A group of dedicated Executive MBA alumni from the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) recently created a new alumni web site.

The EMBA Connection web site offers EMBA alumni a way to link, talk, and learn with and from each other. The web site also allows exclusive access to the Bloch Executive MBA Alumni Directory, and offers a forum for sharing job openings, mentoring each other, promoting social events, and gaining easier access to the resources of the university. Alumni suggested the web site idea as new way to build stronger connections among alumni.

In response to requests for ways to strengthen alumni impact and involvement in the community, the school also launched the Bloch Executive MBA Alumni Showcase Forum in February 2011. 

The forum featured a panel of distinguished graduates. At the first session, Networking: Building Careers of Success and Significance, panel members explored different approaches to professional network building.  The panel included the UMKC alumni president, a Federal Reserve executive, and the president of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.  The alumni panelists discussed proven strategies for building successful careers, including membership in various professional associations, service on civic and nonprofit boards, volunteerism, and involvement in alumni projects.

More than 140 alumni celebrated at the first annual Southern Methodist University Cox Executive MBA 10-year all-class reunion, which took place on Sept. 17, 2010. 

The afternoon began with an interactive discussion with John Slocum, retired professor, on the article The Rise and Decline of Competitiveness. A panel on the economic forecast of 2011 followed and featured Harvey Rosenblum, EMBA faculty and senior vice president of research for the Dallas Federal Reserve, and Jeff Gunther, vice president of financial industries studies for the Dallas Federal Reserve.  The event ended with a reception for classmates. The reunion attracted alumni from all 10 classes, as well as many faculty members. The second annual reunion has been scheduled for Sept. 16, 2011.

In another development, a suggestion from a current student opened a new opportunity for students and alumni to network. The suggestion led to a session where students and alumni each spent a minute presenting to their peers. After the presentations, participants engaged in a Q&A session to gather additional information. Discussions topics included hiring and job changes, entrepreneurship opportunities, and a plea for students to give back to local non-profits. Thanks to its success, the program will include the session every semester.

University of North Carolina
Professor Ted Zoller, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Kenan-Flagler Business School, will lead a group of 15 MBA for Executives students to Copenhagen, Denmark, in May 2011 as part of a new Global Entrepreneurship Lab (GEL) course. 

EADA
Ramon Noguera i Hancock recently was named the new academic director of EADA.

Noguera previously served as projects manager at the Agència de Gestió dels Ajuts Universitaris i a la Recerca (AGAUR) and was responsible for managing the Generalitat de Catalunya research centers program involving 39 centers from different areas of science and the humanities.

His career also included a position as European advisor for the Research Councils of the United Kingdom in Europe, where he acted as a permanent liaison between the latter and the European Commission and Parliament on matters concerning research and universities. He also served as head of the European Office of Nottingham University in the United Kingdom.

Jacksonville University
A search is in progress to replace Jacksonville University Davis College of Business Dean Joe McCann, who resigned to continue his writing and move back to his home in Tampa.  Bill Crosby, associate professor of accounting and former CFO, is serving as interim dean.

Naval Postgraduate School
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) recently received accreditation by two accrediting bodies: the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) and The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The NPS offers a defense-focused Executive MBA Program.

The NASPAA accredited programs must contribute to the knowledge, research, and practice of public service, establish observable goals and outcomes, and use information about their performance to guide program improvement. They must practice truth in advertising and ensure their students achieve learning objectives in five domains essential to public service.

AACSB Accreditation Standards are used as the basis to evaluate a business school’s mission, operations, faculty qualifications and contributions, programs, and other critical areas. AACSB accreditation ensures students and parents that the business school is providing a top-quality education. It also ensures employers that AACSB-accredited business school graduates are ready to perform on day one.

New York University
Paula Steisel Goldfarb became the new executive director of MBA and Executive MBA Admissions and Financial Aid at the New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business in January 2011.

In addition, Heather Daly has been promoted to the director of admissions and marketing for the Executive MBA Program.
 
Goldfarb joined NYU Stern in 2001 and most recently served as senior director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid. Before joining NYU Stern, she worked for the American Pardes Foundation as the director of new leadership and resource development and for the Charles Bronfman Foundation. Goldfarb currently is finishing her doctorate in higher and postsecondary education at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education.
 
A 2003 graduate of the Executive MBA Program at NYU Stern, Daly has been senior associate director of admissions for Stern's full-time and part-time MBA programs for the last five years. Before joining Stern in 2006, she was the senior manager of strategy and planning for the Network Solutions Group at Alcatel-Lucent, where she worked for almost a decade. "I am thrilled to be working in EMBA admissions since it's a program that is so near and dear to my heart,” says Daly. “This position is the perfect blend of my outstanding student and professional experiences at NYU Stern."

