The UConn Chapter of Net Impact and the Honors in Business Association are co-sponsoring an informational program titled, “Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability in Business,” at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Dodd Center’s Konover Auditorium.
The panel discussion will be of great interest to students who envision merging their careers with their passion for social improvement. Continue Reading
The 7th Annual School of Business Undergraduate Networking Skills Forum on Sept. 24 gave freshmen from the University’s Business Connections Learning Community (BCLC) the opportunity to meet and mingle with Connecticut business leaders, many of them UConn alumni.
Some 40 business people spent time encouraging the 87 freshmen, and sharing career advice, insight and suggestions about how to make a good first impression.
“Our alumni said they were very impressed,” said Fran Graham, manager of alumni relations for the School of Business. “They also commented that the students didn’t appear to be nervous, and that they were surprised that incoming freshmen could be so poised.”
“This is my second year attending this event and it is one of my favorites,” said Kirstin Ferreira ’12, a business analyst at Cigna. “I am heavily involved in the UConn Recruiting team for Cigna’s Technology Early Career Development Program (TECDP). I think it is incredibly important to teach these kinds of skills as early as possible, as I know the impact of a first impression.
“I got to where I am with the support of UConn’s Career Services department, and I want to do what I can to continue to help students find opportunities,” said Ferreira. “I was so impressed with the students, from their sharp attire to their career aspirations.”
Alyssa Kafka ’11, a business and technology senior analyst at Accenture, agreed.
“I come to the undergraduate networking forum because I know how intimidating it is to speak with professionals,” she said. “At any stage of your career, there’s always going to be someone more senior than you. And the more practice you have, the more comfortable and prepared you will be to speak to them. It’s my job as an alumna to help UConn business students find success and best represent our school. After all, I’m proud to call myself a Husky and I want them to be too!”
Among the pointers that the mentors offered included: encouraging students to make eye contact, present a firm handshake, wear comfortable shoes and, in some cases, be a bit less formal, Graham said.
—photos by Aileen Tobin
Push yourself out of your comfort zone, don’t be afraid of spreadsheets, never let your professional network grow cold, and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t succeed.
That was some of the advice that close to 400 women entrepreneurs and executives heard during the second annual, sold-out, Connecticut Celebrates Women Entrepreneurs conference Sept. 19 at the UConn Stamford campus. Continue Reading
The UConn chapter of the National Association of Women MBAs is sponsoring a program titled, “Using Business School to Catapult Your Career,” at 6 p.m. Sept. 30 at the UConn School of Business’ Graduate Learning Center, 100 Constitution Plaza, Hartford.
Guest speaker is Nicole Lindsay ’96, an award-winning author of “The MBA Slingshot for Women,” director of leadership and development at the ZOOM Foundation, and founder of DiversityMBAPrep.com.
Lindsay describes herself as a “fanatical advocate” of MBA and graduate-management education. In her career, she has supported more than 1,000 pre-MBA and MBA students, mainly women and minorities, in their application process and subsequent careers. She said the application process can be overwhelming. Fourteen years after completing her business degree, Lindsay said she is still discouraged that the number of women and minorities in MBA programs has not significantly increased.
The keynote presentation and question and answer session will be at 6 p.m., followed by a networking program at 7 p.m. For additional information or to register, please contact Amanda Spada at aspada@business.uconn.edu or call (860) 486-5498.
Lindsay earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from UConn, her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and her MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
She began her career in corporate- and community development- finance before becoming associate director of admissions and student affairs at the Yale School of Management, where she oversaw minority and women admissions and diversity student affairs. She later worked at Goldman Sachs, managing MBA recruiting initiatives at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and other prominent business programs. She later worked at Management Leadership for Tomorrow, in various roles including director of the MBA Prep program and as vice president of talent development. She then served as the founding executive director of New York Needs You (NYNY) and now is the director of leadership development for a family foundation in Connecticut.
Tuesday Sep 30, 6:00-8:00, GBLC Hartford
A great opportunity to meet some of our current MBAs and gain some insights on the value of business school.
“Using Business School to Catapult Your Career”
Tuesday, Sep 30, 2014, 6:00-8:00
UConn School of Business
Graduate Buiness Learning Center
Sponsored by NAWMBA
Register Here
The UConn School of Business will offer an executive education program this fall titled, “Finance for Non-financial Managers.”
The two-day, professional development program is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. October 23 and 24 at the UConn Graduate Business Learning Center, 100 Constitution Plaza, Hartford.
The program is designed to enable mid- to senior-level business managers to better understand and interpret their company’s financial status, thereby offering depth of insight to make sound company financial decisions.
“Finance for Non-financial Managers” provides the essential elements of finance and accounting, whereby participants will learn about different financial principles, including value creation and value drivers, revenue and expense recognition concepts, ratio analysis, financial statement analysis, time value of money and capital budgeting and project evaluation.
In addition, the workshop will enable the participant to understand and interpret the major financial statements of the firm and to assess how the firm is creating value for its stockholders. Interactive exercises, based on nine public companies, across several industries, will be used to apply these concepts.
