Simon Welcomes Dean Andrew Ainslie

Transcription

SIMON
SIMON BUSINESS SCHOOL/UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
BUSINESS
Simon Welcomes
Dean Andrew
Ainslie
Simon’s new dean sits down
and shares his thoughts
on the top challenges
and opportunities facing
our School.
Fall 2014
Sights at Simon
Starting the Year
with Building Teams
On Saturday, August 9, nearly 400
new Simon students attended Orientation activities and information sessions.
Designed to help students prepare for
the expectations and demands of Simon’s
MBA and MS programs, Orientation also
provides early networking opportunities
and a chance for new students to meet
their classmates. Above: Mikayla Hart, Felipe
Vasconcelos, Dolores Adams, Joseph Jean,
and Xinran “Helen” Wang work together in a
team-building exercise designed to foster
strategy and cooperation. Left: Students
practice their problem-solving skills and
work together to build a structure according to an existing design. s
DERON BERKHOF
Contents Fall 2014
3
Dean’s Corner
Search Committee Member
Janice Willett Shares Her
Thoughts on Dean Ainslie
4
Upfront
Simon Receives Nearly
$5M in Major Gifts
Commencement 2014
Simon Installs Three
Named Professors
NYC Conference Examines
Disruption, Innovation
Goettler Named
Senior Associate Dean
Executive MBA Program
Evolving
Simon Partners with UBS to
Offer Wealth Management
Master’s in Switzerland
Simon in the News
28
Research Highlights
Competition, Innovation,
and the Inverted U
Are Successful
Entrepreneurs Just Lucky?
Online Reviews
Prove Trustworthy
Looking at Liquidity
Before Litigation
32
Alumni Leaders
Jason Aymerich
’10S (MBA)
President of Software and
Print Solutions, Complemar
Joan Lavis ’83S (MBA)
CFO, BrightLine
Susan Gardner ’91S (MBA)
Senior Vice President,
Financial Planning and
Analysis, Constellation
Brands
Philip Fraher ’93S (MBA)
CEO, FuelQuest
36
Alumni News
Class Notes
Mergers & Acquisitions
LEWIS KASSEL (ISRAEL PHOTO)
12
Innovative Israel
Earlier this year, Simon students were part of a groundbreaking trip
to Israel to study how the relatively small country has become a
global startup superpower. This was no archeological dig. What these
students were studying is really rather new. By Itay Hod
Simon students explore
Israel’s emerging
startup economy
and some of its most
ancient places.
20
A Q&A with Dean Andrew Ainslie
In early July, Simon Business School welcomed Andrew Ainslie as
its seventh dean. In his first Q&A with Simon Business, Dean Ainslie
talks about what brought him to Simon and why taking the helm
seemed like a natural fit. Interview by Jim Ver Steeg
26
Recalling Lessons with George Cook
When General Motors CEO Mary Barra was in the Senate hearing
hotseat, the national media turned its spotlight on executive professor
George Cook for expert analysis and his own unique brand of
industry insight. By Jim Ver Steeg
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Simon Business ◾ Fall 2014 1
SCHOLARSHIP SUPPORT
Your legacy is their future.
When you make a gift to Simon Business
School, you open a world of opportunities for
tomorrow’s business leaders.
SIMON
BUSINESS
Vol. 28, No. 2/Fall 2014
PUBLISHER
Keir P. Meisner
Executive Director of Marketing and Communications
EDITOR IN CHIEF
For more information on how you can open
doors for smart, dedicated, and deserving
students, visit:
www.simon.rochester.edu/giving
James A. Ver Steeg
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Itay Hod, Andrea Holland, Charla Stevens Kucko,
Sally Parker, Joy Underhill, and Janice Willett
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Steve Boerner Typography & Design Inc.
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Kimberly Flynn
COPY EDITING
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PHOTOGRAPHY
Roman Balashov, Edward Bensen, Deron Berkhof,
James L. Canessa, Adam Fenster, Kimberly Flynn,
Lewis Kassel, Yi Li, Caitlin Maeder, Jenna Schlags, John
Smillie, Ria Tafani, Shannon Taggart, and Andrew Trout
COVER PHOTOGRAPHY
John Smillie
SIMON ALUMNI NEWS/CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Kimberly Flynn, Kate Gruschow ’11S (MS),
and Kelly Rains
Dominic Rasini ’14S (MBA)
Simon Leadership Fellow
Simon Business, Vol. 28, No. 2, ISSN 1077-5323
Published twice a year by the University of Rochester, William
E. Simon School of Business, 2-341 Carol G. Simon Hall, Box
270100, Rochester, New York 14627-0100.
Office of Marketing and Communications: (585) 275-3736
(phone), (585) 275-9331 (fax), marketing@simon.rochester.edu
Postmaster: Send address changes to the Simon Business
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© 2014 William E. Simon School of Business,
University of Rochester
MC14-15-02
Dean’s Corner
Ainslie Selection Balances Strategy and Tradition
A number of very
qualified and
highly regarded
candidates threw
their hats in the
ring, but Dean
Andrew Ainslie
stood apart from
the rest.
BY JANICE WILLETT
The search for a new dean at the Simon Business
School presented an opportunity to find someone
who could take the School to the next level. Simon
has a proud tradition of both pioneering research
and a rigorous, economics-based approach to
management education. Under Dean Mark Zupan’s
leadership, the School built a solid foundation of
strong alumni engagement, innovative one-year
programs, and a sustainable endowment draw—
along with job placement rates, student satisfaction scores, and entering-class statistics that are
all moving in the right direction. We were looking
for someone who would respect our traditions and
build on that foundation, but who would also take
a hard look at where we could do better—and be a
change agent.
University President Joel Seligman understood
the strategic importance of Simon’s next leader
and opted to chair the selection committee himself, in addition to appointing a special committee of alumni to assist in the process. A number
of very qualified candidates from highly regarded
schools expressed interest in the position, which is
a tribute to the continued strength and reputation
of Chicago after starting there at the age of 34, no
small feat. He brings leadership experience in an
unusual mix of areas—the military, the corporate
world, and graduate business education. He had
a solid reputation as an academic before moving
to the administrative side. He shares our respect
for the workings of markets and a reliance on hard
data analysis as the best basis for sound decisions.
He appreciates the distinctiveness of Simon’s approach to business education—and particularly its
reliance on economics—in a world where business
education has become somewhat conformist.
Speaking with Andrew Ainslie is like speaking
with any of our faculty or alums. He immediately
identifies and engages in the issues, he doesn’t
mince words, and he is quantitative, data-driven,
and empirical. He emphasizes long-term strategic
success over short-term performance “blips.” He
has a great regard for our faculty and its reputation
for intellectual rigor, and the value of the research
mission. He understands how a strong faculty can
boost a school’s ranking—and vice versa—and will
work to attract and retain a world-class faculty.
While head of the MBA program at UCLA-
Speaking with Andrew Ainslie is like speaking with
any of our faculty or alums. He immediately identifies
and engages in the issues. . . . He shares our respect for
the workings of markets and a reliance on hard data
as the best basis for sound decisions.
of the School. (As Peter Simon, for whose father
the School is named, often says, “It’s a gem of a
school.”) The search committee whittled the list
down to a handful of finalist candidates, at which
point the alumni committee was brought in to
meet and evaluate them.
My fellow alumni committee members were
Mark Ain, Ron Fielding, Evans Lam, Mike Ryan,
Peter Simon, and Colleen Wegman—all savvy,
hard-core supporters of the School. I can speak
for the committee in saying that Andrew Ainslie
captured our interest immediately by virtue of the
breadth of his strengths. His academic credentials
include a degree in electrical engineering and an
MBA—as well as a PhD in marketing and statistics,
which he earned in four years from the University
Anderson, Ainslie identified career placement as
a key differentiator and worked hard to improve
both the placement center itself and the marketability of the students—and to link admissions and
placement more closely together.
We are fortunate to have found someone with
Dean Ainslie’s intellectual training and leadership
skills. He’s Simon tough—and we are excited to
welcome him to the Simon community. s
Guest contributor for the Fall 2014 Dean’s Corner
message is Janice M. Willett ’78S (MBA). Willett
is the Simon Campaign chair, and a member of the
Simon Business School National Council and the
University of Rochester Board of Trustees.
Upfront
Simon Receives Nearly $5M in Major Gifts
The Simon Business School is receiving
seven major gifts totaling nearly $5 million in support of The Meliora Challenge:
The Campaign for the University of Rochester. These gifts will support student
scholarships, curricular enhancements,
and a named professorship. The gifts are
the School’s latest contributions to the
University’s record-setting campaign and
help bring Simon’s total dollars raised to
nearly $70 million.
Ronald H. Fielding ’73 (MA), ’76S (MBA)
has pledged $2.5 million to support
student scholarships in addition to his
$7 million in prior giving. Fielding is
the retired chief strategist and senior
vice president of the Rochester division
of OppenheimerFunds Inc., one of
the nation’s largest asset management
companies. He managed its Rochester
municipal bond funds and their
predecessors for more than 25 years.
A strong advocate of scholarships, he
established the Ronald H. Fielding
Scholarship Fund in 1996 to provide
support for Simon students. Fielding is a
member of the Simon National Council
and Executive Advisory Committee.
Martin S. Lacoff ’71S (MBA), chairman and
co-founder of Belpointe, and Executive
Advisory Committee member, committed
$1.3 million to establish an endowed professorship in honor of former Simon Business School professor Michael C. Jensen.
This adds to a previous gift from Lacoff,
which established the LaClare Professor
of Business Administration and Finance,
the first faculty endowment at Simon in
1984. The Michael C. Jensen Professorship
will support a leading faculty member
at the School. Jensen, who was the first
LaClare Professor, had a lasting impact on
Lacoff, so the professorship will also recognize the long-run effect that instruction
and research have on Simon students.
David Reh ’67S (MBA), managing partner
at Ravenwood Golf Club in Victor, NY,
and former president at Gorbel Inc., is
adding $250,000 to prior giving in support of the Sue and David Reh Scholarship Fund, awarded to outstanding
full-time MBA students who have demonstrated capacity for success in the MBA
program. Reh is a member of the Simon
National Council and the Executive Advisory Committee.
Gregory S. Hayt ’92S (MS), managing di-
rector and chief risk officer for Paloma
Partners, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, CT, is committing $125,000 in
scholarship support through the Annual Fund. Prior to joining Paloma, Hayt
served as senior consultant for Rutter Associates. Previously, he was an executive
director in CIBC World Markets and vice
president, risk management research, at
Chase Manhattan Bank.
James N. Doyle Jr. is adding to prior giving
with $116,000 to establish the James N.
Doyle Jr. Fellowship Fund for Christian
Entrepreneurship. The Doyle fellows
will be recruited from Christian colleges
and universities. Special consideration
will be given to students demonstrating
an interest in service to others and
who exhibit a commitment to their
undergraduate institution’s higher ideals
and missions.
David Khani ’93S (MBA), CFO of
CONSOL Energy Inc., the Pittsburghbased natural gas and coal producer, is
pledging $100,000 to enhance the Center
for Innovative Teaching and Technology
by creating an open, collaborative space
with the latest technology to enhance
classroom instruction, club activities, research, training sessions, and individual
and team study. Khani is a member of the
Executive Advisory Committee.
J. Michael Smith, founder and CEO of
CABOT Group, is committing $100,000
to establish The CABOT Group Lecture
Series in Real Estate. The intention of the
endowed fund is to bring prominent executives to Simon and the University to
share experiences, professional lessons,
and career guidance with students. Funds
will also support small-group sessions
with students and alumni interested in
working in commercial real estate.
“We are deeply grateful to our generous
donors for helping us to provide muchneeded scholarship and faculty support,
as well as curricular enhancements that
will benefit our students for years to
come,” said Dean Andrew Ainslie. “Their
generosity is a testament to their belief
in the value of a Simon Business School
education.” s
Ovitz Award
Got Mock?
The University of Rochester
student-run Ovitz Corp. won the
grand prize of $50,000 during
the Rochester Regional Business
Plan Competition. Ovitz makes a
portable hand-held device called
an EyeProfiler to determine
an accurate prescription for
corrective lenses.
The Simon Career Management
Center held a “Got Mock?” interview
event on February 21, 2014. It
provided a great opportunity
for students to toughen up their
interviewing and networking skills
with real-time feedback from
business professionals in a variety
of industries.
4 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business EyeProfiler
ADAM FENSTER
Upfront
Commencement 2014
The Simon Business School held Commencement ceremonies on Sunday, June
8, 2014, in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Over 500 students received graduate
degrees, bringing the number of Simon
Business School alumni to nearly 15,000.
University President Joel Seligman presided and former dean Mark Zupan delivered his last address as dean.
Robert E. Rich Jr. ’69S (MBA) delivered
the Commencement address and received
the Charles Force Hutchison and Marjorie
Smith Hutchison medal. Rich is chairman of Rich Products Corporation and
has led the company to more than $3 billion in worldwide sales revenue, earning
the distinction as one of the world’s most
dynamic business leaders. Rich earned
his MBA from Simon Business School
and subsequently became Rich’s vice
president of sales and marketing. He was
named president in 1978 and chairman in
2006. Rich serves on the Simon Executive Advisory Committee and as director
of the 100 Club of Buffalo Inc. He told the
graduates, “Retain your youthful curiosity. Employers are looking for people who
can think and learn.”
