Portfolio, the alumni magazine of the Leeds School of Business that publishes every fall and spring semester, highlights our graduates who are leaders in their industries. Recently in each issue, we focus on a central theme to create a common thread throughout the magazine's rich stories and dynamic photography. Recent themes have included sustainability, entertainment, and food and beverage. You can read past issues by clicking here.
Our next magazine, the Fall 2010 issue which will arrive in mailboxes in late October, celebrates business school alumni working in technology: game changers and innovators who are using the latest cutting edge advancements in technology to better their industries, such as healthcare, museums, higher education, sports, video games, financial, nonprofits, and of course, computers.
This common thread in each issue of Portfolio also demonstrates how diverse and impactful a business degree from the Leeds School can be.
We welcome your feedback; this is, after all, your magazine! Tell us what you think or what you would like to see in upcoming issues by emailing bizalum@colorado.edu.
To continue the Leeds School's distinguished history of student and alumni success, faculty excellence, and international recognition, we rely on the generous support of our alumni and friends. Scholarship donors are in integral part of the work we do here at the Leeds school. That kind of leadership and support makes a college education attainable for our diversely talented students.
In the following video, Interim-Dean Laguna explains the value of scholarships for our students and the success of the school.
One example of a scholarship donor is Tammy McMinn who created The Late Bloomers Business Scholarship for nontraditional students.
At the age of 36, Tammy McMinn enrolled at the Leeds School of Business after previously attending six institutions. She has had quite a storied life: traveled to 23 countries, volunteers with children, and in 1998 set a Guinness Book World Record for the Greatest Vertical Distance Snowboarded in One Day.
As a nontraditional student at Leeds, McMinn received the Tony Tisone Memorial Scholarship. At Leeds she was on the Dean's List six semesters and received a certificate of excellence in entrepreneurial studies. While in the Deming Center's Entrepreneurship program she wrote the business plan for SoBo Dwellings, her private real estate investment company in Denver. McMinn has founded the Late Bloomers Business Scholarship in gratitude for the scholarship she received and hopes that other nontraditional students will not only benefit, but give back.
Alumni and friends can contribute annually to Leeds--and no matter what the amount, these gifts make a critical difference in the School's ability to support our students and vital, otherwise unfunded programs.
I had the pleasure of meeting Kelly Brough, photo left, head of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce for lunch at Maggiano's in downtown Denver recently. This was the first meeting for both of us and I was as eager as she to understand more about our two respective organizations. As it turns out, we share many things in common, the most obvious being a passion for education.
Unfortunately when it comes to education in Colorado, the statistics are grim: 47 percent of Colorado high school students never make it to college according to Colorado Department of Education. The Department also reports that at the same time, 36 percent of Colorado students never finish high school. And it gets worse as we are 48th (we very back and forth between 48th and 50th) in the nation for funding of higher education. Ironically, we have one of the most educated populations of any state, but this is because we have so many who come here from somewhere else. So, it's not our kids with those degrees, it's highly educated people who want to live here. And who can blame them?
For Kelly, it's not just a social or funding issue (though these are considerations), but a business issue. How does the state attract solid businesses if can't provide an educated workforce for the future? Also, Colorado is no longer just competing on a national, but now we compete for enterprise on a global scale with countries like China and India?
During our conversation, it was clear that Kelly is game to take on the issue. She is reaching out to key Colorado business people to educate them about the challenges, but also the opportunities. She is using her position as a bully pulpit to convince anyone who will listen that the threat of Colorado becoming irrelevant due to its eroding educational system is real and that the time to address it is now.
Kelly also currently serves a committee on education appointed by Governor Ritter's tasked with identifying realistic solutions for problems in the state's educational system. There are no easy answers with regard to these issues and everything from school and institutional reform to innovative financing options are under consideration.
Will solutions be forthcoming? I don't know. But with passionate advocates like Kelly devoting their time, energy and talent to the cause, I am very hopeful and grateful for their commitment.
Leeds School of Business was ranked 19th for sustainability in BusinessWeek's 2010 Undergraduate Specialty Rankings. And while infusing a greener way of thinking into higher education is growing in popularity across college campuses, the Leeds School has been committed for more than 20 years to the importance of teaching sustainable business practices through our coursework, centers, faculty research, conferences and community involvement.
As an active citizen of what the Sierra Club recognizes as the greenest university campus in the United States, we train future business leaders to emphasize sustainability in all its forms -- economic, environmental, and social.
Our LEED-certified Koelbel Building is located at the heart of the New Energy Economy in Colorado, an exciting renaissance which will impact the business world far beyond the Rocky Mountains. The Leeds School provides a home base to our students as they pursue sustainable business opportunities, social enterprises and startup companies here in the innovative Boulder area and around the globe.
For example, our MBA candidates have interned at the National Research Energy Laboratory, the only federal laboratory dedicated to renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Our students consistently place in national and international competitions in the cleantech sector and real estate. Through student organizations like the Outdoor Industry Club and CU Energy Club, Leeds School students are connecting with like-minded peers interested in eco-friendly business ventures.
