News Roundup – Pepperdine MBA Shines Among Fellow CEOs, MIT Hacks, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including Pepperdine MBA alum Oscar Munoz earning praise from Fortune.
Pepperdine Graziadio Alum Oscar Munoz Recognized as Top Future 500 CEO with an MBA – Pepperdine Graziadio Newsroom
Pepperdine Graziadio Alum Oscar Munoz (MBA ’86) is one of the top 100 CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and one of 31 who holds an MBA.
Munoz is CEO of United Continental Holdings, Inc. Formerly, he served as president of CSX Corporation during 2015. Prior to that, he was CSX’s chief operating officer. Munoz also served as the chief financial officer and vice president of AT&T’s Consumer Affairs division from 2000-03. The first of his family to graduate college, Munoz attended USC for his undergrad degree before attending Graziadio.
Other schools represented on the Top 100 CEOs list are Stanford Graduate School of Business (Mary T. Barra, CEO of General Motors Co.); Columbia Business School (Gail Koziara Boudreaux, Anthem Inc); University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Satya Nadella, Microsoft), and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University (Tim Cook, Apple).
You can read more about the Fortune top 100 CEOs here.
Yearlong Hackathon Engages Nano Community Around Health Issues – MIT Newsroom
MIT Sloan recently hosted its inaugural ‘Hacking Nanomedicine’ event, which brought together graduate and postgraduate students for a networking and problem solving session addressing the challenges of modern healthcare.
It was first in a series of half-day events meant to gather teams for intensive strategy sessions with peers across departments and research areas.
“We believe this format is a powerful combination of intense, collaborative, multidisciplinary interactions, separated by restful research periods for reflecting on new ideas, allowing additional background research to take place and enabling additional people to be pulled into the fray as ideas take shape,” says Brian Anthony, Associate Director of MIT.nano, the new 200,000-square-foot research center that launched at MIT last fall.
With the intent of applying their discoveries to actual startup efforts, the teams delivered 30 second pitches on topics such as such as obesity and efficient delivery of vaccines. Each cohort then broke into groups to come up with nanotechnology based solutions.
MIT Hacking Medicine was formed in 2011 in order to promote innovation through combined efforts of students, the research community, and medical professionals. For more info on the program, visit the official website.
Noa Gafni Joins the Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation as Executive Director – Rutgers Insight & News
Rutgers Business School’s Institute for Corporate Social Innovations recently welcomed its newest Executive Director, Noa Gafni.
Gafni was formerly CEO and founder of Impact Squared, a consultancy specializing in socially responsible investments. She was also Global Leadership Fellow and Communications Head for the Global Shapers Community at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, and Head of Social Media at Hearst Magazines in New York. Along with these positions, Gafni is a Practitioner Fellow of Social Innovation at the University of Cambridge.
Noa Gafni Slaney, the new Executive Director of Rutgers Business School’s Institute for Corporate Social Innovations.
Gary Cohen, founder of the Institute, says of Gafni’s appointment:
“We are privileged to have someone of Noa’s high caliber serving as Executive Director of the Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation. Her track record in driving positive social impact across the private, nonprofit, and academic sectors and her successful entrepreneurial experiences position her well to advance the mission of this new institute.”
Gafni has worked on global social impact projects with organizations such as the United Nations Foundation, UNICEF, and International Crisis Group. She received a BA in Psychology from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the London Business School. She has also served as an adjunct professor at the NYU Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service.
Read here for more on the Rutgers Institute for Corporate Social Innovation.
NYU Stern Launches Diverse Pathways in Academia for Future Professors – NYU Stern School News
With the intent of educating Ph.D. students about faculty positions within business schools, NYU Stern has developed the Diverse Pathways in Academia program.
Scholars who participate can do so free of charge. The goal of the initiative is to build a diverse academic knowledge base within professorships at the business school community. The Ph.D.s will interact with current members of the business school faculty, who will share strategies on cultivating job prospects, sifting through job offers, and negotiating salaries.
