MBA by the Bay. San Francisco Bay Area Program Welcomes Charter Class of Working Professionals. Austen Nwaochei Chevron Corp. Megan Conway Keane, Inc.

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1 Fall/ Winter 2006 MBA by the Bay San Francisco Bay Area Program Welcomes Charter Class of Working Professionals Austen Nwaochei Chevron Corp. Megan Conway Keane, Inc. Jeff Rosenlund Cisco Systems, Inc.

2 IN THIS ISSUE FALL 2005/WINTER 2006 The Innovator is published by the UC Davis Graduate School of Management to inform alumni and the business and academic communities about the programs and activities at the School. DEAN Nicole Woolsey Biggart ASSOCIATE DEAN Richard P. Castanias ASSISTANT DEAN STUDENT AFFAIRS James R. Stevens ASSISTANT DEAN EXTERNAL RELATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT Rissa V. Spears MANAGING EDITOR Timothy Akin Director of Marketing and Communications CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Shannon Tanguay Director of Alumni Relations Jacqueline Romo Associate Director of Instructional Resources CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Cindi Rich Trina Wood DESIGN Page Design, Inc. PHOTOGRAPHY Axiom Photo Design The GSM Community Please direct correspondence to: INNOVATOR Graduate School of Management University of California, Davis One Shields Avenue Davis, CA (530) FAX (530) WEB MBA Dean s Message Feature/Cover Story MBA by the Bay: San Francisco Bay Area Program Welcomes Charter Class Student Spotlights Megan Conway Bridges Clients and Tech Solutions Craig Jones Primes for Next Level in Global Real Estate...5 Distinguished Speakers Two Fortune 500 CEOs Visit Agilent s William Sullivan: Driving Value from Innovation..6 Mattel s Robert Eckert: Don t Toy with Trust School News Generating Solutions: MBA Consulting Center Opens....8 New Center for Investor Welfare and Corporate Responsibility to Focus on Research, Teaching and Service Introducing the Entering Class of Big Bang! Business Plan Competition Ignites Year Six UC Davis Researchers Baptized in Business Development.. 14 Commencement & Convocation Celebrate New Chapters.. 16 News Ticker Avishkari Aggies among 10 Most Innovative MBA Teams in the World Wine Executive Program Offered in March Bruce Susich Wins Outstanding Teaching Award Alumna Anya Reid 04 Named Sr. Director of Development In Appreciation Dean s Advisory Council Welcomes New Members Alumni and Students Give Back Thank You to the Class of 2005, Corporate and Individual Supporters Alumni Spotlight Patagoniac Morlee Griswold 85 Makes Waves in Marketing Faculty Focus Professor Chih-Ling Tsai Named First Recipient of Glock Chair in Management Faculty Research Marketing Dynamics Conference Draws International Scholars UC Davis and Intel Kick Off Research Partnership Alumni Association Alumni Board President s Corner Reunion Classes Reconnect at Casino Night Class Notes Calendar of Alumni Events Back Cover Wall Street Journal and Forbes Rank GSM Among the Best The current and back issues of the Innovator are available online at On the cover: Three members of the charter class of the San Francisco Bay Area MBA Program for Working Professionals: (left to right) Austen Nwaochei, applications analyst, Chevron Corp.; Megan Conway, business development manager, Keane, Inc.; and Jeff Rosenlund, project manager, Cisco Systems, Inc. (Read more about the Bay Area MBA program on page 2.)

3 Yes, that s the Golden Gate Bridge on the cover of the Innovator and those are three of our newest MBA students at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. In this issue, we celebrate the launch of our San Francisco Bay Area MBA program for Working Professionals and welcome 45 smart and ambitious professionals to our community. Our Bay Area MBA charter class is a talented group of top managers and executives with diverse skills, experience and backgrounds. They represent 23 industries and 39 companies from software, telecommunications and high-tech to finance, consumer products and energy. For example, Justin Quan is a management consultant at Accenture and serves as a vice president of education for Toastmasters International. Ben Dakhlia is a project manager at Hewlett-Packard and a former captain of the Tunisian National Basketball Team. And their classmate, Natalie Ramsey, is a senior CAD engineer at Advanced Micro Devices who holds a U.S. patent and is a former member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra chorus. challenging program they completed, and make that same experience available to MBA candidates in the Bay Area. Our alumni in the Bay Area also will be able to take courses more conveniently as we extend our life-long learning program to our classrooms in San Ramon. Third, we are excited about expanding our community of students and corporate partners. San Francisco is an international financial and trade center and a hotbed of innovation in information technology and the life sciences two areas that are strengths of UC Davis. There are many mutually beneficial connections to be made. In this issue, we celebrate the launch of our San Francisco Bay Area MBA program for Working Professionals and welcome 45 smart and ambitious professionals to our community. D E A N S M E S S A G E Why are we teaching management education to working professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area? There are several reasons. First, our nationally ranked University of California MBA program offers a rich and close-knit learning environment that has no equal in the region or the country. While there are many management programs to choose from, our combination of a world-class faculty, excellent students and small class sizes is distinctive. We ve proven the success of our approach for more than a decade by educating working professionals in our Sacramento-based MBA program, which was recently recognized by Forbes as the 16th best in the nation based on graduates return on investment. We think that our style of MBA education will be a welcome addition to the programs available in the Bay Area. Second, about half of our alumni live and work in the Bay Area. A program located nearby raises the visibility of our School and will promote greater awareness of the quality of our MBA degree. We want to support our graduates by bringing attention to the Finally, UC Davis is an institution that reaches far beyond the boundaries of the campus in Davis. As one of the world s premier research universities, we have come to represent high academic standards, a collaborative way of learning and a strong sense of community. UC Davis has roots that extend to the Bodega Bay Marine Research Center, the Applied Science program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, the Tahoe Environmental Research Center, the San Diego Zoo-UC Davis Pathology Program, the UC Davis Washington Center, and many other places around the world where our students and scholars live and learn together in a distinctively UC Davis way. I m thrilled to be part of the latest extension of UC Davis, and can t wait to see where these new relationships will take us. Nicole Woolsey Biggart Dean Jerome J. and Elsie Suran Chair in Technology Management GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT 1

