ALUMNI SUCCESSES

University of Missouri–Kansas City
To ensure learning continues after graduation, the Bloch Executive MBA Program at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Bloch School of Business and Public Administration has created an Executive Accelerator series exclusively for Executive MBA alumni and students.

The Bloch Executive MBA partnered with international marketing and communications agency Fleishman-Hillard to provide a total of four sessions on timely, specific topics in high-level executive communication. The sessions provided participants with knowledge and skills that they can apply immediately.

Free to participants, the series runs from January through May. The 2009 lineup will cover crisis communication, internal communication, sustainability, and mergers and acquisitions communication. The program encourages alumni and students who attend to bring a friend, also at no cost.

During each session, top communication experts from Fleishman-Hillard lead participants through a specific topic, using case scenarios. Participants practice the skill during the session and are videotaped for further discussion and learning. In addition to the interactive sessions, the series provides an online community where members can view posted sessions and take part in online discussions.

The inaugural session in January filled and garnered excellent feedback from alumni and student participants. For more information about the Executive Accelerator series and the Bloch Executive MBA Program, visit bloch.umkc.edu/emba or contact Beverly Stewart, director of graduate programs, at 816.235.1741 or at stewartbj@umkc.edu.

GLOBAL EFFORTS

Arizona State University
Ajay Vinze, faculty director of the W. P. Carey MBA – Executive Program at Arizona State University (ASU), visited Bosnia and Herzegovina several times during his first year as a Fulbright Senior Specialist, where he is focusing on university education and research through partnerships with faculty at the University of Sarajevo.

 
Vinze met with faculty and students in classroom settings and research seminars and initiated new projects. In collaboration with faculty, he is developing a case study on the business implications of the telecommunication sector in the Balkans.

“The Balkans has a rich, though somewhat sad, recent history that impacts organizations and businesses internally, and impacts how they interface with the United States and European Union,” says Vinze. “It is important for us to make a presence in that part of the world as the political situation normalizes, and Bosnia and Herzegovina engage more proactively in the region and beyond.”

Vinze is currently working on a research project with Dr. Zlatko Lagumdžija, president of the Social Democratic party and former prime minister-finance minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In his next visit in May 2009, Vinze expects to develop collaborations in Slovenia and Macedonia. Vinze and his ASU colleagues also are writing two chapters for a book that Professor Nijaz Bajgoric is editing.

In addition to directing the Executive MBA Program, Vinze is the Earl and Gladys Davis Distinguished Professor at ASU, where he established the Center for Advancing Business Technology (CABIT) in 2002 and served as its inaugural director.

Emory University
In May, the Goizueta Business School at Emory University will host 55 students from the ESADE Business School for an intensive three-day experience with Emory faculty that will focus on international marketing.

Every year in April, Goizueta’s Executive MBA students participate in a 10-day International Colloquium – a capstone course on global business. Although destinations include Moscow, Shanghai, Istanbul, and the Santiago, Barcelona, Spain, repeatedly has been a popular site, and ESADE Business School previously has hosted students from Modular and Weekend Executive MBA Programs.

Goizueta Business School faculty are planning a full agenda for the May visit of ESADE students. Faculty include internationally recognized marketing scholar and author Jagdish Sheth, author of the Rule of Three, who will speak on "Chindia:  how China and India will benefit your business," as well as Jeff Rosensweig, associate professor of international business and finance, frequent commentator on CNN, and author of Winning the Global Game: A Strategy for Linking People and Profits.  Director of the Goizueta Business School's top-ranked BBA Program, Andrea Hershatter will speak on the buying habits of millenials. In addition, ESADE students will hear from Jim Anhut, vice president of brand development for Intercontinental Hotels, and visit the corporate offices of UPS, Newell-Rubbermaid, and Coke headquarters. There, Javier Goizueta, head of McDonald’s–U.S. for Coca-Cola and son of the late Roberto Goizueta, who served as chair of the Coca-Cola Company, will talk to students.

