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April 2008

Wisconsin MBA Again Ranked 29th by U.S. News

U.S. News & World Report for the second consecutive year has ranked
the full-time MBA program of the Wisconsin School of Business 29th among all business schools in the United States, maintaining its highest ranking in that publication on record.

Among public business schools, the latest ranking, released March 28, 2008, ranks the Wisconsin MBA 12th in the U.S., up from 14th last year—a tie for the program’s best showing ever.  In the Big Ten, Wisconsin ranks 6th – the highest since 1993, when the full-time program was ranked 5th.

The new ranking evaluates the program for the class of students entering in 2005 and graduating in 2007 –the second class of students to complete the new  career-specialization-based Wisconsin MBA.

U.S. News bases its rankings on data furnished by schools, recruiters, deans and MBA program directors across a broad range of indicators:

• Placement success for the class graduating in spring 2007. This is a composite of starting salary, employment rates at graduation and three months later.
• Student selectivity for the class entering in fall 2007. This is a composite of mean score on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), mean GPA and proportion of applicants accepted by the school.
• Survey of corporate recruiters.
• Survey of business school deans and MBA program directors.

Based on internal measurements, the school has remained steady on key fundamentals:

• Student quality as measured by average GMAT score was 656 for students who enrolled in 2007; it was 661 in 2006.
• Student satisfaction with the level of academic leadership rose to 80 percent for second-year students in the program in spring 2007-08 school year, compared to 76 percent among second-year students in spring 2006. 
• Career placement was at 96 percent for the class of 2007, up from 95 percent for 2006 graduates. The average salary for 2007 graduates was $82,000, compared to $82,917 for 2006 graduates.

“We appreciate the significance of the U.S. News ranking as a widely disseminated indicator of our relative quality on certain measurable criteria,” said Dean Michael Knetter. “We remain committed to improving the specialized MBA model we set into motion with the 2006 graduating class. With the opening of the Grainger Hall addition and the deployment of resources from the Wisconsin Naming Gift on the horizon, I am confident we will see fundamental improvements in the quality of all our programs.”

School Honors Three with Teaching Awards

Three individuals are being honored by the Wisconsin School of Business for outstanding teaching during the 2007-08 school year.

Karla Johnstone, associate professor, Accounting and Information Systems, received the Chipman Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award. 

Ken Kavajecz, associate professor, Finance, Investment and Banking, and associate dean for the full-time-time MBA program, received the Gaumnitz Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award.

Tom Eggert, senior lecturer, Actuarial Science, Risk Management and Insurance, received the Chipman Outstanding Academic Staff Teaching Award. 

“Our school has long been know known for the caliber of its teaching,” said Senior Associate Dean James M. Johannes. “We are very fortunate to have people of this caliber in our classrooms.”   

“Project Brandwoven™” to Integrate School’s Marketing Initiatives

For more than a year, the Wisconsin School of Business has been exploring ways to build the strength of the school’s brand to allow it to better compete with other top business schools.

The initial focus was on building a consistent brand for the Wisconsin MBA. “Brand Camp,” a series of seminars, was led by Deborah Mitchell, associate dean for Enterprise MBA Programs and Marketing Services. The seminars aimed to identify the value proposition and brand personality for the Wisconsin MBA as a whole and help individual career specializations identify how their brands can build upon those of the Wisconsin MBA, the business school and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

From those initial meetings, the seminars (“Brand 2.0” and “Brand 3.0”) broadened to include units from throughout the school for a discussion on development of a schoolwide brand. The school’s new Wisconsin School of Business logo and use of the “Be Out in Front™” tagline are two of the outcomes from those efforts.  Both were unveiled in October as part of the announcement of the school’s $85 million naming gift.

“The most successful and enduring organizations are Brandwoven™,” says Mitchell. “These types of organizations have a strong culture and sense of pride, with the brand providing a common thread for weaving community and communications, both internal and external.”

