gwsb spring 2011 magazine
DESCRIPTION
ÂTRANSCRIPT
GW business GW business T H E G E O R G E W A S H I N G T O N U N I V E R S I T Y
SPRING 2011
FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR FOLKS LIKE US
FROM EXXON TO ENRONALUMNUS TOUCHES ALL THE BASES
COACH TAKES ONE FOR THE TEAM
MAPPING THE ROAD TO RUINLESSONS FROM THE HOUSING COLLAPSE
CHARLIE BENDIT: CRAZY, GUTSY, VISIONARY
FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR FOLKS LIKE US
FROM EXXON TO ENRONALUMNUS TOUCHES ALL THE BASES
COACH TAKES ONE FOR THE TEAM
MAPPING THE ROAD TO RUINLESSONS FROM THE HOUSING COLLAPSE
CHARLIE BENDIT: CRAZY, GUTSY, VISIONARY
T H E G E O R G E W A S H I N G T O N U N I V E R S I T Y
GWSB POINTS OF PRIDE
Economist, “Which MBA?” September 201038th in North America for Global MBA Programs1st Worldwide for Diversity of Recruiters6th Worldwide for Breadth of Alumni Network17th Worldwide for Student Diversity
U.S. News & World Report, “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” March 201152nd in the United States, Full-Time36th in the United States, Part-Time
BusinessWeek, “Best U.S. B-Schools for 2010,” November 2010Top 52 MBA Programs
Wall Street Journal, September 200745th Regional Full-Time MBA Program
Aspen Institute/Beyond Grey Pinstripes, 2009-201010th in the United States13th Worldwide
Princeton Review, “Best 301 Business Schools,” October 20092nd in Greatest Opportunity for Women
Women 3.0, January 2008Top 50 MBA Programs for Entrepreneurship
World Tourism OrganizationTedQual: Excellence in Tourism Education
Forbes, “Best Business Schools: Where your investment in an MBA pays off the most,” August 200973rd in the United States
TopMBA, October 201015th Worldwide:
for Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility47th in North America for MBA Programs
The Accounting Review, November 201114th Department of Accountancy
Among 130 Institutions Worldwide
BusinessWeek, “The Best Undergrad B-Schools,” March 201159th Overall in the United States19th in the United States for Academic Quality
U.S. News & World Report, “America’s Best Colleges,” August 20107th Undergraduate International Business Specialty 34th Undergraduate Business Program
Fortune Small Business, “America’s Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs,” September 2007Best 24 Colleges for Double Majors Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative
GR
AD
UAT
E P
ROG
RA
MS
UN
DE
RG
RA
DU
ATE
PRO
GR
AM
S
1
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
F E A T U R E S
4 FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR FOLKS LIKE US
9 FROM EXXON TO ENRON ALUMNUS TOUCHES ALL THE BASES
12 COACH TAKES ONE FOR THE TEAM
16 MAPPING THE ROAD TO RUIN LESSONS FROM THE HOUSING COLLAPSE
20 CHARLIE BENDIT: CRAZY, GUTSY, VISIONARY
D E P A R T M E N T S
3 Dean’s Welcome
24 Best Practices
27 Brief Case
37 Getting Ink
42 Intellectual Contributions
46 Development Update
48 Alumni News
52 Class Notes
Cov
er p
hoto
by
Ab
by
Gre
enaw
alt
GW business The George Washington University School of Business
SPRING 2011
4 12
20
9
16
BusinessWeek, “The Best Undergrad B-Schools,” March 201159th Overall in the United States19th in the United States for Academic Quality
U.S. News & World Report, “America’s Best Colleges,” August 20107th Undergraduate International Business Specialty 34th Undergraduate Business Program
Fortune Small Business, “America’s Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs,” September 2007Best 24 Colleges for Double Majors Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative
2
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
Editor
MOLLY BRAUER
Copy Editor
DELINDA KARLE
Contributing WritErs
MARY A. DEMPSEY FRANK DONNELLY
GARY LIBMAN DAN MICHAELIS
ROBERT PREER RICHARD WILLING
dEsign
LLOYD GREENBERG DESIGN, LLC
staff photographEr
JULIE ANN WOODFORD
GWbusiness magazine is published twice a year by The George Washington
University School of Business
Comments and letters are welcomed. Please direct all correspondence to
Molly Brauer, GWbusiness 2201 G Street, NW
Duquès Hall, 450 Washington, DC 20052
or to [email protected] Phone: (202) 994-0767
Fax: (202) 994-2286
Please send change of address notices to Alumni Records
2033 K Street, NW Suite 310
Washington, DC 20052
prEsidEnt
STEVEN KNAPP
dEan
DOUG GUTHRIE
ViCE dEan of faCulty and rEsEarCh SOK-HYON KANG
ViCE dEan of programs and EduCation MURAT TARIMCILAR
assoCiatE dEan of mba programs LIESL RIDDLE
intErim assoCiatE dEan for rEsEarCh and doCtoral studiEs
MARK KLOCK
assoCiatE dEan undErgraduatE programs
LAWRENCE G. SINGLETON
dirECtor of dEVElopmEnt sChool of businEss
REBECCA WANEK
GWbusiness is printed by Stephenson Printing.
GW business
3
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
Dear Alumni, Students, Parents, Faculty and Friends,
This issue of GWbusiness magazine presents an astonishing parade of our alumni and their accomplishments, both in the business realm and as human beings. We urge our students to act responsibly, think globally and lead passionately. These featured alumni embody these principles in so many ways.
When we heard about Tom Walter, one of our MBA grads, a former GW baseball coach and now baseball coach at Wake Forest University, we had to share his extraordinary story. Perhaps the most remarkable part of the story is the fact that Walter doesn’t think it is extraordinary (page 12).
We also take an in-depth look at two of our most accomplished alumni—Ave Tucker (page 9) and Charlie Bendit (page 20). As pioneers in forensic accounting and real estate development, they have done much to shape their professions. It makes me proud that they believe their GWSB education played a role in that success. Both men advocate giving back, and their generous support is advancing groundbreaking research at the School.
In fact, Bendit’s support of the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis is propelling the work of Professor Robert Van Order into the national limelight (page 16). Van Order’s research addresses some of our nation’s most compelling public policy issues.
As in every issue of GWbusiness, we also spotlight two of our alumni in brief photo profiles. Shonodeep Modak, MBA, ’07, has a past and future in alternative fuels (page 26). At GE, he is responsible
for driving growth in new energy-generation markets, focusing on landfill gas-to-energy, animal waste-to-energy, combined heat and power, and zero-emission waste-heat recovery projects.
Richard Y. Pineda, MBA, ’01, is vice president of Dell Corp.’s Federal Government Services (page 45). He manages strategy, operations and long-term growth for a roughly $4 billion portfolio of work—including oversight of 4,000 team members.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading about your classmates and that their stories will inspire you to share your experiences and accomplishments.
Sincerely,
Doug GuthrieDean and Professor of Management
and International Business
Dean’s Welcome
4
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
5
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
Congress declared April as Financial Literacy
Month. At the same time, the Dodd-Frank finan-
cial reform law—the most sweeping financial
reform since the Great Depression—recognized
the problem with a series of provisions designed
to protect and empower consumers.
“There is growing sense of urgency around the issue today,” Lusardi said. “The financial crisis has made both governments and individuals acutely aware of the costs of financial illiteracy. This is not specific to
the United States but has been happening in many coun-tries around the world, and I have been traveling to Europe, Asia and Latin America to talk about the causes and conse-quences of financial illiteracy.”
Lusardi, who joined the GW School of Business faculty in the fall, has won prestigious awards for research and teaching. She has consulted for top government officials in the United States and abroad. She was on the Dartmouth College faculty for nearly two decades and held appoint-ments at the University of Chicago, Harvard Business School and Princeton University. The online business
school resource bschool.com ranks her blog as one of the top 50 in economics.
As she prepares to launch GWSB’s Financial Literacy Center, Lusardi
Financial Literacy for Folks Like Us
By Robert PreerPhotography: Abby Greenawalt
professor of accountancy and eco-
nomics, has gained a reputation as one of the world’s leading economists in
a field that is dominating the headlines: financial literacy.
Once an obscure specialty in economics, financial literacy in recent
years has gained a high profile in both academic and policy circles. The
U.S. financial crisis exposed the many unwise, if not foolhardy, finan-
cial decisions made by ordinary Americans. President Barack Obama
established a Council on Financial Capability, and the president and
nnamaria Lusardi,
A
6
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
underscores the need for the research center by pointing to her own research. [See box: Are You Financially Literate?]
“We found that financial illiteracy is widespread in the whole population,” Lusardi said.
But exposing financial illiteracy is not enough. Lusardi wants to fix it, too. And that’s what prompted her to join GWSB. She hopes the Financial Literacy Center will lead a global campaign to promote financial knowledge.
“In doing this work, I became more and more connected to Washington,” Lusardi said. “This is where the debate is happening. It’s where I want to be.”
The center is still in a formative stage. For the past year and a half, Lusardi has been director of a financial literacy
center that is a shared undertaking of Dartmouth, the Wharton School and the RAND Corp. It develops pro-grams to improve consumers’ understanding of finance. Lusardi hopes to move some, if not all, of that center’s activities to GWSB.
Dean Doug Guthrie expects Lusardi’s initiative to enhance the School’s mission to be a national leader at the intersection of research and policy. “Annamaria Lusardi cares deeply about being involved with the policy world,” Guthrie said. “This is a perfect melding of rigorous research with public engagement.”
Because of her groundbreaking work, Lusardi, 48, finds herself interviewed or cited in almost every media report
7
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
on financial literacy. “I have become what you might call the go-to person in financial literacy,” she said. “I want GW to be the go- to place.”
At Dartmouth, the University of Chicago and other teaching posts, Lusardi was a stu-dent favorite, a dynamic teacher known for engaging those in her classes. “I care about my students,” Lusardi said. “I care about what they learn, and I want them to do well. I think they understand that.”
Colleagues speak highly of Lusardi as a per-son with a broad spectrum of interests.
“Her laugh fills up a room,” said Peter Tufano, a Harvard Business School professor who has collaborated with Lusardi. “She is warm and genuine, funny, engaging and tena-cious. She loves opera. She loves good food.”
Wharton School Professor Olivia Mitch-ell, who also worked with Lusardi, described her as a dedicated teacher. “She is widely regarded as a mentor to the next generation of researchers and policymakers in the financial literacy field,” Mitchell said.
Lusardi spent her early years in rural Italy near Milan. She was greatly influenced by her grandmother, who lived with Lusardi’s family and managed a family farm. “I come from a family where women played an impor-tant role,” Lusardi explained. “My grandma inherited a farm at a very young age after her husband died. It was unusual then for a young woman to do that.”
When she finished high school, Lusardi left her home outside of the mid-sized city of Piacenza for Bocconi University in Milan. “The longest journey of my life was not from Milan to the United States, but from Piacenza to Milan, only 50 miles away,” Lusardi said.
Had she stayed in Piacenza, Lusardi believes she might have landed a job in a local bank and made her career there. But in Milan, she was exposed to a broader world view.
At Bocconi, she met students who had stud-ied in other countries and traveled the world.
ARE YOUThe research of professor Annamaria Lusardi can be summarized very simply.
“I would describe it as the story of three questions,” she said. “I often begin my seminars by saying, ‘Let me take you on a journey of three questions.’ ”
By inserting three multiple-choice questions about personal finance on a series of national surveys, Lusardi, a native of Italy, exposed the dearth of basic financial knowledge within U.S. society.
The first survey was given in 2004 to older individuals, the second was subsequently administered to younger adults and the third went to a cross section of the population. Since then, the three questions have been posed to people in more than a dozen countries around the world.
1) Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2 percent per year. After 5 years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow?
a) More than $102b) Exactly $102c) Less than $102d) Do not know
2) Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1 percent per year and inflation was 2 percent per year. After one year, would you be able to buy more than, exactly the same as, or less than today with the money in this account?
a) More than todayb) Exactly the same as todayc) Less than todayd) Do not know
3) Do you think that the following statement is true or false? “Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.”
a) Trueb) Falsec) Do not know
Lusardi found that these questions accurately measure how capable indi-viduals are of managing personal finance. The results of the surveys were alarming.
Only 50 percent of older individuals surveyed by the National Institute on Aging in 2004 were able to correctly answer the first two questions. Only one-third answered all three correctly. The younger adults surveyed in National Longitudinal Study of Youth did worse. And the results of the National Finan-cial Capability Survey, released in December 2009 by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, revealed that only about half of the general population could correctly answer the questions.
FINANCIALLY LITERATE?
8
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
Some classes were in English. She recalled her first day in an introductory class with several friends from high school. They met an upperclassman, who told them he planned to get a master’s degree after graduation. “When we met after class,” she said, “we all asked each other, ‘What is a masters?’ ”
Lusardi excelled in college and spent a semester of her junior year at New York University. “This opened a world of possibilities. I saw that I could live, work and study out-side of Italy,” she said.
She earned her doctorate at Princeton in 1992. Her dis-sertation was on consumption and savings behavior.
After a year teaching at Princeton, she accepted a faculty post at Dartmouth, where she rose from assistant profes-sor to associate professor to full professor and, finally, to an endowed chair.
Her consumer research led to the field of financial liter-acy. “I realized there are differences among people that tra-ditional models could not explain. You would see people with the same age, economic background and education levels, yet they behaved very differently. I began to investi-gate whether economic knowledge made a difference.”
Lusardi’s work with the three questions boosted her to prominence in research and policy circles. She is in demand to speak at conferences and to consult with governments and nonprofits around the world. She spends much of her time in airports.
A couple of times during the year, Lusardi takes a two-month break from travel to focus on research. Lusardi, who is single, also returns to Italy whenever she can.
“I like to be home. I still have my family there,” she explained. “I have my college friends who I’ve stayed in touch with. Sometimes we spend vacations together.”
The fact that so many people are unprepared to manage personal finance is only part of the global financial literacy problem, according to Lusardi. She also discovered a gen-der gap, which cuts across age, culture and socioeconomics.
On financial literacy tests, women tend to score lower than men. Lusardi is exploring that gap by examining financial literacy around the world.
While widespread financial illiteracy probably is nothing new, the consequences of it in the United States are more serious today. “We have put people in charge of very dif-ficult financial decisions—providing for financial security in retirement, for example,” Lusardi said. She added that mortgages, credit cards and other borrowing options were much simpler decisions in the past.
Lusardi wants to see GWSB’s Financial Literacy Center design programs for schools, businesses, libraries, govern-ments and nonprofits. She intends to be a frequent visitor to the halls of power in Washington, D.C., raising her voice on the importance of protecting, informing and empower-ing consumers.
And she sees the workplace as an area where a focus on financial literacy is critical.
“The workplace is where people are, and it’s where they make important decisions, like where to invest their retire-ment savings,” she said. In March, the NYSE Euronext Foundation—a philanthropic organization set up by the New York Stock Exchange—gave Lusardi a $150,000 grant to develop an effective low-cost roadmap for workplaces that want to improve their employees’ financial literacy.
“We need to take advantage of teachable moments, those times of the year when people have to make decisions, like when they have to pay taxes,” she said.
Lusardi added that government can provide the public with essential information, disseminated through the Inter-net, traditional media and in libraries.
She envisions GWSB as the place where these issues are discussed and where policy is formulated, backed by the latest research.
“I want to build a center that will involve students and faculty, as well as alumni,” she said. “I want to engage the institution. GW
“I have become what you might call the go-to person in financial literacy,” Lusardi said.
“I want GW to be the go-to place.”
9
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1By Richard WillingPhotography: Steve Babuljak
AlumnusTouches All the
Bases
From Exxon to Enron
After nearly 35 years, former GW baseball coach Mike Toomey can still tick off the attributes of his former center fielder like he was reading from a scouting report.
“Avram ‘Ave’ Tucker,” said Toomey, now a senior scouting adviser to the Kansas City Royals Major League franchise. “Excellent gap-to-gap hitter, havoc on the bases, good routes to the ball in the outfield, always had a smile on his face, a great, great teammate.
“I remember thinking ‘I wish I had nine like him.’ ”The friends of GW’s School of Business can be forgiven for feeling
the same way. Long after he hung up his spikes and acquired a BBA in accounting, Ave (pronounced “gave”) Tucker remains a standout on a very solid team of GWSB alumni.
He’s been a giver, almost since graduation in 1977, setting up a schol-arship fund, helping build the current school and funding a professorial fellowship focused on the study and teaching of leadership. He has men-tored graduate students in forensic accounting, his chosen field, and has served as a key West Coast point of contact at TM Financial Forensics in San Francisco, where he is co-founder and CEO. When a recent trip to Japan took Tucker out of town, he lined up a pinch hitter to address visiting MBA candidates on forensic accounting.
Mitchell Blaser, BBA, ’73, chair of the GWSB’s Board of Advisors, called Tucker a “3 W” man—an alumnus who gives of his wealth and wisdom and also “puts in the work” with current school leadership, faculty and, especially, students.
“Ave touches all the bases,” said Blaser, COO and CFO of Iron-shore, the specialty property and casualty insurance firm. “I would have said that even before I found out he was a baseball player.”
On paper, Tucker seemed fated to attend GW. He was born in the University hospital, as was his wife, Dianne Bostick. Both her parents are GW grads as was Tucker’s father, Simon, a World War II Navy
linguist who attended the University’s law school at night during the 1950s while working at the State Department.