As for alumni, we easily devoted recent issues of the alumni magazine Portfolio here and here to the contributions that our alumni and students have made in renewable energy technology, green construction, organic and natural foods, among other sustainability-related industries. For instance, distinguished alumnus and advisory board member Joe Pettus has led initiatives in green energy, carbon footprint reduction, and LEED-certified retail locations for the grocery chain Safeway.
Sustainability is a thread running through our Centers of Excellence. Faculty member Stephen Lawrence, academic director of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship's program "Entrepreneurs Pioneering a Sustainable World," is a leading voice on how sustainability is now in the best interests of business success through a triple bottom line-- people, planet, profits-- and that these factors are far from mutually exclusive.
Our Real Estate Center offers courses on sustainable real estate development and land use, which was galvanized by the recent hiring of Stephanie Gripne, a scholar with an extensive background research and industry experience in conservation real estate, as the new director of the Initiative for Sustainable Development.
Sustainability is at the center of our integrated curriculum, faculty research, student engagement, and alumni ventures. This culture of sustainability, with the Leeds School as a significant contributor, is shaping the next generation of business leaders with the understanding and values needed to achieve a cleaner planet and a more equitable economy.
At the Leeds School of Business, we seek to attract and develop a well-rounded student body, which has recently been recognized for excellence across many platforms. Earlier this year Michele Samorani, a third-year PhD student in operations, won the INFORMS Data Mining Student Paper Award in San Diego for creating methodology that advances the area molecule classification based on attributes. The procedure challenges the traditional approach to classifying molecules and promises to play a role in accelerating the R & D stage of pharmaceuticals.
From a much different project, Alex Lane recently scored a fashion scholarship from the Youth Mentoring Association. Alex, who is studying marketing and finance at the Leeds School, developed a way to target Tommy Hilfiger consumers using strategic online marketing, expanding the brand with a "My Tommy" concept, and adding web scanner technology so shoppers can picture themselves in the clothes. Alex is the eighth Leeds student to win the prestigious $5,000 award.
Undergraduate Mentorship Program
To help each student find a niche, we recently launched an undergraduate mentorship program that includes more than 80 students and 56 mentors across all fields and geographies. Mentors and mentees connect at least once per semester, and the relationships can lead to internships and future jobs. We are in the process of exploring options to expand this program to include a larger percentage of our juniors. The students' commitment to the program (currently run by our Center for Education on Social Responsibility) is two years.
Connecting the breadth and talent of the Leeds School students with our alumni and network is just one way we set up the school for success.
There have been several recent studies linking higher education to a higher quality of life for not only individual graduates, but their communities. In a recent New York Times blog post by Harvard economics professor Edward L. Glaeser, research showed that not only does a higher level of education help an individual's career prospects, but that a community of such people multiply the effect for the entire community, educated and not. So a higher degree becomes an engine that drives a community's overall economic resilience and growth. As Glaeser states, "teach your neighbors well" and reap benefits that far outweigh just one individual's success.
Here at the Leeds School, we know that we help drive the success of our community and state through a variety of programs and pathways:
Our faculty engage in research and research-based teaching to address current relevant issues ranging from green business innovation to the economic meltdown and recovery.
Our energetic graduates, both undergrad and MBA who contribute their passion and knowledge and dreams to all levels of Colorado and national businesses spanning roles from C-level executives to entrepreneurs to a variety of positions in management, marketing, accounting and finance.
Our newly named Center for Education on Social Responsibility which rounds out our "whole person" values to deliver critical thinkers who are grounded in business fundamentals as well as in ethics.
And as University of Colorado President Benson has stated repeatedly:
"Higher education is not only good for an individual, it's also a societal good. Colleges and universities, particularly research universities like CU, create jobs, start companies, provide an educated work force and have a significant economic impact on a state (some $7 billion annually in CU's case, including the University of Colorado Hospital)."
I encourage you to share your thoughts on the value of higher education. For in these tough financial times, higher education and the Leeds School are here to help point the Colorado economy in a positive direction
Here at the Leeds School, we have more than 20 years of commitment to sustainable business practices and we continue this dedication through our programs. In fact, we were recently featured in an article on sustainable education in Delta Air Line's Sky Magazine.
In the article, the section on Integrated Learning Opportunities describes our approach to teaching sustainability (and includes a quote from our own Paul Jerde of the Deming Center and a photograph of Professor Steve Lawrence, who was an instructor of the clean and renewable seminar RETool). The Industry Focus section of the article describes the work at our Deming and Real Estate centers.
As interim dean, I am working hard to grow sustainability opportunities for our students and we have recently shared an overview of how sustainability infuses all that we do:
The Leeds School believes that environmental stewardship and social responsibility are consistent with running a profitable business.Indeed, a central message underlying the entrepreneurial emphasis of the school is that enormous opportunities exist to "do well by doing good" in environmental, social, and ethical terms, all while maintaining and enhancing economic sustainability.