Colleen Wegman ’00S (MBA), president
of Wegmans Food Markets, received the
Simon Business School Distinguished
Alumnus Award. Wegmans Food Markets Inc., an 83-store supermarket chain
headquartered in Rochester, has built an
international reputation for its overall excellence in quality, customer service, and
variety. For 17 consecutive years, it has
been named to Fortune magazine’s list of
the “100 Best Companies to Work for in
America,” including being ranked the top
company on this list in 2005. In that same
year, her grandfather, the late Robert B.
Wegman, named her president of the
company. In 2007, she was named to the
Food Marketing Institute Board of Directors. Wegman is also active in the United
Way of Greater Rochester and currently
serves as chair of its Board of Directors.
Ronald Fielding ’73 (MA), ’76S (MBA)
received the Dean’s Medal. Fielding is
the retired chief strategist and senior vice
president of the Rochester division of
OppenheimerFunds Inc. An example of
brainpower and ambition, Fielding began
his first job—a paper route—at age seven.
Robert E. Rich Jr. delivers the 2014 CommenceAt age 15,
ment address
and
advises
graduates
to
keep
graduateDegrees2014_140908.pdf
1
9/8/14
4:23hePMwon a scholarship to the
Putney School in Vermont, which he follearning and retain their youthful curiosity.
lowed with an undergraduate degree from
Graduate Degrees
St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland
A total of 518 degrees were earned by the
and an MBA from Simon. Fielding is a
Simon School Class of 2014, including
member of the George Eastman Circle,
five PhD degrees in Business Administration.
the University’s leadership annual giving
MBA PROGRAMS
society.
The Simon Class of 2014 included 229
29
Executive
MBA graduates (155 full time and 74 part
155
MBA
Full-time
time); 29 graduates of the Executive MBA
MBA
74
program; 251 graduates who received MS
Part-time
degrees (79 MS in business administraMBA
tion, 104 MS in finance, 32 MS in accounMS PROGRAMS
tancy, 25 MS Finance in New York City,
and 15 MS in Management in New York
15
MS in
City); and five graduates were recognized
Management
104
for earning the PhD in business adminisin NYC
MS in
tration. Across all programs, 49 countries
Finance
25
were represented. In addition, the Simon
MS in Finance
Business School’s Executive MBA proin NYC
79
gram in Bern, Switzerland, graduated 22
32
MS in Business
MS in Accountancy
Administration
students. s
Mark Ain Business Model Winners Announced
Aspiring student entrepreneurs at the University of Rochester
presented their business models to a panel of judges during
the eighth annual Mark Ain Business Model Competition on
May 13, 2014. Taking first place was the SmartDialysis team,
which produced a nanomembrane, technology-based portable
hemodialysis unit that could significantly improve quality of
life for over 600,000 end-stage renal disease patients in the
United States and revolutionize the $8 billion hemodialysis
equipment industry.
RIA TAFANI (RICH); ISTOCKPHOTO (WALL STREET)
MS Students Travel
to NYC
MS in Finance students recently
traveled to New York City
to learn more about career
developments in their field. The
students had the opportunity
to meet with over 50 alums and
explore the sights and sounds
of the world’s financial capital.
Upfront
Simon Business School Installs
Three Named Professors
Simon is recognizing three faculty members for their outstanding scholarly accomplishments through their recent
installation in named professorships.
Accounting and Economics, the Journal of
Finance, the Journal of Accounting
Research, and Accounting Review, among
others. She is an editor of the Journal of
Accounting and Economics.
Ron Kaniel became the
inaugural Jay S. and
Jeanne P. Benet
Professor of Finance at
an installation
ceremony in New York
City on May 7, 2014.
Kaniel’s research
interests are in asset pricing, financial
intermediation with a focus on portfolio
delegation, and investments. His
scholarship has enhanced the understanding of how incentives affect fund
investment decisions and security prices,
the information contained in trading
volume for predicting returns, and how
herd behavior in financial markets can be
rational. Kaniel is chair of the PhD
committee.
Joanna S. Wu was
installed as the first
Susanna and Evans Y.
Lam Professor on May
15, 2014. Wu’s research
spans the areas of
international financial
reporting, the
behavior of financial analysts, management compensation, voluntary disclosure, and mutual fund performance. Her
work has been published in the Journal of
Schmeling Gives
Kalmbach Lecture
Simon Women in Business (SWiB) presented
a lecture from HSN COO and CFO Judy
Schmeling on April 7, 2014, as part of the
Kalmbach Lecture Series. Schmeling oversees
HSN’s finance, information technology,
customer care, facilities, supply chain and
logistics, corporate strategy, mergers and
acquisitions, and affiliate relations.
6 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business Robert Novy-Marx
became the inaugural
Lori and Alan S.
Zekelman Professor of
Business Administration on June 6, 2014.
Novy-Marx’s research
on the government
pensions crisis with co-author Joshua
Rauh of Stanford University has firmly
established him as a leading national
voice on the issue, culminating in
testimony before Congress. His work also
focuses on asset pricing, both theoretical
and empirical, as well as industrial
organization, public finance, and real
estate. Among his many awards, NovyMarx earned the 2012 and 2013 FamaDFA Prize for the best capital markets/
asset pricing paper in the Journal of
Financial Economics; the 2012 Whitebox
Advisors Selected Research Prize for the
Best Financial Research of 2011 (second
place); the 2012 AQR Insight Award
Distinguished Paper Prize; the 2011
Smith-Breeden Prize for the best capital
markets paper in the Journal of Finance;
and the 2011 Spängler IQAM Prize for the
best paper in the Review of Finance. s
Simon NYC
Conference
Examines Disruption,
Innovation Impact
In a world where change is constant,
disruption, regulation, and innovation
continue to have a significant impact on
the way business is conducted around
the globe. Simon Business School gathered prominent senior executives and
industry leaders on May 8, 2014, for its
fifth annual Simon NYC Conference,
“The Global Marketplace: Rising to the
Challenges of Regulation, Disruption,
and International Competition.”
More than 250 people turned out to
hear from headliners Sallie Krawcheck,
owner of 85Broads and former Bank
of America senior executive; Robert
Wilmers, chairman and CEO of M&T
Bank; Rob Sands, president and CEO
of Constellation Brands; and John Stossel, host of Fox Business’ Stossel, among
several others.
Stossel discussed the failure of “big
government” to solve America’s economic problems, while Krawcheck
shared her advice for succeeding in
business. Krawcheck urged the audience to listen to their instincts when it
comes to ethical or moral dilemmas.
Sands received the Executive of the
Year Award for his lifelong achievement
as an outstanding business leader; for
his philanthropic commitment to advancing education, health care, and arts
and culture in the Rochester region;
and for his strategic vision and innovation at the helm of Constellation. s
Eyes On Reducing Pharmacy Waste
Simon professors David and Vera Tilson joined University of Rochester
Medical Center pharmacy director Curtis Haas on WHAM 1180’s Eyes
on the Future radio show to discuss their research on streamlining
pharmacy processes to reduce waste. Their study examining how
pharmacies prepare and dispense medication could potentially
improve operations for thousands of hospitals nationwide. Simon
professor Gregory Dobson coauthored the paper with the other
researchers but was unavailable for the program. For more on the
study, see the spring 2014 issue of Simon Business.
HSN, INC. (SCHMELING)
Upfront
Goettler Named Senior Associate Dean
for Faculty and Research
Ron Goettler, the James N. Doyle, Sr. Pro-
fessor of Entrepreneurship, became the
senior associate dean for faculty and research, succeeding Rajiv Dewan, starting
in July 2014.
Goettler joined the Simon Business
School in 2012 and immediately provided important leadership in our Entrepreneurship program. His research
and teaching cover quantitative marketing, economics, entrepreneurship, and
finance. Goettler received his PhD from
Yale University in 1999 and was on the
faculty at Carnegie Mellon University and
the University of Chicago. Goettler is well
known for his methodical approach to
problems and his willingness to contribute his time and intellect to help both students and the institution move forward.
Goettler also serves on the Board of
Directors for the Simon School Venture
Capital Fund and plays an active role in
helping the student teams assess investment prospects. Goettler will continue
to teach in his new role and to serve on
several faculty committees, including the
Promotion and Tenure Committee, the
Faculty Curriculum Committee, and the
Faculty Policy Committee.
“In searching for a candidate for this
position, I was impressed by the faculty’s
universal support for Ron,” says Dean Andrew Ainslie. “I look forward to working
with Ron, and I know he will continue to
receive strong support as we move forward on a wide variety of initiatives over
the next few years.”
Senior Associate Dean Ron Goettler (left) in one of his many meetings with Simon students.
Rajiv Dewan ’84S (MS), ’87S (PhD) is
rejoining the faculty full time as professor
of computers and information systems.
Dewan’s first faculty appointment was at
Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School
of Management. For the last eight years,
he has provided Simon invaluable service
as an administrator, including as the director of our doctoral program, faculty
director of master’s programs, and senior
associate dean of faculty and research.
In addition, he has played key roles in
Simon’s relaunching of an undergraduate business program. In making the announcement, Dean Ainslie invited all to
thank Rajiv for what he has already done
and will continue to do for our School.
Dean Ainslie also announced that Ron
Hansen will continue to serve as senior
associate dean for program development.
In that role, Hansen is responsible for
Simon’s international graduate partnerships, an increasingly important role in
the University’s undergraduate business
program, as well as the Technical Entrepreneurship And Management (TEAM)
MS program. “Ron Hansen provides an
important perspective that is grounded
in both his academic achievements and
his many years of service with Simon,”
Ainslie says. “His counsel will be invaluable as we prepare our School for new
challenges and opportunities.” In addition
to his role as senior associate dean, Hansen also serves as area coordinator for the
concentrations of Business Environment
and Public Policy and International Management. s
SimonUnited Celebrates
a Taste of India
Tilson to Head Full-Time
MBA Program
In May, the SimonUnited club held a
special Broaden Your Horizons event to
showcase traditional Indian dances, as
well as live music and authentic Indian
cuisine. SimonUnited’s mission is to
encourage Simon students to further
their cultural awareness and attain a
sense of tolerance and understanding.
David Tilson has been named
associate dean of the Full-Time MBA
program. Tilson teaches business
systems consulting, information
systems, and analytics courses. A
trusted mentor, he also works with
many student teams on consulting
projects in the Rochester region.
ADAM FENSTER (GOETTLER)
Upfront
Executive MBA Program Evolving to Meet
Professional and Industry Needs
The Simon Business School Executive
MBA (EMBA) program, the second oldest in the world among top-tier business
schools, is enhancing its academic and
program offerings to meet the needs of
today’s business leaders. Starting in September 2014, Simon will offer an innovative, hands-on leadership module and an
online component to allow busy executives to attend classes on campus just once
a month.
The new yearlong leadership module
provides a framework for personal leadership and expands professional development offerings, and its modular format
allows for a seamless integration of our
leadership content with the rest of the
academic schedule. The online component engages the right use of technology
to maximize students’ time management,
with fewer hours away from work.
The module complements an existing
yearlong business plan course and offers
global management electives that provide
immersion and understanding of macroeconomic trends, particularly in Europe
and Asia. Students develop a robust network in Rochester and beyond through
Simon’s EMBA program in partnership
with the University of Bern (Switzerland)
and MS in Finance and MS in Management programs in New York City.
“Our Executive MBA program is designed for those ready to lead their orga-
nizations, and with these enhancements,
we are providing a comprehensive set of
skills: analytical, strategic, and interpersonal,” says Carin L. Cole ’99S (MBA), assistant dean for executive and professional
programs.
“As the business market faces increasing cost pressure, we have restructured
the program so that it will provide more
flexibility in balancing work and program
schedules,” explains Clifford W. Smith Jr.,
Louise and Henry Epstein Professor of
Business Administration and professor of
finance and economics. “We believe that
the technology has evolved to where we
can offer students more flexibility to participate from a remote location.” s
Simon Partners with
UBS to Offer Wealth
Management Master’s
in Switzerland
Simon Executive Programs, in partnership with Rochester-Bern, is teaming up
with global wealth manager UBS AG to
launch a Wealth Management master’s
program for experienced UBS client advisors. The two-year program prepares
participants to navigate the changing conditions in the industry.
The program is targeted at UBS Wealth
Management experienced client advisors
worldwide, with the exception of those
in the United States. The two-year program combines academic content with
practical content from UBS speakers; in
addition, there are lectures delivered by
select, internationally recognized practitioners and researchers. Between courses,
participants apply the material they have
learned in projects relevant to their own
areas of business.
Participants attend four course blocks,
as well as a further series of individual
courses covering not only financial markets, investment management, strategy,
8 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business Simon and the University of Bern will team up to offer the new international master’s program.
and leadership, but also ethics, corporate finance, behavioral finance, and risk
management. Graduates earn a master of
science in wealth management from the
Simon Business School, as well as a master
of advanced studies in finance from the
University of Bern.