4 F E A T U R E by Tim Akin MBA by the Bay San Francisco Bay Area Program Welcomes Charter Class of Working Professionals They are top managers on the rise at Fortune 500 companies, innovators and engineers at leading aerospace, software and biotech firms, and entrepreneurs who have launched and run their own start-ups. Every other Friday and Saturday, they come together as the charter class of the Graduate School of Management s Bay Area MBA Program for Working Professionals. Opening a new chapter in the history of the School, the 45 members of the first class began their UC Davis MBA experience in September. These working professionals represent 23 industries and 39 different companies, and they travel to class in San Ramon from all over the Bay Area and as far away as South Lake Tahoe. For the School, the new Bay Area MBA program marked the culmination of several years of market research and preparation as well as more than a decade of experience offering the Working Professional MBA program in downtown Sacramento. Since 1994, nearly 700 students have graduated from the Sacramento program, which holds classes three evenings a week and on some Saturdays. Our Working Professional MBA program has been a great success and we ve been planning for several years to bring it to the Bay Area, where there is nothing quite like it, said Dean Nicole Woolsey Biggart. We have an entrepreneurial faculty and staff that are great at spotting the opportunity for a new venture, she added. TAILOR-MADE FOR BAY AREA The new Bay Area MBA program is specifically designed for motivated and high-achieving managers who want to accelerate their careers while continuing to work as they pursue their degree. Classes meet every other week on Friday afternoon and evening and all day Saturday at the San Ramon Valley Conference Center, which is strategically located in the Interstate 680 and Interstate 580 corridor, making it easily accessible from the entire region as well as area airports. The state-of-the-art conference center offers on-site accommodations, a fitness gym and dining services for students. Most importantly, the program is distinguished by its world-class, full-time faculty the same professors who teach in the School s internationally ranked Daytime MBA program. Students move through the three-year program together as a cohort, benefiting from each other s backgrounds and experiences and from the close interaction with preeminent teachers who bring their cutting-edge research into the classroom and invite top executives to share their experiences. Student Edgar Guerra, a risk analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco, said he has been impressed with the School s team-focused approach, the personal attention from professors as well as the School s strong sense of community all backed by a commitment to make the academic experience as rewarding as possible. Three members of the charter class of 45 Bay Area MBA students: Austen Nwaochei Chevron Corp. Megan Conway Keane, Inc. 2 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS Jeff Rosenlund Cisco Systems, Inc. What appealed to me about the UC Davis Graduate School of Management is its educational philosophy of collaboration and innovation as a cornerstone of business (continued)

5 What appealed to me about the UC Davis Graduate School of Management is its educational philosophy of collaboration and innovation as a cornerstone of business leadership. Edgar Guerra Bay Area MBA student Risk Analyst, Federal Reserve Bank, San Francisco leadership, Guerra said. Being an MBA student at a university that is as passionate about achieving excellence as are the students in the program is extremely important to me. Joel Kleinman, a senior analyst with Washington Mutual Bank who lives in Berkeley, said the program is a perfect fit with his busy lifestyle. The Bay Area Working Professional MBA program accommodates the demands of balancing a career, an education and a family, Kleinman said. The weekend courses feel like a mini-retreat, allowing students to focus on the course material at hand, and then return to managing day-to-day life during the week. For Justin Quan, a management consultant with Accenture, the flexibility of the every-other-weekend class meetings minimizes conflicts with his responsibilities at work and frees him up to enjoy some down time on alternate weekends. The program fits well with my extensive travel schedule, he said. CREATING CONNECTIONS The new Bay Area MBA program is extending the presence of UC Davis and the Graduate School of Management in the region, where more than half of the School s alumni live and work. Raising the profile of the School in the Bay Area will also enhance the recognition and reputation of the UC Davis MBA degree. As an international center of high-tech and life sciences innovation, the San Francisco Bay Area presents many promising opportunities for UC Davis which has cutting-edge research in both areas to forge valuable partnerships and collaborations with industry. Through the new Bay Area MBA program and other initiatives, the Graduate School of Management is developing corporate connections and relationships that will foster these new links and strengthen the bonds the campus has with the region s business community. As part of the effort to raise its visibility and influence, UC Davis has joined the Bay Area Council, a public policy advocacy organization of 275 major employers throughout the nine-county region that promotes economic prosperity, education and quality of life. The personal connections and contacts that Bay Area MBA students bring from their companies and industries also will be instrumental as the School continues to build its network in the region. The students employers include Cisco Systems, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Bio-Rad Labs, Chevron, IBM, Intel, AMD, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Alcatel, Charles Schwab, 3M, Ford Motor Company and Hewlett-Packard Company. As the diverse charter class settled into its first quarter, the School had already begun actively recruiting next year s entering group of talented managers. Admissions receptions, faculty presentations and information sessions are being held throughout the Silicon Valley, San Francisco and the East Bay. In the future, students could come from much farther away. The program s schedule and location make it convenient for working professionals to fly in from other major Western cities including Seattle, San Diego, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. James Stevens, assistant dean of student affairs, said the School has plans to promote the program outside of the Bay Area to further enrich the diversity and breadth of the student body. I ve been impressed by the quality and the commitment of these students, Stevens said. Balancing demanding careers and family commitments with rigorous classes takes a highly dedicated, motivated individual. The School has invested an incredible amount of time and effort to launch this program and it s rewarding to see the results. Stevens added that the word is spreading about the quality and diversity of the students as well as the challenging and interactive experience in the classroom. In talking to prospective students for this fall, they already know the UC Davis MBA has come to the Bay Area and they re attracted to the world-class faculty and the format of the program. Learn more about the UC Davis Bay Area MBA MBA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT 3

6 S T U D E N T S P O T L I G H T by Trina Wood Megan Conway Bridges Clients and Tech Solutions Bay Area MBA Student Helps Companies Boost IT Performance Megan Conway wraps up her job each day not knowing if it will be there tomorrow. As a business development manager for Keane, Inc., a large, multinational information technology consulting firm, one of her roles is to help companies outsource IT and business processes. Ironically, she is currently managing the outsourcing of Keane s own sales and marketing organization to India. My manager always says that at the end of the day, we know we re doing our job right if we ve worked ourselves out of it, said Conway, who handles sales operations and field marketing for Keane s Western Region. Of course, Conway hopes that doesn t happen anytime soon. As a member of the charter class of the Bay Area MBA Program for I m very happy with the choice Working Professionals, Conway said she s able to I ve made to attend UC Davis. I immediately apply what can apply what I m learning right she learns in class to her away and that s what keeps me position at Keane, which pumped up about this program. she views as a hybrid between human resources, Megan Conway product development, operations and finance. Conway often pulls together cross-functional teams to look across a client s organization to recommend ways service can be delivered more efficiently to customers without sacrificing or disrupting the level of quality. She often acts as a bridge between Keane s technology experts and clients to translate the value of innovative, cost-saving ideas. Earlier in her career at AT&T Solutions, Conway learned that high-impact business transactions, such as outsourcing, can and must be done with sensitivity to employees who are affected. Drawn by its complexities and challenges, Conway stayed in the IT outsourcing business, moving on to become a business development executive at EDS Corporation before landing at Keane, where clients include Fortune 100 companies, S&P 500 members and leading brand-name firms. Conway has blazed a successful career path since graduating from Saint Louis University in 1997 with a B.A. in communication theory and marketing. But she wasn t completely satisfied with her skill set. She began looking into MBA programs because she wanted formal leadership and management training to give her more credibility in dealing with high-level executives as well as to boost her inner confidence. Over a glass of wine with a friend one evening, the new UC Davis Bay Area MBA program came up in conversation. Conway did her homework and discovered it was a perfect fit. A natural team player, Conway said she s thriving in the collaborative, congenial learning environment in her MBA classes at the San Ramon Valley Conference Center. Despite warnings from friends that her MBA classmates could be cut-throat, Conway said she has found exactly the opposite. That s been one of the coolest aspects of the program so far having the opportunity to interact with colleagues from all walks of life and backgrounds, she said. We have the greatest class it has far exceeded my expectations. Conway also has found that the professors take a personal interest in the success of the students. They re willing to adjust the curriculum based on our needs and are available to help, whether by coming to class early, staying late or joining us for dinner, she said. They re almost like colleagues of ours. So far, Conway says she s been able to balance the demands of school and work. Classes meet every other Friday and Saturday and in between she coordinates with teammates either through conference calls or group meetings. It s good experience to come together on team projects because that s where the future of business is headed, she said. I m very happy with the choice I ve made to attend UC Davis, Conway added. I can apply what I m learning right away and that s what keeps me pumped up about this program. 4 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

