“In a lightning-fast economy, universities must constantly adapt to the shifting job market by adding and subtracting courses, instructors and professional degrees, all while maintaining budget. Over the past several years, The University of Connecticut in Stamford has been responding to the job market by expanding its business school programs and strengthening its ties with the business community…
UConn Business School Executive Director Jud Saviskas said there’s been a definitive growth in the college and the business community plays a big role in providing direct input into that growth. Three new business programs have emerged in just four years
Four years ago, the business school launched a master’s degree program in financial risk management. Last fall, it started an undergraduate financial management program.
The one-year graduate program in financial risk management, which is offered in both the Hartford and Stamford campuses, grew from 23 students total in 2010 to 86 students [in Fall 2012]. The enrollment number is expected to reach 140 this fall.”
The full article from insurancenewsnet.com, written by Crystal Kang (May 19, 2014) may be found here.
The online MS in Accounting Program held its four day in-residence class, Acct 5505, from May 19-22, welcoming 100 new students to UConn. One highlight from the week was a session called “Steering the Profession,” which included a presentation by Jeremie Richer of the FASB about the FASB’s role in the accounting profession. Joining Jeremie in the workshop were Mark Zampino from the CT Society of CPAs, and Sonia Worrell Asare and Stephanie Sheff from the CT State Board of Accountancy. They provided an overview of how their state-based organizations can help accountants in their work. In addition, they discussed the requirements for continuing professional education for Connecticut, pointing out that each state has its own requirements.
A big thank you to Jeremie, Mark, Sonia, and Stephanie for their time and expertise.
Stamford, Conn. – The Connecticut Office of Higher Education / State Approving Agency has approved project management certification training for veterans and other eligible U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs beneficiaries at UConn’s Stamford campus, effective immediately.
University of Connecticut’s School of Business and their component for non-credit programs, Connecticut Information Technology Institute (CITI), have been authorized to provide project management certification training under the provisions of Title 38 Section 3675, United States Code of Federal Regulation for Veterans program.
The Project Management Institute (PMI)® has designated CITI as a “Global Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.)” This signifies that CITI has met PMI’s rigorous standards of quality curriculum and instruction for project management training.
CITI’s project management curriculum includes certification training programs for project practitioners of all education and skill levels. The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® is a good entry-level certification for those who are new to project management. The Project Management Professional (PMP)® is the most important globally-recognized and independently validated credential for experienced project managers.
Course offerings related to these and other credentials are offered at CITI on a monthly basis. Research studies have proven that project management certifications can positively impact project manager salaries, and help them stand out to prospective employers in the marketplace.
All of CITI’s Project Management Courses are approved for Professional Development Units, as well Education Development Units.
Each year, the International Business Society participates in an annual corporate visit to gain access to, tour, and learn more in-depth about a particular company. This spring, the society’s trip was to Thomson Reuters in Times Square, New York.
Thomson Reuters was chosen because of its high level of interaction in the international business world. The company serves a global customer base as the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals.
“The students met with Benjamin Goodband, VP of Investor Relations, and learned about Thomson Reuters’ business structure, company culture, and methods for product development,” said Kelly Kennedy, career coach and instructor at the School of Business Career Center.
The students also received an in-depth introduction to one of Thomson Reuters’ products and a demonstration of how it impacts business decisions in real-time.
“Exposure to Thomson Reuters has given us a fresh, in-depth perspective on how international business is conducted in this ever-evolving business environment,” said Courtney Hong, one of the students who participated in the tour.
Students interested in joining the International Business Society can reach out to uconnibs@gmail.com.
Companies who may wish to host a visit from some of our best and brightest business school students are encouraged to contact Kelly Kennedy at kelly.kennedy@business.uconn.edu.
Pictured: Students Caroline Warren, Patience Bearse, Sarah Biedermann, Dana Cho, Courtney Hong, Erica Hanner, and Kelly Kennedy from the Business Career Center.
Dean John Elliott and Associate Deans Sulin Ba, Larry Gramling, and George Plesko recognized employees for their years of service to the University and the State of Connecticut on Friday, May 2, 2014. The Employee Recognition Reception was held in the School of Business Board Room.
The MsFRM program now allows domestic students both full-time and part-time options. The course sequence under the full time option is as follows:
Full-Time Option
Fall I – 2 courses
Spring I – 3 courses
Summer I – 3 courses
Fall II – take 3 courses
Total – 11 courses (33 credits)
Graduation in the December of following year.