The next step in the process will be “Project Brandwoven.” Business school faculty and staff have been involved in a School-wide effort to define our brand and express it in our materials, communications strategy, and various aspects of our work.  Toward this end, teams representing various centers and units within the school have been working on projects that will help reinforce our brand to internal and external audiences.  .

A variety of team projects will be presented on Friday, May 9 from 1 to 4:30 p.m.  The entire Wisconsin School of Business community is invited to attend.  A panel of judges will select the very top presentations for special awards. (Submissions for the competition are due April 25.  Check-in meetings for those working on submissions will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on April 3 and April 17.) 

“Project Brandwoven grew out of our branding seminars,” said Mitchell. “Our hope is that the entire school will come listen to the Project Brandwoven presentations this May and that next year even more people will participate and make presentations.”

Handouts from the most recent branding seminars are posted at www.bus.wisc.edu/brandwoven.

FACULTY/STAFF NEWS

ARRIVALS

Sarah Tueting, MBA ’05, is returning to the Center for Brand and Product Management. and will serve as the center’s co-director with Amy Schmidt.  Both will work 60 percent and report to Professor Tom O’Guinn, the center’s executive director. Schmidt will continue to lead admissions, recruiting and marketing while Tueting will be responsible for job placement, career development and advising and employer development. Tueting’s work experience includes strategic consulting, e-commerce and traditional project management. She completed a brand management internship at Kraft Foods and worked briefly as the assistant director of the Center for Brand and Product Management before moving to Buffalo, N.Y.  

Jennifer Laack  has joined the Family Business Center as center coordinator to handle administrative operations and program coordination.

Elesha Belke has joined the Wisconsin School of Business as a marketing specialist with Alumni Relations. Belke previously worked as the events and communications coordinator for the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Letters and Science Career Services. She has a B.A. from UW-Madison in Communication Arts and Afro-American Studies, with a certificate in Women’s Studies.

Lorraine Bose has joined the business school as an LTE in the MBA Program office. Bose previously worked for American Girl and holds an associate degree in visual communications.

DEPARTURES

Roger Maclean, associate dean for Executive Educations since 2006,  is retiring from UW-Madison and the Wisconsin School of Business in April. He is joining Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville as the executive director of educational outreach, managing outreach education and summer sessions for the university. 

Betsy Kacizak, director of graduate administration and financial aid, is leaving the business school after almost 10 years. She is joining the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), where she will work with a variety of MBA programs. Kacizak first joined the business school working in the area of MBA career services. Although GMAC is based in McLean, Va., she will continue to be based in the Madison area. Kacizak will be working with Sandra Keltzenberg, formerly assistant dean of the Wisconsin MBA.

Two individuals have announced they will be retiring soon from Executive Education: Carol Birkholz and  Terry Thompson.

Other familiar faces in Grainger Hall and the Fluno Center who have resigned recently from the Wisconsin School of Business are: 

• Mike Van Roo, Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship
• Gail Henslin, Small Business Development Center
• Abigail Sanford Capper, Executive Education, who is joining the UW Foundation
• Mary Brost, Graaskamp Center for Real Estate.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Real Estate Professor Steve Malpezzi recently returned from several weeks at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad were he team-taught a course in Property Finance and Investments with former UW Professor Richard Green and met with
a number of academics and practitioners.  Although ISB is less than a decade old, it is  India's leading business school and is ranked in the Financial Times global Top 20.     

A recent survey of global real estate investors carried out by Wisconsin MBAs under Real Estate Professor François Ortalo-Magné's direction ranked India among the top three prospective markets for real estate appreciation in 2008.

Glass art by Pamela Cremer, a graphic designer with Executive Education, will be among the work featured at the Overture Center for the Arts April 2 through June 11.   An opening reception will be held Wednesday, April 2 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Wisconsin Naming Gift Continues to Gain Attention

The $85 million naming gift for the Wisconsin School of Business continues to gain national attention.