7 Craig Jones Primes for Next Level in Global Real Estate If you believe in life-long learning, it is never too late to go back to school. Take second-year student Craig Jones. At 39, he left a highpaying position at Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc. to pursue a UC Davis MBA. Jones had worked for the firm since 1997, building a proven track record with clients as a transaction manager in the tenant representation group. Leaving Jones Lang LaSalle, one of the largest international real estate services and money management firms, didn t come easy for Jones, who has no relation to the Jones in Jones Lang LaSalle s storied history. His decision required a great deal of soul searching and advice from mentors at the company. Ultimately, Jones felt that an MBA would better prepare him for today s competitive global real estate industry. After graduating from USC with a bachelor s degree in business administration, Jones spent two years in Barcelona because he felt he needed an international experience. He returned to the U.S. and in 1994 took a real estate position at UC San Francisco, where he got his feet wet on the transaction side and in managing a portfolio of property. Jones learned that Jones Lang LaSalle had an opening to manage lease administration services on-site at Sun Microsystems. He knew the firm had a reputation for only hiring MBAs. he wanted an MBA experience that mirrored his work experience. He found the Graduate School of Management offered exactly that and more. I love the intellectual environment and the accessibility to faculty, he said. Returning to school has been one of the best decisions of my life. This past summer, Jones got a taste of Jones Lang LaSalle s international operations, which encompasses offices in more than 100 markets on five continents. He traveled to Russia to serve as a consultant and advisor to the company s transaction department in Moscow. Under his guidance, the department shifted young consultants from cold-calling business leads to working alongside a senior consultant. The move was a success. With graduation in sight, Jones is considering a return to Jones Lang LaSalle s Moscow office as a career option. While earning his MBA, he has gained a greater understanding of the global business environment and his own future. The UC Davis MBA program has provided me with more than an education, Jones said. It has given me the time and perspective necessary to evaluate alternative career paths. S T U D E N T S P O T L I G H T by Cindi Rich I saw it as a great opportunity with a premier company, so I decided to apply and give it my best shot, said Jones, who aced the interviews, landed the job and quickly moved up. When client Bank of America wanted to consolidate its real estate service providers from five to two, Jones joined the team assigned to the bank. Jones Lang LaSalle won one of the coveted slots, and Jones was appointed the transaction manager and retail team leader responsible for Bank of America s Northern California/Nevada retail portfolio, which included more than 400 branches and roughly four million square feet of space. Jones admits the stakes were high. You couldn t afford to make a mistake, he said. Two years ago, Jones started researching business schools and leaned toward staying in Northern California. Since he thrived at Jones Lang LaSalle working in small teams, This past summer, MBA student Craig Jones and Professor Brad Barber connected in Moscow in late August to have dinner followed by a walk on Red Square. Jones was working for Jones Lang LaSalle s Moscow office while Barber was there to present his research at the European Finance Association conference. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT 5

8 D I S T I N G U I S H E D S P E A K E R S by Tim Akin & Cindi Rich TWO FORTUNE 500 Driving Value from Innovation UC Davis Alumnus Focuses High-Tech Giant on Core Markets The 21st century global economy will have winners and losers. The innovators will lead, the others will follow. As president and CEO of Agilent Technologies, William Sullivan lives by this axiom, restructuring the tech giant as an innovative leader, laser-focused on the $40 billion The ultimate outcome is to create an environment for innovation to compete in today s global economy. UC Davis Alumnus William Sullivan President and CEO, Agilent Technologies A G I L E N T C E O W I L L I A M S U L L I V A N scientific measurement market. On his first official visit back to campus as head of Agilent, UC Davis alumnus Sullivan shared how his experience at the university more than 35 years ago built a foundation for his successful career including three decades at Hewlett-Packard and then Agilent. Sullivan, who earned a B.S. degree in environmental planning in 1972, returned to his alma mater on October 19 at the invitation of the Graduate School of Management, which along with many other campus units, didn t exist while he was a UC Davis student. After a tour of the new Genome and Biomedical Sciences facility and a briefing on UC Davis research and initiatives to commercialize lab breakthroughs, Sullivan opened his talk by reminiscing about his time as a student. Ironically, he didn t like chemistry, but learned enough about bioscience to launch his career. As an alumnus, he treasures the lasting friendships. It felt like we were back in school, he said of a recent golf outing with fellow alumni. Today, Sullivan heads a Fortune 500 company with 28,000 employees worldwide, customers in 110 countries and more than $7 billion in annual revenue. Agilent s pioneering spirit was kindled more than 60 years ago, when engineers William Hewlett and David Packard invented the audio oscillator in their Palo Alto garage. Hewlett-Packard Co. spun off Agilent in Last March, Agilent named Sullivan president and CEO, promoting him from executive vice president and COO. A veteran of Hewlett-Packard, which he joined in 1976, Sullivan moved up quickly and developed expertise in telecommunications and computers. After the spin off, Sullivan took the top post at Agilent s Semiconductor Products Group before being named COO, and later president and CEO. Many of us inside Agilent look at ourselves as the original H-P that happened to get into the computer business, Sullivan said. Under Sullivan, Agilent has shed or planned the spin off of several units, including a $950 million interest in light-emitting diodes (LEDs), its $2.7 billion semiconductor division, and its system-on-a-chip and memory test business. For Sullivan, the end game is a streamlined global powerhouse. Much of the (measurement) technology on the electronics side can be leveraged in biotech and that is what Agilent is all about, Sullivan said. The ultimate outcome is to create an environment for innovation to compete in today s global economy. As he steers a new course, Sullivan sees competition from Asia as an historic challenge. The emergence of China and India is the biggest economic disruption in 65 years since World War II, he told the standing-room-only audience of students, alumni, business executives and campus officials and scientists. Investors and Wall Street have been supportive of Sullivan s strategy to create sustainable value. Sullivan said Agilent is well-positioned as the top supplier to the communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis industries. That s our opportunity going forward, he said. We made the decision to focus on what we do best and that is measurement. William Sullivan s presentation is available 6 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

