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Mergers and Acquisitions
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Media Mentions Boost Mutual Funds
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| Ron Kaniel |
The Journal’s quarterly rankings give a surprisingly heavy boost to mutual funds that make it into the Top 10, according to research by Simon professor Ron Kaniel and coauthor Robert Parham, a current PhD student. They found that the quarterly capital flows of Top 10 funds grew an average of 31 percent more than those of funds just missing the list.
“Even though their ranking and returns are quite close, there’s a big difference between No. 10 and No. 11,” Kaniel says.
WSJ rankings are based simply on the previous 12 months’ returns, ensuring both minimal editorial impact on what to report on and random assignment around the publication cutoff of 10. Because the Category Kings media mention is not the result of new information about a fund’s investment prospects or products, it can be used as a laboratory for understanding how a mere mention in the media can affect financial decision-making, Kaniel says.
A fund’s presence in the Top 10 list in a single ranking period allows it to collect almost $1.5 million in increased fees on average, the authors find. They also see a ripple effect for other funds in the same brand: When considering spillover flows to other funds in the complex, the increased fees from appearance on the list amount to a remarkable $36 million.
Top 10 rankings drive investment decisions by managers of mutual funds that are around the cutoff for making the list. Managers can easily scan the previous year’s results to determine how their funds currently rank, and they know very little separates the performance of a No. 10 fund from one at No. 11.
A month before the quarterly rankings come out, managers of funds around the No. 10 cutoff often distort their portfolio allocation to differentiate themselves from their peers. The goal: to increase the likelihood of making the list. It’s a risky move—the fund shifts to a sub-optimal risk-return tradeoff—but it also betters the fund’s chances of making the list and reaping the significant benefits. Only funds that are unlikely to be in a similar position in the next quarter distort allocations.
Similar rankings published less prominently do not have the same effect on capital flow after publication. The prominence of the Category Kings section is key to driving increased capital flows from investors to the published mutual funds, Kaniel says. —Sally Parker
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Ghost Ads Bring New Measure of Success
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| Garrett Johnson |
Johnson and coauthors Randall Lewis of Netflix and Elmar Nubbemeyer of Google have developed a methodology that makes testing ad effectiveness much easier—and less costly.
Marketers who want to know how effective their ads are need to know how consumers would behave had they not seen the ads. To set up the comparison, the team developed a methodology called ghost ads, which identifies the control group counterparts of the exposed consumers in a randomized experiment.
“A ghost ad is a log that tells us when an ad from the experiment would have been shown to a user in the control group,” Johnson says. “The control group user still sees the ad she would have seen if she weren’t in an experiment.”
Until now, the best way for an advertiser to measure ad effectiveness was to pay to run a public service announcement in place of its ad, creating a control group of viewers. But running PSAs is problematic, Johnson says.
“Companies are reluctant to run PSA experiments as a matter of normal business practices. It’s expensive,” he notes.
With ghost ads in place of PSAs, the control group user sees whatever the ad platform chooses to deliver when the treatment ad is absent. The aptly named ghost ads make the experimental ads visible to the ad platform and experimenter but invisible to users in the control group. Users see a variety of competing ads rather than a single PSA. Ghost ads do the work of a PSA without the associated costs and are compatible with performance-optimizing ad platforms.
In one of their experiments, with an online retailer’s display retargeting campaign, the campaign lifted website visits by 17 percent and purchases by 11 percent.
The methodology could revolutionize ad effectiveness measurement, Johnson says. More than a hundred advertisers now use ghost ads on Google each month, and 100 million of the ads are loaded every day. It also has the potential to be broadly used by companies that sell banner ads and search ads, and could be applied to targeted radio and TV ads as well.
“If you’re a CMO right now it’s very hard to say credible things about the effectiveness of advertising,” Johnson notes. “Ghost ads can improve the credibility of your marketing organization by allowing you to calculate the return on your ad investment.
“Thinking big picture, the potential is really enormous,” he says. —Sally Parker
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Is Software Better Off in the Cloud?
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| Abraham (Avi) Seidmann |
SaaS offers economies of scale. It allows businesses to increase volume output with fewer people, reduce investment on technology infrastructure, and maintain easy access to critical information with minimal upfront spending.
Impressive claims indeed. But a new study by Abraham (Avi) Seidmann, Xerox Professor of Computers and Information Systems and Operations Management, and Dan Ma’03S (MS), ’06 (PhD) of Singapore Management University, shows MOTS packages still have an important role to play. They built a game-theory model to study the competition between SaaS and MOTS.
“Contrary to popular articles on this topic, the competitive advantage of SaaS stems as much from the efficient pooling of transaction volatility risks as from the reduced cost,” Ma says.
“Most SaaS systems provide limited customization options because they are operating in a multitenancy environment,” Seidmann says. “Multiple customers share the same application, running on the same operating system, hardware, and data-storage mechanism. This is how SaaS attains economies of scale, but as a result, users incur lack-of-fit and significant integration costs.”
The typical in-house MOTS system, however, is more easily customized and better integrated.
To compete successfully, SaaS providers should make reducing lack-of-fit costs a top priority. SaaS will attain a solid position and grow as more software standards are adopted, uniform-platform efforts continue, and technology improves.
Seidmann and Ma also urge appropriate pricing strategies. They suggest that SaaS should adopt a higher value but a lower price strategy; users will see economies of scale with steadily reduced SaaS prices. MOTS providers instead should focus on enhancing product value with richer features and full functionality. This will boost the software’s perceived value and hold its market power in certain segments.
Since the SaaS trend seems unstoppable in some markets, leading software providers should offer both MOTS and SaaS options, the authors note. The trend already is evident: SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle offer both versions. —Sally Parker
FURTHER READING:
Ma, Dan and Seidmann, Abraham. 2015. “Analyzing Software as a Service with Per-Transaction Charges.” Information Systems Research 26 (2): 360–378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2015.0571
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Alumni Profile: Sharon Markowitz
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Sharon Markowitz ’04S (MBA)
Global Marketing Lead, Intuit, Inc.
“When I started at Intuit, they were shifting from desktop to cloud computing, which required greater sensitivity to customer needs, given the evolution in the industry and the need for relevance,” says Markowitz. “I helped grow our educational business in high schools and colleges, and I needed to understand the drivers of the business.” To that end, she did lean testing with small groups of customers to learn how they intended to use QuickBooks Online, resulting in a marketing strategy that could ultimately scale the business.
Her next challenge was expanding Intuit’s global market into the UK, Canada, Australia, India, and France. “I took a two-pronged approach,” she says. “First, I talked with country managers to understand their perspectives. Then I used LinkedIn to reach out to global marketing managers who were not with Intuit to learn how they marketed globally and to create external references as benchmarks.”
When Markowitz spent time in Australia she learned the differences between Intuit’s “champion” market role in the US and its “challenger” role in Australia. “I was struck by the strong relationships the team built with our customers, given the competitive nature of the market,” she says. “As a small team, they integrated their personal lives into work, which was a balanced approach, and made it easy to walk in their shoes for a bit.”
After earning a finance degree at Boston University, Markowitz worked for a few years in investment banking and at a startup. She believes that time was key in helping her decide why she wanted to go back for an MBA and what she hoped to get out of the Simon program. After earning her MBA, she set her sights on running a business within the confines of a larger company, managing many household brands at Del Monte, Mars, and Safeway.
Markowitz enjoyed the small-school environment of Simon and the easy accessibility to administrators. “With the support of former dean Mark Zupan and alumni relations personnel, I built a team to reinvigorate the Bay Area alumni organization and create a calendar of events that brought record participation,” she says.
Coming from a finance background, Markowitz also valued a fact-based learning approach. She especially liked the real-world, group-based projects required by Sanjog Misra and the theoretical classes taught by Cliff Smith.
“I loved the international culture at Simon and have friends around the world. Over Thanksgiving, I spent time with a former classmate in Peru, where we hiked Machu Picchu. Last year, I did a homestay in Guatemala, practicing Spanish for five hours a day,” she says. “I was an adopted member of the Latin American Student Organization of Simon and continue to enjoy learning about the culture first-hand.”
In her free time, Markowitz uses Duolingo to learn Spanish. She also enjoys getting outdoors and traveling, and is currently seeking to become involved in the homeless issue in the Bay Area.
“I urge students to see their careers as journeys,” she says. “Your first job may not be perfect, but it can be a stepping-stone to move on to the next. I’ve found great success by remaining flexible in fast-changing environments and embracing learning as a lifestyle.”?
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Alumni Profile: Cindy Becker
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Cindy Becker ’01S (MBA)
Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Highland Hospital
Becker is involved with virtually every aspect of hospital management. At Highland, she oversees day-to-day operations, prepares and manages the budget, monitors quality and process improvement initiatives, and assures compliance with regulations. She also monitors employee and physician engagement and patient satisfaction outcomes, and supports the Hospital Board committee.
The results have been impressive. “We’ve been able to achieve hospital operating margins of four to six percent compared with state averages of 0.5 to 1 percent,” she says. “Our employee engagement and patient satisfaction scores are in the 75th percentile range over the past several years.”
Becker has been involved in health care for 40 years, starting first as a nurse on a surgical unit at Strong Memorial Hospital, and serving three years as a captain in the US Air Force as a critical care and ED nurse. She returned to Strong to work in the Emergency Department as an assistant nurse manager, at which time she earned her MSN in Nursing Administration. In 1988, she was recruited by Highland Hospital to be the nurse manager of its Emergency Department. She has remained at Highland ever since.
While moving up to positions of increasing responsibility, including AVP for Nursing, chief nursing officer, and chief operating officer, Becker was accepted into the Simon Executive MBA Program, where she earned her degree. Now her work has much more to do with the business of delivering health care than being directly involved with patient care.
“Simon taught me the importance of collaboration and teamwork to accomplish outcomes, and it sharpened my analytical and critical thinking skills to make better decisions,” Becker says. The curriculum provided a structured framework she could apply to business settings. “We became adept at preparing financial analyses and business plans that supported recommendations, all in a supportive and rigorous group setting. Some of my best memories are of the time I spent with my teammates at Simon, working long hours to complete projects and assignments,” she says.
Becker heard about the Simon program from a colleague and knew about its reputation for excellence. While studying there, she valued the way Professor Cliff Smith took time to explain concepts simply and mentor students. “We’ve had several managers attend the Medical Management program at Simon, and we regularly sponsor teams for grad student projects,” she notes.
Becker has three grown children and two grandchildren. To relax, she and her husband, Jim, spend time at their cottage on Conesus Lake.
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Alumni Profile: Daniel Chai
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Daniel Chai ’98S (MBA)
Vice President, Charles River Associates
Since Chai has been a testifying expert himself, he understands the importance of looking at each case holistically. “I act as a trusted advisor to the litigating attorneys and help them manage the stable of expert witnesses,” he says. “Since I’ve testified as an expert myself, I know what it takes to get the report done, go through the deposition process, and testify before a judge if the case goes to trial.”
Working in the securities industry and then getting his Simon MBA have helped Chai understand complex cases at a broader level, not just with the narrower focus of many expert reports. “Focusing on the bigger picture has really been valuable for my role as a coordinating expert witness,” he says.
Managing multiple-expert litigation engagements has led Chai to work on high-profile cases. He was retained as a coordinating expert by outside legal counsel to Richard Grasso, former chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, who was sued by then New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer in an attempt to recover Grasso’s $190 million compensation package. Chai was also retained by outside counsel for WL Ross & Co., a private equity firm, to serve as a coordinating expert in class and derivative shareholder litigation involving one of its portfolio companies. Much of Chai’s work is related to shareholder disputes, M&A transactions, and allegations of white-collar crime.
At Charles River Associates, Chai also helps coordinate the firm’s global business development activities and initiatives. “This is a relationship-driven position,” he says, “and I routinely reach out to Simon and University of Rochester alumni worldwide to get introductions. I’ve traveled as far as Mongolia to follow up on a potential project, a direct result of keeping in touch through alumni networking.”
Chai values Professor Gregg Jarrell for introducing him to economic consulting through his own expert witness work and for sharing those case studies in class. Jerry Zimmerman and S. P. Kothari, who is now at MIT, have kept him involved in a strong academic research network through the Journal of Accounting and Economics, published by Simon. He also credits Professor David Tilson for continuing to ask him to guest-lecture in his Practicum in Consulting class, which gives him the opportunity to tell consulting war stories to students who want to enter the industry. “I am a big proponent of integrating real-world examples into the MBA curriculum,” he notes.