A thorough evaluation process led UBS
to select Rochester-Bern for both its executive education experience and its requisite network of expertise, stemming from
its cooperation with the Simon Business
School as well as the University of Bern
and the Swiss Finance Institute. “It is both
interesting and challenging to support top
client advisors at UBS with an education
program that will enable them to tackle
market challenges in the best interest of
clients, employees, and society,” notes
Claudio Loderer ’80S (MS), ’83S (PhD),
professor of finance, head of the Institut
für Finanzmanagement at the University
of Bern, and academic director of Rochester-Bern Executive Programs. s
SEEPARK
Simon In the News
“Arguably, the most important thing an investor can do
is to diversify, whether it is across geography, assets classes,
or factors and styles. Profitability needs to be traded with
value, and once you’re trading value you really should
also trade momentum.”
—Robert Novy-Marx, Lori and Alan S. Zekelman Professor of Business Administration, was quoted in an April 23, 2014,
Seeking Alpha article, “Building a Simple Portfolio Using Fama-French-Novy-Marx-Jensen Principles.”
“[Taking a MOOC] is a signal of a student’s
seriousness. It shows an interest in
pursuing higher learning.”
—Rebekah Lewin ’02S (MBA) assistant dean of admissions and student engagement, in a March 5,
2014, U.S. News & World Report story, “Mixed Bag for MOOCs on Business School Applications.”
“Stress is a great thing if you approach it the
right way. I’m a fan of pressure, a fan of being
tested by an issue, a negotiation, or, while at
school, an exam. There’s no use lamenting
the fact you are stressed. I like to use it to
become focused and motivated to succeed. It
might sound like a cliché, but pressure makes
diamonds, and without it, they would just be
plain and boring rocks.”
—Dominic Rasini ’14S (MBA), quoted in a June 3, 2014, Bloomberg Businessweek article,
“One Question: How MBAs Have Learned to Beat Stress.”
“During manufacturing companies’ declines,
consulting firms and investment banks led the
way in treating students like star athletes. When
students learn the story from the manufacturing
companies that they’re changed and are more
high tech now, [companies] can challenge more
consulting firms and I-banks in terms of interesting
work and perks.”
—Karen Dowd, assistant dean of career management and corporate engagement, was featured
in a June 4, 2014, Bloomberg Businessweek story, “Seeking a Less Crowded Field, MBAs Find
Success in Manufacturing.”
“At the old, lethargic,
slow-moving GM,
people didn’t want
to push bad news
upward. They laid on
it way too long. You
can’t gamble with
people’s lives.”
—George Cook, executive professor of marketing, in a March 11, 2014, Bloomberg News
article, “GM Recalls Stalled in 10 Years of
Committee Alphabet Soup.” (Story appeared
in numerous other national media outlets.)
“When I go back [to Simon]
the number one thing
people want to be are
entrepreneurs. Isn’t that
interesting? I don’t know
if it was magnified by
the financial crisis. The
University responded to
the students and now
there are joint programs in
entrepreneurship with the
medical school and with the
engineering school.”
—Joe Abrams ’74S (MBA) appeared on
Bloomberg TV’s In the Loop on February 24,
2014. Abrams, who co-founded MySpace,
spoke about Simon’s National Council and
the growing interest in entrepreneurship.
simon tough
rises to the top.
T-Shirts
Hoodies
Water bottles
Coffee Mugs
Blankets
Polos
Get your new favorite t-shirt or other Simon gear at
SIMON.PROPELLSHOPS.COM
New Faculty
New Faculty Hires
Simon
welcomes five
distinguished
scholars and
a notable
entrepreneurin-residence.
Avery Haviv, assistant professor,
marketing, is completing his PhD
in quantitative marketing at the
University of Toronto (Rotman
School of Management). His
research interest is in the development of methodology and the
application of dynamic models to
solve marketing problems. Haviv earned a bachelor
of mathematics (honors statistics) from the University of Waterloo and a master of science (honors
statistics) from the University of Toronto. He has also
worked as a consultant market research.
Olga Itenberg, assistant professor,
finance, received her doctoral
degree in economics from the
University of Pennsylvania
(Wharton). Her research interests
lie in macroeconomics, innovation, and corporate finance. In
addition to her PhD from the
University of Pennsylvania, Itenberg holds an MBA
with a concentration in economic theory from New
York University (Stern School of Business).
research has been published in the
Journal of Finance and The Journal
of Mathematical Finance. Prior to
earning a PhD from the Stanford
Graduate School of Business, he
received a degree in mathematics
from Moscow State University and
a degree in data analysis from the
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Bryce Schonberger, assistant
professor, accounting, received his
doctoral degree in accounting
from the University of Southern
California. His research interests
lie in financial accounting, with a
focus on asset impairments,
option markets, and earnings
quality. He holds a CPA license in Colorado following work experience at PricewaterhouseCoopers in
its audit support practice.
Simon Enlists
Entrepreneurial Expertise
Gregg Steinberg is joining the University of Rochester
Sudarshan Jayaraman, associate
professor, accounting, previously
served as assistant professor of
accounting at Washington
University, St. Louis (Olin
Business School). Jayamaran was a
senior analyst at HDFC Bank in
Mumbai, India. His research
interests focus on the interaction between financial
reporting and informed trading and tradeoffs
between internal and external monitoring mechanisms. He earned his PhD from the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) and an
MBA from Bentley University, Waltham, MA.
Dmitry Orlov, assistant professor, finance, has research
interests in several areas of finance and economics,
including employee performance evaluations, markets for repurchase agreements, and coherent risk
measurement. He also studies market microstructure
models and general equilibrium asset pricing. Orlov’s
STANFORD UNIVERSITY (ORLOV)
Center for Entrepreneurship as entrepreneur-in-residence. A longtime Simon supporter, Steinberg will
work with faculty, staff, and entrepreneurs to help
develop and support the creation of business plans
and new companies launched by students. He will
also serve as an advisor to the Simon School Venture
Capital Fund. Steinberg has been involved in a number of industries from startups to mature companies,
both public and private. He has directed and advised
a health care services organization, founded a strategy and operations advisory firm, and served as an
investor and advisor to early- to mid-stage companies
in a variety of industries. A member of the Simon Executive Advisory Committee, he holds an MBA from
the Thunderbird School of Global Management and
a BS in business administration from the University
of Arizona. s
In many ways, the bustling city of Tel Aviv
represents an emerging Israel, with a new
and thriving economy situated in an ancient
and historical land.
12 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business Innovative
ISRAEL
Simon travels to Israel to find an ancient land
now fueled by entrepreneurs. By Itay Hod
E
arlier this year, prior to the recent conflict
in Gaza, 26 Simon Business School students embarked
on the trip of a lifetime, as they boarded a flight from
New York to Tel Aviv. This was not your average pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The trip was part of a new groundbreaking course aimed at answering the world’s most
intriguing trillion-dollar question: How does a country
so small manage to become a global startup superpower?
While courses about Israel are not exactly a new development, this particular offering was not your mother or father’s
business class. As part of their workload, students advised an
actual up-and-coming Israeli startup company on how to break
into the American consumer market. At the end of the quarter,
they presented their findings in front of the company’s CEO.
“This experience has been invaluable,” says Israeli-born Abraham (Avi) Seidmann, Xerox Professor of Computers and Information Systems and Operations Management and co-sponsor of
the course. “Our students need to be exposed to real, world-class
entrepreneurs.”
During their visit, Simon students were also invited to meet
some of Israel’s biggest names in the business world. That, Seidmann says, was more useful than anything found in the pages of
a textbook. “The students came back with sparkling eyes saying,
‘Professor, we love your country!’”
Meals to Maps: Israel Is Alive with Entrepreneurship
On a warm January evening, Yariv Gai, a 42-year-old businessman from Tel Aviv, and his wife, Nakarin, a 33-year-old native
of Thailand, are getting ready to host an unusual dinner for six.
Nakarin has been preparing for days, going to the market several
times, spending hours dicing vegetables, marinating meat, and
sautéing four types of exotic mushrooms. Even their two-yearold son, Tom, helped with some of the preparations before going to bed. At T-minus zero, Nakarin scrambles to put the final
touches on her elaborate four-course meal. Her husband fastidiously sets the table, making sure everything is just right.
As the guests start to arrive, Yariv hands each a tiny cup of
warm lemongrass tea while greeting them with the traditional
“Wai,” a slight bow, with his palms pressed together in a prayerlike fashion.
The visitors are then treated to a beautifully prepared meal,
14 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business peppered with personal anecdotes of the
couple’s life in Thailand, as well as intriguing facts about each dish.
While Yariv and Nakarin have had
plenty of their friends over for dinner
many times, this is no regular get-together. In fact, every person sitting at
their dining-room table is a complete
stranger and paying guest.
The dinner guests are all customers
who booked a dinner reservation through a new startup company called EatWith. Dubbed the “Airbnb of food,” the site allows individuals traveling abroad to try authentic home-cooked
meals. All they have to do is go on the site, pick a dinner, and enter their credit card number. For the most part, it’s cheaper than
going to a restaurant, but the experience is the selling point.
“We can’t compete with the big restaurants and their huge resources,” says Yariv. “What we can offer is that human touch, and
a very full stomach.”
At $37 per person, the couple isn’t expecting to get rich. But
they do hope to earn some extra cash, and, perhaps, meet some
interesting people in the process. “Nakarin loves to cook and I
love to entertain,” says Yariv. “It was a win-win for us.”
EatWith is the brainchild of Israeli entrepreneur Guy Michlin.
While vacationing in Crete, Michlin and his wife were looking
for a good, hearty meal. They were tired of the fare at restaurants catering to tourists and were craving something a bit more
authentic. When he asked a Greek acquaintance where the locals
ate, he was told, “What do you mean where? We eat at home!”
Michlin, who was looking for ideas for a new startup company, felt a lightbulb switch on over his head. “I was invited to
his house and it ended up being the highlight of my trip,” he
recalls. “It was right after the economic crisis in Greece, and
everyone was talking about it. I sat there listening to their stories
in awe. It was fascinating.”
When Michlin got back home, he decided to do a little research. After asking his friends about their trips abroad, he realized the only meals they could remember were those prepared
by ordinary people. “One friend told me, ‘When I went to Vietnam in 1998, the tour guide took us home and cooked us this
amazing dinner.’ His eyes sparkled as he recalled every dish, every little detail of that night. But when I asked him what restaurants he went to, he couldn’t think of a single one.”
After spending four months (and most of his savings) putting the site together, Michlin managed to secure a $1.2 million
investment from a local venture capital fund. Today, EatWith is
As part of their trip to Israel, Simon students worked closely with
Lexifone, an app that translates and transcribes languages in real time.
Here, the students discuss solutions for marketing the app in the US.
available in 30 cities, including Barcelona, Berlin, Paris, London,
New York, Los Angeles, and Miami. The company makes money
by adding a 15 percent surcharge to the price of the meal. Hosts
are carefully vetted on both their cooking and entertaining skills.
EatWith already has thousands of applications from more than
110 countries.
Interestingly, what was supposed to be an alternative for tourists in search of an authentic experience has become a fad among
Israelis looking for an out-of-the-ordinary night out. At least 50
“This trip was my first trip to Israel. I went in with
high hopes, especially having spoken with all the companies
beforehand. Those hopes weren’t just met; they were
exceeded. This is the sort of place I could see myself
working and living.”—Michael Lightman ’14S (MBA)
ISTOCKPHOTO (PREVIOUS); YI LI (ABOVE)
percent of the company’s customers are
from the surrounding areas.
“It’s something different,” says Daniela Bleishtein, who tried EatWith for
the first time with her husband. Bleishtein, an Israeli, heard about the site
through friends and thought it would
be a new idea for date night. “We loved
it,” she says. “There was something adventurous about the whole thing. We’d
definitely try it again.”
EatWith is just one of thousands of
new startups popping up in the Holy
Land in recent years. A small country,
with roughly 8.2 million people, Israel
has been dubbed the “startup nation.”
Although it’s tiny, barely the size of New
Jersey, Israel is home to about 6,000
startup companies, more than any other
country per capita, and second only to
the United States in absolute numbers.
Israel also leads the world in venture
capital invested per capita, attracting
$170 per person, compared to $75 in
the United States. Not bad for a country
that until 66 years ago wasn’t even on
the map.
In February, Fast Company, an
award-winning tech magazine known
for its annual report on the world’s
most innovative sites, included a list
of the top 10 most innovative startups
in Israel.
“Israel has more companies on
NASDAQ than all of Europe combined,” says Dr. Shlomo Kalish, CEO of
Jerusalem Global Ventures, one of the
top private equity firms in the country,
observing that Israel’s lack of natural
resources has been the driving force
in its quest for innovation. Dr. Kalish
says Israel’s dominance in the world
of startups is nothing short of miraculous. “In the last 10 years,” he says,
“there were $10 billion in acquisitions
of Israeli startups, $2 billion in the last
year alone.”
Above: Nakarin Gai prepares a home-cooked
meal for EatWith guests visiting Tel Aviv.
Below: EatWith founders Guy Michlin (left)
and Shemer Schwartz are champions of
homemade cuisine and genuine experiences.
