 129,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building that will complement its two existing structures.

McCord Hall will be named for philanthropist Sharon Dupont McCord and her late husband Bob McCord. More than $17 million in gifts and pledges from individuals and corporations will help to fund the new facility.

The new building will provide more classrooms for graduate programs and undergraduate honors students, technologically advanced team study rooms, a new career center, and outdoor assembly areas.  World-class conference facilities will be used for executive education and small research and business conferences.

“The W. P. Carey School of Business is one of the only top 30 business schools in the nation that hasn’t built a new building in the past 20 years,” says the school’s dean, Robert Mittelstaedt. “McCord Hall and the renovation of existing facilities will enhance our ability to meet the expectations of a top-ranked business school in providing facilities and technologies that support team-based, collaborative learning.”

Business School São Paulo (BSP)
BSP Business School São Paulo has expanded its presence with two new campuses, Vila Olimpia and Center, both equipped with modern infrastructure, for a total of four BSP campuses located in São Paulo.

The expansion is a result of the integration of BSP and Universidade Anhembi Morumbi, in which Business School São Paulo is now responsible for all graduate and extension business programs. BSP also expanded the number of programs offered and now it has more than 20 MBA and master’s programs.

In addition to knowledge exchange among institutions, both can share the most advanced infrastructure of Universidade Anhembi Morumbi, contributing to solid student development. For 2012, BSP is planning more expansion in its infrastructures.

College of William & Mary
Deborah Hewitt is the new assistant dean of MBA Programs at the William & Mary School of Business.

Her previous positions include economist at the U.S. Treasury, president of Rutledge Research, a private research firm specializing in economic research and market sector valuation, and president of Claremont Economics Institute, an economics consulting and forecasting firm. 

Hewitt received a Ph.D. from Duke University and a B.A. in economics with high honors from The College of William & Mary. As a faculty member, Hewitt, professor of economics, is best known for bringing current events and incorporating the live case method into the classroom. "Theory is important, research is important, policy is important – and getting out and doing it in business is the bottom line,” says Hewitt.

Erasmus University
With a comprehensive plan to reduce the number of plastic water bottles on campus, full-time MBA student Paola Gutierrez Watts received the first prize in the Greening RSM Sustainability Challenge at the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) at Erasmus University.

The purpose of the competition was to increase awareness of sustainability issues among students while furthering the ambitious efforts by RSM to make its campus and business operations as sustainable as possible.

"Paola’s answer to the Sustainability Challenge is well thought through, makes use of existing facilities and suppliers, and requires only small adaptations to activities already found on campus," said Assistant Professor Frank Wijen, chair of Greening RSM, the sustainability organization that aims to make RSM a global environmental leader among business schools.

Based on observations and analysis of student and staff behavior, the plan offers short-, medium-, and long-term solutions, including changing the water-drinking habits of those on campus through a number of incentives.

“By educating students and staff at RSM, we can change attitudes and show alternatives that don’t come with the environmental cost associated with plastic bottles,” says Watts.

RSM is located in the international port city of Rotterdam and offers a broad array of bachelor, master, doctoral, MBA, and executive education programs. For more information, visit www.rsm.nl/mba.

IEDC
IEDC – Bled School of Management celebrated its 25th anniversary on Oct. 14 with the Creating the Future conference.

Keynote speakers were most prominent professors and gurus of management, including Professor Nancy Adler, McGill, Canada; Ichak Adizes, U.S.; Professor Jean-Pierre Lehmann, IMD Lausanne, Switzerland; Professor Manfred Kets de Vries, INSEAD, France; Professor Edgar Schein, MIT Sloan School of Management, U.S.; and others.

Festivities continued with the IEDC global alumni reunion. For the first time, the Alumni Achievement Awards were given to five successful graduates of IEDC from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Austria. The school also recently established the “IEDC Foundation for developing future leaders,” which will help provide education for managers from less-developed regions who have the potential of making positive change in the world.

Since 1986 more than 55,000 participants from 70 countries have participated in various IEDC's educational programs.

“IEDC has been acting as a role model in the area of business education in Central and Eastern Europe with its efforts to develop competent and ethical leaders,” says Professor Danica Purg, dean and president of IEDC-Bled School of Management. “IEDC has been an influential agent of change and one of the world's leading innovators in the area of business education.”

NUS
NUS Business School at the National University of Singapore recently welcomed two new staff members.