Jacksonville University
The Davis College of Business at Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Fla., has endorsed the UN Global Compact Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME), which encourage the sharing of best practices among schools throughout the world on sustainability and responsible global leadership initiatives. AACSB International co-sponsors PRME.  The 25-year-old Davis Executive MBA is reflecting several of those principles in a major program redesign now underway.

Thunderbird School of Global Management
Thunderbird President Angel Cabrera presented at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year. He participated in panel discussions on the education of entrepreneurs and the ability of corporations to turn the corner. Cabrera serves as the founding chair of the forum’s new Global Agenda Council on Promoting Entrepreneurship.

The forum’s theme, Shaping the Post-Crisis World, provided a platform for businesses and business schools worldwide to take a look at the role they played in igniting the crisis and the role that they will have to play to overcome it and prevent it from happening again.

“Managers consumed with maximizing short-term profits–and with them, the value of their stock options–rather than creating real, sustainable value have destroyed billions of dollars in shareholder and taxpayer money, says Cabrera. “A culture of unrestrained greed lies at the root of the current economic meltdown that has seen banks collapse, markets tank, and unemployment rates soar.”

MILESTONES

BSP - Business School São Paulo
BSP recently welcomed a new executive management team:

• Carlos Faccina, president, joins BSP after a successful career at Nestlé Brazil as director of human resources and of strategic affairs and government relations. He received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Pontifícia Universidade Católica, São Paulo, and his master’s and doctoral degrees in science from Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo. He previously served as director of the School of Economics and Business Administration at Mackenzie University.
  
  
• Jose Ignacio Palma, general manager, previously worked at Laureate Education, Inc., as executive director of business development for Brazil. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Williams College and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
  
  
• Armando Dal Colletto, dean, has worked at BSP since 1998. He will continue to oversee international partner relations and accreditation projects, in addition to acting as academic dean of BSP. He received his bachelor’s degree in metallurgic engineering from University of São Paulo and his MBA from EAESP-FGV. He has worked for several companies including IBM, Safra Bank, SABESP, and Abril Group.
  
  
• Heitor Peixoto, director of institutional development, is a co-founder of BSP. He will oversee the school’s centers of excellence and collaborations with other institutions of the Laureate network. He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Mackenzie University, his MBA from Business School Lausanne, Switzerland, and his master’s degree in administration from Pontifícia Universidade Católica, São Paulo.
  
  
• Humberto Mariotti, director of research and publications, will lead and coordinate faculty research and publication activities. He received his medical doctorate from UFBA, and a specialization in psychotherapy from Sociedade Brasileira de psicologia Existencial Humanista. Mariotti completed a specialized surgical fellowship at Washington Adventist Hospital in the U.S., has written several books, and is an international contributor to the field of complex thinking.
  
  
• Murilo Furtado, director of corporate relations, is responsible for development of customized business educational programs to leading Brazilian and multinational corporations. He received his bachelor's degree in business administration from FUMEC/MG and his law degree from UNIB/SP, as well as his graduate degree in business administration from FAE PUC/PR and MBA from IBMEC. Furtado worked in the commercial area of companies such as Fiat, Banco Real, Banco BMG, Grupo Suzano Feffer, and Grupo Verdi.
  

Georgia State University
Georgia State University named Parker H. “Pete” Petit chair of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business Board of Advisors. Petit will serve a two-year term as head of the 37-member board, which provides advice, counsel, and support to the college.
  
“Pete Petit is one of the nation’s foremost entrepreneurs and business executives,” says H. Fenwick Huss, dean of the Robinson College. “His knowledge of the college, history of support to higher education, and strong leadership style will play a significant role in advancing the college into the ranks of the world’s premier business schools.”
  
Petit, who received his MBA degree from Georgia State, founded Healthdyne, an internationally based healthcare company that manufactured high technology healthcare devices and provided healthcare information systems and technology, as well as healthcare services and disease management.  The company grew to annual revenues in excess of $1 billion. He now serves as president of The Petit Group, an investment management organization.
 
