News Roundup – Berkeley MBA on Solving Homelessness, Fuqua Dean on Immigration, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including a Berkeley Haas MBA alum approaching the California housing crisis.
Andrew Hening, MBA 17, On Solving Chronic Homelessness – Berkeley Haas Newsroom
Berkeley Haas recently featured an interview with Andrew Hening, an alum of the Evening & Weekend MBA (EWMBA). Hening has worked with great results to to reduce homelessness in the Marin County area of San Francisco.
Hening, who graduated from the EWMBA program in 2017, is the Director of Homeless Planning & Outreach for the city of San Rafael, California. Before receiving his degree at Haas, he considered pursuing a career in law. He returned to his hometown of Richmond, VA after college to take a job as a paralegal, but realized that his passion lay elsewhere.
“I started taking time off to volunteer in the community,” he says. “I’d done a lot with youth and tutoring, but then I participated with a Project Homeless Connect event, which is essentially a resource fair for people living outside. It was my first exposure to homelessness, and it had a huge impact on me.”
Through his involvement with AmeriCorps VISTA, he accepted a job as the Santa Clara County Project Homeless Connect Coordinator in 2010. Hening then moved on to his current position in San Rafael which he has held since 2016. Since he began his tenure, homelessness in Marin County has dropped by 28 percent. Hening credits a “shockingly simple” process of identifying those who are chronically homeless, then providing Section 8 funding for them and hiring capable landlords and property managers who were sensitive to the homeless problem.
Of the wisdom he gleaned from his time at Haas, Hening says, “Being in the EWMBA program was amazing because I was constantly bringing fresh ideas back to the team—so many things that seemed tangential to homelessness but weren’t. For example, from our operations class, I was seeing ways to apply supply chains and turnover to our housing placements and the speed at which people become and resolve their homelessness.”
You can read here for more on Hening, his time at Haas, and his work on the California housing crisis.
Two Michigan Ross Alumni Recognized For Their Outstanding Contributions to the Ross Community – Ross News Blog
Michigan Ross recently honored Mark Petroff, MBA ’98, along with Cathy Bessant, BBA ’82 last month for their achievements in their respective fields. The award ceremony took place during Ross’ annual Reunion weekend.
Petroff, who received the Bert Wertman Alumni Service Award, serves as a mentor to students via the Michigan Ross Alumni-in-Residence program. He is the president and CEO of OneMagnify, a marketing and analytics company, and was formerly a partner in the Financial Advisory Services practice of Deloitte in its automotive industry segment. Petroff was also a general securities principal in Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC, the company’s investment services group.
Cathy Bessant, BBA ’82, received the 2019 David D. Alger Alumni Achievement Award for her accomplishments in FinTech. She is the chief operations and technology officer at Bank of America. She has also been acknowledged as one of American Banker’s “Most Powerful Women in Banking” for the third year in a row.
Bessant received honor on Institutional Investor magazine’s annual Tech 40 list of 2017, along with the OUTstanding LGBT+ Ally Executives in the Financial Times list of 2018. She also appeared on Working Mother magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Working Moms” list of 2017. You can read more on Ross’ alumni honors here.
Smeal Teaching Support Specialists Pave the Way in the Online Classroom – Penn State Smeal News
The Penn State University Smeal College of Business announced the integration of Teaching Support Specialists (TSS) to assist students in its highly regarded Online MBA (OMBA) program.
Janet Duck, faculty director of the OMBA, sought to increase student engagement through employing the mentorship of these specialists. The purpose of the TSS, Duck says, is “to drive engagement in the online classroom, and to inspire learning through contemporary application of content … [Mentors are responsible for] facilitating rich online discussions, providing feedback for students on formative assignments, guiding team projects, and moderating live video sessions.”
The specialists are themselves OMBA grads, so they’re able to impart first hand wisdom on the value of their degree. One specialist, Cheryl Horten, worked in the pharmaceutical industry for fifteen years. She says:
“Having completed Penn State’s iMBA, which is the previous incarnation of the OMBA, I not only have a love for Penn State, but an appreciation and understanding of what it’s like for these students … I empathize with working all day and coming home to do school work, while taking care of your family—this is an opportunity for me to help these students be successful.”
Duck describes online education as a “team sport” that will soon become the norm in today’s increasingly digital environment. The TSS program, she believes, is the start of a trend for MBAs pursuing online or blended degrees. “Ongoing peer-to-peer sharing and identifying professional development needs will be key to growing and evolving a customized student experience,” she says.