But serendipity, and baseball, played a large role. Coming out of John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, Md., Tucker believed his best shot at a professional career was to gain experience and expo-sure by playing college ball in Florida. Only 5’7” and with an average arm, he recruited himself to Rollins College but soon discovered he was overmatched by higher-rated prospects and scholarship players. Tucker returned to the D.C. area and enrolled at Montgomery Col-lege. In 1975, a summer-league teammate, Toomey, GW, ’74 revealed
that he had been hired to coach GW’s Colonials. He offered Tucker a scholarship and installed him in center field, where the left-handed slap hitter rewarded Toom-ey’s faith by batting .380 during his first season.
Tucker starred at a time when the Colonials, lacking a home field, played on a diamond laid out along the Ellipse between the White House and the Washington Monument. Games were interrupted by landings and takeoffs of presidential helicopters bearing Gerald R. Ford in 1976 and Jimmy Carter a season later.
The lack of an outfield fence was both a curiosity— visitors for the nation’s bicentennial occasionally wan-dered into the field of play—and a bonus for GW’s savvy center fielder. “Penn State must have hit three 500-foot-ers against us and I caught all of them,” Tucker recalled. “Their coach said they’d play us again, but only on a field with fences.”
In the classroom, Tucker took up accounting, following his father’s advice that the discipline offered the chance to go in a variety of professional directions. GWSB’s approach—an emphasis on theory—taught him to “think through the pros and cons” of accounting questions. That experience served Tucker well when, after five years in Washington at Arthur Andersen and Co., he joined Chicago-based accountant Alan Peterson, an exponent of the growing field of forensic accounting, as Peterson’s West Coast representative.
Forensic accounting, in what Tucker calls a “simple definition,” is the use of economic and financial information for investigative purposes, usually dis-pute resolution.
Why did a company go out of business, or default on a contract, or incur cost overruns on a project? Whose decisions are to blame? What are the costs and the dam-ages? And, most challenging, what would profits have been if the enterprise had succeeded?
Tucker has built a career out of answering such ques-tions, often as an expert witness in jury trials.
According to Peterson, still active in the field at age 82, the amiable, down-to-earth Tucker especially excelled at this phase of the craft.
10
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
11
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
“Ave is a brilliant accountant, but he’s also a leader, someone whose essential honesty comes through in any exchange,” said Peterson. “I knew he was going to be good when I hired him. I wish I could say I knew he was going to be great, but that is fundamentally his achievement.”
Tucker rewarded Peterson’s faith with one of the first cases he took on, a utility that incurred large cost overruns in building a hydro-electric plant. Experts employed by the utility, Tucker recalled, testified that the cost control sys-tems employed were acceptable by industry standards—testimony that usually absolved a corporation of responsibility.
“But we [forensic accountants] could say how specifically costs went up, and why…More and more in dispute resolution there was a need for that, and we filled it,” Tucker explained.
The business grew with Tucker as a plaintiff’s or respondent’s expert witness in many of the major economic damages cases of the past quarter century: the Exxon Valdez accident, cost overruns on military programs and nuclear power plant construction, Enron, tobacco litigation and many others. All told, he has taken part in about 20 cases in which the claims of the rival parties were more than $1 billion apart.
In one especially high profile case in 2005, Tucker helped mega-investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway defeat the IRS’ attempt to dun it for more taxes. According to court records, the heart of the controversy was whether Buffett’s company was entitled to tax breaks for loans it took out around the time it was profiting from stock purchases.
The IRS’ position was that the tax breaks should be disallowed because the loans were taken out to finance the stock buys. Tucker, working from two years’ worth of daily, cash-flow reports he compiled, showed that there was no traceable link between the debt and the stock purchases. The judge who found in favor of Berkshire Hathaway’s position leaned heavily on Tucker’s testimony in concluding that there were “numerous alternative paths the debt could have taken.”
Tucker, called to testify just after Buffett left the stand, was mildly disappointed that the investing legend didn’t stick around to hear him dissect the Berkshire books. “It turns out he had to go back to the office,” Tucker said. “He’s still making the basic daily decisions and so they needed him there.”
In his first or second year out of school, Tucker got in the habit of giving to GW, making what he recalls as a $25 contribution while employed as an $11,700-per-year auditing specialist. The gifts have increased as the years have gone by. The professorship in business leadership, with James Bailey as its first occupant, was funded by and is named for Tucker. Longtime associate Peterson, with a gentle Tucker nudge, made a recent gift to a law school program on govern-ment contracts. And Tucker is a big supporter of Doug Guthrie, the new GWSB dean, and his emphasis on executive education as prom-ising ground for the School of Business. But Tucker may be proudest of the money he’s given to endow scholarships based on need.
Tucker, a partner in or owner of two consulting firms purchased by public companies, ascribes his philanthropic philosophy to family and friends.
“My parents emphasized that the opportunities I have come from society and that we should therefore give time and money back to good causes,” Tucker said. “And my good friend and mentor Alan [Peterson] pushed giving to education causes, in particular under-graduate and graduate business programs, as having the greatest benefit to society in the long run.”
A pledge Tucker made to himself nearly 35 years ago, after Mike Toomey signed him to a scholarship, also informs his giving.
“I said to myself ‘George Washington University is going to give a short, left-handed center fielder from Montgomery County a chance to play Division 1 baseball,’” Tucker recalled. “I’m going to make it worth their while.” GW
AVRAM TUCKER
NAME: Avram ‘Ave’ Tucker
PROFESSION: Forensic Accounting
CURRENTLY: Co-Founder & CEO, TM Financial Forensics LLC, San Francisco
HOME: Orinda, Calif.
DEGREE: BBA in Accounting, 1977
FAMILY: Wife is Dianne Bostick. Daughter Rachel is junior at Denver University. Daughter Kelly is high school senior.
AT GWSB: Board of Advisors, Endowed Avram Tucker Chair in Leadership
QUOTE: “The neat thing about (my) profession is that over the past 25 years I’ve been able to work on the major Wall Street Journal-type headline stories that have affected our country.”
n January 2010, the New York Yankees were courting an extraordinarily talented high school senior named Kevin Jordan. Instead of going pro, however, the swift, power-hitting, outfielder decided he would enroll at Wake Forest Univer-sity and join its baseball team, donning the pin-stripes immediately.
When Jordan chose college over career, he didn’t know that he would soon be gravely ill, requiring a kidney trans-plant. Also he had yet to meet his new baseball coach, Tom Walter, GWSB MBA, ’94.
This past February, the Wake Forest University coach, who once coached GW’s baseball team, gave Jordan his kidney.
“I would have donated a kidney to any member of our team. If there was a player from 10 years ago, and I was a match, I would have given him a kidney,” said Walter. “This is something I think anybody would do for a family member.”
THE JOURNEY BEGINSIt was early in 2010 that Jordan—still in high school—noticed his energy waning. His speed and power on the baseball field diminished. He was diagnosed with the flu, but he didn’t improve.
So in April, Jordan and his family visited Emory Univer-sity Hospital in Atlanta. There it was discovered that he suffered from ANCA vasculitis, a rare disease in which the immune system attacks parts of the body, leading to kidney failure. Jordan was told that his kidneys were functioning at only 15 to 20 percent of their ability.
That summer, Jordan was on dialysis three times a week. But that didn’t dampen his determina-tion to attend Wake Forest. On Aug. 23, the same day he officially enrolled at the
university in Winston-Salem, N.C., Jordan and his par-ents met Dr. Barry Freedman at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Coach Walter, himself new to Wake Forest, joined them.
Before that meeting, Walter did not realize the serious-ness of Jordan’s condition: The young athlete’s kidneys were operating at only 8 percent efficiency. Walter, 42, volunteered to be tested as a possible donor should Jordan need a kidney.
Jordan’s condition worsened and, as school began in the fall of 2010, he was spending at least eight hours a day connected to a dialysis machine in his dorm room. Despite this, Jordan passed all his classes and turned up at team practices when he could. Although he was at Wake Forest on a scholarship, his inability to play did not jeopardize that.
After no compatible donor was found among Jordan’s family members, they turned to Walter. He underwent testing and, on Jan. 28, 2011, the first day of spring train-ing, the coach learned that he was a match.
The coach said he was inspired by Jordan’s courage. “For him to be a freshman, not know anybody on cam-pus, and be in his [dormitory] room on dialysis, I think took incredible…courage,” Walter explained
TWO WITH PLUCKWalter had pluck of his own. Four days after the February kidney transplant, the coach attended his first team prac-tice of the season. He spent 45 minutes on the home field talking to players about hitting and batting practice before fatigue prompted him to head to the press box to watch the workout.
“I didn’t do a whole lot. Just made a showing,” said Walter, who served as assistant baseball coach at GW from
12
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
By Gary Libman
Wak
e Fo
rest
COACH TAKES ONE FOR THE TEAM
I
13
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
1992-1994 and returned as head coach from 1997-2004, compiling a 275-184 record—the winningest in GW baseball history.
A week later, buoyed by his first practice, Walter bounded out of the dugout to ques-tion an umpire at Wake Forest’s opening game at Louisiana State University. “But the pain in my body grabbed me and said, ‘Wait a minute, you’d better slow down.’ So I walked gingerly to the umpire.”
Within days, Walter caught himself bel-lowing at a base runner, and he knew he was on the mend. “That comes from your belly, your gut. I wasn’t as vocal or as loud or as energetic as I usually am, but I could still perform the duties,” he explained.
The coach still tires easily, but he said fatigue, discomfort and the inability to pitch batting practice or hit fly balls to his outfield-ers were a small price for helping Jordan.
When the donation was announced, Wal-ter, who coached at the University of New Orleans from 2005-09 and moved to Wake Forest in mid 2010, became a national celeb-rity. Journalists covering the story could not remember another college coach donating a kidney to a player.
After the transplant at Emory University Hospital, Walter and Jordan held a news conference for about 65 reporters. Over the next few days, Walter sat through some two dozen interviews—at least 22 more than usual at the start of a baseball season—for outlets from CNN to the CBS Evening News. Before his team’s opening game at Louisiana, 10,000 LSU fans stood and cheered him.
More important to Walter than the rec-ognition, however, was a feeling that he’d
sent a powerful message about belonging to a team. “When
we recruit our guys,” he said, “we talk about
family, and we talk about making sacri-fices for one another. It’s something we take very seriously.”
14
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
“I’m really thankful,” Jordan said at a press conference. “I don’t think I have the words for it in my vocabulary, but thankful as it gets.”
Jordan recuperated at home in Columbus, Ga. He passed on additional media attention, but he and Walter texted frequently and talked by phone several times a week. Three weeks after the opera-tion, Jordan was walking two miles a day.
Although illness forced Jordan to withdraw from school after his first semester, and prevented him from playing his first college base-ball season, his recuperation was designed to recapture lost ground. That included attendance at Wake Forest’s summer school.
“We’ll get him with our strength coach and get back some of the [20 pounds] he lost,” Walter said. “He’ll be a fully participating member of our team by August.”
Jordan’s goal is to regain the form that prompted the New York Yankees to select him in the 19th round of the baseball free-agent draft.
Medical experts said healthy donors face little short-term or long-term risk, although they usu-ally require pain medication for a few weeks after returning home, and their energy level stays below par for six to eight weeks. Walter was aware of this but, he said, with the support of his wife, son, daugh-ter, baseball team, athletic director and his university, he wasn’t anx-ious about the operation.
NOT THE FIRST TIMEJordan’s kidney failure was not the first time Walter was faced with an unexpected team drama. After he left GW, he coached five seasons at the University of New Orleans. Walter hadn’t been at the job long when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the city in August 2005.
“He’s fearless in the sense of adjusting to challenging situations. The first thing he faced when he went to New Orleans was the flood in September 2005,” said Ed McKee, director of athletic alumni pro-grams at GW and Walter’s friend of 20 years.
The University of New Orleans was deluged, Walter’s wife and two children were with her parents in Michigan and coach’s
house was under “at least eight feet” of water. (He was later forced to gut it and sell it at
a significant loss.) But Walter’s focus was on his players. Using his parents’
Virginia home as a headquarters, he scrambled to reunite his team at New Mexico State University, which had offered to cover team mem-bers’ housing and tuition.
That’s when another GWSB alumnus, Walter’s friend W. Russell Ramsey, BBA, ’81, stepped in. Ramsey, who is chairman of the GW Board of Trustees, provided his corporate jet so Walter could travel to Baton Rouge and pick up as many players as could make it there. When they boarded the jet headed to New Mexico, the players found that Ramsey had stocked it with clothing and supplies.
Those who know Walter have not been surprised by his decisions during difficult times.
“If you’d told me that some-body on his team was in dire need of a kidney, and asked me ‘What were the chances he would donate a kidney?’ I would have said that the chances were pretty good,” says Frank Cerullo, BBA, ’02, and MSIST, ’02, who played for Walter at GW in 2000 and 2001.
“I remember once when a player was in trouble in his personal life. We were trying to find him and the coach asked a number of us to sit with him and wait for the guy,” said Cerullo, CEO of GameWear Inc. in Hoboken, N. J. “Ultimately the player was fine. When the coach talked about it the next day, he teared up.
“I would imagine that the thing that gets people to choose to play at his school is the sense that Tom’s a good person who really cares about you,” Cerullo continued. “I think it comes across very quickly.”
Tony Dokoupil, BBA, ’03, played for the Colonials under Walter from 2000-2003. He also noticed the way Walter relates to players.
“On the whole, I think he’s a talented coach, not because he’s a great on-the-field general but because he changes the feeling that people have as members of his team,” said Dokoupil, now a reporter for Newsweek magazine. “It’s hard to put your finger on how he does that, but it’s palpable when you’re on a team he coaches.”
Gregg Ritchie, the hitting coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates and for-mer minor league baseball player, has known Walter since his days as GW’s head coach. “When I heard he was going to donate the kidney, it didn’t surprise me,” Ritchie says. “I already loved the guy for who he is, and I love him even more for what he did.” GW
Phot
o b
y St
eve
Shut
t, W
ake
Fore
st U
nive
rsity
Med
ia R
elat
ions
Wake Forest University coach Tom Walter, right, visits Kevin Jordan one day after donating a kidney to the student athlete.
Welcome to the World Executive MBA. What was 22 months
is now a rigorous 16-month program focused on leadership,
global and local environments, and the mastery of key
business functions. You will have your own leadership coach,
benefit from two domestic and two international residencies, take on a business challenge
unique to your organization, and choose your own electives. This is timely, important, and
based here in the proving ground. This is where business meets policy meets
society. For information call 202-994-1212 or go to gwgrounded.com.
Global MBA • Professional MBA • Accelerated MBA • World Executive MBA • Healthcare MBA
Come to the proving ground.
Where our World Executive MBA
takes you further in less time.
4611_GWBiz_FullPageAd_8.875x10.875.2.28.indd 1 2/28/11 11:54 AM
16
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
Robert Van Order, a professor of finance, arrived at The George Washington University School of Business in August 2009 with extensive experience, impressive cre-dentials and a daunting challenge. His mission? To discover why the U.S. housing market collapsed and what could be done to prevent it from happening again.Van Order was chief economist at
Freddie Mac from 1987 to 2002. He taught at more than a half dozen universities, most recently the University of Michigan, and was sought after as a consultant to businesses, governments and international organizations. He’s now the new director of GWSB’s Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis.
LESSONS FROM THE HOUSING COLLAPSE
MAPPING THE ROAD TO RUIN
17
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
Van Order even had his own first-hand experience with the housing debacle, relocating from recession-plagued Michigan a year into the crisis. “I had to sell a house for less than I paid for it three years earlier,” he said. “But I’ve owned other houses, and they mostly went up in value, so I can’t really complain.”
At GWSB, Van Order analyzes the housing crisis and devel-ops strategies to prevent future catastrophes at the research center that Dean Doug Guthrie has identified as key to the School’s mission of leading the conversation on business and public policy. “This is not a typical real estate center,” Guthrie said. “It is a real estate center that is engaged markedly with questions about business and society, and business and public policy. Our
economy is shaped by real estate markets, both hous-ing and commercial.”
The School has a long tradition of approaching real estate as an essential component in the study of business. GWSB is the only school in metropolitan D.C. that offers real estate courses as part of an MBA program. Most other schools that teach advanced real estate offer a separate master’s degree in the field. The GW approach has won high praise from the real estate community.
“I’d rather hire someone with an MBA than someone with a master’s in real estate because an MBA education provides the leadership qualities, critical thinking and versatility that are
critical to success in real estate or any other industry,” said
Jeffrey Berkes, executive vice president and chief investment
officer at Federal Realty Invest-ment Trust.
Van Order, who also carries the title of Oliver T. Carr Profes-sor of Real Estate, became the center’s first full-time director late last year and got the revived center off to a vigorous start.
“We are becoming really good at fostering research and promoting discussions,” Van Order said. “We had a conference last spring on the credit crunch and another in January jointly with GW Law School on the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. We are trying to capitalize on the School’s location in the nation’s capital and its mission to interpret and influence public policy.”
Another conference, on commercial real estate, is scheduled for mid-May.
Van Order would like the center to sponsor scholars-in- residence. “I’m hoping that as time goes on, we will be able to invite researchers from around the world to come in, spend some time with us and work with us,” he said.
AT THE CORNER OF BUSINESS AND POLICYThe center is preparing a series of reports on the Federal Hous-ing Administration and its role in promoting a U.S. housing recovery. In its first report on the federal agency, issued in Feb-ruary, the center questioned the FHA’s current practice of insur-ing larger loans—up to $729,750 in some markets. The report, co-authored by Van Order and GW Center for Economic Research Director Anthony Yezer, points out that big loans are risky and a departure from the FHA’s original mission of assist-ing the poor and minorities.
The report recommends that the FHA return to its role of helping first-time and low-to-moderate-income buyers and leave the risks that are associated with larger loans to the private sector.
Van Order is now in the midst of another major research project with a goal of determining why so many mortgages in the United States went bad. He is analyzing data on thousands of mortgages issued around the United States before the finan-
cial crisis. His pre-liminary conclusion: Borrowers defaulted because their prop-erty values collapsed.