As a way to give back, Chai has been active in Simon alumni activities. He acts as a director on the board of the Simon Alumni Advisory Council and is a member of the Boston Regional Leadership Council for the George Eastman Circle. “I firmly believe in giving back and supporting the continued development of Simon as a world-class global graduate business school,” he says. “I credit Simon with laying the groundwork and arming me with the requisite tools to succeed in my consulting career. Plus I met my wife in a first-year accounting class.”
In his spare time, Chai enjoys coaching his three sons’ soccer and lacrosse teams. He also continues to play competitive soccer on over-40 teams and fondly remembers his time as a player in the Simon Soccer Club.
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Brian Harrington: Redefining Commitment
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| Brian Harrington |
Most people couldn’t imagine losing their sight and starting business school in the same year. But soon after learning to read Braille and how to walk with a cane, Brian Harrington’15S (MBA) was on a remarkable path to the Simon MBA.
In 2002, Harrington started as the director of information technology (IT) at the University of Rochester’s School of Nursing. Since then, he has witnessed and even been at the helm of some of the school’s considerable growth. “When I first took this job, I was managing two people and doing a lot of hands-on tech stuff,” he says. “Very quickly the School of Nursing did a lot of great things and expanded its work and services, and the IT team expanded with it. Now we have 16 people on our team, including two managers.”
Watch Brian's video!
It was that growth in job responsibilities that first had Harrington considering business school. “I remember thinking, ‘There are a lot of possibilities here. I’m not doing the same things I was,’ ” he says. “I was a manager and director, but I wanted to have the skills to do a better job. I wanted to bring more to the party.”
But life wasn’t always a party when Harrington, who was born with microphthalmia, a condition that causes the eye to be underdeveloped, began to lose his vision. “I couldn’t see well, but I saw well enough,” he says. “I could see my computer screen and I rode my bike everywhere like it was my car. But right around the time I got my job at the School of Nursing, glaucoma was detected. I lost one of my eyes in 2008. They did surgery on the other eye to try to keep it from failing. It looked like the surgery was going to work, but in 2012, it failed. By May, I didn’t see anything anymore.”
It was a difficult spring for Harrington, but that fall, he was registered to take his first two classes at Simon. “I didn’t really allow myself much time to think about adjusting,” he says. “I knew things were going bad in the fall of 2011, but I hadn’t lost my vision yet. That’s when I set up to get services from the Association for the Blind. I also started mobility training and learned how to get around with a cane.” Harrington might not have known it then, but it was all preparation for fulfilling a lifelong goal.
“My plan since high school was to get a master’s degree,” he says. “Somehow that’s always been in my brain. I really wanted it, and after I talked to a couple of my buddies here at the School of Nursing and found out they were into trying business school too, I decided to go for it. We all got into Simon and just jumped into the 2012 fall classes.” The circumstances of his decision were not lost on Harrington, but he knew he had support. “I have an amazing wife and a beautiful little girl who’s nine now,” he says. “She must have been six when I went back to school. But there I was, trying to do all of it at the same time. One night I’m in class at Simon and the next I’m in an evening class to learn Braille. It was a little nuts.”
Harrington started Simon as a part-time, nonmatriculated student, first taking economics and finance classes. “I was used to doing things visually,” he says. “So there I was getting numbers that I needed to plug into complex economic formulas to find answers. I remember trying to figure out how I would have once written it on paper, but that wasn’t an option anymore. Thankfully, there’s speech software for Excel that reads everything the cursor is on—so every time I move the cursor with the arrows on the keyboard, it reads me what’s in the spreadsheet.”
Harrington says he loved his Simon experience, and credits both technology and the support he got at the School for much of his success. “Nobody wants to go blind, but if you do, this is the time to do it,” he says. “I can’t imagine how people did it even 20 years ago. Now, there’s a product called VoiceStream that reads PDFs for you, and these days publishers offer digital books that can be used with a voice reader.” When it came to getting his hands on those digital books, Harrington says Simon staff stepped up to help. “Anna Rogers [associate director of Simon’s part-time programs] was my advisor and she was amazing,” he notes. “No one really gave me a break, but there were people like Anna who really helped.” Along with arranging meetings with professors, Harrington says Rogers would also scan PDF files so they could be used with a reader.
“Brian has a great sense of humor and always puts people at ease,” says Rogers. “In our meetings with his professors, he stressed that they should treat him just like any other student. With a little consideration for someone who can’t see the spreadsheet, and accesses information in different ways, Brian was able to participate and learn in every class.”
Harrington graduated in 2015, possibly making him the first blind person to complete the Simon MBA program. Like many Simon alums, he was looking to enhance his career with advanced business skills. “I’m not necessarily looking to change careers,” he says, “but I wanted to broaden my horizons. Being able to take my professional experience and combine it with an MBA education that includes leadership development, marketing strategy, and business law makes me a better candidate for a lot of possibilities.”
Perhaps even more valuable than what the Simon MBA can mean for his career is what graduating from the program did for Harrington’s self-esteem. “Simon helped me grow as a person and have a lot more confidence,” he says. “Now I know I can walk into a room and say, ‘Yeah, maybe I can’t see, but I can still get this done.’ ”
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Simon in the News
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Industry and Banking on a Two-Way Street
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| Sudarshan Jayaraman |
Economists have long understood the banking sector’s impact on manufacturing firms. The financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 and the ensuing economic slowdown have highlighted the connection between these sectors. While most research has focused on understanding how shocks to the banking sector are transmitted to the industrial sector, Jayaraman’s research shows that the effects also work the other way around.
“The banking sector always affects the industrial sector, and researchers pay a lot of attention to this. However, we show that it flows both ways: Changes happening to the industrial sector affect the banking sector as well,” Jayaraman says.
The authors look at what has happened in banking from the time that manufacturers stopped relying on domestic banks and started borrowing from international markets. The benefits of foreign financing for industrial firms are well understood, but its effects on the banking sector are relatively unexplored.
They found unintended consequences for domestic banks as a result of regulatory initiatives set in place to increase firms’ access to foreign financing. Their paper focuses on one such initiative, the introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards, a common set of accounting rules implemented across more than 100 countries in 2005. The objective of the standards is to create greater harmony in disclosure practices among countries to increase cross-border capital flows.
While firms benefit from greater availability of capital, US banks must take on more risk to compete more fiercely with these alternative financiers, the authors write.
“Although we don’t examine the implication of this risk-taking on banking system stability, an extension of our results is that such behavior increases bank fragility,” Jayaraman adds.
In addition to financial reporting standards, advances in communication technology have made it easier for manufacturers to locate financing alternatives in foreign countries and markets.
“We also show that information is now flowing globally, and that benefits firms in search of capital,” Jayaraman says. “They don’t have to rely on domestic banks anymore.”
The paper is forthcoming in The Accounting Review. —Sally Parker
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Dean's Corner
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| Dean Andrew Ainslie |
A Strategy for Success
Like much of the Northeast, springtime at Simon is showing signs of new life and renewed energy for the coming season. It is also an important time to consider new directions for our School as we deepen our commitment to rise in the rankings and secure the School’s healthy financial standing.
In the Fall 2015 issue of this magazine, I discussed my goals for Simon and shared with you our drive to be ranked among the top 25 business schools by the 2020–21 academic year, while drawing less than five percent from the School’s endowment. That vision, which we now call Simon 2020, is already shaping many of our efforts and has been the driving force behind the School’s emerging strategic plan.
The Strategic Planning Committee identified areas of improvement that would have the greatest impact on Simon’s rankings. First among those areas were improvements in how we engage our students and boost their satisfaction with the Simon experience. After conducting one-on-one interviews, establishing peer benchmarks, and soliciting considerable student feedback, we made the decision to accelerate the creation of the new Office of Student Engagement, and it is already showing worthy returns. With assistant dean Carin Cole at the helm, the new Office of Student Engagement is focused on providing more experiential learning and real-world opportunities to become expert communicators, analytic problem solvers, and effective members of any business team.
In addition, our new student orientation programs are being revamped to better provide incoming students with the resources and training they will need to make the most of their time at Simon. To help maximize their learning and to continue to provide one of the top business education programs in the world, many of our classrooms, including rooms 107 and 207 in Schlegel Hall, will be renovated and refreshed for a brighter and more interactive learning environment, while rooms 118 and 119 in Gleason Hall will receive a substantial technology upgrade.
In the coming months, several committees will begin their work to help Simon Business School reclaim its place among the top 25 business schools. Just as we place considerable priority on the student experience, we also realize it is our alumni and corporate partners who will be vital to the School’s sustained success.
Perhaps one of the greatest assets of any top business school is its engaged and supportive alumni base and the generous support we receive from philanthropic friends of the School. Nowhere is that more evident than in the outstanding news that Simon received an anonymous $20 million gift. It is the largest in the School’s history and we are incredibly grateful for such substantial support. That spirit is reflected in this issue’s special feature, “When Business Gives Back.” We hope it is a way to honor your contributions, time, and talent that make it possible for us to do our jobs, continue the Simon tradition, and move our school into a bright and prosperous future.
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Upfront
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Simon Business School Receives $20 Million Gift Commitment
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| Carol Simon Hall |
Joel Seligman, president, CEO, and Robert Witmer, Jr. University Professor announced the gift commitment at a Board of Trustees meeting on March 10, noting that the unprecedented pledge propelled the Simon Business School past its $85 million fundraising goal for The Meliora Challenge: The Campaign for the University of Rochester, which is scheduled to conclude on June 30.
“This is a historic day for the Simon Business School,” Seligman said. “Today, an anonymous business person, motivated by a desire to strengthen the Simon School, joins a distinguished list of philanthropists whose generosity has helped build and shape this University.
“To maintain our preeminent position among our peers, we must be able to compete with the best business schools for outstanding faculty and students,” he said. “I am deeply grateful for the donor’s trust and confidence in Dean Andrew Ainslie and the future of Simon Business School.”
Dean Ainslie said the Simon Business School has a tradition of innovation in business education. “This exceptional gift, from an extraordinary individual, will help us ensure the prosperity of the School in the years to come,” Ainslie noted. “On behalf of the entire Simon Business School community, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the donor for this incredibly generous gift.”
Simon MS Programs Receive STEM Designation
Two Simon Business School Master of Science degree programs have received special status effective this academic year. The MS in Business Analytics and MS in Marketing Analytics are now designated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs, under the US Department of Homeland Security.
STEM-designated programs qualify eligible graduates on student visas for an optional practical training (OPT) extension, allowing them to remain in the country for an additional 24 months (effective May 10). The STEM designation is meant to help alleviate some of the challenges facing US STEM employers.
Simon Business School trains graduates to leverage Big Data to solve the most complex business issues facing companies in the global marketplace. “The demand for these skills is market driven. Employers are looking to hire students with the strong analytical skills we provide,” says Dean Andrew Ainslie.
Simon Business School Adjusts Tuition
“The sticker price of the Simon MBA is relatively high compared to our peer schools,” says Dean Andrew Ainslie. At the same time, we have been one of the most generous in our scholarship support, but that generosity wasn’t visible unless you were engaged with us and had already applied. Simply put, our pricing was not transparent to prospective students.
“We believe that prospective students often overlook Simon due to our sticker price despite our strengths in academics, student quality, and career placement,” Ainslie says. “We want to make sure the School is accessible to the best prospective students, and we want these great students to apply.
“This approach makes the Simon Business School significantly more competitive and accessible to qualified prospects,” he notes. “Students need to find the right program for them, and the sticker price shouldn’t be a barrier to having our program in their consideration set.”
The School will continue to have an extensive scholarship program and will remain among the most generous in the country.
Early Leaders® Case Competition
Simon Business School welcomed fifty of the brightest young business minds in the country to compete in the Early Leaders Case Competition on November 6–7. The competition brought undergraduate students from 17 colleges and universities across the country to compete for $10,000 in prize money.
Seidmann, Rui Win Best Paper
Simon professors Abraham (Avi) Seidmann and Huaxia Rui, along with former Simon faculty member Susan Lu, received the Best Paper Award at the October 2015 Workshop on Health IT & Economics (WHITE) summit for their paper, “Is Technology Eating Nurses? Staffing Decisions in Nursing Homes.” The annual summit focuses on the impact of research and innovation on the health care industry.