You can read here for more on the TSS program.
Dean Bill Boulding Leads Business School Push Explaining How Immigration Benefits Economies – Fuqua Insights
Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business Dean Bill Boulding recently visited the nation’s capital with a strong message. The economic success of the United States, he says, is reliant upon an inclusive and responsible immigration policy.
Boulding is chair of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), and he made his statement on behalf of fifty business school deans from across the country.
“Economists have long studied the connection between immigration and economic growth. Beyond the academic research, we also have GMAC data showing a significant shift in where students want to study around the world, which is an early indicator of which regions of the world are winning the talent race,” he says.
The statement came in the form of a public letter to U.S. government leaders and published in the Washington D.C. edition of the Wall Street Journal. It also received headline status in The Washington Post, The Hill and on NPR’s Marketplace.
The statement suggested some tangible solutions such as increasing the number of H-1B visas for well educated international workers possessing specialized skills. “A combination of our outdated laws, artificial regional and skills-based caps on immigration, and recent spikes in hostility are closing the door to the high-skilled immigrants our economy needs to thrive,” stated the letter.
You can read more on the GMAC statement here.
The 99 Percent Economy – USC Marshall News
Paul Adler, Professor of Management and Organization at the USC Marshall School of Business, has some strong words about the need for a vast shift in the U.S. economic system.
“We are already over the climate-change cliff,” he says.
“We need to find a way to mobilize a massive, sustained green R&D effort and drive the resulting new technologies into widespread use and abandon many economic assets that are environmentally unsustainable and get us all to change our living habits … and achieve all this in time to avert the collapse of ecological and social systems.”
His book, The 99 Percent Economy: How Democratic Socialism Can Overcome the Crisis of Capitalism, was released by Oxford University Press in October. Adler’s basic argument is that capitalism has brought enormous growth and well being to the U.S., but that the costs are growing more rapidly than the benefits. Climate change, he argues, has pushed our society to a crisis point. One of the most viable solutions, he argues, is a democratic form of socialism.
He suggests a variety of systematic changes for corporate organizations to set the groundwork for a sweeping change in the way the country’s resources, both natural and economic, are allocated.
For more on Adler’s work, read here.
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 – Florida Rankings Get a Boost, Stanford Worries About the Internet, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including Florida rankings getting a nice boost for its graduate programs.
Tepper Hosts International Energy and Commodity Markets Conference – News & Events
Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business hosted the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Commodity and Energy Markets Association (CEMA) last month.
CEMA, founded in 2017, brings researchers and practitioners with an interest in topics like cryptocurrencies, energy storage, renewable energy, and climate change. CEMA and Tepper’s Sustainability Initiative work closely address these issues and help develop research into practice and policy. The 2019 event was organized by two prominent faculty at Tepper: Nicola Secomandi, Professor of Operations Management, and Head of the Ph.D. Program; and Duane Seppi, The BNY Mellon Professor of Finance and Head of the MS in Computational Finance Program.
Secomandi says of the event, “It makes sense to do it here …My research focuses on energy and commodities, and other Tepper faculty share similar research interests.”
Thirty sessions comprised this year’s program, along with two keynote addresses. Professor of Financial Economics Burton Hollifield and Emilio Osambela, former Tepper School faculty member and Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, presented a headlining research paper regarding the investments choices made by environmentalists.
Bo Yang, a Tepper Ph.D. student, along with Secomandi and Selvaprabu Nadarajah (Ph.D, ’14), presented a research paper on methods of optimizing merchant energy production. Tepper alumni Michel Robe (Ph.D. ’95) and Sheridan Titman (Ph.D. ’81) delivered a presentation on agricultural futures markets.
For more on CEMA and the 2019 meeting, read here.
Five Hough Graduate Programs Earn Top 5 Ranking Among Publics for Second Year – Warrington Newsroom
The University of Florida’s Hough Graduate School of Business received high rankings for five different graduate programs by the Eduniversal Group.
Hough’s MS in Management was ranked first overall among public universities in the U.S., and the MS in Real Estate was voted first overall of its kind for the second year in a row. Also ranked in Eduniversal’s top five were the Master of International Business degree and the MS in Entrepreneurship. Hough’s full-time MBA came in at fourth among all public university MBAs in the U.S.
Eduniversal Group handed Florida’s Hough Graduate School of Business some high praise for its various master’s programs.