By Robert PreerPhotography: Julie Ann Woodford
18
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
“It didn’t matter what the mortgages were, whether they were sub-prime, riskier alternative loans or plain vanilla,” Van Order said. “They all had high default rates when property values fell.”
The sharp decline in values was a consequence of the real estate bubble, which began to boil in 2003 and burst several years later, according to Van Order. The residential real estate bubble had many causes, he said, but “it clearly correlated with the rise of the sub-prime market.”
Van Order’s work is supported by the center’s other staff member, Executive Director Robert J. Valero, who received his bachelor’s degree in public affairs from GW in 1982. Valero is former vice president of investor relations for the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts. He served on the center’s advisory board from 2007 until his appointment last fall. His new position with the center is funded with a generous contribution from GWSB alumnus Charles Bendit, BBA, ’75 (see story on page 20).
Valero’s role is to develop and market the center’s brand to alumni, media and the real estate community in Wash-ington, D.C., and around the country. He is creating programs to showcase research conducted at the center, enhance the curriculum and help students find internships and employment.
“GW’s real estate program is positioned to be at the fore-front of real estate research and education in this country,” Valero said. “Most of the major U.S. real estate associations have their headquarters in downtown Washington.”
Commercial real estate will be the topic of the center’s May 17-18 conference, which is cosponsored by George Mason University and will be held on the GW campus. Topics to be covered include REITs, commercial mortgage-backed securities and the state of real estate markets in metro D.C and the Atlantic Coast region.
The financial crisis dealt a blow to commercial real estate although the dynamics were different from what happened with housing. “In many ways, the problems with com-mercial real estate were more related to the downturn in the economy,” Van Order said. “Housing and especially the sub-prime mortgage market started to have problems before the economy did.”
Continuing weakness in commercial real estate could affect lenders. “We don’t know how it will play out, but commercial real estate is putting banks, both big ones and little ones, at risk still,” Van Order said.
VANTAGE POINTSThe recent upheaval in real estate markets has been a trag-edy for those who lost their homes, fortunes and livelihoods. But for Van Order, a real estate economist, it has also been a remarkable and even exciting time to be working. “I tell my friends, it’s more fun being on the outside looking in,” he said.
A Chicago native who received his doctorate in econom-ics from Johns Hopkins University, Van Order has had a long and varied career in real estate finance, with stints in
private industry, government and academia. “I’m sort of a utility infielder,” he said in a recent interview in his fifth-floor office in Funger Hall. “My parents often wondered when I was ever going to have a steady job.”
19
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
Van Order has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, UCLA, University of Southern California, American Uni-versity, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Queen’s University in Canada, Purdue, Ohio State University and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He was an economist for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development before beginning his 15-year career at Freddie Mac. He has done consulting for the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Hous-ing and Urban Development, the World Bank and other agencies and corporations. He frequently consults on inter-national mortgage markets. In recent years, he has worked in Latvia, Russia, Ghana, Nicaragua, Brazil, Egypt, Colom-bia, Poland and Pakistan.
“Professor Van Order is a great leader for this center,” Guthrie said. “He brings deep experience in policy and economic analysis from within the government and from an academic perspective. He’s the perfect person to build this center.”
Guthrie said Van Order’s blend of practical experience and research skills will propel the center forward in the months and years ahead. The center’s focus will encompass urban development as well as real estate.
“Washington, D.C., is the perfect place to build a broadly defined real estate program—not just because Washington, D.C., is the heart of public pol-icy, but also because we want to explore and influ-ence regional economic development in the area,” Guthrie said.
Van Order’s research indicates that ideologues on the left and right both concocted explanations for the credit crisis to advance their agendas. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has repeatedly blamed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for causing the crisis by trying to promote low-income housing.
“That just doesn’t fit the data,” Van Order said. “Fannie and Freddie did get into trouble, but it was not because of low-income lending.”
In his research with Jason Thomas, a doctoral student in the Department of Finance, Van Order determined that Fannie and Freddie had no substantial involvement with the sub-prime market, which was the most important underly-ing cause of the crisis. The two mortgage enterprises got into hot water by investing in what are known as “Alt-A” mortgages, which are less risky than sub-prime but not as safe as conventional loans, Van Order and Thomas found.
“They were not the victims of housing policy,” the researchers say in a forthcoming paper. “Their goals explain a small share of their risk-taking. The ramping up of credit risk was especially in Alt-A lending, and it was based on business decisions, most likely regarding market share.”
Liberals, meanwhile, blame deregulation, saying it allowed the growth of too-big-to-fail financial institutions. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Demo-crat, said in late 2008 that “the Bush Administration’s eight long years of failed deregulation policies have resulted in our nation’s largest bailout ever, leaving the American tax-payers on the hook potentially for billions of dollars.”
Deregulation and the fact that some financial institutions grew too big to fail do not explain the crisis either, accord-ing to Van Order. “A whole range of institutions, big and little, were involved,” he said.
Still Van Order believes that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law in July 2010 as the government’s policy response to the crisis, may help prevent future crises through stra-tegically positioned and applied regulation of financial institutions.
The law established a Financial Stability Oversight Council to identify threats to the overall financial system. The council includes the Federal Reserve chair, treasury secretary and heads of the major financial regulatory agen-cies. Dodd-Frank also set up procedures to be followed when big financial institutions get into trouble. The Fed-
eral Deposit Insurance Corp., in consultation with the Fed-eral Reserve System, is autho-rized to take control of failing institutions and wind them down in much the same way it does with faltering commer-cial banks.
“The law is moving in the right direction,” Van Order
said. “It appears that the Fed and regulators in general will have broader powers that are not limited to specific insti-tutions.” But Van Order could not say for sure that the financial reform law will prevent future crises.
“We don’t really know what the institutional structure of the financial system will be 20 or 30 years from now,” he noted. “It turned out to be rather different this time than it was 30 years earlier.”
Van Order described the housing bubble as “a regional issue” in many ways. “The places that really got clob-bered—parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida—won’t come back very quickly,” he predicted. “They were just too overbuilt.”
But he predicted that conditions will gradually improve in much of the rest of the country.
“The underlying demographics require production, maybe something close to a million and a half units a year,” he said. “Household formation is growing. Population is growing at about one percent a year, and old houses wear out. We won’t see a boom, but in a couple of years most parts of the country will have had sufficiently low levels of housing production that they may start heading back to normal.” GW
The financial crisis dealt a blow to commercial real estate although the dynamics were different from
what happened with housing.
efore the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City sprouted chi-chi shops, restaurants and art galleries, it had hulking dinosaurs like the old Port Authority freight-handling warehouse.
While others saw a relic from the past in 1998, GWSB alum-nus Charlie Bendit, BBA, ’75, spied a portal to the future. The 8th Avenue structure between 15th and 16th streets was close to public transportation. It had large floor plans, which are rare in the city. It nearly sat atop a major optical-fiber switch-ing network, which could be used by telecommunication firms.
In January, Bendit’s prescience paid off. He and his busi-ness partner, along with two other entities, sold the building for $1.6 billion.
The buyer? Some upstart named Google, which will use it as its New York headquarters.
The blockbuster deal, which involved one of New York’s largest office buildings, was one of the biggest real estate trans-actions in the city over the last few years.
“If you work hard, good things will happen,” said Bendit. “That’s all I knew. That’s what I had always been told. That lesson has paid off many times over.”
For Bendit, it was just the latest in a string of real estate victories that have spanned 35 years.
They range from Washington to Chicago to Atlanta. Most occurred in New York City, one of the toughest real estate mar-kets in the world. He and partner Paul Pariser, who formed Taconic Investment Partners in 1997, have developed 12 mil-lion square feet of office buildings and 3,000 residential units ranging from luxury to middle-class living spaces.
Even the steely-eyed New York media have praised the company.
“I’ve never seen a real estate developer do so much to improve a housing complex,” a New York Daily News reporter wrote about a Bronx apartment building renovated by Taconic in
2008. “Eastchester Heights sets the bar for future inves-tors purchasing distressed urban properties.”
When not developing properties, Bendit helps develop minds.
In New York City, he was a special adviser to the Superintendent of Schools and still serves on the boards of several programs that help public school students.
At GWSB, he is a found-ing member of the advisory board of GWSB’s Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis. In November, he made a major financial gift in support of the center.
And he is a regent of the New York State Board of Education, which oversees every public school in the state. “I talked to my family and partner about it,” he said about becoming a regent in 2007. “I knew it would be time consuming. But if I really wanted to make a difference in public education, I had to go right to the top.”
FROM PREMED TO BUSINESS At GW, Bendit began as a premed student but discovered what he really liked was business. After switching majors in his sophomore year, his interest in business was nurtured by several teachers, including Fred Amling, a professor of finance who is now retired. Amling remembers Bendit as a quick study.
20
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
B
Gutsy,Crazy,Visionary
Charlie Bendit
By Francis X. DonnellyPhotography: Ben Solomon
“He had the desire, dedication and discipline to succeed,” said Amling. “Charlie is an outstanding example of under-graduate students who rise to the top of their profession.” Bendit was more driven than other students, said classmates. While his friends repaired to the pub, he was studying at the library.
The son of an attorney, Bendit worked his way through school. One year, to offset his rent, he painted the Arlington home where he and several students were living, said classmate Lane Potkin.
Potkin, a Washington real estate attorney who has remained friends with Bendit, marvels at his buddy’s tenacity. Bendit began playing golf several years ago and already has a firm grip
of the maddeningly frustrating game, said Potkin. “He was a little more studious and hardworking than some of us,” said Potkin. “He was focused but also friendly. He wasn’t the type that was so intense he was about to go off the handle.”
As soon as he graduated from GWSB, Bendit wanted to become a developer. That was where the action was, he said. But he got a rude introduction to his chosen profession when his father introduced him to one of his clients, the owner of a 300-unit apartment building for sale in Newark, N.J.
During an inspection of the complex, the owner brought along his two German shepherds.
“Why do you have the dogs?” asked Bendit. “You’ll see,” said the owner.
21
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
They proceeded to go from apartment to apartment, collecting rent. As they did, Bendit witnessed various scenes of domestic discord, which weren’t ameliorated by a land-lord seeking money. Bendit, who grew up in the well-heeled suburbs of Livingston, N.J., wondered what he was getting himself into.
Another challenge facing Bendit was the economy. He had graduated into a recession, which included an oil embargo. “I didn’t understand the implications,” he said about the downturn occurring just as he was entering the job market. “I thought it was just tough to get a job. I didn’t realize the reason.”
To overcome his lack of experience and the tough financial times, Bendit rolled up his shirtsleeves. Signing on with a New Jersey developer, he worked seven days a week for two years. If you persevere, you will eventually succeed, he said. He learned that from his role model, his father.
In 1980, Bendit joined Jones Lang Wootton, one of the biggest real estate firms in the world. The next year, the com-pany was interested in expanding to Washington. Bendit had gone to school there so the firm volunteered him for the job. Bendit quickly immersed himself in Washington’s emerging office market by snapping up 10 buildings.
Later, he did the same thing in Toronto, setting up regional offices in that city and Washington. He logged 700,000 frequent flyer miles for the company.
He liked the challenge of blazing the firm’s trail in new cities.Pariser, who worked with Bendit at Jones Lang Wootton,
said his future partner had the ability to focus on details like a laser beam. “That’s one of his core skills,” said Pariser. “He has a remarkable stick-to-it-ness.” Bendit eventually became managing director of the company, responsible for property acquisitions, sales and financing for international clients.
In 1993, Bendit realized the dream of being his own boss. He founded CBC Properties, which worked with investors to buy office and apartment buildings in New Jersey and Wash-ington. But, just as the economy had tumbled upon his gradua-tion, the financial landscape was bleak again in the early 1990s. The real estate market was depressed. Savings and loans asso-ciations had collapsed. No capital was available for investment.
Why would Bendit pick such a perilous time to step out on his own?
First, he believed that a market that had dropped so pre-cipitously would eventually bounce back just as dramatically. He wanted to be there when it happened. Second, he believed in himself.
22
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
This model of 111 Eighth Avenue depicts one of the world’s most wired buildings. Built as the Port Authority Commerce Building in 1932, it was redeveloped for telecom use by Taconic in the late ’90s. Last January, it fetched a tidy $1.6 billion in a sale to Google.
ew York City’s South Bronx is an unlikely setting for a success
story, especially in the form of a nearly century-old factory.But that’s what the American Bank
Note building has become, with an assist by Charlie Bendit, BBA, ’75.
Beginning in 1911 and for more than 70 years, the presses inside the building printed U.S. and foreign currency and securities. By the time the company left in 1985, the building’s moneymak-ing ways seemed to be behind it. Its brickwork began to crumble and only half of its 420,000 square feet was occupied.
The building’s saviors arrived in the form of Bendit, his partner in Taconic Investment Paul Pariser and another firm, Denham Wolf Real
Estate Services of New York. In 2007, they plunked down $32 million for the property. They spent another $40 million to renovate it.
The idea, Bendit said, was to create an office building that would attract tenants who couldn’t afford a Manhattan address. “We’ve always tried to buy good real estate that can make a significant impact on an area,” he said.
The developers installed bathrooms and eleva-tors. They renamed the building The BankNote and replaced 400 windows and 50,000 square feet of skylights that had been painted over. When finished, soaring windows offered a view of the Manhattan skyline and allowed light to flood into the building’s loft-like spaces.
By attracting more tenants, said Bendit, the building could give this section of the South Bronx
something it never had—a thriving office park. And a thriving office park could help revitalize the rest of the neighborhood, he explained. More people visiting the area daily it would encourage the opening of shops and restaurants.
“More people means good things start to happen,” Bendit said. “There’s more safety, investment.”
In November, The BankNote became home to a New York City business incubator designed to encourage startup businesses by allowing entrepreneurs to rent a desk and phone and use a copy machine and other tools of a fledgling busi-ness. It was the sixth business incubator in the city, but the first in the Bronx. It might never have come to the once-ravaged area if not for its newly spruced-up home.
23
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
“I knew I didn’t have much money,” he said. “But money is always looking for smart operators.”
Also, Bendit was 39. If he was ever going to set up his own shop, this seemed like the time to do it, he said. He would rather try and fail than never try at all. He didn’t want to look back and regret the move he never made. He knew success wouldn’t come overnight so he gave himself a few years to make a go of it.
His firm eventually developed 1 million square feet of office space in New York and Washington and several hundred apartments in the New York metro area.
Besides the financial success, Bendit loved working for himself. “I was always the kind of person to take on big chal-lenges,” he said. “I also didn’t like being told what to do. I didn’t play well with authority.”
CRAZINESS, GUTS AND VISIONBendit’s biggest successes were yet to come.
He and Pariser, who also left Jones Lang Wootton, formed Taconic Investment in 1997. Even before January’s block-buster deal with Google, they had a reputation for spotting buildings and neighborhoods that were ripe for improvement and then making things happen.
Their fledgling partnership didn’t have the deep pockets of other companies so they had to be more creative. As a result, where other developers saw apartments and office buildings in neglected neighborhoods, Bendit and Pariser searched for amenities that could transform an area. Those amenities
ranged from proximity to public transportation to budding interest in a neighborhood by residents or businesses.
“You have to be crazy and have a lot of guts,” said Bendit. “You have to have a little vision and hope and take a leap of faith.”
To make the deals work, Bendit relied on a career full of contacts with financial and institutional people. He also did his homework. Among developers, he’s known for his tenacity and ability to close a deal. To invest his money in places where other developers wouldn’t, Bendit had to believe in himself and his vision.
“When things look bleak, that’s when you have to work even tougher,” he said. “You’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel [but] making sure the light wasn’t a train coming.” Taconic’s leap of faith has paid off repeatedly.
The company renovated two large residential complexes in Brooklyn and the Bronx, 3 million square feet of offices in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District and the luxury high-rise Caledonia condo and rental development along the High Line Park in Manhattan.
After buying a building at 450 Park Avenue in Manhattan for $200 million, Taconic later sold it for $500 million.
In the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, the company wants to build luxury housing on eight acres. With access to the sub-way, residents would be able to live on the beach and still com-mute to work in Manhattan.
It’s a chance for Bendit and Taconic to take a once-forsaken spot and turn it into something special, a community. GW
NBANK NOTES TO BUSINESS INCUBATOR—
BRONX TRANSFORMATION
24
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
He tried motivational techniques he heard about at semi-nars. By his own admission, they seemed like silly tricks better fit for Michael Scott, the awkward manager from the TV show “The Office.” Bill is representative of many managers who begin with enthusiasm but find themselves frustrated by employees who lack their drive and ambition.
In work with hundreds of leaders over the past decade, my colleagues and I have witnessed countless people like Bill. The challenges middle managers face are not exclusive to one industry; nonprofits, government and private indus-try share them.
How do managers like Bill motivate employees neither at the top nor bottom of the organization, but in the middle?
DON’T RELY ON EXTERNAL REWARDS The “don’t focus on pay” advice seems counterintuitive. Organizations spend mil-lions of dollars each year to enhance their compensation systems. Programs that tie pay to organizational outcomes, such as pay-for-performance and Balance Score Card, have proliferated—and for good reason. Pay incentives moti-vate people.
But Eric Winslow, a profes-sor of management at GWSB,
has studied motivation for decades and he has found that pay only motivates in the short term. This is consistent with the findings of pioneering motivational researcher Fredrick Herzberg. Higher pay or improved working conditions do not bring long-term behavioral changes in employees.
Individuals only stay motivated when they can develop themselves, receive desired recognition and learn new skills. The focus, therefore, must be on long-term factors that improve motivation.
