School of Business Gazette

ASAP Students to Manage More than $40 Million
For University of Wisconsin System

Students in the Applied Security Analysis Program (ASAP) of the School of Business in October were authorized to manage more than $40 million in fixed-income securities for the University of Wisconsin System. It is believed that the approximate $44 million total assets under management is the largest pool of capital managed by students of any university.

The Business and Finance Committee of the UW Board of Regents voted to allow the ASAP program to manage approximately $20 million for investment in nominal U.S. Treasuries and approximately $11 million allocated to Treasury Inflation Protection Securities (TIPS). These allotments were in addition to approximately $10 million in fixed-income securities that ASAP students had already been successfully managing for the UW System since 1998.

“What was stressed with the committee is that the ASAP program has proven that it can provide competitive returns in an actively-managed bond portfolio setting,” said Regent Charles Pruitt of Milwaukee, chair of the Regents’ Business and Finance Committee. “This has convinced Trust Funds' investment staff, and obviously our committee, that ASAP should be able to effectively manage these additional portfolios. The process also provides students with valuable, real-world experience,” Pruitt said.

Professor Mark Fedenia, the academic director of the ASAP program since 1986, said that “the Regents’ decision to increase our fixed-income assets under management is exciting beyond the sheer size of the portfolio. Students will now experience the additional complexity of managing money in multiple portfolios with differing investment objectives. I am confident that our students will live up to the enormous responsibility placed with them.”

Dean Michael M. Knetter said the Regent decision was especially gratifying because students had to deliver performance that met or exceeded the Board of Regents expectations in a multi-manager environment. The decision to give additional funds to ASAP students to invest is “a ringing endorsement of their performance” Knetter said.

UW Regent President David Walsh, BBA ’65, said the Board of Regents was pleased to provide these funds to enable ASAP program students to experience “real-life investment opportunities. This is consistent with UW-Madison's commitment to research and education. It is another reason why UW-Madison is truly one of the great public universities and its School of Business is a nationally recognized business school."

ASAP was launched in 1970 with a gift of $100,000 for students to invest and was one of the first applied investment programs in the nation. Thirty-five years later, the program has more than 500 alumni, many in leading investment positions on Wall Street and elsewhere. Up to 21 students are selected to participate in ASAP each academic year and are placed in one of three portfolio teams: equities, fixed income or REITs. ASAP is housed in the Stephen L. Hawk Center in the School of Business.

Wisconsin MBA Among Top Schools
For Teaching on Social and Environmental Issues

The School of Business has been ranked among the world’s top schools for its MBA offerings in social and environmental issues.

The Beyond Grey Pinstripes ranking was released Oct. 19 by World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute, measures how well MBA programs equip students with an understanding of the social, environmental and economic perspectives required for business success in a competitive global economy. It 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.

Wisconsin was 16th among U.S. business schools and 28th in the overall ranking. Stanford University ranked first, followed by ESADE in Spain and York University in Canada. Only 18 U.S. schools made the top-30 list.

The School of Business offers four courses covering different aspects of social and environmental stewardship. Two student organizations in the school, Net Impact and BASE (Business Action for Sustainable Enterprise), focus on environmental and social issues. Professor Dan Anderson and Senior Lecturer Tom Eggert teach these courses and serve as advisors to the student organizations. Both have published articles in this area. Business executives often serve as guest speakers in the courses.

According to Beyond Gray Pinstripes, the UW-Madison School of Business distinguished itself “not only by offering a large number of courses that addressed social and environmental issues in business, but also by the relatively large proportion of students who actually took those classes.”

Ed Wiegner, a business school alumnus, has provided seed money to support the teaching of courses and the activities of the student organizations. Eggert and Anderson and other business school faculty are working with the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies to explore the development of future joint ventures.

To create its ranking, Beyond Grey Pinstripes invited nearly 600 MBA programs to report on their coursework and research. To evaluate the programs, they analyzed courses, extracurricular activities and programs and journal articles from leading peer-reviewed business publications.

Grainger Center’s Supply Chain Program Ranked 7th in U.S.

The supply chain management program of the UW-Madison School of Business has been ranked seventh in the nation. In an article in the September 2005 issue of Supply Chain Management Review on "The State of Supply Chain Education," the program of the Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management was ranked seventh in a survey of 96 programs at North American universities.

