“Reaching New Heights”

The past year has been filled with progress by our people and programs and with extraordinary investments to create the foundation for an even-brighter future for our school.

With this Report to Investors, we share with you some of the accomplishments of the past year. Our faculty were recognized for intellectual leadership by their peers and the media. We hired eight new faculty members and several talented staff members in areas of strategic importance. Our MBA programs are growing in size, quality of experience, and national reputation. We are serving more Wisconsin residents and companies than ever before in our Enterprise MBA programs. Our undergraduate program will grow even stronger as we invest in the career-readiness of our students. Our Ph.D. program attracted a strong group of young scholars. And we are delivering value-added programs to thousands of professionals in our non-degree executive education programs.

In these pages, we share the stories of a few of the many individuals who are helping the Wisconsin School of Business reach a new level of excellence.

We also are proud to list our Honor Roll of Contributors who have provided key financial support to us in the past year. Our recent success is a continuation of a virtuous cycle of strategic intent, investment, and progress.

As we have sharpened our strategic focus, alumni have responded with important investments in our priorities and our team has delivered on the measures of progress set forth in our plans. This cycle reached new heights this past year with the extraordinary Wisconsin Naming Gift, the opening of the east wing of Grainger Hall, and our incredibly successful student commencement campaigns.

Unfortunately, it has also been a year marked by unprecedented turbulence in financial markets and our economy. Recent events remind us that we need business leaders who not only understand the increasingly complex global challenges we face, but who can make decisions that lead to long-term, sustainable value creation. We are committed to keeping the promise of public higher education: to provide a ladder to economic success for a large number of people from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds. More than that, we seek to transform the lives of our students so that they can become the next generation of business leaders.

We appreciate the trust that so many alumni and friends have placed in us with their gifts. With your continued support, we can reach even greater heights in the years ahead.

Michael Knetter
Dean, Wisconsin School of Business