Category: Inside Owen

The Owen School improved to No. 25 in the nation, up from No. 28 last year, in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings. It marks the school’s second-highest placement ever on the list.

“As our rankings continue to move up in a highly competitive field, it’s becoming clear that others are recognizing the business school’s remarkable momentum,” says Dean Jim Bradford. “We continue to work hard to attract top-caliber talent throughout all of our management programs and look forward to many more bright days ahead.”

Microfinance lending and ecologically friendly false eyelashes may not seem to have much in common. But they’re both new business ideas that caught the attention of the prize committee awarding this year’s $25,000 Sohr Grants, created to promote student entrepreneurship at the Owen School.

Jim Sohr, BE’86, MBA’90, and his wife, Leah, endowed the new grants. Sohr is the past President and Co-founder of AIM Healthcare Services, which provides claims cost-management services for government and commercial payers of health care benefits. A division of UnitedHealth Group purchased AIM in 2009.

“We would love to create many companies that become as successful as AIM Healthcare,” says Germain Böer, Professor of Accounting and Director of the Owen Entrepreneurship Center. “With this kind of support, the Owen School can attract more students who already have a business idea that they want to develop. This funding, combined with the mentor support provided by the school’s alumni, will drive the success of these new ventures.”

Georgie Beauty

One of the grants went to Megan Allen, an MBA candidate for 2012, for her startup Georgie Beauty. Co-founded in 2009 by Allen and her sister, Abbey Allen Watt, the company makes “eco-luxe” false eyelashes sold under the brand name Winks by Georgie. The company has established partnerships with luxury retailers Neiman Marcus and Cos Bar. It also has been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, InStyle.com, and numerous beauty and style blogs. About the target audience, Allen writes in her business plan, “These women are looking for the latest cosmetic products that help them achieve the celebrity look, but that’s not all. They are also increasingly concerned with consumer and environmental health.”

Contigo Financial

Contigo Financial is developing a microfinance model to provide payday loans to the 60 million consumers in the United States who don’t have access to traditional bank loans or credit card products. Currently these types of small loans are provided by pawnshops and payday lenders, where borrowing costs can exceed an APR of 400 percent. Co-founder Mario Avila, a 2012 MBA candidate and President of the Owen Student Government Association, is leading a startup team that has experience in consulting, banking and microfinance. He and his team are taking a novel approach by partnering with employers to help their employees meet short-term financial needs.

This past November, a group of 18 students in the Owen Energy Club took a first-of-its-kind trip to Houston to learn more about the energy sector and to network with potential employers. The Energy Trek, as it was called, was planned by Tracey Gilliland, an MBA candidate for 2013, in conjunction with Peter Veruki, Director of Corporate Relations, and Sylvia Boyd, Assistant Director of Employer Relations.

“Energy is a huge sector. In some ways it’s even bigger and more complex than the health care industry as far as job opportunities,” says the Houston-based Veruki, who hosted a wine-tasting mixer at his home for the students and local alumni. “Energy’s not just about finance or operations or engineering. It’s also about marketing and HR and many other areas. And all of those opportunities are spread around the globe.”

The first stop on the Energy Trek was Macquarie Group, an international financial services company where Vikas Dwivedi, MBA’00, Global Oil and Gas Economist, and Charles Fenner, MBA’01, Senior Vice President of Power and Gas Fundamentals, gave a presentation. The student group next visited Baker Hughes, a leading oil field services company, whose President and CEO is Martin Craighead, IEMBA’98. Then it was on to global financial services firm JPMorgan Chase, where Robert Traband, MBA’93, Managing Director of Credit Risk Management, spoke.

The following morning, the group toured the world’s largest publicly traded oil and gas company, Exxon Mobil, which included a visit to its 3-D visualization room used for training employees in drilling operations. The group then toured the trading floor of Chevron, another of the world’s leading oil and gas companies. The final stop was international financial services firm Credit Suisse, where Managing Director Tim Perry, MBA’81, gave a presentation.

Houston-native Gilliland, who previously worked for Macquarie before enrolling at Owen, anticipates that the Energy Club will continue to grow and broaden its appeal. She sees potential in networking with more utility and energy companies in the Southeast, as well as renewable energy businesses.

“Our goal is to bring more value to club members and expand our offerings, whether it’s new networking opportunities, guest speakers or internships,” she says. “That means we have to get the word out to alumni that there’s an interest in energy at the school. We want them to know that we’re building something here and that they can play a hand in it.”

To find out how you can help the Owen Energy Club, please email owenenergy@owen.vanderbilt.edu.

Cheryl Chunn joined Owen this past November as the school’s Associate Dean of Development and Alumni Relations. She has worked at Vanderbilt for 10 years, six of which have been in development. Her previous roles include Director of Development and Director of Corporate Relations for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, as well as Senior Associate Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations Development. Chunn has a bachelor’s from Valparaiso University, a master’s from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management in Chicago.

