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School of Business featured news

Dan Toscano ’87

Posted on by Claire Hall

School of Business Alumnus Chairs UConn Foundation Board; ‘Let’s Be the Best… That’s What it Means to Come to UConn’

When alumnus Dan Toscano ’87 talks about the need for more scholarships to help UConn students, he speaks from the heart.

“I had some very discouraging moments when I was a student here and the tuition was due and I didn’t quite have it pulled together yet,” he recalled during a recent interview. “My wife, Tresa, and I had to fight to get through college financially. I remember those days vividly. I don’t want to see anyone else go through that.”Continue Reading

Reverse Stress Testing

Posted on by Claire Hall

Finance Professor Wins Best Paper Award for Creating Insightful, Novel Method of Risk Assessment

Finance professor Yaacov Kopeliovich and his RiXtrema research team colleagues have won the 2015 Peter L. Bernstein Award for Best Paper for their work titled, “Robust Risk Estimation and Hedging: A Reverse Stress Testing Approach.”

The article originally appeared in the Journal of Derivatives in May 2015. It was selected by a three-person review committee and was chosen from a pool of nominations from 11 top financial journals. The judges looked for an original or new approach to the field or subject of study; surprising and/or insightful results or implications; and both practical and academic relevance.Continue Reading

I Thought We’d Never Be Able to Do It

Posted on by Claire Hall
2015 CIBER Case Challenge Participants
Participants in the 2015 CIBER International Case Competition pose in front of the Jonathan the Husky statue on the UConn Storrs campus.
(Quian Callender/UConn School of Business)

Students from Different States, Nations Collaborate to Solve Real-World Problem during UConn’s CIBER Challenge

“I thought we’d never be able to do it,” UConn marketing major Stacia Smart recalls thinking when she heard that she and a team of other college students, all strangers, would have just 24 hours to solve a vexing sustainability problem for a major corporation.

Not only did Smart and her “Quadruple Threat” team develop a possible solution, including a new product idea for Unilever, but they took second-place in the UConn CIBER International Case Challenge this fall.Continue Reading

Professor Timothy Folta Leads Corporate Strategy Conference in France

Posted on by Claire Hall
Tim Folta (Courtesy of University of Strasbourg)
Tim Folta (Courtesy of University of Strasbourg)

When does it make sense for corporations to expand by adding additional products or businesses to their portfolio?

The topic was the subject of a three-day international conference last month in Strasbourg, France, titled, “Corporate Strategy and Resource Redeployment,” which was organized by UConn Management Professor Timothy B. Folta.Continue Reading

Distinguished Fellow Award

Posted on by Claire Hall
Professor Ram Gopal
Professor Ram Gopal, recipient of the Information Systems Society’s Distinguished Fellow Award (Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business)

Professor Ram D. Gopal Noted for Intellectual Leadership, Stewardship, Impactful Research

Professor and OPIM Department Head Ram D. Gopal has received the prestigious Information Systems Society’s Distinguished Fellow Award, recognizing his intellectual leadership, stewardship and impactful research.

“This is like winning the ‘Nobel Prize’ for information systems,” said Gopal, beaming after collecting his award on Nov. 2 at a conference in Philadelphia.Continue Reading

Four Internships, Three Research Jobs, and Two Majors

Posted on by Grace Merritt
Katie Cavanaugh
Katie Cavanaugh (Christine Buckley/UConn CLAS)

Scholarship Allows Student to Stretch Academically

Katie Cavanaugh ’17 only just started her junior year, but she has already done four internships and held three research positions. Oh, and she’s double majoring in political science and management information systems.

Cavanaugh has never held back academically. She is grateful for the scholarships she has gotten from UConn because they have allowed her to stretch.

“What the scholarships say to me is ‘we want you to focus 100 percent on yourself as a student and, really, as a professional,'” she says.

Continue Reading

The $5 Challenge

Posted on by Claire Galvin

Aspiring Entrepreneurs Use Money to Make Money

In his “Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship” course, management professor Timothy Folta gave student groups $5 and told them to use it as start-up cash for a new business. The project was designed to spur creativity around new business ideas.

Students had one week to brainstorm ideas, but once they received the cash, they had only two hours to make as much money as possible.

Interestingly, the group that made the most money did not even use the start-up funds.Continue Reading

Attention to Detail

Posted on by Claire Hall

Medical Sales

UConn Professor Asks: Would Reducing Pharmaceutical Sales Calls to Physicians Help, or Harm, Patients?

When a pharmaceutical company sends a representative to your doctor’s office to promote a new or existing medication, is that a benefit to you as a patient? Would restricting those visits bring greater fairness to the pharmaceutical industry—or prevent your doctor from being well-informed about treatment options?Continue Reading