16 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business ITAY HOD (GAI); ROMAN BALASHOV (MICHLIN AND SCHWARTZ)
the AOL instant messenger—it’s been slow to break into the
Last June, Google set its sights on the Israeli mapping service
billion-dollar club. Though Israel is second in the world when it
Waze, acquiring it for $1.2 billion, until then the most expensive
comes to total number of startups, it has only three unicorns on
buyout of any Israeli consumer app. Though there have been
its résumé, while the United States has had 39 and Europe has
two other non-consumer Israeli unicorns (companies achieving
had 30. But now the word is out, experts say, and that’s all about
an exit of more than $1 billion), as part of the deal with Google,
to change.
each of Waze’s 100 employees received an average of $1.2 milSince Waze, Soluto and Onavo, both Israeli startups, have had
lion, representing the largest payout to employees in the history
great exits in consumer tech, and Wix “uniof Israeli high tech. That move is what
corned” through its IPO. Experts say there
made headlines in both Israel and around
are many more to come.
the world—so much so that Waze’s CEO,
Noam Bardin, famously received a phone
call from Israel’s prime minister, BenjaA Cultural Thing
min Netanyahu, the night the company
One reason Israel is so successful in the
was sold, to offer what seemed like a
startup world, says Ophir, is because its citwell-intended pun and congratulate him
izens are known for speaking their minds.
for putting “Israeli technology on the
“They don’t see arguing as something
global map.”
negative,” he says. “If anything, they see it
Waze is a GPS-like smartphone app
as a necessity.” Ophir, who is American by
that provides drivers with up-to-thebirth, says he experienced a bit of a culture
minute, real-time updates on road condishock when he moved to Israel. “I had to
tions. More than 50 million subscribers
throw out all of my American conditioning
use it to warn fellow drivers about traffic
toward the workplace. I was told very early
jams, accidents, and even the presence of
on that my chutzpah was an asset. I was
nearby police. It’s become so ubiquitous
encouraged to raise my voice and make
that one out of three drivers in Israel is
my views heard out loud. I realized that I
—Dr. Shlomo Kalish,
on Waze at any given time.
wouldn’t be respected if I raised my hand
CEO of Jerusalem Global
“Waze really established Israel as a
and waited for my turn to talk.”
force to be reckoned with when it comes
Then, of course, there is the whole army
Ventures
to mobile application technology,” says
issue. Israel has mandatory military serEdon Ophir, a former marketing execuvice. Instead of heading to college, every
tive at Waze (and no, he wasn’t one of the 100 people who made
18-year-old must serve in the Israeli Defense Forces first. The law
$1.2 million; we asked). “Israel’s technology has always been
requires three years of service for men and two years of service
amazing, but people were skeptical about the country’s ability
for women.
to create applications that a mass consumer audience would use.
“The military has become a good breeding ground for leadWaze proved that with one of the largest mobile exits of all time.
ership and teamwork,” says Tal Brener, CFO of GetTaxi, the
It’s really phenomenal.”
successful Israeli mobile app for ordering cabs. Brener says the
Ophir may have a point. Although Israel has had incredible
military experience fosters a sense of fearlessness that’s essential
success with Waze and other apps—such as ICQ, which was
in the startup world. “They’re not afraid of making tough deciacquired by AOL in 1998 for $407 million and was the basis for
sions and they are extremely resourceful,” he notes.
“Israel has more
companies on
NASDAQ than all
of Europe combined.
In the last 10 years
there were $10
billion in acquisitions
of Israeli startups,
$2 billion in the
last year alone.”
Entrepreneurial Unicorns
In terms of startup companies funded by venture capital, a unicorn is
defined as one that reaches $1 billion valuation or greater at the time
of exit.
Introduced into the business lexicon in 2013 when TechCrunch
published Welcome to the Unicorn Club, author and founder of Cowboy
Ventures Aileen Lee identified 39 technology companies founded since
2003 that have been successful enough to fit that description.
Beyond the rarified air that venture capital unicorns breathe, Lee and
her team also discovered other key similarities among the members of
the billion-dollar club. On average, Lee notes, four unicorns were born
each year since 2003, with Facebook being the largest among them.
In addition, enterprise-oriented unicorns have become worth more
on average, raised much less capital, and delivered a higher return on
private investment.
Lee also points out that the companies reaching unicorn status
typically fall within four major business models: consumer e-commerce,
consumer audience, software-as-a-service, and enterprise software.
More specifically, three consumer-oriented companies, Facebook,
Google, and Amazon, have created the majority of the value in the past
decade. As for where most of these unicorns roam, San Francisco, not
Silicon Valley, is their popular new home, with 27 of the 39 companies
located in the Bay area.
Brener should know. GetTaxi is another one of Israel’s blockbuster stories, with annual revenue of more than $100 million,
according to the company.
Earlier this month, GetTaxi’s CEO said on Facebook that the
company is growing at an annual rate of more than 400 percent,
same as its arch-nemesis, the San Francisco-based Uber. Company executives predict an astounding half-billion dollars in revenue next year.
Interestingly, many of Israel’s startup legends got their big
break in the military’s 8200 unit, the commando regiment of
coders and computer engineers. Getting into the 8200 is akin to
a letter of acceptance from Harvard. In fact, many of the unit’s
graduates have been recruited by some of world’s biggest companies, such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft, all of which have
offices and R&D centers in Israel’s “Silicon Wadi” (Arabic for
Despite considerable unrest, Israel serves as a model for modern
business success. With a deep commitment to the area’s ancient past,
today’s Jewish state continues to pursue a future that includes business
innovation and economic growth.
18 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business valley), concentrated around the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.
Studying Startup Success
The Jewish state has become such a technological phenomenon
that Simon sent students to Israel last March as part of an innovative new independent study program. “It was a tremendous
addition to our profile for summer school,” says Seidmann. During the trip led by faculty advisors Dennis Kessler, Edward J.
and Agnes V. Ackley Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship, and
Rami Katz ’03S (MBA), students focused on Israel and its startup
dominance in the global market. “The students came back very
excited,” says Seidmann. “Many of them told me it was the best
trip of their lives.”
The visit was the culmination of an entire quarter studying the
region and its culture, as well as advising a new Israeli startup
called Lexifone on how to break into the American market. Lexifone, an app straight out of a Star Trek episode, translates languages in real time. Just talk in your native tongue, and Lexifone
will transcribe, then translate into the desired language.
Simon students were divided into two groups. Each came
JENNA SCHLAGS (LEFT); CAITLIN MAEDER (RIGHT)
in the fast-paced, high-tech business world,” Lightman says. “It
really helped drive home the point that Israeli citizens have an
extraordinary ability to stay calm under pressure. They’re able to
create order out of chaos.”
“Israel is doing what every brand has to do to survive and
prosper in today’s world,” says Chad Kawalec, marketing expert
and founder of The Brand Identity Center. “They’re exposing
Hands-on Learning for Global Business
At the end of the quarter, students traveled to Israel for work and student leaders in top business schools all over the world to the
Israeli experience, basically letting people sample the brand in
a bit of sightseeing. Of the 26 people who went on the trip, only
much the same way you sample a piece of cheese at Costco on
four were Jewish. “I was surprised at how many people signed
the weekend. The hope is that you’ll return and spread the word.”
up,” says Michael Lightman ’14S (MBA), the student who organized the journey and designed the independent study course.
Kawalec says studying a country for an entire quarter and then
“Last year, we went to China and only
working directly with an Israeli startup
nine people made it.”
help create a bond between the students
Lightman, who works part-time for
and Israel that otherwise wouldn’t have
Excell Partners, the VC firm that inbeen formed. “Israel is reframing and exvested in Lexifone, says the trip exceeded
panding its brand from a potent religious
his greatest expectations. “It was a mix
and tourist destination to a world-class hub
between spring break and a corporate
of innovation on every level.”
trip,” he says referring to Purim, the JewAnd it seems to be working. Lightman,
ish carnival-like holiday. “We got to have
who just graduated from Simon, is now
fun, go to Jerusalem, and learn about
googling apartments for rent in Tel Aviv.
Israel’s culture and history. Most impor“This trip was my first trip to Israel,” he
tant, we got an inside look at business
says. “I went in with high hopes, espein a place that is unbelievable at what
cially having spoken with all the compait does.”
nies beforehand. Those hopes weren’t
The reason it’s so good, Lightman
just met; they were exceeded. This is the
adds, is its people. “There are three
sort of place I could see myself working
things that you look for in a startup comand living.”
pany as an investor,” he explains. “The
“I find it to be a fascinating place,” says
market, meaning do people want to buy
Dennis Kessler, who co-sponsored the trip
what I’m selling; the product, meaning
and joined the students on their program
can it do what I say it’s going to do? And
in Israel. “This was not just a tour to see the
finally, the team. Things are going to go
Old City or Tel Aviv,” he says. “It was 100
bad; that’s a given. The question is, Can
percent experiential learning.”
my team fix it? Can we work together
Kessler says students were able to get
without falling apart? Israelis have expetheir hands dirty rather than just learn
rience working together in high-pressure
theory, a must in today’s competitive mar— Avi Seidmann,
situations.”
ket—and that Israel has proven effective at
course co-sponsor
More than just hands-on experience,
problem solving. “They don’t have oil like
the course was a good way to introduce
their Arab neighbors,” he says. “They don’t
students to major players in the startup world. “When you go to
have water either, which has led them to become world leaders
Israel you have a chance to meet people from Sequoia or Kleiner
in water desalination. They created drip irrigation, which waters
Perkins that would not talk to you if you flew to California,” Secrops through perforated hoses, and are now exporting goods all
idmann says.
over the world.”
The trip was subsidized in part by the Farash Foundation and
Despite having less than optimal conditions, with half of the
a Jewish organization called Israel & Co., which also helped with country’s territory consisting of desert land, Israel manages to
background support, including introductions by Gregg Steinproduce 95 percent of its own food while exporting more than
berg, the newly appointed entrepreneur-in-residence at Simon,
$2 billion in produce every year.
to key players in the Israeli economy. They even organized a speBut perhaps Israel’s biggest asset when it comes to startups is
cial visit to an Israeli Air Force base where students had an opits tolerance for failure—and resilience. “Israelis are not afraid
portunity to meet a fighter pilot finishing his MBA.
to try and try again,” says Seidmann. As for EatWith, it’s anyone
“It was unbelievable learning about how his experiences, mak- guess whether it “unicorns” anytime soon. But if it does, it will
ing life-and-death decisions from a very young age, helped him
no doubt give global investors a lot more food for thought. s
up with its own strategies and ideas on how to sell Lexifone
to American consumers. After working on their project for an
entire quarter, students presented their findings in front of the
company leadership. A job offer at the company went to the
group with the best strategy.
“It was a tremendous
addition to our
profile for summer
school. . . . The
students came back
very excited. Many of
them told me it was
the best trip of their
lives.”
Dean
Ainslie
Offers
a Vision
Soon after Andrew Ainslie became
the seventh dean of the Simon
Business School, we spoke with
him about the state of business
education and his strategy for
success. Interview by Jim Ver Steeg
Q: Before we find out a little bit more about you and your career,
perhaps you can tell us why the dean leadership role at Simon felt
like the right opportunity for you.
AA: I had been running the MBA program at Anderson, which
was really one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done in my
career. But there comes a point where you feel like it’s time
to take that next step. I had been looking at a few opportunities with other business schools, but Rochester really stood
out. That’s because the Simon School has a long tradition that
is similar to the schools where I have spent most of my career,
either as a PhD student or as a faculty member. Simon has
many ties and commonalities with the University of Chicago
and UCLA. So it felt like I was staying academically in the same
milieu that I’ve been in for my entire academic career, and that
was really important to me.
Rochester also has the same high standards in terms of its
research and mission. It has always been a very quantitative
school with an economic approach to the study of business
problems, which also ties with my own academic background.
So this really did feel like an incredible opportunity. I am truly
honored that I have been chosen for this position.
20 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business JOHN SMILLIE
Previously senior associate dean
for full-time MBA programs at UCLA’s
Anderson School of Management,
Andrew Ainslie received his PhD
in marketing and statistics from
the University of Chicago Booth
School of Business in 1998.
Q: Speaking of opportunities, can you speak to some of the top
opportunities for US business schools, and perhaps some of the
biggest challenges they face?
AA: The opportunities and challenges are essentially the same
set of issues! Business is changing fast, and interestingly enough,
moving in the direction that academics have been going for
many years. That direction is the analysis of huge amounts of
data to better understand patterns in consumption and the
movements of goods, and what motivates and drives those patterns. This affects many disciplines, including marketing and operations as just two examples. Of course, finance has understood
and analyzed data very rigorously for a long time, but even in
finance, the sheer quantity of data has increased over the last few
years. That creates both an opportunity and a challenge for business schools to impart that knowledge to MBA students. It also
happens to be an area where we at the Simon School are particularly well positioned. We have outstanding faculty members in
those areas who have been creating both great research and new
classroom content to help businesses cope with the data deluge.