The program will also serve as a valuable networking event, with faculty offering presentations and panel discussions. The application deadline for the January event is October 11, 2019.
Wharton Seminars for Business Journalists Announces Two All-Expenses-Paid Fellowships for Oct. 2019 Program, Courtesy of the National Press Foundation – Wharton News
The Wharton School has announced that the deadline for its Seminars for Business Journalists program is August 23rd, 2019.
The seminar series is led by Wharton’s most prominent researchers and professors, and it offers journalists the chance to participate in hands-on exercises and immersive sessions on key issues and breakthroughs.
This year’s annual Seminars for Business Journalists takes place October 13-16, 2019.
The National Press Foundation offers two fellowships each year that cover tuition, course materials, housing, meals, and transportation. Prior fellows include journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. The seminars will cover the basics of business strategies, and will be meant to inform the journalists with in-depth conversations from various practitioners and thinkers.
The event will take place October 13-16, 2019. Registration info can be found here.
News Roundup – Gies Online MBA Powers Illinois, Graziadio Professor on Women in the Age of AI, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including a Gies Online MBA helping power the state of Illinois.
Dr. Bernice Ledbetter Authors Opinion on Equipping Women with Opportunities to Thrive in Smart Machine Age – Pepperdine Graziadio Business School News
Dr. Bernice Ledbetter of the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School recently published her findings on the role of women in the age of AI.
A study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that smart machines will eventually perform the tasks performed by women in many business settings. Ledbetter’s research seeks to prompt lawmakers and policy makers to assist women in adapting their skill sets within this new landscape.
Dr. Ledbetter suggested three key guidelines to provide safeguards for women as work becomes automated—increase mentorship opportunities for women and outlets for women to hone leadership and utilize ‘soft skills;’ and to bolster investment in childcare and early childhood education. Women, according to research by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, account for 58 percent of the workforce that will be affected by automation.
As the Dean of Students and Alumni Affairs at the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School and Director of the Pepperdine Center for Women in Leadership, Ledbetter works to inform and instruct on the issues faced by women in every sector of the economy. For more on her study and the future of AI in the workplace, read here.
Cardinal Health Partners with Vanderbilt Executive Education for Two Custom Leadership Programs – Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Business News
Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management has been leading a strategic partnership with Cardinal Health Partners to produce some of the best and brightest executives in the healthcare field.
The two programs, entitled INNOVATE and INSPIRE, are both nine months in duration. INNOVATE brings together thirty directors for assignments meant to help solve global healthcare issues. The directors, who reside at various international locations, meeting face-to-face six months into the program. At the end of the nine months, the team presents their projects to Cardinal executives who decide which ones they will implement.
Vanderbilt’s partnership with Cardinal Health Partners has brought two new healthcare executive programs to the Owen Graduate School of Management.
INSPIRE is comprised of fifteen Cardinal Health vice presidents whose goal it is to hone skills in entrepreneurial thinking, organizational management, and trend spotting. After deciding upon one ‘mega trend’, teams analyze how the trend is active within their organization and how it can be maximized for the best impact.
The intent of each program is to help executives and leaders to shift focus from operational concerns into more strategic and creative thinking. Jerome Revish is a Cardinal Health Vice President for Services and a participant in the INSPIRE program. He says:
“I’ve been at the VP level for a little over two years now. I would say as manager and director, you’re so focused on execution and driving results … It’s now, at this level and the next level, where more of your job is centered around framing the strategy of where we need to be going, versus ‘how do I execute what’s in front of me today.’”
For more on Owen’s executive education programs, read here.
iMBA Helps Power Windfree’s CEO to Power Illinois Homes and Businesses – Gies College of Business News
The University of Illinois Gies College of Business’ iMBA program has helped one entrepreneur to help bring solar power to the Midwest.
