Winter 2005 - The Paul Merage School of Business

P r a c t i c u m Te a m s
Ta c k l e M a j o r - L e a g u e
Business Issues
Real Estate Center
Announced
Left: Edwards Lifesciences
Right: Angels Baseball
Published by UC Irvine, The Paul Merage School of Business
FA L L 2 0 0 5
Issue No. 7
Magazine
Creating Connections
Building Lifetime Networks Between
Students, Alumni and Businesses
Leading Strategic Growth in the
Global Innovation Economy
Enhance and Expand Your Lifetime Network!
Join your colleagues and be a “Charter Member” of the Dean’s
Leadership Circle of The Paul Merage School of Business!
MISSION:
BENEFITS OF JOINING:
• Assist the Dean in the recruitment of
nationally renowned business faculty and
the most desirable graduate students
• Provide support for academic and
research needs
•
•
•
•
•
•
Special networking opportunities
Annual “Dean’s Insider’s View” reception
Recognition on Wall of Honor as a Charter Member
Invitation to all DLC events (8-10 per year)
Quarterly Newsletter
Certificate of Charter Membership
Become a Charter Member1 of our new Dean’s Leadership Circle. For information contact:
Mitchell Spann, Director of Development, (949) 824-1655 or email mwspann@uci.edu.
For your year-end giving convenience, a return envelope is provided with this magazine.
Thank you to our Charter Members Of The Dean’s Leadership Circle:
2
Pam Adams ‘98
(Interim Chair)
A. G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.
Joe Adams ‘02
Discovery Science Center
Alane Anderson ‘90
AIM-interactive
Anthony V. ’00 and
Dianna Armand ‘00
Armand Business Group
Eve Barker ‘06
Orange County’s
United Way
Paul DeRidder ‘97
Tech Coast Angels
Kristen Monson ‘86
PIMCO
Jasmine Shodja ‘01
Wells Fargo
Ed Fuller
Marriott Int’l Lodging
Karen Nixon ‘83
Nixon Benefits
Craig Shugert ‘93
FSI Home Products
David Glazov ‘07
IFB/Lite & Healthy Inc.
Gus Ordonez ‘05
Honeywell
Jim ’89 and Beverly
Hendrickson
Microtek Electronics, Inc.
Anthony Padilla ‘87
IMPAC Financial Services
Mitchell and
Maureen Spann
The Paul Merage
School of Business
Greg ’05 and
Janet Herder
Hobbs Herder Advertising
Cleophus Calloway Jr. ‘92
American Honda Motor Co.
Fedrico Hormozi ‘02
California Department
of Transportation
Michael A. Cancelleri ‘05
Mont Pelerin Capital
Ed Kacic ’01 and
Rose Kacic ’97
Irvine Health Foundation
Christen Chambers ‘05
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Erik Charles ‘03
The Paul Merage
School of Business
Peter Cullen ‘82
Core Performance
Consulting
Joe & Heather Davis
Triton Pacific
Capital Partners
Al DeGrassi ‘79
Alliance Bank
John Karem ‘02
Tiffiny Vandom Karem ’03
Avery Dennison
Greg ’88 and Cindy Lai
Affinity Investment
Advisors
Ryan Malone ‘98
Zetera Corporation
Mike Meredith ‘99
The Paul Merage
School of Business
Paula Milano ’80,
(Incoming Chair)
Axion Solutions
Andy and Pam Policano
The Paul Merage
School of Business
Jeff ’00 and Dana Pratt
IndyMac Bank
Greg Queen ‘03
Rosemount Analytical
Gary Rosenfield ‘06
Bernstein Investment
Research
Roston Family
Nira Kozak
Daniel Roston ‘89
Stacey Halpern
Sandon Saffier ‘98
St. Joseph’s
Medical Center
Peter N. Sairafian ‘80
Southern California
Edison
Rhondi Shigemura ‘99
Senomyx, Inc.
Sasha Talebi ‘99
Anchor Capital
Scott Waddell ‘00
Morgan Stanley
Thomas Wagner, ‘89
Taco Bell Corp.
Kevin Yang ‘06
Rosemount Analytical
Steve Yoon ‘04
Countrywide
Securities Corp.
David ‘90 and
Sandy Young
PIMCO Europe Ltd.
1 Charter Membership means joining
the DLC on or before December 31,
2005. Executive Committee members in boldface. 2 As of press time.
3
4
Dean’s Message The Merage
school is developing a formal
Lifetime Network strategy for
students, alumni, and the business community, writes Dean
Andy Policano. The network
is part of the school’s goal
to attract the best students
and build the best curriculum,
faculty, career services, and
external relations program.
Creating Connections
4 Merage Fellows
Student teamwork and
confidence-building were
hallmarks of the “Challenge
U” physical exercises faced
by the first class of Merage
Fellows: 13 scholarship
students. Anyone willing
to try the high-wire?
Fall
2 0 0 5
6 Practicum Student
teams in the Management
Consulting practicum course
take on major-league corporate
strategy and marketing issues
for businesses ranging from
the Angels baseball franchise
to Edwards Lifesciences, makers of cardiovascular devices.
The practicum focuses on
the Merage school’s three
drivers: information technology,
analytic decision-making and
strategic innovation.
9 Support Group The
Dean’s Leadership Circle
helps the Merage school
fund fellowships and faculty
research, and to purchase
equipment and fund other
critical needs.
“
The end goal is to develop
critical thinking in our
students so that they can
lead organizations.”
– Vijay Gurbaxani, page 7
10 12 16
COVER PHOTO
Merage
Fellows
Chris
Mackenzie,
left, and
Terry Weiner clasp hands
in mutual support, 30 feet
high, for the “Trust Bridge,”
one of the Challenge U
exercises described on
pages 4–5. Photo by Liang
Dong, also a Merage Fellow.
Celebration The $30
million gift from Paul
Merage and his wife Lilly
to our school, renamed
The Paul Merage School
of Business, was cause
for a major celebration
last April 5.
Center for Real Estate
Merage school forms the
Center for Real Estate to
produce highly qualified
MBA graduates for the real
estate industry and related
urban planning, environmental and legal issues.
Nationally-recognized
Professor Kerry Vandell
will direct the program.
Virtual Teams Professor
Cristina Gibson embarks
on a research project to
determine how teams of
geographically-dispersed
and technology-dependent
workers collaborate on
projects as complex as
international film-making.
Magazine
Editorial Director Donna Mumford
Your Gift
Makes a Difference!
regardless of size, provides critical resources for
the school and helps us attract and retain the best faculty and
students. These gifts also allow us to launch important new initiatives that support our mission of “Leading Strategic Growth in
the Global Innovation Economy.” Visit www.merage.uci.edu and
choose “Donate” to support The Paul Merage School of Business.
Or, contact Donna Mumford, Assistant Dean, at (949) 824-6418.
Editor
John Gregory
Assistant Editor
Allyson Cunha
Ar t Direction
and Design
IE Design + Communications
Hermosa Beach, CA
Writers
Charlie Baecker
Sandra Findly
John Gregory
Katie E. Ismael
Donna Mumford
Robin Redding
Mitchell Spann
Darleen Tong
Photographers
Allyson Cunha
Liang Dong
Katie E. Ismael
Beverly Poland
Carlos Puma
Robin Redding
Carmella Hardy
Printing
Meridian Graphics
EVERY GIFT,
i Magazine is published three times a year by
the UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business
Communications Office, MPAA Suite 210,
Irvine, CA 92697-3130.
www.merage.uci.edu
C O N TA C T U S
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& Innovation 949-824-7311
Please use this form to update us on what’s new: honors, awards, associations,
family, friends, or career. Send to UC Irvine, The Paul Merage School of Business,
ATTN: I-Magazine, MPAA Ste. 210, Irvine, CA, 92697-3130.
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Address
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Year
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2
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DEAN’S MESSAGE
Creating Connections
T
Creating a Lifetime Network for
Students, Alumni and Businesses
exciting and momentous year. Certainly,
the naming of the school, made possible by the very generous
gift from Paul and Lilly Merage, stands out as the most significant event of the year.
THIS HAS BEEN AN
At the same time, the school has received numerous accolades,
including recognition from BusinessWeek (Marketing ranked 3rd),
The Wall Street Journal (Information Technology ranked 4th),
The Financial Times (Executive MBA ranked 13th in the US),
and many others. We are well on our way to true distinction as
we build on the excellence of our already established reputation.
For Merage students and alumni, graduating with a built-in
network of workplace and global business contacts is as important as their degree. This year, we are developing a formal
“Lifetime Network” strategy to build on our already excellent
network. Below are the primary goals of this network.
Enrich the student-to-student experience. For the first time,
some of our incoming students undergo a fun but rigorous day of
physical exercises to build teamwork, trust, and confidence with
one another. Turn the page to learn about this adventure that we
will extend next year to all new full-time students. We are also
examining ways to increase the interaction of our students across
the full-time, fully employed and executive MBA programs.
Enhance student interaction with the business community.
We now have an extensive mentoring program with more than
110 executive mentors and 125 students. The program has
grown nearly ten-fold since its inception in 1998.
We now have internships available with a wide array of companies, thanks to the broader reach we have in the business
community. Over 95% of students who want internships find
them with more than 150 firms in the southern California
business community. And as you will read on pages 6-8,
second year students can take a Management Consulting
practicum course that goes well beyond an internship or
working with a mentor at a company. The project provides a
“just-in-time” learning experience as our students tackle the
challenges faced by companies today.
Develop a comprehensive corporate relations strategy. We
have engaged a carefully chosen set of companies to participate
in a full set of activities with the school, including providing
internships, projects and placement opportunities, and supporting their employees in a FEMBA, EMBA or HCEMBA
program. Senior executives of the companies generally serve
on the Dean’s Advisory Board or other Boards in the school
and provide significant advice and guidance.
Build zones of interest that connect the school with
critical sectors of the Orange County and global business
communities. We are developing four centers in the areas
of real estate, health care, entrepreneurship/innovation, and
wealth/investment management. These Centers have importance within the school’s mission, a significant amount of
interest from students, associated faculty expertise, attractive
research and applied information potential for the greater
business community.
Already well established is the independent Center for Research
on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO), which
continues to produce research vital to both industry and academia, and which is supported by important corporate partners
including Boeing, Microsoft, IBM and Intel.
Expand our Executive Education and Alumni programs.
Alumni can now take refresher courses through our MBA Update
Program. We have restructured our Alumni Network, now 5,600
strong, so that alumni, whether dues-payers or not, can access the
lifetime email system, monthly e-newsletters and more.
This year we established the Dean’s Leadership Circle (DLC)
to provide funds for fellowships, faculty recruitment and other
critical areas at the Merage school and to provide a vehicle
for DLC members to participate in the strategy of the school.
Those who join the DLC by December 31, 2005, will be
forever recognized as “Charter Founding Members,” and will
be accorded well-deserved appreciation in school publications
and on a planned “Wall of Honor” at the school.