9 CEOs VISIT SCHOOL M A T T E L C E O R O B E R T E C K E R T Don t Toy with Trust If you didn t know he was one of the titans of industry, you d think Robert Eckert was just a down-to-earth- Midwesterner from Elmhurst, Illinois. He comes across as someone s favorite next-door neighbor genial, laid back, soft spoken, yet solid and exuding a warmth of spirit that draws you to him. He may be head of the world s largest toy maker, but you think to yourself this is a guy I could trust. And in these disheartening times when we see more and more evidence of untrustworthy behavior from politicians, the news media, companies and their top executives, it ignites a flickering light of hope to hear words like truth, honesty and integrity spoken with heartfelt sincerity from this humble Midwesterner. In an inspiring presentation as a Dean s Distinguished Speaker in October, Eckert articulated the principles that guide his behavior as chairman and CEO of Mattel, a $5 billion-a-year company with 25,000 employees and corporate wings that span 42 countries and products that are sold in more than 150 nations. Known for its famous brand-name Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and thousands of other items, Mattel s superhero has been Eckert. Since taking over as chairman and CEO in 2000, he has reversed steep losses, cut costs and improved margins while steering a turnaround that brought the company out of the tailspin caused by his predecessor s purchase of The Learning Company, among other miscues. The company s stock nearly doubled in price during his first two years at the company. His management of Mattel earned him recognition as one of the Top 25 Managers of the Year by BusinessWeek in But being in the toy business today is not all fun and games. Eckert told the capacity audience of Graduate School of Management students, alumni and members of the business community that competition is intense; kids tastes are fickle and profits are getting squeezed. Less than two weeks before his appearance at the School, a BusinessWeek article forecast a decidedly dismal short-term outlook for Mattel. Mattel isn t alone in feeling pain. The whole toy industry, a $20 billion industry, has been under assault lately, according to the BusinessWeek article. A market research group estimates that sales of traditional toys were down five percent in the first eight months of Although things have changed for Eckert and Mattel recently, his stance on telling the truth and doing the right thing has not. When his teenage son says, trust me, dad, his response is always the same: deeds not words a phrase that was once the clarion call of the woman s suffrage movement. Eckert said that credibility takes precious time to build, but can dissolve in an instant, especially when we, as leaders send mixed messages about a single event. Robert Eckert Chairman and CEO, Mattel Using the example of a corporate layoff, Eckert explained how the message to shareholders is a positive one about cost cutting, but employees perceive it as a devaluation of their worth. And for them, trust is eroded. Eckert made the point that trust is the key to the creation of a company s reputation, and therefore, its shareholder value. In other words, creating an environment of trust is good for a company s bottom line. He cited a Cornell University study that confirmed his belief. The study found that hotels where employees strongly believed their managers followed through on promises and demonstrated values they preached were substantially more profitable than those whose managers scored average or lower. When talking about corporate responsibility to shareholders, consumers or employees, Eckert doesn t mince words. Truth always comes out, he said. So telling the truth is a lot more efficient. And telling the truth builds trust. The more trust, the better our society becomes. It s all about doing the right thing. Plain speak from a plainspoken Midwesterner a guy you could trust. Trust is the key to the creation of a company s reputation, and therefore, its shareholder value. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT 7

10 S C H O O L N E W S by Cindi Rich Generating Solutions: After more than a year of planning, the Graduate School of Management has launched another new venture, the MBA Consulting Center. As part of Dean Nicole Woolsey Biggart s vision, this center gives MBA students the opportunity to collaborate on real business issues with executives from top regional companies. The center also serves to enhance relationships and form new partnerships with the business community. From its beginning, the Graduate School of Management has emphasized the value of learning by doing. During the 1990s, students participated in a capstone management course, Management Policy and Strategy, in which they worked with corporate clients to design strategic plans, evaluate internal procedures and identify competitive threats. Independent study courses also offered students the freedom to team up on similar experiences under the guidance of a faculty advisor. By establishing the Consulting Center, the School has now formalized its commitment to giving students the highest quality opportunities to put their knowledge, experience and skills to work on compelling problems proposed by company clients. Directing the Consulting Center is Professor Richard Dorf, an expert in entrepreneurship, new ventures and business planning. Career Services Center Director Kathy Klenzendorf selects students and matches their strengths and interests to proposed field study projects. Both Daytime and Working Professional MBA students can participate. Based on the best mix of skills and experience, the teams may combine students from both programs. A kick-off meeting for the Consulting Center early in the fall quarter drew top-level executives from companies throughout the region, many of whom were interested in proposing projects as well as serving as field study advisors for the student teams. In the fall, two firms were selected as the first Consulting Center clients Holt of California, a full-service Caterpillar equipment dealer covering a 17-county territory, and the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance (SARTA), a not-for-profit organization that serves as the hub for high-tech entrepreneurs and venture capital enterprises in the region. Each project brings a compelling set of issues for students to analyze. Holt is looking at growth opportunities in the market for electric power generation equipment. Recent natural disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have underscored the need for communities to have readily accessible stand-by power in case of emergencies. Holt s Power Systems group sees a possible business opportunity here, but needs data and analysis to assess its true potential, said Bob Wolfe, vice president of Holt s Engine Division, who has heard the students findings and will incorporate them into his annual business planning process. For SARTA, the issue is how to capitalize on a measurement tool the organization created several years ago. The SARTA Technology Index gauges the health of the regional technology economy by tracking various metrics of the 50 leading high-tech and life science companies driving growth. SARTA management and its board asked the students for a business plan that will help them decide whether to market this index nationwide. The team did a great job following several paths of potential opportunity. I was impressed with the level of analysis, as well as the customer diligence that was performed, SARTA CEO Oleg Kaganovich said. I was particularly impressed that while the final recommendation was to not go ahead with making the investment, the team offered alternative solutions. With only two or three field study projects selected each quarter, competition for the consulting assistance is intense. Consulting Center Director Dorf chooses company proposals based on several factors. First and foremost, the project must represent a real issue or critical problem for the company, Dorf said. I evaluate the learning elements of the project to make sure they will meet the rigorous criteria for MBA study. Then, if the project is focused and seems feasible in a 10-week quarter, it goes on my short list. 8 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS (continued)

