A team of MBA students from Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management took second place this winter in the University of Texas at Austin National Real Estate Challenge, a prestigious MBA case competition.
The team members were second-year MBA students Peter Kleinberg, Gavin McDowell, Johnny Shoaf and Stephen Songy, and first-years Justin Albright and Tim Kilroy. A team from the University of California at Berkeley took first place.
The fictional case was inspired by an actual case: a Goldman Sachs real estate fund’s $400 million acquisition and rehabilitation of the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel and Casino. “We were given three days to work on the case and then submitted our analysis and recommendations,” Songy says. “Then we traveled to Austin to present to a panel of judges comprised of experienced practitioners in the field of real estate, including the key individuals who led the actual deal for Goldman Sachs.”
The Vanderbilt team advanced to the finals for the second time in two years, and won $3,000 for the second place finish. “Given the field of competition, we can be very proud of our students,” says Jacob Sagi, Vanderbilt Financial Markets Research Center Associate Professor of Management.
Woodrow “Woody” Lucas, MBA’07, MDiv’07, a doctoral student at the Owen School, wasone of only two recipients of a Ph.D. Trailblazer Award for 2009 from the National Black MBA Association at the annual meeting in New Orleans last fall.
Lucas, who grew up in New Jersey, graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in mathematical methods and social sciences, and worked as a minister and math tutor with at-risk children through the Urban League following graduation. He has also conducted health services research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and is the author of two books, A Book of Rhythm and Insane Joy.
Jon Lehman, Associate Dean of Students, (left) with MBA candidates and fellow scooter commuters Jarod Pardue, Mark Harris, BS’03, PhD’09, and Darcy Lincoln
Leading economic thinkers, including President Obama’s Senior Economic Advisor Paul Volcker and Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Donald Kohn, came together this spring at the Owen School to talk about the current financial crisis for the 22nd annual Financial Markets Research Center Conference.
Volcker (back row, center) and other economic and political heavyweights came to Owen for the 22nd annual Financial Markets Research Center Conference.
In his remarks, Volcker, who was Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987, said that the United States’ economic recovery would be a “long slog” but that the rate of decline should slow. He added that the country was not in another depression, but “in a great recession for sure.” He also talked about the outlook for the Federal Reserve’s role as a regulator of financial markets and accounting standards. (You can watch Volcker’s full speech at www.youtube.com/Vanderbilt.)
Kohn said that the federal government’s heavy financial bailout of banks and other businesses would help the stock market and was “necessary, safe and effective.” Kohn also talked about the impact of the central bank’s emergency lending programs on taxpayers, credit market capital allocation, the stress tests of U.S. banks and the outlook for the U.S. economy.
Kohn and Volcker had a lively back-and-forth following Kohn’s speech when Volcker questioned statements he made about a 2 percent inflation rate being appropriate for the economy in the long term. (The exchange and Kohn’s full speech are on Vanderbilt’s YouTube page.)
Volcker, Kohn and dozens of current and former members of the Federal Reserve, along with other economic and political heavyweights, came to Owen to honor Dewey Daane, Frank K. Houston Professor of Finance, Emeritus, and former Governor of the Federal Reserve Board, for his 90th birthday. Many of the economic leaders have lectured in Daane’s seminar on monetary and fiscal policy. The seminar has been in continuous operation since Daane joined the Owen faculty in 1974.
RecruitAtOwen.com allows recruiters to post jobs and order student resumes.
In this day and age, searching for the right job entails a lot more than just sending out resumes. And in this tight economy, it is not always possible for companies to send out recruiters. In light of this, the Owen School is taking a new approach to promoting its students and enticing recruiters through a new Web site: RecruitAtOwen.com.
The site highlights some of Owen’s best and brightest in the Student Spotlight section. It also links to more information about Owen’s graduate degrees, including the MBA, MS Finance, Master of Accountancy and Health Care MBA.
RecruitAtOwen.com allows recruiters to post jobs and order student resumes easily. The site also offers a Recruiter’s Toolkit section, featuring an on-campus recruiting checklist, recruiting calendar, guidelines for job offers, information on hiring international students, employment reports, ways to connect with student organizations, contact information for the Owen Career Management Center team and more.
“Our goal was to create a Web site that would answer all of the recruiter’s questions in a well-organized format,” says Joyce Rothenberg, Director of Owen’s Career Management Center. “Business recruiters I’ve talked to love that everything they need is just one or two clicks away.”