Women’s Leadership Panel
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Left to right: Kate Washington, Amy Tait, Christine Whitman, Dorothy Coleman, and Carin Cole at the leadership panel. |
Panelists included: Class of 2016 Executive MBA candidate Dorothy Coleman, executive vice president and CFO, Excellus BCBS; Executive MBA alums Amy Tait’85S (MBA), chairman and CEO, Broadstone Real Estate, and Kate Washington’04S (MBA), deputy commissioner of neighborhood and business development for the City of Rochester; and Christine Whitman, chairman, CEO, and president, Complemar Partners. The women shared insights on leadership when facing today’s business challenges.
Rankings Show Strength, Room to Improve
Financial Times of London published its annual ranking of full-time MBA programs on January 25, 2016. Simon is ranked No. 86 among the top 100 global business schools (compared to No. 85 last year) and No. 41 among US schools (No. 43 last year). Simon is ranked No. 9 in the world for finance. “While we would like the various rankings to accurately reflect the state of the School and the momentum we are building, the Financial Times ranking is different from most others as it is highly lagged,” says Dean Andrew Ainslie. “The improvements we make today will not appear in the ranking for years.”
Simon is among the top MBA programs in the US ranked by Bloomberg Businessweek in its October 26, 2015, issue. Simon’s Full-Time MBA program rose to No. 36 among the 74 ranked schools (up two spots from No. 38 in 2014). For the first time, the Part-Time Professional MBA (PMBA) program appeared in the ranking at No. 1 in New York State and No. 35 in the nation among part-time programs. “These are significant achievements and will provide momentum toward our ultimate goal of attaining a ranking that accurately reflects the extraordinary talent of our faculty, students, and alumni,” Ainslie says.
Simon tied for No. 8 among U.S. News & World Report’s 10 Most Diverse MBA Programs, for its high percentage of underrepresented minority students in the Full-Time MBA program.
The University of Rochester and Simon rank No. 22 among the top 25 graduate business programs in entrepreneurship in a survey conducted by The Princeton Review—our first appearance since the ranking’s inception. A feature on the survey appeared in Entrepreneur magazine’s December 2015 issue.
FIND-MBA ranked Simon No. 1 among the Top Business Schools for Corporate Finance 2015. Simon was cited for its strength in finance, enabling students to “land jobs in Fortune 500 financial firms like Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.”
Simon Celebrates Diwali
Simon Games Scholarship Competition
The sixth annual Simon Games online scholarship competition started on February 15, 2016. Participants competed for full- and partial-tuition scholarships to the Part-Time Professional MBA and Executive MBA programs. The top 10 scorers from each program will be on campus on April 30, 2016, for the final round of competition. Nearly 80 past participants have become Simon students.
Two Distinguished Faculty Members Retire
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| Dan Horsky |
A prolific marketing scholar, Horsky’s primary research interests are in the analysis of consumer and firm behavior as they relate to marketing.
Horsky’s studies have appeared in leading business journals including Management Science, Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing Research, and the Journal of Business.
“Dan’s mark on the School has been significant,” says Ronald Goettler, senior associate dean for faculty and research. “He deserves credit for having built and maintained an internationally recognized quantitative marketing group.”
Horsky has also left his mark on the administrative side. He created Simon’s successful MS in Marketing program, which has recently been refreshed as MS in Marketing Analytics. “I’m grateful for all Dan’s efforts and successes and will work to preserve his legacy,” Goettler says.
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| John Long |
A member of the faculty since 1969, Long’s research interests have been in the area of financial economics. In his published articles, he has considered many of the financial decision problems faced by individuals and firms, including total savings and portfolio-selection decisions, investment-project evaluation, and dividend policy choice. Faculty colleague Clifford W. Smith Jr. says Long is perhaps the most intelligent person he’s ever met. “When I first started teaching here, Dean Meckling assigned me to teach a capital markets course jointly with John,” Smith recalls. “Of all the people in the room that term, I learned the most.” Senior associate dean Ron Hansen says Long has been one of the most influential members of the faculty. “John was more technical than most of the rest of the faculty,” Hansen says. “His long-term impact, particularly on finance-area research, was much greater than just the articles with his name on the author line.”
Simon Introduces New Student Loan Program
With the goal of making a Simon degree more accessible to top global talent, the School is offering a new International Student Loan Program for full-time MBA students entering in the fall of 2016.
The program, in partnership with Elements Financial Federal Credit Union and Credit Union Student Choice, will make loans available to international students who cannot qualify for standard private loans because they lack a US cosigner.
“Many international students are unable to attend their business school of choice because of the financial barriers,” says Rebekah Lewin’02S (MBA), assistant dean for admissions and financial aid. “Our goal is to remove these barriers and make a Simon education possible for all students who meet our admissions criteria.”
Loans ranging from $1,000 to full tuition will be available, with priority for those who demonstrate financial need.
“This program is part of our overall strategy to make a Simon MBA more available for the world’s best and brightest students,” says Dean Andrew Ainslie. “We want to make sure the School is accessible to the best prospective students irrespective of nationality and we want these great students to apply.”
Crawford Appointed to Top Post
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| Holly Crawford |
Alumni Honored in NYC
Nearly 200 attendees gathered at the New York Law School (NYLS) in New York City on October 22 to honor two outstanding Simon alumni.
Robert Dorr ’97S (MBA) received the Alumni Service Award for his commitment to the success of Simon Business School. A senior member of the high-yield credit sales team at JPMorgan Chase and long-time University advisor, Dorr has served on the Simon Advisory Council for the past four years, is a former member of the Simon Alumni Council, and has been instrumental in the University of Rochester strategy in London.
Receiving the Distinguished Alumnus Award was Goldman Sachs partner and global head of principal funding and investment Ram K. Sundaram’91S (MBA). Sundaram was recognized for his devotion to advancing Simon Business School, and is credited with helping attract some of the best and brightest students with his support of the Goldman Sachs Scholars Fund. Congratulations to Robert and Ram for two well-deserved awards.
EOS Cofounder Delivers Ain Lecture
Craig Dubitsky’87, cofounder of EOS Lip Balm, founding board member at Method Products, and founder and CEO of Hello Products, lectured on the topic “Dream Big, Keep It Simple, and Stay Friendly.” His talk, part of the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship Lecture Series, focused on identifying the big, bold ideas that help brand leaders create extraordinary products and experiences.
Alumni Honored at Meliora Weekend
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| Andrew Ainslie presents the 2016 Dean's Medal to Ed Ackley. |
Ackley is the former owner and president of The Filter Store in Mendon, NY and former CEO of Consler Corporation. In 2005, the Ackleys established the Edward J. and Agnes V. Ackley Executive Professorship in Entrepreneurship, currently held by Simon faculty member Dennis Kessler.
Ron Paprocki’69, ’86S (MBA), senior vice president for administration and finance and CFO, received the University’s highest alumni honor on October 10 during a special recognition ceremony held by the Board of Trustees.
Paprocki, who joined the University’s staff shortly after his graduation, was presented with the Charles Force Hutchison and Marjorie Smith Hutchison Medal for outstanding achievement and service. Paprocki retired on January 15.
Simon Ranks High for Gender Diversity
Simon is one of 12 business schools in the nation—and the only one in the state—to make Forté Foundation’s list of business schools with more than 40 percent female MBA enrollment. (Stories appeared in Business Because and The Huffington Post, among others.
Where Do Our Students Go?
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| Simon Students on their Tech Trek to Silicon Valley. |
The first of several career events, a Career Day for MS in Accounting students, was held in New York City in August. Alumni and hiring managers from a number of firms introduced students to career opportunities in finance and accounting. The event was organized by Career Management Center (CMC) staff members Ashish Kohli and Heidi Ames in conjunction with the MS in Accounting program.
For the second straight year, Simon’s CMC and Consulting, Operations, Technology, and Analytics Club (COTA) sponsored a December Tech Trek to the West Coast for MBA and MS students. The trip provided an opportunity for students to visit several high-tech companies in Silicon Valley, learn about career opportunities, and network with top executives.
Simon students also took their annual Asia Trip, sponsored by the Asia Club, to Japan over winter break December 13–19. First- and second-year MBA students visited companies in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kyoto, participating in onsite visits, an alumni event, and various cultural activities. While in Japan, CMC staff member Adrian Cosma worked on forging new relationships with employers and recruiters.
On November 6, the CMC and the Financial Management Association (FMA) co-sponsored an MS Finance Career Day in New York City at our New York Law School (NYLS) location in Tribeca. Nearly 35 alumni participated in the event, with an estimated 140 MS in Finance students. A networking reception with alumni at Pranna Restaurant followed the event. CMC staff members Ashish Kohli and Helen Wang’14S (MS),’15S (MBA) assisted with these events.
Students traveled to New York City on October 16 for an MBA Wall Street Trek held at Simon’s location at NYLS. First-year MBA students participated in bank visits to Citigroup and Credit Suisse, and attended a presentation at the Tribeca location of “Simon in the City.” CMC staff members Ashish Kohli and Adrian Cosma organized this event with the FMA.
More than 80 students traveled to New York City in September to participate in the CMC’s annual MBA Career Day. Students participated in pitch practice sessions with representatives from SixFigureStart, who supplied 21 different recruiters to provide students with feedback on their interview pitches and presentations. CMC staff members Pete Handley, Ashish Kohli, and Simon School executive director of professional programs Janet Anderson’90S (MBA) assisted in organizing this premier event.
In January, MS in Marketing Analytics and MS in Business Analytics students met with representatives of top firms to learn more about career options. Also in January, the Simon Net Impact club organized a Career Day with the CMC in New York City, and in February, hosted a trip to Boston and an Investment Management Career Day in New York City.
Women’s Leadership Forum
Simon Business School held a Women’s Leadership Forum on November 13 at Apogee Wine Bar in Rochester. Student Engagement staff members moderated the discussion with first- and second-year MBA student club leaders on leadership styles, class identity and the Simon community, and gender bias in a professional environment.
Secret Santa Project
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Remembering Dean MacAvoy
Download the pdf
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| Former Dean Paul MacAvoy |
A world-renowned economist and scholar, Dean MacAvoy joined the University of Rochester Graduate School of Management in 1983. “Paul MacAvoy changed the course of the School by raising its visibility and reputation on a global scale,” says Dean Andrew Ainslie. “He was a visionary leader with the courage to pursue big goals and aspirations. His impact can’t be overstated.”
What is most memorable for Professor Jerold L. Zimmerman is Dean MacAvoy’s ingenuity. “Paul MacAvoy had the audacious idea to approach William E. Simon about naming the School,” Zimmerman recalls. “When Bill Simon inquired about how much money Paul wanted Bill to donate, Paul had the brilliant and provocative idea and said, ‘Nothing, we just want your name.’ The Simon family went on to become a major benefactor to the Simon School.” The Graduate School of Management was renamed the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration in November 1986.
In addition to raising the School’s visibility around the world, Dean MacAvoy nearly doubled the size of the Full-Time MBA program; revised the curriculum of both the Full-Time and Executive MBA programs; established several chaired professorships, including the John M. Olin Professorship, which he was the first scholar to hold; and created a substantial Simon School endowment. As former dean Charles Plosser recalls, the MacAvoy years were a time of significant growth and expansion for the School. “Paul was a dedicated leader of the Simon School who not only secured the support of Bill Simon and his family, which culminated in the naming of the School, but who also embarked on an ambitious building program to elevate the School’s classrooms and faculty offices to match the quality of its programs,” Plosser notes. The addition of one of the School’s signature buildings, Schlegel Hall, and plans for the renovation of Carol G. Simon Hall were accomplished during his eight-year tenure.
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| MacAvoy in front of the construction to build Schlegel Hall. |
After leaving Simon in 1991, Dean MacAvoy held visiting professorships at the Tuck School of Business and the Yale School of Management, where he served as dean from 1992 to 1994 and Williams Brothers Professor of Management Studies through 2004. He published numerous research articles in leading academic journals, coauthored several books on economic policy and deregulation, and was a consultant and board member for major corporations, including the American Cyanamid Corp. and Chase Manhattan Bank Corp., among others. He earned an undergraduate degree at Bates College, and an MA and PhD at Yale University. After earning his PhD, he was a faculty member at Yale, the University of Chicago, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Paul will be greatly missed by all of us in the Simon community,” says Ainslie. “Our thoughts are with his wife, Kay, his children, Matthew and Libby, and his grandchildren during this difficult time.”