As you can see, creating and expanding a robust Lifetime
Network is among our highest priorities, because this Network
will provide all of our students and alumni with a highlyeffective, built-in resource that continues to expand in size
and reach. The Lifetime Network is part of the Merage school’s
goal of attracting the top-tier students and building the best
curriculum, faculty, career services and external relations
program, particularly with our vibrant business community.
We are committed to successful partnerships for our students
and alumni within this world-class business community as a
critical step along our path to true distinction.
Andy Policano, Dean
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Creating Connections
COVER STORY
Left: Anil Rana climbs pole to do the “Hee-Bee-Jee-Bee.” Top:
Thor Clark and Iveta Brigis practice the “Trust Bridge.” Directly
above, the 13 Merage Fellows. Top row, left to right: Thor Clark,
Iveta Brigis, Terry Weiner, Lena Mingazova, Jeff Williamson, Ben
Alarcon, Amit Chhikara, Michael Ma. Bottom row: Anil Rana,
Eagle Lin, Chris Mackenzie, Liang Dong, Shine Thomas. Right:
Jeff Williamson conquers the “Leap of Faith” on the trapeze.
Merage Fellows
Learn the Ropes
BY
| John Gregory
“Congratulations,” the 13 students were told,
“you’re a Merage Fellow!”
But enough of the pleasantries. Now go climb
that 30-foot pole and walk across horizontal
ropes we call the “Hee-Bee-Jee-Bee.”
Jump and grab that swinging trapeze way up
there, do the “Trust Bridge” where you and a
partner cling to each other’s hands in mid-air,
and finish with the “Leap of Faith.”
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FA L L 2 0 0 5
COVER STORY
WELCOME TO CHALLENGE U.
In what may be called the Merage
school version of TV’s “Fear Factor”
minus the bugs, 13 Merage Fellows
underwent a day of high-wire exercises,
all designed to instill confidence,
teamwork and other lessons taught
by extreme sports.
society. She worked on an MTV reality
show for three months. Amit Chhikara
volunteered for the International Red
Cross in South Asia during the tsunami
disaster. He’s a top-notch cricket player.
Thor Clark, who entered Cal Tech at
age 16, worked at a company that went
computer awareness at a slum in New
Delhi. Shine Thomas, a former program
analyst, enjoys biking as well as cricket.
Terrence Weiner, a molecular biologist
and former Amgen employee, was a
nuclear machinist in the Navy. Jeffrey
Williamson, former banker in Canada,
These 13 students represent the first
group of Merage Fellows to receive fellowships as a result of the recent gift
from Paul and Lilly Merage. They were
selected on the basis of their abilities
and background, blended with the
Merage school’s assessment of their
potential for success as business leaders.
The Merage Fellows took their Challenge U course
at a recreation park in San Juan Capistrano and
came away with a better understanding of the
Merage school’s Lifetime Network – it starts at
the student-to-student level.
The photos on these pages tell the
story of Challenge U, a heart-pounding
form of initiation for incoming stu-
from the verge of bankruptcy to a
positive cash flow of more than $100
million in three years. Liang Dong
plays hockey and is a film buff.
Benjamin Alarcon, another
UCI undergraduate, was a
dents that is becoming popular at a
handful of business schools. The 13
students at The Paul Merage School
of Business took their Challenge U
course at a recreation park in San
Juan Capistrano and came away with
a better understanding of the Merage
school’s Lifetime Network – it starts at
the student-to-student level. Some of
the exercises required coordination with
and complete trust in a fellow student,
or the whole stunt failed.
won first prize in the National Youth
Chinese Painting Contest, also won
a drama award, and is handy with a
camera – as these photos show.
Marathon runner Hua (Eagle) Lin
was president of the Xiamen South
Education Organization. Karate expert
Michael Ma held a management job at
E*Trade. Scuba diver Chris Mackenzie,
a UC Irvine undergraduate, has worked
at CompUSA and Gateway.
project manager at a telecommunications company.
They are an impressive group. Iveta
Brigis has worked with a nonprofit
organization that educates students
about excelling in technology and
Elena Mingazova was an assistant professor at a university in Russia and is an
expert at baking bread – she owned a
bakery. Anil Rana, formerly a consulting
analyst, volunteered to teach children
Our Merage Fellows are truly exceptional and well-rounded professionals.
They are our leaders of tomorrow.
In addition to their fellowships, the
13 Merage Fellows get top priority for
a research or teaching assistantship in
their second year, and will work with
mentors from major companies, meet
monthly with Dean Andy Policano and
receive customized communications
skills training.
– Research by Maureen Vasquez and David Soliel
FA L L 2 0 0 5
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5
Creating Connections
FEATURE
Practicum Student Teams
Tackle Major-League
Corporate Issues
BY
| John Gregory
Y
Angels President Dennis Kuhl, right, and Robert Alvarado, left (director of marketing and ticketing), with practicum students from left:
David Yang, Gary Rosenfield, Koji Takahashi, Payul Shahpatel, Eric Rall, Sharen Horrick and He-day Kondo. Photo Credit: Carmella Hardy
ou’re the Angels, a successful big-league baseball team,
yet you are determined to attract even more fans to the
ballpark. You need to measure what spectators want, how
much they’ll pay for it and how these services should be promoted.
Who can get you answers in a short time?
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FEATURE
Or you’re a large producer of cardiovascular-treatment devices and you need a
strategy for potential new cardiac surgery
products. Or, you might be an executive
with any of the following – a huge computer manufacturer, a marketing firm
with a branding tool called Buzz Saw,
a maker of respiratory equipment for
home use, a small film production company – and you need consultants to
recommend new strategies to ramp up
sales of new products or services.
These real-world companies have
asked students from the Management
Consulting practicum course at The
Paul Merage School of Business to help
come up with solutions.
This fall’s class of 40 second-year
students is working with six sponsoring
companies and organizations: Los
Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Edwards
Lifesciences, Gateway, Young &
Rubicam’s brand-building Wunderman
division, Apria Healthcare and the
nonprofit Dodge Family Foundation’s
new film production company.
A practicum, as defined by Webster, is a
course of study that involves the supervised
application of previously studied theory.
Emile Pilafidis, instructor of the Merage
school’s practicum, calls his Management
Consulting course “an engagement with
a sponsoring organization that sets goals
it expects our students to meet. The success of that organization’s product or
service could ride, in part, on what our
students uncover and recommend.”
The practicum is an important part of the
Merage school’s emphasis on Lifetime
Networks among students, alumni and
the business community. While mentoring
or internship programs are common
applications of networking at most business
schools, the Merage practicum course is
substantially different. Companies benefit from the students’ learning.
And, says Pilafidis, “students are exposed
to basic conceptual, analytical, and technical knowledge and skills provided by
Christine McCauley, vice president of global talent for Edwards Lifesciences, in front of the Merage student
team, from left: Ogla Bezrydina, Steve Chang, Jia Lin, Kalpana Samuel, Jivko Donev and June Shin.
the sponsoring organizations. Not to
mention the perks of rubbing shoulders
with some of the top executives in
Orange County.”
The practicum concept is a key component of the Merage school’s innovative
curriculum initiative, says Vijay Gurbaxani,
associate dean and professor of information
systems. “We want every student to learn
how to translate classroom learning into
action, building hands-on expertise in
his or her chosen area and understanding
how to conceptualize and structure a
business problem, develop an analytic
solution approach, collect data and make
and implement recommendations.”
Gurbaxani says the projects that students
will work on are carefully selected to reflect
the dynamic and innovative environments
that businesses find themselves in today.
“The end goal is to develop critical
thinking skills in our students so that they
can lead organizations in the future by
developing sustainable business strategies
in the face of intense global competition and rapid technological change.”
The practicum, Gurbaxani notes, focuses
on three drivers of business growth that
are the core of the Merage program:
information technology, analytic decision-making and strategic innovation.
Pilafidis adds that the course provides
opportunities for the Merage school to
develop and strengthen ties with the
business community at large and, more
specifically, with key stakeholders such
as the Dean’s Advisory Board, Dean’s
Leadership Circle, Corporate Partners
program and alumni.
Pilafidis says that when the practicum
began in 2002, “We had to scramble
to find sponsors. Now, we’re overwhelmed with sponsors wanting to
be part of our program.”
Continued on p. 8...
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7
FEATURE
Continued from p.7...
The selection process is handled by Robin
McNatt, corporate outreach manager
of the Merage school Career Center.
“It’s now invitation only,” McNatt says.
“We seek companies that are interested
in a long-term relationship with us. We
screen the projects for strategic fit with
our curriculum, the right level of executive sponsorship, and assurance that the
project is realistic for students to complete within 10 weeks. I identify a
short list of organizations at least one
The Practicum’s
Role at the
Merage School
BY
| Gary Lindblad, Assistant Dean
THE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
PRACTICUM IS AN IMPORTANT
ELEMENT OF DELIVERY IN OUR
PROGRAM DESIGN.
The MBA program includes foundational
courses in which students build a solid
base of disciplinar y knowledge. These
include accounting, finance, marketing,
operations, and integrative, cross-functional
courses in information systems for management and business strategy.
The practicum takes the program to a higher
level and enables students to apply their
learning within real companies, solving real
business challenges. Rather than simply
assigning “projects” to second-year students,
the Merage practicum takes teams of students, led by a faculty member, and places
them inside sponsoring companies for a
10-week consulting project. The companies
provide a project leader and the student
teams are expected to deliver a superior
result, on time and immediately applicable.
The MBA program culminates with a
Capstone course that challenges students
to grasp the big picture, obtain long-term
perspective and explore where innovation
will take industries in the future. Futurists
and trend analysts will conduct workshops
and present research during the Capstone
course to prepare students for making
executive decisions.
The practicum was developed over the past
three years through the teamwork of Emile
Pilafidis, instructor, and Robin McNatt of
the MBA Career Center.
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academic quarter in advance to build a
pipeline of future projects.”
These stakeholders of the Merage
school – all part of the broader Merage
network – have helped the practicum
open doors to many of the sponsoring
companies. And vice versa. “Having a
real-world management consulting
project on our graduates’ resumes helps
them during the job application
process,” Pilafidis says.
Last spring, 34 students, divided into five
teams, provided management consulting
to Mazda North America; Pepsi Bottling
Group; Precept, a human resource firm;
FileNet Corporation, a software and
framework company, and the Dodge
Family/American Sterling Group. Mazda
and Dodge Family are repeat customers.
In addition last year, Professor Alladi
Venkatesh led a team of students for a
practicum project at Microsoft.
When Larry Dodge of the Dodge Family
met his new team this fall, he remarked,
“It is almost as if you hand-picked this
team to work on my project.”
That is no coincidence, McNatt explains.
“We assign student teams based on their
industry and functional experience, along
with their career aspirations.”
The 34 students last spring accumulated
2,794 hours, an average of 82 hours per
person, while working with the companies
over the 10-week course. Typically, students
meet a minimum of five times with
executives or managers of their sponsoring organization, culminating with a
presentation of findings. Research and
analysis are conducted on and off site.