Rothenberg says the site is also helping Owen to be more environmentally responsible by dramatically cutting the amount of paper the school prints and mails out. Recruiters say it is much easier to find information on-line in-stead of having to store and file printed materials.
Dean Jim Bradford has been named to the board of directors of the Graduate Management Admission Council, the association of leading graduate business schools worldwide. Bradford is serving a one-year term on the board of the nonprofit organization, which is dedicated to creating access to and advancing graduate management education. Representing academia and industry, GMAC also owns the GMAT exam, which is used by more than 4,600 business programs worldwide as a key part of the admissions process.
“I am honored by this appointment and look forward to working with my colleagues to underscore the essential role of business education, particularly in periods of great economic flux as we’re experiencing now,” says Bradford, who is also the Ralph Owen Professor of Management. “As business school educators, we are charged with grounding tomorrow’s industry leaders with sound management practices, judgment and values, and fostering a sense of responsibility to contribute to the greater good of society.”
Since his appointment as Dean in 2005, Bradford has spearheaded the launch of several market-driven and immersion-based programs, including a Health Care MBA, master’s degrees in finance and accounting, and Accelerator, a month-long summer intensive program for high-performing undergraduates. Previously Bradford served as President and CEO of United Glass Corporation and AFG Industries Inc., North America’s largest vertically integrated glass manufacturing and fabrication company. He currently serves on the boards of Clarcor Corporation, Genesco and Granite Construction, and the Harpeth Capital Investment Banking Advisory Board. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and Vanderbilt Law School, and has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
“Jim’s role as Dean and his significant corporate experience give him an unusual perspective and make him a most welcome addition to our accomplished board,” says David A. Wilson, President and CEO of GMAC. “We look forward to tapping his expertise in the months ahead amid a continually changing landscape for management education.”
Country music singer and entrepreneur Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn has an issue most businesses would love to have. His Nashville-area winery, Arrington Vineyards and Winery, is so popular that it is considering growing to accommodate more events.
Brooks took a unique approach to this expansion. He turned to students from the Vanderbilt Accelerator Summer Business Institute to create a physical space plan and operating plan that would produce new earnings streams without jeopardizing the integrity and mission of the vineyard and winery.
Kix Brooks (inset) turned to Accelerator to help him expand his Nashville-area winery.
The Accelerator Summer Business Institute is an intense monthlong business boot camp run by the Owen School. In the program, college students and recent graduates from across the country are immersed in a competitive business environment, working to create the winning solution to real challenges from top local and national companies. The students hone essential skills in marketing, sales, finance, real estate, research and corporate strategy, while participating companies receive the brain power, creativity and proposals of at least eight teams of highly motivated millennials.
Other 2009 Accelerator projects included:
Sony Music Nashville: aiding Sony Music to further develop the 360-degree concept of building artists’ brands
Coca-Cola Enterprises: creating marketing ideas to help promote Coca-Cola’s corporate responsibility and sustainability (CRS) goals
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee: creating a social network for BCBST and its subsidiary Gordian that links people with similar illnesses, interests and wellness goals
Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce: helping rebrand the city as an entrepreneurial hotbed, while respecting the “music city” brand
Cisco & Presidio: creating a marketing message and go-to-market program on the intersection of WebEx and TelePresence technology.
Alexander Heard, an adviser to three U.S. presidents who, as Vanderbilt’s fifth Chancellor, guided the university smoothly through the stormy period of the 1960s and 1970s without the unrest and violence that afflicted many college campuses, died July 24 at his home after a long illness. He was 92.
“For more than 40 years, Alex Heard was a powerful presence at Vanderbilt University,” Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos says. “Through his intellect and calm demeanor, he raised Vanderbilt’s stature on the national stage during his 20-year administration. And even after he stepped down as Chancellor he graciously made himself available to his successors for advice and guidance. I was gratefully one of the beneficiaries of his wisdom, and his loss is one I feel deeply.”
Under Heard’s direction, Vanderbilt grew and prospered, adding three schools to the seven it already contained, including the Owen School. “Chancellor Heard was a builder, someone who understood the value of all of the elements of a great university,” says Dean Jim Bradford. “Under his leadership, the Owen Graduate School was founded and took its early steps toward becoming one of America’s leading graduate schools of business. We strive to perpetuate and improve the legacy of his vision and wisdom.”