The survey sought input from both practitioners and academics, who were asked to rate eight characteristics in a university supply chain education, and asked to rank the 20 top logistics and supply chain management programs according to these criteria. Practitioners emphasized the importance of curriculum, reputation, and source of potential management talent. Wisconsin's overall ranking place it ahead of supply chain management programs of MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Arizona State and many others.

Wisconsin Team Makes National Finals of Deloitte Tax Case Competition

A team of Wisconsin accounting students has made it to the national finals of the Deloitte Tax Case Competition to be held in Orlando Nov. 18-20. Team members are Tim Berkley, Adam Goldfarb, Lindsey Heinzmann, Katrina Raisbeck and Karen Rowntree. Accounting Professor Jon Davis is the team’s coach.

Sponsored by the Deloitte Foundation, the nationwide competition for undergraduate and graduate tax students began with regional competition on Oct. 15 at seven regional sites, including Madison. More than 40 school teams attended the regional competitions. Each team had five hours to complete a complex, hypothetical case study that tested its knowledge on a variety of tax topics. Following the regional events, the top 6 participating teams of undergraduates advanced to the national competition in Orlando.

Sun Microsystems Alumnus to be Honored

University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni and friends are invited to attend the School of Business Distinguished Business Alumnus Award Dinner on Friday, November 11 at the Fluno Center. At the event, the Distinguished Business Alumnus Award will be presented to Mike Lehman, BBA ‘74, retired CFO, Sun Microsystems, Inc. Lehman, an emeritus member of the Dean’s Advisory Board, has been actively involved in the school’s efforts to recruit and retain outstanding MBA students. He also serves on the UW Foundation Board of Directors. To RSVP, please contact Wisconsin Business Alumni, 608/265-4194, alumni@bus.wisc.edu.

School of Business Forum Examined “Creating Inclusive Communities”

On September 30, more than 100 people attended a School of Business forum, “Creating Inclusive Communities in the Classroom, the Boardroom and Beyond.” The event was cosponsored by the School of Business, led by its Equity and Diversity Committee, and by the Associated Students of Madison (ASM) Plan 2008 Committee.

Keynote speaker for the forum was Wisconsin Secretary of Commerce Mary Burke, who spoke on the importance of a diverse workforce to corporate America. An interactive discussion was facilitated by UW-Madison’s Theatre for Cultural and Social Awareness, which performed vignettes involving diversity, inclusiveness and classroom/workplace climate.

“Patrick Sims’ theater group designed some very clever vignettes,” said Dean Michael Knetter. “And because they are fun, people are more relaxed, and better able to open up to their neighbors about the topics presented. Patrick’s self-effacing approach to the issues also helped people feel free to express themselves. It was the most valuable event of its kind I have attended.”

A panel of university and industry representatives discussed diversity and inclusiveness issues on campus and in corporate settings and answered questions from the audience.

Panelists were:

• Bernice Durand, Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Campus Climate
• Luis Pinero, Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of the UW-Madison Equity and Diversity Resource Center
• Patrick Sims, Director of the Theatre for Cultural and Social Awareness
• Katie Porter, Manager of Diversity and Human Resources at W.W. Grainger, Inc.
• Gary Lessuise, Assistant Dean for Master’s Programs, UW-Madison School of Business (and former executive with Ford Motor Company)
• Seema Kapani, UW-Madison Diversity Education Coordinator

As a result of positive feedback to the first forum, the School of Business Equity and Diversity Committee is planning several follow-up events for the spring semester. The aim is to involve participants in smaller interactive activities for a variety of groups within the School of Business community.

Dean Knetter said he was pleased by response to the first forum. “One of our biggest opportunities for improvement at the School of Business is the creation of a more diverse learning community, particularly within our undergraduate program,” Knetter said. “Having this community event focusing on diversity and climate was an important first step.”

Diversity Weekend and Prospective Student Weekend

The full-time MBA Program will host a Diversity Weekend Nov. 3-5 and a Prospective Student Weekend Nov. 17-19. Both events will feature informational sessions on admissions and various resources within the MBA Program, Grainger Hall and campus tours, a case study, interviews and interactions with current students and faculty.

All faculty and staff are welcome to attend these events. If you are interested in attending or would like more information, please contact Betsy Kacizak at ekacizak@bus.wisc.edu.

Award-winning Editor to Be Business Writer in Residence

Becky Bisbee, the business editor at the Seattle Times, will be this semester’s Business Writer in Residence. She will be on campus the week of Nov. 7. She leads a staff of 20 journalists who cover a dozen Fortune-500 companies, including Microsoft, Boeing, amazon.com, Starbucks and Nordstroms, as well as biotechs, entrepreneurs, telecoms and the occasional small business.