The program instructor is Robert Hoskin, associate professor emeritus of the Accounting Department at UConn. Hoskin is a leading expert and consultant in insurance and banking accounting, and an award-winning teacher. He was on the faculty at the UConn School of Business for 27 years and during that time directed executive programs. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Cornell University.
Register now! For more information please call (860) 728-2400 or email execed@business.uconn.edu.
The School is also offering Hands-on Lean Business Process Improvement program November 6-7. Registration for this program will open shortly.
Build a strong skill set, distinguish yourself from your peers, and be a productive, likeable, and forward-thinking employee, said Melinda Brown, ’77, ’85 MBA.
Brown, the senior vice president and corporate controller of Coach Inc., a $5 billion company, directed her remarks to UConn’s graduate business students during an alumni-student networking event Aug. 21 at the Society Room in Hartford.
Brown earned her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the School of Business in 1977 and her MBA from UConn in 1985. She is on the Board of Directors for the UConn Foundation, and in 2012 was inducted into the School of Business Hall of Fame. After 29 years as a top executive with PepsiCo, she joined Coach two years ago.
Since she earned her MBA, Brown said, the world has accelerated at a rapid rate. While functional excellence is still important, today it is vital to spot converging trends, she said. To her parents, owning a microwave and TV was innovation. For today’s students she predicts they will someday be vacationing off the Earth.
“Today everything is feasible, everything is one moment away,” she said. “The next innovation is right around the corner.”
She urged the students to take advantage of every opportunity as they pursue their degrees.
“You can’t afford to come here to punch your ‘MBA ticket’ and become functionally literate and grab your diploma. This is a journey to learn both facts and ways of thinking and operating and well, frankly, about how to confront what you can’t even yet articulate. Those are the areas to explore, to dig into.
“The things that scare you the most are often the most rewarding. Develop your frameworks and paradigms, focus on creativity, EQ, collaboration and leadership—stretch yourself in ways you may have not previously contemplated. This is a safe place to practice being the next version and the next version and the next version of you.”
More than ever, organizations are seeking “design thinkers,” who can identify problems at their root cause. These are the people who will make the world a different place.
“I have one cell phone, two iPads and two computers. But if you asked me when I purchased my first Gateway computer in 1995, I would have told you that I thought it would be doubtful that any home needed more than one computer, let alone one person having multiple personal devices. The designers of all my mobile devices uncovered what I really needed, not what I told them I thought I needed. Henry Ford got it right—he said, “If I asked my customer what he wanted, he would have said, ‘A faster horse.'”
As her remarks drew to a close, she told the 150 graduate students that their future was certain to be exciting—and unprecedented.
“I know you’re going to get a wonderful education,” she told the students, “and I hope you’re ready for exponential times.”
Pictured: Mario Flores of New Britain, Alia Mahmood of North Haven, and Nicole Segretta of Bristol, all graduate business students at the University of Connecticut School of Business, speak with John A. Elliott, dean of the School of Business, and Melinda Brown, senior vice president and corporate controller at Coach Inc., during a student-alumni networking event on August 21 at the Society Room in Hartford.
Stamford, Conn. – Connecticut’s second annual statewide conference celebrating and supporting women entrepreneurs* will be held Friday, September 19, 2014, at 8:30 a.m., at UConn’s Stamford campus. Similar to last year, this event is sure to sell out and keynote speakers include: Continue Reading
The UConn School of Business is proud to introduce its inaugural class for the Graduate Programs in HR Management. 24 students have been admitted into the MS HRM program, and five students in the ABC HRM certificate program. The MS HRM students will be joining our HRM team in Hartford on Friday and Saturday, August 22-23, for our in-residence program kickoff. The weekend will consist of special guest speakers, including Dean John Elliott, industry speakers, and program faculty that also serves as the launch for the cornerstone course, Business Acumen and Strategic Human Resource Management. Greg Reilly, Academic Director of the Graduate Programs in HRM, will be leading the event. Other special guests include Susan Spiggle, Chair of the Management Department; Peter Diplock, Assistant Vice Provost for eCampus; and Suresh Nair, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies for the School of Business.
The SC2 Hartford Challenge is a US EDA grant-funded program offered through the President’s Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) initiative. The SC2 Challenge is an opportunity to create an economic development strategy and actionable plan—one that includes game changing policy, infrastructure and programming—to drive positive change for Hartford and impact revitalization efforts for other cities. Hartford’s goal is to become internationally known as the city where entrepreneurs come to start and stay to grow their businesses.
The City is calling for the formation of qualified teams by July 24thto submit their proposals. The top three proposals will share $100,000 in prize money. The top six teams will each be tasked with developing detailed, actionable economic development plans. These six teams will share $800,000 in EDA-funded prizes. The top prize is $500,000. UConn’s School of Business is honored to be a member of the review panel.
If you would like more information, please contact Stephen Cole at the Hartford Economic Development Division at COLES001@hartford.gov or 860-757-9071. Please note: SC2 Hartford registration closes July 24th, and proposals are due September 22nd. Learn more at hartford.sc2prize.com/