News Roundup – Vanderbilt Grants LGBTQ Fellowship, McCombs at SXSW, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including the new LGBTQ Fellowship offered at the Vanderbilt University Owen School of Business.
Greg Geffre (EMBA’21) Will be the First Recipient of the Executive MBA Program’s Reaching Out LGBTQ MBA Fellowship – Owen School of Business News
Vanderbilt University’s Owen School of Business granted its first Reaching Out LGBTQ MBA Fellowship to Executive MBA candidate Greg Geffre.
Reaching Out MBA (ROMBA) is a nonprofit organization that helps LGBTQ b-school students to develop their professional goals via scholarships, networking, and educational programming. This is the first year that the group will assist an Executive MBA, but Reaching Out MBA Fellowships have been granted to previous daytime students at Vanderbilt for the past several years.
Greg Geffre began his career with Wells Fargo in its financial crimes division, and shifted into a compliance analyst role at UBS after relocating recently to Nashville. He has participated in the Pride Networks at both organizations. Of his experience, Geffre says:
“Coming to a new city, not having a graduate degree—I knew that was something I wanted to do. And I knew that now is the best time to do it … After the MBA, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to start transitioning myself as more of a senior leader and start moving into more into a higher-level decision maker role. An advanced degree is necessary to do that.”
For more on Vanderbilt’s Executive MBA program, visit the program page. Read here for more on ROMBA.
He Fights On for Marines and USC – USC Marshall News
This summer, the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation honored USC Marshall alum and trustee William “Bill” Schoen with the Semper Fidelis award.
According to the Foundation’s statement, “In the spirit of the award’s meaning, ‘always faithful,’ Schoen was commemorated for his many contributions to the Marine Corps community and Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation’s mission to empower Marine children in their pursuit for a higher education.”
Schoen served in the Marine Corps from 1953-1961, and he has served as member of the Founders’ Group of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. He also serves on the Advisory Cabinet of the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation’s American Patriots Campaign. “The Marine Corps opened my eyes to the endless possibilities available through hard work, dedication, sacrifice, honor. This is one of the reasons that supporting other Marines and the Marine Corps in such an integral way is part of my life,” says Schoen.
It is also, he continued, a reason that he pursued a career in business leadership. Schoen was founder and CEO of Health Management Associates Inc., which he established in 1985. Under Schoen’s leadership, the Florida-based corporation, which specialized in management of over 70 acute care and psychiatric facilities, earned a place in the Fortune 500.
Schoen received the USC Alumni Association’s highest award for his achievements in 2016. Read here for more on Schoen and the Semper Fidelis award.
Vote McCombs for SXSW 2020 – McCombs School of Business News
Faculty from The University of Texas McCombs School of Business hope to share their knowledge at South by Southwest (SXSW) in 2020, and they are asking for help from the public to nominate them for a spot at the conference.
Potential speakers have posted a number of possible topics on which they can speak at SXSW, and the selections and voting instructions can be found here. Voters can choose from such topics as cryptocurrency and big data in daily life. Other potential talks are The Power of Students as Policy Entrepreneurs, (in the Higher Ed category); Alexa, Call the Healthcare Cyberwarrior Hotline! (in the MedTech Category); and People Analytics and the Game of Life in the Workplace category.
Members of the McCombs School of Business will be speaking at next years SXSW in Austin, Texas.
This year’s SXSW conference will take place March 13 – 22, 2020 in Austin.
How Big Data Can Combat Addiction – Fox School of Business News
Kuang-Yao Lee, Assistant Professor of Statistical Science at the Fox School of Business, has researched one of the most pressing issues of today: the problem of addiction among U.S. veterans.
The Veterans Administration has launched a study of one million veterans to track alcohol use over time in order to discover more effective treatment options. This is where Professor Lee’s statistical expertise comes in. Funded by the Office for the Vice President of Research at Temple University along with the VA, Lee’s process includes gathering data blood samples and health updates from veterans. The team’s hope is to identify specific combinations of genes that result in addiction, in order to apply earlier interventions in the future.
“Previous studies have suggested [these genes exist], but mostly were only limited to small scales or restricted conditions,” he says. “We want to use statistical models to find out if this is really a valid assumption. Our results so far suggest a very strong association.”
While health records and blood testing have long been available to researchers with similar goals, big computing has reached a point where it can gather millions more data points and process them at an exponentially greater speed. Lee hopes to apply the same methodology of data processing for not only addiction, but for other genetic, behavioral, and health problems. Read more on Lee’s research and on the VA’s efforts here.
UC Berkeley Launches Joint Master’s Degree in Business and Engineering – Berkeley Haas News
Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and College of Engineering have launch a dual MBA/MEng degree program, beginning enrollment in 2020.
