Corporate Partners
Close ties to corporate partners are a hallmark of leading business schools.
A key priority of the School of Business over the past year has been broadening and deepening our corporate partnerships. We build and strengthen our corporate relationships by connecting with business leaders.
Advisory boards
More than 320 executives from leading firms throughout the country currently sit on 17 industry-related advisory boards, sharing best practices, interacting with students and providing advice on current issues and corporate trends to help us keep our curriculum relevant to industry.
High impact executive education
More than 5,000 leaders from 1,400 companies benefited from executive education programs at the Fluno Center over the past year. Companies like American Family Insurance, Fiserv and Banta Corporation partner with our executive education department to design and deliver custom programs for their employees.
Talented employees
MBA and undergraduate students are providing immediate value to more than 400 companies who hired interns and full-time employees on campus last year. We have achieved “target school” status with leading companies like Procter & Gamble, General Electric and IBM.
Project consulting
Kraft Foods, Lands’ End, Deutsche Bank Securities and several other companies benefited last year from research and recommendations from MBA students in our Applied Corporate Finance, Market Research and Arts Administration programs. (See more applied projects on page 20).
In return, our corporate partners strengthen our programs by:
Sharing experiences with students
Over the past year, leaders from companies including Kimberly-Clark,
W.W. Grainger, Inc., Accenture and many more, visited classrooms and
student events to share their insights and experiences with students.
Sponsoring events and programs
Companies provide resources for key initiatives and raise visibility for their brand by sponsoring key programs and events including the Directors’ Summit™, our Women’s Executive Leadership Summit, Diversity Weekend and Career Services programs.
Providing resources
Over the past year, our corporate and foundation partners provided direct and matching gifts of more than $1.6 million to fund key initiatives within the school, including efforts to improve diversity, retain faculty, support research and broaden student leadership opportunities.
Above: The CEO Summit was attended by business leaders from across
the country.
At right: Steve Bennett, BBA ‘76, president and CEO of Intuit, spoke to
Wisconsin MBA students while on campus for the CEO Summit.
In return, our corporate partners strengthen our programs by:
Sharing experiences with students
Over the past year, leaders from companies including Kimberly-Clark,
W.W. Grainger, Inc., Accenture and many more, visited classrooms and
student events to share their insights and experiences with students.
Sponsoring events and programs
Companies provide resources for key initiatives and raise visibility for their brand by sponsoring key programs and events including the Directors’ Summit™, our Women’s Executive Leadership Summit, Diversity Weekend and Career Services programs.
Providing resources
Over the past year, our corporate and foundation partners provided direct and matching gifts of more than $1.6 million to fund key initiatives within the school, including efforts to improve diversity, retain faculty, support research and broaden student leadership opportunities.
Top companies involved with the School of Business through advisory boards include:
- Citigroup
- CUNA Mutual Group
- General Mills
- W.W. Grainger, Inc.
- Grant Thornton
- Harley-Davidson
- IBM
- Intuit
- Kimberly-Clark
- Lehman Brothers
- Kraft Foods
- Northwestern Mutual
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Procter & Gamble
- Promega
- S.C. Johnson
- Spectrum Brands
CEO Summit
A new corporate initiative, the CEO Summit, was planned over the past year. CEOs and leading executives from around the world who share a common experience —an education from the University of Wisconsin —gathered in Madison in fall 2006 to learn from industry and university experts. Important topics covered included the future of energy, paths to leadership and important scientific research being conducted at UW-Madison. The summit was organized by John Morgridge, BBA ’55, chairman and former CEO of Cisco Systems, to raise Wisconsin’s national visibility in producing business leaders and to continue that legacy of leadership by providing an opportunity for leading alumni to interact with each other and benefit from knowledge being created at Wisconsin.