External media mentions
UConn Foundation – UConn has certainly seen big changes over the past 58 years, but at least one thing remains constant: Lawrence Handler ’67 (BUS) just keeps giving back. Handler made his first philanthropic gift in 1968 and as he says, “there’s been no reason to stop.”
In honor of National Philanthropy Month, Handler recently answered some questions about what inspires him to stay involved with his beloved University.
UConn Magazine – Working as the head of an investment management firm for 19 years, Steve Wilson found himself frustrated by the gender disparity he saw in the field. He wanted to hire women as investment professionals but struggled to find enough who were trained and qualified.
“I realized that colleges weren’t preparing enough women to enter the field,” Wilson explains. “I think it was a combination of a lack of awareness of career opportunities and perhaps, to some degree, self-selection — with too many fully qualified women thinking ‘I’m not good enough, so I’m not going to try’ or ‘It’s a hostile space, so why would I put myself out there?’”
Poets and Quants – The success of any MBA program makeover is in how quickly the new program establishes itself. By this measure, the restructuring at the University of Connecticut School of Business has been fantastically — perhaps even unprecedentedly — successful.
UConn shuttered its traditional two-year MBA in 2021 and redirected its resources into two 42-credit programs: a new 100% Online MBA and a part-time Flex MBA, the latter a hybrid program available in Hartford, Stamford, and online.
UConn Today – Any company that strives to be profitable and successful needs to include women and other diverse representatives in its leadership. Yet even in the most forward-focused organizations, women may still face obstacles to inclusion.
Sameer Somal, a tech entrepreneur and the co-founder of Girl Power Talk and Girl Power USA, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping you women become leaders in business and society, will share his experiences and perspective on empowering women during the next Equity Now presentation on Nov. 19. The event is sponsored by School of Business.
Wallethub – Reward credit cards are best suited for consumers that can readily take advantage of the benefits offered by card membership. Most travel, hotel, and other like vendors offer rewards programs to consumers with points or other benefits that just sit in accounts until they can be used, or worse yet, expire. For airlines, the best rewards are free or upgraded travel on that airline. If the airline does not provide regular service to locations frequented by those business travelers, it may be hard to justify membership in that club. If membership is free with no obligations, then it membership doesn’t really matter.
UConn Today – OPIM professor Wei Chen, a champion of Connecticut companies learning to integrate generative AI into their businesses, has received a prestigious, national early-career award.
UConn Today – Business student Emily Laput ’26 (CLAS) created her own marketing and consulting firm when she was in high school. That impressed interviewers at NBC Universal in New York City, and helped her capture a coveted summer internship.
Across the city, recent alum Peter Spinelli ’24 (BUS, CLAS), is working as a production intern at ABC News. He is passionate about increasing the percentage of Gen Z adults who watch TV news.
UConn Today – Wells Fargo has partnered with the University of Connecticut’s Center for Neurodiversity & Employment Innovation to introduce free neurodiversity workshops for corporate America. The new workshops, an academic and corporate collaboration, aim to provide instruction to key leaders from Fortune 500 companies to help design neurodiversity initiatives end-to-end.
UConn Today – The School of Business’ 2024-25 Equity Now Speaker Series will kickoff this month with a presentation by Lauren Cleary, an ethics and compliance professional at Patagonia, the popular outdoor equipment and apparel brand.