Last fall at Mazda, the Merage team
conducted a situation analysis, a study
on product placement and a market
launch for the Mazda 5, a combined
sport utility and station wagon in development at that time. Brian Sim, manager
of national advertising for Mazda North
America, told the students at the end of
the course, “Your work uncovered many
gems that we will be discussing. Your
group exhibited the term ‘team’ better
than I’ve seen in quite some time. It is
very clear that there are some future
leaders in the group.”
Mazda and its advertising agency implemented the students’ media approach,
which excluded television spots – atypical
of the industry – in favor of advertisements in bicycling, hiking and other
sports and recreation magazines.
Glen Kauffman, ’94, executive sponsor
of Pepsi Bottling’s project, told his
Merage team, “This is the first time
we’ve had real data to back up our
perceptions.” The team examined
how Pepsi could, among other things,
improve performance in its vending
machine division.
This fall’s crop of practicum students
hopes that similar accolades will be
heaped on their efforts.
On the first day of class, however,
Pilafidis gave them a pep talk to stress
how demanding their assignments
would be: “We’ve got to get moving.
Start thinking about these companies
today. This is not a traditional course.
We have stakeholders out there.”
Edwards Lifesciences, for example, wants
the six-member team to understand the
worldwide marketplace for potential new
products. The assignment includes analyzing competitors and new technologies
that could disrupt Edwards’ plan. The
team will then recommend a strategy,
including distribution and financial
projections, for the company to pursue.
After touring Edwards with Carl
Swindle, director of technology for the
company, student Steve Chang, ’06,
said, “It’s really a great opportunity to
gain insight into how these top-level
executives think.”
June Shin, ’06, who heads the team,
said the practicum course offers a balance between theory and practice.
“That’s what an MBA is for.”
– Research by Katie E. Ismael
NEWS
Creating Connections
Dean’s Leadership Circle Formed to
Support Merage “Lifetime Network”
the school is counting on alumni and
the exceptional strengths they provide,
membership in the Dean’s Leadership
Circle is also available to colleagues
within the corporate community as well
as faculty, staff, students, parents and
friends of the UC Irvine community.
D
Dean Andy Policano describes the new Dean’s
Leadership Circle at the home of Paula Milano.
PAULA MILANO ‘80 WELCOMES DLC
MEMBERS TO HER HOME
ties to share ideas, career opportunities
and business referrals with one another.
Dean Andrew Policano has announced
the creation of the Dean’s Leadership
Circle (DLC), a support group formed
by a team of committed alumni of the
Merage school to further strengthen the
Lifetime Network of the school’s alumni
and friends in the business community.
Contributions of DLC members will
be used to help fund fellowships, faculty
research, equipment purchase, and
other critical areas that help The Paul
Merage School of Business to increase
its visibility and standing. As this
process gains momentum, the reputation of the school will continue to
increase, adding value for all alumni
who hold a degree from the school –
regardless of the year awarded.
With the number of Merage school
alumni now numbering 5,600, the
school plans to increasingly engage its
alumni in many rewarding activities,
while providing another venue for
alumni to reconnect with each other
and with contacts in the Orange
County business community.
Strengthening the Lifetime Network
of the Merage school is a major goal of
Dean Andy Policano and fits within the
school’s strategic vision of a tightly-knit
community wherein current students,
alumni and members of the business
community have numerous opportuni-
Dean’s Leadership Circle members will
benefit from a special relationship with
the school and with the dean. Members
will be invited to attend several DLC
events per year, including an annual
visit with Policano. He will look to
DLC members for input and opinions
on future directions that the school will
take in the areas of curriculum, career
paths, executive education and programs for working professionals. While
“All of us are working to raise the
recognition and quality of our school,”
said Policano. “We want to be able to
count on each one of our alumni over
the coming years as the Merage school
embarks on a remarkable journey, transforming a highly recognized school to
one of true distinction.”
One of the events for members of the
Dean’s Leadership Circle was held on
October 4 at the lovely Corona del Mar
home of alumna Paula Milano ’80 and
her husband, Eric Nielsen. Members of
the DLC heard a “State of the School”
update from Policano. DLC members
enjoyed hearing the details for the
school’s various plans, including its four
Centers of Interest. (See the Dean’s
Message in this issue for details).
Paula is a member of the Executive
Committee for the Dean’s Leadership
Circle, which plays an important role in
guiding the organization as well as providing annual support for the dean’s
priorities. She will also take over the
reins as president in 2006.
The Dean’s Leadership Circle is grateful
to Paula and Eric for hosting this event
and we look forward to many more
opportunities to gather in coming
months. Please watch your email and
alumni newsletters for news and dates.
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NEWS
Celebrating
Our Biggest Day
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4.05
NEWS
On April 5, 2005,
we celebrated the most
significant event in the
life of our school since
founding day.
P
hilanthropist and entrepreneur Paul Merage and
his wife Lilly officially donated $30 million to our
school, which was renamed “The Paul Merage School
of Business” in their honor. Hundreds of people turned out
to celebrate this momentous gift and to thank Paul and Lilly
in person.
The day began with press interviews, followed by an invitationonly luncheon at the Barclay Theater, during which former
UC Irvine Chancellor Ralph Cicerone saluted the Merages for
their generosity. The crowd enthusiastically applauded as a
banner with the school’s new name was unfurled.
That afternoon, hundreds of people jammed into the courtyard of the building for a ceremony to thank Paul and Lilly
Merage. Paul and Dean Andy Policano donned “Paul Merage
School of Business” t-shirts that were distributed to everyone
in attendance, and then posed for a photo with the crowd.
Paul enjoyed signing autographs for students and alumni on
an issue of i-Magazine printed especially for the occasion.
The gift generated enormous response from the community,
including jubilant celebration from the Merage school alumni
who attended the event in record numbers.
Crowd estimates that afternoon exceeded 800. More than
40 stories were recorded in nationwide media, including a
front-page article in the Orange County Register. The day
was gloriously sunny and warm, the speeches exciting and
heartfelt, and the celebration a turning point in the life of
our school that will never be forgotten.
Thank you, Paul and Lilly Merage, for an astounding and
truly memorable day!
Top Left: Historic moment: a new name for the school. Top right: Paul Merage
signs autographs for students. Bottom right: Lilly and Paul in front of Merage
school banner. Left: Dean Andy Policano with Paul. Second from top: Paul
Merage addresses the crowd at the naming celebration at the Barclay Theatre.
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NEWS
Funds will support the center’s diverse
set of innovative initiatives.
Influential Orange County business leaders attended a dinner on October 10 to introduce Professor Kerry
Vandell. Pictured left to right are: Ray Watson, Paul Merage, Richard Sim and John Parker.
Merage School Launches
Center for Real Estate
Nationally Known Professor To Direct New Center
Professor Kerry Vandell, who headed one of the nation’s top
real estate programs at the University of Wisconsin/Madison,
will become executive director of the recently launched
Center for Real Estate at The Paul Merage School of Business.
Vandell is nationally recognized for his
leadership within the real estate industry. While at Wisconsin, he directed the
Graaskamp Real Estate program, consistently ranked among the top three
programs nationwide along with UC
Berkeley and the Wharton School.
“Professor Vandell is one of very few
individuals in the real estate industry
nationally who is both a highly acclaimed
academic and an active participant in
the real estate business community,”
said Dean Andy Policano.
“I am so pleased to be a part of this
exciting new effort in the most vibrant
and innovative real estate community in
the world,” he said. “I am eager to
begin the path to build the best program in real estate in the nation.”
Policano noted that the appointment
marks an important step forward for
the new center, which was announced
in June and has received founding gifts
of more than $1.6 million to date.
The Center for Real Estate at the business school is designed to produce
highly qualified MBA graduates with
special training in the real estate industry and in related disciplines such as
urban planning, and environmental and
legal issues. The center will also conduct research and propose public policy
solutions to challenges faced by the real
estate industry, and will be the hub of
interaction for the most innovative real
estate community in the nation.
Many industry observers noted that
the establishment of the center on
the Irvine campus recognizes a longterm need in Orange County for an
academic resource that can analyze
the vibrant and successful real estate
industry and provide a forum to
discuss issues and challenges faced by
the county in land use and planning.
“With Orange County’s concentration
of nationally recognized real estate professionals, this is a natural fit,” said Bill
Halford, president of office properties
for The Irvine Company and an early
supporter of the center.
The Center for Real Estate, Policano
said, will emphasize trend analysis and
strategic planning to assist the industry
in anticipating the cyclical changes and
needs for research that will allow it to
sustain growth in all real estate markets.
Vandell will begin his tenure at the
school, which includes a professorship
in finance, in July 2006, but will be
making monthly visits to the school
until then. Vandell will be part of the
school’s ongoing breakfast series for the
public on pressing real estate topics,
and will direct the school’s curriculum
for MBA students interested in a career
in the real estate industry.
Kerry Vandell describes how the Merage school will build a “world class real estate center.”
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5
NEWS
Five Students Fleeing Katrina Find
a Good Home at Merage School
BY
| Katie E. Ismael
The Merage school, he observes, is
“infused with the California style.
You can wear T-shirts to class. The
beach is near-by.”
More than the atmosphere, David
Nanigian says, the Merage program
has a high status among California
employers. Nanigan is impressed with
the career opportunities here. “The
students are great, the professors seem
very knowledgeable. I’m liking it.”
AWA R D S
Katrina evacuees Benfu Wang and Jeffrey Rosenfeld
School of Business
is not where David Nanigian started
graduate school, but he says his diversion to UC Irvine’s MBA program and
its career connections could be for
the better.
THE PAUL MERAGE
True, Irvine is thousands of miles
away from Tulane University, which
he had to evacuate when Hurricane
Katrina severely damaged the campus.
He wonders about the belongings he
left behind. But sitting in front of the
Merage school’s main building,
Nanigian says he is thankful. “I got
out before the storm hit. I’m at a
great school now.”
The Merage school, explained
Dean Andy Policano, waved normal
procedures when “we sent a message
to Tulane saying we’d be happy to help
by admitting students whose education
would be interrupted by the hurricane.
We opened the doors wide.”
Before Katrina struck the Gulf Coast,
Nanigian, a 23-year-old San Diego
native, was finishing a project for a
class in his master’s of finance program.
enrollment size is similar to Tulane’s.
Rosenfeld looks forward to spending
time abroad, as he did when he was
at Tulane.
The day before the hurricane hit land,
his dad got him a plane ticket home.
Soon after, he would become one of
five Tulane students to transfer to the
MBA program at the Merage school.
Benfu Wang, a student from China,
had been in New Orleans two months
before Katrina struck. He found shelter
in Houston. Three schools admitted him,
but he had a friend at the Merage school
and decided to enroll here. “Plus, this
university is really great,” he says.
Wang now lives in an apartment
with two other students displaced by
Katrina. He says he likes the teachers
and the staff. “I think I will stay here.”
Tustin-native Jeffrey Rosenfeld decided
to return home to figure things out after
spending several nights in Houston and
getting reports from a roommate about
their water-logged house; water damage
was four feet deep. “It was nasty!”
Rosenfeld says.
He started calling business schools.