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Changing Course
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Navigating a career is as much about being open to change and making adjustments along the way as about pursuing a passion and developing the right skill set. By Charla Stevens Kucko
Not so long ago, a traditional career path meant going to work for a company, rising to one or more management-level positions, perhaps even becoming the CEO, and stepping away into a comfortable retirement. Over the past decade, however, the job market and career prospects have changed dramatically. Shifting cultural norms and changing economic realities have developed a new mindset driven by adaptability to change and an entrepreneurial approach. Today’s career trajectory looks completely different from previous generations, and for both hiring employers and job seekers, that may not be so bad.
By the Numbers
The MBA Employment Report shows more than 60 percent of graduates change careers after earning their degree. Gauging the average number of career changes over the course of a career is more difficult. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has not attempted an estimate because there is no consensus on what constitutes a career change. A March 2015 study, however, shows baby boomers held an average of 11.7 jobs during their careers. Of the same group, men held slightly more jobs (11.8) than women (11.5), 27 percent held 15 or more jobs, while 10 percent held zero to four jobs. For millennials, the number of job changes compared to their baby boomer parents rises, but only slightly. Young adults ages 18 to 26 held an average of 6.2 jobs from 1998 to 2011, with women slightly ahead of men, while the youngest baby boomers worked an average 5.5 jobs by age 25.
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| Karen Dowd |
Putting the Pieces Together
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| Louis Mistretta |
After a few years, Mistretta discovered he wanted to do something on more of a national and global scale, and he loved marketing and brand management. “I knew if I wanted to be a brand manager on a global scale, the MBA was the cost of entry,” he says. “Simon felt like the correct choice for me.” With concentrations in Marketing, the Brand Management track, and Competitive and Organizational strategy, Mistretta landed an internship at Johnson & Johnson (J&J), where he completed a competitive strategy project for Tylenol Cold & Sinus. While there, he received a job offer, came back and finished his MBA, and is now an associate brand manager, focusing on financial forecasting and analytics for Tylenol’s adult pain portfolio in the US market.
“Simon prepared me directly for the heavy analytics necessary to really dig into the meat of what’s going on with such a big brand,” he says. Looking back on his career so far, Mistretta says there were always surprises along the way. “It was always a game of what’s the next puzzle piece going to be,” he notes. “The time of the linear career path is over; that was our parents’ generation.”
Instead of thinking what the next step will be, Mistretta advises keeping the end game in mind and figuring out what is needed to get there. As for what the rest of his path will look like, he doesn’t know, and that’s fine with him. “The great thing about working for a company like J&J is that there are so many different divisions, so there are all sorts of career path opportunities. Was going back for my MBA easy? Not at all. I left a stable income, and that’s not an easy transition to make. It can be scary, but was it worth it? Absolutely.”
A Global Perspective
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| C.H. Huang |
Huang went on to teach at the University of Oregon in 1979 for two years, before an executive from Citi whom he worked with in Rochester called and offered him a job in Citi’s private label card business. “The rest, as they say, is history,” Huang says. “I started with Citi based in Los Angeles. When we merged with New York, I moved back.” In the years that followed, he left Citi three times: first, for Deutsche Bank, to run its New York-based global trading platform, DB Trader; then for Prudential Home Mortgage, to lead and support the nation’s first branchless mortgage origination operation; and then for American Express, to manage corporate function technology and CRM implementation. Between jobs, he returned to Citi, where he most recently served as managing director, head of Global Function Technology Services (GFTS) International.
“Anybody who goes into the workforce nowadays thinking they will hold a job for the rest of their life is not going to be very successful because you are basically restricting yourself from something that could potentially be bigger and better,” Huang says. “Things change, and the most important thing is you have to be prepared with some fundamental technical skill like financial analysis and accounting that is tied to a particular industry. ” Other crucial skills on his must-have list are effective communication, emotional maturity, and cultural sensitivity. “Of course, you can never stop learning,” he says. “Remember the Dunkin Donuts ad where the guy wakes up every morning and says, ‘Time to make the donuts’? If you have a ‘Time to Make the Donuts’ mentality, you’re not going to succeed in today’s competitive world.”
Huang recently retired from Citi but is unlikely to “fade into the sunset.” His next role will combine his passion for education and business. Starting this spring, he will begin teaching at Simon. The first course he is teaching for MBA and MS students is Finance Technology—or the intersection of finance and technology, including the regulatory changes making senior roles in finance much more complex. “There is a huge demand for people who know how to deal with vast amounts of data and run global projects,” he says. “That’s just one area where I hope my background and experience will be helpful.”
From Human Resources to Assistant Dean
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| Carin Cole |
After graduation, Cole became assistant to the general manager of a business unit, however, she decided to stay home with her family and run a small nanny placement business on the side. When her daughters got a bit older, Carin decided to reenter the workforce. “My first job after my girls went to school was as an HR manager at VirtualScopics, a small entrepreneurial venture,” she says. “They had just gone public and were hitting that crucial size where they needed process and systems to be successful.”
After two years, an opportunity emerged to lead the Executive MBA Program at Simon. “With so much change going on in Rochester at the time, it was clear the program had to operate very differently from when I went through,” Cole says. “The faculty had already made changes in the curriculum and schedule, and my role was to implement this new plan.”
Although she lacked experience in higher education, she credits her team for teaching her everything she needed to know to be successful. Since then, she has overseen the growth and management of several new part-time and specialized programs at Simon.
Cole was recently appointed assistant dean of students with oversight of student engagement across all programs in addition to her existing duties. “Our academics are first rate,” she says. “It’s about looking at everything else that goes into the student experience to help them be successful, so the new piece for me is doing this for the full-time MBA students. We will take the same approach to planning and customer service in the Executive MBA program and implement them in the full-time program, working with a dedicated team to make that happen.”
Cole looks forward to the challenge. As for switching careers, she has no regrets. “Taking a core skill, engineering or IT or medical background, for example, and combining it with our business education opens up a whole array of opportunities,” she says. “Whether it’s in a new industry or a consulting role, that combination provides an ability to solve problems and successfully execute new initiatives. This is valuable anywhere you go in your career.”
Engineering Leads to Consumer and Market Research
Unsure of what to major in as an undergraduate, Lydia Perez-Poole’06S (MBA) first thought she would pursue something creative that would give her ample career opportunities. She ultimately decided to major in environmental engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, something she thought would give her an even wider span of career options. While at school, she worked for Unilever in research and development, then interviewed for a variety of other positions, including consulting firms and the federal government. Her ultimate choice was with the New York State Energy and Resource Development Authority (NYSERDA) as a project manager on energy-efficiency programs. Around this time, she thought of working for a big consumer products company on the business side. “I realized if I wanted to change careers, I needed to go to business school,” she says.
Perez-Poole spent the next four years working for NYSERDA and the Maine Public Utilities Commission while researching business schools. And she didn’t have to look very far, as her brother is a 1994 graduate of Simon, and also an engineer who successfully switched careers. She liked Simon’s smaller size and reputation, and decided to concentrate in Marketing and Competitive and Organizational Strategy.
“I knew I wanted to get into marketing, but even within marketing, there’s a whole world of opportunities,” Perez-Poole says. “What helped me to narrow my focus was my experience with The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management. Their orientation program ends with a career fair, where I first met a representative from Procter & Gamble. I realized I was interested in market research or the data insights and strategy behind the marketing.” Perez-Poole was offered a position as an associate manager in consumer and market knowledge, overseeing consumer research on upstream innovation and, later, in-store research to determine the best way to bring the Covergirl brand to life in stores.
After working in cosmetics for four years, Perez-Poole took on a corporate assignment studying how various research techniques were applied around the globe and ensuring strong quality standards were maintained. Most recently, she was promoted to shopper insights leader for the P&G Rite Aid Customer Team. “I’ve been fortunate to be able to stay in my preferred home base of Maryland throughout my career with P&G, traveling to company headquarters in Cincinnati and abroad when necessary,” she says. “Having two small children under the age of four, that flexibility has been invaluable.”
When it comes to career switching, the Simon MBA helped make it happen for Perez-Poole. “Overall, the key is to continue learning and taking on roles and opportunities to help you understand what you truly want to do,” she says. “And, if you want to switch careers, I would also say take advantage of the Simon network. People love to talk about what they do for a living and share with others their experiences. It is a great way to learn about what you want to do and make new friends!”
Staying Open Brings New Opportunities
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| Kate Washington |
Washington came to Rochester in the late ’80s, hoping to continue her career as a musician. When she found it difficult to make a living, she put other skills to work, writing about classical music for the Democrat & Chronicle, and later working as a music director and actor for a theater company.
Leveraging her passion for the performing arts and teaching, she started a venture focused on corporate training for businesses nationwide. “We worked with companies like Nextel, PBS, and Rochester’s ‘Big Three’—Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch+Lomb,” she says. “We worked primarily on problem-solving skills, applying both qualitative and quantitative analysis to issues facing companies.”
After a while, Washington yearned for something more and decided to enroll in the Simon Executive MBA program. She says she wanted to cultivate a different way of thinking that would lead to new opportunities. “It was challenging. I was running a business while simultaneously doing this rigorous academic program,” she says.
Within a year of graduating, Washington sold her business and co-founded Enterprise Solutions. In 2014, she was offered the position of deputy commissioner of neighborhood and business development for the City of Rochester. She says the job required someone efficient, innovative, and entrepreneurial with a strong business sense. “That was key for me,” she says. “We’re transforming from a city that has been plagued by [in many cases] neglect. We’re working very hard to make that happen.”
Throughout her career, Washington has followed her instincts. “My advice,” she says, “is to stay open, be willing to work hard, be prepared, and above all, say yes.”
Two Very Different Careers Share a Common Thread
The power of the MBA put the Simon leaders on their professional paths.
Like most young people growing up in the British education system, Dean Andrew Ainslie and David Tilson, associate dean of the full-time MBA program, had to choose their college major at age 16. Tilson followed his curiosity and chose electrical engineering at Queen’s University of Belfast. Ainslie opted for English, French, and math with the goal of becoming an English teacher. But, halfway through serving in the military in Rhodesia, he shifted paths and completed an extra course in physics, which led him to change his major to electrical engineering at the University of Cape Town. “I started career switching long before I had a career, I suppose,” he says.
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| Dean Andrew Ainslie |
Tilson continued to follow his curiosity about technology and started out at British Telecom’s research labs, where he solved technical problems using hardware and software, designed satellite communication systems, participated in international standards committees, and managed projects. “As my responsibilities increased, my curiosity expanded beyond the purely technical,” he says. “That’s when I became interested in business and management.”
Both not yet 30 and managing large groups, Ainslie and Tilson reached a turning point: Each decided to pursue an MBA. “I went to a small, fairly parochial school,” Ainslie says. “I made some amazing friends and good contacts, but it wasn’t all that challenging.” Ainslie graduated at the top of his class, and had completed a research paper with faculty member Leyland Pitt, who urged him to pursue a PhD. First, he accepted an offer from Standard Merchant Bank in investment banking. “I knew nothing about banking and I hated it,” Ainslie recalls. Within a year, he moved on to one of his HP customers, Compustat (unrelated to the US company), where he led a software project to computerize all of the real estate agents in South Africa. “It was the highlight of my pre-university career,” he says. “It really was like running my own mini-business.”
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| David Tilson |
Ainslie’s original love for academia is something that never left him. “I still had that itch related to writing that research paper with Leyland Pitt, and he encouraged me to pursue a PhD at a world-class institution,” Ainslie says. At age 33, Ainslie started his PhD at the University of Chicago. “I didn’t think I would last the first year, I was so ill prepared, but I worked harder than I’ve ever worked in my life,” he recalls. “It was the most challenging, intellectually stimulating four years of my life.”
From there, Ainslie became an assistant professor at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, where he taught marketing analytics for three years. Then, he moved to the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he continued to teach, and rose to senior associate dean for the full-time MBA program. After 14 years at Anderson, Ainslie became dean of the Simon School in 2014.
“In a perfect world, it makes sense to go on a relatively straight career trajectory,” Ainslie says. “While I really enjoyed my varied career, it was an incredibly inefficient way to get to the end point.” Ainslie says getting an MBA is a great way to switch careers—but isn’t easy. “One of the great things about an MBA is that it gives you a set of skills that last an entire lifetime,” he says. “In some sense, we’re all career switchers in that our careers change over time, and at some point, most of us aspire to manage an organization. On that day, you need to understand the product the company sells, how to manage the people in it, how the books work, and how to be a generalist. That is what an MBA prepares you to be.”
