UCLA Anderson School of Management Blog

Devon Dickau Is UCLA's 2018 Young Alumnus of the Year

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Devon Dickau (’15), is the 2018 recipient of UCLA’s Young Alumnus of the Year award. The recognition was announced by Associate Vice Chancellor Julie Sina with the formal presentation to be made at an awards ceremony and dinner in June. He is a “double Bruin,” earning his undergraduate degree from UCLA in 2007 with a B.A. in American literature and culture. He also holds an M.Ed. in technology, innovation and education from Harvard University.

“The UCLA Alumni Awards Committee was truly impressed by the depth and breadth of Devon’s involvement from the moment he stepped onto our campus as a student through his multiple alumni leadership roles today,” said Associate Vice Chancellor for Alumni Affairs Julie Sina. “Devon’s passion and commitment to diversity and inclusion span his professional and alumni involvement. He exemplifies the Bruin narrative we recognize through the association awards.”

Currently, Dickau is a manager in Deloitte’s Human Capital Consulting practice and chief of staff for the Diversity & Inclusion Client Service Center of Excellence. Prior to joining Deloitte, he worked as a community educator in rural Tanzanian villages; a social impact consultant for the entertainment industry; and a higher education administrator, including as a co-founder of UCLA Parent & Family Programs.

Dickau made his presence felt during his years at Anderson. Among his key leadership positions and projects are:

• Anderson Student Association – Section President (2013–14); VP, Student Affairs (2014–15). In the latter role, he came up with the idea of shooting the “brick background” portraits for all students at the beginning of the school year. He also founded the Club of the Month honor and partnered with the school’s marketing and communications office to design the first-ever standard club posters.
• Orientation Program – Co-Director (2014)
• Management Consulting Association – Director, Digital Media Strategy (2013–14); VP, Communications (2014–15)
• Net Impact – Director, Impact Media/Technology (2013–14); Chair, Center for Social Innovation Planning Committee (2014–15), helping in this role to found Impact@Anderson.
• Out@Anderson – Director, Outreach (2013–14); Co-President (2014–15). He founded Anderson LGBTQ Awareness Week and worked with the marketing and commuications team on the first-ever LGBTQ-specific Anderson website.

“As a student, Devon made a lasting impact on the Anderson community,” said Associate Dean Jill Baldauf (B.A.’79, ’81), who heads the school’s Office of Alumni Relations. “It’s no surprise that he continues to live an impactful life as an alumnus. On behalf of the entire Anderson alumni network, I want to congratulate Devon for this well-deserved recognition.”

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The official announcement of the award reads as follows:

Devon Dickau is the recipient of the 2018 UCLA Award for Young Alumni Volunteer of the Year. A mentor, volunteer and philanthropist, Dickau serves as co-president of the UCLA Lambda LGBTQ Alumni Association. Previously serving as co-chair of the UCLA Young Alumni Development Council, he was the founding assistant director of UCLA Parent & Family Programs and a 2016 Fellow with New Leaders Council. He is a manager in Deloitte’s Human Capital Consulting practice and chief of staff for the Diversity & Inclusion Client Service Center of Excellence. Dickau serves on the board of the Social Impact Fund, a community nonprofit organization providing management and oversight expertise to nonprofits undergoing the IRS 501©(3) determination process. Passionate about nurturing and empowering communities in challenging environments, Dickau facilitates design-thinking workshops and advises clients across sectors on diversity and inclusion, culture, talent and leadership. He emphasizes aligning corporate strategy with social values. After earning his bachelor’s degree in American literature and culture, Dickau moved to Africa where he worked with a non-governmental organization in rural Tanzania. Among his UCLA support, Dickau is a gold level member of the Alumni Association benefitting scholarships, and UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he received an M.B.A. In addition to his UCLA degrees, he holds an Ed.M. in Technology, Innovation and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Read the complete list of 2018 UCLA alumni awards.

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Improving the Quality of Sustainable Coffee Production in San Martín, Peru

In in the San Martín coffee-growing region of northern Peru, Don Pablo explains “coffee leaf rust,” a disease that has wiped out a significant amount of coffee crops worldwide

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UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research (AMR) projects in lieu of a thesis. The nation’s first business school field study program, AMR partners students with top organizations to solve a key strategic problem. The Center for Global Management sponsored four UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 teams to work with Conservation International, which partners with indigenous groups internationally and pairs local expertise with student consultants.

This story is one of the four by students who collaborated with CI to help find sustainable solutions to enhance economies in environmentally sensitive parts of the world. UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 AMR students made their final presentations on March 9.