Merage offered him continuity, is within driving distance of his home and an
Paul, with medal, and Lilly Merage
PAUL MERAGE WAS AWARDED THE
2005 UC IRVINE MEDAL FOR HIS MANY
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE CAMPUS,
INCLUDING THE TRANSFORMATIVE
GIFT HE AND HIS WIFE LILLY DONATED
TO THE BUSINESS SCHOOL, RENAMED
IN HIS HONOR.
The Medal is the highest honor
bestowed by UC Irvine, and is given
annually to outstanding individuals who
have made extraordinary contributions
to UC Irvine’s mission, spirit and vision.
The Medal Ceremony is one of Orange
County’s premier events, and this year’s
celebration – which coincided with the
40th anniversary of the campus – was
held on October 15, 2005.
Congratulations, Paul, for a very
well-deserved honor!
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FACULTY
Top-Notch Faculty Conduct Innovative Research
BY
| Katie E. Ismael
Will “Clueless” give clues about
which anti-smoking messages
work with teens?
strategy actually works and demonstrating what works best,” says Pechmann.
Grant is the seventh for prominent
Merage scholar
Pechmann will conduct her research by
showing an episode of “Clueless” that
has a major anti-smoking plot to 3,600
freshman and sophomore students in
Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside
and San Bernardino counties.
MARKETING
PROFESSOR
CONNIE
PECHMANN has
won a $480,000
grant to research
the potential effectiveness of incorporating anti-smoking
messages in the plots or dialogues of
major television shows.
Pechmann, a national expert on the
impact of tobacco advertising on
youth, will receive a three-year grant
from the University of California’s
Tobacco-Related Research Program
to support her project, “Use of
Entertainment Education on TV
to Deter Youth Smoking.”
Pechmann will investigate the potential
effectiveness of putting messages in situation comedies to deter teens from
smoking. The strategy of embedding
health or social messages in TV shows,
called “entertainment education,” is
growing in popularity nationally and
internationally. Pechmann is the first
researcher to study if the strategy works
with smoking prevention.
She will study whether entertainment
education works even when the antismoking message is contrasted with
scenes in which smoking leads to positive social outcomes. Pechmann said she
will also study if adding an anti-smoking
epilogue to the TV show helps or goes
“over the top.”
“I hope to encourage television networks to embed anti-smoking messages
in shows for teens by showing that the
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The show will be edited in different
ways, to emphasize certain elements.
For instance, one test will include an
anti-smoking epilogue, another will
not. The students will then be asked
questions to determine what effect the
show had on their intent to smoke, and
what struck them about the episode.
She said the research can quickly
influence television writers on how to
educate viewers and not inadvertently
promote a harmful activity such as
smoking. It is a critical first step to
ensuring tobacco control groups join
other health groups in using entertainment education to the fullest potential,
according to Pechmann.
National Science Foundation
Honors Professor with
Prestigious Grant
The award for his digital transformation research is a first for the school
PROFESSOR
KEVIN ZHU has
received the
National Science
Foundation’s most
prestigious award
given to young
professors, the
Faculty Early Career Development
(CAREER) award.
The award carries with it a $377,000
grant and will support Zhu’s research
on the digital transformation of companies, a process that will help them be
more globally competitive. This is the
first CAREER award in the history of
UC Irvine’s business school, and Zhu is
the first Chinese-American professor in
the U.S. to receive this award in the field
of management information systems.
The CAREER award recognizes outstanding scholars who, early in their
careers, show exceptional potential for
leadership in research and education.
According to the NSF, this award is the
highest honor bestowed by the U.S.
government on outstanding young
scholars who are most likely to become
academic leaders of the 21st century.
Recipients are chosen nationwide based
on their intellectual merit and the
broader impact of their work.
Professor Zhu is investigating the
digital transformation of companies
through an innovative, five-year study
of the adoption, usage, and impact of
information technology (IT). Today’s
business environment is increasingly
digital and changing in important
ways, according to Zhu. His project
will study how companies are using
internet-based digital infrastructure to
transform the way they do business,
and how company characteristics
and industry structure will affect the
impact of IT.
His research will uncover new knowledge about the economic impacts of
technology in three major industries –
manufacturing, retailing and financial
services – by identifying crucial factors
that affect IT usage and by quantifying
the impact IT has on firm performance.
Such insights will help the business
community to better understand how
technology creates value in the digital
age, and how to use resources to compete globally.
FACULTY
“History shows that technological
innovations are the primary driver of
economic growth, yet companies have
seen vastly different outcomes on their
IT investments. Many firms failed to
achieve deep usage beyond initial
adoption,” Zhu said. “My research
team seeks to better understand how
technological innovations, especially
those related to IT-enabled innovations,
add economic value and improve business performance.”
Merage School Research Probes
Effects of Tough Substance Use Laws
Do tough underage drunken driving
laws also reduce teenage tobacco and
marijuana use?
How does California’s ban on smoking
in bars and restaurants affect workers?
One of the newest
professors at The
Paul Merage School
of Business has
received two grants
recently to answer
those questions.
PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER
CARPENTER , a professor of economics/
public policy, is conducting a pair of
studies funded by The Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation and the University
of California.
In a study supported by a $97,000
grant from the foundation’s Substance
Abuse Policy Research Program,
Carpenter and Duke University
Professor Philip Jackson Cook will
research to what extent, or if, alcohol
use by youths causes them to smoke
cigarettes and use marijuana.
The project will give new evidence
about the effect of zero tolerance
drunken driving laws, which set very
low legal blood alcohol limits for
drivers under 21. It will also examine
the effects of cigarette and marijuana
use by those ages 16 to 20.
“Our research should have important
implications for understanding whether
policies designed to reduce alcohol
consumption may have the unintended
consequence of increasing tobacco and
marijuana use, or whether they are
extra-effective by reducing use of those
substances in addition to reducing
alcohol use,” Carpenter said.
The researchers will estimate the effect
of zero tolerance laws on self-reported
rates of tobacco and marijuana use
by looking at data from two major
surveys of U.S. youth substance use
in the 1990s – the Behavioral Risk
Factor Surveillance System and the
Monitoring the Future Study.
Carpenter said the results of the 16month study will help them evaluate
the total costs and benefits of important
public policies, and he expects the findings to be of interest to youth substance
abuse policy makers.
Carpenter is also working on a project
that will provide the first large scale
evidence of the effects of statewide bans
on smoking in bars and restaurants by
analyzing California’s 1998 ban.
Such bans are the “newest frontier in
the anti-smoking movement,” yet
existing research has generally ignored
bar and restaurant workers, he said.
Such workers are exposed more to
secondhand smoke, have higher smoking rates, lower incomes and lower
rates of health insurance coverage
compared with other indoor workers,
according to Carpenter.
His study, funded by a $12,000 grant
from the University of California
Labor and Employment Fund, will
compare such factors as second-hand
smoke exposure and smoking rates of
California’s bar and restaurant workers
with other indoor workers who experienced an earlier smoking ban, and with
bar and restaurant workers in other
states which don’t have a ban.
4
Merage School
Hires 4 Faculty
Members
Four distinguished professors joined the
Merage school this fall.
PHILIP BROMILEY, professor of strategy,
is one of the nation’s most highly recognized senior faculty members in strategy,
from the Carlson School at the University
of Minnesota where he held the Curtis L.
Carlson Chair in strategic management. He
is author of two books, including Behavioral
Foundations of Strategic Management
(2004). Bromiley has written more than
30 articles for professional journals.
Last August, the New York Times discussed
his study which found that large stock
options given to chief executives tend to
cause those companies to fudge their financial numbers and lean toward bankruptcy.
Bromiley holds a PhD in urban and public
affairs from Carnegie-Mellon University and
a bachelor’s degree in quantitative studies
from Johns Hopkins University. His research
areas are management behavior, decisionmaking, corporate risk-taking and strategy
of processes.
MORTON PINCUS, accounting professor,
hails from the University of Iowa where he
held the same position. He holds a PhD in
accounting from Washington University in
St. Louis and a master’s in economics from
Temple University. Pincus specializes in
financial accounting and reporting, earnings
management, capital markets and accounting information, and accounting choices.
SHUYA YIN, assistant professor of
operations and decision technologies, was
previously on the faculty at the University
of British Columbia. She obtained her PhD
from that university and obtained her masters degree from Southeast University in
Nanjing, China.
KRISTIN BEHFAR, assistant professor
of organizational behavior, comes to the
Merage school from the Kellogg Graduate
School of Management at Northwestern
University. She holds a PhD in organizational behavior from Cornell University.
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FACULTY
Virtual Teamwork
is Cristina Gibson’s Specialty
BY
| John Gregory
How can teams of workers be most beneficial
to their organizations, whether they are conducting a disaster relief project, making a film,
developing new software or creating a new
pharmaceutical product?
becomes most challenging when the players are geographically
dispersed, haven’t worked together in the past, face crushing deadlines and internal
incentives that are not harmonious, and shareholder expectations that are ambiguous.
SUCH COLLABORATION
Cristina Gibson, associate professor of organization and strategy at The Paul
Merage School of Business and an alumna of UC Irvine, steps into such a scenario,
researches and analyzes it and comes up with solutions.
She is embarking on a research project entitled, “The Science and Art of Global
Collaboration,” to get at the root of the collaborative process, especially in creative
and artistic productions like films.
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FACULTY
Gibson’s specialty is examining collaborative processes in virtual teams, which
she defines as “geographically dispersed
and technology-enabled groups of people who work interdependently with
shared purpose. By using technology
to communicate, such as with the
Internet or teleconferencing, virtual
teams enable organizations to combine
their collective expertise regardless of
geographic location.”
Virtual teams rose to prominence in
the last decade when companies began
exporting team concepts to subsidiaries
or other affiliates in foreign countries.
Gibson’s research has found that virtual
teams make a significant impact on
corporations and other organizations
when they are “carefully designed,
trained and empowered.” Such teams,
she says, can produce significant levels
of innovation, impact and performance
in organizations. “Virtual teams can
help organizations deal with global
competition, increasing complexity
and rapid change,” Gibson says.
“However, their geographic dispersion
and electronic dependence can cause
challenges with employee motivation,
satisfaction and well-being because they
have little human contact with team
members.” For virtual teams to perform
well, she says three conditions are essential: shared understanding, integration
and mutual trust.
Gibson’s research is the first large scale
set of studies of teams across cultures.
She develops theory and practice in the
areas of collective cognition, international management and cross-cultural
psychology. The results of her research
have shed light on the leadership and
human resource practices needed to
maximize an organization’s quality
of work, effectiveness of the team
approach and competitiveness of
international firms.
In 2002 she co-authored Multinational
Teams: A New Perspective. A year later
she co-edited Virtual Teams that Work:
Creating Conditions for Virtual Team
Effectiveness. The latter book has
drawn considerable attention in management and organizational strategy
graphically separated and culturally different professionals together in teams.
“Collaborators in the film business
must work toward a common end, in
a concentrated time period, and often
under constraints of multiple jurisdic-
Gibson’s research is ground-breaking.