The other area that presents both an opportunity and a challenge is in understanding how to better incorporate technology
in the classroom, be it virtual or real. There’s been a lot of talk
about MOOCs—massive open online courses. Personally, I’m
skeptical on just how useful most of the early implementations of
MOOCs are to people interested in improving their skillset—and
the statistics show that many of the individuals participating in
MOOCs get halfway through the first lesson, or maybe the second video, and then just give up.
Q: That seems to go against current opinion. Why is that?
AA: I think it’s important to understand student incentives. It’s
naïve to believe that the only reason people go to a university is
purely to learn. One of the biggest values that business schools
offer is the opportunity to network. Networking provides each
student an opportunity to interact with peers who are just as
bright, if not brighter, than they are, with experiences both similar and different from their own. This provides a richness that
can never be replicated by stand-alone videos or, for that matter,
old-fashioned textbooks. It also provides an opportunity to interact directly with faculty, and a structured way to go out and look
for job opportunities in the marketplace.
But possibly the most important problem with MOOCs is
that a degree from a good business school offers you entrance
to a relatively small club. None of these are offered by online or
MOOC classes, unless those classes are very carefully structured. Our challenge is to find methods that deliver content in
new ways, while not walking away from this other complex set
of benefits that people get out of an MBA or a master’s degree in
business.
Q: MOOCs may not be the answer, but are there aspects of their
technology that offer opportunities within an on-campus setting?
AA: Certainly. One of the faculty members at UCLA, Carla Hayn,
developed a very successful hybrid program where students
22 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business spent 50 percent of their time in the classroom in fairly intense
blocks, and 50 percent of their time learning online at home.
The hybrid program really does offer the best of both for people
whose jobs don’t allow them to be on campus regularly in the
evening or over the weekend. A similar model is being implemented at Simon with our Executive MBA program; it also offers the best of both worlds. But I think it’s important to move
slowly and to be cautious. Some schools have gone into this a little too fast, and it’s not clear that what they’ve put together offers
sufficient value to the students taking courses in programs that
veer too far over to a pure online delivery. I think it’s important
to get it right, and I think it’s also important to do it in a way that
doesn’t use students as guinea pigs, but immediately gives them
effective tools for learning and for succeeding in their careers.
Q: We often hear about Simon’s data-driven approach. Can you speak
to what that means to the future direction of the School?
AA: That was one of the strongest things that attracted me to
Simon. We’re uniquely positioned as a business school. We believe strongly in the value of economics and statistics and the
analysis of all business problems. That arguably leaves you with
a bit of a hole in terms of what we might be able to offer our students around such areas as behavioral decision theory, which is
sort of an interface between economics and psychology. However, one of the first things that every business school teaches in
a marketing class is the importance of differentiation, yet there is
actually remarkably little differentiation between the offerings of
most business schools. There are at least two advantages to being
differentiated: First, this allows us to spend more time on giving
our students a deeper understanding of those economic and analytic tools, and second, it allows us to offer a product that will attract that set of students who value our analytic bias. In turn, we
can then put them in front of the set of recruiters that are most
interested in candidates with a great analytic skillset. I think our
alumni are appreciative of the type of education they received
because of Simon’s differentiation. There’s a place in the marketplace for our well-differentiated product, and I don’t think we
should change that.
Q: How does Simon’s quantitative approach compare to UCLA?
AA: UCLA is fairly quantitative in its approach. They have strong
finance, marketing, operations, and economics groups, but they
also have a very strong behavioral decision theory group. So
UCLA is more conventional in their approach.
Q: If we think about the behavioral aspect of business education, and
the fact that having more quantitative education is better in the long
run, do you think that extends to identifying the right prospective
students?
AA: I think that’s a really important point. I also think some of
those behavioral aspects are difficult to teach. People often refer
to this as emotional intelligence, or EQ. One of the things we did
at UCLA was try to move away from picking candidates largely
on their quantitative skills and to balance that with looking for
candidates with high EQ by focusing on their interviews. At the
Simon School, we can balance the quantitative bias of our program by bringing in the right people who already have some of
the more intangible skills, such as working well in groups and
with others.
Q: The search committee cited as one of your strengths your attention
to the research mission of the School and your farsighted approach to
the challenges facing all MBA programs. What makes those a priority
for you?
AA: The way that one has to think about this is that it’s a mat-
ter of differentiating between long-term goals and short-term
goals—and it’s also a matter of balancing between the broader
goals of our community and our school’s goals. The balance that
we’re trying to achieve is between ensuring that we do well by
our students in the short term, but also by adding to a deeper
understanding of how businesses work in the long run, ensuring
that we add to our knowledge base on an ongoing basis. If business schools veer too far over to only investing in the teaching
mission and underinvesting in the research mission, society as
a whole will be worse off, and in the long run, we will produce
graduates less able to contribute new insights to the companies
that they join.
More and more, the way eBay, Amazon, and Google run their
businesses is based on a deep understanding of economics—and
much of that knowledge doesn’t come from within those companies. They either hire people with extended research careers
or they hire people who have read the literature and understand
ANDREW TROUT
what that research is about. If
business schools start downplaying the role of research, everybody will get hurt in the long
run, and business itself will be
negatively affected.
Dean Ainslie discusses issues
facing women in business with
Simon MBA candidate, Class
of 2016, Dianna Marks. Among
the dean’s other priorities are
strengthening the curriculum,
attracting and retaining highquality faculty, and improving
the student experience.
Q: Does the slower pace of
academic research always fit into
the rapidly changing business
environment?
AA: Well, that’s changing quite fast. The typical time to get a pa-
per from the initial idea all the way through the review process to
being in print is probably around three years. And for a business,
that can seem like an eternity. But there is an emerging approach
where papers come directly out of current interactions that
faculty have with companies facing challenging problems. The
researchers interacting with these companies initially help them
develop short-term tools and methodologies, but they walk away
with the data that they’ve collected and invest a considerable
amount of time developing a deeper, more generalizable understanding of the issues faced by that company. This provides companies with the rapid turnaround they need, while also leaving
the researcher with some great data to develop deeper insights in
the longer timeframe required to produce a more generalizable
understanding of a complex problem.
Q: Your own background is truly international, so how does that inform
how you approach your understanding of the world of business?
AA: It absolutely affects my managerial approach to running a
business school. Our students come from every corner of the
globe, and we increasingly place them around the world. More
and more, universities have to make sure they do a good job of
preparing graduates for an international career. However, at the
same time, I frequently find myself questioning just how different the nature of business really is, as one moves from one country to another.
For example, does a Chilean wine producer really face a very
different set of problems from those of an American wine producer? Is the Chilean situation different from the American situation? If there are differences, are those differences something
where students need to be standing in Chile to understand them,
or is that something that we can explain in the classroom here
at home? It’s important for us to make sure we prepare students
so they can understand the types of business problems they’re
likely to encounter in other parts of the world, but it’s also important not to go too far in the direction of what sometimes
seems more like tourism than real pedagogy that some business
schools have embraced.
One of the advantages that we have on that side is that we
have a very international student body. That means during their
time here they will be learning from their peers about how business is done in different parts of the world, and that’s very important. One of the most important aspects of the learning that
you get in a graduate-level program is not from professors, but
from your interaction with your peers in the classroom.
Q: Recently, Simon Business School launched its Toughen up.® image
campaign. What are your thoughts on that message?
AA: I’ve actually spoken to quite a few current students about the
Toughen up campaign, and I’ve heard both positive and negative
reactions. Alumni particularly seem to love the Toughen up cam-
better face the business problems that they’re going to encounter
for the rest of their careers. What’s going to be important for us
over the next couple of years is making sure that we effectively
communicate to everybody exactly what we mean by Toughen
up. We don’t mean that you’re going to be able to do 100 pushups a minute, but we do mean that in some sense, intellectually you’re going to be able to do the same thing. You’re going to
be able to listen to a business problem and immediately say to
yourself, What’s the right framework to solve this problem? This
can allow you to reach a solution quicker than somebody who
hasn’t been through two years at Simon. That’s what Toughen up
means to me.
Q: Last question. What have you taken with you from your previous
positions and brought to Simon? Are there successes you have
experienced that you would like to apply here?
AA: During the last four years at Anderson, my task was to
strengthen our MBA program in every possible way. It would
have been easy when I looked at that task four years ago to say,
“I simply want to get an immediate bump in the rankings.” That
was not the approach we took. Over the last four years at UCLA,
we rebuilt the MBA program from the bottom up in ways that
did not have an initial impact on our rankings. In fact, I believe
Anderson will only start to see the impact on the rankings in the
next two to three years.
However, when I left, there was a genuine sense that we were
on the right track. We had a level of satisfaction among the students that we hadn’t seen in a long time. Our number of applications was up over 60 percent from when I started. Our GMAT
score jumped about five points in the last year I was there. Our
percentage of minority students in the program more than
doubled. So what we were beginning to do is create a group of
students that was better in every possible way, and that took four
years to achieve. That’s the point where I knew that Anderson
One of the advantages that we have on that side is that we have
a very international student body. That means during their time here
they will be learning from their peers about how business is done
in different parts of the world, and that’s very important.
paign. It really does speak to the transformation that occurred
during their time at Simon—developing a fantastic new set of
analytic tools so they were able to enter the world of business
better prepared and better able to handle the problems that were
coming at them. And that is at the heart of what we mean by
Toughen up. Some of the negative comments I’ve heard is that
it feels as though we’re talking about some sort of a boot-camp,
drill-sergeant approach to business, and that’s absolutely not
what the Toughen up campaign is about.
Toughen up is about intellectually challenging students and
giving them a rigorous set of analytic tools with which they can
24 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business was going to start moving up in the rankings. That’s the sort of
approach I want to take at Simon.
One of the things I would ask everybody to do at Simon is to
be a little patient. Quick fixes to problems or issues often leave
you with a hangover in the long run. I feel it’s really important
over the next few years that we be very considered and very
measured in our approach to every challenge that we face, and
that we put in place steps that will ensure not that we get a little
bump tomorrow in some measurement, but that we place ourselves strategically in a situation that’s going to benefit us for
years and decades to come. s
It’s where
you are
SIMON BUSINESS DIGITAL EDITION
YOU CAN ALSO FIND US ONLINE AT WWW.SIMON.ROCHESTER.EDU/SIMONBUSINESS
Recalling Lessons with George Cook
When General Motors announced the largest recall in the company’s
history, the nation’s media turned to George Cook. By Jim Ver Steeg
A
fter fewer than three months on the job, General
Motors CEO Mary Barra appeared before Congress to answer questions about the unfolding crisis centered around the largest safety recall in the
automaker’s history. At the time of Barra’s testimony in April, nearly 5 million GM cars had been recalled due
to safety issues associated with the ignition switch. To date, 19
deaths have been attributed to the design flaw.
Within days of the CEO’s apologetic first appearance on
Capitol Hill, media outlets including CNN, Fox News, USA
Today, and The Washington Post all reached out to Simon’s executive professor of business administration and marketing,
George Cook. A former Ford Motor Company executive, Cook
is well known for teaching the high value and important business ethics of proactive and transparent communication—particularly when an organization is in crisis.
As the GM crisis continued, Cook delivered the same message to national television audiences and newspaper readers as
he does to the students in his classroom. “It’s critically important that the communication culture within any organization,
particularly one as large as GM, be completely open,” he says.
“There is a strong hesitancy for employees to report when they
see something is off kilter, because they don’t want to be reprimanded.” Cook also notes there is real fear on the part of some
employees that they will lose their jobs if things like safety issues are brought to light. “Pushing up good news is fine,” he
says. “Pushing up bad news has some risk.”
It seems GM learned its own record-breaking lesson when
its number of recalled vehicles swelled to 26 million in early
July. “One of the concerns is that this massive recall with GM
would damage everything from their reputation to their revenue and market share,” Cook says. “Now the danger is the
recalls going all the way up to the most current model year.
If they keep pushing recalls for the 2008–2012 model years, I
think you’re going to see some problems—problems that could
take their toll on consumer confidence and customer loyalty,
and even weaken the market in general.”
Even if the auto market stays strong, Cook says, a big issue
may dog Mary Barra and General Motors. “The big question is
why did they wait so long to report the safety issue? There was
26 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business about an 11-year delay before GM announced the recall. Again,
it’s that culture of blocking the upward communication channel
and not letting top management know issues when they come
up.” But Cook gives Mary Barra high marks for the changes she
seems to be implementing in post-bankruptcy GM. “I think
she’s got them on the right track,” he says. “She has certainly
set the tone and message down through the organization. She is
practically demanding that employees inform their managers of
any safety issue and rewarding them if they do.”
Professor Cook says there are lessons GM can learn from
other major recalls, such as those from the damage control
model Toyota followed a few years ago, when many of its models experienced unintended acceleration, to businesses outside
the automotive industry that faced their own crises. “Johnson
& Johnson did two important things when it was discovered
some bottles of Tylenol had been laced with cyanide,” he says.
“They got in front of the issue by saying the problem was theirs
until they found out differently. They also pulled millions of
bottles off the shelves. Accept accountability and responsibility, but don’t overpromise and under-deliver. Just communicate what the problem is and what you’re going to do to fix it.”
Cook also points out that the Tylenol case resulted in an important market innovation: tamper-resistant bottles. “Good
things can come from bad situations,” he says. “Barra has already
appointed a chief safety officer who has a direct line of communication to her and the board of directors. You can bet the rest of
the industry is doing what it can to stay out of the hot seat.”