Eduniversal reviewed 20,000 postgraduate global master’s programs in 50 fields of study, in addition to surveying thousands of students, recruiters, and faculty. Program reputation, salary upon graduation and student satisfaction were the three criteria upon which the rankings are based. For more on Eduniversal and on Hough’s rankings, read here.
The Internet Is Broken. Can It Be Fixed? – Stanford GSB School News & History
Fake news, cybersecurity, and corporate technology’s power structure will be among the topics covered in a new course at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
Anat R. Admati, George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics and faculty director of the Corporations and Society Initiative, and lecturer Jonathan Dotan, a fellow at Stanford’s Center for Blockchain Research and at the Stanford Compression Forum and a consulting producer on the HBO series Silicon Valley, have designed a multidisciplinary curriculum that will address the regulation and policy issues facing those who live in a tech driven world.
Dotan says of the course’s content:
“The perception of the tech industry has changed dramatically in the past five years … Back then, it could do no wrong. Now it can do no right. Those extremes point to a discussion that we need to have about the role that the internet plays in people’s lives.”
Professor Admati’s approach is more focused on the governance aspects of tech. She says, “I want to understand and help students think through the bigger context of how corporations fit into a system that includes investors, customers, government, news media, and citizens—the whole ecosystem.”
The course, entitled ‘Is the Internet Broken?’ was offered for the first time in spring 2019. For more on the curriculum and its creators, read here.
Former Dean Rich Lyons Named New Campus Innovation Officer – Berkeley Haas News
UC Berkeley’s first-ever Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer (CIEO), former Dean Rich Lyons, will work to bring Berkeley Haas‘ research in these fields to fruition.
Rich Lyons, new lead of the Berkeley Haas Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship / Photo via /newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu
Lyons will lead the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in initiating partnerships and acquiring stakeholders to support start up and entrepreneurial efforts on campus. Lyons said of his appointment, “If together we can improve the transformation of Berkeley’s prodigious intellectual product, across the whole campus, into greater societal benefit, then we will have achieved a great deal.”
For eleven years, Lyons served as dean of Haas. He left the position in 2018 and will return after a sabbatical to teaching finance, along with beginning the transition to his new role. Learn more here.
MedTechBOOST Competition to Target Healthcare Challenges Using AI – University of Cambridge Judge Business School News
The Cambridge Judge Business School Entrepreneurship Center, along with corporate sponsors such as Johnson & Johnson and Astra Zeneca, will host a competition aiming to address issues of mental health and wellness in aging using artificial intelligence.
The participants will examine ways in which AI can be used to diagnose, predict, and treat patients. After developing these ideas, they will pitch them to potential investors and collaborators. “MedTechBOOST offers individuals and early-stage start-ups unprecedented access to the NHS and a roster of multinational businesses and investor networks, providing a life-changing experience for anyone pursuing a career in healthcare or AI,” says James Parton, one of the competition’s organizers.
Healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, researchers, students, and early stage start-ups can apply to take part in MedTechBOOST.com by July 31.
“MedTechBOOST offers individuals and early-stage start-ups unprecedented access to the NHS and a roster of multinational businesses and investor networks, providing a life-changing experience for anyone pursuing a career in healthcare or AI,” says Bruno Cotta, Executive Director of Cambridge Judge Business School Entrepreneurship Center.
Learn more about MedTechBOOST and its participants here.
Friday News – Vanderbilt Receives STEM Designation, Michigan Ross Honored by AACSB, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including the new Vanderbilt STEM designation at the university’s Owen Graduate School of Management.
Vanderbilt MBA Finance Concentration Receives STEM Certification – News & Events
The Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University has announced that, starting this fall, its finance concentration will be a STEM degree program. This gives international students the opportunity to extend post-completion Optional Practical Training (OPT) in the US by 24 months.
Sue Oldham, Associate Dean, MBA Programs Operations, says, “We were able to work with our faculty to ensure that this STEM designation in the Finance concentration is one that would have an immediate impact, not only for our current students but for all prospective students… [It] is a direct result of the leadership team here listening to what our students are saying, specifically our international students.”
The OPT program enables international students to remain in the United States for 12 months in order to receive work training. With the new STEM designation, this period has been extended an additional 24 months for international finance students to build their careers. For more on the new Vanderbilt STEM designation, click here.
Michigan Ross Dialogue About The Future of Business Named for “Innovation that Inspires” – Michigan Ross News Blog
A discussion that took place last year at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business has been selected by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) for its contribution to academic thought and practice across the b-school community and the world at large.