Ng Pheck Choo became director, Global Alumni Network Office at NUS Business School in August 2011. She has extensive experience in stewardship and giving campaigns, and previously headed the annual giving team at the NUS Development Office from 2007 to 2009 before moving to helm the NTU Development Office Annual Giving team, where she spearheaded the Phonathon campaign.

In her new role, she will be responsible for building key and strategic relationships with alumni, as well as enhancing and strengthening the reputation of the business school in implementing the overall alumni engagement strategy. She also will work closely with the Development Office and Career Services. A graduate from the NUS Business School, she has been involved in the NUS Business School Alumni Association on the board of directors.

Stuart Pallister joined NUS Business School as director, corporate communications, in May 2011 and will focus on developing the school’s online presence. Pallister previously was associate director, business media relations at INSEAD, based in Singapore, and was in charge of the school’s online publication, INSEAD Knowledge.

He also brings a wealth of journalistic experience, working as a correspondent and editor for more than two decades in various media outlets, including CNBC Asia. Pallister received his master’s degree in public relations from the University of Stirling (UK) and a graduate diploma in international business from the Helsinki School of Economics (now Aalto University). He studied Chinese politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and also graduated from Lancaster University (UK) with a bachelor’s degree (Hons) in German Studies.

Rollins College
Rollins College recently announced that the Rollins MBA is now accepting the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) for admissions.

The Rollins MBA does not require students to take prerequisite courses once accepted. The case-oriented structure of the Rollins MBA and a very low student/professor ratio encourage a great deal of interaction between students and instructors. The program’s unique approach contributes to the schools appeal as a learning environment for both traditional and non-traditional business school candidates.
 
“A major benefit of the Rollins MBA experience is that we carefully put together teams made up of students from diverse educational and professional backgrounds,” said Jackie Brito, assistant dean, Rollins MBA. “For instance, one team could be composed of a finance major, an economics major, someone who worked in the studio arts, a marketing major, and a philosophy major. This broad skill set helps to enhance the experience inside and outside of the classroom.”
 
Rollins MBA delivers a competitive and focused program aimed at teaching students to work collaboratively across functional areas, which enables them to be better problem solvers. Because the program can be rigorous for students who did not take business classes as undergraduates, Rollins MBA offers additional help, such as finance lab that is staffed by professors as a resource for students who struggle with the quantitative finance requirements of their classes.

San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University recently announced several staff changes.

• John Dopp, director of Graduate Business Programs, retired his administrative post and returned to the faculty and part-time teaching with the College of Business, mainly in the Executive MBA Program.
  
  
• Aaron Anderson, director of the Executive MBA Program, has been named acting executive director of Graduate Business Programs at least until a new school dean is named.
  
  
• Margaux Weeke has joined the Graduate Business Programs staff as the new program coordinator for student services. She is a recent graduate of Fordham University.

University of North Carolina
Sarah Perez has joined the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School as executive director of the MBA for Executives Programs.

The MBA for Executives Programs include the Evening MBA, Weekend MBA, and Global OneMBA®.

“Sarah Perez is a leader in managing business school programs,” says Hugh O’Neill, associate dean of EMBA Programs. “We welcome her extensive experience and expertise, particularly in Executive MBA Programs, to educating business leaders at UNC Kenan-Flagler. She also brings a global perspective with over a decade of management experience living and working in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.”  
 
An active member of the Executive MBA Council, Perez joins UNC Kenan-Flagler from Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, where she served for eight years. She was executive director of the Executive and Professional MBA Programs, which ranged from the Executive MBA to the newly launched Corporate MBA, an online program. 

Before joining FIU, she served as area manager, Europe, for Information Handling Services (IHS), a global information company that is based in Englewood, Colo. At IHS, she held positions in marketing and product management, and was based in Barcelona, Spain. She also served as marketing manager, Central America, for the New Zealand Dairy Board and was based in Guatemala City.

Perez received her MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. 

She succeeds Penny Oslund, who retired after serving many years as the executive director, during which time UNC Kenan-Flagler created the Weekend MBA and OneMBA Programs. Oslund is a 1990 graduate of the Evening MBA Program. 

Fordham University
Fordham Executive MBA students, Class of 2013, recently participated in a simulation that was led by Lt. Jack Cambria, commanding officer of the New York Police Department (NYPD) Hostage Negotiation Team.  The simulation took place within the International Communications and Negotiations course and illustrated crisis management strategies within a multicultural society.

