UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

In Latin America, Ambassador Noah Mamet Promotes UCLA’s Strides in Entrepreneurship, Education and Sustainability

By Carolyn Gray Anderson

As U.S. Ambassador to Argentina under President Barack Obama, Noah Mamet (bolstered a positive bilateral relationship in the areas of entrepreneurship, education, clean energy and global climate change, repeatedly looking to his home state — and to UCLA in particular — as an exemplar of progress in all these areas.

Ambassador Mamet recently took part in a conversation with Argentine native Adjunct Associate Professor Andres Terech (Ph.D. ’04), the event sponsored by UCLA Anderson’s Center for Global Management, and drilled down on the economic and trade challenges facing Latin American countries, including a U.S. aversion to problem of inflation in places like Argentina. Mamet said it’s the biggest challenge for managers doing business there today, as local salaries sometimes need to increase as much as 42 percent from one day to the next. One impediment is Argentina’s slowness to invest in infrastructure. “When the cost of energy goes up, it’s hard to control inflation,” he said.

A third of Argentina’s GDP is held outside the country, suggesting a mistrust of domestic reinvestment, which may deter outside investors, too. Mamet said a one-time tax amnesty that invited Argentines to declare their overseas assets revealed $130 billion in investments that the government wants to attract back to the country. “Bank information sharing was a game changer,” said Mamet. “It was the most successful tax amnesty in history.”Mamet believes tech will boost the economy and encourage international trade. Among perhaps six Latin American unicorns, four came straight out of Buenos Aires, said Mamet, making Argentina a contender for world markets.

Hsieh Family Continues a Tradition, Inspirational Gift Will Name Foyer in Marion Anderson Hall

By Paul Feinberg

A Chinese proverb suggests, “When drinking water, think of its source; gratitude for the source of benefit.” It’s a reminder that when considering your life, always remember what helped you along the way.

That’s how Dr. Paul Hsieh (Ph.D. ’70) feels about his days at what was then UCLA’s Graduate School of Business Administration. Since he graduated, Hsieh has expressed his gratitude in a variety of ways: He founded the school’s alumni chapter in Taiwan and has made a series of gifts, including those that named UCLA Anderson’s Dr. Paul N. Hsieh Study Room and created the Paul Hsieh Fellowship. Now, in celebration of Hsieh’s 80th birthday, his daughter Yvonne Hsieh (’03) and her husband and classmate David Schumacher (’03) recognize his remarkable legacy with a significant gift that will name the Foyer in the new Marion Anderson Hall in his honor. This fitting tribute will be appreciated by scores of students, faculty and visitors to the new building, which is set to open in late 2019.

UCLA Awards Dr. Martine Rothblatt Its Highest Honor: The UCLA Medal

By Paul Feinberg and Carolyn Gray Anderson

In a popular series of television advertisements, a narrator describes the accomplishments of a charismatic swashbuckler, ultimately concluding that the fictional figure is, in fact, “the most interesting man in the world.”

Allow UCLA Anderson’s Dean Judy Olian to set the record straight: “Martine Rothblatt is the most interesting person you will ever meet,” the dean said in welcoming Rothblatt back to Anderson this week.

Rothblatt (B.A. ’77, MBA/J.D. ’81), whose company United Therapeutics is based in Silver Spring, Maryland, returned to UCLA to be honored with the UCLA Medal in a ceremony at the home of UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. Before the medal ceremony, Rothblatt participated in a lively question and answer chat with Olian as part of UCLA Anderson’s Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series.

In the conversation, Rothblatt credited the interdisciplinary education UCLA afforded her as an undergraduate and graduate student for much of her remarkable success. Named by Forbes as one of the World’s 100 Greatest Living Business Minds, Rothblatt leads a multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical company that has brought life-saving treatments to market. Proudly transgendered, a medical ethicist, recognized as a technology and artificial intelligence pioneer, and now advancing the science of organ and consciousness transplantation, Rothblatt told the UCLA audience — which included UCLA Law School Dean Jennifer Mnookin and Department of Communications Chair Kerri Johnson — “This is what it looks like to ‘program’ someone with a UCLA curriculum.”

UCLA Anderson Launches New Online Journal Spotlighting Current Research

Across disciplines, UCLA Anderson’s faculty enhance the school’s relevance through cutting-edge research that is highly applicable to the economy, business and the wider world. The weekly UCLA Anderson Review chronicles for a broader audience the research our faculty publish in leading academic journals.

UCLA Anderson Review launched with articles examining retirement savings, including Americans’ aversion to annuities and the hot topic of decumulation — illustrating how, under a single roof at Anderson, faculty members are individually and collectively expanding understanding of how to solve one of the country’s biggest financial and societal problems.

The Review joins other leading graduate business school publications in making available to a global audience of business leaders, fellow academic researchers, policymakers and others the substantial intellectual capital UCLA Anderson possesses and adds to each day.