Petit was inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia in 1994. Petit funded a professorial chair for engineering in medicine at Georgia Tech in 1986 and endowed the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech. He continues to be a major benefactor of higher education.  In 2004, he endowed the Science Teaching Laboratory building at Georgia State, which bears his name. In 2007, he was inducted into the Georgia State Robinson College Business Hall of Fame.

Hawaii Pacific University
Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) recently named Aytun Ozturk dean of the College of Business Administration. Ozturk previously served as assistant dean of graduate programs and as the chair of MBA Programs at HPU.

In his role as assistant dean, he led the restructuring of the curriculum for the MBA Program and oversaw the implementation. Ozturk received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and B.S. degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

The MBA Program at Hawaii Pacific University is the largest MBA Program in Hawaii, and HPU is the state’s largest private university with more than 8,000 students from 50 states and more than 100 countries.

National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore Business School joined the Executive MBA Council in 2008.

The school offers three Executive MBA Programs, the Asia-Pacific Executive MBA in English, the Asia-Pacific Executive MBA in Chinese, and the UCLA–NUS Executive MBA. Classes take place during an intensive two-week period once every three months in six segments from 15-17 months at different cities in the Asia-Pacific area, and also in Los Angeles. The student cohort averages 40 years in age, with a 17 years average work experience.

Chua Nan Sze and Marie-Antonie, along with academic directors Prem Shamdasani, Chen Renbao, and Jochen Wirtz, spearhead the programs. Bernard Yeung, formerly from New York University, serves as dean. For information, visit www.apexe.nus.edu.

Northern Illinois University
Ann E. Carrel was promoted to director of Northern Illinois University (NIU) Executive and Professional MBA Programs. She served as assistant director of the NIU Executive MBA Program for the past 15 years and was instrumental in developing and launching the NIU Professional MBA format in 2005. Carrell began her new role in July 2008.

Pepperdine University
Linda A. Livingstone, dean of Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business and Management has been elected to the board of directors for AACSB International. Livingstone will serve a three-year term, effective July 1, 2009.

“I am honored to contribute to AACSB’s policy governance as a board member and to have been chosen to serve our peers, our students, and our community in a role that helps us all advance quality management education worldwide through accreditation and thought leadership,” says Livingstone.

An association of more than 1,100 educational institutions, businesses, and other organizations in 70 countries, AACSB International serves as the premier accreditation body for institutions that offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in business and accounting.

University of Alabama
The University of Alabama Executive MBA Program celebrated its 25th incoming class in Tuscaloosa in November.  In addition, the first Huntsville-Executive MBA Program class began last July.

University of Central Florida
Robert B. Case, a 1970 graduate of the University of Central Florida (UCF) College of Business Administration, has been named the director of the Executive Development Center (EDC).

In his new role, Case will oversee the operations and programs of the EDC, including the Executive and Professional MBA. His career includes several diverse leadership positions. Case retired as president of Sears Termite & Pest Control in 2000. During his tenure, the company grew to more than $120 million in annual revenue. After retiring from Sears, he founded RB Consulting, Inc., a company that provides strategic development services to senior executives of emerging growth firms. He also serves on the Dean’s Executive Council and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002.

University of Chicago
An entrepreneur and visionary marketer who built his successful investment firm on finance principles that he learned at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business has returned the favor by making the largest donation in the University’s history and the largest gift to any business school in the world.

In November 2008, alumnus David G. Booth and his family donated $300 million to University of Chicago business school.  The school was renamed The Chicago Booth School of Business in his honor.

Booth, founder and chief executive of Dimensional Fund Advisors, an investment firm, received his MBA from the school in 1971.

Booth has not earmarked any part of his gift for any specific initiatives within the school, offering an endorsement of the history and academic philosophy of the University and a vote of confidence in Dean Edward Snyder along with the rest of the faculty, staff, and students.

