This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 3, Issue 2 (Spring 2013)

As the Ph.D. Program at UConn’s School of Business reflects on its first 25 years, the question arises; what qualifies an exceptional doctoral program? Program accolades include 164 dissertations (from five academic departments) and 154 academic first placements. This year students presented 43 original works at conferences and 9 articles were accepted for publication.

 

Kate Brown

Dr. Kathleen (Kate) Brown ’89 Ph.D. is the first graduate of UConn’s Ph.D. Program. Her interest in the Ph.D. program began in Professor Dick Norgarrd‘s MBA class. “Dick was always finding a mathematics, statistics or economics course I could take while I waited for the Ph.D. Program to become official; and no one thought it would take that long!” Many of Kate’s classes were independent studies because there were few doctoral students and no Ph.D. seminars.

Kate was interested in finance but discovered her dissertation model from material covered in a marketing seminar with Dr. Murphy Sewall. After her defense, Kate was hired at the University of Otago, New Zealand where she held positions of Senior Lecturer and Chair of Finance. About her career she said, “Our profession requires that we have quality educators at every institution that grant degrees. I’m incredibly proud of the impact I have in the classroom, it’s my vocation.”

The Ph.D. Program welcomed Kate’s first return to UConn during the 25th Anniversary in November 2012. As an alum she participated in an interactive forum with doctoral students and found the variety among our students impressive. “I have been able to write in several different areas because I was exposed to so many techniques in my classes,” Kate said.

1989 Dissertation: “A Model Of The Pricing Decision For Local Telecommunications”, Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Richard L. Norgaard

 

Hang Thu Nguyen

Current doctoral student and 2013 Business Hall of Fame inductee, Hang Thu Nguyen ’08 MA (’13 Ph.D. expected), will  defend in May. “Hang is an excellent researcher who will be a productive scholar for years to come,” said Hang’s dissertation chair, William Ross. Hang has several ongoing projects that include a publication in the premier Journal of Marketing Research with Susan Spiggle and Mary Caravella, and research in progress with Marketing Professors Robin Coulter, William Ross, Joseph Pancras, Kunter Gunasti, and Finance Professor Joseph Golec and alumnus Hieu Phan ’06 MBA, ’12 Ph.D. In the fall Hang will begin a tenure-track position at Michigan State University, teaching New Product Innovation and Management. Hang commented, “I am thrilled about this opportunity. Michigan State focuses on strategic marketing research which perfectly fits with my research interests.” Hang and husband Hieu Phan hope their future generations will return to UConn for their degrees. Hang recalls, “the business school allows doctoral students to do original research, and I wanted a chance to explore the world of consumers as related to marketing. In the beginning I only thought about research, but now I have more than that; research skills, teaching experience, and personal growth.”

May 2013 Dissertation: “Three Essays On The Financial Impacts of Branding Strategies and Marketing Assets”, Dissertation Advisor: Dr. William T. Ross, Jr.

This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 3, Issue 2 (Spring 2013)

1970

Thomas O. Barnes ’78 MBA has been appointed to Our Piece of the Pie, Inc.’s Champions Council.

Alan J. Cicchetti ’76 MBA has been appointed to director of agency relations by Lenders Compliance Group as well as the executive director of Brokers Compliance Group.

Carolyne I. Gatesy ’79 MBA has been honored by the Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce as its Businessperson of the
Year.

Thomas J. Mango ’79 joined the Commercial Banking team of Simsbury Bank as a commercial relationship manager.

Lauralee E. Martin ’79 MBA has been appointed to chief executive officer, Americas at Jones Lange LaSalle.

John G. Salek ’74 delivered a session on cash flow to the Entrepreneurship Boot Camp for Veterans with Disabilities in Hartford in September 2012.

 

1980

David L. Albrycht ’89 MBA has been named president and chief investment officer at Newfleet Asset Management LLC.

Gary Fisher ’80 MBA has been appointed to executive vice president of marketing
for residential products of Beaulieu Group.

Stewart R. Joslin, Jr. ’89 has been named chief financial officer at Wheeler Clinic.

Paul H. Kauffman ’84 has been appointed as a managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle in its Stamford office.

Peter H. Lewis ’83, ’88 MBA has been appointed to chief financial officer of Nabsys, Inc.

Wayne F. Patenaude ’82 has been appointed as president and chief executive officer of Cambridge Savings Bank and Cambridge Financial Group, Inc.

Christine F. Purcell ’88 MBA has been named the first female rector at Christ Church in Westerly, Rhode Island.

James P. Towey, Jr. ’87, ’96 EMBA has been hired at Onset Computer Corporation, Inc. as the director of engineering.

 

1990

Roberta A. Anderson ’92 MBA has been appointed to senior vice president of private banking at People’s United Bank.

Brian T. Davin ’90 MBA has been elected to the Board of Education in Morris, New Jersey.

Dean P. Freeman ’91 has been appointed to executive vice president and chief financial officer at Watts Water Technologies.

Andrew L. Glassman ’90 has been named vice president of operations finance at CSX Corporation.

C. Douglas Johnson ’92 MBA is the first faculty member to receive all four faculty excellence awards at Georgia Gwinnett College.

Mary Jane Karwoski ’92 MBA was named vice president of human resources at Books-A-Million, Inc. Books-A-Million, Inc. is one of the leading book retailers in the nation.

Sean M. O’Connor ’92, ’00 MBA has been appointed to be the director of marketing at Software Marketing Associates.

Frank Mancini Jr. ’90 has been named president and chief executive officer of Connex Credit Union.

Stephen T. Surprenant ’98 MBA has been named vice president, Mission Integration, at Saint Francis Care.

Rick C. Welker ’92 MBA has been appointed to acting chief financial officer at Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc.

 

2000

The Honorable Antonietta Boucher ’02 MBA has been elected chief deputy minority leader for the Connecticut Republican Caucus.

Jordan Cohen Coe ’06 MBA has been named in Connecticut Magazines “Top 40 Under 40 Class of 2013″.

Matthew J. DiGeronimo ’06 MBA has begun hosting a weekly radio show, “The Smith Floyd Water Cooler” which broadcasts on Wall Street Network.

James F. Leddy ’03 MBA has been appointed to the position of senior vice president and treasurer of JetBlue Airways Corp.

George D. Noewatne, Jr. ’02 MBA has been promoted to director of public works and engineering in Cheshire, Connecticut.

2010

Wes Poole ’10 EMBA has been appointed as the northeast TAM services practice manager for VMware, Inc.

Lt. Col. Michael J. Zacchea ’12 MBA served as the grand marshal of the 13th Connecticut Veterans Parade held in Hartford.

 

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This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 3, Issue 2 (Spring 2013)

Risk management gains growing interest

At the forefront of risk management education, the University of Connecticut School of Business introduced its first annual Risk Management Conference last fall, attracting over 160 participants including over 100 corporate attendees.

The conference, Risk Management: New Challenges and Opportunities, was organized by the Master of Science in Financial Risk Management (MSFRM) program and sponsored by several multinational corporations in the greater Stamford and Hartford, Connecticut areas. David Fourqurean, Senior Vice President and Operational Risk Manager at Wells Fargo, participated in the conference as both an attendee and a panelist.

“Based on the discussions we had that day, I believe it was one of the most valuable conferences I’ve attended in recent years,” says Fourqurean. “While similar events target a narrow slice of industry participants, the Challenges and Opportunities conference promoted a well-rounded dialog by providing a forum across industry, government, and academia. I particularly appreciated the fresh insights provided by the students,” he adds.

The conference agenda emphasized the common forces affecting a wide range of institutions, including banking, insurance, and investment management, as well as regulators, industrial firms and accounting/consulting firms. Topics included:

• Measuring and Managing ERM Effectiveness
• New Perspectives on Risk Appetite and Hedging Policies
• Moving Towards a More Integrated Approach to Risk Management
• Risk Management from a Legal/Regulatory Perspective
• Risk Management: Advancing Stakeholder Mandates. What are the implications and practical application in insurance, banking, and asset management?
• Emerging Risks – Identifying and Managing Over-the-Horizon Risk Events.

“These are topics that you don’t see in books, partly because the industry has so recently become increasingly relevant, and partly because these are the stories and experiences that you can only truly understand from people who have gone through a crisis first-hand and learned from it,” explains Rodrigo Toledo ’13 MSFRM, a current graduate student who attended the event. He particularly enjoyed the variety of topics and noted a high level of interaction between professors, practitioners and students: “It was a wonderful forum to learn from each other,” he says.

Setting the stage for the conference, Frank Minerva ’01 MBA, Managing Director and COO of UBS bank, delivered the welcoming address, presenting the audience with a discussion on preparing for unexpected risks, such as Hurricane Sandy.

Keynote speaker James B. Comey, Jr. shared with the crowd his many experiences as the former Deputy Attorney General of the United States, and currently as the General Counsel at Bridgewater Associates. In his current position, Mr Comey oversees the legal, compliance, and security departments.

The next risk management conference shows great promise for once again bringing together financial and accounting professionals, faculty and graduate students to discuss key issues and challenges in risk management. The conference is best suited for those working in the financial/regulatory sectors, in a financial position, or anyone who is part of the accounting or consulting communities which deal with risk management.

MSFRM: Practical Focus

One of the newer graduate programs at the School of Business, the MS in Financial Risk Management (MSFRM) has placed emphasis on the growing needs of the business community. “In putting the degree program together, we took input from corporations and listened to what was of interest to them. What they told us was that we needed to keep the program focused on the practical, not the theoretical,” says Jud Saviskas, Executive Director for the School of Business at UConn Stamford.

Students are in agreement with the importance of practical experience. Rodrigo Toledo researched risk management programs at other universities but found UConn to be unique: “Risk Management is a very young profession so there are only a few schools that offer this type of program, and I found many of them to be very theoretical. The MSFRM [at UConn] incorporates interaction with professionals. That is one of the most important aspects of the program,” he says.

Kashif Ali, ’13 MSFRM, a Fulbright scholar from Pakistan, agrees. “I transferred from a very academic program in Nebraska. UConn is faster-paced and everyone has industry experience, from the professors to speakers in the classroom.” As part of their course requirements, students work on company-sponsored team projects and interact with guest speakers from organizations such as IBM, UBS, GE Capital, the Connecticut State Controller’s Office, the City of Hartford, and Atlantic Asset Management.

In addition to guest speakers during class, the MSFRM program offers optional pre-class dinner discussions, providing a friendly, PowerPoint-free environment for open discussion and Q&A. The initiative has brought in a broad range of key executives from RBS, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Country Risk Solutions, GE Energy Financial Services, and The Hartford, with one or two topics as the focus for each meeting. “One of our pre-class dinner discussions featured a professional with over forty years in the financial industry,” says Toledo. “It was completely amazing.”

With enrollment increasing each year since its inception, the MSFRM program now operates as a two-cohort system in Stamford and Hartford. With Hartford’s insurance and manufacturing industries demanding preparation for operational risk leadership roles, and Stamford’s financial sector requiring skills as they pertain to investment risk, the program is tailored to industry needs in each location. Distance learning technology has helped facilitate interaction between cohorts for courses that overlap, with a class physically taught at Stamford one week and virtually projected to the Hartford cohort, and vice versa the following week.

The MSFRM program has attracted a range of students, from recent graduates to professionals with as many as twenty-five years of risk management experience, though nearly all have some financial background. With approximately half of the students from countries across the globe including Canada, Chile, China, India, Oman, Pakistan, Turkey, and Vietnam, the program has a strong international presence.

Working in the commercial banking industry in Chile, Toledo wanted to study in the United States to learn about bigger financial markets, improve his knowledge, and seek new opportunities. “I was very surprised at how open the professors and directors are to everyone, asking for feedback from students and immediately open to new ideas,” he says.

Toledo is grateful for the support for international students as well: “There are so many opportunities to interact with other students and learn about other cultures from our peers. For instance, we had a party to celebrate the Chinese New Year.” Despite the distance, there is occasional opportunity for the Stamford and Hartford cohorts to interact—both groups found time among their work and studies to attend a women’s basketball game in Storrs.

Commenting on his transition as an international student, Ali shares a similar sentiment: “I feel like family here. We socialize and know what we want to do, so all of us are helping each other to get ahead.”