The holiday season provides a good opportunity for busy executives and students, alike, to catch up on some of the best books of the year. We asked prominent Connecticut business leaders and members of our UConn faculty what business-focused book they would most highly recommend from 2021. Here are their selections:
Author: Claire Hall
After Attending UN Climate Conference, Business Major Is Hopeful that Companies, Climate Activists Can Successfully Collaborate

Management major Duygu Ozcan was among 14 UConn students selected to attend the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference, nicknamed COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, last month.
With access to the conference’s prestigious Blue Zone, where key negotiations between world leaders take place, Ozcan said the experience heightened her professional and personal interests in the intersection of business and sustainability.Continue Reading
Business Graduate Students ‘Turned on the Jets,’ Topped Nearly 500 Teams to Win Bloomberg’s First Global Trading Challenge
UConn Today – A team of Stamford-based UConn business graduate students won the highly competitive 2021 Bloomberg Global Trading Challenge, topping almost 500 teams from around the world.
The winning team credited its success to a professor’s advice to make smart and bold decisions, an investment strategy that identified underdog companies that were responding to market demands, and their UConn education that prepared them for thorough assessments of prospective investments.
UConn SPAC Conference Will Address the Hottest Topic in Financial Markets

The UConn School of Business will host a half-day conference on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), which are seeing a dramatic spike in interest in the financial and investment communities this year.
“This is the topic of the year in the financial markets,” said Professor Yiming Qian, the Toscano Family Chair in Finance at UConn. “SPAC is not new, but was not popular until last year. Before 2020, the annual numbers of SPAC IPOs were in one or two digits. In 2020, however, the number jumped to 248 (compared to 165 traditional IPOs). The number for 2021 already exceeded 500.” Continue Reading
With Help From UConn, Alumna Hayley Segar Dives Into Women’s Swimwear Industry
Retired Professor Offers $100K Matching Gift to Save Veterans’ Entrepreneurship Program
UConn Today – United States Marine Corps veteran Tony Audette builds custom motorcycles for celebrities, business titans, and other enthusiasts who want a bike that’s unlike any other. His exclusive motorcycles sell for upwards of $130,000.
After two years in business, Audette Motorcycles, in Canton, is thriving. Audette credits much of his business knowledge and expertise to the School of Business’ Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV). The startup accelerator steered him away from several costly business mistakes, he said.
Business Leadership Series: Retired Coast Guard Admiral Says Respect Must be Earned
Q&A: A Tax on Billionaires’ Assets?
UConn Today – If President Joe Biden’s proposed multi-trillion dollar economic and climate package can get Congressional approval, one key factor hangs in the balance: how to pay for it. One option is a “wealth tax’’ that would be levied on the assets of billionaires.
UConn accounting professor Steve Utke studies the implications of tax changes. He recently spoke with UConn Today about his work.
UConn Senior’s Baseball-Training Device Scores a Grand Slam, Wins Wolff Prize for Entrepreneurship
Startup Strives to Simplify Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Reduce Toxic Waste
UConn Today – Did you know that the prescription you picked up at the pharmacy likely once contained a host of toxic materials that were used as a catalyst for its creation?
Don’t panic. In the development process, the toxins are stripped from the medication, and the FDA has stringent guidelines ensuring its safety.
But UConn chemistry professors Eugene Pinkhassik, Sergey Dergunov, and Ph.D. candidate Kevin Rivera have an innovation that they believe can offer a better, safer, less expensive, and more environmentally sound alternative.