Aimed at early career professionals, the degree will help students to advance into leadership roles with a unique knowledge base. MBA/MEng Program Faculty Director Candace Yano, who teaches at both Haas and Berkeley Engineering, says, “The program will prepare students to meet industry demands for graduates who are both business- and technology-savvy and can lead technical innovation efforts—a combination of skills needed in Silicon Valley and beyond.”
The all-new MBA/MEng degree at Berkeley Haas is slated to begin in 2020, with 20-30 students per cohort.
The demand for individuals with mastery of each field is great at companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Boston Consulting Group, Citibank, KPMG, and Genentech. With multiple openings for jobs like principal architect, marketing analytics manager, strategy and operations manager and product manager, these organizations require the high level of understanding of how business grows upon technology.
Inspired by Berkeley’s undergraduate Management, Entrepreneurship, & Technology Program (M.E.T.), the program will welcome 20-30 student cohorts during its inaugural year. Read here for more on the MBA/MEng degree.
UC Davis Launches Online MBA, Author Sam Walker Speaks at Fisher, and More
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from this week, including the a new Online MBA at UC Davis.
UC Davis Graduate School of Management to Offer Online MBA – UC Davis News
The University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management recently announced its new Online MBA, the first of its kind across the school’s ten campuses. Now accepting applications, MBA@Davis will welcome its inaugural class on September 30, 2019.
The online MBA will offer opportunities for working professionals and other students to earn their degree at their own pace with virtual meetings and interactive courses. Faculty and lecturers from the traditional full and part-time programs will lead classes, each of which will have a live weekly session.
A culminating residential session will allow students to experience campus life, along with the chance to connect with one another and their professors. Members of the startup community and executives from Fortune 500 companies will also visit for networking and mentoring opportunities. The duration of the program will be two years, and four cohorts will start each September.
The online MBA will open the top 50 ranked UC Davis degree to students worldwide. For more on the new Online MBA at UC Davis, click here.
Simple, Not Easy: Talking Leadership with Bestselling Author Sam Walker – Fisher Newsroom
Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business recently welcomed Wall Street Journal columnist and author Sam Walker to the school’s Leading Through Excellence summit last month.
Walker’s book, The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership, which explores the essential qualities of successful leaders, has been voted one of the year’s best business books by the New York Times and CNBC. Walker focuses upon the commonalities between great sports teams and great project teams, in particular how their coaches, captains and managers led them to success.
Sam Walker, author of the celebrated The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership / Photo via fisher.osu.edu
As the book’s website notes, “The seventeen most dominant teams in sports history had one thing in common: Each employed the same type of captain—a singular leader with an unconventional set of skills and tendencies.” Members of the so-called “Captain Class”, according to Walker, all possess the qualities of courage to stand apart from the crowd, doggedness, and emotional control.
Walker says that another quality of captains is that while natural talent is helpful in advancing through the ranks of leadership, it is not vital.
“We’re all realizing that management … is really the key to everything, and so many challenges can be addressed by building better teams and being smarter about how you promote,” Walker says.
For more on the book and Sam Walker, click here.
Adtalem Global Education and Northeastern University Form Strategic Partnership – Northeastern University News
Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business has announced a new partnership with Adtalem, a leader in financial services education.
D’Amore-McKim and Adtalem will work to provide training on a global scale, beginning with the Certificate in AI for Financial Services. With this, managers and team leaders will be at the forefront of their organizations’ adoption of AI, and they will also be able to gauge their companies’ readiness for adoption.
Designed to be completed in eight-to-ten hours over two-to-four weeks, the course will begin this summer. Lisa Wardell, President and CEO of Adtalem, says, “We are pleased to partner with Northeastern University as a major thought leader consistently at the forefront of AI, and to expand this partnership into other academic areas and industries.”
The banking and financial services industries are particularly well served by the use of AI, with such applications as improving the accuracy of credit scoring, algorithmic stock trading, and fraud detection. “Breakthrough technologies, including artificial intelligence, offer the promise of higher productivity, enhanced efficiencies, and economic growth,” says Raj Echambadi, the D’Amore-McKim Dunton Family Dean at Northeastern University of the new certificate.
For more on the AI for Financial Services certificate, contact AIFinancialServices@adtalem.com.
Cryptocurrencies in the Classroom – Lebow College of Business News
Drexel University’s Lebow College of Business has become a leader in education on FinTech with help from the school’s TD Bank Endowed Professor of Finance Michelle Lowry. The school’s course, entitled Cryptocurrency and FinTech, was introduced this quarter with positive feedback from students and guest lecturers.
