UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

The Entrepreneur’s Origin Story – Fritz Demopoulos (’97)

 

China is where Fritz Demopoulos (’97) decided to launch his career and make his life after b-school. Turning down a lucrative ― and stable ― offer in Europe, Demopoulos trusted his instinct for opportunity and headed for Asia.

The decision paid off.

Fritz Demopoulos and UCLA Anderson Interim Dean Al Osborne

Demopoulos founded Qunar, China’s biggest online travel company, and Shawei, its largest web-based sports portal. He’s held senior positions at Net Ease and The News Corporation and worked as an executive in the Chinese media, internet and wireless industries. An entrepreneur and investor, he is a founding partner of venture capital firm Queen’s Road Capital, which focuses on entrepreneurial investments across Asia.

Demopoulos launched his first business as a youngster — partnering with a cousin to pass out advertisments for a nickel per flier — and the feeling of freedom and independence still thrills him, he says. Before earning his MBA, he worked in aerospace but didn’t take to the institutional vibe. “At Anderson, it was the first time I was genuinely exhilarated,” Demopoulos says, crediting the school with helping him make a profound decision: “To take control of what I’m doing in life.”

That process was energizing. Anderson’s location proved crucial as well. “You need to be in a major economic center to get an amazing education,” he says. “If you’re in Manhattan, L.A. or the Bay Area you’re just in the middle of all sorts of cool stuff.”

Then there are the connections he formed. Demopoulos says he built “amazing relationships” while in business school, including the lifelong friendships he forged with Professors Bill Cockrum and Al Osborne (now Anderson’s interim dean). Demopoulos found Osborne especially inspiring, often asking himself “What would Al be doing?”

UCLA Anderson Celebrates Commencement with the Class of 2018

UCLA Anderson’s 2018 commencement ceremony, like others before it, celebrated the degrees and accomplishments of the newest graduates of its three MBA programs, along with a scattering of brand new Ph.D.s.

But unlike any such event at Anderson in more than a dozen years, Friday’s celebration also marked the end of an era. On July 1, Dean Judy Olian will become president of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, making this year’s graduation the last time she will confer Anderson degrees and preside over its commencement.

“These last 12-plus years at UCLA have been the best years of my life” Olian told the crowd of several thousand, including some 800 graduating students, gathered before her on sun-swept Wilson Plaza. “What a privilege and joy it’s been.”

Before delivering personal remarks, Olian introduced the afternoon’s keynote speaker, William S. (Bill) Anderson (J.D. ’88), son of the school’s namesake,Topa Equities founder John E. Anderson (’40). The late John Anderson and his wife Marion, who passed away in 2017, are the institution’s most generous benefactors, together with Bill Anderson and his siblings.

In his address, Anderson spoke movingly about the concept of change and his admiration for those in the business world who find the courage to take a risk. Anderson then told of his own long-debated decision to leave the family business where he had worked alongside his father, to strike out on his own.

“So, there I was for almost a year, thinking about leaving a very safe family business position,” Anderson said, noting that such a leap might feel less intimidating for many younger people in his audience. “You change jobs more frequently and you do a better job of seeking out new experiences than many prior generations. You have all had the courage to pause and step out of your work lives to attend business school. But, my guess is that some of you still fear change as much as the rest of us.”

Anderson referenced his experience in the beverage industry, saying a few risk-taking craft beer brewers had challenged and changed an industry once dominated by a handful of established major brewers.

“To lead change, you’ll need to step out of your cozy worlds and model the change you want to be known for in your life,” Anderson said. “That will take grit and courage. You won’t be able to ask others to grab and embrace change before you do.”

Returning to the podium after the keynote, Olian characterized her long, successful tenure as Anderson’s dean as “a lot of learning.” She shared with the graduates five lessons she said she would carry with her.

“I’ve learned that you can continue to learn forever,” Olian said. “I’ve realized how much I have yet to learn, and how much better I am when I open myself up to others. I wish the same for you — always to be curious, to seek out the unfamiliar and to keep learning.”

Her second lesson spoke to the capriciousness of fate and fortune. “It is a matter of luck that certain gifts are handed only to some,” she said. “There’s nothing that’s ‘deserved’ about being lucky, or unlucky, (and) it’s our duty — those of us who were born lucky — to give opportunity to others, to those who are less lucky.”

Next, she referenced the Anderson quality of sharing success. “I’ve learned that if you’re surrounded by a great team, a lot can happen,” she said, “way more than you could ever achieve by yourself.

Gates Foundation’s Hugh Chang Put Technology to Work for Social Change

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By Julie Ortega (’19)

I’m always amazed by how many pathways can lead into social impact careers. As a first-year MBA student specializing in social impact, I find it heartening that: a) people from so many industries have found ways to fold impact into their disparate interests; and b) I don’t have to follow a single, rigid plan to attain a career in the impact space.

Hugh Chang (’90) is a great example of someone who didn’t initially plan to pursue a career underpinned by social impact but found his way there somewhat serendipitously (and is thriving ― most recently as director of strategy planning and management for global development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). Chang started his career in technology after obtaining an undergraduate degree in electrical and electronics engineering. His time in tech was nothing if not exciting: Chang worked at Microsoft when it was an organization of fewer than 5,000 people and experiencing massive growth. In fact, the whole country was undergoing momentous technological change at the time. “I got to help [Microsoft] make personal computers pervasive in people’s everyday lives,” he told a crowd at a recent UCLA Anderson School of Management High Impact Tea event organized by Impact@Anderson.

Entrepreneurship Lives at UCLA Anderson as U-Defi Wins Top Knapp Venture Competition Prize

U-Defi, the 2018 Knapp Venture Competition first place winners and recipients of a Pritzker Group Fellows Program investment, left to right: Aditya Marathe, Van Nguyen, Thanh Thuy Dan Pham, Cynthia McKee

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By Carolyn Gray Anderson

It was an evening of surprises as the 2018 Knapp Venture Competition distributed more than $100,000 in prize money, the most at any single competition in its 36-year history.

Not surprising at all was the high caliber of new business ideas. From a field of more than 40 submissions, five teams advanced to the final round of the competition to present the extensive primary research, financial projections and growth models behind their ventures.

Claiming first place was U-Defi, a scientifically formulated skin care product tailor-made for an individual’s skin “biomarker.” Anderson students Aditya Marathe (’18) and Van Nguyen (FEMBA ’19), along with Cynthia McKee (Ph.D. ’20) of UCLA College of Life Sciences and Thanh Thuy Dan Pham (Ph.D. ’20) of the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, were relieved and gratified to know their sleepless nights had paid off to the tune of $15,000.