Steve D. Levitt, author of the best-selling book, “Freakonomics,” discussed the Wisconsin Naming Gift on his blog.  Read his blog here. That, in turn imspired a number other bloggers around the country to share their views on the unique “no-name naming gift.”

The gift also was the cover story of the spring issue of Insights, the magazine of the University of Wisconsin Foundation and was featured in the spring issue of On Wisconsin, the magazine for UW-Madison alumni.

In March, a presentation on the Wisconsin Naming Gift was made at a conference of business school communications and development professionials held in Chicago by
the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business  (AACSB).  Dean Michael Knetter and Alumni Director Alisa Robertson made the presentation.

A reminder of the naming gift can now be seen in Grainger Hall’s atrium.  A banner hung there in March is a replica of  an ad announcing the school’s naming in the Wall Street Journal and other major publications. It joins a banner of the Wisconsin School of Business logo which was unveiled in the atrium at the gift’s announcement in October.

WorldCom Whistleblower to Speak at Ethics and Professionalism Symposium

The third annual Ethics and Professionalism Symposium by the Department of Accounting and Information Systems will be held May 1. The public is invited to attend a public talk given as part of the symposium by Cynthia Cooper. Cooper was named Time magazine’s 2002 Time Person of the Year, along with fellow whistleblowers Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins.

Cooper is the former vice president of internal audit at WorldCom. In June 2002, she revealed what would turn out to be the largest fraud in U.S. corporate history. Her report on the company’s actions unleased a firestorm of investigations, media coverage and accusations. After its collapse, Cooper remained with the company (which changed its name to MCI and was later acquired by Verizon), serving as chief audit executive until it successfully emerged from bankruptcy. In 2004, she resigned to form her own consulting business. She speaks on ethics and leadership to students and businesses. She is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Georgia, a Certified Fraud Examiner and a Certified Information Systems Auditor.

Cooper will speak and take audience questions from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in 1100 Morgridge Auditorium in Grainger Hall. A reception and book signing will follow. Cooper is the author of the book, “Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower.”

Three Wisconsin School of Business Students Receive Baird Scholarships

Three members of the Women in Business student organization were awarded $1,000 scholarships funded by Baird, an employee- owned international investment firm based in Milwaukee, which also sponsors the student group. Created to inspire women to pursue leadership careers in the financial services industry, the scholarships include a one-time grant of $1,000 to be used for tuition or school-related expenses, and the opportunity to interact with a Baird mentor.

The scholarship recipients were: Sarah Machurik, a senior from Little Chute, Wis., majoring in Marketing and Spanish; Laura Hacker, a junior from Minnetonka, Minn., majoring in Finance and Marketing; and Cara Lombardo, a sophomore from Madison, Wis., majoring in Accounting.

The students were selected based on a number of criteria including academic record, a demonstrated excellence in community and leadership, and strong interpersonal and professional skills.

Update on Grainger Hall Addition Slated

An update on the addition to Grainger Hall will be held Thursday, May 1 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. in Room 4151. Associate Dean for Administration Melissa Amos-Landgraf will provide a progress report on construction, and plans for the moves to the addition (which is tentatively scheduled for June 2008.) All faculty and staff are invited to attend.

IN THE NEWS

People and programs of the Wisconsin School of Business were in national and local news recently.

Morris Davis, assistant professor, Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, continues to garner national media attention. Davis has become a prominent national expert on the housing market’s economic impact. He has been featured in several national and international publications recently, including CNNMoney.com, U.S. News and World Report, NPR, Sydney News, Dow Jones Newswire and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Davis, who testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee in December, previously was quoted in the New York Times and the Christian Science Monitor.

Steve Schroeder, assistant dean for undergraduate programs and director of undergraduate career services, was quoted in the CNNMoney.com article, “Who’s hiring new college grads now.” Schroeder commented on the high demand for college graduates, despite the economic slowdown.