INSEAD
The INSEAD Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) is planning to introduce a new Asia section in August 2012.

INSEAD offers this part-time program in three different formats: the 14-month Europe section, the 15-month Middle East section, and the 17-month Asia section, slated to begin in August 2012.

The core course components are delivered in the modular format for Europe and the Middle East and in the weekend and modular format for Asia over the first half of the program.  The Asia section completes classes in Singapore, the Europe section for the majority of time is in Fontainebleau (with one module in Singapore), and the Middle East section is in Abu Dhabi (with one module in Singapore).    

During the elective modules in the second half of the program, all three sections come together, spending one to two weeks on all three campuses. 

All sections offer some of the least out-of-office days as compared to other programs in the market.  The newly added Asia section allows participants to take the core course component in three-day increments, thereby spending fewer days out of the office while still benefiting from the same high-quality program and faculty as the Europe and Middle East sections. Participants can choose the section that best suits their needs. For more information, visit www.global.emba.insead.edu.

University of Michigan
Ross EMBA students and alumni recently benefited from two dynamic speaker events on careers in venture capital and entrepreneurship. 

In August, alumni gained perspective from four industry leaders at the panel, De-mystifying VC and PE: Positioning Yourself for VC/PE Opportunities.  The panelists offered their advice and shared stories about working with entrepreneurs and companies at various stages of funding.  Ross EMBA Program alumnus LeAnn Auer, MBA ’11, the former executive director of the Michigan Venture Capital Fund, moderated the panel.

In September, Brad Keywell, BBA ’91/JD ’93 and co-founder of deal-of-the-day web site Groupon, imparted insights on his many successes and failures as an entrepreneur.  He also talked about innovation and the journey to turn good ideas into great successes.  A serial entrepreneur, Keywell is also the co-founder of Lightbank, MediaBank LLC, and Echo Global Logistics Inc.

As part of program’s ongoing efforts to include the geographically dispersed alumni community, the presentations were streamed live.  

University of Oregon
The Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon is revising the Portland-based Oregon Executive MBA (OEMBA) and launching executive education programs.

Since 1985, the state’s three major academic institutions – the University of Oregon as the degree-granting body, along with Portland State University and Oregon State University – have cooperatively run the OEMBA. A review in January 2011, however, determined that the program could function more effectively and better serve the needs of students and business if restructured to be managed by the University of Oregon alone.

By fall 2012, the updated OEMBA will function as a modular, certificate-based program. Courses will span the business disciplines of innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainable practice, sports enterprise, financial analysis, and global leadership.  Students who complete a set of courses will receive a certificate in a specific knowledge area. These certificates can be combined to lead to an EMBA degree if a student wishes to add the core toolkit. The cohort-based Business Toolkit builds on the best features of the current program while adding specialized certificate combinations to round out the EMBA degree.

The goal of the program is to energize top managers for renewed competence and stewardship for businesses, organizations, communities, and markets in the Northwest and throughout the world.

Wes Balda, the assistant dean for Portland programs and executive director for the Oregon Business Institute (OBI), is leading the efforts.

Appointed in June 2011, Balda is charged with launching the Oregon Business Institute (OBI) and introducing a strong new presence for the University of Oregon, Lunquist College of Business in Portland.

OBI is assuming full management of the 26-year old Oregon Executive MBA, will deliver it in more accessible formats for the region, and add a range of short non-credit courses for executives through its outreach initiative, Oregon Executive Education.

Balda was formerly the executive director of the Centre for Advancing International Management and management professor at St. George's University, Grenada, West Indies, where he created an MBA for health care professionals, an international business MBA, and a Ph.D. program in international management.

Previously he served as the founding dean of George Fox University's School of Management, overseeing undergraduate, MBA, and doctoral programs.  During his tenure, he launched global initiatives, including annual MBA trips to international sites.

He also led successful initiatives at other organizations. As the director and chair of the executive management and Ph.D. programs at Claremont Graduate University's Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, Balda managed a team that doubled enrollment. As director of the Simeon Institute, he implemented crisis management training programs on behalf of the U.S. State Department for officials of the former Soviet Union. Balda received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.

For more information about the changes in the Oregon Executive MBA, visit www.oemba.org/news-and-events/.