She previously was the business editor at The Austin American-Statesman and The Modesto Bee. Under her leadership, each of the three papers has won awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers as one of the "Best in Business." She serves on the executive committee of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and is a graduate of the University of Maryland.

Bisbee will speak in a variety of business and journalism classes. For more information on her visit, contact Helen Capellaro, hcapellaro, 262-9213, or Lari Fanlund, lfanlund@bus.wisc.edu, 262-2401, in the Office of Marketing and Communications.

Faculty-Staff News

Mark Browne testified before the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on the national flood insurance plan. He also participated as a panelist at a separate meeting on the same topic in the U.S. Senate. The two-hour panel discussion was sponsored by the Center on Federal Financial Institutions (COFFI) and broadcast live on C-Span.

Carol Aspinwall of the Erdman Center for Operations and Technology Management attended the Association for Operations Management (APICS) International Conference. (OTM MBA student Tumay Kojasoy also attended as a funded student scholar.) Aspinwall was the featured guest speaker at the Milwaukee APICS Chapter professional development meeting on Oct. 20. She spoke about career success and self-promotion to a group of 60 APICS professional and student members.

Katy France, university services associate 2 LTE, has joined the MBA Program Office/Evening MBA.

Erdman Center Celebrates Tenth Year

On November 7, 1995, the Erdman Center held its very first Industrial Advisory Board meeting, and in December, 1995, the first two graduates came out of the Center’s master’s program. Since then, the Erdman Center has produced 73 alumni. To mark those events, a 10-year anniversary board meeting and luncheon were held on October 14.

During lunch, Center Director Urban Wemmerlöv, Kress Family Wisconsin Distinguished Professor, gave the audience —consisting of board members, alumni, current students and faculty/staff —a trip down memory lane, presenting a slide show recognizing key people who helped launch and support the Center. Also illustrated was the vast array of activities Center students have engaged in over the last 10 years. Other speakers included Jennifer Romanin (alumna), Gene Berg (board member) and Dan Erdman (son of the Center’s original benefactor, Marshall Erdman, and also a major donor together with his siblings).

After lunch, about 65 people listened to the invited guest speaker, Dr. Frank Piller from MIT and TUM, who addressed the topic of “The Future of Mass Customization, Mass Production, and Customer-Driven Value Creation.” The anniversary meeting ended with a reception in Grainger Hall. That evening a reception and a dinner for the Center’s first Alumni Association meeting, attended by alumni, current students and faculty/staff and their spouses was held. The next day was a network-building event including the families of alumni and students who went bowling and had lunch together.

Real Estate Club Travels to Atlanta

More than 50 members of the Real Estate Club, faculty, and local alumni took part in the Real Estate Club's fall trip to Atlanta October 5-7. Club members learned about the Atlanta market and visited several new developments, including Atlantic Station, Southern Dairies Office Complex, Glenwood Park, Highland Walk, 1180 Peachtree, and John's Creek Walk.

The trip was made possible by support from MMA Realty, Prudential, Atlantic Realty Partners, Faison, Clarence Williams (MS '86), CREFunding, and Perennial Properties. Atlanta real estate alumni hosted the students and Mark Rowell of CREFunding, was instrumental in planning the trip.

In the News

NATIONAL NEWS

CNN.com: Wisconsin MBA is “High-profile Example” of Specialized MBA Programs
“The traditional one-size-fits-all MBA degree could soon be consigned to the dustbin of history” says an article looking at the trend toward specialized MBA programs. The Wisconsin MBA is given as a prime example.

Fortune.com: ASAP's Multimillion Dollar Portfolio
News of the school’s Applied Security Analysis program receiving an additional $31 million to invest from UW System was included in an online column by Andy Serwer on Fortune.com. It was also the subject of a major feature in the Wisconsin State Journal and on Wisconsin Public Radio.

New York Times: Accounting Professor’s Work with COSO
Times columnist Floyd Norris explored the work of Accounting Professor Larry Rittenberg as chairman of the national organization, the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), in setting accounting guidelines.

OTHER NEWS

Accounting Professor Jon Davis was quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an article on the likelihood of tax reform. Davis said Wisconsinites are among those most likely to pay the alternative minimum tax, which in recent years has hit middle-class taxpayers who claim lots of deductions.

Accounting Professor Mark Covaleski and Professor David Antonioni of Executive Education were quoted in the Capital Business Journal on guidelines businesses should follow in setting budgets.