“It’s important for students to have the knowledge of what is going on in the [cryptocurrency] space, but also to have the academic framework so they can understand the bigger picture … In order to understand Bitcoin, you need a bit of historical perspective about what money is,” says Lowry.
In order to understand Bitcoin, you need a bit of historical perspective about what money is,” Lebow Professor Michelle Lowry says.
Lowry welcomed Chris Carroll, Associate Teaching Professor of information science in Drexel’s College of Computing and Informatics along with Edwin Handschuh, co-founder and CEO of 1Konto, a broker/dealer startup focused on cryptocurrency exchanges to speak to students.
Handschuh says, “A lot of top-tier, leading-edge schools are approaching this topic… I’m glad to see Drexel is one of them.”
For more on the course and other Lebow curriculum offerings, click here.
Women in Business Conference Focuses on Personal Branding, Inclusion – Lehigh College of Business and Economics News
The Lehigh University College of Business and Economics recently hosted its annual Women in Business Conference, welcoming various experts on personal branding, workplace assertiveness, and ways in which to make oneself valuable as a new hire.
Maria Chrin ’87, managing partner of Circle Wealth Management; Dipti Gulati ’90, Senior Audit Partner at Deloitte; and Hayward Bell ’78G, retired Chief Diversity Officer at Raytheon, all served as panelists for the Personal Branding discussion. Adjunct professor Jacquelyn Febbo served as moderator.
Gulati offered some advice to students regarding how to handle conflict in the workplace: be prepared with facts to make your point, but do so calmly. “Being prepared is important … I want disagreements, I want people to challenge. It’s the only way we can get better.”
Magda Yrizarry, Chief Talent and Diversity officer at Verizon, delivered the keynote speech. On the topic of inclusion, she says, “Diversity is counting heads. Inclusion is making those heads count.”
You can read more about the recent conference here.
Chicago News: Northwestern on Bitcoin, Notre Dame Explores Psychopathy and More
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
New Cryptocurrencies, Same Old Problems – Kellogg Insight
Following Bitcoin’s record high $19,511 BPI at the end of 2017, which has already begun its slow steady decline (its BPI is around $10,800 as of Feb 19), folks outside the standard-issue Silk Road users and modern-day gold prospectors have begun to openly (and loudly) question whether we’re due for a global cryptocurrency takeover. Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management professor Sarit Markovich advises eager beavers to slow their rolls:
“There are certainly huge advantages to blockchain technology, especially when it comes to cross-border transactions. But I doubt we’re going to reach the point where decentralized cryptocurrencies replace cash or distributed ledgers replace central banks. There’s too much room for manipulation. Instead, it looks like the real innovation will occur within large institutions, which is not exactly democratization.”
Markovich goes on to note another problem with the current state of Bitcoin, which is the preponderance of “whales” mining the currency. He explains:
“In addition to ‘mining pools,’ there is also the problem of ‘whales:’ roughly 1,000 people own around 40 percent of all bitcoins. As the market continues to rise, there is a risk that some may be in a position to manipulate the market. For example, they could collude in an effort to drive the price of Bitcoin up, then cash out all at once—and perhaps even bet against the futures market.”
Read more about the future of cryptocurrency here.
Psychopaths Tend to Benefit and Flourish Under Abusive Bosses – Mendoza Ideas & News
Got a boss from H-E-double hockey sticks? You’re not alone. But what might make you unique is your ability to stand heat. It turns out some folks actually do quite well under cruel conditions. It also turns out that these folks might have more in common with Richard Ramirez or John Wayne Gacy than they’d care to admit, according to a new study by Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business assistant professor of management Charlice Hurst:
“We found that primary psychopaths benefit under abusive supervisors. Relative to their peers low in primary psychopathy, they felt less anger and more engagement and positive emotions under abusive supervisors.” “It may reward and retain exactly the kind of people who are likely to perpetuate abusive cultures,” she says. “Psychopaths thriving under abusive supervisors would be better positioned to get ahead of their peers.”
Hust continues, saying:
“If they have a problem of endemic abuse, like Wells Fargo — where former employees have reported that managers used tactics designed to induce fear and shame in order to achieve unrealistic sales goals—and upper-level managers are either unaware of it or are not taking action, they might notice increasing levels of engagement due to turnover among employees low in primary psychopathy and retention of those high in primary psychopathy. At the extreme, they could end up with a highly engaged workforce of psychopaths.”
Read more about Dr. Hurst’s research, entitled “Are ‘Bad’ Employees Happier Under Bad Bosses? Differing Effects of Abusive Supervision on Low and High Primary Psychopathy Employees,” here.
Financial Compensation Can Distract From Emotional Suffering – Chicago Booth Review
University of Chicago Booth School of Business professor Christopher Hsee, Northwestern professor Xueer Yu and Ph.D. candidate Shirley Zhang recently explored the complex analysis required to compensate victims who suffer grave psychological, physical, and financial duress.
