During his extensive career with GE, Denis Nayden ’76, ’77 MBA (second from right) frequently came to speak on campus, often flying in on the company’s helicopter. With Denis are the School’s former director of MBA career services, Pat Mochel (far left) and Dick Kochanek, former associate dean and accounting professor (far right). (UConn School of Business)
Finance Chief, Philanthropist, Innovator Denis J. Nayden is a Husky Through-and-Through
A year after Denis J. Nayden ’76, ’77 MBA, graduated from UConn, he was visiting his parents in the Annapolis, Md.,-area, and attended a function at the U.S. Naval Academy.
“My father introduced me to the commandant and said, ‘This is my son, Denis, and he just graduated from UConn,'” Nayden recalled. Apparently, the commandant was only familiar with the other Yukon.
“Congratulations, son!,” the commadant replied. “I didn’t know Alaska had a university.”Continue Reading
School of Business Welcomes 10 New Professors, Each ‘Well Chosen’
View of UConn School of Business (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)
During the first faculty meeting of the new semester, Dean John A. Elliott formally welcomed 10 new faculty members to the UConn School of Business.
“The group is a mix of tenure track, in-residence and visiting professors. They range widely in experience, but each is well chosen,” he said. “Our students, our research mission, and our role in advancing the success of our corporate partners, and the state, will all be well served by their engagement.”Continue Reading
Westport Daily Voice – The state will do more to help women to break into non-traditional areas of employment, such as engineering, science and math, Gov. Dannel Malloy promised in a speech in Stamford.
Stamford Advocate – To hear Joanna Coles tell it, any discussion about women’s entrepreneurship is inextricably linked to broader issues of women in the workplace and all the facets that go into a story of success or struggle: work-life balance, fair compensation, effective communication and assertiveness..
Connecticut Magazine – Women helping and inspiring other women—that is the crux of the Women Entrepreneurs Empowerment Forum, which will take place at the UConn Stamford Campus on Friday, Sept. 18. It will be a day full of networking opportunities, informative workshops and a keynote talk for women entrepreneurs in Connecticut and Greater New York.
ctpost.com – The founders of Sea Green Organics know that many people like a healthy lawn, but are increasingly wary of using chemicals to get there. For a natural alternative, they’ve taken to the sea.
UConn Today – Nearly 4 billion pounds of carpet are discarded every year in the U.S. Now, researchers from the UConn School of Engineering and School of Business are working together to figure out a way to make good use of all that waste.
The University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering and the Institute of Materials Science have received a $435,000 research grant to develop products made from particle board containing recycled carpeting. Approximately $100,000 will be apportioned to the UConn School of Business to perform an economic and market analysis for these new products, which are targeted to the construction industry.
Richard Parness, Ph.D., a UConn faculty member in the Polymer Program of Institute of Material Sciences will develop and test the products, in conjunction with colleagues Ioulia Valla and George Bollas. Parness has tremendous expertise in this field, having patented other particle board while at UConn.
The grant is sponsored by the Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), whose purpose is to develop market-based solutions for recycling and reusing post-consumer carpet. In 2013, some 3.7 billion pounds of carpeting was sent to landfills. Since then, CARE members have been successful in diverting more than 3.25 billion pounds of carpeting from landfills in the U.S., according to Robert Peoples, Ph.D., and CARE executive director. Because of its complex fabric and chemical makeup, recycling of carpet is particularly complex.
The UConn School of Business marketing analysis will be carried out by graduate students in the Stamford Learning Accelerator (SLA), said Brian Brady, SLA Director and co-investigator of the grant. “MBA students will be assessing the market opportunity for these new products, and will help identify optimal target customers and develop a pricing- and distribution- strategy. We are excited about the potential of patented particle board products incorporating post-consumer carpeting as one solution in aiding the sustainability efforts of CARE.”
The research will begin this summer and will take approximately a year.
“The fact that UConn was selected for this project is exciting,” Brady said. “This grant is substantial, and represents a cross-disciplinary effort between the School of Business and the School of Engineering and is a further example of the ongoing collaboration between both. We are excited to work with CARE, Dr. Parnas and his colleagues on this project in hopes that UConn’s efforts can help play a role in improving our environment and local communities.”
Executives from NBC Sports and Olympics in Stamford met recently with over 80 UConn students at the UConn School of Business Stamford Learning Accelerator (SLA). The event was video streamed live from Stamford to the School of Business Cafe in Storrs, where students at that campus were able to simultaneously participate and pose questions to the NBC Sports team.
NBC Sports kicked off the event showing video highlights from its award winning Sports and Olympics programming. Next, Emanuel Adjekum, Manager Diversity & Pipeline Programs at NBC Sports Group, led a presentation on joining NBC Sports for a number of full-time positions and internships, including internship opportunities for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Students were also able to participate with a panel of NBC Sports executives represented by Eric Hamilton, Senior Broadband Producer, Nathan Suh, Director Business of Development and Michael Benjamin, Production Associate. The panel spoke of their experiences at NBC Sports and Olympics, discussed their own career paths and enthusiastically answered students’ questions from both Stamford and Storrs.
After the presentation, all panelists were available for further discussions and students were encouraged to personally bring up their resumes to Mr. Adjekum for upcoming internships and employment opportunities. A long line of students, resumes in hand, were delighted to do so.
The event was arranged by Brian Brady, Director of the Stamford Learning Accelerator, along with Halina Holloway and Celeste Baran from the UConn Stamford Career Center, in cooperation with Kathy Hendrickson at the School of Business Career Center in Storrs. Live streaming was made possible with support from Jeremy Pollack, Director of IT for the School of Business, James Simon, Director of IT for the School of Business Stamford campus, and Matt Proulx and Ian Hollis from UConn Stamford’s Technology Services.
