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Spring 2005
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In August, the Eller MBA program will launch the Eller Executive MBA (EMBA), delivering advanced leadership curriculum through 10 integrated learning modules in a value chain framework.
The program is reserved for accomplished managers with 10+ years of significant professional experience or fast-track employees who show executive promise in an organization. The nature of this cohort allows the curriculum to bypass certain fundamentals of a traditional MBA and explore more advanced topics in organizational leadership.
One of the key features of the Eller EMBA is its focus on building both individual and organizational capacities in real time. Coursework will address actual organizational challenges, allowing participants to immediately transfer knowledge to their organizations. Courses meet only Friday and Saturday of every other week, thereby requiring only two work days per month and minimal travel.
Associate dean and MBA programs director Brent Chrite said the Eller EMBA—by combining a highly accelerated schedule with advanced leadership education—serves “a real and distinct need in the professional community” and emphasized the College’s support for this new MBA undertaking: “We’re committed to doing everything it takes to offer a program that gives participants an unsurpassed competitive edge in organizational leadership.”
To learn more about the curriculum and the program, check out the Eller EMBA website at www.ellermba.arizona.edu/executive.
If you know someone who might benefit from this program, please pass along this information or contact us at emba@eller.arizona.edu. We will hold an information session regarding this new program in Phoenix on Thursday, June 2nd. To RSVP, please email us at emba@eller.arizona.edu, contact Natacha Keramidas at 520.621.4528, or RSVP online.
In our continued commitment to provide students with the international perspective critical to today’s managers, the Eller MBA program has formalized exchange partnerships with four leading universities around the world:
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The opportunity to spend a semester at these universities earning credit toward an Eller MBA degree allows students to gain global perspective and learn first-hand about business in another country. Students can still take advantage of the full range of Eller opportunities, such as completing the entrepreneurship program.
In addition, the Eller College will host MBA students from these institutions. In fact, the first contingent of international students from Lyon, France will join us this fall, enriching the Eller MBA environment.
We look forward to expanding our international reach as we continue to forge new partnerships with universities around the world. If you have information on or ideas for growing the Eller MBA international exchange program, please contact Linda Erasmus at erasmus@eller.arizona.edu.
Learn more about Eller MBA international education opportunities.
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| Todd Egle, MBA '04, chats with Karl Eller during a Tucson reception. | |
Nearly 1,000 people had the opportunity to hear Karl Eller, the Eller College namesake, as he traveled around the country sharing his insights and experiences as an entrepreneur. Karl met with students, alumni, and friends at The University of Arizona, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Southern California, and DePaul University, among other places. Throughout the tour, he captivated audiences with tales around his eight lessons learned—insights like “Creativity is seeing what other people don’t,” and “In a good deal, everyone wins”—as he outlines in his new book, Integrity is All You’ve Got—And Seven Lessons of the Entrepreneurial Life.
If you don’t already have a copy, you can purchase Karl’s book through The University of Arizona Bookstores or Amazon.com.
Most people don’t like visiting their doctor for shots. But after a presentation by students in the McGuire Entrepreneurship Program, you might just be eager to invest in InjectADE—a revolutionary device for injectable medications like insulin.
 Whole Loan Traders (from left to right): Arsen Ovanessoff, Nathan Taube, Neel Chakraborti, Larry Owen. |
InjectADE was one of six venture ideas—three each from undergraduate and graduate teams—presented on April 22, in the final round of the annual business plans competition sponsored by the McGuire Entrepreneurship Program. The InjectADE team—Panayiotis Panayides, Regan Dolezal, Anthony LaFeber, and Rachel Xie, all graduating MBA students—didn’t have an easy road to the finals. At one point they were ready to completely throw in the towel, but with encouragement and some prodding from advisors, they overcame challenges such as working without a prototype, making it more challenging to communicate about the product.
Every year, more and more students—now from across the UA—choose a concept to take from idea to business plan through the McGuire Program. Students can bring their own ideas or work with ideas from a third party (with a memorandum of understanding ensuring that intellectual property is protected). Many concepts also come to the program through the UA Office of Technology Transfer, with whom the Entrepreneurship Program has a close and productive partnership.
