UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

Let’s Get Real: UCLA Anderson Team Takes Top Honors Pitching AR Solution to Paramount

Left to right: Steven Liu, Naurine Shahzad, Jennifer Buzalewski, Candace Parker, Paul Chang

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By Naurine Shahzad (’19)

The Center for MEMES MBA Media and Entertainment Case Competition with Paramount Pictures, as one of few nationwide case competitions sponsored by an entertainment company, brings a great deal of excitement to any student interested in the business side of the industry. With top schools from all over the country competing, and because of the anticipation and demand at Anderson alone, our team had to prepare resumes and an essay that would qualify us as one of two Anderson teams to present to the Paramount judges.

Lucky Team 13, as we called ourselves, included Class of 2019’s Paul Chang, Jennifer Buzalewski, Candace Parker, double Bruin Steven Liu (B.A. ’13) and me. Our professional backgrounds are diverse, with some of us coming from marketing, finance or consulting, but our passion for entertainment united us. We are all student leaders in the Entertainment Management Association, and we felt prepared to take on this challenge.

Ready, Set, Re-LAUNCH

By Elise Anderson

It started as an observation by two alumnae, Cynthy Moffatt (’88) and Anderson Board of Advisors member Beth Friedman (’87), at a lunch with Dean Judy Olian about two years ago. Both Moffatt and Friedman had, for various reasons, spent time away from the workforce after graduating from UCLA Anderson. Their question: How many other female alumni had the same out-of-work experience and what type of assistance might be available to help those who desired to relaunch their careers?

Their inquiry sparked Anderson’s Office of Alumni Relations (OAR) to initiate a new effort they called Career Re-LAUNCH. It’s geared toward UCLA Anderson alumnae who have been out of the traditional full-time workforce for more than five years and are ready to explore career opportunities and gain knowledge of current business insights and practices in preparation for re-entry into the workforce. OAR focused on providing a program that would offer guidance, training and resources for alumnae who were not only eager to return to work, but might “want to do something that provides more personal fulfillment,” according to Mia Dolak (’96), who had left the corporate environment and has been pursuing part-time consulting work while raising two sons.

Lynda Resnick Pursued a Second Career in Service to Others

Spirited, trim and energetic, Lynda Resnick could give the impression that success has come easily to her.

But in a keynote address to UCLA Anderson’s 6th annual Velocity Women’s Leadership Summit, Resnick, co-owner and vice-chair of the Wonderful Company, demonstrated the resilience that has made her a powerful force in California agriculture and philanthropy.

Together with her husband Stewart, Resnick co-owns the $4 billion Wonderful Company, whose brands include FIJI Water, POM Wonderful, Teleflora and Halo mandarins. Lynda Resnick is in charge of the Los Angeles-based company’s global marketing and product development.

Daniels a Boon to YouTube’s Original Programming

By Paul Feinberg

As global head of original programming at YouTube, Susanne Daniels is a powerful advocate for creative women in entertainment.

“It drives me crazy that there are not more female directors,” Daniels said in an on-stage conversation at Velocity, the annual UCLA Anderson Women’s Leadership Summit. “And it’s easy to fix. You have to mandate it. You have to tell producers they have to hire 50 percent female directors and when they push back, you say, ‘Too bad, find a way, give someone a chance.’

“My team has done an exceptional job of demanding more opportunity for women directors,” Daniels said in the conversation with Allie Brodsky (’18), president of UCLA Anderson’s Women’s Business Connection. The team is also working hard to hire more female show runners for YouTube shows.

Dr. Susan Love Hurdled Sexism to Make Greater Strides toward a Cure for Cancer

UCLA Professor of Surgery, breast cancer activist and Anderson alumna Susan Love delivers the morning keynote address at Velocity, UCLA Anderson's women's leadership summit, on Friday, February 9. Register now!

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Dr. Susan Love (’98) has been battling cancer for most of her life.

She’s battled it as a surgeon, as the founder of both the Faulkner Breast Center in Boston and the Revlon UCLA Breast Center here in Westwood. As the author of the definitive book on the subject, Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book, she’s helped millions of readers to battle it themselves. Today, she continues to take the fight to the disease as chief visionary officer of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation.