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Framing Change
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Global competition, Big Data, and sweeping technological advances reveal the enduring value of a Simon degree. By Sally Parker
The pace of business has ramped up to speeds Heath Gebell ’03S (MBA) could not have imagined when he earned an MBA from the Simon School in 2003. Advances in technology now put the world in the palm of your hand. They are faster, lighter, and have more capacity than computers, which—only 20 years ago—would fill a room. In just a dozen years, the cell phone has evolved from a convenient accessory into a must-have tool for keeping up with business.
“That’s been the biggest change: the immediacy of someone being able to track you down and being able to answer their questions,” says Gebell, senior marketing manager at Wegmans Food Markets Inc. “It’s amazing how dependent I am on my iPhone. If I happen to forget it on any given day, it’s just really tough to operate without it.”
But high-tech tools are only one part of the new speed of business. Since the University of Rochester first opened its business school in 1958—which would become the Simon Business School in 1986—the world runs faster, stretches further, and competes harder every year. And like its peers, Simon has changed with it. These days, the School keeps its edge with strong alumni connections, savvy career services, and cutting-edge coursework that continue to prepare students for the realities of today’s business challenges.
While their industries might be different, graduates in finance, marketing, and consulting all share an intimate knowledge of business and an appreciation for how Simon helped prepare them for a marketplace where nothing is as consistent as change. Here are some of their stories.
Moving Marketing’s Needle
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| Heath Gebell |
“The first day of math camp was September 11, 2001,” Gebell recalls. “I remember clearly someone standing up in the middle of class saying the Twin Towers were attacked. Nobody believed him.
“One vision I always remember was that we were all watching TVs in the common area. We had 50 to 60 percent international students, all these students from around the world, and everybody knew somebody. That’s how school began.”
Companies weren’t hiring in 2003, when Gebell graduated with a marketing focus.
“There weren’t a lot of jobs, just a small number of jobs for all of us. I think it took me six months to find a job after graduating,” he says. “At the time, the Career Management Center could feel it. The students could feel it. We just knew after September 11 the country was going to take a few years to get going again.”
Gebell eventually landed a job with Daymon Worldwide, working on a Wegmans brand team. The company is a private brand strategist and broker for retailers expanding their private brand lines. He joined Wegmans directly three years ago, where he helps the company’s business units determine their goals for marketing, drawing up quarterly and yearly plans to maximize sales.
Technology is driving productivity expectations in marketing, he says, and is light years ahead of the 1990s, when he got his start as a SUNY Binghamton student. Gebell graduated with a business management degree in 1996.
“I went to school with a Brother word processor that kept everyone up at night because it was so loud and took forever,” he recalls.
Gebell recalls viewing e-mail as a listserv on a monochrome green screen. In his first years out of school he used LotusNotes, 3.5-inch floppy disks, dot-matrix printers, WordPerfect, and “a giant Motorola phone—you couldn’t even put it in your pocket,” he says, laughing.
Faster processing speeds and greater connectivity have changed how Gebell and his colleagues work.
“We have designers with wireless tablets with pens, and they’re drawing on these digital tablets. The changes we see in that space is incredible. It allows everyone’s work to increase.?.?.?. You set new bars each year, and technology helps us achieve them,” Gebell says.
“The tools we have now—Outlook is becoming stronger; we have devices like SharePoint and other collaborative tools that make it easier for teams to share and work digitally,” Gebell notes. “When I first started you had to fax things—even in 2003.”
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| Mitch Lovett |
“If users go more than an hour without checking it, it’s a big deal. If it runs out of power, they’re panicking,” Lovett says. Seventy percent of online shopping is done by phone, he notes.
“Twenty years ago there wasn’t even online shopping. Today they could be in a meeting, they could be on a train, they could be anywhere when they’re shopping,” Lovett says. “We’re just beginning to tap into the possibilities with that and to understand the consumers’ need states through their interaction with this device.
“Smartphone use is going to continue to change rapidly,” he notes. “It’s kind of like the Internet back in the ’90s. It has all these possibilities that we’re just starting to figure out.”
Gebell returns to Simon every year to speak on private brands to the marketing strategies class. He has led a discussion group in the class and helped students prepare for interviews. He likes what he sees in Simon’s marketing program.
“They’re making an adjustment toward focusing on frameworks and understanding them to think through strategies,” he says. “From a marketing strategy perspective, you never have perfect data. We were learning models, but you needed perfect inputs to make those models work.
“Simon has moved toward the framework while keeping its strong focus on the analytical skills to have the right balance,” he says.
According to Lovett, the world is becoming more quantitative, and Simon’s strengths in that area are in high demand. “The ability to track things online is driving the desire to track things everywhere and measure marketing effectiveness in ways that people never thought they could do before,”
he says.
“It used to be the data wasn’t there. Now the data is available and managers are expecting it. Simon’s education—with a focus on quantitative and understanding the value and use of quantitative tools—is even more relevant today than it was in the past. Now everybody is expected to be able to do this. Our students’ preparation matches those expectations.”
Simon’s business analytics and marketing analytics programs push the envelope with the richest tools and capabilities students will need in client-facing roles, Lovett says.
“We’re not training people to be PhD statisticians. We’re training them to be business people who can manage and interface and in many cases do the analytics. We’re giving them the tools and sophistication to avoid being duped in a world that’s increasingly complicated to understand.”
Gebell chose to attend Simon to hone his analytical skills and move into consumer products.
“I ended up getting a position in an area I wanted to work in,” he says. “My MBA definitely helped me cross over and change careers.”
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| Caitlyn Maeder |
“I chose to make the switch at Wegmans through my experience at Simon,” Maeder says. “I think Simon kind of sparked that interest in me. But I think also through case studies and technologies and things I looked at in class, I was able to use that and apply it in my job.”
Food marketing has transformed as customers have become more knowledgeable in the last decade, Maeder says. As a marketing coordinator working with the bakery, meat, seafood, and produce departments, she anticipates trends in buying and helps them design packaging that conveys the most relevant information. “Organic” and “hormone-free,” once heard primarily in natural food stores, have become sought-after qualities in mainstream products, she notes.
“Customers have Google on their phone. Especially with food, they’re becoming more knowledgeable and passionate. Information is really trickling into every area, and food is no different. If they’re looking at the packaging, what do they need to know? If it’s produce, has it been washed? If it’s meat, are there no added hormones?
“My job is looking ahead of the trends,” Maeder says. “We’re working on projects like in-store signage and mailers that might not be out for a few months. People are looking for ‘healthier’—I put that in air quotes—foods. You have to understand the customer who is buying this organic chicken. How is this customer different from the customer buying organic baked goods? I look at content in design and ask questions to see if that is the best content to communicate to the customer.”
When Maeder was at Simon, Wegmans became her working laboratory. She knew she wanted to continue working for the grocery chain, so she marked her calendar for guest lectures and workshops at Simon to hear how other companies operate, taking notes on tips she could apply in her own work.
Wegmans employs many Simon alumni, she notes, including Gebell, who sits only a few feet away at work. While in school Maeder peppered him with questions about his own experience at Simon, from the classes he took to the professors he liked.
She also took part in Simon Women in Business (SWiB) events. Begun in 2006, the club focuses on issues of concern to women at Simon and in the business community, and it connects students with alumnae. Simon is a top choice for companies recruiting women. Nearly a third of full-time and Executive MBA students, and more than half of MS students, are female.
Consulting the Experts
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| Prachi Soni |
A native of India, Soni was struck by the wide variety of stories shared by applicants from distant countries who wanted to attend the School. “It was fascinating to read their statement of purpose and to talk to those students,” she says.
Now a senior consultant with Deloitte, Soni focused on Business Systems Consulting and Competitive and Organizational Strategy while at Simon.
“My previous job in India was in consulting, so I knew coming to Simon I wanted to consult,” Soni says. “That was always in the back of my mind, to get into something similar. I was doing consulting but my clients were in the UK and the US, so there was not much client interaction.”
A promotion last August put Soni face to face with clients. Based in New York City, she flies to Richmond, Va., on Monday morning and returns home Thursday. Weekends she catches up with friends and family. Travel can be wearing at times, but she relishes the work she does and the bonds she has made with others on her team. With all the changes in business over the years, workplace camaraderie seems to have remained constant.
“The best part of it is you have so much to share on your team. We come from all over,” she says.
As a student whose sights were set on consulting work, Soni met with Career Management Center (CMC) staff regularly. Shortlisted for a job at Deloitte, she learned roughly seven months before graduation that she had the job. Now she is on the other side of the table with fellow alumni, helping to recruit Simon graduates to Deloitte. She has returned to campus several times as part of panels and workshops.
“Being connected to alumni has helped—any alumni, not just Deloitte,” Soni says. “Talking to them does give you perspective.”
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| Karen Dowd |
“It used to be that a career services office would have two to three, maybe four at the most, staff members,” Dowd says. “Their job was to put job listings they get out on the job board, and that was about it.
“Sometime in the past decade, MBA career services became highly competitive. Business schools around the country realized that if they didn’t take more action, then the opportunities that would help them get their class placed would not come to them,” she notes.
Dowd realigned CMC staff to provide one-on-one counsel related to primary industries that hire students: finance, marketing, and consulting and technology. Each MBA and MS student has a designated career consultant who helps with job and internship searches and reaches out to industry.
The CMC generates more job and internship leads now, thanks to a beefed-up database of companies, active solicitations to alumni, and expanded marketing to companies with openings. Job postings have skyrocketed from fewer than 100 to nearly 1,300 in the last year. Four hundred are new contacts based on lead-generation efforts.
The office also put its most important career content online, pulling in students even before they start their coursework to better prepare them for job searches down the road. A program dubbed Day 1, sent to incoming MBA and MS students in early summer, includes all the components of a career kit: résumé, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, elevator pitch, and networking plan.
“That kind of counseling used to be provided strictly through one-on-one meetings,” Dowd says. “The online system gives them access to a lot more information that they can tailor to their own particular needs. Once they complete it, they can meet with a career consultant an unlimited number of times.”
When students expressed interest in product management jobs at tech companies two years ago, Dowd learned those companies were beginning to hire in numbers not seen before. A tech trek with two dozen students to Silicon Valley firms produced eight job offers, and this year Amazon recruited on campus for the first time, extending several offers.
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| Leigh Braunstein |
Simon took the natural curiosity Braunstein had as a scientist, blended it with the language and concepts of business, and helped him scale it to a career. To dive into the industry, Braunstein started the health care interest group at Simon. As the group’s consulting arm, he and a half-dozen classmates did pro bono work for health care organizations in Rochester.
Braunstein says he entered Simon as a laboratory scientist and emerged with a wider vision.
“What the business degree did for me was provide credibility that a researcher, a person of science, now can operate in industry effectively and taught me how to think about the challenges I was going to be facing as a consultant on a much broader scale. How to think multi-dimensionally was the big win for me coming out of the Simon program,” he says.
When he arrived at Deloitte, Braunstein ran into a senior partner who asked what discipline he was planning to follow: the provider segment (hospitals and pharmacies), payers (health plans and benefit companies), or pharmaceutical companies. Braunstein said he wanted to follow all of them.
“I said, ‘Unless I understand all of them, I won’t understand the ecosystem.’ So for the next couple of years, I cycled through, leveraging the same hypothesis research mentality to launch my career at Deloitte.”
He remembers a steadier-paced world earlier in his career.
“What was cutting edge and fast-paced back in ’97 is hugely slow and ridiculous in today’s world,” he says, laughing. “And if I go 10 years from now I could probably say the same thing.”
Today’s MBA graduates must be more sophisticated, he says.
“The marketplace is flooded with MBA students, and students now need to be much more savvy in what they want to do and where they want to make an impact,” Braunstein says. “As the concept of having a business degree has proliferated, as enterprise has gotten smarter and there are more and more candidates, the demand for acuity and acumen has heightened. Students need to be sharper, crisper, and, one might argue, more experienced so they can better apply what they know coming out. The demand for experience even going into the program has increased.
“The competition for your strength and ability to deliver and your being able to apply what you know and what you’ve learned—the bar is very high,” he adds. “Many, many, many have been there before. The expectation is to be able to provide the next level of insight and innovation.”
Simon’s Career Management Center has become more effective at connecting students with decision makers in their chosen careers, Karen Dowd says, who notes that Dominic Rasini’14S (MBA) works behind the scenes helping students prepare for the consulting industry through interview training.
“We’re very aggressive about providing our students with case interviewing skills. That’s an effort that did not exist 10 years ago and does not exist at many schools but something that Simon is at the forefront of,” she says.
