UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

UCLA Anderson Hosting 2012 Forte MBA Women's Conference

(Photo by Carol Zou)

UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian delivers the welcoming address at the 2012 Forte MBA Womens' Conference, taking place on the UCLA Anderson campus.

The conference is being attended by hundreds of women currently enrolled in MBA programs. Dean Judy Olian will be joined on a panel later today by Cindy Bates, Vice President, Microsoft's US SMB Organization and Patricia Yarrington, Vice President and CFO of Chevron. 

A number of UCLA Anderson alumnae and students are in attendance and participating on panel discussions throughout the two-day event including, Karen Doolittle, Manager, Performance Improvement Practice, Ernst & Young; Nicole Bolton ('13), 2013 Forte Fellow, UCLA Anderson School of Management; Susan Feldman ('83), Co-founder and Chief Merchandising Officer, One Kings Lane; Priya Girishankar ('97), Vice President of Marketing, The Walt Disney Company; Elaine Hagan ('91), Executive Director, Harold Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UCLA Anderson; Nike Irvin ('89), Vice President of Programs, California Community Fund; Laura Loh '07), General Manager, Dynamic Asia; Alison Pincus ('02), Co-Founder, Chief Partnership Officer, One Kings Lane and Regina Thomas ('89), Vice President, Original Programming, BET Networks.

 

Hank Wilfong, UCLA Anderson's First African-American MBA, Inducted into Minority Business Hall of Fame

Minority Business Hall of Fame Induction - 2012 from UCLA Anderson on Vimeo.

 

Some pioneers are well-known.

Everyone in the extended UCLA family should be familiar with the saga of one of the school's most prominent alumni: Jackie Robinson. It was Robinson who broke major league baseball's "color-barrier" when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Today, the school's baseball stadium bears his name.

The name Henry 'Hank' Wilfong ('60) may not be as familiar as Robinson's. But Wilfong fought similar battles and in his own field, broke similar ground. This May, Wilfong was honored for his accomplishments in business and for his leadership in the civil rights movement when he was inducted into the Minority Business Hall of Fame at a ceremony on May 8 at the J.D. Morgan Center at UCLA. Specifically, the honor recognizes his efforts to support minority-owned businesses and increase supplier diversity for nearly fifty years.

Wilfong graduated in the top twenty percent of his class at UCLA in 1958. He was a Korean War veteran and a star athlete. Aiming to become a CPA, he interviewed with the "Big Eight" accounting firms, but each firm refused to hire him since he was African-American.

Ultimately, Wilfong received an offer from a partner at one of these firms who told him it was time they ended their ban on black employees. He was elated since the job would help him meet the requirements for becoming a certified public accountant (CPA). Within a week, though, the firm's national office forced the Los Angeles branch to rescind its offer. They told him the firm did not want to be the first in the Big Eight to hire a black professional.

Bitterly disappointed, Wilfong opted to use the G.I. Bill to earn his MBA at UCLA. Soon after graduation, he received an offer to join Kenneth Leventhal and Company, an accounting firm involved in the real estate industry. Around the same time, Wilfong joined a number of civil rights organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

Hank Wilfong, second from right, is inducted into the Minority Business Hall of Fame.

2012 Gerald Loeb Award Winners Announced; Lifetime Achievement Award Goes to Jerry Seib and Winnie O’Kelley Receives Lawrence Minard Editor Award

Journalists from across the nation gathered tonight at Capitale for the 2012 Gerald Loeb Awards Banquet. The Gerald Loeb Awards are among the highest honors in journalism, recognizing the work of journalists whose contributions illuminate the world of business, finance and the economy for readers and viewers around the world.

Dean Judy Olian, chairman of the G. and R. Loeb Foundation, welcomed Loeb Awards honorees and their guests. CNBC’s Tyler Mathisen, vice president for strategic editorial initiatives and host of CNBC’s Power Lunch, served as master of ceremonies.

The Gerald Loeb Awards includes two special awards for career contributions: the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented to Jerry Seib, deputy managing editor and Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, and the Lawrence Minard Editor Award, which went to Winnie O’Kelley, deputy business editor of The New York Times. In addition, winners of 13 competition categories were named at the banquet. Following is a list of the 2012 Loeb Award recipients.