Heard had been serving as Dean of the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina when Vanderbilt tapped him for its top job in 1963, succeeding Harvie Branscomb. A giant in the field of political science, Heard was the recipient of 27 honorary degrees from various colleges and universities over the years and published numerous books on the presidential election process.
Heard is survived by his wife, Jean Keller Heard, and four children: Stephen, a Nashville attorney; Christopher, an acknowledgements coordinator for Vanderbilt’s development office; Frank, BA’75, MBA’80, a Florida businessman; and Cornelia Heard, Valere Blair Potter Professor of Violin at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music; and two grandchildren: Alexander Michael Heard of Boca Raton, Fla., and George Alexander Meyer of Nashville.
A memorial service was held on July 29 in Benton Chapel on Vanderbilt’s campus. Donations may be made to the Alexander Heard Memorial Fund at Vanderbilt. By arrangement with the university, Heard’s ashes were interred at Benton Chapel.
As any successful sales or marketing professional knows, first impressions make all the difference in business relationships. Having a clear, concise elevator pitch that encapsulates one’s resume and goals is often the key to securing a job. Not everyone, though, is capable of articulating that message and delivering it in the right way.
That is why CEO and Owen alumnus Tom Truitt, EMBA’97, decided to start YourElevatorPitch Inc., an innovative career management company based in Nashville. YourElevatorPitch works one-on-one with clients to create and execute a high-definition video presentation that best represents their accomplishments and helps them stand out in a crowd. Truitt and his team assist with scriptwriting, presentation coaching and image consulting. The clients then are filmed in a professional green-screen studio, and the video is deployed to a targeted audience via a proprietary software platform.
The Owen School is currently working with YourElevatorPitch on a pilot program to develop a new approach to the online resume book. Students participating in the school’s Board of Visitors mentorship program are the initial test group. Joyce Rothenberg, Director of the Career Management Center, says, “Tom is committed to helping students put their strongest presentation in front of hiring managers. We’re excited to see how recruiters react to this new technology.”
YourElevatorPitch is also offering special pricing for all Owen alumni. For more information about the company and the different packages available, visit www.yourelevatorpitch.net.
Financial market leaders and researchers gathered this past fall for the first-ever Conference on Financial Innovation hosted by the Owen School. The forum focused on such timely topics as volatility, real estate, credit and stock index option markets, as well as real options and share-based compensation contracts. It also assessed the evolution of financial innovation over the past 35 years and explored what might lie ahead.
Robert Merton talks about the future of financial innovation during a panel discussion with Myron Scholes and Leo Melamed, far right.
The conference, which took place Oct. 16–17, commemorated the 35th anniversary of the publication of two landmark financial studies: “The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities” by Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, and “The Theory of Rational Option Pricing” by Robert C. Merton. Originally published in 1973 when options were considered specialized and economically insignificant financial instruments, these two seminal works had an unprecedented influence and came to underlie almost every facet of the theory and practice of modern-day finance. In 1997 Black, Scholes and Merton were awarded the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for their work. Today they are credited with sparking the growth of derivatives markets, whose value now exceeds $600 trillion.
“More than three decades later, we are reminded of the critical relevancy of these pioneering works and how far the ripples of innovation can spread and influence future events,” says Robert E. Whaley, Valere Blair Potter Professor of Management and Co-director of the Financial Markets Research Center at the Owen School.
Participating in the conference were finance and economics faculty from more than 40 universities worldwide, including the University of Chicago; the University of California, Los Angeles; New York University; Harvard University; the University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University; and Vanderbilt. Offering the event’s keynote address was CME Group Chairman Emeritus Leo Melamed, who is widely recognized as the founder of the financial futures markets. In addition, Scholes, Merton and Melamed participated in a special panel that focused on the direction of financial innovation in the next decade.
“Given the unprecedented financial market volatility and its links to derivative instruments, this new forum and its focus on the derivatives markets couldn’t be more timely,” Whaley says. “The collective insights of academics and practitioners will prove invaluable as we seek to better understand the past, present and future of financial innovation and its impact on the global financial marketplace.”
The 2008 Conference on Financial Innovation was sponsored by the Chicago Board Options Exchange, CME Group, Options Industry Council, Susquehanna International Group LLC, and the Vanderbilt University Law School, which provided facilities for the event. Susquehanna’s participation was prompted by Owen alumnus Eric Noll, MBA’90, who serves as the company’s Director of Research.