Another leap forward for the CMC is more strategic corporate engagement. Sixty companies regularly recruit on campus and in New York City. When career fairs, recruiting events, and corporate tours are included, the number rises to 200 companies actively seeking Simon students. The office is building a program to provide partner companies with opportunities for student projects, hiring interns, full-time students, and alumni.
“In the past, the result would be a job when you graduate; now it’s career assistance for life,” Dowd says. “We’ll still need to be very proactive in the next few years to make sure we’re bringing in the right companies with the right long-term career path opportunities for our students.”
But the impact of the 2009 downturn in the banking sector shook hiring practices. “The whole recruiting scene changed,” Dowd says. “That’s why we’re in a rebuilding effort and getting companies to come back into the fold.”
Pencils to Computer Models
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| Michael Kanterman |
Kanterman and Paul Caseiras’90S (MBA) started recruiting Simon students many years ago by taking phone calls and helping the students through the process. Five years ago, they formalized the connection with Simon Day, making introductions around the firm. As Simon’s ranks have grown, so have the firm’s recruiting efforts. Alumni at Credit Suisse have opened doors allowing Simon students to attend Super Saturday, a highly competitive interviewing event through which interns are selected.
“Credit Suisse is an examplar of an excellent recruiting company,” Dowd says. “For a number of years, Michael Kanterman has singlehandedly made sure a few grads are hired from Simon each year. That has resulted in a pipeline of talent, and that’s exactly what we need to do with other companies.”
Kanterman works in Credit Suisse’s equity capital markets area, raising capital for issuers and marketing and distributing equity securities on their behalf. His company was a lead underwriter for Alibaba Group’s giant IPO in 2014. The public saw only a small piece of the work that went into it, Kanterman says; what seemed to outsiders like a two-week process took many months to complete.
“To see that succeed and walk away from that feeling like you did—that it was a success—you feel good about that,” he says.
In a business short on longevity, Kanterman is part of a select group at Credit Suisse who have worked at the firm and its predecessor, First Boston, for 25 years or more. Of the many thousands who have worked at the company, Kanterman is one of only 50 who have been there that long.
The tools of his trade have changed. When Kanterman took his first job—two years as an auditor at Ernst & Young—everything was ledgers, pen, and paper. “You barely saw a computer; they were not a valid resource at the time,” he recalls.
When he moved to First Boston in 1986, managers asked if he knew computers. He bluffed, said yes, and quickly set about teaching himself how to use a spreadsheet.
“I talk to kids all the time. What they know about the markets, everything, is on their phone. I used to go into a cold room with a supercomputer to get half the stuff they can get now just by Googling.”
Kanterman will retire June 3, a day after his 30th anniversary with the firm. “It’s time,” he says. “This is a young person’s business. You put in long days.”
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| Cesar Quijano Serrano |
An associate at Credit Suisse, he arrives at the office at 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. On a typical day, he doesn’t leave until nearly midnight. “As long as I’m an associate, I will be having those hours,” he says. “And when I leave, the analysts are still here.”
Quijano Serrano started working at Credit Suisse in July.
I have very long hours, so I think you have to really like it to stay. The turnover rate is huge. People tend to leave because they get tired. People stay because they like to be salespeople.”
A self-described geek, Quijano Serrano’s job revolves around PowerPoint and spreadsheets. He enjoys doing models and says he would find it impossible to use the calculators that more seasoned coworkers are happy to remind him they once used. Today’s bankers have to know how to program and be adept at using models.
“You know a banker when you see them using a computer without a mouse,” he says. “I’ve learned a lot. Every day I find myself using a mouse less and less. You want to be quick; the faster you are, the earlier you go home.”
Quijano Serrano’s older coworkers also sometimes reflect on a changed Wall Street.
“People tend to tell you how everything is easier for you,” he says. “People often remark Wall Street is different from what it was, in the technology sense—technology has changed everything—but also in the way people are. People are more polite, respectful, than in the old days.”
He hears that the Street has become more diverse. “It used to be the same guys, and by guys, I mean men. Now it’s more diverse,” he adds, “but still, it’s banking, so it’s not as diverse.”
At Simon, Quijano Serrano and classmates joined a growing movement that uses business principles to lift up people in need. They worked on a large-scale consulting job for Millennium Challenge Corp., a US foreign aid agency that invests in country-led development in low-income regions. He also was part of a Simon team that placed third in the Tibetan Innovation Challenge, an intercollegiate social entrepreneurship business plan competition organized by the University to help Tibetan refugees. Meeting the Dalai Lama, he says, was a thrill.
“I didn’t have that before I went to Simon,” says Quijano Serrano, a native of Colombia who worked as an analyst for Standard & Poor’s in Bogota before earning his MBA. “I’m definitely focused more toward that now,” he says. “If everything I do is going to have a good social impact, that would be the happiest time of my life.”
Quijano Serrano and his contemporaries represent a new era in business that is smart, global, and increasingly competitive. More and more, tomorrow’s business leaders are not just experts in their fields, but adept with emerging technologies that have quickened the pace of business. But it is important to remember that they did not create the technologies and processes, which seem to take a quantum leap every couple of years. Those were imagined, created, and put into practice by dedicated veterans who were once the younger generation themselves, eager to apply what they learned in business school and make their professional mark.
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Dean Ainslie Sits Down with Mark and Carolyn Ain
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| Dean Ainslie speaks with Mark and Carolyn Ain. |
Without question, Simon relies on the generous support of our alumni and friends to fulfill our mission as a top US business school. To better understand what makes alumni give back, I recently spoke with Mark and Carolyn Ain at their Florida home. It was an absolutely beautiful setting, and as we watched pelicans dive into the ocean to catch their food, we talked about how Mark’s experience as an entrepreneur influences his giving, and why Carolyn finds giving back so rewarding. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear from two of our biggest supporters. I’ve shared much of our conversation here, but if you would like to learn more about this outstanding couple and their commitment to giving, I invite you to watch the video.
—Andrew Ainslie
AA: My first question is for Mark. How did you end up at Simon Business School?
MA: I was actually in the first full-time class at the University of Rochester MBA program. It wasn’t even called Simon back then. I had graduated from MIT, then spent a year traveling in Europe and working in New York City. During that year I decided to apply for an MBA. To be honest, Simon offered me tuition and a monthly stipend, so it was a very easy decision. I also knew about the University because my younger brother was a student there at the time.
Watch the video!
AA: You’ve told me before that one of your favorite professors actually was a behavioral professor, somebody who was more on the side of trying to understand leadership and understand how organizations work.
MA: Absolutely. His name was Ed Henry. He had retired after 30 years working in, and eventually heading up, HR for Esso, which is now Exxon. He decided to come to the University of Rochester as a professor and teach a course in organizational behavior. The second year the course consisted of going over to his house one night a week. We all brought something to eat, and he would invite his friends, who were heads of HR at various big companies like General Electric, General Motors, and others. We learned so much about how companies worked and the reality of leadership with him.
AA: Carolyn, how did you and Mark first meet?
CA: I think many people know this story, but Mark and I met through a personal ad in Boston Magazine. This is going to date us, because it was before the days of meeting online. There was a personal section in that magazine. One day, my oldest daughter came to me and said, “Mom, I’ve looked at some of these people who have advertised in here and five of them sound good. You should call them.” I got a little defensive and said, “Well, I’m not doing anything with you standing right here.” But I did it: I contacted Mark. We talked on the phone, had lunch together, and it went from there.
AA: Here’s a question for both of you. What is the secret of a really good marriage?
MA: We have six children between us, and we speak to our children and our grandchildren with one voice. I think that’s very important. We have a lot in common, especially views on life and spirituality and children and grandchildren.
CA: And I think that we also have tremendous respect for each other, even when we disagree, which is bound to happen. That’s very important, too.
AA: Let’s talk a little bit about philanthropy, because that must have been one of your conversations when you were learning about each other.
MA: Sometime before we met, I became involved in a school for emotionally disturbed boys and girls. I introduced Carolyn to the school, and she served on the board with me. That sort of started our philanthropic career. We thought about it a lot, and decided that we wanted to help young people.
AA: I suppose that somehow morphed into what you’re doing now. You’re affecting so many young people at Simon.
CA: It really has. It’s not just about philanthropy; at least it wasn’t for me. When I was in college, I was doing things that I thought would be beneficial to people. I lived in Virginia for a time, and did some work in underprivileged communities. I would work with the kids in kindergarten through second grade and read to them after school. I would do whatever I could to help those kids. I wanted to make a difference.
AA: Mark, what were you thinking about when you decided to get more involved with the Center for Entrepreneurship?
MA: Well, early on in my career I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Both grandparents came to this country and became entrepreneurs. And growing up, my grandmother instilled in me the sense of charting my own destiny and being my own boss. In college, we used to stay up late talking about what we wanted to do. I always knew I wanted to start a company. So that’s what I did, and I was reasonably successful doing so. When it came time to think about what I wanted to do with philanthropy and give back, the natural thing was to help people become entrepreneurs.
AA: Let’s talk a little bit about your company, Kronos.
How did it get started?
MA: I was a consultant in the Boston area with a small firm that mostly did product planning and market research work for Fortune 500 companies. After three and a half years, I left and started my own consulting business. My idea was to think about a product and start a company around it. In early ’77, I stumbled upon the old mechanical time clock, which actually was invented in Rochester in the 1890s. I realized it was right for automation, and microprocessors had just been invented, so I decided to go for it.
AA: How many people does Kronos employ today?
MA: We employ around 4,500 people worldwide.
AA: Was there a moment when you said to yourself, “This is going to work”?
MA: Well, the early years were very hard. I never raised a lot of money in any one round. I never took money from people who wanted to buy preferred stock or convertible securities, because I wanted them to have the same rights on their stock I had on mine. To be honest, if I hadn’t done that, they probably would have kicked me out. But I kept raising money. We grew revenue every quarter, quarter on quarter, year on year, for something like 118 straight quarters. We finally got to a point in ’86 or ’87 when it became profitable. That’s when I realized that although we weren’t out of the woods, we were on our way.
AA: What’s the thing you took away from Simon that most helped you in your career?
MA: I think the major in Organizational Behavior and Ed Henry. I wrote a thesis my second year on leaderless group discussion. And that thesis taught me a lot about how to get people to express what they wanted to express and how to interview and find leaders in a group.
AA: What do you think is the most important lesson you’ve had as an entrepreneur that students should know?
MA: I guess the most important thing is to find a mentor—early on, before or when you start the company. Having at least one mentor who is local, who you can meet with regularly, who you can call, who will stop by and offer their perspective. You need someone who’s been there, done that, and won’t get caught up in the day-to-day details of what you’re doing.
AA: You’ve said one of your favorite projects is the business plan competition. How did you come to create that? What got that off the ground?
MA: I realized that one of the best ways to train people to be entrepreneurs is to have them write a business plan around an idea. We started the competition around that and opened it to anybody at the University of Rochester. Fortunately at Rochester, there are a lot of ideas and a lot of patents, so even if students don’t have their own idea, they can go to the technology licensing patent office and find one. I think this will be the 11th year of the competition.
AA: Why is entrepreneurship so important?
MA: Entrepreneurship is important because it invigorates the economy. Companies get old and stale, and if they don’t have competition starting in their area that’s more nimble, that’s doing new things, they don’t innovate. That’s why most companies die of old age. I think entrepreneurship also invigorates societies. It generates new ideas and excitement; it gives young people something to get involved with and think about, and you’re kind of reinventing yourself and society as you go.
AA: In what ways do you think your philanthropy will benefit entrepreneurship at Simon?
CA: I believe it’s more than just handing somebody a check or a way of covering costs. What Mark has done by starting and financing these programs at the University of Rochester is teaching students what they might not learn in a classroom. He is a true mentor, and that is a game-changing situation.
MA: Simon didn’t have a real entrepreneurship program when I visited. I thought there was so much to do and so much to give, and I just felt that Simon was the place where I could make a difference.
AA: You also play a critical role in the Student Incubator at High Tech Rochester. Can you tell us about that?
MA: For the last five or six years, Carolyn and I have financed the incubator. In the early days, there were one or two companies there. Now, it’s overflowing with companies, and many of them have been either winners in the Mark Ain Business Plan Competition, or they’ve won second or third prize. When I visited in October, there were at least three, maybe four, companies that are on their way to being successful.
AA: Carolyn, you mentioned some of the relationships you and Mark have developed through the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship. Can you tell us a little bit about them?
CA: It’s been very rewarding. We’ve found that the young people we’ve worked with and mentored have become friends. We’ve just had the best time getting to know, seriously know, so many people.
MA: Particularly ones who move to the Boston area.