The school does plan to use the money for several new initiatives, including aggressively attracting and retaining star faculty. Other uses under consideration include developing new faculty groups in academic areas not normally associated with business schools, expanding existing research centers, and launching ambitious programs to better leverage the school’s intellectual capital.

The gift also may be used to expand the school’s international presence beyond its existing campuses in London and Singapore.

In other news, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business recently announced a revision of its Executive MBA curriculum.  The new curriculum increases the number of required courses in the program, enhances its leadership offerings, and provides students the option of earning a concentration in finance, marketing, or strategy.

This new opportunity is available to students who enter the program beginning this year.

“Particularly in the current economic climate, companies need managers who have both a solid grounding in the fundamental disciplines of business and who are capable of making tough decisions in specific areas of business,” says Snyder.

“These changes make our Executive MBA Program more rigorous and increase the diversity of course offerings,” he says.  “They also make the program even more appealing by providing a broader and deeper business education for our students.”  The additional courses come in marketing, strategy, and leadership, and are designed to give students the ability to go deeper in their chosen fields, he says.

The new format for Chicago Booth’s Executive MBA Program provides students the option to focus their studies in the areas of finance or marketing or strategy, in addition to the core general management training.

“Students will appreciate the exposure to deeper and more complex topics in their current career area, or in their future career path for those career changers in our mix,” says Snyder. "Offering concentrations to Executive MBA students is an important product innovation and one more way our program stands out from the others.”

University of Michigan
January 2009 marked the grand opening of the new Ross School of Business 270,000-square-foot learning facility.

The new building has been specifically designed to support the school's collaborative culture, embody its commitment to environmental sustainability, and recognize the importance of imagination in world affairs.  The classroom facilities surround the Davidson Winter Garden, a glass-enclosed public space that facilitates gatherings, both big and small, of students and faculty. As part of the final move-in schedule, the Executive Residence hotel is currently under renovation and will re-open in early summer.  The Executive MBA Program looks forward to returning to campus and taking advantage of all these new facilities.

University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee noted the following milestones:

• The College of Business Administration moved into its $46 million, state-of-the-art James A. Haslam II Business Building. All Executive MBA Programs will be delivered in this 174,000-square-foot modern, technologically advanced facility.
  
  
• The Professional MBA Program celebrated its 10th year with a record-setting class of 57 students. The program has had an estimated economic payback to the regional community of $250 million.
  
  
• The Aerospace MBA 2008 class was its largest since the program began five years ago. Twenty-seven students from 15 commercial and government organizations nationwide graduated.

The 2009 class will visit Japan this summer for its international residence period. Students and participating faculty will travel to Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan, for a 10-day study of international business.  The trip will look at all facets of global business leadership and include stops at the Japanese Space Agency, civil aviation operations, and aerospace and defense suppliers and customers in the country, as well as benchmarking visits to business activities outside of aerospace and defense.  The trip also will include discussions with leaders at the U.S. Embassy and an examination of best practices in the Japanese education system and vocational training programs.  

University of Texas at Dallas
Jasper H. Arnold III, who served as director of the Executive MBA Program at the University of Texas at Dallas, died unexpectedly Dec. 20, 2008, after a brief illness.

Under his 10-year tenure as director, the program gained national and international recognition. “We are grateful for the leadership Jasper provided in helping us achieve our goal to make the UT Dallas Executive MBA Program one of the best in the nation,” says Hasan Pirkul, dean of the School of Management. “He was always concerned that UT Dallas offer cutting-edge executive education, and he cared a great deal about the students and their future success.”

PROGRAM INNOVATIONS

George Mason University
Executive MBA students at George Mason University traveled to New York City in October 2008 as part of their New York residency.

The program requires three off-campus residencies for the Executive MBA students to learn more about financial markets and institutions and the current financial turmoil. The theme of the New York residency was maintaining investor value and trust.

“Being in New York this year was amazing,” says Karen Hallows, academic director of the Executive MBA Program, who accompanied students on the trip.  