Expanding on her exceptional career as a researcher, educator and administrator, Dawn Iacobucci has been promoted to the post of Associate Dean for Faculty Development at the Owen School. She has responsibility for all faculty evaluation, promotion and tenure recommendations and closely collaborates with directors of the school’s degree programs on curriculum development.
“Dawn has fully lived up to her advance reputation as an exceptional researcher and educator,” says Jim Bradford, Dean of the Owen School. “In accepting this role, she is demonstrating her personal commitment to service and a shared vision of elevating our standing in the eyes of the university, the academy and the business community.”
Iacobucci, the E. Bronson Ingram Professor of Marketing, is a renowned expert on networks, customer satisfaction and service marketing and quantitative psychological research. She has consulted extensively for several top companies in the United States, and her work has been recognized with numerous distinctions, including a National Science Foundation Award and the 2008 Dean’s Award for Research Impact at Owen.
She is the author of more than 50 papers and books, including Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations, the lead marketing research text in the industry, and the forthcoming textbook Marketing Management, which has already received wide acclaim.
Iacobucci is taking over for Bill Christie, the Frances Hampton Curry Professor of Management. Christie remains the Faculty Director of the Executive MBA Program and has resumed his full-time teaching and research.
African Americans scored better on tests during key moments of Obama’s presidential run.
African Americans scored better on tests during key moments of Obama’s presidential run.
One of the most profound questions raised by the presidential run of Barack Obama is whether it has had an impact on African Americans overall. The answer—according to new research from Vanderbilt, San Diego State and Northwestern universities—is an unequivocal yes in the key area of test-taking achievement. Documenting what the researchers call the “Obama Effect,” the study identifies that the performance gap between black and white Americans in a series of online tests was dramatically reduced during key moments of the 2008 presidential campaign when Obama’s accomplishments garnered the most national attention.
The tests in the study were administered to a total of 472 participants using questions drawn from Graduate Record Exams to assess reading comprehension, analogies and sentence completion. The tests took place at four distinct points over three months during the campaign: two when Obama’s success was less prominent (e.g., prior to his acceptance of the nomination and the midpoint between the convention and Election Day) and two when it garnered the most attention (e.g., immediately after his nomination speech in August and his win of the presidency in November).
The nationwide testing sample of 84 black Americans and 388 white Americans—a proportion equivalent to representation in the overall population—was matched for age and education level. It revealed that white participants scored higher than their black peers at the two points in the campaign when Obama’s achievements were least visible. However, during the height of the Obama media frenzy, the performance gap between black and white Americans—even if blacks felt their performance on the test might reinforce negative stereotypes—was effectively eliminated. In addition researchers pinpointed that black Americans who did not watch Obama’s nomination acceptance speech continued to lag behind their white peers, while those who did view the speech successfully closed the gap.
“Our results document compelling evidence of the power that real-world, in-group role models like Obama can have on members of their racial or ethnic community,” says Ray Friedman, Brownlee O. Currey Professor of Management at the Owen School and co-author of the study.
As part of the study, Friedman—along with David M. Marx of San Diego State University and Sei Jin Ko of Northwestern University—also examined whether Obama’s success reduced negative racial stereotypes. Participants were asked whether they were concerned that poor performance on the exam would be attributed to their race. The results indicate that blacks were concerned that they faced negative stereotypes about academic achievement whether Obama was prominent or not, but when Obama was prominent they were able to overcome that concern and perform better on the test.
Friedman points out that other research has shown that such historical stereotypes are an underlying reason for lagging test-taking performance by black Americans. “Obama as a role model did not have an immediate impact on black Americans’ concerns about such stereotypes,” Friedman says. “However, our findings give us reason to believe that the influence of extraordinarily successful role models like Obama will help to drive improved performance and, over the longer term, to dispel negative stereotypes about black Americans, bringing us closer to a ‘post-racial’ world.”
The Owen School improved significantly in the 2009 rankings of top MBA programs by the Financial Times of London. In the international ranking Owen placed 56th among 100 schools, up 20 places from 2008. In the ranking of U.S. business schools, Owen moved up 15 spots to 28.
“This ranking is a testament to the dedication we have at Owen to creating innovative programs with highly talented faculty,” Owen Dean Jim Bradford says.