AA: Why do you think people should give back to their alma mater? What would you say to encourage them to do that?
MA: I think they’ve got to visit their alma mater, and they’ve got to find something that grabs them, that interests them, that turns them on, and find where they can make a difference. It’s as simple as that. Being a member of the University’s Board of Trustees, I’ve met some of the most outstanding people from all different fields—and they are all University of Rochester graduates or associated with it in some way. It’s very rewarding that students who graduated four or five years ago still stay in touch and seek advice. We still get together periodically. It’s almost like having another set of children.
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When Business Gives Back
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A look at alumni philanthropy shows MBAs and business school graduates know how to give. By Jim Ver Steeg
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| Sharan Kaur (left) |
But there is another reputation for what it means to be Simon alum. It’s a reputation that many say contradicts the business stereotype that all MBAs and holders of business degrees are self-interested, caring only about the next big deal. It is the idea of giving back to their community and to the School that so many Simon graduates consider their legacy. For them, it is a way to give thanks to the school that gave them a leg up and helped prepare them for career success.
A Degree of Giving
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| Janice Willett |
Willett says she and her husband, Joseph Willett ’75S (MBA), personally give back to Simon and campaigns like The Meliora Challenge in large measure because of the support the School showed them when they were students. “Joe and I received great offers from Simon,” she says. “It was a real vote of confidence for them to essentially make a bet on us. That’s why we wanted to give back. Simon took a chance on us, and we wanted to show our gratitude. It’s rewarding to know that a student today might have the same opportunities we did.”
But it is more than just scholarships and financial support that inspire the Willetts and other alumni to give. A report released by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) indicated that there is a clear relationship between alumni satisfaction with their educational experience and the likelihood of later support. Willett sees the connection. “Joe and I still very much believe in the Simon School, in its product and its approach to business education,” she says. “We think it’s the best school out there—especially how it looks at markets and what drives consumer behavior. It’s all taught very explicitly at Simon in a cohesive framework. We find that very worth supporting.”
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And it seems that many of Ochrym’s fellow business school graduates agree. When it comes to giving back, MBAs have deep pockets. In fact, a study by the Economics of Education Review (EER) showed that graduates from MBA programs make higher average donations than do graduates without advanced degrees. Even more impressive, the GMAC report shows nearly 30 percent of business school alumni give financial donations to their school—compared to just 12 percent from graduates of other schools. According to both studies, student satisfaction with their school experience was a key factor in alumni giving.
Investing in the Value
Simon MBAs aren’t just satisfied—they’re successful. For them, the value of their degree means increased job satisfaction and greater earning potential. According to GMAC, the most influential variable in influencing philanthropic donations, even more than satisfaction with their educational experience, is the overall value of a business degree. A major contributor to the value of an MBA degree is significant post-graduation salary growth. It is reasonable, then, that the capacity for increased earnings contributes to higher donations. The EER study showed the average donation of MBA holders is 57 percent higher than the average donation of those without an advanced degree.
But there is another element that adds value to a business degree: the network of colleagues and friends that Simon alumni enjoy as part of one of the world’s top business schools. Willett says she recognizes that value from her own experience and from encounters with other alumni. “You definitely feel like kindred spirits,” she notes. “Simon people speak the same language. We talk opportunity costs and L-X diagrams, market efficiency, and agency theory and we know exactly what that means.”
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| Dominic Rasini |
back.
Rasini says showing thanks is not always about the big gift. “I don’t think anyone is expecting a donor to go broke by giving back to their school,” he says. “People are just grateful that you’re willing to give and be part of the alumni community. I would say you don’t have to worry about the amount you give—just start.”
Angela Cheng’06S (MBA), assistant director of risk management at AIG, agrees. “I tell people who are considering giving back to their school to think of it in two ways,” she says. “First of all, you don’t really need to give a lot. Just give what you’re comfortable with; it could be $100, $200, or even $50. It’s all good. Second, when we give back, we’re helping build a better Simon Business School. Our support helps Simon get better and better, and with that the rankings go higher and higher. It benefits everyone.”
Rasini says giving back to the School helps take the air out of an unfair stereotype. “There is a general misconception that business school graduates are selfish and self-absorbed,” he says. “But the reality is a stark contrast to that image. We are people of good character who use our professional success to give back. We understand that we need to support our current students and give what we can. Not only does giving back help them, it’s a great way to express your gratitude for everything Simon may have done for you.”
Rasini says he is especially thankful for being able to apply what he learned at Simon to his career in consulting. “I work in the analytics and information management space,” he says. “Understanding how businesses want to position their analytic decision-making, and then using those processes to help our clients answer critical questions and gain useful insights, is at the core of what I do. The education I received at Simon allows me to have those conversations in a very credible way.”
Creating Community
Sharan Kaur’97, ’14S (MS) had a less direct path to Simon Business School. After earning her bachelor’s degree in brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, she realized that working in a laboratory was not for her. “I was going to go into research full time and get my PhD,” she says. “But after spending a year in the lab, I realized I didn’t have the personality for it. So I ended up doing an internship with the technology transfer office at the Medical Center. That’s how my career started.” Still working in the field of technology transfer, Kaur is now senior contracts officer at Columbia University, where she is responsible for negotiating contracts that support the corporate sponsorship of the institution’s research programs.
While she credits Simon for helping her move her career to the next level, there was something else her experience with the School brought her. “Just being in business school gets your entrepreneurship juices flowing,” she says. “Simon has done a lot to promote that, and really encourages students to think in entrepreneurial ways.”
Kaur says an entrepreneurial spirit also helps fuel her philanthropic passion. “In my free time, I run marathons and do triathlons,” she says. “The sport has done so much for me personally and professionally. But it’s so expensive that it can exclude people who might be able to benefit from it. So, about a year ago, I decided to change that and started a nonprofit that helps train children in underserved communities to do triathlons.”
Kaur credits pieces written by Hank Coleman at DailyFinance and by Paul Tran at Pepperdine’s Graziadio Voice for helping shape her thoughts on the importance of giving back. “When I first started giving, it was out of a sense of loyalty,” she says. “I had great memories of the University of Rochester. When you get your degree from a school, you become a shareholder of that community. You have a direct interest in seeing your investment succeed.” Kaur says it’s that return on investment that benefits alumni as much as it does Simon’s future students. “When we show our support, our money goes toward research, scholarships, and new facilities,” she says. “In essence, we’re supporting the next generation of students and alumni, which increases the stature of the school. That really affects how employers view the school, and how employers view the school has a direct impact on whether or not they want to hire its graduates and alumni.”
Kaur says there are many ways to show support. “I give back financially as well as with my time,” she notes. “I serve on the steering committee of the University of Rochester New York Metro Women’s Group. We organize alumni events throughout the year, and as a member of the George Eastman Circle, I feel that I’m a member of an exclusive, like-minded group that wants to see the school thrive.”
According to GMAC, the second-most important factor that encourages alumni giving is their ability to network and form long-term personal and professional connections. Kaur sees the Simon network as mutually beneficial. “When we connect with each other at alumni events, we do it in the mindset that this connection is a symbiotic one,” she says. “It’s not just about what I can do for you or what you can do for me. It’s about how we can help and support each other to raise the stature of the school.”
Ben Ochrym says he also benefits from the Simon network and believes the connection can also begin online. “I’m a big LinkedIn guy,” he says. “I’m always connecting with people, especially current students and recent graduates there. I’m also one to always go for coffee or meet for a drink and talk about the University of Rochester and Simon Business School. I feel like my giving back is taking the time to tell people about the program—what it’s done and what it continues to do for me.”
Continuing the Tradition
When Janice Willett arrived at Simon, it was just beginning to establish its reputation as one of the world’s best business schools. “It was a very interesting time at Simon, especially in finance and accounting,” she says. “The whole market efficiency concept was in the early days of testing, and Michael Jensen and [former dean] Bill Meckling were beginning to advance their agency theory. It really was a time of pioneering research.”
Willett says she and her husband, Joe, want the same sense of excitement to energize and influence generations of students. “Giving back to Simon advances a number of principles that we feel strongly about,” she notes. “When you have more people in the world who know what drives economic value, how to measure performance, how markets behave, how to motivate people, it furthers a way of looking at the world that we think is important. All those things are taught at Simon in a very cohesive way.”
Just two years out of school, Dominic Rasini says he gives back to Simon to help prepare the students who follow him for the realities of the working world. “Simon is a prelude to what you’ll face in your career,” he says. “Any student who wants to challenge himself or herself and prepare for professional life can benefit from Simon’s approach—and the extracurricular activities mirror what you will face in the real world.”
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| Angela Cheng |
without my degree.” Cheng says everything she learned, and the help she received from the Career Management Center to land a job, are what motivate her to give back to the School.
Ben Ochrym says it was the way Simon helped him change careers and build essential business skills that keep him supporting the School. “I majored in Spanish for my undergraduate degree,” he says. “At Simon, I focused on accounting and finance courses, and was a competitive strategy major. It taught me everything from understanding balance sheets to how the world of banking works. It’s especially helped me at M&T, where we don’t just go out and make a sale. We actually do all the underwriting ourselves. I couldn’t do that without the analytical skills I learned at Simon.”
For alumni like Sharan Kaur, who were looking for ways to advance their careers, Simon offered just what they needed at just the right time. “I reached a stage where I felt I really needed to make a change,” Kaur says. “I knew I needed to make myself more marketable to get my career to the next level. Just as I was starting to think seriously about what to do next, I got an e-mail inviting me to a Simon open house. That’s when I realized that this is it. This is what I’m going to do.”
These alumni stories are just a sample of the thousands of personal and professional successes that started at Simon. Whether it was a transformational experience, an opportunity to create a network of colleagues, or a critical step toward a new career trajectory, the Simon experience has inspired alumni around the world to remember their time on the River Campus and give back generously to the School. It is that connection, that bridge between the past and the future, between veteran alumni and recent graduates, that continues to inspire prospective students to make the small business school in Rochester, New York, a major player in today’s global marketplace.
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Class Notes
1989
Brian P. Meath was promoted to vice president, deputy general counsel at Constellation Brands in Victor, NY.1994
Paul Turpin was elected as the 2016–2017 president of the International DB2 Users Group (IDUG) at the IDUG North America conference in Austin, TX.1995
Louis B. Applebaum has recently changed roles at Constellation Brands to become the business development officer at Ballast Point Brewing, the craft beer arm of the company. He and his family relocated to San Diego, CA, this summer.Stevan Ramirez has been working with the Huntington Study Group, a nonprofit organization in Rochester, NY, that is a world leader in facilitating high-quality clinical research trials in Huntington’s disease, since January 2015 as the director of finance and operations.
2000
Sergio Aquino is two years into his PhD at The University of British Columbia in BC, Canada, where he is studying the recycling of precious metals from mobile phones.Jennifer Henion marked 10 years of being a Procter & Gamble employee this year, working at Duracell headquarters in Connecticut the majority of those years.
2001
Reynaldo Cruz has been working for LG Electronics since 2012, and recently was promoted in April 2016 to senior director, consumer marketing in Englewood, NJ. |
| Kunst |
Andrea M. Lever has taken a new job as director, strategic pricing at Zoetis in Florham Park, NJ.
Michael S. Nichting and his wife, Heather, opened Regain Physical Therapy in September 2012 in Pittsford, NY. With the combination of his MBA and her physical therapy background, Regain Physical Therapy has proven to be a success. They now employ five therapists and have plans for continued growth.
Paul M. Wlodarczyk is nearing his three-year anniversary as vice president of client services at Earley Information Science, Inc. which is located in Carlisle, MA.
Jon J. Wondrack recently moved into a new position with Goldman Sachs & Company as global head of equities operations. He and his wife moved back to New York City from London.
2003
Tamara Ruth Arbesman-Gold is now the director of student services at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, and completed her PhD this past May, graduating from NYU. Her research looked at MBA program choice and the impact that business school rankings have on the choice process.Rodrigo Neves Berretta left his position as vice president of business development with MHWirth in October 2015 to co-found Sbrubbles, a workplace in downtown Orlando, FL, developed as a professional, yet affordable alternative to working from home.
Kelly Ann Geer is the chief marketing officer at Sphero in Boulder, CO, as of March 2016.
Thomas Kammermann is approaching his 12 year anniversary with Credit Suisse AG. Thomas is a managing director, head of CRM IWM corporate & specialty lending in Zurich, Switzerland.
Ivan F. Martinez is now a director, brand insights and analytics at UnitedHealthcare in Minnetonka, MN.