11 MBA Consulting Center Opens for Business Three field study projects for the winter quarter are underway with: AgraQuest Inc., a Davis-based biotechnology company that develops, manufactures and markets environmentally friendly pest management products; Solaicx, a manufacturer of low-cost, high efficiency silicon wafers for the photovoltaic industry; and the Tri-Valley Business Council, an organization dedicated to improving economic vitality and quality of life in the Tri-Valley region in the East Bay. As part of their experience, student consultants also benefit from working closely with field study advisors who are seasoned executives with consulting experience. In the fall, Grove Nichols, an executive at IndyMac Bank, advised the Holt team, and John Walters, a GSM alumnus and vice president of The MarkeTech Group, counseled the SARTA team. The advisors play a critical role as a sounding board for student s ideas and conclusions. The students call it their gut-check. Advisors meet with the student teams at least once a week to track their progress. The consulting project has given me the opportunity to work with a real-life consultant, our field study advisor, said student Nancy Ng, team leader for the SARTA project. His work experience and guidance have been invaluable to our project. For the students, this opportunity is definitely a goldmine. Not only do they have an advisor monitoring their progress, they also have ready access to the expertise of the School s entire faculty. Brian Woodall, a member of the Holt team, said he highly recommends that every MBA student participate in at least one of these projects. Jenna Makus, who worked on the SARTA project, said in the end, we needed to advise our client whether or not his product was worth a large investment of time and money. His not-for-profit company cannot afford to take an uninformed risk. Bottom line our recommendation matters. On assignment for the new Consulting Center, a team of UC Davis MBA students gave to executives from Holt of California, a full-service Caterpillar equipment dealer, recommendations on how to best capitalize on growth opportunities in the market for CAT s electric power generators. Students involved in the project included Patrick Ward (back, left), Brian Woodall (front, left) and Mohmood Khan (front, right). With the group is Rich Lund (back, right), sales and rental manager for Holt s Power Systems Group.

12 S C H O O L N E W S by Tim Akin Finance Professor Brad Barber People make mistakes this includes investors saving for retirement and CEOs of major corporations. This center is the first step in both avoiding these mistakes and minimizing the damage that might be done by them. Brad Barber New Center for Investor Welfare to Focus on Research, Top executives lied, shareholders were fleeced Robert Yetman and Ning Zhu. Professor Michael and boards of directors looked the other way or Maher and Professor Donald Palmer have published had the wool pulled over their eyes. These are extensively on issues related to corporate fraud, whitecollar crime, corporate ethics and social responsibility. just a few of the symptoms of the headline-grabbing corporate scandals of the past few years that have rippled through the economy and seriously undermined I am hoping the center will allow us to build on this core strength by promoting research, teaching, investors confidence in the securities markets. and service related to topics that will improve investor welfare and corporate responsibility, Barber said. But out of this latest wave of corporate fraud and abuse, a lot of good In addition to offering an active and well-supported can come. Under the direction of environment for faculty research, the center will support finance Professor Brad Barber, the coursework and activities for interested MBA students. Graduate School of Management is developing a new Center for The center has already established partnerships with Investor Welfare and Corporate CalPERS and CalSTRS, two of the nation s largest Responsibility. The center will serve pension funds, to award research fellowships to a as a focal point to advocate for select number of MBA interns who will train in the improved corporate practices, to pension funds investment offices. educate investors through research Headquartered in Sacramento, both CalPERS and and outreach, and to better prepare CalSTRS are major forces in shareholder activist MBA students. movements and formidable watchdogs over issues Financial markets have been roiled ranging from corporate performance and manage- by scandal in the last several years, ment to executive compensation. said Barber, explaining the reasons Barber said there also are plans on the drawing for creating the center. People make board to give students hands-on experience in managing a low cost, diversified index fund consisting of mistakes this includes investors saving for retirement and CEOs of stocks of well-governed and socially responsible major corporations. This center is public companies. the first step in both avoiding these mistakes and minimizing the damage that might be done by them. active participation in Net Impact, a network of more Outside of the classroom, students will continue their than 13,000 MBA students, graduate students and Barber said the Graduate School of young professionals committed to responsible business. Student will also be encouraged to enter the Management is well-positioned for the center because the faculty has Global Social Ventures Competition, a forum for entrepreneurs to showcase their business plans and for a strong history of conducting research on why and how executives investors to support groundbreaking, altruistic ideas. and investors often make wrong decisions. The center will also bring under its umbrella new and existing conferences and seminars for scholars In addition to Barber, who is an expert on investor and institutional investors from around the world to psychology and behavior, several other faculty have present research and discuss issues related to investor welfare and responsible corporate practices. research interests in related areas, including assistant professors William Gebhardt, Michelle Yetman, (continued) 10 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

13 and Corporate Responsibility Teaching & Service by Mitchel Benson School Partners with Nation s Largest Public Pension Funds on Investment Training Program for MBA Students As part of an effort to develop a Center for Investor Welfare and Corporate Responsibility, the Graduate School of Management has forged new partnerships with two of the nation s largest public pension funds to attract top-tier business students to careers in investment management. The School will offer annual fellowships to a select number of MBA student interns who will train in the investment offices of the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS). Both of these large institutional investors are based in Sacramento and have been at the forefront of corporate governance issues. CalPERS is the nation s largest public pension fund with assets of more than $200 billion. The system provides retirement and health benefits to more than 1.4 million state and local public employees and their families. At $133 billion, CalSTRS is the nation s third-largest public pension fund. It provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to California s educators, from kindergarten through community college, serving more than 755,000 members and their families. The research fellowships will be awarded through the School s new Center for Investor Welfare and Corporate Responsibility, a research and public policy initiative directed by finance Professor Brad Barber. For more information about This is a great partnership, said Barber, who is a leading expert on investor behavior and financial markets. Students at the Graduate School of Management will get valuable real-world experience, while CalPERS and CalSTRS will gain access to top-notch students from a nationally ranked MBA program. As fellows, MBA students will work part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer. They typically begin internships during the first year of their MBA program. The student interns will have opportunities to work in the areas of global equity, fixed income, private equity, and corporate governance and corporate responsibility. They also will be able to meet and network with several GSM alumni who are managers at each of the pension funds. This fellowship program promises to give students a highlevel, hands-on investment experience that they probably couldn t get anywhere else in the Sacramento region, said Mark Anson, CalPERS chief investment officer, who is stepping down in January. It will help CalPERS identify promising new talent for careers in the investment management industry. Chris Ailman, CalSTRS chief investment officer, added that CalSTRS is very pleased to help initiate this fellowship program for students. Since their academic work focuses on finance, investor welfare and corporate responsibility, an internship at CalSTRS provides them a tremendous opportunity to put theory into practice under the guidance of our responsible, experienced investment professionals. the Center for Investor Welfare and Corporate Responsibility, contact Professor Brad Barber at (530) or bmbarber@ucdavis.edu GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT 11