All course are lock-step and must be taken in sequence
Part-Time Option
Under the part-time option, students are allowed the maximum possible flexibility to take as many or few courses as they wish every semester. However, courses are still lock-step and part-time students must wait until the course is offered again next academic year.
A suggested sequence of courses for part-time students is as follows:
Fall I – 2 courses
Spring I – any 2 courses (should take Fin Modeling II)
Summer I – any 2 courses (should take Fin Modeling III)
Fall II – 3 courses
Spring II – 1 remaining course from Spring I
Summer II – 1 remaining course from Summer I
Total – 11 courses (33 credits)
Graduation in the May of second year.
All course are lock-step and must be taken in sequence
Under the above Part Time scheme, part-time students will graduate in May of second year.
However, the program allows the students the maximum possible flexibility to choose as many or few courses as the part-time student wishes, subject to the following caveats:
Domestic students will be allowed to take as many (not exceeding 3) or as few (including not taking any course) courses they choose during each semester.
All domestic students are strongly advised to take at least one course each semester.
All domestic students are strongly advised to take the Financial Modeling course sequence before they take the Financial Risk Management sequence, to the extent possible.
Domestic students must finish the experiential learning project with the group to which he/she is assigned.
All domestic students are strongly advised to finish the program within 2 years.
All domestic students must finish the program (33 credits for the 15 month, 42 credits for the 20-month program) within 3 years from starting the program.
***Important – Students need to take a certain number of credits to be eligible for financial aid and to not have to repay loans. Students should be careful about their funding availability if they choose to take less credits per semester. Students are responsible to check with Financial Aid Office regarding this issue.
The part-time option is available to all domestic students with immediate effect, meaning current domestic students can take advantage of this change from this summer. Please also note that the current students choosing the part-time option will have to wait until next year when the same courses will be offered again, unless the course sequence is changed in which case they will be informed immediately.
This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 4, Issue 4 (Spring 2014)
For alumnus Christopher Lafond ’87 (CLAS), service to community goes hand-in-glove with philanthropy, and he demonstrates both through a new named scholarship fund for students studying at the Stamford campus, where he is also an active volunteer.
Lafond, the CFO and executive vice president of Gartner, Inc., a leading information technology research and advisory company based in Stamford, is a common sight on UConn’s regional campus. He serves on the advisory board for the MS in Financial Risk Management (MSFRM) degree program, regularly speaks to business classes and is helping with programs in the undergraduate marketing department.
“I have a pretty clear perspective, and I’ve chosen to spend my time volunteering in a few areas, mainly around education. Everyone deserves a great education like I had, and if you don’t build a strong, educated foundation in life, it’s very difficult to get ahead.”
He first became involved with the campus when the University reached out to him with an invitation to serve on the MSFRM advisory board, a step that he sees bringing benefits to both the University and the business community in Stamford.
“We have almost 700 employees here; this is local and close to home for us. When we looked to partner with educational institutions, we quickly realized ‘Hey, there’s a great University right here in Stamford.’ It just works for everyone involved.”
Lafond started a financial development rotation program within Gartner, exposing Stamford MBA students to a variety of financial service areas, as well as taxes, business intelligence and more. He says, though, that he especially enjoys personally sharing his business experience with classes of students.
“One of the best experiences for me is making education real,” he says. “I’ll get a question like, ‘Chris, I’m studying this business situation; how would you handle it?’ and I’m able to take the theoretical and turn it into applied practice. I just get a great deal of satisfaction out of it. It takes so little of my time and means so much.”
Lafond soon decided to make a major philanthropic gift to his alma mater, and the decision to create an endowed scholarship for business students at the regional campus was an easy one.
“I know from my involvement at UConn Stamford that there are a lot of students who may not be able to go to Storrs for family or personal reasons. But I want them to look back at their time at UConn and say, ‘I had a great education right here in Stamford.’ And I want to make sure that my gift provides ongoing support, not something that goes away after a one-year period. It will be there for years, helping many students.”
He sees countless opportunities for alumni like him to make UConn stronger through volunteering or philanthropy.
“There are literally endless ways to give back, whether to UConn or whatever else you care about in life. It doesn’t have to be money! If you take an hour of your life and spend it with students, you’ll get the most amazing feedback, and you’ll feel that you’re really making a huge impact in someone’s life. When I am at UConn, I know that I’m helping those students graduate with knowledge they didn’t have before, which will help them in their own careers. So, alumni have an opportunity every day to add value to even their own education. It’s a little thing we can do to help a student that makes a big difference.”