Eric Heineman is CEO of Windfree, Illinois’ TOP installer of solar panels for homes and businesses in the state. The iMBA, Gies’ 100 percent online degree, was a perfect choice for Heineman as he juggled the responsibility of raising children and pursuing his goal of creating a socially responsible business.
Crediting the “solar boom” in Illinois for part of his success, Heineman says, ““I don’t know how I would be able to stay in a master’s program if I didn’t have the flexibility of the iMBA. It’s something I’m very thankful for.” The iMBA has been a vital tool in Heineman’s advancement to CEO, as his business decisions are directly applicable to his online curriculum.
“It allows me to constructively second-guess everything I’m doing, and I have a great sounding board for my ideas,” he continues. Windfree was founded in 2009, and it has become a leader in providing solar energy to schools and other non-profit organizations. Windfree is responsible for the installation of numerous solar power devices in the state, including the Illinois Governor’s Mansion.
Heineman will complete his MBA in 2020. You can read here for more on Heineman, Windfree, and the iMBA.
2019 Massachusetts Family Business of the Year Award Winners – Northeastern D’Amore McKim School of Business News
Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business honored some of the state’s leading family businesses during an awards program last month. For over a decade, a panel of judges has chosen businesses that exemplify success, specifically through multi-generational legacies of their organizations. Community involvement and innovation are two other criteria upon which the winners are chosen.
The Clark School received an award for medium sized businesses. Provo Wealth Management Group won the Marshall Paisner Award for Small Firms. The Hub Folding Box Company took home the large business award, and the Award for Community Involvement was presented to J. Calnan & Associates.
For the last thirteen years, recipients of the Massachusetts Family Business of the Year Awards have been selected by a panel of independent judges based on the following criteria: business success; positive business and family linkages; multi-generational family involvement; contributions to the community and industry; and innovative business practices or strategies.
You can read here for more on the Family Business of the Year awards.
Friday News – Vanderbilt Celebrates Social Causes, New Influencer Research at Johns Hopkins, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including Net Impact Week’s arrival at Vanderbilt, and new Johns Hopkins research on Instagram influencers.
Net Impact Week Celebrates the Intersection of Leadership and Social Causes – Vanderbilt News & Events
Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management celebrated Net Impact Week with a series of events and initiatives in collaboration with the Turner Family Center for Social Ventures, a student-led organization that seeks to alleviate poverty via market based solutions.
Beginning in late March, the week’s events included volunteer shifts at Tennessee’s Second Harvest Food Bank, pledges for greater sustainability efforts, and lunch and learn sessions. Among the long and short term goals that students stated in their pledges were reduction in water usage, use of sustainable transportation around campus and beyond, and reducing their consumption of meat and other animal products.
The Social Enterprise Consulting Showcase served as one of the lunch and learn events. Two teams, comprised of an ethically produced fashion brand and an urban farming project, presented their plans to an audience of student peers, sustainable business leaders, and faculty members. The week culminated in a presentation from students who had recently traveled to Ethiopia and Guatemala to engage in social impact work with local communities.
Click here for more on Owen’s Net Impact Week.
Internet Experts Who Attract Paid Advertisers Run the Risk of Alienating ‘Followers’ – Carey Business School News & Views
Itay Fainmesser, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School, recently published research on how online influencers maintain followers within the fiercely competitive world of social media.
Influencers, he observes, must balance their profiles with both original and paid content in order to maintain the loyalty of their followers. “Followers developed loyalty to influencers they considered authentic. Influencers had to find the right balance between paid and organic content, so they could be paid but not lose followers to competing influencers.” Fainmesser further notes that the competition between influencers has tended to create higher quality recommendations for consumers.
Regulatory measures that had, since the 1960s, only applied to TV and radio, have only recently begun to address online platforms. According to the regulations, influencers, like those involved in the Fyre Festival debacle in 2017, must clearly reveal the portions of their content that are sponsored. In order to prevent consumers from simply moving on to a site with more organic content, the sponsored content must be appealing to viewers. Faimesser suggests in his research that improving search technology is the future of improved user experience.