“Working Toward Shared Prosperity: An Academic-Executive Dialogue,” included academics, along with business, labor, government, and nonprofit leaders who seek to improve conditions of employment and economic growth via practical solutions. Participants and attendees of the discussion came away with renewed energy toward enabling their academic work to address real world issues.
“Working Toward Shared Prosperity: An Academic-Executive Dialogue” earned the coveted 2019 Innovations That Inspire designation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) / Photo via michiganross.umich.edu
The talk was a partnership between Michigan Ross and The Aspen Institute. Read more about the discussion, the AACSB, and the Aspen Institute here.
Economic and Environmentally Sustainable Solutions at the Forefront for the University of Toronto’s NeXus Consulting Group – Rotman News
The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management announced five of its MBA students joining its consulting group, NeXus Enterprises, which focuses primarily upon sustainability and social impact in its practice.
Founded in 2005, NeXus has worked with clients in 10 different countries to assist them in business planning, market research, financial modeling, scaling and expansion efforts. John Visser, a NeXus board member, says, “Social impact organizations are being challenged to deliver more value than ever before. Recent NeXus teams have executed a range of projects that have enabled boards and management teams to take their organizations to the next level.”
The new members of NeXus, all 2020 graduates of the Rotman MBA program, bring their expertise in technology, healthcare, marketing, design, engineering and construction to the group. Read here for more on NeXus and the Rotman team.
Marrying Science and Business Education For A More Sustainable Tomorrow – Fox School News
An industrial ecology project team at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, featuring an MBA student, a legal studies professor, and an engineering professor, have set an admirable example of how to meld disciplines.
Legal studies professor Daniel Isaacs Civil and Environmental Engineering Assistant Professor Avner Ronen, and MBA Vidya Sabella collaborated to solve a pressing problem: reducing wastes created by businesses.
(Left to right) Daniel Isaacs, Avner Ronen, and Vidya Sabbella / Photo via Joseph V. Labolito
Professor Isaacs (who is also head of the Global MBA program) says, “Business, technology, science and education should not be siloed. With broader educational opportunities like this one, environmental issues can be the drivers of innovation…Students and leaders alike need to start thinking about business in terms of what their obligations to future generations should be.”
You can read more about the team and project here.
MIT Food Systems Lab Announces Seven New Seed Grants – MIT News
The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) announced a new round of funding for an array of projects that will further innovation in farming and sustainable supply chain management in multiple countries. MIT Sloan is among the branches of the school to receive grant money.
Among the other innovations and developments will be increased food safety for everyday consumers; productivity technologies for small farmers, and water filtration methods for eliminating pollutants to food supplies. Thirty-four research teams applied for funding, and the directors of J-WAFS were tasked with choosing the best of the best.
Renee Robins, Executive Director of J-WAFS, says, “The broad range of disciplines that this applicant pool represents demonstrates how meeting today’s water and food challenges is motivating many diverse researchers in our community.”
Find more details on the seed grants and their recipients here.
Friday News – USC Hosts Venture Summit, FSU’s Master’s of Business Analytics Class Graduates, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including the USC Venture Summit.
Venturing Ahead – USC Marshall Hosts 8th annual Venturing Summit – USC Marshall News
The Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at USC Marshall hosted the 8th annual University Venturing Summit this month.
The event gave Future entrepreneurs from USC’s MBA community the chance to meet with VCs and supporting businesses such as accounting and law firms. USC faculty also took part in the Summit, including Patrick Henry, Assistant Professor of Clinical Entrepreneurship and organizer of the Summit.
“The perception of a lot of university ventures is that they are still in the ‘good idea’ stage…But the reality is that the university venturing world is more market-ready than ever, and university ventures are more ready to launch than ever,” Henry says.
USC MBA alum Jessica Schleder presented her venture, Adoptimize, which allows insurance providers to increase their volume of leads through streamlining the pet adoption process. Other student ventures, including a data security tool, addressed the trends present in the L.A. economy and beyond.
Sponsored by EY, among other private firms, the Summit also hosted student entrepreneurs from UCLA Anderson, UC Irvine, and Cal State University Northridge. Click here for more on the Summit and its participants.
Inaugural Class of Master’s in Business Analytics Students Set to Graduate – FSU College of Business News
Florida State University College of Business’ first Master’s in Business Analytics (MS-BA) class graduated this month from the School of Business.
The program was created in order to meet the demands of an economy increasingly driven by data, and its analysis and application in helping businesses grow. Students in the program combine a strong command of quantitative skills in various backgrounds with a desire to develop their powers of analysis.