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By Pascual Daniel George Eley, Santiago Fernandez Quiroz, Ryan Seiji Imamura, Alfredo Jose Noriega Aurazo, Michael David Snyder (Class of 2018)

Our Applied Management Research (AMR) team engaged with Conservation International to support the development of an environmentally sustainable value chain for coffee production in the San Martín region of northern Peru. The goal was to identify the key to scaling current efforts to improve sustainability by identifying optimal linkages in the value chain for intervention. Evaluating the current split of value-capture across the chain to understand how best to incentivize local farmers was inherent to these efforts and any intervention efforts need to consider the social and economic impact on the small communities in the San Martín region.

After several weeks of extensive secondary research, we understood the broader economic context in which the coffee sector in Peru operates. A combination of price pressure and limited power relative to middlemen in the value chain left smallholder farmers exposed to the fluctuations of the volatile coffee market. Along with the unfavorable effect this had on living conditions, the corresponding drive for increased yield to make up for limited pricing power adversely impacted the environment (coffee farming has been identified as the leading cause of deforestation in the San Martín region). Our primary research entailed interviews with coffee industry players and subject matter experts, and an in-country visit to meet with smallholder farmers, local community representatives and leaders of cooperatives.

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.

UCLA Anderson Master of Financial Engineering Commencement Features Record Number of Graduates

By Paul Feinberg

The Class of 2017 is the ninth graduating class in the history of UCLA Anderson’s Master of Financial Engineering program. But the class also represents a first — as in, the first time two cohorts of students graduated from the program at the same time. The 78 students (from 18 countries) who earned their degree set a record number, collectively embodying the growth of the program since its inception and the strength and relevance of the Anderson MFE degree.

UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian addressed the graduates and assembled guests at what is always one of the most familial gatherings on the UCLA Anderson calendar. She reminded the graduates that although their understanding of the technical side of finance is important, their work is as much art as it is science. As part of a select group whose decisions might ultimately impact financial markets, Olian made it a point to remind the graduates that their work comes with significant responsibility.

“You have the values and now the tools to make a decision, and with humility,” Olian said. “You’re blessed with many gifts and extraordinary talents — otherwise, you wouldn’t be at Anderson.”

In Net Impact Consulting Challenge, MBA Students Provide Implementable Solutions for UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic

 

UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic (1st place): Pictured with two client participants (front row, center) are Benjamin Rostami, Michael Chester, David Goldman, Julie Ortega, John Double, Patricio Davila Gutierrez, all MBA Class of 2019

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By Nitya Ramaswami (’18) and Taylor Cramm (’18)

In mid-November, UCLA Anderson hosted the 13th annual Net Impact Consulting Challenge (NICC), in partnership with Impact@Anderson and the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. This competition unites MBA students and the academic community with nonprofit organizations and for-profit social ventures to help achieve greater social impact in our community.

NICC is a hallmark event for UCLA Anderson’s Net Impact chapter, the 2017 Net Impact Graduate Chapter of the Year. UCLA Anderson aims to deepen its ties with the L.A. community through interactions with local nonprofit and socially driven organizations. A significant aspect of this outreach comes through consulting initiatives like NICC and Social Impact Fellows, where students have the opportunity to benefit mission-driven organizations while strengthening their business skill set.

Over the course of a two-week consulting engagement, MBA students provide strategic and operational guidance to local organizations to overcome challenges in a variety of functional areas such as fiscal management, operations, marketing and leadership transition.

Some of the client problems that students tackled included: developing a clinic’s growth strategy to reach new local communities in need of health services; mapping a plan to improve operational efficiency around relief efforts in areas affected by recent natural disasters; and proposing a financial plan that would help an organization benefiting children better manage existing funding and search for future opportunities.

A First-Place Win Expands Biopharmaceutical Network for UCLA Anderson Health Care Business Professionals

Left to Right: Andrew Clark, Dan Edlin, Gabi Larus, Zane Goodwin

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By Zane Goodwin (’19), Gabrielle Larus (’19), Daniel Edlin (’19), Andrew Clark (’18)

The global focus on health care is growing at an exponential rate, and we are lucky at UCLA Anderson School of Management to be close to so many companies instrumental in driving significant changes in the industry and impacting countless lives. As student leaders of Anderson’s Healthcare Business Association (HBA), we have built strong relationships with many of these companies, and we are always looking for new avenues to expand our networks.

When the opportunity arose early in the fall 2017 quarter to participate in the annual Rutgers Biopharmaceutical MBA Case Competition in Newark, New Jersey, our team — Zane Goodwin, Gabi Larus, Dan Edlin and Andrew Clark — quickly formed with the goal of gaining industry knowledge, helping to solve a real health care company’s business problem and expanding our networks to the East Coast.

The problem presented in the case focused on how Edge Therapeutics, a pre-revenue biotechnology company based in New Jersey, should plan to commercialize its lead candidate, EG-1962. This drug is being developed to improve the safety and efficacy of treatment for patients who have suffered an aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) caused by a ruptured brain aneurysm. While it has been granted fast track designation by the FDA, there are still many challenges facing the company and its potential product launch.