In the lead up to the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival, Instagram influencers effectively marketed the event without relaying that their posts were sponsored.
“The solution,” Fainmesser says, “is not to regulate influencers or marketers but to improve search technology to better match followers to influencers, whether they are sponsored or not.”
For more on Fainmesser and for a link to his research, click here.
From the Classroom to the Airwaves – Tuck School of Business News
Sydney Finkelstein, Professor of Management at Tuck School of Business, and leader of its Executive Program, and best-selling author, has turned his attention to a new podcast.
The Sydcast will feature interviews with influential people—thinkers, entrepreneurs, and even local small business owners—who frequently have a connection to Dartmouth but may be ‘under the radar.’
Best-selling author and Tuck School of Business professor Sydney Finkelstein recently jumped on the podcast wagon, launching The Sydcast.
“I’ve made a living out of asking good questions—in the classroom and in my research,” Finkelstein says, “so why not draw on that experience to create enjoyable content that can also give listeners new insights to business, careers, and how we live day to day?” He hopes to avoid the usual talking points of business leaders, such as management strategies or numbers, in favor of learning about his guests on a more personal and intimate level.
Finkelstein’s approach, he says, is to not rely heavily on research, but to intuitively let the conversations unfold.
“I try to approach it in the same way as you might when you know someone well, when you can really talk.” One of The Sydcast’s first featured guests was Deb Shinnlinger, the owner of Dartmouth’s mainstay coffee shop, Lucky’s. Finkelstein considers President Obama and Michael Jordan among his dream guests.
To subscribe to The Sydcast on iTunes, click here.
Why Aren’t Startups Founded by Women Getting More Funding? – Columbia Business School Press Releases
Collaborative research between Columbia Business School and the London Business School reveals that women-led businesses are 63 percent less likely to receive venture capital funding than those led by men.
Assistant Professor of Business at Columbia, Jorge Guzman, and Aleksandra Kacperczyk, Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at LBS, examined choices made by entrepreneurs at the founding stages of their efforts, and by investors at the point of funding. The team found that the disparity often originates in the type of businesses founded by women. Guzman says:
“Our study changes the focus of the gender gap in VC financing by showing that most of the gap is [high] up in the pipeline … While efforts to help existing women entrepreneurs are important, two-thirds of the issue is that we do not even see the women become entrepreneurs in the first place or start companies with the right underlying characteristics for attracting VC financing.”
The study focused on data in California and Massachusetts between 1995 and 2018. One of the conclusions Guzman and Kacperczyk drew was that female led businesses were often viewed by funders as ‘non-starters. That is, the ventures were not viewed as profitable to potential investors. Another conclusion was that if women do manage to get funding, their businesses are often as successful as their male peers.
The team also found that multiple interventions must be made to breach the disparity, including better education and training at each end of the spectrum for both entrepreneurs and investors.
For a version of the study that will be published in the journal Research Policy, click here.
Graziadio Business School to Host Spring 2019 Commencement – Graziadio Newsroom
Pepperdine Graziadio’s Spring 2019 Commencement Ceremony will take place on April 13 at 10:30 a.m. at the Firestone Fieldhouse on the Malibu campus.
Stasia Washington, MBA, ’13, Senior Vice President and Managing Director at financial services firm First Foundation, will receive recognition as a Distinguished Alumnus. Washington has won numerous awards for her accomplishments, including the Outstanding Banker of the Year from the LA Urban Bankers group and the National STEM Top Woman of Color in Finance award. After receiving her MBA from Graziadio, she graduated from UCLA Anderson’s Executive Leadership Institute.
At the First Foundation, Washington assists individuals, endowments, and non-profits with asset and portfolio management.
For more details on the upcoming Commencement events, click here.
Embracing Diversity at UCLA Anderson, Graziadio’s Commencement, and More – LA News
Friday, ya’ll.
Let’s dig into the biggest stories coming out of Los Angeles this week.