How many of the projects eventually launch? This year, 4 of 8 have already launched, and according to Sherry Hoskinson, associate director of the program, about half of the entrepreneurship graduates will start their own business within 10 years.
And the winner is…
This year’s top honors in the entrepreneurship business plans competition for graduate teams went to Whole Loan Traders with their plan for leveraging a proprietary technology to manage whole loans online.
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| Karl Eller Center director Gary Libecap presents award to Don Piper (right). | |
Last week, the Karl Eller Center presented its annual Entrepreneurial Fellow recognitions to accomplished entrepreneurs in Arizona.
This year, a new fellowship category was created to honor individuals who have successfully taken UA-developed concepts, products, or services to the private and public sectors, thereby contributing to the growth of the Arizona economy.
Don Piper, the Eller MBA’s associate director of career counseling and development, received the newly created “Eller Technology Transfer Fellows” award and was named an Entrepreneurship Scholar recognizing his support of entrepreneurship education.
Lorenz Wild is heavily involved in marketing-related professional development activities as the president of the MBASA Marketing Working Group and the graduate executive vice president of the Arizona Marketing Association. He volunteered with the Tucson Urban League Business Development Program, and last summer he completed an internship in Ecuador helping to design a U.S.-market entry strategy for an organic shrimp company.
 Lorenz Wild (second from left) with Astec and Emerson managers in Hong Kong. |
With this kind of commitment, it’s not surprising that Lorenz recently won the new “Thinking Forward” Award from the Eller College Marketing Department, given in recognition of the potential to “Think Forward and Lead the Next Generation of Responsible Citizens and Marketing Professionals.”
But the extracurricular activity is just one side of Lorenz's success story. He excelled academically as an undergraduate, earning a 3.8 GPA while supporting himself through school. As an MBA student, he’s earned a 3.9 GPA, received the Thomas R. Brown Scholarship, and been selected as a graduate teaching assistant.
Lorenz was the only graduate student to win the Thinking Forward honor, which is awarded based on four main criteria—academic achievement, leadership experience, contribution to society, and work experience. This year’s honor brought Lorenz a trip to Hong Kong where he shadowed Jay Geldmacher, President of Astec Power, a worldwide leader in power supplies.
“This experience gave me a great networking opportunity and a lot of insight into what a CEO really does—it’s nonstop work!” Lorenz said of the job-shadowing.
The glimpse of real-world leadership in action will no doubt help Lorenz as he continues his studies, though ultimately he’s headed in a different direction. Having grown up in an academic family in Vienna, Austria, his long-term goal is to join the ranks of marketing faculty. Judging by his outstanding accomplishments so far, it seems he’s well on his way.
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The second annual Eller MBA Preview Weekend—an event during which alumni, faculty, and staff share with newly admitted students all the excellent reasons to choose the Eller MBA—was a great success. Eighty-six percent of our attendees have committed to come to Eller!
Everyone at the Eller MBA extends a sincere “thank you” to all the alumni who took the time to attend the event and share their experiences, with special recognition of the alumni (left) for their generous participation.
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| Rodney Glassman with Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. | |
By age 24, Rodney Glassman had earned a bachelor’s in agricultural economics (in just three years), an Eller MBA (’01), an Eller MPA (‘02), and had been running a million-dollar family business—an ice rink. He had also found time to start a foundation (www.glassmanfoundation.org) that through five distinctive events raised $100,000 for organizations devoted to helping children in Southern Arizona.
After graduating from the MPA program, Rodney’s interest in politics led him to soon-to-be congressman, Raul Grijalva, who hired him as a legislative aide for business and agriculture. When Glassman decided to return to Tucson to pursue a Ph.D. in arid land resource sciences, Grijalva was so pleased with his work that he decided to keep him on long-distance.
Achievements like this set Rodney apart from the crowd, but it’s not the accolades that drive him. Asked what motivates him, he mentions his parents and his need to bring people together, build relationships, and “do lots of fun things.” He’s so good at this that in a recent meeting with KB Homes, Rodney was spontaneously offered a position in community development and relationship building.