Assistant Professor Phil Kim, Management and Human Resources, was quoted in the Science Daily article, “Off the hook: Stronger soft-plastic fishing lures less damaging to environment.”  The fishing lure project, part of Kim’s entrepreneurial class, was also mentioned in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Regional

The differential tuition policy at the Wisconsin School of Business was included in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, “UW System to look at tuition restructuring.” The tuition report was also mentioned in the Wisconsin State Journal and the Badger Herald.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=725632
http://badgerherald.com/news/2008/03/03/uw_to_look_at_tuitio.php
http://badgerherald.com/news/2008/03/07/board_looks_at_tuiti.php

Associate Professor Mason Carpenter and Professor Randall Dunham were quoted in the Milwaukee Business Journal article, “Bucyrus eliminates exec perks like cars, club dues.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel featured a story on MBA students John Poehling Jr. and Jason Schultz. The article, “‘Stress test’ can protect against worst-case equity tap,” discussed Poehling and Schultz’s advice for dealing with the stressful environment of the current housing crisis.

A video created by MBA students in the Applied Security Analysis Program was featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article “No business like show business.”

The Wisconsin School of Business was mentioned in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, “Student’s the boss.”

Local

“Green Heroes: 25 of the area's savviest, smartest, boldest, well-intentioned and hardest-working stewards of justice, humanity and the environment” was the headline of an article in the April issue of Madison Magazine. Professor Dan Anderson and Senior Lecturer Tom Eggert both in the Actuarial Science, Risk Management and Insurance,   were jointly cited for their efforts to “incorporate environmentalism, sustainability and social justice into the business school curriculum.” 

Dean Michael Knetter was quoted in the Badger Herald article, “Study: Law, engineering, business make most cash.” The article looked at a recent survey of college professors’ salaries.

“MBAs On Wisconsin!” Weekend Set for April 10-12

The “MBAs On Wisconsin!” weekend will be held April 10-12 for students newly admitted to the full-time Wisconsin MBA program for fall 2008. Students will be welcomed by Dean Michael Knetter on Thursday, April 10 at a welcome reception, attend the Artful Business Collective's showcase in Grainger Hall’s atrium, participate in a case with Prof. Chip Hunter of the Department of Management and Human Resources and receive a tour of the new Grainger Hall addition. They also will attend an MBA student organization fair and interact with faculty and students from the 12 career specializations.

MBA Spring Ball Set for April 12

The 2008 annual MBA Spring Ball, Le Cirque Nouveau, will be held April 12 at the Overture Center for the Arts. The ball, hosted by the Graduate Business Association, will feature drinks, hors d’oeuvres and an award ceremony followed by dancing. Advance tickets are $20 for GBA members and $30 for all non-members. Information on the event can be found at http://gba.rso.wisc.edu/springball.htm.

Greening Businesses Is Topic of Next Enterprise MBA Programs Speaker Series  

The newly launched Wisconsin Enterprise MBA Speaker Series continues in April with Paul Linzmeyer, general partner of the firm, Innovation for Sustainable Operations, Inc. His primary focus is greening businesses and changing the way senior managers think about their responsibility to shareholders and to stakeholders. The talk will be given Friday, April 18 at 5:30 p.m. at the Fluno Center.  A question and answer session and reception will follow.  

The speaker series began in February with Jon Foley, the founder and director of UW-Madison’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) as its first guest speaker. Foley spoke on sustainability and what individuals and business people can do in the face of increasing demands on land, water and atmosphere. Nearly 65 Evening MBA and Executive MBA students, faculty, staff and friends of the programs attended the first talk. More information on the Foley presentation can be found at http://mywebspace.wisc.edu/jfoley/web/EMBA.

Academic Staff Members Campuswide Eligible
for Grants for Executive Education Courses

Any member of the UW-Madison campus academic staff is eligible to apply.
to the 2008 Competition for Executive Education Courses. The Executive Education program in the Wisconsin School of Business is offering five single-course enrollments as a contribution to academic staff  professional development. Wisconsin School of Business academic staff members are eligible to apply.