According to the Financial Times, MBA rankings are based on 20 criteria including alumni salaries, placement and career development; diversity and international reach of the business school; and the research capabilities of each school. Along with getting data from the business schools, the Financial Times surveys graduates three years after they’ve completed their degree to help determine the value of the MBA on their career progression and salary growth.
Owen is currently one of only 15 private schools in the United States to be ranked in the top 30 by both BusinessWeek and the Financial Times.
A Web site designed by students at the Owen School hopes to help students plan spring break and other road trips. My College Road Trip offers a unique perspective because college students write the material with other college students in mind.
“The best thing is that it narrows down the massive amount of information about cities or things to do in a particular destination to the things that college students care the most about,” says Virginia Francis, Owen student and Vice President of Brand Management at MCRT.
Owen student Andrew Bouldin, Founder and CEO of MCRT, says he came up with the idea of the Web site while he was driving home from a weekend road trip.
“I realized that there was no way to find out the coolest things for college students to do around my college on any given weekend,” Bouldin explains. Once he got home, he said he began to search the Internet for quality travel information aimed at college students and could find nothing. All information on potential vacation destinations was written by parents and executives, he says. Bouldin found a group of fellow students who shared his irritation, and MCRT was born.
Many Vanderbilt students contribute to the running of the online business. They include the Owen graduate students who launched the Web site, as well as undergraduate students in Associate Professor of Managerial Studies Cherrie Clark’s Advanced Marketing class.
“They are implementing a viral marketing project to promote the site,” Francis says. “Online tools like Facebook and blogs are being used to reach college students around the country.”
The students are currently seeking investors to help them promote MCRT. Their goal is to raise enough angel funding to expand marketing to 12 college campuses by the fall of 2009. If you are interested in becoming an investor, please visit www.mycollegeroadtrip.com for more details.
This article is an edited version of the one written by Ruth Kinsey for the February 9, 2009, edition of The Vanderbilt Hustler.
The Owen School has announced that six prominent business leaders from an array of industries have been named to its prestigious Board of Visitors, an advisory group established in 2006 to strengthen the school’s connection with and relevance to the national and international business communities.
The new members—representing the health care, financial services, consulting, executive recruiting, technology and beverage industries—are George S. Barrett, Vice Chairman of Cardinal Health and CEO of its Healthcare Supply Chain Services sector; Carin M. Barth, MBA ’86, President of LB Capital, Inc. and Commissioner of the Texas Department of Public Safety; Bruce L. Crockett, Chairman of Funds Board, AIM Mutual Funds and Chairman of Crockett Technology Associates (CTA); Robert H. McNabb, Executive Vice President, Korn/Ferry International and CEO of Futurestep; Mark A. Tillinger, BA ’81, MBA ’82, Partner at Accenture; and J. Smoke Wallin, MBA ’93, CEO of Taliera Holdings and Founder, Chairman and CEO of eSkye Solutions. Three of these new members—Carin Marcy Barth, Mark Tillinger and Smoke Wallin—are also graduates of the Owen School.
“These accomplished individuals, who join our existing 27 members of the Board of Visitors, bring extraordinary wisdom and experience to our school and its students, faculty and programs,” says Jim Bradford, Dean of the Owen School. “They will play an important role as we continue to shape the next generation of business leaders.”
Representing diverse industries, geographic locations and management expertise, the Owen Board of Visitors was established by Dean Bradford to function as a strategic partner to the school, providing insights on curricular issues in relation to the needs of business, participating as guest speakers, and opening new doors and career opportunities for students. The board is guided by David Ingram, Chairman and CEO of Ingram Entertainment, with each member serving a three-year term.
The Owen School has several other advisory bodies to support its world-class educational programs, including the Owen Alumni Board and Alumni Council; a Health Care Advisory Board comprised of leading health care industry executives; and the Master of Accountancy (MAcc) Advisory Board.
The fictional case was inspired by an actual case: a Goldman Sachs real estate fund’s $400 million acquisition and rehabilitation of the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel and Casino. “We were given three days to work on the case and then submitted our analysis and recommendations,” Songy says. “Then we traveled to Austin to present to a panel of judges comprised of experienced practitioners in the field of real estate, including the key individuals who led the actual deal for Goldman Sachs.”
Woodrow “Woody” Lucas, MBA’07, MDiv’07, a doctoral student at the Owen School, wasone of only two recipients of a Ph.D. Trailblazer Award for 2009 from the National Black MBA Association at the annual meeting in New Orleans last fall.
