The Deloitte Tax Case Study Competition is an annual contest where more than 100 leading academic institutions compete to solve complex tax challenges, address real world business issues and compete for scholarships and institutional awards.

 The survey is conducted bi-annually by the Aspen Institute’s Center for Business Education, and is the only global ranking that evaluates MBA programs for their efforts to prepare students for the new business realities demanding social and environmental stewardship. In 2007, the Wisconsin MBA ranked 33rd in the world, and 24th in the U.S.

 “We take seriously our charge of preparing students with the fundamentals to be high-achieving and responsible future leaders,” said Mike Knetter, Albert O. Nicholas Dean of the Wisconsin School of Business. “If we are to be successful in this endeavor, we believe that students must understand how environmental and values-based leadership is integral to the long-term success of any business.”

 The Aspen Institute goes worldwide in its search for the top performing business schools and goes beyond the standard criteria for ranking business schools by including how well schools prepare their business students for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business. This year, 149 business schools from 24 countries participated in the survey and 100 programs were ranked.

 Wisconsin was recognized for its dedication to integrating the concept of sustainability into existing courses, and developing new courses and programs that specifically address this issue.

 One of the most important recent additions to the Wisconsin School of Business is a graduate Certificate in Business, Environment and Social Responsibility in conjunction with UW-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. The certificate is designed to provide knowledge and skills to strategically apply business principles to environmental and social challenges, and to prepare students to systematically integrate sustainability issues into day-to-day management decision making.

 Inside the classroom, students find social and environmental responsibility woven throughout the Wisconsin MBA curriculum. Students are required to take an ethics course in their first year. Other sustainability-focused courses include Business and the Social Side of Sustainability, Triple Bottom Line Accounting and Environmental Strategy and Sustainability. Each of the 10 MBA career specializations has a rarified curriculum and a unique way of addressing corporate social responsibility. For example, Real Estate MBA students benefit from classes and conferences in green and sustainable development. Students in the Risk Management and Insurance specialization conduct various sustainability risk management projects with outside firms to identify key risks that organizations face, including reputational risks.

 Outside the classroom, students participate in the annual G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition, which now includes a $1,000 Nelson Institute Green Entrepreneurial Venture Recognition award for the best green venture.

 The school has also taken into consideration its surrounding environment. The $40.5 million, four-story addition to Grainger Hall that opened in 2008—home to the Wisconsin MBA—was built to meet or exceed LEED standards for green building.

 David R Anderson, BBA ‘70, MBA ’74, is chairman and CEO of American Family Insurance Group. Based in Madison, American Family is the third largest mutual property/casualty insurance company and the sixteenth largest property/casualty company in the nation.

Anderson is a member of several industry boards. He also serves on the boards of Meriter Health Services, Inc./Meriter Hospital, Inc./Meriter Management Services, the Wisconsin School of Business Dean’s Advisory Board, and the U.S. Bank Advisory Board. Other boards on which he serves include those of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, Future Madison Housing, and United Way of Dane County.

Stephen M. Bennett, BBA ‘76, is the former president and CEO of Intuit Inc. Under Bennett’s leadership, Intuit became a leader in small business, consumer tax preparation, and personal financial management software, with flagship brands such as QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Quicken. Since leaving the company in 2007, Bennett has been active as an angel investor and board member. He is a board member of Sun Microsystems, Qualcomm, Intuit, and two private companies, Sojern and Nemean Networks. Bennett chairs the board of Nemean Networks and the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Wisconsin School of Business.

Glen Tellock, BBA ‘83, is president and CEO of the Manitowoc Company, Inc. The company’s two businesses, Manitowoc Cranes and Manitowoc Foodservice, employ nearly 16,000 people and run operations in more than 20 countries. In addition to his work at Manitowoc Company, Tellock has served on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Wisconsin School of Business and is on the board of directors for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Manitowoc County.

Patrick A Thiele, BBA ‘72, MS ‘75, is president and CEO of PartnerRe Ltd. Under his leadership since 2000, PartnerRe has become a diversified, global reinsurance company with 13 office locations worldwide, offering reinsurance coverage for property and casualty, catastrophe, specialty lines, life, and alternative risk products. A Chartered Financial Analyst, Thiele serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Wisconsin School of Business and the board of St. John’s University’s School of Risk Management and Actuarial Science.

 Fenn has more than 20 years experience writing about entrepreneurship and small business trends. Her latest book, “Upstarts: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit From Their Success,” analyzes young entrepreneurial success strategies and what to expect from these individuals in the future. In addition to “Upstart,” she wrote “Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack,” which profiles eight successful small companies in ordinary industries, including a sock manufacturer and motorcycle dealership. Fenn is a contributing editor at Inc. magazine, a community leader at Work.com, a featured expert on SBTV.com, and a blogger on Inc.com. Her work has appeared in Inc., The New York Times, Newsweek, and many other national publications.

In 2001, Fenn was a co-recipient of the Women’s Economic Round Table Entrepreneurship Prize, sponsored by the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. From 1988 to 1992, she lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she was a correspondent for The Associated Press and covered a variety of issues including business, culture, the economy and the Gulf War.

 For more information on her visit, contact PR Director Melissa Anderson, mkanderson@bus.wisc.edu.

The visits provide the student an opportunity to get to know people who would be good resources for them and to build rapport with the advisors here. A typical visit consists of the student receiving a tour of Grainger Hall and meeting with advisors from Undergraduate Advising Services, Admissions and the Business Career Center. The student can also sit in on a business class to get a feel for the classes and the atmosphere here.

Information on the program has been distributed to a number of student organizations on campus; pre-college programs, including the PEOPLE Program; POSSE and Chancellor’s Scholars, as well as advising programs such as Pathways to Excellence, Academic Advancement Placement and Center for Educational Opportunity.

Agarwal is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He obtained his BS and MS degrees in biochemical engineering and biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India in 2002, and a PhD in chemical engineering from Iowa State University in 2007. Agarwal primarily works on translational research projects combining a variety of advances in material sciences with applications in biomedicine. His work was recognized as an “outstanding contribution by a graduate student” at the annual meeting of the Society for Biomaterials and Gordon Research Conference – Polymers (West) in 2007. Agarwal’s research has been published, and has resulted in one patent application and two intellectual property disclosures filed in 2009.

 Last year the campaign raised nearly $2.96 million. The participation rate was more than 21%. Wisconsin School of Business employees raised $37,156 and had a participation rate of 13.6%.

 IIsa Valdez is coordinating this year’s effort and will be collecting the completed pledge forms. Please contact her (265-4937 or ivaldez@bus.wisc.edu) with questions or concerns.

 For more information, please contact Belle Heberling (bheberling@bus.wisc.edu).