A growing stream of research supports the notion that learning is a key factor in motivation. Studies show that even when individuals are paid more for completing work, they may be less motivated if their work is considered unim-portant by others, or if the work is intrinsically unfulfilling.
Reflecting back at mid-career, one of my former students recalled when he was fully engaged in his work: when was learning a new procedure, during medical school and his residency when his profession held mystery and when he was teaching young residents how to be more effective. In other words, he was most motivated when he was learning or helping someone else learn.
Learning builds confidence by improving one’s self-esteem. Confidence and self-esteem allow individuals to explore new ideas, take small but important risks and develop new strategies for problem solving. Learning also has a physiological effect as it makes new connections in the brain. The challenge for managers is to identify the activities that stretch employees in the middle to learn at
the same time the managers avoid assigning tasks that are too difficult or likely to result in failure.
Managers like Bill quickly learn that not all employees are motivated by the same fac-tors. Our research and experi-ence with managers reveal five distinct, but related, learning-directed activities that moti-vate people.
By D. Christopher KayesDean’s Research Scholar and
Associate Professor of Management Author of Destructive Goal Pursuit: The Mount Everest Disaster and the
forthcoming books, Learning Directed Leadership and Contemporary
Organizational Behavior in Action.
Photography: Abby Greenawalt
Bill, a newly minted MBA, is quickly learning the challenges of motivating the six employees who report to him. High-achieving Bill has discovered that not all employees share his enthusiasm about growing the con-sulting business he now leads.
BEST PRACTICES
Motivating the Middle
25
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
•Achievement-oriented activities require making a unique contribution. They include activities such as creating a way of looking at a problem, launching a new project or generating new ideas.
•Team-oriented activities involve working with peo-ple, learning from others and contributing to the larger organization.
•Affiliation-directed motivation may lead individu-als to more fully consider their contribution to the larger organization.
•Goal-directed activities are most closely linked with direct incentives for performance. Goal set-ting focuses individuals on specific skills and areas for improvement. Motivating activities include improving performance, learning a new skill or targeting specific behaviors.
•Power-directed activities increase an individual’s span of control, letting them gather more resources and wield influence over others’ work.
PUTTING MOTIVATION INTO ACTIONGW professors worked with a major custodial bank that sought to attract, motivate and retain middle man-agers. Collaborating with one of the bank’s leadership teams, we devised a program that built on existing strengths of both the organization and the employees. That program:• built on the organization’s overall incentive and
retention strategy and how a particular department could contribute to the larger organization.
• created an understanding of basic human moti-vation in identifying the needs and concerns of employees. A personalized development and retention plan was devised for each employee. Managers learned to understand the one-of-a-kind motivational profile of each person who directly reported to them.
• helped managers work with one another to improve systems that boost employee motivation and engagement.
A sustained and comprehensive effort, not a one-shot speech, incentive or pat on the back, is required to moti-vate employees. Bill, our fictional manager, can begin to motivate by offering his employees an opportunity to take on challenging and exciting assignments, address-ing their individual motivational profiles and building an organizational culture that values learning.
26
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
GWSB Alumni Profile:Shonodeep ModakDEGREES: Mississippi State University, Dave C. Swalm
School of Chemical Engineering, BS, ’00; GWSB, MBA, ’07
CURRENT POSITION: Market development manager in
GE Energy’s Jenbacher gas engine division, responsible
for driving growth in new energy-generation markets,
focusing on landfill gas-to-energy, animal waste-to-energy,
combined heat and power, and zero-emission waste-heat
recovery projects.
FIRST JOB: I actually started as an entrepreneur with my
own car wash service when I was 15. After college, I joined
ExxonMobil as an account executive in the industrial fluids
division, where I helped develop Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel
Economy, a fully synthetic, high-performance motor oil.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Making the difficult decision to
leave ExxonMobil, which meant leaving the wonderful
D.C. metro area and saying goodbye to all the great
friends I made at GW.
BEST B-SCHOOL MEMORY: Going to the U.K. with
Dr. Jennifer Griffin’s corporate social responsibility (CSR)
class. We met with representatives of several large
companies in London, giving me new perspective on
business strategy.
HOW GWSB LED TO YOUR CAREER: The international
marketing and CSR classes were extremely influential in
giving me a less myopic view of business strategy and
helping reset my personal career goals.
GOAL: To lead a GE Energy business in an emerging or
developing country.
RECENT READING: I have not had a chance to read much
recently, with the exception of industry trade magazines
and 900-page clean energy and tax bills.
PERSONAL: Lives in Atlanta with wife, Gayatree, and baby
son, Kartik. Volunteers for the United Way and enjoys
taking Kartik for a stroll in nearby Piedmont Park
“when Atlanta is not iced over.”
27
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
tor at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Markets; Lynn Turner, with the consulting firm LECG; and Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Dodd ended the meeting with a call to action, urging students to consider careers in the public sector. “If you don’t have good, talented people in place, then I think our country suffers,” he said.
The Economist Gives GWSB High RankingsThe GW School of Business has one of the top MBA programs in the world, according to The Economist, which ranked the program 38th among North American schools in 2010.
“Recognition of the GW School of Busi-ness as one of the best in the world shows once again we are pre-paring a generation of students to lead in the global economy,” said Dean Doug Guthrie.
“This ranking among our international and U.S. peers vali-dates our efforts to strengthen our global MBA curriculum,” said Murat Tarimcilar, vice dean of programs and education. “Our alumni and students have a passion for changing the world.”
The Economist also rated GWSB as No. 1 in the world for diversity of recruiters, sixth for the breadth of its alumni net-work, 17th for student diversity and 73rd in overall rankings.
The Economist evaluations are based on a survey of 132 leading business schools around the world with input from schools, students and alumni. The full rankings are found at: www.economist.com/business-education/.
Gre
gor
y C
amp
bel
l
GWSB Joins Financial Reform DebateBusiness executives, scholars, financial regulators and legislators came together at GW to debate the potential impact of the most sweeping U.S. financial regulatory reform in 80 years.
The symposium, “The Shape of Things to Come: The Financial Regulatory Landscape in the Post Dodd-Frank Era,” was spon-sored by GWSB’s Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis and GW’s Center for Law, Economics & Finance. It featured a roster of high-profile speakers, including former U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, one of the authors of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Dean Doug Guthrie said the discussion underscored the School’s role at the “center of conversations about business and politics, business and policy.”
“You want a robust financial services sector that is out there being creative, being innovative, driving growth and powering the economy,” said Dodd, who worked with U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachu-setts on the broadest finan-cial market reform since the Great Depression.
The discussion addressed how Dodd-Frank would affect banks’ capitaliza-tion, coordinate with new Basel III accounting stan-dards and discourage the existence of massive finan-cial institutions viewed as “too big to fail.” Panelists included Goldman Sachs adviser Stephen Laba-ton; Donald Kohn of the Brookings Institution; Chi-cago Mercantile Exchange Clearing House Division President Kim Taylor; Rob-ert Burke, managing direc-
Former U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd discusses the measure he helped draft.
28
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
GWSB Names New DeansGWSB has named Murat Tarimcilar vice dean of programs and education and Sok-Hyon Kang vice dean of faculty and research to strengthen and focus academics and research. Associate Profes-sor of International Business Liesl Riddle has been named associate dean of MBA programs.
“Murat Tarimcilar will drive our educational mission and develop cutting-edge programs that provide students with leadership skills, real-world experiences and rigorous class-room learning. And Sok-Hyon Kang will steward the School’s vision and standards of excellence for research and faculty,” said Dean Doug Guthrie. “Liesl Riddle’s international and research expertise make her an outstand-ing choice to lead our graduate programs.”
Tarimcilar is a pro-fessor of decision sci-ences and an expert in multi-criteria deci-sion models. He holds a PhD in Business Administration and Quantitative Business Analysis and an MS in Quantitative Analysis/Operations Research from Louisiana State University. He earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from Bogazici University in Turkey.
In addition to guiding faculty development and research, Kang, a professor of accountancy, will coordinate the School’s centers, insti-tutes and programs. His research includes financial reporting, earn-ings management, executive compensation and security markets. Kang earned his PhD from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. At the Anderson School of Management at UCLA, where he received his MBA, he was an Edward W. Carter Fellow. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University.
Riddle is an expert in diaspora homeland investment, national trade and investment promotion, cross-cultural management, inter-national marketing and the Middle East and North Africa. In addi-tion to her role at GWSB, she is director of the Diasporas, Policy
Sok-Hyon Kang and Murat Tarimcilar
Colgate-Palmolive’s President and CEO Ian Cook
Maxon Lecture: Global Perspective = Business Success Successful businesses understand that markets are global. They take culture into consideration while maintaining a unified mes-sage about the company, Colgate-Palmolive’s President and CEO Ian Cook told a packed audience at GWSB’s annual Robert P. Maxon Lecture.
Cook said Colgate-Palmolive had a simple approach: an empha-sis on the company’s four product areas—oral care, personal care, pet care and home care—and a single global message that took into account local preferences. For example, he said, the company mar-kets toothpaste containing salt in India, where salt is often used as a remedy for bleeding gums.
Cook also discussed the company’s focus on sustainability, ethi-cal standards and corporate social responsibility. He pointed to programs such as the “Bright Smiles, Bright Futures” initiative that features dental screenings and education outreach to 500 million children in more 80 countries. In the United States, the program includes in-school curriculum, mobile dental vans and community awareness events in underserved communities.
Cook, whose son Andrew received his BBA from GWSB in 2010, advised students to live and work in other countries, “Get outside yourself, your country and your culture,” he said.
The Maxon Lecture, sponsored by GWSB’s Institute for Corpo-rate Responsibility, is named for GW alumnus Robert P. Maxon, BA, ’48. The annual lecture features prominent executives and aca-demics speaking about contemporary global management issues.
29
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
James Bailey
Distinguished Alumni Are HonoredMore than 100 alumni traveled to the 2010 GWSB Graduate Pro-grams Reunion to honor alumni who exemplify the School’s motto: Act responsibly, lead passionately and think globally.
Dean Doug Guthrie gave the School’s highest honors to Tom di Galoma, MBA, ’85, senior managing director and head of the U.S. Fixed Income Rates Trading Group at Guggenheim Partners; Vicky Lazzell, MBA,’80, senior vice president at Boston Private Bank & Trust Co.; Beverly Bogerty, MTA, ’00, owner of Occasions Inc.; and Burlie Brunson, EMBA, ’95, vice president of programs, plans and analysis for Lockheed Martin Corporate Strategy and Business Development.
GWSB Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award winners (left to right) are Victoria P. Lazzell, Burlie A. Brunson, Beverly A. Bogerty and Tom di Galoma.
GWSB Launches World EMBAThe GW School of Business recently unveiled a cutting-edge World Executive MBA for busy professionals who want a customized program marked by international residencies and rigorous class-room learning.
“Our mission is to give executives the tools they need to become responsible business leaders in the global economy,” said Doug Guthrie, GWSB dean and professor of international business and management.
Themes of the program’s core curriculum include ethical lead-ership, understanding the global economy and mastering business functions. Students complete coursework in 16 months.
“In my 20 years of working with executives, I can confidently say that this is the best program out there, ” said James Bailey, Ave Tucker Professor of Leadership and director of the World EMBA program. “It’s a rigorous program designed to lift executives to the next level of leadership.”
Highlights of the program include:• nine sessions with a professional coach.• a team consulting practicum.• a mentored business challenge. “It’s structured around four residencies—two domestic and
two international—and courses that meet every other week for 16 months, allowing busy executives to fit it into their hectic sched-ules,” Bailey explained.
and Development Research Program at the Institute for Global Studies in the Elliott School of International Affairs. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, where she also earned her MBA, MA and BA.
What Motivates Diaspora Community Investment?African emigrants who invest in their home countries are motivated by complex factors, according to a study by Liesl Riddle, GWSB associate professor of international business and research fellow at GWSB’s Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER).
Riddle’s conclusions stem from a survey of participants in the African Diaspora Marketplace (ADM), a business-plan competition supported by USAID and Western Union. In 2010, ADM awarded 14 businesses matching grants of up to $100,000 each. The initia-tives included a goat farm in Ghana, a biotechnology firm in Ethio-pia, a food-processing company in Nigeria and a Ugandan fast-ferry system serving the three countries banking Lake Victoria.
“This is a great development opportunity for Africa to match innovative entrepreneurial ideas and talent with much-needed funding,” said Riddle.
The survey found that diaspora investment is driven by multiple factors, including family concerns, and expectations of financial, social and political gains. Three-fifths of the respondents send more than $5,000 to their home countries annually. And more than a third of survey respondents earn a large proportion of their income from investments.
Experts Address U.S.-Mexico Security StrategiesA former Mexican government minister and an official from the Narcotics Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico addressed security strategies for Mexico and the United States during a high-profile conference sponsored by GWSB’s Center for Latin Ameri-can Issues (CLAI) and the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College.
Violent drug gangs and other criminal organizations in Mexico threaten the safety and security of people on both sides of the bor-der, experts told the more than 100 policy professionals, academ-ics, government and diplomatic officials, students and business executives.
Luis Estrada, a former spokesman for Mexico’s Ministry of Gov-ernment, detailed the growth of criminal organizations in Mexico and discussed new laws aimed at organized crime. Jorgan Andrews, deputy director of the Narcotics Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, explained steps the United States and Mexico have taken to improve security and reduce demand for illegal drugs.
Max Manwaring, professor of military strategy for the Strategic Studies Institute, moderated the discussion.
30
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
Liesl Riddle
Panelists at CLAI event addressed cross-border security.
31
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
L2 founder Scott Galloway
Conference Examines Social Media Strategy The world is about connections. That’s what Adam Conner, associ-ate manager for privacy and global public policy at Facebook, told an audience at the “Social Graph” conference hosted by GWSB and L2, a think tank on digital innovation.
Conner joined speakers from NASA, the U.S. Navy, The Nature Conservancy and other organi-zations to discuss the public sector’s use of social media in marketing. Conner told participants at the Jan. 20 event that success came from organiz-ing around people, and that federal agencies still have work to do on that front.
The experts looked at whether technology affects how people acquire and share information. Among their findings:•Within three years, more people will surf the Web on mobile
devices than on computers. •For people under age 40, nearly half of all media consumption
takes place online.•Facebook claims 10 percent of the Internet, nearly outpacing
search engines such as Google as the most active site online.
“Social media is the equivalent of skinny jeans. Spend on it, and it’ll make you look younger,” said Scott Galloway, the founder of L2.
Late last year, GWSB and L2 ranked the “Digital IQ” of 100 pub-lic-sector entities. NASA, which emerged as the most digital-savvy
among them, has more than 200 social media accounts, seven apps for mobile phones and a host of other social media tools, according to NASA Social Media Manager Stephanie Schierholz.
Rounding out the Top 10 organiza-tions in the social media-savvy list were:
The White House, PETA, the U.S. Army, the Democratic National Committee, World Wildlife Fund, the Republican National Com-mittee, The Nature Conservancy, AARP and the U.S. Department of State.
GWSB Helps Beautify National MallFaculty, students and alumni from the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management joined graduate student organization Tourism for Tomorrow in a September beautification project on the National Mall. The GWSB community worked alongside Tourism Cares, a nonprofit tourism group, to form a 250-member team. The volunteers also donated $20,000 to the National September 11th Memorial and Museum.
Student’s Goal: Rebuild HaitiLast year’s catastrophic earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands and left more than a million homeless may prove to be the defining moment for a generation of young Haitians, among them Karl Delatour.
Delatour, a freshman at GWSB, also his moth-er’s alma mater, brings an unusual perspective on Haiti’s recovery and future. His mother, Elisa-beth Préval, MBA, ’88, is Haiti’s first lady. Dela-tour’s father Leslie, who died of cancer in 2001, came from a family with a long history of public ser-vice and served as Haiti’s finance minister in the late 1980s and, later, as governor of the Bank of Haiti.
Conscious of his family legacy, Delatour came to GWSB with a clear mission: to gain the tools he needs to rebuild his country’s busi-ness sector. His mother directed him toward politics “but I wanted to rebuild,” he said.
He’s not alone. Many young Haitians are accepting responsibility for the country’s next chapter. “Even in the nightclubs, they’ll stop the music for a minute and remind us that we have to work for our future,” Delatour said. But the heavy lifting may fall to the small minority who are able to obtain a college education.
The earthquake’s devastation in Haiti was made more acute by generations of poverty. Delatour acknowledged that foreign aid is necessary for the short term, but he rejected long-term aid as a sus-tainable development model for the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.
Delatour was a year away from high school graduation, focused on college applications, when Jan. 12, 2010, went into the history books. Late that Tuesday night, the 7.0 magnitude quake hit, followed by dozens of powerful aftershocks.
Now physically distant from Haiti, Delatour follows develop-ments via radio, the Internet and in phone calls with his mother. He chose Washington for his studies because “there was no better place to learn to understand policy, crisis management and disaster management.”
And he takes heart from an unusual place: China.“My mother always told me that when she was young, they told
her to pray for the Chinese living in poverty,” Delatour said. “Now look at China and its tremendous turnaround.”
GWSB Earns Accolades from QS TopMBAWebsite QS TopMBA has ranked the GW School of Business as 15th worldwide for its focus on ethics and corpo-rate social responsibility. The results were based on a survey of 5,007 employers, of which 2,157 were actively recruiting MBAs and 2,850 were recruiting undergrad-uate or master’s students. The site ranked GWSB 47th overall among business schools in North America. For details, visit http://www.topmba.com/mba-rankings/top-business-schools-report-2010/specializations/csr-business-ethics.
32
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
Karl Delatour
He’s not alone. Many young Haitians are accepting responsibility for the
country’s next chapter.