So what’s next? Rodney will finish his doctorate this summer and begin law school in fall for a degree he feels will be a great complement to his Ph.D. “There’s a lot of synergy in everything I do,” Rodney says, sharing what he sees as one of the keys to his accomplishments. The other secret of his success? “Live by the golden rule,” he says. “Be honest and do what’s right. I sleep well at night!”
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The Eller MBA program is looking for alumni volunteers to help the Class of 2007 by providing a lifeline to the real world of business and offering an objective and candid point of view.
Working with a student, you can define the structure of the mentor relationship. A typical commitment might include an initial meeting (or conference call) during orientation to get to know each other, plus at least two other interactions per semester. Interactions could focus on suitable curriculum choices, internship opportunities, or a resume review.
Second semester meetings or conference calls might center around the student’s field project, including a critique of an associated pitch or presentation. Alumni weekend (November 4–6, 2005) provides an excellent opportunity for out-of-town mentors to meet their students during the second semester!
Many of our MBA mentor relationships last only one year; however, extending the relationship through the second year of studies gives the student a valuable additional resource for advice and support while searching out that perfect career opportunity.
If you are interested in mentoring an incoming MBA student, please contact Natacha Keramidas at natacha@eller.arizona.edu.
Incoming Eller MBA students will participate in a week-long orientation program starting with a kickoff reception at Tucson's El Charro restaurant on Wednesday, August 10. For a list of additional events where we'd love to have alumni participation, please contact Natacha Keramidas at natacha@eller.arizona.edu.
The Eller MBA has a number of programs designed to mutually benefit employers and MBA students. Companies taking advantage of these collaborations benefit from low-cost/high-value talent and the fresh perspective and creativity of enthusiastic students, while students gain valuable real-world experience. Opportunities include:
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| Eller MBA students prepare for their presentation at the 2005 Field Project Showcase. | |
1. Field Projects: Real Talent Meets Real-World Challenges
First-year Eller MBA students are nearing completion on 17 projects ranging from marketing and business process design to IT training. Students took on the 600 hours of work for real companies—some worldwide and others with only 20 employees—as part of the 2005 MBA Field Projects program.
Field projects push students to acquire skills only earned through real-world experience. Along the way, they gain a deeper understanding of critical project tasks, but Rich Boulger, director of professional development and supervisor for the projects, says the most important learning is even more subtle: “These students were around successful people, observing how they work and think. This kind of exposure and experience makes all the difference.”
Check the Eller MBA website for a list of recent field projects. If you’d like to participate in future MBA field projects, contact Tamara Farris at tfarris@eller.arizona.edu.
2. Full-Time Employment: Recruit Experienced Eller Talent
The Eller MBA has prime employment candidates graduating with concentrations in finance, marketing, MIS, entrepreneurship, operations, and accounting. If you’re hiring, or if you know of someone who is, now is the perfect time to recruit an energetic, experienced Eller MBA. Most of the ’05 class has had four or more years of work experience, including internships and field projects through the Eller College.
To connect with pre-screened candidates for a position in your organization, contact Simone Pollard at spollard@eller.arizona.edu. And remember, you can also review and post openings for positions specifically targeted at Eller MBA graduates on our Alumni Job Board.
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3. Internships: Overcome the Summer Slump
Many organizations face a labor deficit in the summer when employees take vacation. An Eller MBA student could provide the ideal supplement to your team. Students are currently seeking 2005 summer internships in finance, marketing, operations, entrepreneurship, MIS, and general management.
Don’t miss your opportunity to be one of the first to work with this next talented graduating class. For more information on connecting with an Eller MBA intern, contact Sylvia Munoz at smunoz@eller.arizona.edu.
4. Other Opportunities: Independent Study and Early-Stage Assessments
The Eller MBA program also works with businesses through independent study programs built around a specific organizational initiative and early-stage technologies assessment—exploring potential for new products or services through formal commercialization studies.
For more information on working with the Eller MBA program through one of these collaborations, contact us at 520.621.4008.
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