He says that just like the impact of educating students, he wants his philanthropy to pay dividends in life for those who receive the scholarship support.
“I would hope that my scholarship allows some students to have opportunity they otherwise would not,” he says. “If I can help even a single student, that would be such a great thing to accomplish.”
This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 4, Issue 2 (Spring 2014)
No one can dispute the vital role that doctors, nurses and other medical specialists play in the functioning of a hospital.
But insiders know that the reliability of the transportation team—that takes people to the operating room, the birthing center, or to their waiting cars—is also vital to a hospital’s success.
At Middlesex Hospital, the transport team has increased its case load from 500- to 1,400- trips per week, not by adding staff but by creating efficiencies, according to Gary Havican, vice president of operations.
“That’s one of the changes that has helped us decrease the average patient length-of-stay by one day,” said Havican. And that’s making everyone happy—from patients to physicians to health insurers.
Middlesex is always looking for ways to improve customer service and efficiency, and to that end Havican enrolled in a two-day, Hands-On Lean Business Process Improvement workshop at UConn’s Graduate Business Learning Center in downtown Hartford.
Some 15 participants from various industries, including healthcare, insurance/financial services, creative services and higher education, took part in the inaugural “open enrollment” Lean Business seminar offered by the business school’s Executive Education program.
“Lean Business Processing is particularly important for Connecticut companies where the cost of doing business is one of the highest in the country,” said Colleen McGuire, director of UConn’s School of Business in Hartford.
Once the domain primarily of manufacturing companies, the Lean concept is growing in popularity among other sectors eager to streamline business processes, reduce waste and improve customer satisfaction.
Companies today are facing enormous challenges as they fight to remain competitive and survive, said David A. Burn, Ph.D., an adjunct instructor at UConn who taught the course. The workshop gave participants a “road map” and simple tools to improve business processes by eliminating waste and improving services to enhance value for customers and stakeholders, said Burn, who also works as chief statistician and Six Sigma Fellow in corporate operations with Boston Scientific Corporation.
“We aren’t offering any one-size-fits-all solutions,” he said. “But this is a guide that does work.”
Ann Swanson, director of project management at Prudential, attended the program with three colleagues. “I enjoyed this course because it was hands-on,” she said. “I’m leaving with ideas that I can use right away.”
Swanson said she enjoyed an exercise in which the participants were required to organize a radiology department and were presented with confusing and incomplete information.
“I think that’s typical of what happens in companies when tasks become ‘siloed’,” she said. One of the important messages that Burn emphasized was that employees need to share knowledge and not rely solely on one specialist to address a particular issue.
Peggy Thomsen, business analysis manager for CIGNA, said the class was very helpful. Managing her company’s IT department is like running a small business, she said. She is returning to the insurance giant with new techniques to improve consistency across all areas of the department.
Alicia Huckle, director of financial services for UConn’s West Hartford campus, said she’s eager to try new ideas that will improve work flow. “We all want the same thing, which is a better experience for our students,” she added.
“This is something any business can use,” said Vikki Hampton, assistant director of loan programs in the Office of Student Financial Aid Services at UConn in Storrs. “Across many industries, people are looking to do more with less.”
The School of Business plans to offer the Lean Business program again in the fall, as well as other short-term classes, including Finance for Non-financial Managers, to meet the needs of the business community.
For more information on Executive Education courses or customized programs, please see our website at execed.business.uconn.edu or call 860-728-2400.
This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 4, Issue 2 (Spring 2014)
When a teenage boy asked if he could buy a World Wrestling Entertainment t-shirt, then-CEO Linda McMahon came up with a quick response.
“Not yet,” she told him. His question helped launch the WWE’s highly profitable consumer products division, adding toys, books, video games and apparel to the growth of what was already a global empire.
“Be open to new ideas, no matter where they come from,” McMahon advised almost 200 people who attended a “CEO Evolution” roundtable discussion on UConn’s Stamford campus.
“Treat every day like it’s your first day on the job. Look at things with fresh eyes,” said McMahon, who grew her company from 13 employees to more than 700. “Don’t do something just because it’s the way it’s always been done.”
Co-sponsored by the UConn School of Business; Citrin Cooperman, an accounting, tax and consulting firm with an office in Norwalk; and the Fairfield County Business Journal, the CEO Evolution program was held on the Stamford campus in January.
The event tapped the expertise of four executives whose companies are among the most successful in Connecticut—and beyond. Coming from industries as diverse as healthcare, technology, service and entertainment, a common theme involved recruiting and hiring outstanding employees.