Love has also battled the disease in her personal life. Now cancer free, she is a survivor of leukemia. As she prepared her keynote remarks for UCLA Anderson’s 6th annual Velocity Women’s Leadership Summit, she took time out to speak with the UCLA Anderson Blog.

Q: What did your own experience with cancer teach you about fighting the disease?

It taught me (about) the collateral damage, the long-term consequences of treatments — what we euphemistically in the medical profession call “side effects.” But really, they’re not side effects, they last forever. They’re more like having your car in a crash. You can get it fixed, but the passenger door never quite opens the same way again.

After cancer, there are certain things that just don’t get better. We’ve made a lot of progress in treating metastatic breast cancer. We still can’t cure it, but we can certainly keep people alive a lot longer than we could in the past. The problem is that it’s not without a cost of collateral damage. And if you only have a limited amount of time, we certainly would like your quality of life to be as good as possible.

UCLA Anderson’s Safety Team Earns Service Awards

The emergency preparedness team at UCLA Anderson School of Management (EPTA) was recognized with Distinguished Service Awards for its commitment to emergency preparedness.

Assistant Vice Chancellor Colin Dimock from UCLA’s Office of Environment, Health & Safety presented the award on behalf of Chancellor Gene Block, Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck and Emergency Management Director Art Kirkland.

Anderson’s team was established in 2001 and is made up of 85 staff and faculty members who have annual opportunities to train in American Red Cross and Community Emergency Response Team classes. The safety team is responsible for building safety and evacuation drills for UCLA Anderson’s six structures.

The EPTA also received awards from the City of Los Angeles, presented by Chief Deputy of Public Safety Gregory Martayan on behalf of Councilmember Paul Koretz. The team’s community spirit was recognized for making the campus and the city a safer place in which to work and learn.

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EPTA members with more than five years of safety service and training certification by the American Red Cross and Community Emergency Response Team received Distinguished Service Awards: Tammy Baca-Montanez, Jennifer Banzon, Francesca Baugh, Joseph Boroumand, Paul Brandano, Linda Campbell, Laurie Carr, Theresa Cisneros, Leanna Cortez, Hannah Cowherd, Jonathan Daillak, Arturo Esparza, Mary Fleshood, Jose Garza, Dave George, Patty Gonzalez Johnson, Gordon Hill, Atsuro Kagawa, Rashida Kamal, Bonny Kim, Howard Kim, Dina Lee, George Lee, Julie Lindner, Manuel Macias, Armando Magana, Courtney Mannino, Jennifer McMillen, Claudia Olivares, Itze Ornelas, Delores Rhaburn, Donna Robinson, Cynthia Rueda, Gabriel Ruiz, Ruben Silva, Laurie Summers, Mark Taylor, Howard Titzel, Sara Tucker, Robert Villaverde, Carol Wang and Shi Zhang. The Distinguished Leadership Award was given to Kimberly Eremic.

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Seeking Truth: Nike Irvin Answers the Call to Action

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By Carolyn Gray Anderson

Woman Worth Watching … Philanthropist of the Year … Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow … Inspirational 100 Alumna …

These are a few of Nike Irvin’s (’89) distinctions, all earned in recognition of more than 20 years of nonprofit leadership, board service and private-sector brand management.

When Irvin walks into a room, she attracts the people in it with a palpable and open calm. Speaking in a quiet voice about such loud topics as poverty, social injustice, equality in higher education, Irvin exudes compassion and introspection. She served as vice president of programs at the California Community Foundation for six years, becoming a donor to CCF herself and establishing a fund to make her own grants to nonprofits. But she recently resigned to shift her attention to consulting and research. “I’m in a mindfulness mode,” she told a UCLA Anderson High Impact Tea audience. “A confluence of things going on encouraged me to slow down.”

But that doesn’t minimize the urgency behind the causes she champions. She devotes her time now to researching, compiling and drafting an intentional model for truth and reconciliation efforts in the U.S. In collaboration with fellow Aspen Institute thought leaders and scholars, as well as a diverse crew of professionals in academia and business, Irvin looks as far afield as the Solomon Islands for practices that have achieved reparations on a par with South Africa’s, and that might be emulated here at home.

“We’re in a moment of growing transparency,” she said. “Don’t you feel a sea change?”