Very few scholars have examined team
creative processes in film making.
circles. Her findings on cognition,
teamwork and innovation appeared
in 29 articles in professional journals,
including the Academy of Management
Journal. Gibson has conducted research
and provided training on virtual teams
to companies in 20 countries.
Gibson obtained her bachelor’s degree
in psychology from Scripps College and
a PhD in organizational behavior from
UCI. She was an assistant professor at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and an associate research professor at
USC before joining the Merage school
faculty in 2003.
Last April, Gibson conducted research
during the 2nd Annual Artivist Film
Festival in Hollywood. Artivism is a
merge of art and activism on social
projects, such as human rights, and is
often displayed in documentary films.
tions in a variety of locations – sometimes around the world,” she explained.
Gibson’s research is ground-breaking.
Very few scholars have examined team
creative processes in film making.
The project is sponsored by the
National Science Foundation, the
Merage school, UCI and its Center for
Research on Information Technology
and Organizations (CRITO), with
funding of more than $140,000.
“I am developing a model that identifies
success features and core attributes of
effective global collaborations,” Gibson
says. “I expect that the findings will
expand the theories of organizational
structure and design, team effectiveness
and human resource development.”
Gibson analyzed the film-making
processes used by directors and producers. She asked viewers to rate the
films for quality, artistic value and
revenue-generating potential. She is
now conducting statistical analysis to
link specific team processes with the
ratings of film impact. Her assumption
is that international film projects are
extreme examples of the challenges
people face in bringing diverse, geoCristina Gibson
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STUDENTS
What’s
New?
Polaris Project A Winner For Students
Several Merage school students’ stock picks
performed exceptionally well during the Polaris
Investment Lab over the first six months of 2005 –
well enough to earn themselves thousands of
dollars toward defraying tuition costs for next year.
CHUCK MARTIN , former co-chairman
of the Dean’s Advisory Board at
The Paul Merage School of Business,
launched a $1.5 million investment
program – the Polaris Investment
Lab – in January 2005 that enabled
MBA students for the class of 2005 to
pick stocks using his money which, if
profitable, would be shared with them
to offset tuition costs.
The five student teams earned total
returns ranging from a high of nearly
47% to just under the market index
return of 2.78%. Only one team lost
money on its picks. The Polaris Investment
Lab thoroughly exposes students to an
experiential learning opportunity in
the valuation, risk analysis, forecasting,
pricing and financial analysis of publicly-traded companies, teaching them
the fundamentals of valuing companies
and learning skills that will serve them
well in the business world.
“My objective with Polaris was twofold,” said Martin. “First, I wanted to
provide an experiential program that
would develop MBA students’ skills in
small-team organization, management
and teamwork dynamics. Unlike case
studies where students already know the
outcomes when they are analyzing a
company situation, in the Polaris program they must analyze it prospectively,
make decisions in an environment of
uncertainty, then learn how things
actually turn out.
Merage School Hosts 1st Venture
Capital Competition Round
THE PAUL MERAGE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS hosted the wild-card round of the
Venture Capital Investment Competition, the nation’s premiere strategy competition for
venture–minded and entrepreneurial MBA students.
This one-of-a-kind competition, administered by the University of North Carolina’s
Kenan-Flagler Business School, gives students from top business schools a real-world
venture capitalist experience. Student teams interact with entrepreneurs from companies
with real business plans. UC Irvine entered the competition and earned second place in
the wild-card round, ahead of teams from Stanford and Thunderbird.
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“The students play with live ammunition, not play money,” he added.
“Students make quality decisions (and
mistakes) in an environment with real
consequences. This is a much better
learning format than is provided in
other business schools.”
Martin’s second objective was to provide MBA students with the knowledge
of how to evaluate a business from a
very pragmatic point of view. “They
will need to know how to analyze a
business strategically, operationally,
managerially and financially,” he said.
Martin’s program is believed to be the
first investment program for business
school students in the U.S. in which
the school or its university handles
none of the financial transactions or
stock market strategies. The Polaris
Investment Lab was part of the activities of the Merage student chapter of
the Financial Management Association.
Martin retained the remaining value in
investments or cash, but bore the risk
of losing money if the stocks chosen by
the student teams declined in value.
Each student posted a $200 deposit
which, if his or her team’s investments
sustained a loss, was applied toward the
loss, but never more than the amount
of the deposit. Martin bore the remainder of any loss.
“Chuck has been extraordinary generous with his time and resources,” said
Dean Andy Policano. “This project is a
real plus in providing a unique, highly
valued experience for our students.”
STUDENTS
Peter Ueberroth Headlines
Sports Business Conference
Baseball Commissioner
and current chair of the U.S. Olympic Committee
Peter Ueberroth served as keynote speaker at the
student-run Business of Sports Conference held at
the Hilton Costa Mesa hotel.
FORMER MAJOR LEAGUE
The conference, titled “Show Us the Future,” was
sponsored by The Paul Merage School of Business’
Sports Business Club, founded earlier this year by
second-year MBA students Gary Rosenfield and Hideaki Kondo. The club, with a
membership exceeding 100, provides leadership and career opportunities in sports
and sports-related industries for MBA students.
Ueberroth, currently the managing director of The Contrarian Group and owner
and co-chairman of the Pebble Beach Company, gave his insights into the business
of sports to conference attendees. Other speakers included Ralph Cindrich, sports
agent; Shelley Smith, ESPN reporter; Stan Morrison, director of athletics at UC
Riverside, and former NBA player Adam Keefe.
“The conference provided a great forum for business leaders to see how they can
reap the benefits of the rapid growth in the sports business,” said Rosenfield, president of the Sports Business Club. “All of us gained tremendous insight into the
opportunities provided by the sports industry.”
Merage School
Holds First Annual
Golf Tournament
THE INAUGURAL Paul Merage School of
Business Invitational Golf Classic was held
May 27th to allow current full- and part-time
students to enjoy a friendly round of golf with
alumni, mentors and other associates of the
school. Following the scramble format tournament at the Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course
in Irvine, all participants gathered for an
award ceremony and happy hour.
Various other prizes were awarded to the
longest drive, the closest shot to the pin
and a winner of the putting competition. The
tournament was a great success, and participants left with anticipation for next year’s
tournament. “Each year we plan to make this
tournament bigger and better. This was just a
start,” stated Shaun Miller, MD/MBA ’06 and
co-president of the golf club. With such a successful start, the future of The Paul Merage
School of Business Invitational Golf Classic
looks very bright.
Above: Merage student concentrates on his putt.
Thank You to our generous donors!
From January 1, 2005, through October 31, 2005, the friends and supporters of
The Paul Merage School of Business have contributed nearly $36.3 million!
The $30 million naming gift from Paul and Lilly Merage
kicked off an extraordinary year, with a total of 580
donors supporting the school in the first 10 months
of 2005. This has enabled us to launch initiatives
such as The Center for Real Estate, The Center for
Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Stradling
Yocca Carlson and Rauth Business Plan Competition.
We have also attracted nationally recognized faculty
members such as Phil Bromily in Strategy, Mort Pincus
in Accounting and Kerry Vandell in Real Estate. We
continue to recruit the best and brightest students,
such as the Merage Fellows, and because of your support, we will continue to attract the motivated, eclectic
and talented students of the future.
Thank you to every individual, corporate and foundation
donor. Each of you has made it possible for us to move
forward on our journey to remarkable distinction!
FA L L 2 0 0 5
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STUDENTS
Above: At the starting line, Merage student Iveta Brigis ‘07, right, hopes to out-race her brother, Alvis Brigis, left.
Other photos: Challenge for Charity drivers give it their all.
Challenge for Charity
Revs Its Motors
gave it a go in Go-Karts, miniature golf and other lively pursuits
at a Challenge for Charity fundraiser at Boomers! recreation park in Irvine.
SIXTY STUDENTS
Azhar Alavi (FTMBA ‘07) finished first in the Go-Kart competition. During an earlier
heat, four students collided and walked away laughing about it, but vowed to stay
away from racing. That is, until next year’s competition.
The Paul Merage School of Business chapter of Challenge for Charity named
the event “Racing for Michael” to donate proceeds to the Michael Johnson
Scholarship Fund and the Special Olympics. Johnson, a first-year student at the
Merage school last year, died in April 2005 after a water polo accident.
The chapter holds other fund-raising events, including a Casino night in the spring
and a weekend of competition with other business schools on the West Coast.
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CORPORATE
News
Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth
Sponsors Business Plan Competition
logical step than stepping up our support and lending our name to it.”
The competition is an eight-month
program of business plan development
and workshops to build entrepreneurial
skills that ends in a day long competi-
“
With this very significant
gift, our Business Plan
Competition will continue to
provide the opportunities to
entrepreneurs and researchers
who have become so important in recent years.”
–ANDY POLICANO
UNiCOM team won the $15,000 first place award at the 2005 business plan competition. Dean Andy Policano and
team coach Charles Baecker – both with red ties – congratulate winners (from left) Huai Gao, Abhimanyu Singh,
Vijay Reddy and Haitao Zhang.
A leading Orange County-based law firm has infused
UC Irvine’s annual Business Plan Competition with a
generous donation and will become the name sponsor
for the 2005-2006 competition.
NEWPORT BEACH law firm Stradling
Yocca Carlson & Rauth will support
UC Irvine’s Campus-Wide Business
Plan Competition by providing prizes
for the winners of the competition
and underwriting staff and administrative costs.
“With this very significant gift, our
Business Plan Competition will continue to provide the opportunities to
entrepreneurs and researchers who have
become so important in recent years,”
said Andy Policano, dean of The Paul
Merage School of Business, which runs
the competition through its Center for
Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
“We are grateful for their support.”
Stradling Yocca, in Newport Beach
provides full services to an array of
companies. Stradling Yocca is one of
the west coast’s leading corporate and
securities law firms.
“We’ve built our business on supporting
the entrepreneur,” said Bruce Feuchter,
a member of Stradling Yocca Carlson
& Rauth’s executive committee. “We’ve
long supported the Business Plan
Competition at UC Irvine in many
ways, and we couldn’t think of a more
tion. “The competition is designed to
promote entrepreneurship and develop
the skills necessary to bring a concept
to reality,” explained Shaheen Husain,
executive director of Corporate
Relations for the Merage school.
Stradling Yocca’s gift will help ensure
that the popular competition continues
to present a comprehensive program
for students from disciplines across
campus, as it has for seven years. The
UC Irvine campus – a highly regarded
research facility – together with the
Business Plan Competition, encourages
students, faculty, and researchers to
collaborate in developing ideas for
new business ventures.
The annual competition has fueled
innovative, ground-breaking business
ideas. It awards $15,000 to the first
place team, $7,500 to the second and
$1,500 to the third. Several other prizes
for the best concept paper and best
undergraduate team are also awarded.
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CORPORATE
News
Innovators Tell
How They Grew
Their Companies
Victor Tsao of Linksys
Steps to corporate success and executive
leadership highlighted recent Industry
Innovator Breakfasts sponsored by The
Paul Merage School of Business’ Center
for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
The Industry Innovator Breakfast series
brings local entrepreneurs to campus to
share their experiences in starting companies and becoming successful innovators.