Seminar Addresses Mideast UprisingsFive GWSB professors came together in early February for a timely discussion of the political unrest in Egypt and the economic implications of the country’s revolution.
Salah Hassan, chair and professor in the Department of Marketing, joined Paul Reynolds, Howard Hoff-man Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Management and Entrepreneurship; George T. Solomon, associate profes-sor of management; Ayman El Tarabishy, director of the International Council for Small Business and assis-tant research professor of management; and Paul M. Swiercz, professor of management, at the Feb. 8 seminar.
Hassan opened the event with sobering statistics. He cited a 25 percent unemployment rate in Egypt and noted that a big portion of the jobless were age 25 or under. He said young Egyptians were a catalyst for opposition to the Mubarak government.
“The business model of managing government enterprise in Egypt collapsed,” Hassan said. “It defied the myth of Egypt as the most stable government in the Middle East.”
Reynolds discussed Egyptian entrepreneurship and noted that many women are excluded from business, and, thus entrepreneur-ship. This creates a critical problem, according to Solomon, who deemed youth and women vital for entrepreneurship.
“Youth unemployment and the frustration of the young in Egypt is the elephant in the room,” El Tarabishy said.
Unions and Management Talk to StudentsCapt. Wendy Morse, chairman of the United Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association, joined Glenn Tilton, chairman of United Continental Holdings’ board of directors, in addressing students last fall in a labor relations class taught by Pat-rick McHugh, associate professor of management.
The speakers discussed the labor-management challenges arising from industry volatility, a failed employee-stock-ownership plan, financial and operational restructuring and large-scale mergers. “It was great for students to see labor and management leaders sitting next to each other sharing insights and experiences,” said McHugh.
Tilton served as chairman, president and CEO of United Airlines, guiding the company though its merger with Continental Airlines. Morse has held several positions with the Air Line Pilots Associa-tion and is the first woman elected chair of the Master Executive Council. Her son, William Morse, is a Master of Tourism Adminis-tration student at GWSB.
33
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
Wendy Morse and Glenn Tilton shared perspectives on labor-management relations.
Salah Hassan
Former Olympic Gymnast Speaks at GWWhen the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Ser-vices joined an all-star panel of athletes at GW last fall, the message was simple: Get moving.
Thanks to the work of MBA student Christo-pher M. Watts, the Presi-dent’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition (PCFSN) held its inau-gural meeting on cam-pus. Watts is enrolled in GWSB’s Accelerated MBA program in sport management. During his first year, he took the class “Impacts of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa” with Lisa Delpy Neirotti, professor of tourism and hospitality manage-ment. Delpy Neirotti helped Watts secure a position as graduate fellow with the PCFSN.
Shellie Pfohl, PCFSN executive director, and former Olympic athlete Dominique Dawes, co-chair of the PCFSN, led the meet-ing. Speakers included Robin Schepper, executive director of Let’s Move!, first lady Michelle Obama’s program to reduce child-hood obesity; Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; award-winning chef Dan Barber; NASCAR’s Carl Edwards; NBA players Grant Hill and Chris Paul; retired MLB player Curtis Pride; Cornell McClellan, a personal trainer for the Obamas; and former Olympians Allyson Felix and Michelle Kwan.
“The GW MBA program initially appealed to me because of its focus on social responsibility and sustainability,” Watts said. “Since entering the MBA program at GW I have been exposed to more opportunities and experiences than I thought possible.”
Accountancy Department Wins AccoladesThe Accounting Review ranked the GWSB Department of Accoun-tancy 14th among 130 institutions worldwide last November. The ranking is based on the number of articles the review published from scholars at various academic institutions. The Accounting Review is the association’s flagship journal and widely regarded as one of the most prestigious in accounting.
Separately, “Candidate Performance on the Uniform CPA Examination: 2010 Edition” recognized GWSB for the outstanding performance of its students on the 2009 CPA Examination. GWSB’s program was ranked among the top 25 schools.
HP Exec: Sustainability Reaps RewardsSustainability equals profitability. That was the message Enge-lina Jaspers, vice president of environmental sustainability for Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), gave students at an event sponsored by the GWSB Department of Strategic Management and Public Policy and the GW Institute for Sustainability Research, Education and Policy.
Jaspers, who has a sustainability marketing and communica-tions background, detailed her company’s policies on recycling and reduced greenhouse gases, referring to the effort as “a thousand points of green.” Last year, Newsweek gave HP the highest “green” score among 500 major U.S. corporations.
34
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
Former Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes speaks at GW.
HP’s Engelina Jaspers (right) speaks with MBA student Casey Pierzchala.
When It’s All Right to be WrongBeing right may not be all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, mistakes can open the door to better leadership and even stronger successes, according to Kathryn Schulz, author of Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error.
At a lecture at GWSB, Schulz offered insight into the dangers of a culture that overvalues being right all the time. The author, a journalist, spoke about those dangers Jan. 28 as part of an ongoing series of events designed to bring public intellectuals to the business school arena.
Schulz’s book “offers good lessons for leaders,” said Dean Doug Guthrie. “We have lots of examples in which leaders have a difficult time saying ‘I’ve made a mistake.’ ”
There are psychological and physiological reasons why people like to be right, but that single-mindedness can cause leaders to sur-round themselves with yes men, said Schulz.
In further discus-sion, GWSB professors Tjai Nielsen and James Bailey detailed their research into leadership development. Nielsen, assistant professor of management, said good leaders allow failure to occur. But Bailey, the Tucker Professo-rial Fellow of Leader-ship and professor of management, noted that business leaders who incorrectly think they’re right may still get results.
ICR and Ford Motor Team Up on ProjectFord Motor Co. is tapping the GWSB Institute for Corporate Responsibility (ICR) for help in developing a corporate ethics strategy to ensure high standards on human rights within the auto-maker’s supply chain.
“As strategic sourcing has become a priority issue for corporations, concerns over fresh water and also raw materials from conflict regions should be addressed collaboratively by govern-ments, corporations, inter-national organizations and society,” said ICR Associate Director John Forrer. “Our research will help Ford understand the strate-gies, policies and practices it takes to be a trusted corporate partner operating in a complex global market.”
Ford officials said the collaboration will gain importance as the auto company continues its worldwide expansion. “We’re the only company in our industry that publicly reports a human rights code,” said David Berdish, manager of social sustainability for Ford.
35
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
Kathryn Schulz
John Forrer
“Our research will help Ford understand the strategies, policies
and practices it takes to be a trusted corporate partner operating in a
complex global market.”
36
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
Dan Simons meets Lily Belter, BBA, ’12, the first recipient of the annual Scholarship for Sustainable Hospitality funded by Found-ing Farmers, Farmers & Fishers and the Vucurevich Simons Advisory Group. Simons, BBA, ’92, and his business partners in Founding Farmers restaurants made a commitment to fund the scholarship for five years.
Alumni Donor Meets Scholarship Recipient
Brazilian Minister of Defense Nelson Azevedo Jobim detailed his country’s plans to modernize its military forces, including construction of several conventional submarines and one nuclear subma-rine, the purchase of a new wing of fighter jets and the creation of 25 army posts. Azevedo Jobim spoke at a conference hosted by GWSB’s Institute of Bra-zilian Issues and the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College.
Brazilian Official Outlines Security Strategy
GW Trustee Steven S. Ross, BBA, ’81, told a packed room at the Fourth Annual Ramsey Student Investment Fund Conference last fall that “investing is a marathon, not a 100-yard dash.” Ross is senior vice president for RBC Wealth Management. The conference pro-vided the GW community with investment insights and updates on the $1.2 million Ramsey Student Investment Fund, which is managed by GWSB students.
Conference Focuses on Investment
37
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
Briefs on selected media coverage of The George Washington University School of Business and its experts.
Stuart Levy, assistant professor of tourism and hospitality man-agement, published an article on e-mail marketing strategies for success in the Jan. 5 issue of Hospitality Net.
A New York Times profile on business school trading labs gave prominent mention to GWSB’s Capital Markets Trad-ing Lab. The Dec. 30 story, “Where Homework Is Manag-ing a $200,000 Stock Portfolio,” included quotes from Phil Bud-wick, director of the lab, and GWSB alumni. Robert Berns, MBA, ’10, told the Times that his lab experience at GW helped him land a job at Wells Fargo Securities. “There’s a wow factor to it,” Berns said. “It gave some-one like me instant credibility.”
GW School of Business Dean Doug Guthrie was quoted in a Dec. 30 Washington Post article on how the mayor of Newark, N.J., used social media to reach constituents during a snow-storm. “He’s doing something that is very effective and very much capitalizing on the poten-tial of this media,” Guthrie said. “The lesson for politicians is you have to engage it.”
Kathy Korman Frey, adjunct professor of management and GWSB Entrepreneur in Resi-dence, was quoted Dec. 27 in a Washington Post Capital Busi-ness section article on companies with “buzz” around them. She cited Brazen Careerist, an online networking site designed to help people build relevant relation-ships and advance their careers, as a company to watch.
James Bailey, the Ave Tucker Pro-fessor of Leadership and chair of the Department of Manage-ment, was quoted in the Wash-ington Post Express on Dec. 13. “In my experience, the hardest three words to utter in the Eng-lish language are ‘I am sorry,’ ” Bailey said in the story about ways to resolve workplace con-flict. “And yet they are incred-ibly powerful words. There’s nothing more disarming than somebody coming to you and saying, ‘I’m sorry,’ especially if they know they misbehaved.”
Here & NowChandru Rajam, visiting associ-ate professor of international business, was interviewed by Here & Now radio. The Dec. 10 story, “Colleges Outsource Grading Papers to Asia,” looked at a recent trend that saw U.S.
colleges and universities hiring virtual teaching assistants in Asia to grade students’ work.
UrheilulehtiLisa Delpy Neirotti, associate professor of tourism and sport management, was interviewed for the cover story of Finnish sports magazine Urheilulehti. In the Dec. 9 article, Delpy Neirotti shares insight on hockey player Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.
European CEO gave GW School of Business the magazine’s 2010 Global Business Education Award. In the Dec. 7 issue of European CEO, GWSB was lauded as the most innovative business school in the southern United States. The award was based on a reader survey and input from a panel of judges.
FederalTimesA Dec. 6 story posted on Fed-eralTimes.com cited the “Digi-tal IQ” survey undertaken by GWSB and its partner, L2. The research looked at 100 pub-lic sector organizations and ranked their social media savvy. “NASA’s embrace of Twitter, Facebook and other social media applications helped it place first in the Digital IQ Index for the Public Sector, a new annual sur-vey released last month by the George Washington University
School of Business and digital think tank L2,” the article noted.
Lisa Delpy Neirotti, associate professor of tourism and sport management, was quoted in a Dec. 2 BusinessBecause arti-cle. The story headlined “Did Sport-Mad Russians And Gift-Giving Qataris Win It?” looked at the failed U.S. bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Qatar, instead, was given the hosting duties. “America has such a large market, a viable market. I think 2026 could be a possibil-ity for us [to bid again],” Delpy Neirotti was quoted as saying.
World FootprintsKristin Lamoureux, director of GWSB’s International Institute of Tourism Studies and visit-ing assistant professor of tour-ism studies, was featured in a story on World Footprints travel radio. In the Nov. 30 story, “Eric Braeden, Part 3,” Lamoureux discussed volunteer tourism in Egypt and around the world.
James R. Bailey, the Ave Tucker Professor of Leadership and chair of the Department of Man-agement, co-wrote with Jona-than Raelin a Nov. 23 article in the Harvard Business Review online. In the article headlined
38
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
“Employees See Death When You Change Their Routines,” Bailey and Raelin argued that for many in an organization, the fear of change is akin to the fear of death. “Change is necessary, but so is an understanding of how it invades people’s critical bulwarks against the awareness of mortality. We can’t stave off death forever, but good leader-ship can temper the debilitating effects of being reminded of it at work,” the authors said.
Danny Leipziger, professor of practice of international busi-ness, was featured with GWSB student Shyam Madhavan, MBA, ’11, on a podcast for CNN Politics. The Nov. 22 segment, “ ‘American Sauce:’ Jon Stew-art, is this what you meant?” examined the Federal Reserve’s plan to implement quantita- tive easing.
Scheherazade Rehman, director of the European Union Research Center and professor of interna-tional finance, was featured in a Nov. 22 story on PBS News-Hour. In the segment “After Bailout for Irish, Questions Linger Over Portugal, Spain,” Rehman discussed the political implications of Ireland’s bailout.
Katherine Korman Frey, adjunct professor of management and GWSB Entrepreneur in Resi-dence, appeared in a story and video for the Washington Busi-ness Journal. In the Nov. 19 arti-cle “2010 Women Who Mean Business: Kathy Korman Frey,” the adjunct professor shares her entrepreneurial insight. “The most important thing I learned
about entrepreneurship: It’s normal, it’s acceptable, you can be successful,” said Frey.
Jorge Rivera, associate professor in the Department of Strategic Management and Public Policy, was featured on the Nov. 18 PBS Nightly Business Report. In the segment, Rivera talked about the business model for Sungevity, a company the leases solar panels.
National Mortgage Professional MagazineRobert Van Order, the Oliver R. Carr Professor of Real Estate, and Vanessa Perry, associate professor in the Department of Marketing, were interviewed in the Nov. 18 online edition of National Mortgage Professional Magazine. The report noted that The George Washington University Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis is working on a series of reports examining the financial status of the Federal Housing Administration. The reports will analyze and inter-pret FHA reforms underway to improve the agency’s per-formance. “The FHA served a critically important role in the economic downturn to ensure that low down payment lending continued but, as in past cycles, there is concern that current pol-icies may push the FHA toward instability,” Van Order said.
The Nov. 17 issue of The Finan-cial Times carried a letter to the editor written by Danny Leipziger, professor of practice of international business. Under the headline “Investment tax credits plan too late and too timid,” Leipziger argued that proposals to use investment tax credits and deals on the Bush-era
tax cuts were a step in the right direction but a year too late. “In the meantime, monetary policy has gone down the dubious route of quantitative easing,” he wrote.
GWSB’s MBA Program was fea-tured in a Nov. 15 BusinessWeek article, “Making a Sustainable Difference,” by Jeremy Dommu, MBA, ’11. Dommu looked at the business benefits of going green. “From the experience I gained in the EDF Climate Corps pro-gram, coupled with the educa-tion from GW, I feel confident in my ability to responsibly lead a profitable business operation,” he wrote.
Business StandardSanjay Jain, associate profes-sor of decision sciences, was featured in a Nov. 15 article in Business Standard. The story car-rying the headline “International School of Project Management launched in India” mentioned that Jain is a board member of the new International School of Project Management.
Nextgov.com Nextgov.com interviewed How-ard Beales, professor of strategic management and public policy, for a Nov. 15 article, “Forecast for cybersecurity bills looks cloudy in reconvened Congress.” Beales discussed the obstacles a lame-duck session presented to the passage of cybersecurity leg-islation. Congress “needs to take a process oriented approach” to information security, Beales said.
Liesl Riddle, associate professor of international business, was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal for her longitudinal study of the African Diaspora
Marketplace, a clearinghouse for a business plan competition sup-ported by USAID and Western Union. Among other things, Riddle’s research identified rea-sons why Africans abroad invest in their homelands. “This is a great development opportunity for Africa: to match innovative entrepreneurial ideas and talent with much-needed funding to bring their visions to life,” she said. Her study was also fea-tured in Business Daily, Ugan-dans Abroad, Africa Review and Portfolio.com.
A Nov. 7 sports column in The [Washington] Examiner referred to GWSB Sports Executives Hall of Fame induction ceremo-nies in 2007. Ted Lerner, owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team, was honored at that ceremony. The column was titled “Thom Loverro: Offseason approach is slow and steady.”
Scheherazade Rehman, director of the European Union Research Center and professor of interna-tional finance, was featured Nov. 5 in Voice of America’s “USA Votes 2010: Midterm Elections Newseum Town Hall” article. Rehman spoke on a panel about the economy.
Young Hoon Kwak, associate professor of decision sciences, was featured on Federal News Radio’s “Federal Drive” seg-ment. The Nov. 1 story, “Earned value management gaining trac-tion,” discussed the growing use of earned value management in government.
39
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
EuroBizDoug Guthrie, dean and pro-fessor of international business and professor of management, appeared in the November 2010 cover story of EuroBiz. The arti-cle, “Lust for luxury: High fash-ion brands hone in on Chinese consumers,” analyzed the con-sumer market in China. “The key point is that just getting to China isn’t going to do any-thing for you. It just gets you an expensive storefront in Shang-hai,” Guthrie said. “Actually penetrating the consumer mar-ket and nouveau riche requires some strategizing—a China spe-cific strategy.”
Guthrie also discussed the economy, China and currency issues during CNBC’s World-wide Exchange program on Oct. 28.
Timothy Fort, executive director of GWSB’s Institute for Corpo-rate Responsibility and profes-sor of strategic management and public policy, was featured on The Wrap, a blog about Hol-lywood. In his Oct. 28 article, “The Couch Potato’s Opportu-nity to Lessen Football Concus-sions,” Fort implored football fans to support NFL Commis-sioner Roger Goodell’s new safety regulations. “Fan enthu-siasm drives the entertainment juggernaut of professional foot-ball,” he said. “To protect the players who entertain us and the game we enjoy, fans could help a lot by supporting Goodell now. It might set a nice precedent for fans of other events as well.”
Hossein Askari, Iran Professor in the Department of International
Business, was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition. The Oct. 28 story, “Amid Iran’s Economic Woes, Sanctions Begin to Bite,” discussed the impact of sanc-tions on Iran’s government and economy. “I absolutely believe that the impact of reduced oil revenues and the cost of the sub-sidies is really squeezing the gov-ernment of Iran,” Askari said.
foodnavigator-usa.comHoward Beales, professor of strategic management and pub-lic policy, was cited on foodnav-igator-usa.com for his research review of food advertising and child obesity. The Oct. 22 article discussed how Beales’ review was used by Grocer Manufactur-er’s Association Vice President for Federal Affairs Scott Faber at a meeting of the Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board workshop. The work-shop focused on legal strategies in childhood obesity prevention.