Embracing Diversity Conference Inspires Attendees to Take Real Action

By Alexis Basaldu (’18)

I began my career in education-focused nonprofits dedicated to increasing diversity in higher education. As a full-time UCLA Anderson student, I continued my dedication to diversity and inclusion through my role on the board of Anderson Latino Management Association (ALMA). We have engaged the larger Anderson community in celebration of the American Latino experience. These cultural exchanges are supported by UCLA Anderson in recognition of the fact that strong leadership requires deep appreciation of all voices on campus and in the workplace.

UCLA Anderson’s Embracing Diversity Conference brought the conversation on diversity and inclusion beyond simply articulating the importance of D&I in the workplace to inspiring attendees to spearhead inclusion in their organizations.

UCLA Anderson Understands the Importance of Diversity, and Businesses Do, Too

By Hugo J. Garcia

UCLA Anderson School of Management recently presented its professional conference Embracing Diversity. The annual conference demonstrates Anderson’s commitment to increasing diversity in its programs and provides business school applicants invaluable insight into what diversity means in today’s corporate world. Industry leaders are invited to address prospective students, and, without exception, they advocate for every business to seek a diverse pool of candidates in the hiring process.

Corporate Commitment

The 2017 event focus on the role of diversity in business school and the corporate world, not only as socially important, but as a factor that leads to greater efficiency. One of the most memorable presentations was on CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace. This initiative is led by CEOs from numerous companies such as Accenture and Deloitte who believe in the strength that diversity brings to their business performance.

The presentation opened with a statement about research that shows “diversity increases creativity and innovation, promotes higher quality decisions and enhances economic growth.” This research has inspired CEOs to actively pursue the diversification of their employment base, creating avenues for businesses to capitalize on the rewards of introducing new perspectives into their company.

Peter Guber Writes a New Chapter: UCLA Medal Recipient

Peter Guber, UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television Dean Teri Schwartz

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By Paul Feinberg

Peter Guber’s story details an eclectic and extraordinarily successful and impactful life. He is a renowned award-winning entertainment industry executive who currently serves as chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group, as an owner of traditional sports teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and the world champion Golden State Warriors, not to mention Team Liquid, a franchise in the emerging world of e-sports. He has taught generations of UCLA students at UCLA Anderson School of Management and at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television, and he was recently named a regent of the University of California.

But above all, Guber is a storyteller.

He believes deeply that powerful narrative is the driving force of success, whether that success manifests as a great film, a championship season or fulfilling career. Now, Guber’s personal narrative features a new chapter as he becomes a recipient of the UCLA Medal.

The UCLA Medal, established in 1979, is the highest honor for extraordinary accomplishment that may be bestowed upon an individual by the university. Previous recipients include national and international leaders in government, education, science, industry and the arts, as well as men and women who have helped UCLA become one of the world’s preeminent universities. Earlier honorees include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (B.A. ’69), Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, Blackrock Founder and CEO Larry Fink (B.A., ’74, ’76), civil rights icon and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, former Czech President Vaclav Havel and many others.

The ceremony held in Guber’s honor took place at the on-campus home of UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, who hosted a gathering of Guber’s friends and family, along with university guests that included three UC Regents and members of the UCLA Anderson and TFT communities. Guber maintains a close relationship with both schools, and is a board member of Anderson’s Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment & Sports. He also co-teaches a popular annual leadership course with UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian.

“Peter is as passionate about his teaching as he is every other aspect of his career,” Block said in presenting Guber with the medal. “It’s clear that he values the opportunity to contribute and prepare the next generation for success, whether it’s in entertainment, sports or any number of other industries. His commitment is evident in the fact that, despite all he’s worked on throughout his career, Peter has never — to anyone’s knowledge — missed a year of teaching.”

Block also noted that Guber has served as a member of the UCLA Foundation Board of Trustees. “We all thank you tonight, Peter, for playing such a vital role here at UCLA and with the UC; we are deeply grateful for all you have done for UCLA, UC and beyond,” the chancellor said.

During his remarks, Guber said he was honored to teach and mentor UCLA students. “To be able to help students is a gift. The way they learn, the way they ask questions. When you see how you can touch people, it can change your life, he said.

“I dedicate myself to the years ahead to do even better.”

“Peter Guber is extraordinarily deserving of the UCLA Medal, the most prestigious honor our university bestows,” Olian said. “Peter has been a trailblazer in entertainment, sports and business, with a string of successes that few achieve in one, let alone multiple fields. Remarkably, throughout his very hectic professional career, he has always taught at UCLA. With his hunger for lifelong  learning, his intellectual curiosity, broad knowledge of business and entertainment, and infectious enthusiasm, he has impacted generations of young people. We are so lucky that Peter's passion for education has been directed toward UCLA, and I am thrilled that he is being recognized with this special honor."