Q: What drew you to this opportunity at Owen?

A: First, it’s Vanderbilt and my 10 years working in both the Medical Center and the university that drew me to Owen. It’s an incredible place to work. I’m amazed every day at all that’s going on here to help transform business, medicine, education and the community we live in.

Also what drew me was my previous work with Owen and Jim Bradford as a development officer with Corporate and Foundation Relations. I had the opportunity to visit with Owen alumni all over who were so passionate about their experiences here. The word they used was “family.” I heard that over and over again.

Q: How has your MBA shaped your approach to development and alumni relations?

A: My MBA has helped me understand that all philanthropists want to know their gifts are doing something meaningful. What I learned in my schooling was the question: “What’s the return on my investment?” I approach my development activity with that in mind. I want our alumni donors to know what Owen needs, why we need it and how they can help. Being able to steward them with the answer to that ROI question is my next step.

Also I know how hard I worked to get my degree and realize that I wouldn’t have the same perspective and experience without it. Likewise for our alumni, Owen has helped them not only in their professional lives but in their personal lives as well, and I believe they want to give back because of that fact.

Q: What are some of the short-and long-term goals for Owen’s development and alumni relations team?

A: One of the short-term goals is to learn how to work as a team. With many new team members, we’ll be forging ahead to build on the existing base of support from Owen to develop goals and structures that help our students, faculty and alumni.

Our more ambitious goals for the immediate future are to be able to accomplish the development and alumni relations goals of the strategic plan and to make Owen more successful. We will focus on increasing the number of endowed scholarships for students, strengthening alumni engagement and working with the dean on potential space and program needs.

Arthur B. Laffer, a renowned economist and longtime champion of conservative causes, proposed a novel approach to taxation at a forum held in Owen’s Averbuch Auditorium Feb. 23. Laffer said he sees a fundamentally backward system in the United States, which imposes taxes on things people want more of—income and jobs—while allowing something we want less of—carbon dioxide pollution—to be emitted without penalty.

The situation should be reversed, Laffer argued. Instead of tax increases that are “veiled as ‘cap and trade’ schemes,” he said, Congress should offset a simple carbon tax with a reduction in income or payroll taxes.

Joining Laffer in the discussion was former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina. “Art Laffer is a conservative who’s agnostic on climate change. I’m a conservative who believes it’s real,” Inglis said. “Both of us see opportunity in changing what we tax. For Art, it’s about his lifelong quest to reduce marginal tax rates. For me, it’s that—plus the opportunity to fix a market distortion that prevents the free enterprise system from delivering the fuels of the future.”

A member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board between 1981 and 1989, Laffer is the Founder and Chairman of Nashville-based Laffer Associates, an economic research firm that provides global investment research services to institutional asset managers, pension funds, financial institutions and corporations.

Owen has long been known for its strong sense of community, and that reputation stands to grow thanks to the efforts of the latest classes to pass through Management Hall. Students have started a first-of-its-kind forum at the school for sharing their areas of expertise with one another. Called Owen Insights, the series aims to foster a collaborative learning environment through regular presentations, discussions and workshops.

Founded by Aaron Fung, an MBA candidate for 2012, Owen Insights draws upon the wide variety of backgrounds, nationalities and professional experiences represented across the student body. “While the classroom has contributed a lot to my learning experience here at Owen, the majority of my learning has taken place outside the classroom through my interactions with classmates,” Fung says. “This is what inspired me to create a common platform for students to enhance their learning experience at Owen.”

Prior to business school, Fung worked as Director of Strategy for Ascend, a nonprofit association that focuses on professional networking and leadership opportunities for Asian Americans. His experiences at Ascend have helped him steer the Owen Insights venture. He views the series as an opportunity for students to not only network with each other but also hone critical presentation and public speaking skills.

Students are encouraged to suggest ideas for workshops, and topics in the past have included the business of education and American slang, which was of particular interest to international students. More recent topics have ranged from Foundations of American Politics, taught by Steven Smith, former presidential appointee, White House staffer and MBA candidate for 2013; to Tips and Tricks of Excel led by former financial analyst and 2012 MBA candidate Doug Midkiff; to European Economics led by Sergi Tejero Cano, former Chairman of the Andorran Economist Association and MBA candidate for 2012. Fung himself, who is a chartered retirement plan counselor, taught The Basics of Personal Finance along with Kate Yoho and Carlton Fitch, both CFP practitioners and MBA candidates for 2013.

Thus far the series has seen an enthusiastic response from students, and Fung hopes it will continue even after he graduates. “I’d like Owen Insights to become a self-sustaining program that draws all students into it,” Fung says. “I think people really want to learn from each other, and the great thing is that people are willing to teach. They just need a mechanism through which their knowledge can come out. Owen Insights gives students that mechanism and makes it easier for classmates to learn something that they might not get in a typical academic setting.”