The breakfasts are one of the most popular
events at the Merage school for both students and industry executives.
CONTINUED
In November, Vincent C. (Vinny)
Smith, chairman and CEO of Quest
Software Inc., told the audience how,
as an investor and director in 1995, he
took a $4 million company with 25
employees to one with $389 million
in sales and 2,250 employees around
the world.
At an earlier breakfast, Wayne Inouye,
president and CEO of Gateway, listed
competitive cost structure, a revenuebuilding plan, expansion strategy and
sustainable competitive edge as four
vital factors for business success.
Competitive edge is “highly desired,”
especially in today’s technological market. Gateway, he said, has also thrived
by simplifying every possible aspect of
its business.
Successful leaders, Inouye added,
must know how and when to make
decisions. “Seize suboptimal opportunities” because there is no “perfect
moment,” he advised the audience.
This does not mean, he explained, that
a leader should make impulsive decisions; establishing a time or date for
making decisions is what’s important.
He drew a laugh from the crowd when
he cited a malapropism from former
baseball catcher Yogi Berra: “When you
see a fork in the road, take it.”
At another Industry Innovator
Breakfast, Victor Tsao of Linksys, a
division of Cisco Systems, said that
“
Leaders must have
direction, people skills,
management skills and
the ability to focus.”
–VICTOR TSAO
leaders “must have direction, people
skills, management skills and the
ability to focus.” Tsao is co-founder
and senior vice president of Linksys,
producer of broadband, wireless and
networking hardware for the home and
small businesses. The key ingredients
to producing good products, Tsao said,
are quality, ease of use by customers,
and affordability.
S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y I N I T I AT I V E
Merage School and Chakra
Cuisine Host ‘Meals in May’
for Six Nonprofits
THE PAUL MERAGE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS helped channel more
support this spring to six Orange County non-profit groups the
school has already been helping.
Through the school’s Social Responsibility Initiative (SRI), MBA students have provided marketing, business planning, and business
consulting at no cost to non-profit groups including the Discovery
Science Center, Human Options, Share Our Selves, Surfrider
Foundation, Vital Link and the Orange County Affiliate of the
Huntington’s Disease Society of America.
Those six agencies received a financial boost thanks to the efforts
of the SRI program and Chakra Cuisine of Irvine. The restaurant
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donated 10 percent of its food sales to those groups during a
fundraising drive throughout May. The month-long “Meals in May”
kicked off with a special dinner.
The initiative is a partnership between the school’s Center for
Leadership and Development and MBA students. David Soleil,
the assistant director for the Center, said the event was “another
way The Paul Merage School of Business is helping organizations
in our community.”
“This fundraiser was a
great way to demonstrate how SRI can
partner with other
proactive community
members and have
a positive impact,”
said Eric de Valpine,
associate director of
Corporate Relations.
Chakra Cuisine owners Sunita and Ravi Koneru,
center, with fundraising event coordinator Steven Chio,
left, of StudioELREY and Eric de Valpine, associate
director of corporate relations for the Merage school.
Distinguished
Speaker Series
GENERAL PUBLIC:
Matt Ouimet
$50 per event
President, Disneyland Resort
UCI ALUMNI:
Was held on
$25 per event
NOV EMBER
All Events, 6:00 - 7:00pm
Reception to follow
The Beckman Center
100 Academy Drive
Irvine, CA 92617
RSVP required:
949.824.7922
cld@merage.uci.edu
Bob Eckert
Chairman of the Board
and CEO, Mattel
F EBRUARY
22
David Pyott
Chairman of the Board,
President and CEO, Allergan
APRIL
Leading Strategic
Growth in the Global
Innovation Economy
15
25
Anne Bélec
President and CEO, Volvo
Cars of North America
JUNE
6
ALUMNI
OC Alumni Reception:
“An Evening with the Dean”
T
The Charter Member period for the
DLC ends December 31, 2005, and all
members who join before then will forever be included in the Charter Roster
being developed for special recognition
on the School’s website and the “Wall
of Honor” at the Merage school
in 2006.
Left: Kate Bianchi ’96, Debra Friendlander Goldman ’95, and Stephanie Lowe ’95.
Right: Steve Acterman, Robin Kibota and Tom Myers, all from the 1999 class.
THE PACIFIC HARBOR at dusk was the
perfect backdrop for more than 150
alumni and their guests at the beautiful
Balboa Bay Club and Resort in Newport
Beach on October 20th. Many alumni
had come to reunite with their classmates since graduating five, ten, fifteen
and even twenty-five years ago.
Associate Director of Alumni Relations
Sandra Findly, welcomed the energetic
crowd and announced the kickoff of
the Orange County Alumni Chapter.
With over 2,500 alumni in Orange
County, this chapter will serve as the
school’s flagship chapter and be the
most active with The Paul Merage
School of Business. Sandra introduced
alumna Pam Adams ’98, who is serving
as the current chair of the new Dean’s
Leadership Circle; Pam introduced
Dean Andy Policano.
Andy presented alumni with an in-depth
look at the Merage school, sharing
the school’s vision to create leaders of
strategic growth in today’s global market – a market that has been part of
an emerging “innovation economy.”
He explained that through the new
thematic approach based on sustainable
growth, the MBA programs are focusing on strategic innovation and analysis
of trends. Dean Policano also shared
news on the creation of four centers
of interest: real estate, health care,
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entrepreneurship and innovation,
and wealth/investment management.
Director of Development Mitch Spann
gave a lively overview of the new Dean’s
Leadership Circle (DLC). The DLC
assists the Merage school in providing
critical funding for fellowships, faculty
recruitment and other areas due to state
resources and student fees being no
longer available. Mitch presented a
number of exclusive benefits for DLC
members, including invitations to
member-only events, regular access
to faculty and school leaders, special
communications and volunteer opportunities, and direct connection to all
of the DLC members who are both
alumni and corporate executives.
A business card raffle for tickets to the
upcoming Madrigal Dinner, which
members of the Dean’s Leadership
Circle will attend in early December,
was won by Dr. Cathleen Josaitis ’04
and Justin Vaicek ’05.
For announcements on alumni events
in your area, please stay tuned to the
monthly Alumni Network e-Newsletter
or access the alumni calendar and
website at www.merage.uci.edu.
To become a Charter Member of the
Dean’s Leadership Circle, please be sure
to contact Director of Development
Mitch Spann soon at (949) 824-1655
before the charter period runs out.
EVENTS
Disneyland Hosts
Dean’s Advisory Board
Disneyland and its president, Matt Ouimet, second from left and Christian Petersen ’03, marketing manager
of Disneyland resorts and Downtown Disney, fourth from right, host a Dean’s Advisory Board meeting at the
Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. Merage school guests, from left, are Armen Kevorkian ‘98, Nancy Schellhase
’94, Stacey Klinkinborg ’05, Dean Andy Policano, Aric Bellman ’05, Paul Merage and Lorel Roehl ’99.
ALUMNI
WHO, WHAT & WHERE
Class
77
78
Notes
VICKI LANZA HINES, ’77 , is product manag-
RAPHAEL WONG, ’90 , is president of
er at Cristek Interconnects, Inc.
Branan Medical Corporation. He has edited
a book, Drugs of Abuse: Body Fluid Testing,
published by Humana Press. It covers the
global market situation and the most current
technical aspects of abused drug testing.
ROLAND GILBERT, ’78 , is a distinguished
winner of an iParenting Media Award for
2005 for his book, Roland Gilbert’s Stressfree Power Parenting System, Volume 1.
He invites everyone to visit his website at
www.PowerParenting.net and offers his
assistance to alumni at no cost.
79
80
85
LINDA FOLEY, ’79 , now has her own busi-
91
STUART DOUGLAS HUTCHISON, ’91 , has
been appointed chief executive officer of
Leap Wireless in San Diego.
SPM International.
DARRELL IDA, ’91 , has been promoted to
director and chief product specialist in
charge of the Titan, Armada & QX56 products at Nissan Motor Corp. headquarters.
Darrell and Roberta (also Class of ’91) will
move to Japan for a three-year assignment.
MIKE BENVENUTI, ’85 , has joined
STEVE FICHTELBERG, ’93 , is a consultant
Smarthome as vice president of finance
and administration. He remains affiliated
with The Paul Merage School of Business
through his involvement in the annual business planning competition and mentorship
of students.
with the David Lewis Company.
ness offering low-cost legal documents to
the public (www.legaldocumentassistant.org.)
JEAN-LOUIS SOULARD, ’80 , is chairman of
87
89
90
PAUL J. JEROME, ’87 , is principal consult-
ant at Jerome Consulting.
LESLIE R. DAFF. ’89 , is an attorney and
owner of Estate Plan, Inc., a professional
law corporation in Orange County specializing in wills, trusts, estate planning and
probate.
REZA GANJAVI, ‘90 , writes, “I’m maintain-
ing an online journal which is regularly
updated. Feel free to visit it: www.rezaworld.com.” Reza stopped by the Alumni
Office earlier in the year to drop off a copy
of his latest classical CD.
TOBY GREENE, ’95 , has relocated to New
York from Monterrey, Mexico after three
years heading up Wells Fargo’s consumer
loan operation. Toby will be developing new
and existing businesses for AIG. His travels
will take him to Argentina, Mexico and
Eastern Europe.
93
JEFFREY LAU, ’95 , is director of marketing
at Informative Research. In addition, Jeff
followed his passion last year and started
a screen printing business printing t-shirts
and other clothing for local businesses,
schools, and non-profits, Creations by
Design (www.cbdprinting.com).
ANDREW SCHMERL, ’95 , was recently promoted to manager at KPMG's Risk Advisory
Services practice in Los Angeles.
ISABEL PERLINSKI, ’93 , founded an affiliate investment banking firm, Perlinski &
Associates, member NASD/SIPC.
MOLLY WENDELL, ’93 , is a commercial real
estate broker at Cushman & Wakefield. She
was named one of the 2005 Phoenix “Forty
Under 40,” an honor recognizing the emerging leaders of the city.
94
95
MASAHIRO KUDO, ’94 , is an accounting
manager at Beckman Coulter Japan.
LAURIE A. ARNOLD, ’95 , was recently
recognized by Oracle Corp. for outstanding
contribution to the internal IT integration
of the three software companies by “leading by example, consistently exemplifying a
high level of professionalism, and delivering
results on a very challenging project.”
PROFILE
HUGH RASHID, ’05 , chief executive officer of Xavor Corporation, exemplifies how alumni
and their companies can take advantage of the many opportunities available at The Paul
Merage School of Business.
Xavor, of Irvine, has recently become a member of the Corporate Partners Program.
The company has sponsored two Merage school events: a Consulting Club event on
“Strategic Relevance of Product Lifecycle Management” and the Second Annual UC
Irvine Medical Device Conference. Rashid and other managers at Xavor have leveraged
relationships with Merage faculty, including Professor Imran Currim, to help conduct
market research on key business issues facing their company.