On July 17, Mary Barra was back before Congress, this time
with far fewer apologies. According to The New York Times, she
made it clear that General Motors will not expand its compensation for victims and will not waive its protection from lawsuits that was gained in bankruptcy reorganization. But while
legal protections may be in place, public opinion may not be so
forgiving. “People talk about the old GM versus the new GM,”
Cook says. “But that’s not really the case. They don’t really have
a clean slate. The building in Detroit doesn’t say ‘Old GM’ or
‘New GM.’ It just says GM.”
Ultimately, Cook believes Barra is making all the right
moves. “If nothing else major happens, this will be out of most
people’s minds in less than a year,” he says. s
JOHN SMILLIE (COOK); ISTOCKPHOTO (BACKGROUND)
Executive professor of business
administration George Cook relies on
his marketing expertise and years as an
executive at Ford Motor Company to offer
insights on some of the biggest issues
facing the auto industry.
Research Highlights
Competition, Innovation, and the Inverted U
How does increased competition affect product innovation? A paper by senior associate dean Ronald
Goettler, “Competition and Product Innovation in
Dynamic Oligopoly,” tackles this important question,
relevant to corporate strategy.
“We analyze the relationship
Ronald Goettler
between competition and innovation using a model with important
A new study looks at how
features missing from most previcompeting firms invest
ous studies,” says Goettler, who is
in innovation to increase
the James N. Doyle, Sr. Professor of
Entrepreneurship.
overall market share.
In particular, most studies analyze
the effect on innovation of hypothetically adding or
removing firms. But measuring competition using
the number of firms is inappropriate, Goettler says,
Senior associate
dean Ron Goettler
takes a fresh look
at the influence
of competition
on innovation
and product
substitutability.
28 because it’s influenced by the same factors that drive
incentives to innovate. He focuses on three such factors: entry costs, the ability of firms to copy each
other’s advances, and the degree of product substitutability in an industry.
Consider the last of these. The more similar products are, the more substitutable they are, and thus
the competition is greater even if few firms are competing. For example, just two companies, Intel and
AMD, control 95 percent of the PC microprocessor market. Despite the low number of competitors,
competition is fierce: both companies invest heavily
Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business to produce faster and more power-efficient CPUs to
satisfy consumers.
In contrast, if only two firms were to compete in the
fashion industry, each would have little incentive to
innovate, because most fashion products are poor substitutes for one another. Instead, competition in this
industry results from the large number of firms that
enter in response to the low product substitutability.
For many years, economists have debated the
effect of competition on innovation. Firms need
market power to generate the increased profits that
make investments in innovation worthwhile. Some
researchers, starting with Joseph Schumpeter in
the 1940s, have argued that increased competition
reduces market power and therefore reduces innovation. Others have argued that firms with market
power already have high
profits and therefore low
incentives to innovate,
and that reducing market
power via more competition
spurs innovation.
Goettler and co-author
Brett Gordon, of Northwestern University, find that
accounting for the effect of
competition on the number
of firms is important and
gives rise to an inverted-U
relationship between competition and industry innovation, measured as the
rate at which the industry’s
frontier product improves.
“When product substitutability is low, increasing
substitutability leads to
more innovation,” he says,
“as firms innovate to protect
their own market share and to steal market share
from the large pool of competitors.”
“But as substitutability gets very high, the lead
firm captures most of the profits and laggard firms
exit,” Goettler says. “The lead firm invests heavily to
protect its lead when laggards are close, but because
laggards have few profits to invest in R&D, eventually the leader pulls away and reduces its investments
once it’s securely ahead.”
The result, he says, is that further increases in substitutability lower innovation, yielding the downward portion of the inverted U. s
—Sally Parker
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ADAM FENSTER AND STEVE BOERNER
Research Highlights
Professor Claudio
Loderer looks at
the personality
traits and other
circumstances
that help create
successful entrepreneurs. Luck,
he says, is not as
important as one
might assume.
Are Successful Entrepreneurs Just Lucky?
Do successful entrepreneurs have luck on their side?
A new paper studies the role of sheer luck compared with talent, experience, education, and hard
work in entrepreneurial performance.
Claudio Loderer ’80S (MS), ’83S
(PhD), the academic director of SiClaudio Loderer,
mon’s Rochester-Bern Executive
Diego Liechti, and
MBA program in Switzerland, along
Urs Peyer
with co-authors Diego Liechti and Urs
Peyer, studied the role of luck among
Research shows personal
entrepreneurs in Switzerland, considcharacteristics and the
ered by various sources to be the most
ability to take risks play
innovative, entrepreneurial,
and competitive country in
a role in startup success.
the world. “Luck” was defined as unexpected performance for purposes of the study.
Their paper, “Luck and Entrepreneurial
Success,” is based on a 2007 survey of 63,202
individuals in Switzerland. More than 8,200
respondents completed the questionnaires.
Loderer
About a third were entrepreneurs who had
registered their businesses between 2002 and 2006;
the rest were non-entrepreneurs, including teachers,
engineers, managers, and public employees.
“Entrepreneurs are markedly different people,”
the authors state. “Compared with non-entrepreneurs, they are more likely to be male and a bit
younger, are less risk averse and more overconfident, and have the same management experience but
shorter industry experience.”
Respondents rank luck dead last in importance
UNIVERSITY OF BERN (LODERER); CORBIS (ILLUSTRATION)
among various success factors, and luck accounts for
less than a third of performance. How entrepreneurs
view luck is mostly unaffected by past performance
and many personal characteristics, the study found,
including the illusion of control and overconfidence.
Even religion and cultural background do not change
its relative ranking among success factors. Nonentrepreneurs held similar beliefs.
Luck does play a role in a number of activities,
however, such as finding the appropriate business idea
and choosing the right moment to enter a market. But
perhaps more important, it is the perception of luck
that shapes the decisions of entrepreneurs
and other managers, the authors found.
“Individuals who believe luck is important are more reluctant to start new businesses,” they say. “Moreover, they are less
likely to tap a fraction of the assets in their
pension plans to fund their firm and less
willing to work full time.”
Loderer says the paper shows that what
entrepreneurs believe is luck correlates
with the unexplained fraction of performance in a
standard econometric model. Estimates of that model
also show that hard work, one of the pillars of a strong
work ethic, does affect performance. Talent, education, and especially experience also have an impact.
The paper’s findings build on original research
conducted by co-author Diego Liechti during dissertation work at the Institut für Finanzmanagement
in Bern. It is one of the first large-scale empirical
studies of its kind. s
—Sally Parker
Research Highlights
Assistant
professor Huaxia
Rui found online
surgeon ratings,
long criticized as
Internet popularity
contests, to be
more accurate
than some may
want to believe.
Online Reviews Prove Trustworthy
A new paper by assistant professors Huaxia Rui and
Susan Lu suggests that despite media criticism to the
contrary, online physician reviews can be trusted,
at least those of cardiac surgeons. The paper, “Can
We Trust Online Physician Ratings?
Evidence from Cardiac Surgeons in
Huaxia Rui and Susan Lu
Florida,” is the first to look systematically at the correlation between online
A recent study shows that
ratings and medical performance.
when it comes to cardiac
Pundits have decried online physisurgeons in Florida, you
cian ratings as simplistic popularity
contests in which punctual doctors
can believe what you read.
with friendly staffs are rated more
highly than the most skilled.
Using patients’ ratings at RateMDs.
com and data from Florida Hospital Discharge, the authors studied
whether online ratings in fact reflect
the medical skills of cardiac surgeons.
“We started with one initial question,” Rui says. “When we try to find
a surgeon, does information online
about their rating tell us anything?”
Rui and Lu were surprised to learn that patients
of surgeons with five-star ratings have a much higher
mortality rate. The answer lies in patient selection:
Those who are very sick are more likely to select doctors with high ratings than lower-rated surgeons.
“Those physicians are very highly skilled and more
likely to treat those high-risk patients. So if you’re
30 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business looking only at high mortality rate it’s not fair,” Rui
says. “When the severity of illness is taken into account, what we find is that doctors with five-star ratings have smaller mortality rates if you consider the
patients treated by them are more risky.”
Online physician ratings are subjective measures
of physician quality and may complement objective
measures such as mortality rate.
“People do take into account their own risk level
when they rate physicians. If they’re OK but not real
sick, they won’t try to seek the highly rated doctor
for treatment. And when they recover, they won’t
give such a high credit to the doctor either. On the
other hand, if they’re really sick, they tend to seek
highly rated doctors and, once recovered, they really
give credit to the doctor,” Rui says.
To test what traits patients are looking for, Rui and
Lu measured patient responses to the four dimensions commonly asked in online ratings: helpfulness
of the doctor, his or her level of knowledge, staff
courteousness, and doctor punctuality. The study
found that patients selected doctors based on their
level of knowledge and their helpfulness—not staff
manners or punctuality. “This is evidence that patients are not naïve,” Rui says. “They do know what
matters is the knowledge or skills of a doctor.”
There are very few reviews of doctors, and critics
argue that their scarcity makes them an unreliable
source of information. The authors plan to study why
there are so few physician reviews. s —Sally Parker
ADAM FENSTER
Research Highlights
Adjunct Simon
lecturer Frank
Torchio looks at
discounted cash
flow assessments
and their impact
on financial and
merger valuations.
Looking at Liquidity Before Litigation
A new paper by adjunct lecturer Frank Torchio ’82S
(MBA) and colleague Sunita Surana provides new
insight into the proper way to perform a discounted
cash flow valuation for fair-value assessments.
Torchio is an expert in forensic
economics. In “Effect of Liquidity on
Frank Torchio
Size Premium and Its Implications for
and Sunita Surana
Financial Valuations,” he and Surana
argue that small-cap stocks are often
Experts take a fresh look
undervalued in merger litigation.
at cash flow valuation and
For example, Company A buys
how small-cap stocks are
Company B, paying a premium. If
shareholders of Company B are not
being underestimated.
happy with the price being offered,
they may invoke their appraisal rights and sue. The
lawsuit requires both plaintiff and defendant to present valuations of Company B, which are generally
based on discounted cash flow (DCF) analyses.
It has become customary for valuation practitioners to add to the weighted average cost of capital
(WACC) for such DCF analyses, a premium if the
company being valued has a small capitalization. The
most common cited source of historic size premium
has been from Ibbotson Associates.
Torchio and Surano’s paper shows that the historic
size premium used by many valuation practitioners
is really measuring the historic premium required for
holding less liquid stocks. This is because small-capitalization stocks have disproportionately lower liquidity because they are more likely to be thinly traded.
JAMES L. CANESSA
Thus, if the WACC includes a liquidity premium, then the ultimate DCF valuation will reflect
a discount for a lack of liquidity. But law governing merger litigation requires a computation of “fair
value,” and the law states that fair value cannot include any discount for lack of liquidity, Torchio says.
“So for those merger valuations that include a historic size premium for small-cap stocks, the value of
small stocks is underestimated because that premium
is in large part a premium for the lack of liquidity for
such small-cap stocks. They underestimate the value
of those small stocks by adding the published historic
size premium to the weighted average cost of capital,” he says.
According to Torchio, “In the context of merger
litigation, or any analysis that requires a measure of
fair value, use of these small-cap premiums in your
cost of capital will cause an undervaluation of your
fair-value computation.”
Whether the value obtained from a DCF analysis
that uses the standard-size premium is the fair value
of the stock is left to the courts and legal scholars to
decide, Torchio says. But by quantifying the effect of
the undervaluation, the paper provides a fresh economic context to help answer the question.
“It is a new insight that may have a significant
impact,” he says. “The amount of undervaluation
can be quite substantial because such published
size premium can add as much as 12 percent to the
WACC.” s
—Sally Parker
Alumni Leaders
Jason Aymerich ’10S (MBA)
President of Software and Print Solutions, Complemar
BY ANDREA HOLLAND
Jason Aymerich
says his degree
from Simon helps
him predict trends
and have a wider
perspective on the
business world.
32 Jason Aymerich understands the value of watching
things grow. As president of Software and Print Solutions at Complemar, a market-leading global supply chain provider headquartered in Rochester, NY,
Aymerich’s career started nearly 20 years ago in the
manufacture of highly decorative retail packaging for
Fortune 100 consumer packed goods (CPGs). Today,
he leads a team of what he considers to be worldclass thought leaders in the booming e-commerce
industry.
An estimated $1.5 trillion industry, e-commerce is
spearheaded by giants like Amazon in the B2C sector. In B2B, Complemar boasts an aggressive growth
plan, expansion into the UK, and an impressive 55
Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business percent growth in top-line revenue last year. All this,
of course, hasn’t happened by accident.
Complemar provides fulfillment and contract
packaging services for businesses. The company
processes 3,298 transactions per second, each one of
those transactions yielding critical information that
Complemar then uses to help its customers better
understand their own customers—from a big-picture
view down to the most granular measure. “We synchronize the many platforms through which companies do business to simplify and centralize their
information,” Aymerich says. “At Simon, I learned
that those who are able to centralize information
flow and then decentralize the decision making—that
is, use that information to advance organizations—
are the people who are going to be most successful.”