14 S C H O O L N E W S by Tim Akin of2005 Introducing the Entering Class The Graduate School of Management this past fall welcomed 153 new MBA students 52 in the Daytime MBA Program and 101 in the Working Professional MBA Programs in Sacramento and at our new campus in the San Francisco Bay Area. As members of the entering Class of 2005, they have accepted the UC Davis MBA challenge and join a dynamic, close-knit community dedicated to innovation, collaboration and excellence. DAYTIME MBA PROGRAM - UC DAVIS CAMPUS ABOUT THE CLASS Average Age: 28 Average Work Experience: 5 years Average GMAT score: 673 Male/Female: 65%/35% Undergraduate Institutions Represented: 37 International Students: 15% (including Australia, Brazil, China, India, Taiwan and Turkey) WORKING PROFESSIONAL MBA PROGRAM - BAY AREA WORKING PROFESSIONAL MBA PROGRAM - SACRAMENTO AND SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA ABOUT THE CLASS Average Age: 31 Average Work Experience: 8 years Male/Female: 75%/25% Industries Represented: High-Tech/Communications 36% Banking/Finance/Insurance 12% Public Sector/Non-Profit 12% Manufacturing/Logistics 10% Service Sector 10% Science/Engineering 9% Health Care 5% Other 6% 12 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS Employers of students include: 3M Accenture Advance Micro Devices Aerojet Alcatel Alza Corporation Bio-Rad Laboratories Charles Schwab & Co. Chevron Corp. Cisco Systems, Inc. Electronic Data Systems Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Ford Motor Company Franklin Templeton Investments Genentech, Inc. Hewlett-Packard Co. WORKING PROFESSIONAL MBA PROGRAM - SACRAMENTO IBM Corp. Novellus Systems, Inc. Intel Corp. AT&T Keane, Inc. Siemens Corp. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory State of California Lockheed Martin Union Bank of California MCI U.S. Department of Defense NEC Electronics America Verizon Wireless

15 Big Bang! Business Plan Competition Ignites Big Bang! Business Plan Competition Ignites Year Six First-year MBA student Brian Hoblit has teamed with Jorge Campos, a UC Davis Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, to examine the potential for Campos innovative technique that takes the guesswork out of exposing bugs in microchips, which could speed circuit testing and save chip manufacturers millions. Like busy bees pollinating the crop in the field, UC Davis MBA students are fanning out across the campus to work with researchers to bring their promising discoveries and innovative ideas to fruition and possibly win seed funding to help grow them into marketable products. Now in its sixth year, the Graduate School of Management s student-run Big Bang! Business Plan Competition has broadened its partnership with UC Davis CONNECT to spread the culture of entrepreneurship and extend outreach. CONNECT has spun out five distinct Little Bang! contests this year as stepping stones into the Big Bang! think big league playoffs to make the World Series. The Little Bang! categories are clean energy/environmental sciences; foods for health and wellness; computational science and information technology; medical and biotech innovations; and nanotechnology. FIVE LITTLE BANGS! LIGHT ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRES The winners of the Little Bangs! each receive $3,000 and move on as semifinalists to the Big Bang!, where more than $15,000 is at stake. Little Bangs! require entrants to design a poster with a brief business marketing presentation, while the Big Bang! competition involves a series of finance, marketing and intellectual property workshops to help develop a full-blown business plan. It all culminates with a final round in May where the finalists make their pitch to a panel of venture capitalists and executives. I m entering the Little Bangs! for one reason: it s the reason that I came to business school, said Hoblit, who in addition to helping Campos on his chip validation design is assisting two Transportation Technology and Policy Ph.D. students to establish a supply network to collect used cooking grease to turn into biodiesel fuel. BIG BANG! SPONSORS EXCLUSIVE PLATINUM DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary GOLD Arête Therapeutics DFJ Frontier UC Davis Medical Center SILVER CleanStart Fenwick & West LLP BRONZE Akers Capital LLC American River Ventures Capital Valley Ventures FedExKinko s First U.S. Community Credit Union Javed Iqbal S C H O O L N E W S by Tim Akin At the Big Bang! Kick-off in October, alumnus Derek Larsen 05 encourages potential entrants to find an idea they can get excited and passionate about then go for it. Larsen helped lead Boegeskov Energy, which is developing an innovative polymer fuel cell, to the People s Choice award in last year s competition. Big Bang! joined forces with UC Davis CONNECT and the Office of Research to host Gunnar Weikert, chairman, CEO and founder of Inventages Venture Capital Investments, as keynote speaker at the Big Bang! Kick-off in October. Weikert explained how shifts in the pharmaceutical industry have influenced his investments in life and health sciences. Pramod Parihar, chair of the Big Bang! Organizing Committee, said the Little Bangs! are building a bridge between world-class research in the labs and the business skills and experience of MBA students all in an effort to spur technology transfer and commercialization. We expect this to boost the quality and the number of business plans entered this year, Parihar explained. Sparking interest in Big Bang! has also driven up our sponsor support, which increases prize money and raises our visibility. At the Big Bang! October kick-off, Dean Nicole Woolsey Biggart urged those with entrepreneurial fire in the belly to turn their ideas into action. You have to take your ideas and connect them with the market, Biggart said. There s no better place in the world right now to do this than UC Davis. The university is now among the top 10 in research funding it s a phenomenal research powerhouse. The ideas are here. Marrying them with entrepreneurial skills and exposing them to the light of business management will create a ring of start-ups around this campus. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT 13

16 S C H O O L N E W S by Tim Akin UC Davis Researchers Baptized in PAVING THE WAY FROM LAB TO MARKET In their labs, they re breaking new ground in fields such as clean energy, nutrition, animal science, software development, chemical and biomedical engineering, and nanotechnology. After spending a week together in an intensive business development boot camp at the Graduate School of Management in September, twenty-two of the best and brightest UC Davis graduate student researchers have caught the entrepreneurial bug, experienced the power of collaboration and envisioned the big picture impact of their work. Graduate Studies, the College of Engineering as well as venture capital firm DFJ Frontier, an industry partner. The five-day workshop offers a condensed version for graduate student researchers who can t commit to the year-long program. While the workshop whets researchers appetite for new venture development, the year-long program, which teams graduate students in the sciences and engineering with MBA students, serves up a full, five-course meal in technology management, innovation and entrepreneurship. Armed with new skills and knowledge, they re primed to pitch business plans based on their discoveries to potential investors and are thinking more innovatively and strategically about taking their research to the marketplace. For instance, Bevin Lin, a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering with the UC Davis Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology, is harnessing the power of light to develop an advanced medical imaging technology. She plans to move it out of the research lab and into the operating room, giving surgeons a powerful new tool to peer deep into cells to diagnose and treat cancer and other deadly diseases in real time. Such an optical tissue biopsy could vastly improve patient care and survival rates. The Graduate School of Management s boot camp ran Ph.D. cadets through drills, exercises, simulations, and competition, rallying us at 8 a.m. each morning with a new challenge to mount and a strategy to grasp, Lin said of the experience. STEM CELLS OF THE UNIVERSITY GSM Associate Professor Andrew Hargadon, director of technology management programs, said more and more campus researchers are interested not only in entrepreneurship, but in learning what it takes to make a difference with their research. Fellows emerge from the year-long program well-prepared to license research, launch new ventures, or work in corporate research and development. The program s inaugural class of nine completed studies last June, and eight new fellows began in the fall. The Business Development Programs have attracted doctoral researchers and their faculty advisors from more than 30 UC Davis labs and research centers. This past September s one-week immersion workshop baptized students in new venture design, tackling topics ranging from evaluating market opportunities and writing business plans to patenting and licensing intellectual property. It culminated with six student teams each presenting a mini-business plan to a panel of venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs who critiqued and offered sage advice. Judge Greg Chabrier, a Silicon Valley tech veteran turned angel investor, described the array and promise of the technologies as simply amazing. Doctoral students are really the stem cells of universities, said Hargadon, who heads the School s Business Development Programs. They don t have established labs to manage or a research stream to worry about, so they are capable of becoming whatever they want to be. They are able to guide their research in ways that can foster commercialization or improve the possibilities of getting that work into the market. The two Business Development Programs are designed to transform UC Davis stem cells into tomorrow s successful scientist-entrepreneurs. The one-week summer boot camp was spun out from the year-long Business Development Certificate Program also sponsored by the UC Davis Office of Research and supported by the School of Medicine, the UC Davis Health System, the Office of 14 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS As an icebreaker and team-building exercise to spark creative thinking on the first day of the GSM s week-long Business Development boot camp, groups of graduate student researchers had 30 minutes to devise a novel way to launch a malt ball into a target 12 feet away using only four feet of masking tape, two file folders, a pencil, a playing card, a Styrofoam cup and some rubber bands and paperclips. (continued)