One graduate, Jessie Tolbert, started his career as an environmental scientist. Curious about how the data he gathered was used to improve environmental conditions, Tolbert decided to pivot into analytics with the MA-BS degree. “I’ve learned in-demand technical skills and built my professional network with other students, distinguished professors and FSU alumni who are in the industry,” Tolbert says.
The degree comes on the heels of such studies as one by McKinsey, showing a 60 percent gap between the demand for talented analysts and the supply of qualified people in the workforce. For more on Florida State’s MS-BA, read here.
Village of Oak Park Partners with Graduate Marketing Class – Quinlan School of Business News
In an effort to retain both the rich history and the future growth of the Oak Park neighborhood, Loyola University of Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business MBA alum have teamed up with Oak Park residents and current Quinlan grad students.
Loyola Quinlan alumni Eric Pedersen (left) and Jeff Prior (right) / Photo via luc.edu
Eric Pedersen (MBA ’01), of the Oak Park Neighborhood Services team, sought to improve the visibility of the community’s housing rehabilitation loan program. “The need was a short, consistent, and readily understandable message, combined with a visually appealing ad campaign … And we needed it in less than 60 days with a very modest budget.”
The loan program assists those in need—the recently unemployed, people with disabilities, seniors, and single parents—obtain interest free loans to make necessary home improvements.
Quinlan Professor of Marketing Katie Hession’s class was able to work under the tight deadline and budget to create the program’s ad campaign. Using the tagline of “Brick by Brick, Chip by Chip, Panel by Panel, and Picket by Picket,” the ad package contains visually striking images and bold messages regarding the program. For more on the ads and Oak Park’s community improvement efforts, read here.
Wharton School Forms Analytics at Wharton – Wharton News
The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School announced the establishment of Analytics at Wharton, which unites industry leaders, researchers, and faculty with the goal of harnessing big data to help businesses grow.
An anonymous $15 million gift has allowed the creation of the Data Science and Business Analytics Fund. Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett says, “In the 21st century, leaders will increasingly use data and analytics to develop insights that will help them make better decisions and become better leaders. The creation of Analytics at Wharton demonstrates our commitment to using big data to transform how business is done.”
Along with the fund comes the creation of a new leadership position at Wharton, the Vice Dean of Analytics. Eric T. Bradlow, the K.P. Chao Professor and Professor of Marketing, Economics, Education, and Statistics will hold this position.
The new initiative will bring five existing Wharton programs: Customer Analytics; the Penn Wharton Budget Model; People Analytics; Wharton Neuroscience; and Wharton Research Data Services. For more on Analytics at Wharton, read here.
Brookings Institution Appoints Lemma Senbet to Africa Board – News at Smith School of Business
University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has appointed Professor Lemma Senbet to the Distinguished Advisory Board of the Africa Growth Initiative at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.
The Advisory Board is responsible for guiding members of the Africa Growth Initiative on key economic and social issues faced by the continent. Lemma W. Senbet is the William E. Mayer Chair Professor of Finance at the Smith School of the University of Maryland and the founding director of the school’s Center for Financial Policy. He also serves on the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund’s Advisory Board, and he is the former executive director and CEO of the African Economic Research Consortium.
Africa Growth Initiative Director Brahima S. Coulibaly says of Senbet’s appointment, “[Senbet joins a distinguished] panel of select, high-level policymakers, academics and practitioners on African socio-economic development issues.”
You can read here for more on Senbet and the Africa Growth Initiative.
Friday News Roundup – Sustainability at NYU, Ohio State Commencement, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including the new NYU sustainability efforts at the Stern School of Business, OSU Fisher commencement’s celebrity speakers, and more.
NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business Announces New Initiative “Invest NYC SDG” with $350K in Support from the Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets and PepsiCo. – NYU Stern News
In support of New York City planners’ efforts to implement sustainable development initiatives, NYU’s Stern Center for Sustainable Business has launched “Invest NYC SDG” (Sustainable Development Goals).
The Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets and PepsiCo have donated $350,000 to jump start Invest NYC SDG’s efforts. Invest NYC SDG is comprised of a team of investors and corporate leaders who will address such challenges as access to clean energy, affordable housing, and climate change resilience. Employment, revitalization, and responsible urban development are the initiative’s key goals.
Professor Tensie Whelan, founding director of NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business says, “We are excited to develop a shared vision for the future of sustainable economic development in NYC with a wide group of public and private sector stakeholders, and longer-term, help others to replicate that vision in cities across the world.”
Read here for more on Stern and Invest NYC SDG.