University of Chicago
Sunil Kumar began his tenure as new dean at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business on January 1, 2011. 

Kumar says that he shares “the school’s passion for the pursuit of ideas that hold up under careful scrutiny,” and that he is looking “forward to helping strengthen and enhance Booth’s outstanding research environment and its rigorous, discipline-based approach to business education.” 

Kumar was previously senior associate dean for academic affairs, as well as Fred H. Merrill Professor of Operations, Information and Technology at Stanford University. 

“It is a singular honor to be named dean at Chicago Booth and I am excited to be part of the Booth community with all of you,” wrote Kumar in an open letter to Booth staff and students. “I have always felt that Chicago Booth is a special place for several reasons. It is a place that values the rigorous pursuit of ideas beyond all else, with outstanding academic programs to disseminate these ideas to excellent students via a rigorous, disciplinary approach. It has had, and continues to have, a deep and lasting impact on the theory and practice of business and public policy, through the achievements of our faculty as well as our many successful alumni.”

University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The Executive MBA for Strategic Leadership at the University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, has re-tooled itself to prepare future business leaders for the changing global environment.

"Our re-design was a direct result of listening to our customers," says Kate Atchley, program director. "Our students and participating companies asked us to invest more time teaching strategic thinking skills to these high-potential individuals in order to ready them for significant leadership responsibilities."
 
In today's business environment, profitability demands impact business strategies. "Cross-cultural leadership is a requisite to organizational success," says Atchley. "Supply chains are more complex and often less responsive and efficient. We must ready our students to not only take on these challenges but be leaders as well."
 
The program now includes more class time on leadership development, an increased emphasis on global supply chain issues, and additional content on organizational competitive strategy.
 
Additional program enrichments include:

• Enhanced focus on strategic thinking
  
  
• A more comprehensive leadership development plan that evaluates and improves each student's leadership style and potential
  
  
• Integration of leadership development throughout all four residency periods
  
  
• More C-level guest speakers talking candidly about successes and failures
  
  
• Improved opportunities for cross-collaboration and networking
  
  
• The addition of optional deep-dive learning sessions on specific areas of interest

"One thing we did not change was our applied-focus corporate action projects, or CAPs," said Atchley. "This program-long project applies student learning to specific areas within each one's organization to deliver significant personal and organizational ROI. This program is our hallmark and will continue to drive millions of dollars of operational improvements."

Established in 1994, the Executive MBA for Strategic Leadership is a one-year, residency-based program with three residencies on the Knoxville campus and an international immersion outside of North America. It is one of five strategically developed niche-market executive-level MBA programs in UT's College of Business Administration; the other four are the one-year Physician Executive MBA, the one-year Aerospace and Defense Executive MBA, the 16-month Global Supply Chain Executive MBA, and the 16-month Professional Executive MBA weekend program.

Other milestones include the following:

• Almost 90 percent of the Aerospace and Defense MBA Class of 2010 earned inaugural bonus credentials of either LeanSigma Green Belts or Supply Chain Management Certifications in conjunction with their studies.
  
  
• Class of 2011 enrollment for the college’s four executive-level MBA programs (Aerospace and Defense MBA, Physician Executive MBA, Executive MBA, and Professional MBA) are at record levels, projected to exceed 175 students.  

University of Virginia
Elizabeth F. O’Halloran recently was appointed assistant dean for the new Global MBA for Executives Program at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

O’Halloran joined Darden in 2001 as a founding staff member of Darden’s Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.  She led the creation and building of the institute, serving initially as director of intellectual capital and then as managing director, overseeing the finance, human resources, outreach, and intellectual development programs.  Her efforts included the planning, construction, and launch of Darden’s new “i.Lab” (Innovation Lab), a learning studio that facilitates new forms of interaction among students and teachers. Now regarded as one of the leading entrepreneurship institutes nationally, Batten collaborates with and supports almost every segment of the Darden community, in addition to sustaining partnerships with organizations as diverse as the Department of Commerce, the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), and the CFA Institute.

Before coming to Darden, O’Halloran served as performance improvement consultant and chief of staff to the COO of the UVA Health System and also contributed to new project development at the United States Institute of Peace and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. She received her MBA from The Darden School in 1995 and served as a visiting lecturer at Darden for three years.

Business School São Paulo (BSP)
Aiming to create and broaden knowledge on innovation and entrepreneurship, Business School São Paulo (BSP) established the Center for Business Innovation and Acceleration (CIAN).

The center focuses on promoting entrepreneurial education and building partnerships with schools in the area of innovation, stimulating new ideas and business, conducting research, and publishing. In 2011, BSP also launched the master in entrepreneurship and new business, which is designed to help students develop skills in planning, performance, and management of new ventures. Conducted in partnership with EOI, a major business school in Spain, the program allows students to obtain an international dual degree.