UCLA Anderson’s Hosts Annual Diversity Conference – UCLA Anderson News
UCLA Anderson recently hosted its annual Embracing Diversity Conference. The co-VP for diversity of the Anderson Admissions Ambassador Corps, Denice Gonzales-Kim, discussed her involvement with drawing minority applicants to Anderson in a recent blog post.
“As a first-generation graduate student,” she says, “I take great pride in participating in UCLA Anderson’s annual Embracing Diversity conference. I was reminded why, when deciding which business school to attend, many people gauge the school’s culture by its level of diversity.”
Previous attendees at the UCLA Embracing Diversity Conference / Photo via anderson.ucla.edu
Acknowledging the “embarrassingly low” numbers of diverse b-school students across the country, Gonzales-Kim expressed confidence in the efforts of the Anderson admissions committee to change this. The school draws applicants from a wide variety of socioeconomic groups, genders, orientations, and ethnicity, due in no small part to the efforts of Gonzales-Kim and others in the Ambassador Corps.
Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid, Alex Lawrence, outlined the takeaways from the Conference – discovery of the school’s intellectual capital, understanding of the Anderson community which is “diverse from all angles”, and realizing the global reach of the Anderson MBA.
You can learn more about Anderson’s diversity efforts and the recent conference here.
Pepperdine Graziadio Honors Distinguished Alumni at Fall Commencement – Graziadio Newsroom
Pepperdine Graziadio held its fall 2018 Commencement Ceremony on December 8, 2018 at the Malibu campus’ Firestone Fieldhouse.
This year, the event honored Vincent J. Monteparte (MBA ’01) with a Distinguished Alumnus Award. Monteparte is a partner at Sway Ventures, a venture capital firm specializing in tech. From a background in aerospace and defense consulting, he pivoted to business operations, software development, and more.
Nicholas Brown, the event’s student speaker, shared his experience as an Air Force veteran. While serving, Brown served as an intercontinental ballistic missile crew commander. He currently serves as an instructor in the Air Force Weapons school, where he implements his core skills as a leader and problem solver that he has gained as an MBA student.
Gary Toebben, former President and CEO of the LA Chamber of Commerce, spoke about his experiences in generating business growth for one of the country’s largest economies. In his final two years, Toebben helped to generate $150 billion for such initiatives as transit improvements, municipal services, and housing for the homeless. He also helped to fund the nine colleges within the Los Angeles Community College District, and was a leader in implementing the LAX Master Plan.
You can read more about the commencement honorees and the rest of the recent event here.
USC Marshall’s Speaker Series Hosts Former Assistant Secretary of State – USC Marshall News
In an interview with Dick Drobnick, USC Marshall IBEAR MBA Program Director, former Assistant Secretary of State Danny Russel discusses, among other things, his experiences with diplomacy. Russel served under John Kerry, and also served in the State Department into the early months of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Former Assistant Secretary of State Danny Russel sits down with USC Marshall’s IBEAR MBA Program Director Dick Drobnick, discussing his roles under Donald Trump, John Kerry, the trade war with China, and much more / Photo via marshall.usc.edu
On the current trade war with China, Russel views that this is the “new abnormal.” Strategic rivalries, he believes, are better dealt with through diplomatic efforts than with the restrictions currently at play in the Trump administration.
Among the other issues the interview covered were cybersecurity and the dynamics of authoritarian regimes. You can listen to the interview and learn more about the IBEAR MBA speaker series here.
Friday Morning News & Notes: Immoral Profits, Warby Parker and The NFL Draft
Good morning and happy Friday!
Here are a few stories you may have missed from the week that was …
Pepperdine Graziadio’s Mark Allen on the Future of Performance Reviews
Ah, the joys of the annual performance review. In a recent blog post, Mark Allen of Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management argues in favor of a better way.
Allen, a practitioner faculty member of organizational theory and management at Graziadio, devoted a recent post to examining employee performance reviews, which while they may bring some rewards also come with the high price of stress.