Large Newspapers Winner

Ken Bensinger of Los Angeles Times for “Wheels of Fortune”

Medium & Small Newspapers Winners

Raquel Rutledge, Rick Barrett, John Diedrich, Ben Poston and Mike de Sisti of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for “Shattered Trust”  

Spencer Soper and Scott Kraus of The Morning Call for “Inside Amazon’s Warehouse” 

Magazines Winners

Peter Elkind, Jennifer Reingold and Doris Burke of Fortune for “Inside Pfizer’s Palace Coup” 

Commentary Winners

Zanny Minton Beddoes, Edward Carr, John Peet, Patrick Foulis and John O'Sullivan of The Economist for “Euro Zone”

Breaking News Winners

Brent Snavely, Greg Gardner and Chrissie Thompson of Detroit Free Press for “GM-UAW Contract Negotiations”

Beat Reporting Winner

John Fauber of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for “‘Side Effects’ Beat Reporting”

News Services Winner

Brian Grow, Kelly Carr, Laurence Fletcher, Nanette Byrnes, Matthew Bigg, Joshua Schneyer, Cynthia Johnston and Sara Ledwith of Reuters for “Shell Games”

Explanatory Winners

Scott Pelley, Robert G. Anderson, Daniel Ruetenik, Robert J. Shattuck and Nicole Young of CBS News 60 Minutes for “The Next Housing Shock”

Online Enterprise Winners

Mark Maremont, Tom McGinty, Jon Keegan, Palani Kumanan, Sarah Slobin and Neil King Jr. of The Wall Street Journal for “Jet Tracker”

Blogging Winner

Felix Salmon of Reuters for “Felix Salmon’s Blog”

Personal Finance Winners

Penelope Wang, Kim Clark and Lisa Gibbs of Money for “‘Protecting Your Parents’ Series”

Broadcast Enterprise Winners

Laura Sydell and Alex Blumberg of NPR and This American Life for “When Patents Attack”

Business Books Winner

Walter Isaacson for “Steve Jobs” published by Simon & Schuster

Business Books Honorable Mention

Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo for “Poor Economics” published by PublicAffairs 

Guy Kawasaki '79: "A Day in the Life of a Commencement Speaker"

Last Friday, Guy Kawasaki '79, one of UCLA Anderson's 100 Inspirational Alumni, delivered an inspiring -- and occasionally hilarious -- commencement address for the school's Class of 2012. 

On Saturday, Guy posted a 30 second video he called "A Day in the LIfe of a Commencement Speaker." Wrote Guy: 

(Sat06) Yesterday I gave the commencement address for the UCLA Anderson School of Management. If you'd like to a "day in the life of a commencement speaker," watch this thirty-second video. 

It starts in the morning with me working on the draft of the speech and ends fifteen hours later when I return home. I did seem to eat a lot--it takes many calories to give a speech! 

 The link is here. It's a very cool, thirty-second video that encapsulates the essence of Guy's day as Anderson's commencement speaker.

Kawasaki's keynote was part of a wonderful afternoon celebrating the accomplishments of UCLA Anderson's Full Time, Fully Employed and PhD classes of 2012. Dean Judy Olian's remarks begin right around the 22:30 minute mark and Guy Kawasaki's keynote, featuring his Top Ten Totally Practical Tips for How to Succeed In Business, begins at the 47:45 mark.

The video is also right here:

 

 

Yes! - Noah Goldstein Promoted to Associate Professor With Tenure

UCLA Anderson Associate Professor Noah Goldstein has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure. Goldstein is an associate professor with Anderson's Management and Organizations area. Goldstein is the co-author of "Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive" (along with Steve J. Martin and Robert J. Cialdini). His primary line of research involves the study of the factors that lead people to change their behaviors. His scholarly research and writing on the topics of persuasion, conformity, and compliance have been published in academic outlets such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, and Sloan Management Review.

The announcement came jointly from UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian and Chairman Charles Corbett. It read:

We are delighted to inform you that our colleague, Noah Goldstein, has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Noah joined UCLA Anderson in 2008 after spending a year on the faculty at the University of Chicago. Noah studies social influence, in particular through social norms and interpersonal ties. His work is creative, path-breaking, and bold.  He does elegant experiments, often in the field, such as his study encouraging towel reuse in hotels to reduce water waste, or his ongoing NIH grant with Craig Fox and colleagues in Medicine on overprescription of antibiotics. Noah has received several awards for his papers and his book. In addition, Noah is an award-winning teacher, and a terrific colleague. Although Noah is the master of persuasion, none of that was needed for this tenure case to sail through the system. Please join us in congratulating Noah on this most deserved promotion.

Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive at Amazon.com

 

Aviva Altmann ('13), Karla Sarni ('13) and Juan Rose ('13) to Receive 2012 John Wooden Global Leadership Fellowships

Each year, UCLA Anderson presents the John Wooden Global Leadership Award and the 2012 recipient is Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo. In conjunction with the award, UCLA Anderson annually presents the John Wooden Leadership Fellowships. In 2012, for the first time, the school will award three fellowships. These deserving UCLA Anderson students will receive financial support, based on criteria that meet John Wooden's leadership philosophy. Funds are provided via net proceeds from the JWGLA award dinner.

Earlier this evening, UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian announced the recipients of the 2012 John Wooden Leadership Fellowships:

To the UCLA Anderson Community,

This year’s recipients of the John Wooden Global Leadership Award Fellowships are Aviva Altmann, MBA class of 2013, Karla Sarni, FEMBA class of 2013, and Juan Rose, EMBA class of 2013.  Each of these students embodies the leadership qualities and values that Coach Wooden embraced and advocated.