Joining the company in 2012 was a decision,
Aymerich says, driven by a commitment to follow a
business model focused on e-commerce versus traditional brick-and-mortar retail. “That’s the future of
this [packaging] business, and my job is to see the future. My Executive MBA taught me that and more,”
he says. “I gained a broader view of the world, which
allowed me to recognize how other companies—
other people—face similar challenges, whether it be
competition, margins being squeezed, or disruptive
technologies. Realizing this really opened my eyes to
the fact there is a very real framework we can all use
to address these problems.”
Business growth aside, Aymerich—who also has
a passion for growing hardwood trees on his 307acre tree farm in Allegany, NY—certainly appreciates the literal importance of cultivating strong roots.
He attributes much of his success to good business
acumen, confidence, and as he fondly recalls, the
“three-legged stool” analogy resonating in the halls
of the Simon School.
“You could pretty much answer any question by
using the three legs of the stool: assign decision-making rights, create a measurement system, and reward
and recognize. This methodology has been ingrained
in how I work and how we—as a company—work,”
he says. Beyond this, Aymerich’s willingness to
wholly pursue every opportunity has always guided
him. “I don’t want to have any excuses in my life,
and that’s why I’ve worked to give myself every tool
I possibly can,” he notes. “We all have that ‘rocking
chair moment’ in our minds, and I want to be able to
look back on my life and know that I gave myself every opportunity I could to be successful.” s
JOHN SMILLIE
Alumni Leaders
When Joan Lavis
was ready to
leave a long and
successful career
in banking, she
drew upon her
knowledge of
finance to forge
a new career.
Joan Lavis ’83S (MBA)
CFO, BrightLine
BY JOY UNDERHILL
SHANNON TAGGART
With a solid background in big banking and finance,
Joan Lavis recently made the switch to serve as CFO at
a digital advertising firm. The two worlds couldn’t be
more different, but Lavis drew upon her vast toolkit of
finance skills to make the transition a successful one.
Lavis has built a 30-year career with some of the
best firms in the business. She began at Ernst & Young,
where she perfected her audit and mergers and acquisitions advisory abilities. As a managing director at
GE Capital, she earned her Six Sigma Black Belt and
put it to work in capital markets, real estate, and other
specialties. Lavis then spent 10 years at UBS, where
she launched three functions, managed an $800 million private equity portfolio, and completed $9 billion
in acquisitions. She has also served as board member
on such investments as Markit, NYSE Liffe US, and
Market.com.
So why switch to a small company in advertising?
“I was ready to leave banking,” Lavis says, “especially as the industry contracted and became more
rigidly regulated. The dynamics of the industry had
changed, and I initially thought my skills would
be useful in the shadow banking industry that has
grown up post-2008.” But she didn’t find a good fit.
That was when she turned to her network to brainstorm possibilities—and eventually landed her next
job. Lavis had all the skills used by CFOs but hadn’t
earned the title, which proved a stumbling block
with executive search firms. “Once my network knew
of my interests, it went to work, and eventually I
heard about a position at Brightline,” she says.
Initially, Lavis had no idea what Brightline did.
“They’re a small and innovative company that delivers interactive TV advertising in a measurable way. I
was first brought in as a consultant for a few days so
I could better understand the products, culture, and
personalities before I came on board,” says Lavis.
She was able to play to her strengths in her new
position, using skills honed in her years with much
bigger firms. Lavis now enjoys managing the company from end to end in her more comprehensive
role as CFO. “This industry is growing, which reenergized my career,” she notes, “and that’s just what
I was looking for.”
Lavis credits her professors with bringing in the
real-world experience she needed at the time. “Ron
Schmidt made economics understandable and relevant, and Cliff Smith’s practical advice serves me
even today. It was at Simon that I built the foundation that has served me throughout my career,” she
says. Lavis also credits Mark Zupan with promoting
the value of maintaining an alumni network, which
she continues to nurture.
Lavis married another Simon alum and they have
three college-age children. In her spare time, she enjoys tennis and golf. s
Alumni Leaders
Susan Gardner ’91S (MBA)
Senior Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis, Constellation Brands
BY JOY UNDERHILL
After earning her undergraduate degree from Alfred
University, Susan Gardner chose to pursue her MBA
rather than attend law school. More than two decades
later, she has no regrets.
Gardner interned at Bausch & Lomb after her first
year at Simon. This led to a job with the company’s
Treasury group after she graduated with concentrations in Corporate Accounting and Finance. It was
there that she began to put her business acumen and
analytic skills to work.
In 1996, she began her career at Constellation
Brands, where she now serves as senior vice president of financial planning and analysis. Gardner first
here,” Gardner says. “It’s very exciting to constantly
assess Constellation’s enterprise value and identify
strategies to maximize shareholder value.” She believes her Simon education has been instrumental in
her success by giving her a solid foundation in corporate finance, analytical skills, and creative problemsolving techniques.
Gardner especially values what she learned from
Simon professor Gregg Jarrell, who taught her how
to value a company using discounted cash flow analysis. “I use those skills every day, in and out of work,”
she says.
“Over the years, I’ve learned that collaboration,
served as manager of planning and reporting for the
Wine division and was soon promoted to director of
corporate financial planning and analysis. Her next
move up was to vice president of corporate development, where she became involved in mergers and
acquisitions.
Gardner’s upward trajectory continued from
there. In her next role, as senior vice president of
corporate development, she helped identify opportunities for growth through acquisitions. In 2011,
she moved to her current position, where she added
analysis, reporting, and strategic plan development
to her responsibilities.
“I’m fortunate to be involved with a dynamic company that has seen tremendous growth in my time
honesty, and direct communication are the keys to
success,” Gardner notes. “I’m convinced that opportunities are what you make of them. It also helps to
surround yourself with talented people!”
To that end, Gardner has remained active in her
Simon network. A few years ago, she hired another
Simon grad, Gillian Li ’09S (MBA), whom she met
at a women’s networking panel. “When an opening
came up in our Development group, she was the first
person I called, and she’s been a great addition to our
firm,” she says.
Gardner is blessed with two active sons, a loving partner, and a circle of close friends. She enjoys
running, gardening, music, and travel in her spare
time. s
Susan Gardner
says she uses
her degree from
Simon every day
and that it helped
her contribute
to Constellation
Brands’ nearly
two decades of
successful growth.
34 Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business JOHN SMILLIE
Alumni Leaders
Philip Fraher ’93S (MBA)
CEO, FuelQuest
BY ANDREA HOLLAND
Philip Fraher was recently appointed CEO at Fuel-
Phil Fraher
credits some of
his success to the
decision-making
skills he learned
at Simon.
Quest Inc., a medium-sized software company in
Houston, TX, that provides fuel management services and software for buyers, suppliers, and distributors. In his more than 30-year career, though, this
isn’t Fraher’s first time in the CEO seat. With more
than 14 years collectively spent at the C level, Fraher
says the quality that has made him most successful in
his many roles has been his ability to learn and think
quickly—skills he says he sharpened at the Simon
School.
Though he may process and act quickly, Fraher’s
path has always been by design. Upon receiving his
Editor’s Note
At the time of
publication,
FuelQuest
announced it had
been acquired
by Veeder-Root
Co. Phil is now
pursuing his
passion for startup
leadership as the
COO of Metal
Networks.
EDWARD BENSEN
undergraduate degree from Auburn University, Fraher already had key goals in mind. “I knew I wanted
to get my MBA within five years; I knew I wanted to
run a software company—and I ultimately did both,”
he says. Fraher has actually run a few software companies. “My whole career has been B2B, software,
and analytics,” he notes. “Finance has always been
my track to getting there, and getting my MBA was
critical to making those transitions.”
At FuelQuest, Fraher has three priorities: international strategy, partnerships and accelerated product
development, and serving clients from a solutions
perspective.
“Fuel buying—whether you’re a retailer or a trucking company—is not a simple process,” he says.
“Pricing is complicated. Given the intricacies of the
market and the regional indexes, consumers can see
pricing at the pump change three to four times a day.”
There are other challenges as well, from overstocking or under-supplying—which can carry implied
fees—to theft, taxes, and even fuel and delivery reconciliation. “There’s so many sophisticated things
happening at, say, a fuel island. Our goal is to amalgamate the different solutions out there for our customers from a logistics standpoint.”
If success is fodder for pride, it would seem Fraher could find reason to be pleased. He has, after all,
thrice held dual titles in companies as both COO
and CFO. He believes, though, it’s been his lack of
ego—then and now—that
has helped him build and
sustain his success.
“To be an effective leader,
you need information,
and you get that information from the team members around you—whether
bosses, peers, or subordinates. When you wear your
ego on your sleeve, you
alienate others and it impedes your work,” cautions
Fraher. “I think what Simon
doesn’t get enough credit
for is its ability to develop
graduates who know how to
keep their ego in check. Yes,
there are the hard skills we
learn, but it’s also a culture
thing. I think the School
needs to be proud of that.”
Fraher recalls his first job out of Simon—an intensive financial management program with four,
six-month rotations at Dun & Bradstreet. “I had to
be able to embrace the role and engage quickly,” he
says. “It was as if you were parachuted in and you had
to have the right skills to make it. Many of the MBA
students from other elite schools had big egos and it
hurt them. Simon MBAs were on an even keel; you
could tell us apart.”
Passionate about both learning and mentorship,
Fraher serves as a member of numerous school advisory boards, as well as a mentor for startup CEOs
through the Houston Technology Center, named by
Forbes in 2010 as one of “Ten Technology Incubators
Changing the World.” s
Class Notes
❶
1973
1994
■■ Charles F. Bellavia was
named the California
Knight of the Year 20122013 by the California
Knights of Columbus.
In addition, the Knights
of Columbus Livermore Council 4588 (of
which Chuck is past
Grand Knight) received
the 2012-2013 International Service Programs
Award, second place,
from the Supreme
International Headquarters of the Knights
of Columbus for Journey to Living Bethlehem. Chuck is CEO and
founder of ElectraDrive.
■■ Nadia S. Malik has been
named chair elect of the
Board of Governors of
Off The Record Lecture
Series, created under
the aegis of the Foreign
Policy Association.
Nadia is co-founder and
CEO at Global Partnership for Women and Girls.
1985
■■ John C. Groetch was
recently appointed
regional sales director for the Americas at
Lombard Risk Management in New York City.
1987
■■ Timothy Dunne
released a business
book with co-author
Tim Hurson in July
2014, Never Be Closing: How to Sell Better
Without Screwing Your
Clients, Your Colleagues,
or Yourself. Timothy is
a consultant at InstantBrainStorm.com.
36 1998
■■ Luigi B. Limentani has
joined Point72 Asset
Management North Asia
as a director in Tokyo.
ROCHESTERThe Simon Business School welcomed the Class of 2014 to the alumni
community at the annual Toast to Our Grads celebration on June 5, 2014. During the
ceremony, Dean’s Leadership Awards were presented. Dean’s Leadership Award winners
pictured first row: Nicole Camarre ’14S (MBA), Mark Zupan, Christopher Wood ’14S
(MBA), second row: Joseph Barone ’14S (MBA), Yue Tian ’14S (MS), Michael Nicoletti
’14S (MBA), Glenn Caventer ’14S (MS), Xinyu Liang ’14S (MS), Linh Nguyen ’14S (MS),
Ian Matthew Harrington ’14S (MBA), Praveen Desai ’14S (MBA), Meher Verumi ’14S
(MBA), Michael Lightman ’14S (MBA), Ajey Mehta ’14S (MBA), Matthew Kenney ’14S
(MBA), and Ruxi Xu ’14S (MS).
1999
❶❶ Takafumi Yamanaka
and fellow alumni gathered for a reunion in
Tokyo in June. Clockwise from the lower
left: Samieru Kawaguchi
’99S (MBA), Kazuto
Yamashiro ’99S (MBA),
Yasu Kawaguchi ’99S
(MBA), Taka Yamanaka
’99S (MBA), Hideya
Takano ’99S (MBA),
Daisuke Inaba ’99S
(MBA), and Masafumi
Kobayashi ’00S (MBA).
2001
■■ Anton Heinrichs has
been promoted to
administrative vice
president at M&T Bank.
As a consumer credit
risk manager, he is
Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business ATLANTAThe Simon School Alumni Network of Atlanta enjoyed a behind-the-scenes tour
at Lockheed Martin on July 11, 2014. The tour was hosted by Earl Pinkett ’77S (MBA).
Pictured left to right: Kevin Pound ’08S (MBA), Phil Collins ’99S (MBA), Mark McIver
’96S (MBA), network leader Katy Watson ’06S (MBA), Earl Pinkett, and Eli Hale ’04,
’06S (MBA).
Class Notes
Share
Your News
To submit a class note, send an
e-mail to the Simon Advancement
office in care of Kelly Rains at
kelly.rains@simon.rochester.edu,
or to your Class Correspondent
below.