Xavor has also hired Merage MBAs as interns to help find solutions to practical business problems. Though Xavor employs more than 100 people, only 10 are based in
Irvine. As a result, the services that the Merage school offers Xavor are invaluable.
1995 Reunion – Sitting: Ariela Tannenbaum. Standing,
from left: John Castner, John Strahl, Scott Thayer,
Dipak Shah, Edward Daoud.
96
CARLOS ADAME, ’96 , was recently named
chief selection officer at TEC International
in San Diego, the world’s largest organization
of chief executives dedicated to improving
their effectiveness and enhancing their lives.
ROB CAUDILLO,’96 , is the director of
accounting at Ticketmaster.
M. WAYNE FOSS, ’96 , is president of Foss
Consulting Group. “I have just returned
from Taiwan, where for the fourth year in
a row I presented a course in real estate
appraising at the International Center for
Land Policy Study and Training.”
CARL GLIM, ’96 , is president of AcornX.
SU KIM, ’96 , recently moved to the
Netherlands to lead the information
management practice there and to also
help open and manage the Dublin, Ireland
office for Resources Global Professionals,
a professional services firm.
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ALUMNI
Class Notes – continued
MICHAEL A. PEDONE, ’96 , was promoted
to director of the strategic capital group at
GE Commercial Finance Real Estate. He is
responsible for originating the full line of
GE’s commercial real estate debt solutions
for Western based opportunity funds, REITs
and other institutional sponsors.
CHRISTOPHER B. RUDOLPH, ’96 , was
named director of naval systems quality
and site director of quality at The Boeing
Company, Integrated Defense Systems, St.
Louis, Mo. Chris is responsible for quality
leadership for all naval systems programs,
quality leadership for the St. Louis site,
and a key member of Boeing's Integrated
Defense Systems Quality Council.
WAYNE W. LIN, ’99 , is now working at SMC
Networks in Irvine.
JIMIN KUMAMOTO, ’00 , recently transferred
into the IT Recruiting division of Prosum
Technology Services.
MIKE MEREDITH, ’99 , is the associate
director, admissions of the Fully Employed
MBA program at UC Irvine. “The job is great
and I have a nice balance between work
and my family life.”
DAVID SCHULTZ, ’99 , is chief financial
officer of Quantum Design, Inc., and
financial controller of Quantum Design
Instrumentation (Beijing), Ltd., established
to promote and service products in China.
All product design and manufacturing takes
place at their San Diego facility.
SASHA TALEBI, ’99 has accepted an offer
from Infiniti Capital AG, a Swiss company.
He will open their U.S. base of operations
in New York to conduct hedge fund manager research and make investment
recommendations.
2000 Reunion, from left: Scott Wadell, Svelta
Lazarova, Rod Trice, Steven Vengrow.
00
health care market research and consulting
as senior consultant at The HSM Group,
allowing her to work part time and
telecommute.
RAJEEV AGNIHOTRI, ’98 , has switched
from consulting to supply chain management in the medical device industry by
joining Advanced Medical Optics as global
surgical supply chain manager.
a residential real estate development company. “I turned over daily management of
Healthscape to a business partner so I
could work on growing Zenture Pacific
more actively.”
VAZI OKHANDIAR, ’00 , is the chief technol-
RYAN JESSER, ’98 , is director of product
JUDITH GASS, ’00 , was recently promoted
to marketing director for CareCredit, a division of GE Consumer Finance.
DAVID WARD, ’96 , has accepted the
new position of e-learning manager at
the American Association of Critical-Care
Nurses. He provides leadership, communication and project management to ensure
effective development and implementation
of existing and emerging web-based and
electronic-based learning programs
and products.
VINCENT BALUSSEAU, ’00 , is brand director
at Publicis Conseil in Paris.
ARIELLA LABELL, ’00 , has returned to
TONY DICOSTANZO, ’00 , recently founded
98
customization at ZANTAZ, Inc.
MARK PERO, ’98 , is sales director for
Avnet Partner Solutions HP Business Unit
Western Region.
99
JEREMY S. BAILEY, ’99 , has joined
Corporate Revitilization Partners, LLC
(www.CRPLLC.net ) as a director, based
in downtown Los Angeles.
DR. ROBERT BELTRAN, ’99 , has written
an op-ed piece published in The
LatinoMed Journal.
BRIAN DAVIES, ’99 , recently accepted the
position of director of business development at Northwest Consulting Group, which
specializes in electronic medical record
implementation.
MAURA HUDSON, ’00 , continues her work
as director of marketing, sourcing and
developing global corporate real estate
services for Trammell Crow Company.
JED JONES, ’00 , is living in Kawasaki,
Japan, where he works for Dell as a business intelligence manager. “I am one of
just a handful of non-Japanese employees
in this Dell office of over 1,000. The opportunity gives me the chance to work in an
intercultural environment while leveraging
my marketing skills and my knowledge of
the Japanese language and culture.”
ogy officer and co-founder of mLogica, Inc.
MICHELLE BRAZIL RUGNETTA, ’00 , has
become vice president of marketing at Sonix
Healthcare Solutions, located in New York.
JACOB “JAKE” STEEN, ’00 , is the
co-owner of Nordskog Performance
Products (www.nordskogperformance.com),
a manufacturer of aftermarket instruments
for cars, boats, motorcycles and commercial vehicles. The company manufactures
a full line of digital and analog gauges.
DHRUBA BHATTACHARYAY, ’01 , is lead project controls manager at 3D/International
Inc., working for the largest bond release for
school construction projects in U.S. history.
01
RON GILL, ’01 , has begun the Ed.D.,
organizational leadership program at
Pepperdine University.
DOUG MILLS, ’01 , has left the Walt Disney
Company to start his own company specializing in SAP software consulting.
MILES KIRBY, ’99 , is now heading up the
SCOTT THOMAS REESE, ’01 , is managing
product management group for the new
QUALCOMM QMT group that was formed
with the acquisition of Iridigm. The new
QMT group is commercializing a new low
power, sunlight viewable display technology
that mimics the principle that is use by
peacocks and butterflies to create color.
director at Xante’ Europe, developing new
European markets, resurrecting old markets, and building a winning team of
international employees.
2000 Reunion, from left: Emile Bayte III, Larry
Charpentier, Jeff Clark, Michael Di Domenico.
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ALUMNI
THOMAS K. WOO, ’01 , has been promoted
to general manager of marketing at KURE
Engineering Ltd. He will retain his previous
responsibilities as director of supply chain
and general manager of operations.
02
SHALINI CHANDER, ’02 , is a manager at
Clarkston Consulting.
JOEL ELAD, ’02 , writes, “Along with
fellow alum, Michael Bellomo, ’02, we
are releasing our 2nd book through
McGraw-Hill/Osborne publishing, How to
Sell Anything on Amazon... and Make a
Fortune. It hits bookstores and Amazon
around December 2005.” He is the operations and training manager for Net2Auction.
PAUL JACKSON, ’02 , has accepted a
position as associate publisher and managing editor of REO Magazine, one of the
mortgage banking industry’s largest trade
publications. The magazine is published
by MMG Communications, where he’s also
heading up a new book publishing division
for the company.
J.P. STOCCO, ’02 , is the downtown San
Diego assistant manager at Prudential
California Realty.
DARREN WHISSEN, ’02 , recently opened a
new Edward Jones branch in Laguna Niguel.
He provides retirement planning and other
financial services.
The EMBA CLASS OF 2002 held its third
annual class reunion on June 11 in Irvine.
With a large turnout of alumni and several
surprise guests, it was a great event. Imran
Currim and Sylvia Haas represented The
Paul Merage School of Business. It was a
terrific way for our alumni to “catch up”.
Alumni who could not attend sent messages
and photos that were shown at the event.
direct to senior marketing analyst at GM
OnStar CRM group, supporting the business intelligence and marketing reporting
function using statistics and SAS. He writes,
“I still remember the marketing lab with
Professor Connie Pechmann and advertising marketing courses with Professor
Rajeev Tyagi, which laid great foundations.”
Lautier (http://www.lautier.com,) a Spanish
real estate development group, two years
ago. “Our first two projects will be finished
at the end of 2006 and are 70% sold. We
have a 3rd project in development for 150
homes in another part of the country which
will be finished at the end of 2007.”
MICHAEL GOLDBERG, ’03 , left Nextel
Communications and joined MFORMA Group
Inc., a mobile entertainment start-up in San
Francisco as manager, sales analysis.
PATRICIA (TISH) BERGE, ’03 , is the director
CRAIG JULIEN, ’03 , is general manager
and vice president at Ceridian Recruiting
Solutions. He assumed leadership responsibilities for the newly acquired company after
facilitating the acquisition for a Fortune
1000 company.
of environmental compliance at the Encina
Wastewater Authority.
CUONG NGUYEN ’03 , writes, “After a few
03
JIA-YUH CHEN, ’03 , recently started his
PhD study in economics at UC Santa Cruz.
JUSTIN DICE, ’03 , has left Cingular
VIJAY JAYANTI ’02 , has moved from doner
EDUARDO GARCIA-TAPETADO, ’03 , started
Wireless to work for RAUXA Direct, a
complete-solution direct marketing agency
in Costa Mesa. As database strategy
manager at Rauxa, he designs data-driven
direct marketing strategies for a wideranging client portfolio.
JASON EYNON, ’03 , left PIMCO to work at
an investment bank, Wachovia, for a year
before joining another investment bank, UBS.
years working as a financial analyst, I realized that my true calling was to come back
to academia. I am working as the associate
director/program manager for the Fully
Employed MBA Program at the Merage
school. It's been a challenge, but it's so
rewarding getting to know the students.”
STEVE PARK, ’03 , is associate director of
finance at Verizon Wireless. He has been
elected to serve on the board of directors
of St. Anselm's Cross Cultural Community
Center in Garden Grove.
RAVI KANANI, ’02 , joined RBC Capital
Markets in Toronto as an equity research
associate focused on the Technology
Hardware sector.
SAMUEL OVANDO JR., ’02 , is designing
a database system for a glue factory in
Tijuana, México, and doing contract work
for Hitachi Data Systems. He started his
masters in counseling program this fall.
JOHN G. SPARKS, ’02 , is corporate
manager, financial systems and business
intelligence at Beckman Coulter. He was
recently promoted to corporate headquarters and is leading the effort to consolidate
and standardize global financial planning
and reporting systems as well as taking
charge of the full range of reporting from
their enterprise data warehouse to include
executive dashboards, routine transaction
reports, and ad hoc queries.
JOSHUA STERN, ’02 , is senior production
specialist at Bayer.
PROFILE
Payam Manavi:
Fingerprint Scanning
Executive
MBA GRADUATE PAYAM MANAVI (’03)
is chief executive officer of The Office
Games in La Jolla, the first company in the
nation to use biometric fingerprint scanning
on a practical basis. Normally, fingerprint
scanning systems in the U.S. have only
been used in nuclear power and highsecurity buildings.
Biometric scanning replaces the old username and password authentication to allow
people to enter a secure area. Manavi has
installed such systems in his computer café
game rooms.