Sam Strijckmans is the president and CEO of Nitto EMEA in Leuven, Belgium, as of April 2016.
Randal Dean Weaver is a chief information officer at Quality Vision International Inc. in Rochester, NY.
Christopher P. Wright was recently named chair of the Department of Management at College of Business Administration, Niagara University in Lewiston, NY.
2004
Diederick Beels is now a sales director for Benelux at Tableau Software in the Netherlands.Reender Beks has been promoted to managing partner and CEO at Technology Transfer Capital in Naarden, Netherlands.
Randy Chapman is now a senior manager, Trade Floor Risk Management–New York Rates Desk at Scotia Capital.
Jonathan Lee took on a new position at BP as head of business development, BP Target Neutral, Americas in Chicago, IL.
Jon Scahill is a partner at McLaughlin & Stern LLP, a general practice law firm with offices in New York and Florida.
Andrew Schlesinger was promoted to US head of emerging market sales at BNP Paribas in New York City.
Jacqueline Spaulding was recently promoted to investment consultant for Fidelity Investments. Jacqueline and her husband, John, have relocated to Monterey, CA, with their two kittens, Marcus and Pippa.
Kenneth (Ken) Weliczka was recently named head of credit research for Sentinel Investments in Montpelier, VT. Ken leads a team of seven analysts who manage $12 billion in investment-grade and high-yield corporate bond exposure across insurance general account and third-party mutual fund mandates. MBA candidate Class of 2017 Amritesh Singhania joined Ken’s team for the summer as an MBA summer associate.
2005
Timothy P. Santo relocated with General Electric to Cincinnati, OH, for an executive leadership position with the Global Operations Center.Goncalo Souto took a new position as a client delivery manager at Fidessa in New York City in February 2015.
2006
Kenji Shundo took on a new role as senior investment officer in the private sector department at African Development Bank in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.2008
Christopher J. Adams accepted a new role as vice president of finance at Canfield & Tack in Rochester, NY.Sandy Y. Hu accepted a new position in March 2016 as director of business analytics at AM Conservation Group, headquartered in Charleston, SC, which provides energy and water conservation products, services, and programs.
Sam Ko, MD, took a new position as associate medical director at San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital Emergency Department in Banning, CA.
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| Lambda |
2010
Paul C. Foti has taken the position as director of finance (CFO) at the Rochester Housing Authority. Paul oversees all financial aspects of over 2,500 public housing units and 9,300 Section 8 vouchers with an annual budget of $80 million.Jason G. Morrow was recently promoted to senior director of business consultation at Aetna in Hartford, CT.
2011
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| Crafts |
Marco Fumasoli became head of asset management/chief investment officer at v.Fischer Investas in Bern, Switzerland, on August 1, 2016. The company is one of the biggest independent Asset Managers in the Bern area in Switzerland.
Arvind Mathur is now the vice president–financial planning and analysis at JPMorgan Chase Bank in New York City.
Elizabeth P. Oputa is doing a fellowship in Africa under the Africa Business Fellowship, a group whose purpose is to strengthen relationships between the African and American business communities and provide future American business leaders with the hands-on experience they need to understand business in Africa.
2012
Mark I. Frazer resigned from his previous job as vice president at RedSky in April 2015 to start his own company, Scarce Insights, in May 2015. Mark is the president and CEO of the company, which is located in El Paso, TX.Matthew J. Makowski recently launched a registered investment advisory practice, Ibis Capital Management, LLC, and continues to practice corporate and commercial law in Buffalo, NY.
Benjamin L. Mazer, MD, recently completed medical school at the University of Rochester. In July 2016 he will begin work as a resident physician in pathology at Yale–New Haven Hospital.
Allison E. Reiman is now the senior manager of business design–HoloLens and Windows Apps at Microsoft in Redmond, WA.
Varun A. Shah has been promoted to vice president at AlixPartners, LLP in Chicago, IL.
2013
Dilip August is a corporate quality assurance system manager at Acino Pharma AG in Basel, Switzerland. |
| Burke |
Bakyalakshmi (Nisha) Ravichandran joined Yellowstone Capital LLC in Jersey City, NJ, as vice president of operations in March 2016.
Guy Scheiwiller has joined Catholic Charities in Venice, FL, as director of finance. Guy heads the Finance Department of the nonprofit organization, which operates over fifty programs throughout southwest Florida to fulfill its mission to serve people in need.
2014
Eric Vargas is a manager of production at Nickelodeon in New York City.2015
Samantha O’Neill accepted a new position as business analyst at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.Michael Reed is now a digital project manager at SIGMA Marketing Insights in Rochester, NY.
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Mergers and Acquisitions
2001
Jon J. Wondrack and his wife, Liling Xu, welcomed the arrival of their second son, Joel Zhen Wondrack, born January 1, 2016. Jon is global head of equities operations at Goldman Sachs & Company. He and his family live in New York City.
2003
Kimberly J. Hocking and her husband, Thomas, welcomed the arrival of their first child, Peter Hocking, born February 8, 2013. Kim and Thomas adopted Peter from Poland in early 2016 after a three-year adoption process. Kimberly is business operations manager at Lockheed Martin. She and her family live in Clay, NY.
2004
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| Clara Michelle Gabriel |
Kevin Sheldon and his wife, Angie, welcomed the arrival of their third child, Luke Kenneth Sheldon, born March 24, 2016. Luke joins brother CJ (age 5) and sister Summer (age 2). Kevin is vice president, audience development at Equate Analytics.
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| Warren M. Tao |
Ronnie Tao and his wife, Tiffany Wu, welcomed the arrival of their son Warren M. Tao, born December 28, 2015. Ronnie recently left Amazon.com to take a position as executive vice president of business strategy and corporate development at The SCUD Group. With $11.4 billion in annual revenue, SCUD is one of the top three battery technology companies in the world. Tiffany is director of marketing–head of digital marketing at Syncplicity. They live in San Jose, CA.
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| Roberto Vasquez and Valentina Lasa |
Roberto Jose Vazquez married Valentina Lasa on April 22, 2016, in Montevideo, Uruguay. Roberto is CFO at E-Planning in Montevideo; Valentina is an English teacher. They live in Montevideo.
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| Cody family |
2005
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| Sofia (left) and Emma Luna |
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| Malik family |
Rajeev Kumar Malik and his wife, Honey, welcomed the arrival of their son, Dhilan, born February 7, 2016. Rajeev is head of finance at Amazon. He and his family live in West Hills, CA.
Anju Pansari married Martin Mordaunt on July 5, 2015, in Half Moon Bay, CA. Anju is HR
manager at Adobe Systems in San Francisco, CA. Martin is a software architect at Macys.com. They live in San Francisco.2008
Ashley Giglia (Churder) married Jason Giglia on September 6, 2015 in Williamsville, NY. Ashley is vice president/talent acquisition team manager at M&T Bank in Buffalo, NY. Jason is the owner of American Driveway Seal. They live in North Tonawanda, NY.
2010
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| Adeline Olena Barchuk |
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| Bode Bridger Burgess |
Daniel C. Burgess and his wife, Tina, welcomed the arrival of
their son, Bode Bridger Burgess, born February 1. Bode joins older sister Sage Ryan Burgess (age 2). Daniel is regional revenue manager at Comcast Cable. He and his family live in Denver, CO.
Paola Realpozo Carrillo and her husband, Greg Fogarty, welcomed the arrival of their second son, Lucas, born April 2, 2016. Lucas joins brother Jack (age 3). Paola recently became director, rail strategy at Lilee Systems. Greg is vice president of sales for Tyler Technologies in Albany, NY. They live in Saratoga Springs, NY.
2011
Zachary A. Delligatti and his wife, Jennifer, welcomed the arrival of their son, Alexander Delligatti, born on May 28, 2016. Zachary is financial analyst at CH2M HILL. He and his family live in Anchorage, AK.
Daniel Hofer and his wife, Katja Signer-Hofer, welcomed the arrival of their daughter, Linn Mari Hofer, born May 4. Daniel is director of sales at BLS. He and his family live in Bern, Switzerland.
Nancy D. Maynard and her husband, Marty Maynard, welcomed the arrival of their daughter, Millie Jane Maynard, born December 17, 2015. Nancy is commercial relationship manager at Genesee Regional Bank; Marty is the director of business development at Ambrell in Scottsville, NY. They live in Victor, NY.
2012
Dino Crameri married Fabia Crameri on February 14, 2015, in Zurich, Switzerland. Dino is director, packaging & case engineering services at Zimmer Biomet in Winterthur, Switzerland. They live in Zurich. |
| Loosen family |
Sean M. Loosen and his wife, Lindsey, welcomed the arrival of their daughter, Mikayla Elizabeth, born April 14. Mikayla joins sister Madison (age 1). Sean is managing director at Unum. He and his family live in Brighton, NY.
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| Robin Eskander Tillyaev |
2013
Evan A. Aloe married Caitlin E. O’Neill on May 7, at the Alexander Homestead. Evan is product manager at DealCloud, Inc. in Charlotte, NC. Caitlin is sales analytics manager at Bank of America Merchant Services. They live in Charlotte.
Stefanie A. Fingler and her husband, Joseph (married May 25, 2013), welcomed the arrival of their daughter, Mackenzie Grace Fingler, born April 15, 2015. Stefanie is Center for Vaccine Biology and Immunology administrator at the University of Rochester. She and her family live in Rochester, NY.
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| Morgan Foulkes and Emily Stephens |
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| Smith Blair Veenema |
welcomed the arrival of their son, Smith Blair Veenema, born February 11. Blair is corporate development manager at Constellation Brands. Taylor is project manager at Five Star Bank in Rochester, NY. They live in Brighton, NY.
2015
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| Jun Cai and Renxing Yu with Chloe Cai |
Vivek A. Jain married Haripriya Addepalli in February 2016 in India. Vivek is associate, technology investment banking at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in Palo Alto, CA. Haripriya works at Piramal Critical Care. They live in Santa Clara, CA.
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Alumni Profile: David Hu
David Hu ’03S (MBA)
Global Director, ABIU Commercial at Anheuser-Busch InBev
By Joy Underhill
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| David Hu |
Hu recently joined Anheuser-Busch InBev as the global director of ABI University’s commercial programs. In that capacity, he heads commercial training that enhances employees’ functional skills and competencies, and expands learning and development for the company’s global zones. “At ABI, we invest in developing our leaders, and building commercial capabilities is mission critical for us to deliver on aggressive growth targets,” he says.
Before starting at AB InBev, Hu spent six years at The Coca-Cola Company’s Atlanta headquarters as director of marketing strategy and commercial insights. His challenge in that position was to innovate in the new media landscape to keep customers excited about the highly recognized Coca-Cola brand. “We’re all about enhancing consumer engagement through all consumer touch points in order to expand our brand,” he says. Hu has seen many brands have their ups and downs, but only a handful—like Coke—are in a position to make a meaningful difference long term.
Hu was involved with go-to-market strategy at Coke as well, leveraging social media, digital, and mobile technologies to make it happen. He further led a global initiative to apply neuromarketing to branding, advertising, product marketing, packaging innovation, and other areas.
While at Coca-Cola, Hu served as chair of the Chinese Professionals to bring together those of Chinese heritage for networking and sharing career stories. “As a minority, we benefitted from connecting and learning how to better serve the Atlanta community,” he says. “We also had a lot of fun!”
Simon’s small size gave Hu the opportunity to form deep relationships with both peers and faculty. “My Simon network certainly expanded my career contacts,” he says, “and I still call people from 15 or 20 years ago to share experiences and stories. It’s even easier now with social media, and we’ve formed a close-knit community.”
Hu also benefitted from his involvement in Simon’s Marketing Club, where visits to area companies helped define his career passion. Simon’s strong emphasis on quantitative analysis has served Hu well through marketing’s increased reliance on data analytics.
Hu’s job requires him to travel worldwide, so he values family time with his wife and two children in Atlanta. “My kids are digital natives, so I pay attention to what they say,” he notes. “They teach me how the next generation thinks, which is where my thinking will have to go as well.”
For recent Simon graduates, Hu offers this advice: “Always keep learning! We live in an emerging, fast-paced world, and a hunger for knowledge will serve you well.”
He also believes that while it’s important to have a career plan, it’s equally important to remain flexible and embrace change. “Look how quickly technology has advanced over the past few years—from Blackberry to iPhone in a heartbeat. By developing a passion for what you do and maintaining a forward-looking mindset, you can meet the demands of our complex times.”
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