CLASS OF 1981
David Meister
davidmeister1@gmail.com
CLASS OF 1982
Sameer Shah
sameer19shah@gmail.com
CLASS OF 1983
Ellen Curry Stevens
ecsteven@valdosta.edu
CLASS OF 1988
Jeff Durbin
jeffreydurbin@yahoo.com
CLASS OF 1995
Hakan Akbas
hakan@hakanakbas.com
Philipos Minaidis
fivera@otenet.gr
Nikolaos Veraros
nveraros@hotmail.com
CLASS OF 1996
Aditya Kapoor
modernprefab@gmail.com
CLASS OF 1998
Geoff Laughlin
GLaughlin@rwbaird.com
CLASS OF 2000
Jennifer Henion
jenhenion@yahoo.com
CLASS OF 2001
Brian Donovan
bjdon99@hotmail.com
CLASS OF 2003
Tamara Arbesman-Gold
tra2106@columbia.edu
CLASS OF 2004
Karen Sweet
karensweet9@gmail.com
CLASS OF 2005
Rameet Kohli
rameet.kohli@gmail.com
Seiichiro Takahashi
seitakah@gmail.com
Alumni and friends gathered around the world
to celebrate Mark Zupan’s decade of service as
dean of the Simon Business School. Events were
held in Miami hosted by Simon Executive Advisory
Committee member Russell Beyer ’81S (MBA) and
his wife, Lizzie Padro ’82; Naples hosted by Simon
Executive Advisory Committee member Bob Lerner
’78S (MBA) and his wife, Diane; New York City hosted
by Sid Dalal ’71 (MA), ’73S (MBA), ’76 (PhD) and his
wife, Alka; Washington, DC; Singapore; Hong Kong;
Houston hosted by Steve Shepard ’78S (MBA) and
his wife, Barb (pictured); Los Angeles hosted by UR
trustee and Simon National Council member Evans
Lam ’83, ’84S (MBA) and his wife, Susanna; Chicago;
and Rochester.
CLASS OF 2006
Chris Johnston
chrisjohnston04@gmail.com
CLASS OF 2008
Chris Adams
christophius1@hotmail.com
Christine Stoelting
christine.stoelting@gmail.com
Lynne Amerson
lcamerson@gmail.com
CLASS OF 2010
Nisha Churi
nishachuri@gmail.com
CLASS OF 2011
CLASS OF 2014
TORONTOMarlene Puffer ’93S (PhD) delivered a
Don’t see your class represented
here? Interested in becoming a
Class Correspondent? Contact
Kelly Rains (kelly.rains@simon.
rochester.edu) to learn more.
presentation on fixed income to alumni on February
25, 2014. Discussion was moderated by Toronto
Alumni Network Leader Alex Okounev ’06S (MBA)
and hosted by UR trustee Lance Drummond ’85S
(MBA) at TD Tower.
Ajey Mehta
mehta.ajey@gmail.com
2002
■■ Sean M. Carroll and his
wife, Angie, welcomed
the arrival of daughter
Violet Grace Carroll,
born Thursday, July
17, 2014. Sean is commander and chief of
response for U.S. Coast
Guard Sector Boston.
2003
CLASS OF 2009
Stephen MacLean
stephen.maclean@simon.
rochester.edu
responsible for credit
risk and policy analysis, including regulatory
requirements and risk
reporting for the credit
card and other unsecured lines of credit
portfolios.
■■ Jeffrey F. Kishner
joined VersaCold Logistics Services as director
of financial planning
and analysis based
in Toronto, Ontario,
tasked with building
a team to help drive a
major business transformation initiative. He
is also co-leading the
Simon School Alumni
Network of Toronto
with fellow alumni Alex
Okounev ’06S (MBA)
and Jessica Zhou ’12S
(MBA).
■■ Bichnga T. Nguyen is
now a performance lead
at BP in Houston, TX.
■■ Alexsandra Sukhoy
has released her fourth
book, Diary of the
Dumped, the story of
a modern woman who
receives a breakup text
from her boyfriend.
Alex is a writer and
marketer at Creative
Cadence LLC.
2004
■■ Sherli Looi is now
senior vice president
at Garrison Bradford &
Associates Inc. in New
York City.
■■ Roberto Vazquez has
joined Despegar.com as
a regional controller in
Montevideo, Uruguay.
2005
■■ Wen-Hsien (Anthony)
Chu is now a senior
portfolio manager at
Trinitus Asset Management in Hong Kong.
2009
■■ Kristin Barchuk
recently took on a
new role as innovation
manager focusing on
business case development for new projects
and initiatives at the
ADT Corporation in Boca
Raton, FL.
■■ Judy Liu is now a consultant with Buck Global
Investment Advisors in
New York City.
■■ Karthik Manivasagam
started a new business,
Greenbhoomi (www.
greenbhoomi.com), a
social entrepreneurship
endeavor specializing in
door-to-door collection
of recyclable waste in
and around Coimbatore
(Tamil Nadu, India).
Greenbhoomi is the
first initiative of its kind
in Coimbatore.
■■ David B. Shaulis and his
family have relocated to
the Chicago, IL, area.
David is a field superintendent at Schindler
Elevator Company.
2010
■■ Debra L. Davidson
was recently promoted to controller
Class Notes
at Northeastern Retail
Lumber Association in
Albany, NY.
■■ Matthew C. Piede relocated to Columbus,
OH, in order to join
Nationwide Children’s
Hospital Foundation as
vice president of annual
giving programs.
■■ Christina M. Thueme is
working as the director of strategic planning
and market intelligence
for Spectrum Health in
Grand Rapids, MI.
2011
■■ William J. Mitchell relocated to Greenwich,
CT, to work at startup
hedge fund Tradex
Global Advisors as an
analyst/trader.
■■ Kimberly M. Versaw
has joined Alpha Wire in
Elizabeth, NJ, as a marketing communications
manager.
■■ Yumeng (Rachel) Zheng
has relocated from
Hong Kong to Beijing
to join International
Finance Corporation as
an investment analyst
in the Infrastructure
and Natural Resources
Group.
Protect your investment
by sending the best.
REFER A QUALIFIED STUDENT TODAY
Simon alumni understand the importance
of attracting the highest caliber students
to our School. By connecting the most
promising business talent with our
proven analytic approach, we maintain
our reputation as one of the world’s top
business schools.
Help ensure a degree from Simon always
means our graduates have studied among
the very best. It’s a legacy of excellence that
opens doors and means as much today as
it did when you were here.
Contact Us
Refer by calling (585) 275-3533 or
toll free in the US at (800) 599-5618.
You may also e-mail your referral to
admissions@simon.rochester.edu
Because our reputation is our legacy.
38 Fall 2014
❶
❷
❸
❹
❺
❻
❽
❼
2000
❶❶ Brendan E. Lynch
and his wife, Suzanne,
welcomed the arrival
of Connor Liam Lynch,
born January 24, 2014.
Brendan is a business
manager at Bank of
America. He and his
family live in Chicago,
IL.
2001
❷❷ Eduardo R. Pinheiro
and his wife, Juliana,
welcomed the arrival of
Maria Eduarda Miranda
Pinheiro, born September 20, 2013. Maria
joins older brothers
Victor (10) and Felipe
Miranda Pinheiro (7).
Eduardo is managing
director at Brickell CFI
S/A. He and his family
live in São Paulo, Brazil.
2004
❸❸ Scott M. Chaverri
and his wife, Kayleigh,
of Matthew Scott, born
May 9, 2014. Scott is a
senior financial analyst
at Amazon.com.
❹❹ Kevin Sheldon and his
wife, Angie, welcomed
the arrival of Summer
Julianna, born June 17,
2014. Summer joins
older brother CJ (3).
Kevin is vice president
of audience development at Equate Analytics. He and his family
live in Leesburg, VA.
❺❺ Blaine Streisand and
his wife, Jill, welcomed
the arrival of Maicey
Fiona Streisand, born
October 25, 2013.
Blaine is global brand
manager, VMS at Reckitt Benckiser.
2005
❻❻ Ziba L. Lennox and
her husband, Nicholas
J. Lennox welcomed the
arrival of Matteo James
Lennox, born February 28, 2014. Ziba is
co-founder and owner
of MaZi Dance Fitness. Nicholas is vice
president of business
development for Accel
Entertainment. They
live in Chicago, IL.
❼❼ Patrick J. Tehan and
his wife, Meghan,
of Eleanor Kathleen
Tehan, born March
3, 2014. Eleanor joins
older brother Adam (3).
Patrick is a senior technical decision support
analyst at Rochester
General Health System.
He and his family live in
Rochester, NY.
2006
❽❽ Christopher Johnston
and his wife, Grace,
of Flinn Renate, born
April 6, 2014. Chris is
director of sales and
marketing at Mill River
Winery. He and his
family live in Newburyport, MA.
2009
❾❾ Janine M. Gajew-
ski and her husband,
Daniel, welcomed the
arrival of John Gajewski, born April 27, 2014.
Janine is an associate at
Booz Allen Hamilton.
■■ Aymen Saeed and her
husband, Abid, welcomed the arrival of
Mir Mustafa Zaim, born
May 16, 2014. Mir joins
elder brother Farhad.
Aymen was promoted
to AVP and asked to
head the capital analysis
team at DBRS Inc.
❿❿ Guannan Wang and
her husband, Zheng
⓫
➒
⓭
❿
⓮
⓯
⓰
⓬
Wei, welcomed Lillian
Wei, born March 16,
2013. Guannan recently
accepted a position as
assistant professor of
accounting at Suffolk
University.
2010
⓫⓫ Andrew J. Armstrong
and his wife, Elisa, welcomed the arrival of William Jude Armstrong,
born May 12, 2014. William joins older brothers Isaiah (8), Luke (5),
and Jacob (3). Andrew
is a financial operations
manager at Neopost.
Chaska, MN.
⓬⓬ Jonathan C. Denni-
son married Kelly S.
40 Dennison on December 11, 2010, in Columbia, SC. Jonathan is
manager of pricing and
channel analytics at
Gilbarco Veeder-Root
(a subsidiary of Danaher Corporation). Kelly
will be attending Wake
Forest Law this coming
fall. Jonathan and Kelly
welcomed the arrival of
Hayes MacCoy Dennison, born December 31,
2012, in Columbia, SC.
2011
■■ Calder T. Flynn and his
wife, Heather, welcomed the arrival of
Kathryn Claire Flynn,
born June 3, 2014.
Kathryn joins older
Fall 2014 ◾ Simon Business sister Olivia (4). Calder
was recently promoted to vice president, financial analysis
manager, supporting
the Wilmington Trust
Wealth Management
and Institutional Trust
divisions at M&T Bank.
Orchard Park, NY.
⓭⓭ Abhishek S. Nayak
married Nikita Pai
on March 9, 2014, in
Belgaum, KA, India.
Abhishek is a partner
at Sunil Chemicals in
Mumbai, India. Nikita is
a production engineer
formerly with Tech
Mahindra, now working with Abhishek in his
family business. They
live in Mumbai, India.
⓮⓮ Norihisa Takeda mar-
ried Mami Takeda on
November 2, 2013, in
Hawaii. Norihisa was
recently promoted
to deputy director in
the Financial Stability
Group, Planning and
Coordination Division, Bank Examination
and Financial System
Department at Bank of
Japan in Tokyo, Japan.
Mami is a lawyer at the
TMI Associates law
firm in Tokyo.
2012
⓯⓯ Peter S. Klausz mar-
ried Stella Yitong Zhao
on June 14, 2014, at
the Genesee Valley
Club, Rochester, NY.
Peter is a health care
operations consultant
at National Executive
Service Corps. Stella is
completing a master’s
degree in actuarial studies at Columbia University. They live in New
York City.
⓰⓰ Michael G. Richtmyer
married Kristi Mullins on November 16,
2013, at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity
School in Rochester,
NY. Michael is deputy
controller at Tetra Tech
Construction. Kristi is
a talent and compensation manager at the
Villa of Hope. They live
in West Henrietta, NY.
Recognizing donors who have made a gift, of any amount,
to the Simon Business School annual fund,
or any University of Rochester annual fund,
for two or more consecutive years.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT:
rochester.edu/rochesterloyal
To support the Simon Business School and to get started
on becoming a member of Rochester Loyal today,
visit us online or call (800) 598-1330.
All gifts count toward The
Meliora Challenge, a Universitywide fundraising campaign that
was launched in October 2011
and runs through June 30, 2016.
Willam E. Simon School of Business
Rochester, New York 14627
Change Service Requested
THE TALENT ADVANTAGE
put the power of simon to work for you.
As alumni, you understand hiring Simon graduates
means connecting your company with highly qualified
talent who have been rigorously trained for the modern
world of business. At Simon’s Career Management
Center, we have a team of career consultants ready to
connect you with current students, recent graduates,
and mid-to senior-level professionals.
Consider a Simon graduate for your company’s
next project, internship, or full-time career position.
Connect with us today. Contact the Simon Career
Management Center at career@simon.rochester.edu
or call us at +1 (585) 275-4881.
We invite you to post a position or view résumés
automatically using SimonWorks powered by Symplicity™
or take advantage of Simon’s partnership with MBAFocus
to search through online résumé books and recent
job postings. Links and more information can be
found at: simon.rochester.edu/recruit
Because tomorrow’s leaders will look to you.

Simon Welcomes Dean Andrew Ainslie

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