The Leeds School's overarching goal with its sustainability initiatives is to educate and inspire students to become values-driven leaders who create sustainable businesses and develop new innovative models that transform how we do business in all sectors. It is noteworthy that a broad array of Leeds' business partners, such as the natural and organic products industry in Boulder, the sustainable real estate development community, and the burgeoning Colorado renewable energy industry, have all contributed significantly to the realization of this goal. In addition, local and nationally-recognized, values-driven business leaders are woven into the Leeds educational experience; students regularly engage with such leaders in the classroom and the workplace through projects, speaking engagements, and internships.
In early February, my Development colleagues and I attended an event at a private home in Palm Springs. The program included remarks by President Benson, Chancellor Distefano and me. The keynote speaker was Leslie Leinwand of CU Boulder's Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology (CIMB). When introducing me, the chancellor mentioned that the Boulder Campus "needs a strong Business School," a remark that pleased all of our alumni at the event.
In my remarks, I emphasized the need for collaboration with other academic units including CIMB. Collaboration has always been part of our culture. We currently offer dual MBA degrees with Law, Anthropology, Computer Science, Environmental Studies, Fine Arts, Germanic and Slavic Languages, Telecommunications and Theater. Entrepreneurship certificates in collaboration with the College of Engineering and the School of Music are also in place and we are in the process of establishing a partnership with the School of Journalism.
The Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biotechnology represents a very exciting opportunity for collaboration. CU's commitment to this initiative is largely responsible for attracting Nobel Laureate Prof. Tom Cech back to the Boulder Campus. The CIMB vision is to formulate a new model "for discovery, development, and commercialization of therapies to address world-wide health issues." As such, the "Leeds School of Business will be a critical partner in the CIMB program by helping to build new programs for entrepreneurs that are prepared to lead in the global, competitive, and complex bioscience industry". Our goal is to establish programs that would include courses such as UC Berkeley's "Entrepreneurship in Biotechnology", which are designed for both those who would like to commercialize research outcomes (i.e., the entrepreneurs) and those who may someday work in startup companies in the biotechnology or medical device space. The collaboration is powerful because "not only will science students be welcome, but business students who are learning how to transfer technologies into the marketplace will be an essential part of the new education paradigm".
The most compelling argument for the CIMB/Leeds partnership is best stated by Damian Hine and John Kapeleris in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Biotechnology, An International Perspective: Concepts, Theories and Cases: "biotechnology is at a crossroads; to date the science has been solid, yet commercial success remains elusive, and that it will be ... commercial success ... which will dictate the long term viability of this crucial industry." The Leeds school is proud and excited to work with our partners in CIMB to help bring the commercial possibilities of biotechnology to fruition.
To that end and in the larger realm of collaboration, I ask my readers: In what other partnerships would you like to see Leeds school involvement?
By Leeds Blogs on January 14, 2010 9:22 AM
|4 Comments
Sports-related business is an ever growing source of employment and new-venture opportunities for university graduates. Here in our backyard, Denver is the home to five major sports teams: Broncos football, Rockies baseball, Avalanche hockey, Nuggets basketball and Rapids soccer. Jobs in the sports industry range from those within a professional sports team to sports facilities, apparel, management, marketing, media and broadcasting. Preparing students for jobs and opportunities in the sports and recreation industry is a natural fit for a specialized program within a business school.
To that end, we are in the final stages of the approval process to offer a two-month intensive Business of Sports Certificate. The program is a "business boot camp" for students interested in pursuing careers in the sports and recreation industry. It would combine core business training in management, marketing, finance, operations and accounting with specific topics that relate to the sports industry, such as union negotiations, venue utilization, revenue management and attendance, promotions and licensing, and information technology and ticketing.
Classes are structured so in the morning, students will learn basic business concepts which will be integrated with industry specific sports' topics: the Economics of Sports, Sports Marketing, Sports Management and Leadership. In the afternoon, students will be working in groups on experiential, researched-based projects. Each group will be assigned a specific project designed by one of our contributing partners: Alem Inter-national Management, CU Athletics, Denver Broncos, Kroenke Sports Enterprises (Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids & Denver Nuggets), Metro Denver Sports Commission, Phoenix Mercury, USA Rugby and Vail Resorts Management. Throughout the two months, students will have opportunities to work with industry experts in these professional companies and organizations.
There are great examples of successful programs in sports management, such as those offered by NYU's Master's of Science in Sports Business, a Graduate Certificate in Sports Business, and a Bachelors of Science in Sports Management. Our program is intensive and is offered to both business and non-business undergraduate students, distinguishing it from the NYU programs, and offering us a diverse pool of students.
The certificate curriculum is the culmination of more than two years of planning that involved Leeds faculty, University of Colorado Athletics and partners from the sports industry. We are very excited about the opportunity to offer this new program and believe that will be of great benefit to those who choose to enroll.