Robert Weiner, professor of international business, public policy and public administra-tion and international affairs, was featured Oct. 22 on the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch. In the story “China, India not overpaying for oil, expert says,” he responded to concerns about those nations’ oil acquisitions. “With economic competition from a new source, anxiety is a typical reaction,” Weiner said. “[But] Chinese companies are going around buying oil at com-mercial terms; they’re not doing anything different.”
The GW Business Plan Compe-tition was featured in an article on George Washington Today.
The Oct. 21 article, “Starting a Startup,” announced the kick-off of the third year of the GW Business Plan Competition. The competition is now open to faculty as well as students and alumni.
WBURHossein Askari, Iran Professor in the Department of International Business, was featured in a news story on Boston’s NPR station, WBUR. The story looked at the attempt by the supreme leader of Iran to repair his reputation. Askari was quoted in the Oct. 21 report as saying, “I don’t think that many of the senior clerics in Qom who have expressed views against him will, in fact, back down and back him.”
Doug Guthrie, dean and profes-sor of international business and management, was a guest writer for The Washington Post On Leadership column. In the Oct. 18 article, “What Don Draper gets wrong,” Guthrie described the qualities of a good leader. “Don Draper might be right that it is better to be respected than liked, but for the best leaders, fear has no place in a healthy organization,” Guthrie wrote.
@Ford OnlineThe GWSB Institute for Cor-porate Responsibility (ICR) was mentioned in an article on @Ford Online, a publication of the automaker. The Oct. 18 article, “Georgia Tech, George Washington University Help Ford Tackle Sustainability Issues Around the World,” detailed Ford Motor Co.’s partnership with ICR. “George Washing-ton…is helping Ford develop a corporate ethics strategy that will allow the company to maintain its high standards for
upholding human rights within its supply chain,” the article said.
GreenwireJorge Rivera, associate profes-sor of strategic management and public policy, was featured in an article on Greenwire. In the Oct. 15 article, “Too-loud SunChips bag underscores green products’ problems,” Rivera discussed the challenges of marketing green products. “The green prod-uct has to be in the same store [customers] usually go to and in the same aisle at the same eye level. Most people will not drive two more miles to buy recycled paper,” Rivera said.
MyLifetime.comGil Yancey, executive director of the F. David Fowler Career Center, was interviewed by MyLifetime.com. In an Oct. 13 article titled “Beginning Your Job Search,” Yancey shares tips on how to secure a job in today’s market. “Start early. Do not wait until the last minute,” Yancey said. “There are 26 mil-lion unemployed or currently underemployed. It’s not rocket science, but finding employment opportunities in today’s competi-tive environment is hard work.”
An Oct. 12 Washington Post Express article quoted Lisa Delpy Neirotti, associate profes-sor of tourism and sport man-agement, discussing how sports team experience can be applied to an office workplace. “You understand that no matter who’s having a bad day or who’s off their game, you still all have to work together and sometimes compensate for other people to achieve the goal of winning,” she said. The article carried the headline “At Work, Become a League of Your Own: Athletes in the Workforce.”
40
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
John Artz, associate professor of information systems and technology manage-ment, has received a Computing Reviews web badge. He was awarded the distinction for publishing 100 reviews in Comput-ing Reviews, the journal of the Asso-ciation of Computing Machinery.
Hossein Askari, Iran Professor of International Business and International Affairs, Scheherazade Rehman, professor of international finance, and the World Bank’s Nora
Arfaa have published the book Corrup-tion and its Manifesta-tion in the Persian Gulf. The authors investi-
gated various forms and measures of corruption, examined whether corruption is more acute in Persian Gulf countries than elsewhere and looked at corruption in oil- and natural gas-rich economies. They also analyzed the major factors that encourage corrupt practices and how they impact economic growth and social development.
J. Howard Beales, associate professor of strategic management and public policy, testi-fied Sept. 23
before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. He addressed proposed legislation covering sales practices in the precious metals and rare coin markets.
Edward Cherian, professor of information systems and technology manage-ment, presented “Can Distance Education Equal Classroom Learning?” at the Inter-national Conference of Education, Research and Innovation held Nov. 15-17 in Madrid, Spain.
Timothy Fort, executive director of the Institute for Corpo-rate Respon-sibility and professor of strategic
management and public policy, received the SIM Best Book Award from the Social Issues in Manage-
ment division of the Academy of Management. Fort’s book, Business, Integrity, and Peace, pub-lished in October 2007, advocates the benefits of ethical business prac- tices. The award was announced in the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education e-newsletter in September.
Fort recently published Peace Through Commerce: A Multisectoral Approach. The book, available through Springer, was previously published as part of a special issue of the Journal of Business.
Katherine Korman Frey, adjunct professor of management and GWSB Entrepre-neur in Residence, organized a “Sisterhood University” at GWSB. The Oct. 9 event brought female community leaders together in an effort to increase per-sonal and professional self-efficacy.
Theodore Glickman, professor of decision sciences, co-authored a paper titled “The Nested Event
Tree Model with Application to Combating Terrorism” in the Fall 2010 issue of INFORMS Journal of
Computing. Brian Lunday of West Point and Hanif Sherali of Virginia Tech also contributed to the paper, which aims to “model and solve the strategic problem of minimizing the expected loss inflicted by a hostile terrorist organization.”
Angela Gore, assistant professor of accoun-tancy, received the AAA 2010 Wildman Medal Award at the Aug. 3 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting. She was awarded this distinction for her paper “Con-sequences of GAAP Disclosure Regulation: Evidence from Munici-pal Debt Issues” co-authored with William Baber, professor of financial and managerial accounting at Georgetown University.
Doug Guthrie, dean, professor of international business and professor of management, discussed key factors
in China’s economic success during an Oct. 7 seminar on sustainability in China. The GWSB seminar also examined why China’s adoption rate for green technologies surpasses that of the United States.
Select Faculty Publications and Presentations
41
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
Guthrie also spoke at the G2 at GW: 3rd Annual Conference on China’s Economic Develop- ment and U.S.-China Economic Relations. At that Oct. 8 gathering, he presented his paper, “Eco- nomic Development and U.S.-China Relations.”
William Halal, professor emeritus of information systems and technology manage-ment, made
a presentation on Oct. 18 as part of the “Aviation Unleashed” panel led by Dennis Bushnell, NASA Langley’s chief scientist. Halal shared findings from his TechCast project, which put a date on impor-tant future milestones. Two days later, Halal served on the Mexico Encounter 2010 “Tools, Tech-nologies and Social Gaps” panel, discussing the effect of today’s technological revolution on society.
On Sept. 14, Halal gave a presen-tation titled “Bank Failure” before a packed audience at the Charlotte Economics Club in North Carolina.
William C. Handorf, professor of finance, and Haiyan Yin, assistant professor of finance at Indiana University South Bend, published “State Dependency of Bank Stock Reaction to Federal Funds Rate Target Changes” in the fall issue of The Journal of Financial Research. Handorf also published “Portfolio Diversification and Business Lend-ing” in Commercial Lending Review (September/October 2010) and a Sept. 7 editorial on Wall Street reform in Valor Econômico in São Paulo, Brazil.
Salah Hassan, chair and professor of the Department of Marketing, presented a paper at the Sept. 9-12 Global Marketing Conference
in Tokyo. His paper, “Nation Branding Effects on Retrospec-tive Global Evalua-tion of Past Travel Experiences,” was co-authored with Milena Nikolova, PhD, ’10.
Sanjay Jain, associate professor of decision sciences, published two papers in the pro-ceedings of
the 2010 Winter Simulation Conference. “A Framework for Multi-Resolution Modeling of Sustainable Manufacturing,” co-authored with Deogratias Kibira of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), proposes use of system dynamics for analysis of policy options for sustainable manufacturing. The second paper, “A Knowledge Sharing Framework for Homeland Security Modeling and Simulation,” co-authored with Charles W. Hutchings of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Charles R. McLean and Tina Lee of NIST, defines a framework for coordinating modeling and simulation efforts for homeland security applications.
Jain also published a paper in the International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Volume 6, Issue 4, 2010. “Infrastructure for model-based production schedul-ing” was co-authored with Lars Mönch of the University of Hagen, Thomas Jähnig of Qimonda and Peter Lendermann of D-SIMLAB Technologies. The paper discusses the infrastructure required for implementation of model-based production scheduling software.
Jaclyn M. Jensen, professor of management, co-authored “The Fifth Scenario: Identity Expansion in Organizational Psychology” with David Costanza, GW professor of
organizational sciences and commu-nication. The paper appeared in the September 2010 issue of Industrial and Orga-nizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice.
Jensen also gave two presen-tations at the Academy of Management meeting, held Aug. 6-10 in Montreal. They were “The Context of Workplace Harassment: HR Practices, Work Environments and Organizational Factors” and “Credibility Percep-tions: Effects on Attitudes, Inten-tions, And Behaviors.”
D. Christopher Kayes, assistant professor of management science, published “Learning-Directed
Leadership in a Chang-ing World” in Vol. 21 of The Systems Thinker newsletter and “Learn-ing and work satis-
faction in Asia: A comparative study of Japanese, Chinese and Malaysian managers” in the International Journal of Human Resource Manage-ment. His co-author was Yoshitaka Yamazaki of the International University of Japan.
Kayes took part in the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, held August 6-10 in Montreal, where he co-presented a paper titled “Emotionally intelligent norms and their relationship to team learning and performance” with Han-Huei Tsay, a GWSB management doctoral student.Additionally, Kayes presented “Team learning in novel and complex situations: Perspectives from business and beyond” on May 20 at the Johns Hopkins Medical School Department of Anesthe-siology and Critical Care Grand Rounds in Baltimore.
Mark Klock, interim associate dean for research and doctoral studies, presented
a paper Nov. 1 at a Florida State University seminar. The paper, “On the Acquisition of Equity Carve-outs,” was co-authored with Chintal Desai, PhD, ’08, and Sattar Mansi, PhD, ’99.
Klock also published in the fall issue of the Arizona State Law Jour-nal. His paper, “Lessons Learned from Bernard Madoff: Why We Should Partially Privatize the Barney Fifes at the SEC,” discusses financial market fraud.
Young Hoon Kwak, associ-ate professor of decision sciences, published a report in the IBM Center for The Business of Government’s Fall/Win-ter 2010 edition of The Business of Government. The report was titled “Project Management in Govern-ment: An Introduction to Earned Value Management.”
Miguel Lejeune, assistant professor of decision sciences, published a study in the 2010
Handbook of Quantitative Finance and Risk Management. His study, “Combinatorial Methods for Constructing Credit Risk Ratings,” was co-authored with Alex Kogan of Rutgers University.
He also published in the European Journal of Operational Research. His article, “Mathemati-cal Programming Generation of p-Efficient Points,” co-authored with Nilay Noyan of Sabanci University, appeared in Volume 207, Issue 2 of the journal.
42
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
Ying Li, GWSB assistant professor of accountancy, co-authored an article with Donal Byard and Yong Yu. “The Effect of Mandatory IFRS Adoption on Financial Analysts’ Information Environment” was selected for publication in the Journal of Accounting Research.
Tjai M. Nielsen, dean’s research scholar and assistant professor of manage-ment, had
“Utility of OCB: Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Group Performance in a Resource Alloca-tion Framework” selected for publication in the highly regarded Journal of Management.
Nielsen was also recently recog-nized as one of the top reviewers for the Journal of Organizational Behavior. Nielsen has served on the editorial board since 2008.
Schehe-razade Rehman, director of the Euro-pean Union Research Center, was recognized by the GW 2010 Service Excel-lence Celebration Committee. She received the Parent Choice Award in November for her commitment to exceptional service.
Rehman, a professor of inter-national finance, was a panelist at The Brookings Institution’s Dec. 1 workshop titled “In the Wake of the Crisis: Macroeconomic Dilemmas and Financial Regulation Chal-lenges For Europe, America and the World.” She was also a keynote speaker at the Missouri Valley Economic Association’s Oct. 28
“State of the Union” panel and she presented a co-authored the paper “Explaining the Returns of Active Currency Managers and Public Investors” for the Third Joint Bank of International Settlements/Euro-pean Central Bank/World Bank Public Investors Conference held in Basel, Switzerland, Nov 2-3.
Jorge E. Rivera, professor of strategic management and public policy, has published Business
and Public Policy: Responses to Environmental and Social Protection Processes. The book presents a new theoretical framework for under-standing the relationship between protective public policies and business compliance.
Robert Savickas, associate professor of finance, and Jorge Rivera, associate professor of strategic management and public policy, were recently honored with the Peter Vaill award. The award was established in honor of Vaill, a former GWSB professor who was celebrated for his commitment to assisting doctoral students. The professors received their plaques of recognition at the Sept. 24 faculty meeting.
Jorge Walter, professor of strategic management and public policy, joined Dan-iel Levin of Rutgers
University and Melissa Appleyard of Portland State University in a presentation titled “Trusted Bridg-ing Ties: A Dyadic Solution to the Brokerage-Closure Dilemma” at the
Academy of Management meeting held Aug. 6-10 in Montreal.
Walter presented the paper, “Decision alignment: A missing link in the relationship between strategic consensus and organizational performance,” at the Fifth Annual Mid-Atlantic Strategy Colloquium held Nov. 12-13 in Col-lege Park, Md. Co-authors on the paper include F.W. Kellermanns, J. Walter, J. Matherne, S.W. Floyd and J.F. Veiga.
Walter also wrote the chapter “Strategic decision processes in the realm of strategic alliances” in the Handbook of Research on Strategy Process and published “Dormant Ties: The Value of Reconnecting” in the journal Organization Science. The latter, co-authored with Daniel Levin of Rutgers University and J. Keith Murnighan of the Kellogg School of Management, came out of a study that examined the value of reconnecting with people from one’s past.
Robert Weiner, professor of international business, public policy and public administra-tion and international affairs, presented a paper at the Sept. 17-18 Yale Law School Economics of Anti-Corruption Policy Conference. He co-authored the paper, “Conflict and Corruption in International Trade: Who Helped Iraq Circum-vent United Nations Sanctions?” with Yujin Jeong, PhD, ’10, assistant professor of international business at HEC Montreal.
Weiner and Jeong also co-authored the paper, “Sacks of Cash, Tankers of Oil: Who helped Iraq circumvent United Nations’ sanctions?” It received honorable mention in the first Transparency International Anti-Corruption Research Network research paper competition.
Meanwhile, Weiner discussed “State Capitalism and Foreign Direct Investment: Are Chinese and Indian Companies Buying up the
World’s Oil?” at a seminar co-spon-sored by the International Business Department, the Rising Powers Initiative within the Elliott School of International Affairs’ Sigur Center for Asian Studies and the Asia Soci-ety. The Oct. 22 seminar was based on Weiner’s paper “Do Managers Carry the Flag? Evidence from Foreign Resource Acquisition,” co-authored with Jeong.
Yanfeng Xue, assistant pro-fessor in the Department of Accoun-tancy, co-authored with John Robinson
and Yong Yu an article titled “Determinants of disclosure noncompliance and the effect of the SEC review: evidence from the 2006 mandated compensation disclosure regulations.” The paper was selected for publication in the Accounting Review.
She also co-authored an article with Michael Clement and Jeffery Hales, “Understanding Analysts’ Use of Stock Returns and Other Analysts’ Revisions when Forecast-ing Earnings,” which was selected for publication in the Journal of Accounting and Economics.
Jiawen Yang, professor of international business and international affairs, co-authored a paper with Deming Wu of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Han Hong of Stanford University. “Securitization and Banks’ Equity Risk” was pub-lished online Sept. 4 by the Journal of Financial Services Research.
Yang also co-authored a paper with Hui He of James Madison University. “Regime-switching analysis of ADR home market pass-through” appeared in the Journal of Banking & Finance.
Julie Ann W
oodford
43
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
GWSB Alumni Profile:Richard Y. PinedaDEGREES: Virginia Tech, BS, Finance, ’95;
GWSB, MBA, ’01
CURRENT POSTION: Vice President of Dell Corp.’s
Federal Government Services, responsible for
managing business strategy, overall operations
(including oversight for a dedicated group of
4,000 team members) and long-term growth of the
organization, which consists of a roughly $4 billion
portfolio of work.
FIRST JOB: Manager at First Virginia Bank.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: I was motivated to pursue a
business career at an early age and have achieved a
relative degree of success at a young age. Over the
course of my career, I’ve had to push back against
the perception of being the “young guy” and shift
the focus to what I bring to the table.
BEST B-SCHOOL MEMORY: I enjoyed the
professional collaboration with my MBA program
cohorts and peers, who were some of the best and
brightest. I learned as much from them as I did from
the faculty and staff.
HOW GWSB LED TO YOUR CAREER: My GWSB MBA
gave me the certification and accreditation to help
advance my career significantly.
GOALS: My family has always been my first priority.
I have to ensure that I’m balancing work and life
with my wife and children. As far as professional
goals, I’m not limiting myself. I’m incredibly excited
about leading Dell’s Federal Services business.
RECENT READING: I’m currently reading Stephen R.
Covey’s The Speed of Trust.
PERSONAL: Lives in Fairfax Station, Va., with wife,
Kathryn, and their three children, 7-year-old Rachel,
5-year-old Richard Jr. and Reagan, 16 months. Active
in several professional associations, including the
GWSB Corporate Collaborative Council. Enjoys golf,
automobile restoration and amateur car racing.