What the trio found, surprisingly, is that psychological and physical distress was often much more rewarding than financial damage. And even mentioning financial damage, coupled with psychological and physical damage, often hindered compensation.
The reason? Financial damage is generally empirical and can be exacted with ease.
“It would be better to say ‘I was so scared that I lost two nights’ sleep’ than to say ‘I was so scared that I lost two nights’ sleep and one day’s work,’” the researchers write. “If the victim mentions one day’s work, the mediator would likely compensate the victim for only her one day’s pay. If the victim does not mention one’s day work, the mediator would likely award more, unless the victim has a high-paying job and the judge is aware of it.”
Read more about their research, recently published in the January issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, here.
MIT Sloan Prof. Unpacks Past, Present, and Future Bitcoin Bubbles
The MIT Sloan School of Management, along with apparently every other major publication, recently published an article about the staggering rise of bitcoin, which has risen in value from $1,000 to $19,000 in just a single year. The cryptocurrency’s rapid ascent has prompted a great deal of industry chatter about the potential for a bitcoin bubble.
Georgetown McDonough Offers New FinTech Elective
Starting in spring 2018, Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business will offer a new elective course focused on fintech and blockchain. Specifically, FINC 258 will go into depth about how these technologies are disrupting financial systems and impacting business. The course has been designed to help students develop an understanding of the evolution and history of fintech and blockchain technology while also introducing other elements of financial technology.
John Jacobs, Executive Director of the Center for Financial Markets and Policy, will teach the course alongside Perianne Boring, Founder and President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. The class curriculum will center around case studies on how companies are using technology to solve problems within financial services.
“The intersection of technology and financial services is one of the fastest-growing areas today,” Jacobs in a news release. “It could be as important as the Internet was,” he said. “There’s a whole host of opportunities. We hope to arm students with the ability to analyze those opportunities, whether they work for a startup or a big organization.” He noted that student interest helped drive creation of this new elective.
The class will also feature guest speakers who work for fintech companies or who have used fintech in companies in other industries. In the end, Jacobs hopes that it will give students a better understanding of how quickly technology moves and, specifically, how fintech can revolutionize or disrupt the existing system.
“With the right frame of reference, students can see where authentic blockchain application is, whether that’s as big as the banking system of an African nation or as small as a payment customer interface,” Jacobs explains.
To learn more about FINC 258 and the other opportunities for students to explore fintech at Georgetown McDonough, including the Georgetown Fintech student club, visit the school website.
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from out sister site, Clear Admit.
NYU Stern Receives $8 Million Alumni Gift to Promote Technology, Business, and Innovation
This week, NYU Stern School of Business announced the development of a new center to serve as a hub for cross-disciplinary collaboration and technology innovation. The new Fubon Center for Technology, Business, and Innovation was made possible thanks to an $8 million donation from alumnus Richard Ming-Hsing Tsai (MBA ’81). Tsai is chairman and CEO of Fubon Financial Holding Co., Ltd. and Fubon Life Insurance Co., Ltd. He is also vice chairman of Taiwan Mobile Co., Ltd.
The Fubon Center will support and facilitate collaboration in areas such as fintech, business analytics, technology, and entrepreneurship. It will also serve as a new nexus for continuous innovation at NYU Stern by strengthening industry ties and promoting cutting-edge research. Additionally, the Fubon Center will help to shape future coursework and encourage academic collaboration between NYU Stern and National Taiwan University, Tsai’s undergraduate alma mater.
“Technology demands that companies, regardless of industry, be nimble, adapt, and innovate at an unprecedented rate,” Stern Dean Peter Henry said in a press release.”Thanks to the generosity and inspiration of our alumnus Richard Tsai, we can help transform these challenges into exciting opportunities, staying as relevant to the new economy as we are to Wall Street.”
The new Fubon Center isn’t the only initiative that has been established over the last 18 months at Stern. In 2014, the school delivered one of the first courses on blockchain, which eventually led to the creation of the MBA FinTech specialization in 2016. Then, this past May, Stern launched a new Tech MBA, a one-year specialized MBA program focused on business and technology. It offers experiential learning projects with companies through Stern Solutions Programming. These initiatives and others are all part of Stern’s latest mission to expand its offerings at the intersection of business and technology.
To learn more about what NYU Stern is doing in the technology and business space, visit the school website.
ICYMI–Stern’s advances in technology education and career placement were also featured in this recent Clear Admit story: “More Top Business Schools Training MBA Students for Careers in Tech.”
This article has been edited, updated, and republished on our sister site, Clear Admit.