Students take part in the New York residency, which emphasizes experiential learning, at the conclusion of the financial institutions course.  Through site visits and speakers, students experience how financial institutions work, explore the relationship between financial markets and their impact upon corporate financial decision making, and focus on contemporary developments in these markets.

"I have one word for the New York residency: Awesome!” says Executive MBA student Darren Wheeler, who gave a presentation to his company about the current financial crisis based on what he learned during the residency.

“Over four days we met with real players in the financial markets who each had useful and unique perspectives on the state of the markets and the economy. The information was relevant, timely, and insightful.”

Site visits included the floor of the New York Stock Exchange right before the opening bell, NASDAQ, the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and BATS Trading, the third largest trader in the U.S. Speakers came from the New York Fed, Grant Thornton, Moody’s Investor Services, PWC, SEC, BLS, Lipper Advisory Services, and Citigroup.  Hedge fund managers, and other current and retired Wall Street professionals also talked to the students.

“The residency was the best part of the Executive MBA Program,” says Chris Wade, Executive MBA 2009 class member.  “We had an outstanding lineup of speakers from across the financial services spectrum. It was one of the best learning experiences of my life.”

Kellogg–WHU
Kellogg–WHU recently introduced a number of changes in the curriculum.

• In 2009, the Executive MBA Program will offer a new course on risk management, which WHU Professor Lutz Johanning, chair of empirical capital market research, will teach. 
  
  
• The former supply chain course will change emphasis, with Professor Lutz Kaufmann, chair of international management and supply chain, and Professor Thomas Hutzschenreuter, chair of corporate strategy and electronic media management, leading a course on strategic sourcing.
  
  
• The program added a new course on strategy implementation in times of organizational change and strengthened the leadership and change management content in the program; faculty leaders Lutz Kaufmann and Karl-Ludwig Kley, CEO of Merck AG, will combine academic concepts with deep practical and strategic insight.

Students will use the LIFO® tool to enhance their behavioral style and team competencies. The LIFO® method provides leaders, managers, and teams a practical approach to managing individual, interpersonal, and group performance that encompasses the complexities of human behavior within a simple but powerful framework. It begins by identifying each person's basic orientation to life and work. Based on this information, it offers powerful learning strategies for greater personal productivity, increased influence with key people, and more effective teamwork.

In other news, Marc Heinz joined the Kellogg-WHU team as manager of recruitment and development in January. He succeeds Rachel Waites and is responsible for marketing activities including media management, fairs, and promotion and information campaigns, as well as alumni information.

Before joining WHU, Heinz worked at the European Journalism Centre in Maastricht, Netherlands, where he was head of website and external communications and responsible for the implementation of www.journalismnetwork.eu, the web presence within the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) of the European Commission. He also managed the development process of a citizens’ web portal on behalf of the European Parliament, which was supported by participants of a European Studies seminar at Maastricht University.

University of Berkeley-Columbia University
When students in the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program wanted to make sense of the spiraling financial crisis, they needed to look no further than their classmates.

Several of the program’s 65 students hold leadership positions in the financial services industry, and were witnessing the fallout daily. Vivek Raghavan, the co-founder and chief technology officer at the Silicon Valley telecommunications firm Zephyr, thought other students would benefit from hearing their experiences.

“While there were a large number of panels last fall talking about the roots of the crisis and steps taken to mitigate the effects, we wanted to obtain a unique perspective through students who had firsthand exposure,” said Raghavan, Executive MBA student. “This was a complement to the faculty panels.”

Student panelists shared on-the-job stories from firms directly involved in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, discussing its effects on trading and capital markets. They also talked about how the credit crunch was affecting leveraged buyouts and private equity firms, wealth management, and investment banking.

“Much of what was shared was anecdotal because we were students who were also working in the trenches, so the class seemed as intrigued as they were entertained,” says Chris Kuhns, Executive MBA student and a principal with merchant bank Castle Crow & Company. “We had already been exposed to some of the economic and finance theory in class, so the discussion helped frame much of what had been going on.”

For more information on the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program, visit: www.berkeley.columbia.edu/.