Ann Kinkade, director of the Family Business Center, was interviewed on a small-business trend, married couples or "copreneurs" owning and operating franchise businesses in an article on Dallasnews.com.

News of our MBA program receiving a high ranking for teaching of environmental and social issues was carried in The Capital Times, WisBusiness.com and on Wisconsin Public Radio. An editorial praising the school’s efforts in the area of social responsibility was carried on WISC-TV, Channel 3.

Judy Symon Hanson, assistant director of International Programs, was quoted in an article on job opportunities for business graduates in the Minnesota Daily.

Finance Professor Jim Seward was quoted in the Wisconsin State Journal on the appointment of new Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Beranke.

An article on area MBA programs in the Wisconsin State Journal featured quotes from Dean Michael Knetter and Professor Barry Gerhart.

The Wisconsin State Journal carried an article that covered comments from a speaker at the Women’s Executive Leadership Summit held at the Fluno Center in October.

The Wisconsin State Journal quoted Joan Gillman, director of special industry programs, on the value of networking.

Neil Lerner, director of the Small Business Development Center, was featured in the September issue of In Business magazine.

The Technical Leadership Certificate program, led by Scott Converse, director of Technology and Innovation Programs at Executive Education, was featured in an article in the Daily Cardinal.

A business led by undergraduate bisomess students Kristen Berman and Michael Kreemer—netNerds—was featured in the Daily Cardinal.

The main feature article in the October issue of the UW-Madison Business Wire was on Executive Education and the Fluno Center.

Wisbusiness.com, featured an interview with former Associate Dean for Executive Education and Corporate Relations Ted Beck on progress by Executive Education.

Real Estate Professor Stephen Malpezzi was the subject of a feature interview in the September issue of the Korean real estate magazine, Noble Asset.

Assistant Dean for Master’s Programs Gary Lessuise was featured in an interview and article on wisbusiness.com.

CIBER Activities

The Advisory Board of the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) met in October and discussed expanding international internships, study- abroad opportunities for School of Business students and activities in CIBER’s federal funding proposal for the years 2006-2010, which will be submitted this fall.

CIBER will cosponsor a program on India this month. With its high-potential workforce and burgeoning middle class, India is seen as an increasingly dynamic competitor. CIBER, along with the Madison International Trade Association (MITA) and Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy (WAGE), will sponsor a program focused on doing business in India. Speakers will give an economic, political and social overview of India and will address how companies should assess potential benefits and costs, common market entry strategies and forms of organization, and practical corporate experiences and lessons. The program will be held Nov. 17, from 2 to 4:45 p.m. at the Madison Hilton Hotel. Registration and event information can be found at http://www.bus.wisc.edu/ciber/events/ciberevents.asp?eid=657.

Family Business Center to Explore Role of Children in a Family Business

Dr. Cindy Iannarelli of Business Cents Resources will be the keynote speaker at a program offered by the Family Business Center (FBC) on Dec. 13, “Family Business Essentials: Helping Kids Make Sense of Growing Up in a Family Business.”

The workshop focuses on the family business knowledge transfer system and how children ages 3 to 30+ learn business skills by observing, listening and watching parents and grandparents in the family business. The program will be held at the Fluno Center’s Howard Auditorium. The program is open to FBC members and sponsors at no charge. Potential FBC members may attend one program for $100 per company. Registration is required. For more information, go to http://www.uwexeced.com/fbc/programs or call 608/441-7347.

Flu Shot Clinic in Grainger Hall

Flu shot clinics for UW-Madison faculty and staff will be provided at seven campus locations Nov. 7 -Nov. 15. The clinics begin at 10 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. A flu shot clinic will be held in room 3180 Grainger Hall on November 7. For personnel with Dean Care, Physicians Plus, Group Health Cooperative, or Unity health insurance, flu shots are administered at no charge if you bring your insurance card to the clinic. If you do not bring your insurance card with you, a fee for the flu shot of $23 will be required. If you pay for the shot on-site, a receipt will be provided so you can obtain reimbursement from your health insurance provider. Please note these flu shots are not meant for spouses or children. Questions can be directed to Occupational Health Officer Tom Kenney at 263-2177.

Dean’s Open Office Hours

Dean’s Open Office Hours will be held from 3– 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9 and Thursday, Dec. 15.

About the Gazette

The next issue of the Gazette will be published Dec. 1. Please send articles for the next issue by Nov. 28 to Lari Fanlund, lfanlund@bus.wisc.edu.