Fisher to celebrate the Class of 2019 – Fisher College of Business News
Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business will hold pre-commencement ceremonies on May 5, 2019.
Fisher holds this event to honor b-school students prior to the all-school commencement on the same day. This year, Fisher will honor 225 MBA, HR Management and Specialized Master of Finance graduates, 69 Masters of Accounting (MAcc) grads, and 32 EMBAs.
Headlining the event as a speaker will be Peter Cohen, who graduated from Fisher in 1968 and later went on to become Wall Street’s youngest CEO at the age of 36. Gary Price, partner affairs leader and chief administrative officer at PwC will deliver the MAcc keynote address. A 1983 Fisher grad, Price remains engaged with the Accounting and Management Information Systems Departments at Fisher.
CNN Worldwide host and writer Fareed Zakaria will honor Fisher’s EMBA graduates at this year’s commencement.
The EMBA ceremony will feature speeches from the class valedictorian, along with an awards presentation. Commencement for the larger OSU community will be at noon on May 5, and will feature an address by Fareed Zakaria, columnist for The Washington Post, a contributing editor for The Atlantic, and CNN Worldwide host.
For more on the Ohio State commencement speakers, click here.
Rutgers University – Newark Demonstrates Leadership in Social Entrepreneurship as Host of New Jersey Summit – Rutgers Business School News
Rutgers University in Newark served as host to the New Jersey Social Entrepreneurship Summit last month, bringing together innovators and impact investors, and other leaders creating change through their businesses.
Among the issues presented by speakers were how to legally structure a business to be recognized as a social impact venture; how to form a narrative to draw investors, and the best ways to align profit with a socially responsible mission. Jeffrey Robinson, Associate Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development (CUEED) at THE Rutgers Business School, led the Summit.
Robinson said of the event:
“[Its] purpose was to raise the profile of social entrepreneurship in New Jersey by bringing leaders of the social sector and entrepreneurs who address social and environmental problems in their businesses together to learn from and support one another.”
The New Jersey Office of Faith Based Initiatives, the Pro Bono Partnership of New Jersey, and Uplift Ventures were just a few of the Summit’s participants, which was attended by 250 students and members of the surrounding community. You can read more about the Summit here.
UCLA’s Chief Sustainability Officer Rolls with It – UCLA Anderson News
Led by Nurit Katz (MBA/MPP ’08), Executive Director of Facilities Management and the university’s first Chief Officer of Sustainability, UCLA Anderson is aiming to become a nationwide leader in the use of active transportation around campus.
Katz (left), the first Chief Officer of Sustainability at UCLA Anderson, has introduced new bike paths and ride sharing to the campus (center, right), making UCLA more energy efficient and friendly for the years to come.
“Our Healthy Campus Initiative integrates well with the UCLA Grand Challenges of climate change and mental health because the overall goal is wellness in body and mind—our health depends on environmental health,” says Katz. UCLA is a participant in LA’s Bike to Work Week, and also launched the popular Bruin Bike Share program which is part of the region’s larger bike share initiative.
Katz has been a strong proponent of cycling and other forms of active transportation on campus since she attended Anderson. Along with founding the university’s Sustainable Resource Center, she also serves on the advisory boards of Sustainable Works and the Green Business Council of Southern California, as well as on the steering committee of the USGBC Resilience LA Initiative. She also is a member of the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference Steering Committee.
Katz, who completed a full Ironman distance triathlon in 2010, is one of UCLA Anderson’s ‘Inspirational 100’ alumni. Read here for more on Katz and her work.
World Economic Forum Recognizes Questrom Professor – Boston University News
Boston University Questrom School of Business Professor Marshall Van Alstyne, one of the world’s leading experts in information business models, has been honored by the World Economic Forum for exceptional work in his field.
His research on the theory of network effects, which is now taught worldwide, explores the relationships between communications markets, intellectual property, and the social effects of technology. Van Alstyne, along with his co-authors Michael G. Jacobides of the London Business School and NYU Stern’s Arun Sundararajan, presented their whitepaper to members of the forum as part of its Digital Transformation Initiative.
Bruce Weinelt, the head of the DTI and member of the WEF’s leadership team, says:
“The DTI is a multi-year engagement analyzing the impact of digital transformation on individual sectors on the enterprise and on society at large … One of the notable findings of this project is the development of a unique economic framework which actually identifies and quantifies the impact of digital on industry as well as society.”
You can check out the whitepaper, along with Van Alstyne’s presentation, online.