Manavi, who holds degrees from UC Irvine in
physics, electrical engineering and business
administration, said that biometric scanning
offers split-second identity, prevents anyone
else from using that account, and is easier
than remembering a user-name, password
or pin number.
Manavi claims The Office Games computer
cafes are “unsurpassed in the world”
because of their computer-lined walls, plasma screens and chairs equipped with flight
sticks, throttles and surround sound.
“I’ve traveled the world-over, visiting computer cafes throughout Asia and found that
many countries, especially South Korea, are
years ahead of the U.S. in making computer
access easy, convenient and most importantly fun to use,” said Manavi. “I was
convinced I could make computer use more
appealing, fun and comfortable for people
on the go.”
Manavi hosted an exclusive Merage school
San Diego Chapter alumni mixer at The
Office Games on Nov. 10.
FA L L 2 0 0 5
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27
ALUMNI
Class Notes – continued
M. ANN PEOPLES, ’03 , provided consulting
services to Bechtel, CH2M Hill, and
Washington Group International resulting in
a joint venture team win for a $2.9 billion
project with the Department of Energy. The
work involves environmental remediation and
closure of the Hanford, Wash., plutonium
production site. Ann designed the organizational strategy, wrote the organization and
executive leadership narrative and led creation
of a 2.5-hour oral presentation showcasing
the program management approach and
executive personnel suitability.
KUNTARA PUKTHUANTHONG, ’03 , is assis-
tant professor in finance at San Diego
State University.
CHRISTINA SEUN-LEO, ’03 , is financial plan-
ning manager at Beckman Coulter, Inc.
04
RUSSELL B. BARLOW, ’04 , moved to North
Carolina from Pennsylvania to become a
federal credit union examiner for the
National Credit Union Administration.
AHMAD Z. NOORY, ’04 , left his position
as vice president of an international
investor relations firm to start a new
company specializing in providing investor
relations services for micro and small cap
publicly traded companies. Find his firm at
www.nexusir.com.
SAM OSBORN, ’04 , is marketing
manager at Esurance News Description
in San Francisco.
position as director of business operations
at the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve Trust.
MICHELLE SEGAL ’04 , is working in
Shenzhen, China, where she will
establish marketing communications
for Continuous Computing.
05
KEITH DIEHL, ’04 , was promoted to senior
MICHAEL CANCELLERI, ’05 , is senior vice
manager at Gateway responsible for leading
five professional team members with the
significant responsibility for all demand
planning at Gateway.
president at Mont Pelerin Capital, LLC. He
recruited and hired fellow classmate Justin
Vaicek, ’05, to join the firm. He also writes,
“The second Thursday of every month a
group of Fully Employed MBA 2005 graduates gathers at an area restaurant. We usually meet in the Newport Beach/Irvine area.
If people are interested in joining us they
can send me an e-mail and I will put them
on the distribution list – mcancelleri@montpelerincapital.com.”
MATTHEW KEZELMAN, ’04 , recently joined
MetLife in Newport Beach and is responsible for qualitative and quantitative portfolio
analysis of MetLife Investors investment
portfolios. He is also a member of the
investment committee for fund-of-funds
asset allocation models used in the
annuity chasis.
DAVID T. CHEN, ’05 , is an enterprise
planning consultant at CBH Consulting,
specializing in corporate performance
management.
ment banking industry in Tokyo, Japan.
CANDICE O. MCDANIEL, MD, ’04 , is an
SHARAD DESHPANDE, ’05 , has accepted
orthopedic surgeon at the Medical College
of Virginia in Richmond.
the position of program manager with his
current company, UGS, in Pune, India.
“I will be reporting to the director of the
newly set up Services Business Unit, working in PLM (product Lifecycle Management)
related software.”
HITENDRA MISHRA, ’04 , is program
manager at Walmart.com.
28
i | Magazine
FA L L 2 0 0 5
JENNIFER KLEIN, ’05 , is vice president,
investor relations at Autobytel Inc., in
Irvine. She has joined the board of directors of the National Investor Relations
Institute (NIRI), Orange County Chapter.
ANE S. PIYAVID, ’05 , is senior consultant
at Deloitte & Touche.
AMIT SAXENA, ’05 , received the Customer
Success Hero Award from Salesforce.com.
He is manager of applications, at First
Advantage Credco.
DWIGHT TAPP, ’05 , has accepted a
position in the research department at
Compassionate Cancer Care in Orange
County, managed by medical director, president, and chief executive officer, Dr. Haresh
Jhangiani (also Class of ’05.) Dr. Tapp will
be responsible for integrating a new medical informatics infrastructure into the
research department and expanding the
current therapeutic research scope.
Correction:
BEAU SCHINDLER of Groupe Bourbon
informed us that in the Spring 2005 issue
of i-Magazine that we erroneously characterized the relationship of Groupe Bourbon
and Rigdon Marine. Neither company is the
“parent” of the other.
BRIAN E. COPE, ’05 , recently relocated and
accepted a position with Sowood Capital
Management, a large hedge fund in Boston,
Mass. He was awarded the CFA Charter
this October.
KOICHI MATSUKUBO, ’04 , is in the invest-
JAMES L. HARRIS, ’05 , has joined a startup investment management firm, Pi Capital,
as its chief financial officer. “We are
launching a long/short equity hedge fund,
which I also serve as director, with initial
subscriptions of $80 million.”
ARIC BELLMAN, ’05 , has been promoted to
strategic planning consultant at Toyota
Financial Services.
DEANNA HILBRANTS ’04 , is service and
quality training manager at TrueCredit, part
of TransUnion, LLC.) She traveled to Manila,
Philippines, to introduce a new training program for a new offshore call center.
an institutional investment team, brokering
sales of office and industrial buildings primarily in San Diego at Burnham Real Estate
where he is an associate.
CECILE RICHARDSON, ’04 , accepted a
manager, entertainment guest experience
at Disneyland. “This promotion makes me
responsible for gathering and analyzing the
metrics which Disneyland Entertainment
uses to measure internal efficiency and
improve the guest experience from an
entertainment standpoint.”
TOSHA CLEMENTS-WOOLFORDE, ’04 , is
RYAN PATRICK DUNIGAN, ’05, is working on
PROFESSOR IMRAN CURRIM teaches “Issues
in Strategic Marketing” to Merage school alumni
and others as part of the Merage MBA Update
Program, aimed at graduates who wish to update
their MBA skills. For information on MBA Update,
call Executive Education at 949-824-4948.
The Paul Merage School of Business would like to
thank the members of the Dean’s Advisory Board
for their continued service and support.
thank you
Paul Merage, Chair
Chair, Falcon Investment Group
Founder, Chef America
Inventor, Hotpockets
Dick Allen
President, DIMA Ventures
Former Chair, Hoag Hospital
Clarence Barker
President, Investment Properties
Group, The Irvine Company
Shankar Basu
President & CEO,
Toyota Materials Handling
Don Beall
Retired Chair & CEO, Rockwell
Dartbrook Partners, LLC
Anne Belec
President & CEO,
Volvo Cars of North America
Brandon Birtcher
President, Chair & CEO,
Birtcher Real Estate Group
Eric Boden
Chair & CEO, HireRight
Chris Callero
President, Experian Americas
Scott Carnahan
Partner & National Director,
KPMG
John Carrington
President & CEO, Websense
Bruce Chapman
VP, Corporate Controller,
Toshiba America Electronic
Components
Victoria Collins
Principal, The Keller Group
Dwight Decker
Chair & CEO, Conexant
Rick Dutta
Founder, President & CEO,
Nexgenix
William Ellermeyer
Senior VP & Managing Director,
Lee Hecht Harrison
Shu Li
President & CEO,
Jazz Semiconductor
Paul Folino
President, Chair & CEO, Emulex
Chuck Martin, Chair Emeritus
Founder, Enterprise Partners
Chairman & CEO,
Mont Pelerin Capital
Ed Fuller
President & Managing Director,
Marriott International
Bob Grant
Retired Managing Partner,
Deloitte & Touche
Michael Gottlieb
Partner, Ernst & Young
Bruce Hallett
Managing Partner,
Miramar Venture Partners
Julie Hill, Chair Emeritus
President & CEO,
Hiram-Hill Development
Robert Hovee
Founder, President & CEO,
RAH Consulting Group
Steve Johnson
CEO & Founder, Choice Stream
Former VP, America Online
Lead Developer, AOL 4.0
Alan Kaye
Senior VP, Mattel
Former President,
Kaufman & Broad
Michael Kaye
Senior Managing Partner,
Clearlight Partners
Parker Kennedy
President & Chair,
First American Financial
Jim Kolar
Managing Partner,
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Darcy Kopcho
Former President,
Capital Research Company
Harry Lambert
Managing Director, InnoCal
James Mazzo
President & CEO,
Advanced Medical Optics
Kristen Monson
Executive VP, PIMCO
Brad Morrice
Vice Chair & President,
New Century Mortgage
David Murphy
President & CEO,
Young & Rubicam Brands
Matt Ouimet
President,
The Disneyland Resort
John Parker
Sr. Principal, Parker Properties
Former President,
Coldwell Banker
Michael Rogerson
President, Rogerson Aircraft
Byron Roth
President, Chair & CEO,
Roth Capital Partners
David Schramm
President & CEO,
Arrowhead Products
Peter Shea
Chair & CEO,
Entrepreneur Media
Peter Shea
President, J.F. Shea Company
Ron Simon
Chair & CEO,
RSI Holding Corporation
Mike Smith
Executive VP, Worldwide
Marketing, Emulex
Ted Smith
Founder, Retired President
& CEO, FileNet
Greg Spierkel
CEO, Ingram Micro
Sue Parks
Founder & CEO, WalkStyles
Tim Strader
Chair, Starpointe Ventures
Stephen Prough
President, Chair & CEO,
Long Beach Acceptance
Dennis Sweeney
Newport Consulting Partners
David Pyott
President, Chair & CEO, Allergan
Safi Qureshey
Managing Partner,
Skyline Capital Partners
Alex Razmjoo
Chairman & CEO,
Procom Technology
Richard Reisman
CEO & Publisher, Orange
County Business Journal
Richard Rodnick
Retired Chair & CEO,
RSM EQUICO
Peter Ueberroth
Chair, U.S. Olympic Committee
Chair, The Contrarian Group
Former Commissioner,
Major League Baseball
Luis Villalobos
Founder & Board of Governors,
Tech Coast Angels
Paul Viviano
CEO & Chair,
Alliance Imaging
Dean Yoost
Retired Managing Partner,
PricewaterhouseCoopers
“From the moment I walked in
the door, the Merage school
has exceeded my expectations.
I’ve established many great
friendships; not only with other
students, but with the faculty
and staff as well. The network
I’ve built here was instrumental
in securing my summer internship
and will help guide my professional life after graduation.”
Patrick Lee
Class of 2005
Merage
MBA
The Paul Merage School of Business
Suite 210, Building MPAA
Ir vine, California 92697-3130
www.merage.uci.edu
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