44
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
DEVELOPMENT
UPDA
TE Emerging Markets for GWSB Development and Alumni Relations
In his first few months as dean, Doug Guthrie energeti-cally participated in development and alumni activities for the School of Business. In addition to hosting events and visiting alumni and GWSB friends in Washington, D.C., he has traveled to New York City, California and Korea—established alumni regions—to share his vision for the School of Business and discuss opportu-nities for alumni involvement. He is also commit-ted to spending time in GWSB “emerging markets,” where development and alumni officers are building networks of newly engaged alumni. The enthusiasm in these new regions is high as alumni and friends show their eagerness to build on the momentum.
RALEIGH-DURHAM, N.C.Eric Goldman in the GWSB Office of Development and Alumni Relations has led an effort to build a robust
alumni presence in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. In just under two years, dozens of alumni have become engaged in the outreach. Nearly 20 of them braved a January snowstorm to hear the dean detail future plans for the School.
“We were all impressed with his vision for our school and proud we are GW grad-uates,” said I. Allan From, GW trustee and BBA, ’72. “I am especially happy to see the dean’s outreach to the alums as I know he will be repeating this all over the world,” added From, who hosted the gathering. “It really creates excitement.”
DENVER Working in tandem with the University’s Alumni Programs, John Wall from the GWSB Office of Development and Alumni Relations brought together nearly 50 Denver-area alumni for a panel discussion titled “From Wall Street to Your Street: The crash, the recov-ery and your portfo-lio.” John Roberts, BBA, ’89, of Denver Investments, and Brian Fried-man, BA, ‘89, of GHP Investment Advisors, hosted the December event at the Denver Athletic Club.
The event was one of several on tap for area alumni, who also volunteered as a group with Habitat for Humanity. Coming events include a March discus-sion with the dean and “George Washington’s Birth-day Celebration.” GW Trustee Stuart Kassan, MD, ’72, and his wife, Gail Kassan, will host the event with the dean. Denver Alumni Association chair Leslie Deniken, MBA, ’91, will host the birthday gathering.
SOUTH FLORIDAIn January, Dean Doug Guthrie made his first trip to South Florida, where GWSB has some 740 alumni—retired and working professionals in real estate, finance and health care management. Rebecca Wanek of the GWSB Office of Development and Alumni Relations coordinated events in Boca Raton and Miami where alumni met the dean, shared ideas and expressed interest in activities aimed at raising the School’s pro-Eric Goldman
John Wall
45
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
file. “We were very excited to meet Dean Guthrie and hear his thoughts on how to better prepare GW School of Business grad-uates for today’s increasingly global environment,” said Boca Raton participant Mari Adam, MBA, ’89. “We were also very proud to see GW well positioned by location, curriculum and resources to take a leading role in global business education.”
DEAN VISITS SOUTH KOREADean Doug Guthrie joined a GW delegation traveling to Seoul, South Korea. During the December trip, he spent several days visiting alumni individually and in small groups. The Korean Alumni Association’s Year-End Party included a discussion and reception featuring Guthrie and Michael E. Brown, dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs. More than 150 GW alumni turned up to hear
the dean’s address “U.S.-Asia Relations: The view from Washington with a special focus on Korea.” Guthrie focused on economic issues and Brown talked about security, both timely topics given the tensions between North and South Korea.
Doug Guthrie with South Korean alumni group.
It is bittersweet for me to write my last column as executive director of Develop-ment and Alumni Relations for the School of Business. I am stepping down to join the Pew Charitable Trusts in its Washington, D.C., office. I am so proud to have been part of the remarkable change and growth at GWSB over the last seven years, from the construction of Duquès Hall, to the School’s rise in the rankings, to the recruitment of Dean Doug Guthrie.
As I leave, I would be remiss if I did not share the news of two generous gifts and two new team members.
In November 2010, the Century Council, a national, independent, not-for-profit organization that develops programs and policies to fight drunk driving and stop underage drinking, made a gift of $75,000 to support the work of Professor Lynda Maddox in the Department of Marketing. The grant will help Maddox create, implement and further evaluate the effec-tiveness of specific, creative, public-service advertising messages aimed at reducing dangerous overconsumption of alcohol on college campuses. A GWSB advertising team proposed the campaign during a national student competition last year.
Also in November, our office and the dean hosted a dinner that introduced Z-Medica to the 11 student-veteran recipients of the company’s QuikClot
Scholarship. Brian Herrman, BBA, ’77, is CEO of Z-Medica. In speaking at the event, Guthrie was joined by Z-Medica founders Frank Hursey and Bart Gullong. A few weeks later, Z-Medica renewed its generous gift to fund 11 new scholarships for 2011-2012.
The end of the year also saw the arrival of two terrific new staff members. Ben Simmons joined as our executive assistant for School Alumni Programs in November. He is a recent graduate of Penn State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Telecommunications with a minor in busi-ness. At GWSB, Simmons leads alumni social media efforts. A month later, Stephanie Gresham joined the office as executive assistant. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and French from Arizona State University and currently is a student in GW’s Master’s of Public Administration pro-gram, studying nonprofit management. She aspires to a career in develop-ment and is learning how to process gifts and plan alumni visits and events.
It has been my great pleasure getting to know so many School of Business alumni in my time here. Thank you for the personal and philanthropic con-tributions you have made. The commitment of passionate alumni continu-ally enhances GWSB’s potential for success.
Onward and upward.
Sincerely,Karen Ancillai, BA, ’97
Former Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relation
LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
46
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
Alumni Relations UpdateYou are one of the 60,000 graduates of The George Washington Univer-sity School of Business and a lifetime member of the GWSB Alumni Net-work. Your GWSB stock is rising continually and, by investing your time and knowledge in the vitality of the School, you increase the value of the GWSB Alumni Network and create a stronger legacy for our current students.
Over these past few months, members of the GWSB Alumni Network have contributed to our community through gifts of work and wisdom. They have attended alumni events, hosted students during career treks, served as MBA Mentors, hosted tables at the GWSB Links for Life Lunch, signed up for the Career Advisor Network, hired a GWSB student or fellow alumnus and submitted content for our alumni publications. There are a variety of ways to give back to GWSB. We invite you to participate in the opportunities that you find most meaningful.
One of the simplest gifts you can give is to keep your contact informa-tion current. It is easy to do so at alumni.gwu.edu/alumni/update. When you visit this site, you can also subscribe to our alumni publications to ensure that you hear about all the
opportunities for staying connected to your alma mater.
As you read about our events, programs and volunteer opportuni-ties, please consider where you might contribute your work and wisdom to make the GWSB Alumni Network even greater.
Dean Guthrie Globetrots to Meet AlumniIn his first months with the School, Dean Doug Guthrie has made it a priority to meet members of the GWSB Alumni Network. His travels have taken him to Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, Raleigh, South Florida and South Korea. In addition to sharing his vision for GWSB, the dean has engaged alumni in a dialogue to learn about their memories of busi-ness school and how they envision the School’s future.
“It was so inspiring to spend time talking to alumni and hearing firsthand about their enthusiasm for the future of this School,” Guthrie said. “I want to thank all of the alumni who were so generous to take time out of their schedules to meet with me, not to mention the philanthropic support we have received from them through their work, wealth and wisdom.”
Guthrie continues his worldwide tour this spring with planned trips to visit alumni in Denver, Charlotte, N.C., Taiwan and India.
GWSB Signature Alumni Programs2010 GWSB Graduate Programs ReunionMore than 100 GWSB alumni from across the country took part in the 2010 GWSB Graduate Programs Reunion in the fall. That event honored alumni who exemplify the School’s pillars: Act responsibly, lead passionately and think globally.
Dean Doug Guthrie honored Tom di Galoma, MBA, ’85, senior managing director and head of the U.S. Fixed Income Rates Trading Group at Guggenheim Partners; Vicky Lazzell, MBA, ’80, senior vice president at Boston Private Bank & Trust Co.; Beverly Bogerty, MTA, ’00, owner of Occasions Inc.; and Burlie Brunson, EMBA, ’95, vice president of programs, plans and analysis for Lockheed Martin Corporate Strategy and Business Development.
The annual GWSB Distinguished Alumni Achievement Awards are the highest honor given by the dean to alumni of GWSB Graduate Programs. Recipients are selected based on their lasting influence on
the GWSB community through out-standing contributions in the areas of work, wealth and wisdom.
Following the ceremony, attend-ees joined University Alumni Week-end participants at the Barenaked Ladies concert on the University Yard. Other weekend highlights included the 4th Annual Ramsey Student Investment Conference fea-turing keynote speaker Steve Ross, BBA, ’81, and the GW Alumni Breakfast with Guthrie, Associate Dean Murat Tarimcilar and Provost Steve Lerman.
Save Sept. 11-18, the date for the 2011 GWSB Graduate Programs Reunion and GW Alumni Week-end. We look forward to seeing you back on campus.
GWSB Students Take ManhattanGWSB students meant business when they took a bite out of the Big Apple during the 2010 MBA and Undergraduate New York Career Treks.
More than 40 MBA students took advantage of the fall trip, attending corporate presentations and informal breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings with alumni in New York City. Students were divided into business practice areas such as marketing, finance, real estate and consulting. Among the distinguished alumni who met with students were Charles Bendit,
ALUMNINEWS
47
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
BBA, ’75, at Taconic Investment Partners; Tom diGaloma, MBA, ’85, at Guggenheim Partners; Adam Geisler, BS, ’99, at Everlast Worldwide; John Drayton, MBA, ’87, at Citigroup Inc.; Stephen Yalof, BBA, ’85, at Polo Ralph Lauren; and Carly Cohen, BA, ’03, at David Yurman.
The MBA students also net-worked with hundreds of alumni during the kickoff reception for the GW Global Forum at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. They were welcomed by GW President Steven Knapp.
The fall undergraduate trek, meanwhile, saw nearly 50 students travel to New York City. The students split into three groups—finance/accounting, marketing and sports management—for an experi-ence tailored to their fields of inter-est. The trek included company site visits, breakfast with alumni, a “There’s No Business Like Sports Business” panel discussion and an alumni-networking reception.
During in-office sessions and small group breakfast meetings, the undergraduates met with more than 20 distinguished GWSB alumni. Alumni who shared their experi-ences, insight and professional advice included Eric Herd, BBA, ’06, at SportsFan Live; Caroline Turitto, BBA, ’04, and Karyn Sha-piro, BBA ‘08, at Ironshore; Laura Braude Greenfield, BBA, ’04, at M&T Bank; Tiffany Putnam, BBA, ’01, and Aaron Spool, BBA, ’00, at Moody’s; and Jonathan Hochberg, BBA, ’85, at Hillview Capital Advisors.
The student/alumni panel and networking reception at The New York Palace proved to be a highlight of the trip. The program “There’s No Business Like Sports Business” featured panelists, Joel Segal, BA, ’86, president of BEST
Football, and Keith Wachtel, BBA, ’92, senior vice president of marketing for the National Hockey League. Lisa Delpy Neirotti, associate professor of tourism and sport management, moderated the discussion focused on careers in sports management.
If you live in the New York area and want to be involved in the GWSB Career Treks, e-mail: [email protected].
GWSB Alumni Programs OnlineStay connected with the GWSB Alumni Network on LinkedIn, Facebook and TwitterThe GWSB Alumni Relations team is excited to announce a new and improved presence on several online social networks. By joining us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, alumni can stay informed about programs and events while connecting with other members of the GWSB Alumni Network.
These channels not only allow GWSB Alumni Relations to share information with you, but they also encourage communication and dia-logue within our community. If you have a news article to share or seek feedback on a discussion, we invite you to post this information on the following social media sites.
Professor Lisa Delpy Neirotti moderates the “There’s No Business Like Sports Business” panel discussion hosted during the Undergraduate New York Career Trek. GWSB Sports Executive Hall of Fame inductee, Joel Segal, BA, ’86, responds to student questions.
Dean Guthrie presents Tom di Galoma, MBA, ’85, with the GWSB Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award
LinkedInThe GWSB LinkedIn Group is already connected to more than 6,600 alumni, faculty and staff mem-bers. By joining us on LinkedIn, you gain access to our postings on upcoming programs and volunteer opportunities. Group members can post and view information on career and networking opportunities. And you can share your experiences and ideas in discussions on topics rang-ing from career advice to network-ing tactics.
Group membership is restricted to those affiliated with GWSB. Before requesting to join, be sure to display your GWSB affiliation on your profile. Your membership will be approved within a few days.
FacebookThe GWSB Alumni page on Facebook is your comprehensive “go-to” resource. This is where GWSB Alumni learn about coming events and programs and develop GWSB News. Photos from recent events are also posted here, as well. We encourage alumni to post com-ments, take part in discussions and raise topics that will further engage the GWSB Alumni Network.
If you are currently a member of the GWSB alumni group on Face-book, we ask you to “Like” our new Facebook page: www.facebook.com/gwsbalumni.
TwitterOur new resource, @GWSBalumni, enables you to hear from the GWSB Alumni Network more frequently. In addition to updating followers on School, campus and alumni hap-penings, we plan to launch contests, questions and discussion items. To make the most of this network-ing tool, we invite you to tweet us with items you want to share with classmates.
You can follow us @GWSB alumni. We encourage tweeting with the hashtags #GWU and #GWSB. We also encourage your participation in posting discussions or articles on current business events, your feedback on recent GWSB alumni programs and your memories from business school. If you have any questions or comments, contact us via our social media sites or e-mail us at: [email protected].
News From GWSB Alumni GroupsMSPM Alumni AssociationThe GW Master of Science in Project Management Alumni Asso-ciation hosted several fall programs. With 900 alumni throughout the world, the MSPM Alumni Associa-tion has a truly global base.
Members of the MSPM Alumni Association kicked off the academic year with a reception and company fair to welcome the new class of MSPM students. Students had the opportunity to meet alumni and network with project manage-ment firms. The association also sponsored a webinar on ethics in the procurement industry before closing out the calendar year with a reception to welcome December graduates, the association’s newest members.
If you are an MSPM alumnus, we want to hear from you. You are encouraged to join us on Facebook and LinkedIn, both under the name The GWU School of Busi-ness Master of Science in Project Management Alumni. For more information e-mail: [email protected].
GW Tech Alumni GroupOn Nov. 4, 2010, the GW Tech Alumni Group hosted the interac-tive roundtable and networking event “Removing the Barriers to Organizational Agility” at the Crain Center in Duquès Hall.
Panelists discussed their experi-ences operating within a rapidly changing landscape as well as their strategies to overcome barriers to organizational agility in the federal government. This discussion, led by current and past federal IT execu-tives, provided solutions for current issues facing government agencies.
To become involved with the GW Tech Alumni Group or learn more about its future events, contact Brian Moran, EMIS, ’07 at: [email protected].
EMBA Alumni Association (EMBAAA) The Executive MBA Alumni Asso-ciation moved into the school year
poised to make a meaningful impact both on alumni and the EMBA program. Through several meet-ings, strong alumni leaders have emerged, working tirelessly to forge the direction of the group and create unparalleled events for its alumni.
Last fall, the EMBA Alumni Association board’s work on a high-level speaker series became a reality when GW hosted Edward S. Knight of NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. Knight is executive vice president, general counsel and chief regula-tory officer for the world’s largest exchange company, responsible for company listing standards and overall compliance.
The EMBA Alumni Association wants to make the alumni experi-ence as purposeful as possible. If you have an interest in assuming a leadership position or joining the steering committee, contact Presi-dent James Robertson, MBA, ’07, at: [email protected].
48
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
ALUMNINEWS
Edward S. Knight, executive vice president, general counsel and chief regulatory officer for NASDAQ OMX Group Inc., speaks to the EMBA Alumni Association during its fall lifelong learning program.
GW Tourism Alumni Network (GWTAN)This winter, GWTAN launched its Tourism Thirsty Thursdays, a program of monthly gatherings to encourage networking among MTA Alumni. GWTAN also looks forward to its annual Spring Colloquium.
The GW Tourism Alumni Net-work, made up of alumni from the undergraduate and MTA programs, is led by President Beverly Bogerty, MTA, ’00. To get involved with GWTAN, visit its website: www.gwutourism.org/tan/index.html or e-mail [email protected].
GWSB Alumni BenefitsBecause You Are GW AlumniDon’t forget, GW alumni are entitled to a host of benefits. You can get discounts on car insur-ance and life insurance. You are a member of the Club Quarters business-hotel chain, can become a member of the NIH Federal Credit Union and can save on your home mortgage through CitiMortgage. Also, all alumni receive access to the many databases found in Gelman Library.
Spring’s Featured Benefit:Introducing the new George Washington Alumni Association Checking Account at Bank of America. You can now get a George Washington check card and checks from Bank of America with many great benefits: • Checks and check card that
show your GW spirit.• Access to “Keep the Change”
with a bonus match rate. • Free Total Security Protection
package.
• Account access at more than 6,100 banking centers and 18,000 bank-owned ATMs. • Special pricing for members
on CDs and IRAs. • Secure Online Account Access
with up-to-the-minute account activity, credit card bill payment, monthly statements via e-mail and more.
Visit www.bankofamerica.com/gwalumni or your neighborhood Bank of America branch to open your account.
As with the GW credit card, every George Washington Alumni Association Check Card purchase you make provides valuable finan-cial support to the Alumni Associa-tion—at no additional cost to you.
Bank of America will also make a contribution for every new checking account opened.
For more information contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 1-800-ALUMNI-7 or e-mail: [email protected].
49
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
Keep in touch! We want to know what alumni are doing, including career changes and exciting personal news. E-mail your class notes to: [email protected].
To update your contact information, visit www.alumni.gwu.edu/update. If you are looking for ways to reconnect with the GWSB Alumni Network, send a message to: [email protected].
