Building from a Strong Foundation: A Look Ahead
Our team at Owen is focused on one overarching goal: to build one of the best (if not the best) graduate schools of business in the nation — one that continues to attract outstanding students not only because of a reputation for general excellence but for redefining what a top-tier business education means.
I believe we are well on the way toward this goal.
During the past year we have concentrated on the “big rocks,” the foundation stones for our future. Great organizations are built around having the right team with the right support structures. We have both.
PHOTO: Fang Fang (MBA '93), Jim Bradford, Jen Howe, and Tricia Carswell at the office of JP Morgan/Chase in Hong Kong. For more on Jim's trip to Asia, visit deanbradford.com.
We have assembled an outstanding administrative team that we think rates with the best anywhere: Jon Lehman, Associate Dean of Students and Health Care; Joe Blackburn, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Administration; Tami Fassinger, Associate Dean of Executive Programs; Gary Scudder, Associate Dean of Accreditation and Outreach as well as Faculty Director for MBA programs; Tricia Carswell, Associate Dean of Development and Alumni Relations; Peter Veruki, Director of Corporate Relations; Yvonne Martin-Kidd, Executive Director of Marketing Communications; and John Roeder and Joyce Rothenberg, our newly appointed Directors of Admissions and Career Management, respectively.
While retaining an exceptional faculty that combines academic strength with real-world experience, we have recruited several noted new faculty members, including Steve Hoeffler in marketing, Richard Willis in accounting, Bob Whaley in finance and Larry Van Horn in health care economics.
Our students, who make up the other pillar of our team, have been selected according to more rigorous standards than ever before.
In the past two years, we have built and launched a variety of innovative programs, including a unique, immersion-based Health Care MBA; a Masters program in Finance; our Leadership Development Program; and our Summer Business Accelerator for undergraduates and recent graduates.
To enhance the environment for our students, we have remodeled our classrooms, and built many new study rooms and a larger library.
We have also strengthened Owen’s financial base. In addition to the great support we receive from Vanderbilt, an $11.5 million multi-year investment that helps offset the 46% of our operating costs not covered by tuition, alumni giving to Owen has increased 300% over the previous year.
I believe that this remarkable growth in giving is the direct result of the efforts we’re making to strengthen alumni “connectivity” with Owen and its students and faculty. Through stronger support structures — notably, our Alumni Board, Alumni Council and Board of Visitors — we are working hard to involve the extended network of the Owen community more fully into the ongoing life of the school and the career development of our students.
But we’re just getting started. In other words, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
During 2007, we will continue to add leading-edge programs to our curriculum. Among them will be a new, one-year Master of Accountancy degree. It’s an extremely innovative program developed in conjunction with a prestigious advisory board that includes Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Grant Thornton. We are currently in the investigative stages with several similarly distinctive programs. I look forward to sharing more details about them with you soon. Meanwhile, our new MBA curriculum is now in draft form and soon will be vetted among faculty, students and the business community. With its emphasis on real-world skills and experiences, I believe it is no exaggeration to describe the new curriculum as “transformative.”
We will continue to strengthen our team with outstanding new faculty. This year, I anticipate that we will introduce to you at least two new faculty members in Finance, two in Marketing and another in Accounting.
We will continue to enhance our learning environment as well. Later in 2007, we will undertake a feasibility study as the first step in an expansion campaign that we hope to complete within four years.
Under our new Director of Admissions, John Roeder, Owen is redefining selectivity. Among Owen’s most appealing points of difference — strengths that aren’t reflected in traditional ratings criteria — is the preparation our students receive to be colleagues in collaborative business environments; to be pragmatic problem solvers with real-world training; and to share a strong sense of corporate social responsibility. Now more than ever, we are selecting students who have the talent and desire to improve our community, their future employers, and the world.
Most of all, we will redouble our efforts to cultivate Owen’s greatest asset — you. Last year, I traveled to 17 cities in the United States, as well as to Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul, to visit our alumni. I expect to make at least as many stops, if not more, during 2007. In my conversations with alums, I am struck not only by their pride in our school but even more by their belief in the supportive community that ranks among Owen’s unique hallmarks. We are committed to provide you with as many opportunities as possible to be vitally connected to this community.
At West Point, they speak of the “long, gray line” that links cadets for life, no matter when they were there. Anyone who ever served in the Marines knows the bond that connects them with every other Marine as one of “the few, the proud.” Despite the hyperbole we sometimes hear in the corporate world, preparing to lead in the business community is not the same as preparing for war. Nonetheless, I have come to appreciate that Owen is a tie that binds. As an alum, you are not just our past. You are our future.
Sincerely,
Jim Bradford