The main objectives of the grant program are individual professional development, improved program quality, and improved institutional effectiveness. The Academic Staff Professional Development and Recognition Committee will select five grant recipients.   

Applications must include:

1. Completed application form (http://acstaff.wisc.edu/pdrc/execed-form.pdf or
   http://acstaff.wisc.edu/pdrc/execed-form.rtf )
2. Resume
   

One or two letters of support from a supervisor or a colleague
 
Send five copies of materials to the Office of the Secretary of the
Academic Staff, 270 Bascom Hall by 4:30 p.m. April 18, 2008. For more information, contact PDRC co-chair Lisa Jansen at 262-1126 or eajansen@wisc.edu.  Courses, dates and fees are list on the Executive Education website http://exed.wisc.edu  Select an area  of interest from "Open Enrollment Topics." Choose "Calendar" to see a list of programs, dates, and fees for that topic.

Real Estate Students Attend Conferences in Cannes, Dubai

During spring break, 17 first-year Wisconsin MBA students in Real Estate traveled to the MIPIM  Conference in Cannes, France, an annual event featuring 21,000 major property developers, sellers and brokers from up to 75 different countries.

Students met with leading international real estate professionals, government officials, and consultants actively involved in real estate development and finance. The trip was led by Associate Professor François Ortalo-Magné. Peter Ritz, senior lecturer in the Department of Real Estate also participated

Real Estate MBA student Erica Healey attended the “Women as Global
Leaders” Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in March. Healey was selected from dozens of applicants to receive a full-scholarship to participate in the conference. The annual conference brought together women from more than 85 different countries to discuss issues relating to women’s leadership. 

Faculty, Students and Staff Invited to Attend 2008 CIBER MBA International Business Case Competition

Faculty, students and staff of the Wisconsin School of Business are invited to attend the preliminary and championship rounds of the CIBER MBA International Business Case Competition on Friday, April 18 at the Fluno Center. This competition will bring together teams of MBA students from 11 domestic and international institutions—including the Wisconsin School of Business—for a challenging international business strategy case. The teams will be divided into three groups for the preliminary round, to be held from 8 to 11:30 a.m. The top three teams will compete in the championship round from 2:30-5:00 p.m. For more information, please visit http://www.bus.wisc.edu/mbainternationalcase/.

CIBER Conference: Global Imbalances and the U.S. Dollar: Doing Business in the World Economy

Prominent financial and policy experts will address current account sustainability issues and their implications for Midwestern firms in panel discussions during a half-day program on May 1 at the Fluno Center. For program details and to register, visit http://www.bus.wisc.edu/ciber/events/ciberevents.asp?eid=949.

The event is sponsored by: Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE), CIBER, and the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs. It is co-sponsored by: International Credit Executives Group, Madison International Trade Association (MITA), UW-Madison Department of Economics, UW-Madison European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE), Wisconsin Department of Commerce Bureau of Investment and Export and the World Trade Center Wisconsin.

New Database Shows “Wisconsin Idea in Action”

A new searchable, online database called the Wisconsin Idea in Action, which documents examples of UW–Madison’s service to the state, made its campus debut in March. The database, which can be accessed from The Wisconsin Idea in Action, is the latest in a series of external relations efforts highlighting UW–Madison’s commitment to the century-old legacy of the Wisconsin Idea. Additions and updates to the database are accepted on an ongoing basis. Faculty and staff are encouraged to submit their work to the Wisconsin Idea in Action by entering a brief description and related information in the fill-in form at Wisconsin Idea Submission Form.

About the Gazette

The Gazette is published monthly by Marketing Services for faculty and staff of the Wisconsin School of Business. Submissions for the May 1 issue of the Gazette should be sent by April 25 to Editor Lari Fanlund, lfanlund@bus.wisc.edu.