CENTRUM Católica
CENTRUM Católica, the Business Center of The Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, as part of a strategic alliance with Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, is participating in the Innovation for Humanity Project in Peru.

A two-credit course of the Global MBA of Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, the Innovation for Humanity Project provides a learning experience on the challenges of building sustainable businesses in emerging global marketplaces.  The course aims to create in each student an appreciation of entrepreneurial opportunities in critical sectors of human need in these complex, resource-constrained markets that are plagued by fragmented infrastructure.
 
The 2010-2011 implementation of the Innovation for Humanity Project is offered at five sites:  Rwanda, Peru, Kenya, India, and a domestic U.S. site. Students are assigned to four to six member teams with balanced sets of background skills and disciplinary interests.

On January 2011, a group of 22 students from the Global MBA traveled to Peru for a 20-day field work experience and country assessment with two Peruvian institutions within the health sector, Servicios de Medicinas Pro Vida and Hospital San Juan de Lurigancho, where they delivered four important projects. CENTRUM Católica’s assistance in providing academic and logistic support contributed to the success of the project’s achievements and goals.

In other news, CENTRUM Católica Director Fernando D’Alessio was named one of 15 Peruvians of 2010 who contributed to making Peru a better place to live by LivinginPeru.com.

Duke University
The elective-term format for The Duke MBA—Weekend Executive program changes with the class of 2011. 

Weekend Executive MBA students will now share the classroom with Fuqua’s Cross Continent MBA students, adopting the Cross Continent’s elective-term format of two weeks of residency followed by six weeks of distance learning. The change offers the following benefits:

• Cross Continent students inject even greater diversity into the learning environment.
  
  
• Elective options expand considerably by growing the student pool from 100 to more than 250 students in the combined elective term.
  
  
• The expansion of elective choices also extends the program’s ability to offer concentrations. Five options have been added to the existing Health Sector Management option: Energy and the Environment, Marketing, Finance, Strategy, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
  
  
• By aggregating the face-to-face class time into an intense two-week residency, Weekend Executive students make a single trip to Durham, saving travel time and expense.
  
  
• The new format adds intentional overlap between the class cohorts, which grows each student’s network.  Students interact on teams, in class, on projects, and in social settings. Students in the Global Executive MBA Program are also invited to participate in the elective term, broadening the Duke network for all.

Fordham University
In addition to the academic degree requirements and required international capstone trip, Fordham University Executive MBA students and alumni now have the option of participating in the Executive Certificate Program.  

A one-week International Gateway Program, the Executive Certificate Program focuses on strategy, business development, and social responsibility within a specific region of the world in the context of the Jesuit tradition.  To qualify for an Executive Certificate, current Fordham Executive MBA students and alumni must participate and complete one International Gateway Program.   Upcoming trip options for the Executive Certificate Program include Johannesburg, South Africa, in June 2011 and London in January 2012.

Georgia State University
Students in the Robinson College EMBA Program at Georgia State University are piloting Apple iPads to access textbooks, business cases, and other necessary materials for their course work.

Robinson EMBA students, many of whom travel extensively, find the iPad a convenient way to keep up with their course work. But the iPad does much more than deliver content. “The iPad has changed my life,” says one EMBA student in the pilot program. Robinson EMBA students use it to watch class recordings, keep up with business news, watch lectures on iTunes U, and share notes and drafts with team members.

"Providing access to new methods of curriculum delivery assists in the learning process – which is important to the success of our students now and in the future," says Fenwick Huss, Robinson College dean. The roll-out for all students in the college's premium programs will occur in fall 2011.

Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University International EMBA Programs offer a Doing–Business-In-China (DBIC) program to visiting executive groups.

A typical weeklong curriculum covers many aspects of China: economy, culture, marketing strategies, operations and supply chain management, regulations and law, venture capital, entrepreneurship and financial markets. Visitors participate in in-class courses, practitioner lectures, and corporate visits, all conducted in English.

Each year, Tsinghua International EMBA Programs host a number of selected executive delegations from renowned institutions throughout the world, such as Stanford University, HEC (Paris), LIMAK (Austria), Stockholm School of Economics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and New York University.

University of Maryland
To best develop executives who understand and can effectively lead multi-cultural organizations, the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) Executive MBA Program instituted its comprehensive Global Leadership Development Program (GLDP).   

The elements of the GLDP program consist of multiple leadership assessment instruments as the foundation, individual feedback coaching to help each executive set specific leadership goals, and four intensive residencies during which executives practice specific competencies needed for global leadership—communication and team building, intercultural literacy, cross-cultural negotiation, decision-making, and execution skills. Throughout the program, participants receive executive coaching in small groups that are focused on building and strengthening the necessary competencies to develop and lead effective teams.