17 Business Development We have a lot of great technology here that nobody has taken seriously enough to commercialize, said Chabrier, co-founder of the Davis Catalysts, an organization of UC Davis alumni and friends of the campus who have banded together to encourage and coach entrepreneurial activities at the university. MANAGING INNOVATIVE IDEAS Business students working alongside the fellows are learning how to manage innovation and where they can best contribute in a technology start-up. Many MBA students and researchers are collaborating on entries for UC Davis CONNECT s constellation of Little Bang! contests and the GSM student-organized Big Bang! Business Plan Competition, which offers yet another path to test commercial potential. (see page 13) We are repositioning the Graduate School of Management to be both a producer of managers, and also a connector between the research discoveries on campus and the market, said Dean Nicole Woolsey Biggart. These Ph.D. students in the life sciences and engineering offer our MBA students a great opportunity to work with emerging technologies, Biggart explained. The MBA students are showing the scientists how to make a difference with their technologies by bringing them to market. As a result, these young scientists are changing the culture of their laboratories. CROSSING GUARDS AT THE INTERSECTION OF SCIENCE AND BUSINESS Got Milk? Samara Freeman is licking her lips over the ad campaign that has made running out of milk part of American pop culture. Freeman, one of the first nine fellows to graduate from the Business Development Certificate Program, is using what she learned in her new role as a portfolio manager for a California Dairy Research Foundation study headed by Professor Bruce German of the UC Davis Department of Food Science and Technology. As a liaison between academics and industry, she is pursuing technology transfer opportunities and working with communications experts to publicize research that shows the health benefits of drinking milk. This is an ideal position for me, combining both the business development skills I acquired through the GSM program and my scientific research, Freeman said. The great thing is I ve found the area that I am passionate about health and nutrition. German, a renowned food chemist, praised Freeman s contributions. Her knowledge of business implications of scientific research is proving to be a gold mine, he said. These eight UC Davis graduate student and post-doctoral researchers are the second set of fellows to study and work with MBA students in the yearlong Business Development Certificate Program offered by the Graduate School of Management. Front row (left to right): Angela Zivkovic, Nutritional Biology; Jennifer Smilowitz, Nutritional Biology; Daphna Dror, Nutritional Biology; Jorge Campos, Electrical and Computer Engineering. Back row (left to right): Tracy Brockman, Internal Medicine/Nutrition; Danny Lee, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering; Matthew Caldwell, Institute of Transportation Studies, Transportation and Technology; Christine Funke, California National Primate Research Center. German is also a faculty advisor to two Ph.D. students in nutritional biology who are current fellows in the year-long certificate program. The GSM program has done wonders in focusing the students on how their science is applied, he said. College of Engineering Professor Steven Velinsky called the Business Development Programs invaluable for students who are interested in the ultimate application of their research. It has taken me many years to realize that great innovations do not sell themselves; these great ideas still need to be packaged and sold, said Velinsky, who is faculty advisor to fellow Danny Lee, a Ph.D. candidate studying electro-mechanical systems. The certificate program teaches high-level engineers how too make such a case and sell their technologies, Velinsky added. UC Davis Vice Chancellor of Research Barry Klein, a partner and evangelist for the Graduate School of Management s initiative, said the programs are just what the doctor ordered as they bridge scientific discovery and business applications. Both the one-week and certificate programs enhance the innovation tool kits of these scientists and prepare them for a career that may include significant industry interactions, Klein said. Boot camp alumna Lin said Klein is right on the money: The Business Development Intensive Program is the rabbit hole to a wonderland of opportunities, social networks, and a matrix for entrepreneurial campus researchers to broaden their experience, skills and abilities. Learn more about the Business Development GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT 15

18 S C H O O L N E W S by Tim Akin Keynote speaker Jordan Schnitzer Professor Robert Smiley (center) congratulates Kimber Hoey and Pejman Azarm, who were honored with the Robert H. Smiley Award for outstanding leadership. Christopher Klyse (left) and Farley Stewart received the Richard C. Dorf Award for Academic Excellence. Sahra Halpern and Zachary Presnall were presented with the James F. Sullivan Award for outstanding service. Celebrating with his son, Derek Smith was among the 58 Daytime MBA and 87 Working Professional MBA graduates in the Class of COMMENCEMENT AND CONVOCATION New Grads Challenged to Work Creatively While Giving Back At the Graduate School of Management s commencement ceremony on June 18, keynote speaker Jordan Schnitzer, a philanthropist and real estate developer, urged the School s 145 newest alumni to give back to their communities while working to recreate and innovate American business as globalization shakes the status quo. In my view, this is the greatest economic challenge this country has ever faced, Schnitzer told the newly minted MBAs, highlighting statistics on the shift in jobs overseas and increasing globalization. It s a war for this country to maintain its position as an economic power in the world. You re going out into a different world; one without an enemy... the enemy in this war is us. Schnitzer s Portland-based firm, Harsch Investment Properties, owns and operates more than 100 properties in six Western states, and has a regional office and developments in West Sacramento. A life-long resident and native of Portland, Schnitzer has been an active leader in many aspects of Oregon s civic and business communities. He has been recognized for his lifetime of philanthropy and achievements. Schnitzer told the capacity audience at Freeborn Hall how important it is to get involved on the local level. Reaching out and helping others that feeds our souls and helps the fabric of our communities, he said. Don t wait until you are older or retired. Reach out now. They need you and you need them. Good communities make good businesses. K E N N E D Y H O N O R E D F O R S E RV I C E T O T H E S C H O O L Dan Kennedy has dedicated himself to exactly what his close friend Jordan Schnitzer advocated in his keynote address a community business leader, a caring and involved citizen, and a champion for management education. During the commencement ceremony, Dean Nicole Woolsey Biggart honored Kennedy, who is publisher and president of the Sacramento Business Journal, as the first recipient of the Dean s Distinguished Service Award. It is my great pleasure to recognize Dan Kennedy in appreciation of his nearly 20 years of outstanding dedication to and support of the Graduate School of Management, Biggart said. Kennedy, who has been adjunct professor at the management school since 1986, teaching a popular course in marketing communications, is also one of the longest serving members of the Graduate School of Management s Dean s Advisory Council. Dean Nicole Woolsey Biggart presents Dan Kennedy with the first Dean s Distinguished Service Award. 16 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS

19 CELEBRATE NEW CHAPTERS School Embarks on Bold Path with Message on Values-Based Leadership The Graduate School of Management celebrated the start of the academic year with its first Convocation on September 23 an event highlighted by the announcement of an ambitious new agenda for the GSM capped with a powerful message about values and leadership. Welcoming the class of entering students, faculty, staff, alumni, and campus and business leaders at the Mondavi Center, Dean Nicole Woolsey Biggart unveiled a host of initiatives that will advance the School s mission of teaching, research and service to the business and civic communities. Biggart shared how faculty are putting ideas into action by taking the lead in developing several Centers of Excellence that link academic pursuits, student initiatives and campus ventures around a common theme. These include the Center for Entrepreneurship, led by Associate Professor Andrew Hargadon; the Center for Investor Welfare and Corporate Responsibility, headed by Professor Brad Barber; the MBA Consulting Center, directed by Professor Richard Dorf; and groundwork for a Leadership Center, spearheaded by Professors Kimberly Elsbach and Robert Smiley. I am very excited about the future because our momentum has only just begun, Biggart said. We can all look forward to a prosperous year ahead for the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. I invite all of you to join us for an exciting ride. On that note, Biggart introduced the guest of honor, keynote speaker Steve Newberry, president and CEO of Lam Research Corporation. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and Harvard Business School, Newberry has more than 25 years of management and leadership experience in the high-tech industry and has helped build Lam into one of the world s leading suppliers of wafer fabrication equipment and services. Along the way, he has fostered a company culture tied to core values. As keynote speaker at the Graduate School of Mangement s Fall Convocation, Lam Research Corporation CEO Steve Newberry explains the benefits of building a strong, values-based company and how values are critical to personal success. Describing his company s mission and vision, Newberry outlined the benefits of defining and creating a values-based company and how values play a central role in career success. You cannot separate personal beliefs from the application of corporate value systems, Newberry told the audience. Values are foundational in defining the behaviors that are necessary to create an effective, sustainable business. Newberry said that values-based leadership creates trust, which is critical to aligning an organization to strategic objectives. He closed by giving the new MBA students a simple formula for success. You want to work for a management team you can trust, respect, and learn from, Newberry advised. Combine this with a commitment to being as competent as you can be, and good things will happen for you. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT 17

20 N E W S T I C K E R N E W S T I C K E R N E W S T I C K E R N E W S T I C K E R Avishkari Aggies among the 10 Most Innovative MBA Teams in the World GSM team delivers creative ideas to move past more than 300 entries into finals of Thunderbird Global Innovation Challenge A team of UC Davis MBA students advanced to the finals of the 2005 Global Innovation Challenge the world s largest academic competition of its kind hosted by Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management and company, Idea Crossing. Calling themselves the Avishkari Aggies (avishkari is Hindi for innovative ), the team of five first-year students emerged as one of 10 finalists from the initial round of the third-annual international competition, which took place online in October. The UC Davis team Aaron Burda, Rocky Mitarai, Benedict Mok, Thomas Nelson and Shilpi Sharma then spent three days at the Thunderbird campus in Glendale, Arizona, in mid-november, competing head-to-head in the finals. The UC Davis team was the only team from a California business school among the finalists. The finalists were winnowed from a record-breaking roster of 321 teams representing 83 business programs in 18 countries including eight teams from the GSM, four of which placed among the top 40. The competition gives MBA students an opportunity to solve real-world business problems from company sponsors, including Hilton Hotels, IBM, American Express and the United States Postal Service. At the finals, teams had to present inventive solutions to problems posed by the U.S. Postal Service and Hilton Hotels. A panel of CEOs, senior executives and innovation experts from non-sponsor companies served as judges. The Avishkari Aggies burned the midnight oil. We worked until 4 a.m. each night and then got up again at 6, said team leader Shilpi Sharma. It s an exhausting yet exhilarating competition that truly tests the limits of a team in every aspect possible. Vanderbilt s team took top honors and the $20,000 grand prize. Although her team didn t win, Sharma said they were pleased with their performance. We did a great job overall, she said. It taught us the true value of working in a team and how a well-oiled team can accomplish great feats. We delivered two very solid, innovative, and highly marketable concepts. Team member Thomas Nelson said two factors drove their success. First, we The Avishkari Aggies, a team of five first-year MBA students, delivered creative solutions for the U.S. Postal Service and Hilton Hotels as one of the 10 finalists at the Thunderbird Global Innovation Challenge in November. (Front row, from left to right) Rocky Mitarai and Ben Mok. (Back row, from left to right) Thomas Nelson, Shilpi Sharma and Aaron Burda. have diverse skills, experience and backgrounds. Second, we work very well as a team with shared leadership, tasks and accountability. Combining these factors allowed us to piece ideas and information together in an innovative way. The team is already looking forward to a rematch in Arizona. Once we get feedback from the judges, we can use that information to improve our concepts, Sharma said. Hopefully, we ll take first place next year. Sixth-Annual UC Davis Wine Executive Program Offered in March The Graduate School of Management and Department of Viticulture and Enology will host the sixth-annual UC Davis Wine Executive Program from March in Sacramento. The professional development course will focus on the fundamental winemaking and management skills that are critical to success in course will focus on the fundamenthe business and art of making and the business and art of making and selling wine. Led by renowned faculty and experienced guest lecturers, the rigorous curriculum guest lecturers, the rigorous curriculum includes in-depth sessions on financial includes in-depth sessions on financial management, winemaking practices, management, winemaking practices, marketing and branding, cost analysis marketing and branding, cost analysis and control, legal issues, the latest and control, legal issues, the latest grape and wine research, and operating modern wineries and vineyards. grape and wine research, and operating modern wineries and vineyards. Over the past five years, more than Over the past five years, more than 250 wine industry professionals from across the U.S. and around the world have benefited from the program. The professors and presentations are excellent, said 2005 attendee Richard Mahoney, chief financial officer for The Wine Group, one of the world s largest wine companies. As a relative newcomer to the industry, I found the program accelerated my understanding of enology, viticulture and legal issues in the wine business it s a rewarding and valuable experience. (continued) 18 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS