Author: Alexander Sadowski


Alumni News & Notes – August 2014

UConn AlumniThe latest alumni news from UConn School of Business.

Scott D. Beggs ’94 MBA has joined Basin Street Properties as chief financial officer. Basin Street Properties, a real estate investing firm, has acquired 19 locations involving nearly a million square feet over the past two years.

Howard J. Bryerman ’75 has opened a franchise of PROSHRED®, a shredding business. Bryerman is an investment professional with 20 years of experience as a high yield bond portfolio manager and analyst. Bryerman has partnered with his wife, Simone, in their new business.

Carol Cox ’00 has been named vice president of strategy and corporate communication at NuVasive, Inc. Cox is an executive with extensive global healthcare experience in corporate strategy, investor relations, corporate communications, media relations, brand strategy and government relations.

Melissa B. Cummings ’98 MBA has joined Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island as senior vice president and chief customer officer. Cummings currently serves on the Board of Directors for the University of Connecticut Center for Healthcare and Insurance Studies.

Gregory J. Fedele ’00 MBA has been named president of Innovative Capital Holdings’ subsidiary Sabreliner Aviation. Fedele was most recently the senior vice president of customer business, helicopters and light turboprops at Rolls Royce.

Thomas M. Foran ’81 has joined Standard Insurance Company as vice president of underwriting and product development for the Employee Benefits Group. Foran joined Standard Insurance Company from Symetra where he was vice president of Group Life and Disability.

Betsey B. Gainey ’97 is the 2014 winner of Hartford Business Journal’s 40 under 40. Gainey is currently the vice president and director of client services at Cronin and Company, the largest full-service independent marketing communications agency in Connecticut.

Haiyan Grzelak ’06 EMBA has been awarded the Teacher of the Year award at the Chinese Cultural Center at Central Connecticut State University where she taught Chinese to a class of students ranging in age from 11-50.

William S. Hall ’08 MBA has been designated as a premier advisor at Wells Fargo Advisors. The Premier Advisors Program is a distinction that reflects Mr. Hall’s achievement of professional success by meeting or exceeding Wells Fargo Advisors’ high standards as measured by one or more of the firm’s criteria for revenue generation, educational attainment and client-service best practices.

Douglas J. Hammel ’89 will be joining Guilford Public Schools as principal of grades 5 and 6 at Abraham Baldwin Middle School. Hammel was previously the principal at Deans Mill Elementary School in Stonington, Connecticut.

Sarah B. Jeffrey ’14 MBA has received the prestigious Early Career Healthcare Executive Regent’s Award by the Connecticut Association of Healthcare Executives. The award recognizes Jeffrey’s contributions toward the achievement of the goals of the American College of Healthcare Executives and the advancement of healthcare management excellence. Jeffrey is currently an administrative fellow at Bristol Hospital.

Eric J. Kaplan ’90 MBA has joined Reval, the leading global provider of a comprehensive and integrated software and service solution for treasury and risk management as a solution consultant on the North America team. Kaplan has nearly 15 years of finance experience with a focus on cash management that spans senior positions at GE Capital and PepsiCo.

Sean F. Mulready ’93, ’02 MBA has been promoted to senior vice president, commercial real estate at Webster Financial. Mulready serves on the board of the Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance and on the local advisory committee of Local Initiatives Support Collaborative.

Donna A. Rosequist ’76, ’82 MBA was promoted to vice president at Segal Rogerscasey. Rosequist was most recently Director, Alpha Investment Research in Darien. Rosequist has 20 years of experience as a fiduciary and advisor on private equity research. She assists clients with the design of private equity programs including plan structure, strategy and performance monitoring.

Gary Z. Siegel ’79 has been appointed by Vision-Sciences, Inc. to vice president of finance and the company’s principal financial officer and principal accounting officer. Prior to joining Vision-Sciences, Inc. Siegel was the vice president of finance at Genta Incorporated.

Thomas Sullivan ’00 MBA was appointed as senior advisor insurance at the Federal Reserve, Board of Governors, in June. Sullivan was most recently a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hartford after serving for four years as Insurance Commissioner in Connecticut. He is a former executive at The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., where he worked for more than 20 years.

Clyde W. Tinnen ’01 MBA has been elected to special counsel at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, an international law firm. Tinnen is a partner in the Chicago and Stamford offices and focuses his practice on corporate law matters, including finance and securities law, banking and mergers and acquisitions.

Shuai Yang ’14 Ph.D. has successfully defended her dissertation titled, “Two Essays on Matching Strategy in Paid Search Advertising.” Yang has accepted an offer at Donghua University (Shanghai) and will be joining in Fall 2014.

Leslie A. Zoll ’93 has been appointed to serve on the Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants Advisory Council for the 2014-2015 activity year. Zoll is a manager for BlumShapiro in West Hartford, Connecticut and will represent the CTCPA Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee on the Advisory Council.

Alumni: Submit your career, education, marriage, and birth announcements to the Business Alumni Network.

Let us know what you’ve been up to!

alumni.business.uconn.edu.


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UConn School of Business Announces New Graduate Human Resource Management Programs

The UConn School of Business just announced two new graduate programs in Human Resource Management available to students starting this fall – the Master of Science in Human Resource Management (MSHRM) and the Advanced Business Certificate in Human Resource Management.

Following a rigorous academic review by the Management Department and subsequent approval by School of Business faculty, the programs were officially approved by the UConn Board of Trustees on June 25, 2014. Applications to the program are currently being accepted for the fall cohort.

Stemming from the former Master of Professional Studies in Human Resource Management, an online-only program previously offered by UConn’s Center for Continuing Studies, the new programs are offered by the business school in a hybrid learning format that incorporates the flexibility of online education with the interactivity and connectivity of on-campus seminars.

“Every course in the program has been updated and several new courses have been added to facilitate greater integration across the curriculum and collaborative learning among members of the cohort,” said Greg Reilly, assistant professor and academic director for UConn’s Graduate Programs in Human Resource Management.

“We are delighted to deliver opportunities for human resource professionals to expand their education through the School of Business,” said Dean John Elliott.

MSHRM Degree

The MS in Human Resource Management (MSHRM) is a 33-credit, part-time program designed for professionals seeking skills to effectively lead and manage the complexity of human resources in a dynamic global environment. The program design enables students to focus on a single course each seven-week accelerated session while completing the program in 22 months with their cohort. Each session includes two integrated Saturday Seminars at UConn’s Graduate Business Learning Center in downtown Hartford.

The Graduate Programs in HRM are built upon a foundation of comprehensive curriculum designed specifically to develop strategic HR competencies in a collaborative learning environment of high-achieving peers and accomplished faculty. The curriculum reflects the skills needed for HR leaders to be partners with senior management, including core business areas such as business acumen, risk management, metrics and analytics, negotiation and ethical leadership.

Advanced Business Certificate in Human Resource Management

The Advanced Business Certificate in Human Resource Management is a 12-credit option for students seeking a concentration or detailed study in Human Resources, either as an addition to their existing graduate studies, or as an entry to graduate business degrees. Expected completion time for the certificate is two semesters. The certificate is designed to support students who choose to transition from the certificate to the MSHRM program as well.

More information about UConn’s Graduate Programs in Human Resource Management can be found at http://hrm.business.uconn.edu or HRM@business.uconn.edu.


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UConn Executive MBAs Experience Business in South Africa

Executive MBA South AfricaEach year, a team of UConn’s Executive MBA (EMBA) students travel abroad to enrich their experience and understanding of global business issues. As part of the curriculum, the international study trip enables participants to experience firsthand how concepts and theories learned in the classroom are applied in the global arena.

The program’s latest destination was South Africa, a diverse, emerging global market that serves as the gateway to the African continent. Students returned equipped with new knowledge and insights, having visited with executives from an array of companies and industries. The business visits covered discussions on topics such as investments in the country, banking, business ownership, and various challenges and opportunities:

“Investing in South Africa: High risk or High Return?”
Mteto Nyati, Managing Director, Microsoft

“Finance and Banking in South Africa”
Carolina Reddy, Head of Distribution and Sales, Standard Bank

“Challenges and Opportunities in the South African Real Estate Industry”
David Stoll, Regional Head and Martin Kearns, Development Executive at Victoria and Albert Waterfront, both of Growth Point

“Retail Strategies for Low-Income Population”
Suzanne Ackerman-Berman, Transformation Director, Pick n Pay

“Labor Market Challenges in South Africa”
Nico Grobbelaar, Executive Director of Human Resources, Paarl Media Group

“Building a Successful Business in South Africa”
Tony Gerrans, CEO, Grotto

“The Wine Industry in South Africa”
Gary Jordan, Owner, Jordan Wines

While in South Africa, students also explored its cultural history. One of the cultural highlights was The Apartheid Museum—the first of its kind—illustrating the rise and fall of apartheid, the system of racial segregation in South Africa that blighted much of its progress for half a century. EMBA students were also able to visit Robben Island; where Nelson Mandela served his prison term for his rebellion against the Apartheid regime.

A guided tour of Johannesburg and Soweto—an urban section of the city—immersed the EMBAs in its turbulent history and diversity of people and cultures.

“Understanding the history and culture of a country in which you conduct business is critical,” said Noel Petrolati, a current EMBA student. “I knew it was important, but to see and experience South Africa’s turbulent past and to see its economic development was enlightening,” she said.


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Real Estate Professor Admitted to U.S. Supreme Court

UConn Center of Real Estate and Urban Economic StudiesA professor at the UConn Center for Real Estate and Urban Economic Studies was recently admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court. Attorney Lucy Michaud, whose areas of expertise are real estate and business law, has been working with the real estate center at the School of Business as asst. ext. professor and a liaison to the Department of Consumer Protection.

Michaud was among 14 attorneys invited to apply for the special designation by the Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, International (P.A.D.). The accepted group was inducted to the Supreme Court of the United States in a ceremonial ritual on June 2, as part of the 48th annual P.A.D. Day held in Washington, D.C.

Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, International is the largest co-ed professional law fraternity in the United States. Justices Samuel Anthony AlitoStephen G. BreyerRuth Bader GinsburgElena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor are all P.A.D. members. Following the swearing-in ceremony, Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor visited with the group to individually meet the inductees.

Pictured: Lucy Michaud (front, right) and P.A.D. members pose with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (front, center).


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Research Study by Professor Bill Ross Finds Charitable Giving Hinges on Perception of ‘Worthiness’

Charities assisting people perceived as responsible for their plight may have a difficult time attracting donations, says a new study.

With more than $200 billion donated to causes each year in the United States alone, consumers are inundated with donation requests from charities supporting an array of recipients. Contrary to the idea that people who fit the profile of “givers” are uniformly charitable, their donations may be based on information or preconceived notions about the beneficiaries.

“As consumers have limited financial resources to allocate to charitable giving, they may evaluate how ‘deserving’ the recipients are before making donations,” according to William T. Ross, Jr., ING Global chair and professor of marketing at University of Connecticut and the paper’s co-author. “It’s not only the characteristics of the giver that determine their likelihood of donating, but of characteristics they perceive in the recipient.”

The finding contradicts previous studies that have focused on characteristics of people with the option to give suggesting an important boundary particularly among the most charitable—those defined as having a strong moral identity.
Ross was part of a team of researchers led by Saerom Lee, a doctoral student, and Karen Page Winterich, assisting professor of marketing at the Pennsylvania State University. Their findings are published in the latest Journal of Consumer Research.

The team looked at the responses of 600 participants studied in four scenarios.

In one, researchers examined the response of participants who were given an amount of cash to donate to a real nonprofit organization, the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers.

Participants were asked to choose between donating to medical patients described alternately as having a low-level of responsibility for their situations and those having a high-level of responsibility. The recipients were described either as unable to pay for medical treatment because of “low-wage jobs with poor benefits due to economic conditions” or unable to pay for treatment because of inability “to hold a steady job due to their drug and alcohol abuse or gambling addiction.”

The findings indicate that charitable organizations marketing their causes need to be cautious when describing the beneficiaries that they support, particularly if the recipient could be perceived as responsible for their plight and, by extension, undeserving.

According to the researchers, even when charities do not specifically highlight the responsibility of their recipients, consumers tend to assign their own preconceived notions about beneficiaries in stigmatized groups. For example, the plight of the homeless or drug addicts is often attributed to their own behaviors.

The study was funded by a Smeal Small Research Grant from the Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University and is based on the dissertation by author Saerom Lee, which was the winner or the 2013 Society for Consumer Psychology Dissertation Proposal Competition.


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Strong Corporate Support for Students in UConn Stamford’s New Financial Management Major

The UConn School of Business is proud to announce a premier group of financial institutions supporting the School’s new undergraduate Financial Management major in Stamford.

The Financial Management major was designed and developed, in part, by CFA charterholders from prominent local hedge funds and investment firms. The major has been accepted into the CFA Institute’s University Recognition Program and stands to serve as inspiration to a program intent on helping cultivate a young generation of future CFA charterholders. The CFA credential has become one of the most globally respected designations and the Financial Management major, along with those selected within this program to join the Investment Management Program (IMP), will be exposed to academic and practical applications in finance coupled with reinforcement of strong ethical behavior.

“Through a progressive relationship with the CFA Society of Stamford, students who excel in the Financial Management major will be invited to join an exclusive Investment Management Program (IMP), which, among other benefits, provides access to a wide array of tools and research from financial institutions like Barclays, CreditSights, and Atlantic Asset Management,” said Jud Saviskas, executive director for the UConn School of Business in Stamford. “This innovative relationship encourages and facilitates an exchange of ideas, networking opportunities and career development for aspiring investment professionals – and it’s already received outside interest from many other colleges and universities.”

Last year, a group of IMP students travelled to Wall Street for a visit to several institutions such as Barclays, Bloomberg, and CreditSights. As program supporters, these companies allow students and faculty complimentary access to their client web portals such as, Barclays Live, which provides a range of research and financial analytics tools, and CreditSights’ online global research platform and an analytical staff of almost 80 investment professionals.

“Barclay’s and CreditSights’ web portals are an excellent tool for IMP students as they undertake the challenges of the program and the pursuit of the CFA Level I exam,” said Michael Dineen, senior vice president of Atlantic Asset Management and UConn adjunct professor.

Thomas Walsh, managing director at Barclays added that the collaboration with IMP is just one example of the importance the bank places on developing an early foundation of ethical investment knowledge. “The most successful students will be those who develop the skill sets they need to be productive and innovative members of the next generation’s workforce,” Walsh said. “We are delighted to be able to make Barclays Live available to IMP students and hope that they will derive significant benefit from these new resources.”

“We have had the pleasure to meet a number of IMP students, and they are coming into the space during interesting times in the evolution of the credit markets,” said Glenn Reynolds, CEO of CreditSights. “We hope the background information from prior credit cycles and our analysis of the structural shifts taking place today – most notably in banking and finance – can be of value as they prepare themselves for the role they can play in the markets. Credit has grown dramatically in all areas of the global economy from sovereign to corporate to household, and there are a lot of moving parts to the puzzle.”

Barclays
Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in personal banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth and investment management, with an extensive international presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Barclays has long been recognized as a leader in not only fundamental equity and credit research but also technical and quantitative analysis. Their research, analytics and market-leading benchmark and tradable strategy indices are widely used by clients and the markets.

CreditSights
Founded by a group of analysts in September 2000, CreditSights is an independent research firm offering a range of fundamental research products, quantitative risk models, and ratings services that are used by clients making investment and risk management decisions. CreditSights does not underwrite securities or manage assets and has grown from 8 employees in 2000 to over 115 currently. The company has its main operations in New York, London, and Singapore.

Atlantic Asset Management
Atlantic Asset Management has been an independent registered investment advisor for over 20 years, focusing on institutional fixed-income and asset allocation strategies; and for 15 years, has run an investment manager “sponsorship” program, where promising emerging managers focusing on niche market segments have received seeding and infrastructure support to help grow their businesses.


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Experience a Top Ten Business Law Program!

Bloomberg Businessweek has named the UConn Business Law program as one of the top ten programs in the U.S.

This ranking is based on survey responses from graduating seniors regarding their learning experiences in Business Law classes. Members of the Business Law faculty have repeatedly earned national recognition from their peers for their teaching methods and classroom mastery.Continue Reading


Students Engaged in Academic Leadership (SEAL) Cultivates Academic Success, Professional Development

SEALHasudin Pehratovic ’15 (BUS) says that the SEAL program has taught him to, “Never take anything for granted and always give back.” And if that’s not enough, the accounting major adds that the program has helped him with everything from questions of dining etiquette—’The bread plate goes on the upper left, the water glass on the upper right,’ he says with a smile—to introducing him to key UConn faculty and administrators as he explores career opportunities in his chosen field.

Pehratovic, who was born in Bosnia and came to Connecticut with his family in 2000, is one of 21 juniors and 13 sophomores who make up the first two cohorts enrolled in Students Engaged in Academic Leadership (SEAL), developed through UConn’s Office of Diversity.

Aimed at students who are the first in their families to attend college, admission to SEAL is through a competitive application process offered to first semester sophomores. Those accepted stay in the program from the second semester of their sophomore year through their senior year providing they maintain GPA requirements and are actively engaged in required activities. During this time, they receive stipends of approximately $500 per semester as they are exposed to networking and mentoring opportunities, internships, and organized team-building exercises.

Jeffrey Ogbar, vice provost for diversity, explains the genesis of the program at UConn this way: “The University does a great job of providing support for various groups of students: The Honors Program, Leadership Legacy through the Office of Student Activities, opportunities such as Upward Bound, Upward Bound-STEM, and McNair Scholars, that are federally-sponsored initiatives for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. We reach out to a wide variety of students.”

“But we found we were missing an important group – and that’s students who are the first in their families to attend college. This group, which we refer to informally as First Gen, has a disproportionately high dropout rate, particularly between their sophomore and junior years. We wanted to do something positive to reverse that trend.”

Ogbar explains that this is not a situation unique to UConn. Although overall our graduation rates are significantly better than the national average—with an 83% six year retention rate—on a national level only 26% of First Gen students graduate with a bachelor’s degree within eight years.

Reasons given for a high attrition rate include the fact that these individuals may lack a support system that includes parents who have experienced college and who support the idea of higher education. These students tend to be older with additional work and family responsibilities. And in some cases they come from a lower socio-economic status which makes paying for higher education more difficult.

“UConn’s SEAL program is aimed exclusively at first generation college students regardless of their race, ethnicity, or economic status,” says Ogbar. “As long as applicants have a GPA of at least 2.5 and are committed to developing their leadership and academic skills, they are welcome to apply.”

Kelly Sanchez ’15 (CLAS) and Shantel Honeyghan ’15 (CLAS), both members of the first cohort chosen last year, agree with Pehratovic that SEAL has provided a variety of important opportunities.

A native of Jamaica who lives in Hartford, Honeyghan was first introduced to UConn through the Teacher Preparatory Studies Program at Bulkeley High School. This initiative, which partners high schools with the Neag School of Education, is designed to encourage talented students, particularly from minority groups, to become teachers.

She says, “When I first came to UConn I thought I wanted to major in education because I had so many positive experiences with faculty from Neag when I was in high school. But, somehow I wasn’t confident in my choice. I took a close look at myself and evaluated my interests and now I have a double major in English and Human Development & Family Studies. I’ve decided that I want to get a master’s degree—and eventually a Ph.D.—in higher education and student affairs.

“Part of my decision is the example set by Dr. Ogbar, by Dr. Price in the African-American Cultural Center, and by others I’ve met through SEAL and my exposure to leadership activities. Diversity and multi-culturalism are very important to me and I hope I can give back by eventually working in an office of diversity initiatives or an office of civic engagement.”

Like her peers in the program, Sanchez who hails from New Haven, gives SEAL high marks for exposing her to leadership opportunities and introducing her to individuals on campus who serve as mentors and role models.

“I knew from the time I was in high school that I wanted to major in psychology and when I went for my interview [for the SEAL program] I met Michelle Williams and she has been a wonderful mentor for me – being there when I need her and encouraging me to every step of the way. What I didn’t anticipate was how much I would be inspired by Professor [Guillermo] Irizarry‘s course in Puerto Rican & Latin American studies. As a result, I now have a double major in Psychology and Latin American Studies and I hope, someday, to work as a clinical psychologist.

Williams, associate vice president for research and associate professor in the Department of Psychology, and Irizarry, associate professor of Literatures, Cultures & Language, are examples of the types of relationships forged between students and campus leaders envisioned by Ogbar and SEAL program administrator Seanice DeShields, director of diversity initiatives in the School of Business.

“We’re really encouraged by the progress of this program,” says DeShields. “We have only lost one student so far—and that’s because of a transfer to another school—and the collective GPA of students in the program is over 3.3 and on the rise. We’re really excited about the future and the number of First Gen students who will be graduating from UConn in years to come.”

SEAL is currently funded by a five-year grant from the Coca-Cola Foundation.

Pictured: Jeffrey Ogbar, vice provost for diversity, left, Shantel Honeyghan ’15 (CLAS), and Hasudin Pehratovic ’15 (BUS). (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)


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IBM Partners with UConn, Other Institutions to Prepare Students for Big Data Jobs

IBM

4.4 million jobs will be created worldwide to support big data by 2015, according to a Gartner press release on key issues facing the IT industry.

To prepare students for big data careers, the UConn School of Business offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs in business analytics that focus on data management, analytics, and using emerging technologies to better manage financial risk and other business needs.Continue Reading


2014 Outstanding Ph.D. Student Scholar Award

We are pleased to announce the winner of the 2014 UConn School of Business Outstanding Ph.D. Program-wide Student Scholar Award.

The purpose of the program-wide award is to recognize a Ph.D. Student Scholar in the School of Business, regardless of stage in the doctoral program, for outstanding scholarly performance.

The award is determined by department nomination and vote by the department faculty coordinators and academic director.

From a group of highly-deserving doctoral student nominations from each department, the recipient of the 2014 Program-wide Outstanding Ph.D. Student Scholar Award is:

Management – Margaret Luciano

Luciano will be entering her fifth year in the Management concentration of the doctoral program in Fall 2014 at the dissertation phase.

Please join us in congratulating Margaret for her scholarly excellence.