Dr. John Votto ’73 (CLAS), CEO of the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain, said the key to running a successful organization is finding the right people and trusting them to do what is best.
“So often in today’s hectic work environment we lose sight of that one very simple thing,” said Votto, who has overseen a $65 million hospital expansion and the development of programs enhancing the physical rehabilitation, respiratory care and medically complex pediatric programs.
“It’s not uncommon for successful workplaces to have their fair share of inflated egos, so I’m very up-front with my employees: I respect you, I believe in you—but no one is irreplaceable. You should always be working your hardest and striving to secure your job.”
The idea for the panel discussion originated with Mark Fagan, the Connecticut managing partner of Citrin Cooperman and the author of a popular series of CEO advice columns titled “The CEO Evolution” published in the Fairfield County Business Journal.
“A CEO’s ability to manage effectively is probably the most important factor in driving a company’s growth,” Fagan said. Too often the top executive gets mired in petty details.
“One common thread expressed by each panelist was the need to identify talent and enable talent, which ultimately allows the CEO to devote the majority of his or her time to looking toward the future and determining where the company is going,” Fagan said. “That enables the CEO to concentrate on developing the next product or brainstorming the next acquisition.”
Jud Saviskas, executive director of the UConn School of Business in Stamford, said the executives’ honest and insightful answers made for an informative evening.
“What CEO, or future CEO, wouldn’t relish the chance to spend two hours learning the strategies, challenges, missteps, opportunities, ideas, and wisdom of four incredibly successful business owners?” Saviskas said.
“All four panelists were fascinating. And because they represented industries as diverse as healthcare and entertainment, they gave comments that you might not expect,” he said. “Each one stressed the importance of hiring great talent. I think that was the biggest take-away message.”
Paul Senecal, president of United Services of America, a $35 million cleaning and maintenance company based in Bridgeport, said an organization’s mission needs to be clear. “We are not in the cleaning business to make money,” he said. “We are in the cleaning business to have clean buildings, because if we do, our valued customers will allow us to make a reasonable profit.”
Running one of the largest commercial cleaning companies in the Northeast, Senecal discussed the challenges of managing 1,700 employees, dispersed in different locations.
Mark L. Fagan, Managing Partner of Citrin Cooperman’s Connecticut office, moderates the inaugural CEO Evolution roundtable.
The culture of his organization is one in which all employees share the same goals, objectives and vision, he said. “We tell each other, and most importantly ourselves, the truth, and conduct ourselves in the same manner as we want to be treated,” Senecal said.
Panelist Austin McChord is the founder and CEO of Datto Inc. of Norwalk, whose company offers data backup service for disaster recovery and business continuity. In 2013, the company marked its fourth year of 300 percent annual growth and has received industry recognition for excellence and technical support. The audience was intrigued when McChord, 28, explained that he recently turned down a $150 million buy-out offer because he believes he hasn’t yet maximized the company’s potential.
After the program, McMahon noted that only 22 women are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, indicating that many talented people could benefit from others who can “light the path” to the corner office. “We get no benefit keeping what we’ve learned to ourselves,” she said. “The wisdom we developed over years—or in my case, decades—of experience can be relevant to just about any entrepreneur.”
The CEO Evolution program was so successful that Saviskas said he expects it to become an annual event. “It fits well with the School of Business’ mission,” he said, “not only to educate future business leaders but to also provide learning and networking opportunities for the existing business community.”
This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 4, Issue 2 (Spring 2014)
Faculty & Staff
Sudip Bhattacharjee, associate professor of OPIM, was invited to serve as a member of the 2014 Selects Committee for the premiere INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and Operations Research held March 30.
Assistant Professor Paul Borochin and Professor Joseph Golec, both of the finance department, presented “Using Options to Measure the Full Value-Effect of an Event: Application to the Healthcare Reform Act” to the University community on February 7. Continue Reading
For alumnus Christopher Lafond ’87 (CLAS), service to community goes hand-in-glove with philanthropy, and he demonstrates both through a new named scholarship fund for students studying at the Stamford campus, where he is also an active volunteer.
When a teenage boy asked if he could buy a World Wrestling Entertainment t-shirt, then-CEO Linda McMahon came up with a quick response.
Co-sponsored by the UConn School of Business; Citrin Cooperman, an accounting, tax and consulting firm with an office in Norwalk; and the Fairfield County Business Journal, the CEO Evolution program was held on the Stamford campus in January.