Aviva Altmann, a double Bruin, is completing her first year in the full-time MBA program and pursuing certificates in Strategy and Entrepreneurship.  She is currently an intern for FINCA International in Washington, DC, and formerly was a key contributor at Green Dot Public Schools, securing $10 million in grants to establish after-school programs.  At Anderson she serves as Net Impact president, Challenge for Charity events director, Haskamp fundraising chair, and Orientation section leader for the incoming class of 2014.

Karla Sarni, currently completing her second year in the FEMBA program, is a legal assistant for the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association. She began her career as an enlisted soldier in U.S. Army Reserves' Judge Advocate General Corps at just 17 years old.  She currently serves as vice president of the Anderson Latino Management Student Association, the vice president of the Anderson Military Club, and is an active member of several other clubs and professional societies. She is the co-founder of Cancer Libre, a breast cancer support group geared towards cancer education and fundraising.

Juan Rose, a first-year EMBA, is a commanding officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.  He currently leads the Instructional Training Company responsible for the safety and academic and physical training of over 15,000 Marines annually. Previously, he held a series of senior financial positions, both domestically and abroad, while in heavy combat regions.

Fellowship recipients were selected by a committee of faculty and staff from the MBA, FEMBA and EMBA programs, based on their record of leadership contributions, academic merit, and financial need.  Each awardee brings deep and varied leadership experiences to the UCLA Anderson community, and their leadership values echo those of Coach John Wooden.

Please join me in extending hearty congratulations to Aviva, Karla and Juan on this special honor.

Judy Olian, Dean

 

A Positive Vote for Self-Supporting MBA

Yesterdary, in an historic vote for UCLA Anderson and, in fact, the entirety of the UCLA campus, the university's Legislative Assembly of the UCLA Academic Senate approved a UCLA Anderson proposal to convert our Full Time MBA program from state-supported to self-supporting. The vote was 53-46.

Last night, UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian released the following statement to the UCLA Anderson community:

To the UCLA Anderson community: Today, the Legislative Assembly of the UCLA Academic Senate approved our proposal to convert the UCLA Anderson School of Management Full Time MBA program from state-supported to self-supporting. The vote was 53:46 in favor of the proposal. It now goes to the University of California system-wide Academic Senate and to UC President Mark Yudof for his final decision. Let me be clear on what this proposal is. It is a change only in our financial model. The school remains an integral part of UCLA, as before, and a proud member of this great public university. However, the proposal provides financial and strategic advantages that benefit our students, our school and our university. The vote by the Legislative Assembly, which includes approximately 120 elected representatives from academic units across campus, followed an exhaustive review by UCLA administration and faculty. More than 70 percent of UCLA Anderson's faculty supported the proposal, as did a majority of the school's Faculty Executive Committee. The proposal's finances were reviewed and endorsed by the Senate's Council on Planning and Budget. A majority of the Senate's Graduate Council voted against the proposal. Thirty-five UCLA Anderson faculty appealed that result, leading to today's vote by the Legislative Assembly. The proposal has the support of UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost Scott Waugh. The Full Time MBA program is the only Masters level program, among six at Anderson, that is currently state supported. As I've expressed all along, I believe this conversion to self-supporting status will benefit both Anderson and all of UCLA. It will bring greater predictability and stability to Anderson tuition rates and enable more efficient deployment of teaching resources across all of our MBA programs, thereby ensuring teaching innovation and excellence into the future. It will also allow us to moderate tuition increases, thus benefiting our students. There are also clear financial benefits to UCLA. Under the proposal, state support that otherwise would flow to UCLA Anderson will instead be available to the campus for use in other programs hit hard by state budget cuts. The net financial gain to the campus is estimated at $8.8 million annually. UCLA Anderson's affiliation with the campus will remain unchanged, and the school will be subject to the same academic and administrative governance policies and regulations as before. A small amount of public funding will remain to support the undergraduate accounting minor and a portion of the doctoral program. Our proposal has raised some concerns within the UCLA community about the meaning of public higher education, and the public's commitment and ability to fund it. We respect those raising questions about our proposal and its ramifications. We are a university -- we thrive on discourse, disagreements and debates. We do that within an atmosphere of appreciation for our differences. Once a decision is made, we come together as colleagues and as part of this wonderful UC family.  It is now time to move forward. We await the final decision of President Yudof. Assuming he affirms the self-supporting proposal for the Full Time MBA program, we look forward to advancing innovative learning opportunities for our students, and the stature of our school.  I deeply appreciate your continued support as we protect the great engine of research and education that is UCLA. With best wishes, Judy Olian Dean & John E. Anderson Chair in Managment

Coverage in the Los Angeles Times

UCLA Newsroom Coverage