KEEP IN TOUCH
GWSB ALUMNI LEADERS
GW Alumni Association Alumni Trustees I. Allan From GWSB BBA, ’72
Steve Ross GWSB BBA, ’81
GWAA OfficersVice President of Financial Affairs and Treasurer Blaine Atkisson GWSB BAccy, ’98; MBA, ’02
Chair, International Programs Committee Pilar Rivera GWSB BBA, ’96
Representative, HSML Alumni Association Charles Kuebler GWSB/SPHHS MBA, ’70
GWAA School of Business DelegatesMatthew Cohen GWSB BBA, ’08; MBA, ’11
Marc Goldsmith GWSB BBA, ’75
Blagovest Petkov GWSB MAccy, ’03
Regional RepresentativesMichael La Place Jr. CCAS BA, ’85; GWSB MURP, ’89
Kelly Schirmer GWSB BBA, ’03; SPHHS MHSA, ’06
GWAA Members at LargeBuddy M. Lesavoy GWSB BBA, ’80; MBA, ’82; LAW JD, ’87
Leslie Megyeri CCAS BA, ’63; LAW JD, ’68; GWSB MBA, ’80
GWAA ParliamentarianJeremy Gosbee CCAS BA, ’98; MBA, ’02
EMBA Alumni Association (EMBAAA)James Robertson EMBA, ’07 President [email protected]
GW Tourism Alumni Network (GWTAN)Beverly Bogerty MTA, ’00 President [email protected]
MSPM Alumni Association J. Russell Fugett MSPM, ’07 President [email protected]
GW Tech Group Brian Moran MSIST, ’07 President [email protected]
and UPDATE US OFTEN!
50
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
60sClifford M. Kendall, MBA, ’65, was honored Feb. 9, 2011, with the inaugural Tech Council of Maryland Lifetime Achievement Award. The award spotlights executives who not only excelled in their careers but also who have served their commu-nities. Kendall has been a member of the GW Board of Trustees and now is an emeritus trustee. He sits on the GWSB Board of Advi-sors and chaired the fundraising campaign to construct Duquès Hall. Kendall is the retired chairman and CEO of Computer Data Systems Inc. and has held positions at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, American University and Washington Univer-sity in St. Louis.
70sJon Larson, MBA, ’71, was elected judge executive in Fayette County, Ky. Larson lives in Lexington.
Roger Justice, MPA, ’72, is the regional operations manager for CKS Packaging Inc. in Kansas City, Mo. Justice leads the division for growth in the U.S. Southwest and is responsible for supplying plastic containers from manufacturing plants in Texas, Missouri and Mississippi to Coca Cola, Nestle and Roberts Dairy and other clients.
Peter S. Mulvey, MS, ’74, passed away on Nov. 25, 2010. He was 63. Mulvey’s career was highlighted by his tenure at Presbyterian Homes, a nonprofit organization that developed retirement communities in the Chicago area. Mulvey joined Presbyterian in 1982 as chief operat-
ing officer. He later became president and CEO and most recently served as vice chair of the board. Mulvey is survived by his wife, Linda, and two children, Patrick and Shannon.
80s Shirley Hailstock, a graduate of Ben Franklin University, which merged with GWSB in 1987, pub-lished her 27th novel recently. She
is the recipient of numerous awards, includ-ing the Pin-nacle Award from Fairleigh Dickinson Uni-versity and the Waldensbook
Award. Hailstock is past president of Romance Writers of America (RWA) and new president of the New Jersey chapter of RWA, mark-ing the second time she has served as president of one of the largest RWA chapters.
Harvey S. Jacobs, BBA, ’80, was elected president of the Kiwanis Club of Washington, D.C. Jacobs works as a real estate and small business attorney at the Rockville, Md., office of Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A.
Brian Sammarco, MBA, ’80, joined Breyers Yogurt Co. as senior vice president of sales. Previously, he held positions at PepsiCo, Gatorade and Nonni’s Food Company.
Gary A. Alpert, MBA, ’81, joined Phyxius LLC as a principal. Alpert also serves as CFO at Mind’s Eye Therapy, an alternative healing company.
Michael Ditkoff, MBA, ’81, has retired from the federal government after 36 years of service. His last assignment was senior budget analyst with the Department of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services, the successor to the Department of Justice’s Immigration and Natu-ralization Service. In retirement, Ditkoff is tapping his passion for dancing and has filed papers to become re-certified as a dance host on cruise ships.
Bruce Simon, MBA, ’81, joined City National Bank of Los Angeles as its chief investment officer. In addition to directing investment strategy and leading a team of portfolio managers, Simon will oversee the bank’s open investment platform and chair the investment committee. His past experience includes positions at Ballentine Partners, a wealth management firm in Boston, at J.P Morgan in New York and at Glenmede Trust Co. in Philadelphia, where he was respon-sible for $15 billion in assets.
Herb Hribar, MBA, ’82, was appointed CEO of CENX, operator of the world’s first carrier ethernet exchange. With more than 35 years of experience in
KEEP THE ALUMNI NETWORK STRONG!Your classmates want to hear from and about you in the next issue of GWbusiness. To share your news, com-plete the form on page 55 and submit it to Class Notes, GW School of Business, Office of Development and Alumni Relations, 2033 K St., NW, Suite 230, Washington, D.C., 20006. Or, you may fax your information to 202-994-4411 or e-mail it to [email protected]. Send photos!
NOTES
CLAS
S
51
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
the telecommunications industry, Hribar will play a critical role in CENX’s global growth and new business partnerships. He previ-ously held executive roles at large telecom companies in Ireland, Switzerland and Germany.
Debra M. Cabral, MBA, ’83, was named executive vice president of Porter Novelli Public Services in Washington, D.C. Cabral, whose experience includes time in the nonprofit, health care, financial and technology industries, is responsible for managing existing clients and growing new business.
Capt. George Capacci, MPA, ’86, was named deputy chief of opera-tions and construction with the Ferries Division of the Washington State Department of Transporta-tion. He oversees operations, termi-nal engineering, vessel maintenance, preservation and engineering.
Jim Williams, MBA, ’86, retired in April 2010 after a 30-year career with the federal government. He recently became the senior vice president for global professional services at Daon, a worldwide bio-metric company based in Reston, Va. While with the government, Williams served for more than 18 years in the Senior Executive Service. Williams’ federal career highlights include serving as the first director of the US-VISIT program at the Department of Homeland Security, several executive posi-tions at the IRS and serving as the first commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA, where he was responsible for more than $50 billion in annual revenues. In 2008, President George W. Bush appointed Williams as acting administrator of GSA, a job he held for the last five months of the Bush Administration with responsibil-ity for presidential transition. He received the Presidential Rank Award from Presidents Bill Clinton and Bush. Gretchen Driskell, MBA, ’87, now in her sixth two-year term as mayor of Saline, Mich., was the first female mayor of the city and is now its longest-serving. Driskell
has emphasized business and economic development for the city, located near Ann Arbor. This year, she won an award from the Michigan Association of Mayors for her leadership in transportation research and development. For more on Driskell’s accomplishments as mayor, visit http://www.annarbor.com/news/saline/salines-longest-running-mayor-loves-her-job/.
90sNorman Ball, MBA, ’90, has pub-lished a book of essays titled How Can We Make Your Power More Comfortable? The book tracks the politically powerful and seeks the truth behind the two-party system.
Harlan Sands, MBA, ’90, was named vice provost for administra-tion and quality improvement at the University of Alabama at Birming-ham (UAB). Sands will provide leadership for academic administra-tion, strategic planning, enrollment management, finance, budgeting, student support operations and compliance. Sands, who has held other positions at UAB, joined the university in 2007. Prior to that, he served as associate vice president for research at Florida International University.
Mitchell Schear, MBA, ’91, was recognized as an Executive of the Year by Commercial Property Executive magazine. Schear, who is the president of commercial realtor Vornado/Charles E. Smith in Washington, D.C., is also the recipient of the “Rising Leader” award. Over the past year, he led development of several high-profile projects. They included PNC Place, the first D.C. office building with platinum-level LEED standards, and 1999 K. St. NW, which sold for $207.8 million, garnering one of the highest per-square-foot prices in the D.C. market.
Steven Dorlen, BBA, ’92, was appointed director of business development for TwoFour Consult-ing in White Plains, N.Y. TwoFour Consulting provides professional consultants to help develop, deploy
and optimize technology strategies across all sectors of capital markets. Dorlen previously held positions at Hyatt Leader, a firm that recruits consultants for Fortune 500 companies, and IT consulting firm Princeton Information.
Charles Sharkey, MBA, ’92, joined Big Island Carbon LLC as vice president of business development. The company, located in Hawaii, is completing a plant that will produce activated carbon for a wide range of air, water and chemical purification applications. Sharkey is also a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and currently serves as a captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve.
A. John Shoraka, MBA, ’92, was appointed a regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Admin-istration. Based in King of Prussia, Pa., Shoraka oversees programs and services to help small businesses grow and create jobs throughout much of the Mid-Atlantic region.
Michael Porricelli, MBA, ’93, is now manag-ing director of Front Range Consulting, a Denver-based consult-
ing and advisory firm that offers institutional research, valuations and strategic investment banking advisory services.
Andrew C. Lewis, BA, ’98, was promoted to managing director at the audit and tax advisory firm KPMG. Lewis has 13 years of professional accounting experi-ence and is a fellow of the KPMG Government Institute, author and speaker for the Association of Government Accountants and a committee chair with the Greater Washington Society of CPAs. Since 2005, he has taught courses on government and not-for-profit accounting and auditing as an adjunct professor at The George Washington University. He is a CPA, licensed in D.C., Maryland and Virginia, as well as a Certified Government Financial Manager.
Levent Ozbilgin, MBA, ’99, was appointed by Alcatel-Lucent as country manager for Azerbaijan.
00sTodd Troha, MBA, ’00, is the general manager for Effect Partners, a marketing company that focuses on sustainability and social change. Troha recently helped launch the company’s “Green Awards” campaign that aims to highlight and reward people who are creating positive social change.
Stephen H. Craft, PhD, ’01, and MBA, ’94, has been named dean of the Michael E. Stephens College of Business at the University of Montevallo in Alabama. Craft, previously the dean of business programs at Birmingham-Southern College, began his tenure on Jan. 1, 2011. In addition to being a GW alumnus, he is also a former faculty member of the GW School of Business.
Tim Clark, PhD, ’09, and Mark Heuer, PhD, ’01, contributed to a special sustainability issue of Academy of Management Learning and Education, which appeared online in September. The issue was co-edited by Clark, Mark Starik, who is chair of the GWSB Depart-ment of Strategic Management and Public Policy, Gordon Rands and Alfie Marcus. The same issue of the journal featured an interview with Chad Holliday, GWSB executive-in-residence and former CEO and chairman of DuPont. Holliday’s son, Scot, who earned his degree from the GW Graduate School of Education and Human Develop-ment, wrote the interview.
Vince Morabito, MTA,’01, has been promoted to senior account executive for Marriott’s Mid-Atlantic Corporate division. Previously a senior sales executive for Baltimore’s Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Morabito will now focus on accounts for all of Marriott’s loca-tions in the Mid-Atlantic. Morabito will also handle large corporate accounts including Northrop Grumman, the Baltimore Orioles, and the Washington Redskins.
52
WW
W.
BU
SI
NE
SS
.G
WU
.E
DU
NOTES
CLAS
S
Richard Pineda, MBA, ’01, has been promoted to the lead of Dell’s Federal Government Services located in Fairfax, VA. Pineda has been key in helping increase busi-ness in the federal marketplace in the areas of financial management and overall IT program manage-ment. Prior to this promotion, Pineda served as chief operations leader.
Hassan Aldarbesti, MSIST, ’02, serves as chief information officer for Qatar Project Management (QPM). The company provides unrivaled real estate and infra-structure project management ser-vices. QPM is currently managing mega projects in various locations around the world, while cultivating potential markets and playing an integral part in the development of international communities. QPM aims to position itself within the top five international project manage-ment companies by 2020
A. Ray Chaudhuri, MBA, ’02, and wife Rupali welcomed their second child, Rayna Anjali Chaud-huri, born Jan. 8, 2010. The couple
also has a 5-year-old son, Arvin. Chaudhuri spends half of his time in New Orleans, where his wife is in graduate school, and half of his time in Maryland as the chief financial officer of Biological Mimetics Inc., a Maryland biotech company.
Jeffrey Elliot, MBA, ’03, has pub-lished his first book, The Zwilling J.A. Henckels Complete Book of Knife Skills. The book covers topics ranging from shopping for and storing kitchen knives, to cutting and sharpening techniques.
Anoma Kulathunga, MS, ’03, (and PhD candidate, ’11), has published Uganda’s Remittance Corridors from United Kingdom, United States and South Africa, her fifth book with The World Bank.
John Wimberly, EMBA, ’03, has published The Business of the Church: The Uncomfortable Truth that Faithful Ministry Requires Effec-tive Management. The work was selected as a notable book in 2010 by Christian Century magazine.
Jason McCray, MBA, ’04, has been promoted to chief operat-ing officer at Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), a national network of foundations and other grant makers working to build stronger nonprofit grantees. McCray’s responsibilities include financial management, strategic planning, fundraising and internal evaluation. McCray first joined GEO in 2004 as manager of operations.
Brett Warner, BBA, ’04, president and founder of Cool Palms LLC, was featured in Bloomberg Businessweek.
The Oct. 18, 2010, article, “Business School Entrepreneurs,” highlights Warner’s collaboration with Lisa Delpy Neirotti, associate professor of tourism and sport management. After hearing the Cool Palms executive discuss the challenges of starting his business, students in Neirotti’s MBA class started devel-oping a comprehensive marketing plan for the firm, which invented a wrist band designed to keep run-ners cool while engaged in athletic activity. “Some students have already gone above and beyond the marketing plan and are actually calling meetings with major industry players,” Warner said.
John Berkowitz, BBA, ’05, recently saw the company he co-founded ranked as the 35th fastest-growing company in the United States. Inc. Magazine gave that distinction to online marketing company Yodle Inc., which Berkowitz helped launch more than five years ago. Yodle has experienced tremendous success, growing to more than 450 employees and receiving a variety of venture capital funding.
Pramila N. Rao, PhD, ’05, recently published two books. Executive Recruitment and Selection Practices: US-Mexico Joint Ventures examines the importance of hiring processes as the United States and Mexico partner in global business. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Human Resource Management is part of a series of books highlighting controversial issues and stimulating student debate. Rao is an assistant professor of human resource man-agement at Marymount University.
Shibani K. Malhotra, MBA ‘06, is currently an associate director in the Corporate Advisory Services practice of Eurasia Group—a leading global politic risk advisory services firm based in New York, NY. She works with Fortune 500 companies in identifying and inte-grating political, economic, security, and regulatory risks into their global strategy for entry or expansion within emerging markets. Previ-ously, Shibani was a strategy & operations manager with Deloitte Consulting in its Emerging Markets practice, where she designed and implemented projects serving international governments, foreign entities, and US government foreign affairs institutions.
J. Russell Fugett, MSPM, ’07, organized “Celebrate The Legacy: A Reception For New Friends of The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American His-tory & Culture” at the Philippines Embassy in December. Fugett, nephew of the late Reginald F. Lewis, seeks to increase aware-ness of his uncle’s legacy and the museum, which is the largest African American history museum on the East Coast. Lewis was the first African American to build a billion-dollar company.
Katie Hansen, MTA, ’08, left The Walt Disney Company in 2010 to start her own company. She is based in Minneapolis and provides marketing and com-munications services to clients worldwide. She can be reached at [email protected].
53
GW
BU
SI
NE
SS
2
01
1
Keep us current on where you work, promotions, new business ventures, and any business or academic honors. Complete this form and send it to Class Notes, GW School of Business, Office of Development and Alumni Relations, 2033 K Street, Northwest, Suite 230, Washington, D.C., 20006. Or, you may fax your information to 202-994-4411 or e-mail it to [email protected].
PLEASE TYPE OR PRINT.
Name Degree and year of graduation
Home address
City/State/Zip
Is this an address change? Yes No Home phone Home fax Home e-mail address
Business Title and Company
Business Address
City/State/Zip
Is this an address change? Yes No
Business phone Business fax Business e-mail address
Preferred mailing address: Home Business
May we include your e-mail address in your class note? Yes No
News
Don’t forget to send us photos—wedding photos, baby photos, class reunion photos, etc. (Photos cannot be returned.)
Thank you for sharing your news with GW and your classmates!
What’s New?
“It’s incredible that you can
transform someone’s life by
providing them with opportunities
to excel.”
TOM CURTIS, BA ’81, MA ’95
Tom is supporting the GW Power & Promise Fund for student aid through his IRA. His estate will receive a significant tax deduction and GW will receive the designated portion of his IRA tax-free.
Creating a Meaningful Legacy at GW is easy.
If you have a retirement plan, it’s easy to help deserving students receive a world-class education in the nation’s capital. You can name GW as a beneficiary of some or all of the funds that may remain in your IRA, 401(k), or other plan after your lifetime. Just complete a new beneficiary designation form that includes GW and its Tax ID number (53-0196584) and submit it to your plan administrator.
A few of the benefits:
No change in lifestyle since your gift comes from leftover funds.
Elimination of income and estate taxes that otherwise would be due.
Flexibility to support the program of your choice.
GW can answer your questions to help make it even easier. Contact us today!
CALL: 202-994-7657EMAIL: [email protected]
ONLINE: www.gwu.edu/give/plannedgiving
School of Business
Office of the Dean
Duquès Hall, 660F
2201 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052
business.gwu.edu
Nonprofit OrganizationUS Postage
PAIDMerrifield, VAPermit 2657