FEMBAs of Finance

After hearing David Booth, look who I ran into, four fantastic finance FEMBAs, also here for Mr. Booth. Ksenia Yudina, 14, did her internship this summer at JP Morgan in both LA and NYC; she’s been very active in the finance clubs here at Anderson during school and is also married and a mom.

Ksenia Yudina, FEMBA 2014, concentrating in finance, internship at JP Morgan, also married and a mom.

Brian Sterz 14, Doug Longo 14 and Abhinav Sarna 14, when they’re not running the student government or orchestrating epic-all-FEMBA social events, have also done deep dives into finance and created new career pathways for themselves.

More future titans of finance: Brian Sterz 14, Doug Longo 14 and Abhinav Sarna 14

Who would you give $300,000,000?

The UCLA Anderson Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series today hosts David Booth, Chairman, co-CEO and co-Founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). DFA hires more MBAs from UCLA Anderson than any other school. In November of 2008, Mr. Booth, his wife Suzanne and their family donated $300,000,000 to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, the largest donation in the University’s history and the largest gift to any business school in the world.

FEMBA 2015 Joseph Duronio, introduced Mr. Booth today. Joseph is in his second year in FEMBA, and is currently President of ASAM, Anderson Student Asset Management. Joseph is a practicing securities lawyer and serves as Counsel at AIG Life and Retirement, where he specializes in investment company law, federal securities law and insurance product regulation. Joe graduated from New York University in mathematics and philosophy, then received his JD with a concentration in intellectual property law from Seton Hall University School of Law.

Joseph Duronio FEMBA 2015 and ASAM President, introducing David Booth

Here is Dean Olian interviewing David Booth.

Dean Judy Olian and David Booth co-CEO and Chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors

And here I am, sitting next to Maz Habib, new entering FEMBA 2017, listening and blogging (Maz listening; me blogging). Mr. Booth covered creative destruction, acceptance of outcomes, comparative advantage, ‘invest until marginal cost = marginal revenue’, ‘be wary of too much formalization’, and finally, he predicts the Broncos will win Sunday.

Dylan and Maz Habib, new FEMBA 2017, in Korn Hall

Life Victory: Ross Resnick ’14

Coming back from the gym today, I ran into Ross Resnick, FEMBA 2014. Ross is an entrepreneur, the founder of Roaming Hunger and also the co-founder of FleaPop. Ross was also in my MGMT 298D, Strategic Business Communications, course in 2012.

In my course, I love to talk about “Career Victories,” the natural results of effective, persuasive public speaking. Ross told me today, “You know Dylan. I used what we learned in the course for a very different purpose. While normally I’m the guy who likes to be spontaneous and shoot from the hip, I recently had the opportunity to give my grandmother’s eulogy. I used the framework from our (298D) class and the eulogy went much better. It was natural. I just wanted to say thanks.”

That may be the highlight of the week, hearing that “Life Victory” for Ross.

Ross Resnick, UCLA FEMBA 2014, founder of Roaming Hunger, co-founder of FleaPop, and successful graduate of MGMT 298D, Strategic Business Presentations.

 

393 calories at lunch

Borrowing inspiration from Dr. Rothblatt yesterday, I made sure to get a workout over lunch today. That’s me, 393 calories and 30 minutes later.

Re-set my day with 30 minutes on the elliptical. UCLA students have the John Wooden Center, right in the heart of campus.

Everybody’s life is an entrepreneurial project

Humbling. Inspiring. Amazing. Do you ever meet people who make you feel like a tiny crumb and inspire you at the same time? Dr. Martine Rothblatt is such a person; she connects dots like few business leaders I’ve ever seen.

Watch her video here.

I’m listening to her and Dean Olian live, onstage here in Korn Hall at UCLA Anderson. Dr. Rothblatt graduated from UCLA Anderson in 1981 with MBA and JD degrees–she’s a triple-Bruin overall. From her field study at UCLA Anderson she went on to be founder, chairman and CEO of Sirius XM Satellite Radio and then co-founder of the global satellite system PanAmSat. She shared today about being on Howard Stern and him thanking her for “making radio free.”

While founding Sirius might have been a lifetime achievement for most, when faced with a life-threatening illness in her daughter, she created a biotech company to seek a cure. She is currently founder, chairman and CEO of United Therapeutics Corporation, the privately-held, 14th largest biotech company, larger than the bottom half of the fortune 500.

In the early ’90s, she also underwent a gender transition, and she shared about that today. Her human rights work includes articulating equal marital rights in “The Apartheid of Sex,” reproductive rights in “Unzipped Genes” and patient rights in “Your Life or Mine.”

Her tips for success to today’s audience are:

1. Be Open-Minded:
   Get the ideas on the whiteboard; give them a chance
2. Be Practical:
   She quoted Warren Buffet, “Better to be almost right, than 100% wrong.”
3. Never give up:
   She uses her alarm on her phone to schedule small units of daily time to pursue her top 5-10 interests, including wellness, flute, piano, astronomy, cyber-consciousness and helicopter piloting–she flew herself here today. Even small increments of time, if allowed to happen 80% of ones days, will accrue to big results.

Dr. Martine Rothblatt Ph.D., MBA ’81, J.D. ’81 and Dean Judy Olian onstage in Korn Convocation Hall, January 27, 2014.

What’s cool about my job?

…I’ll tell you two cool things about my job.

1) Meeting new UCLA FEMBA students! From January to July each year we host welcome events to build chemistry and community. Last night, 30% of our Round One new admits attended a Welcome Event that included networking, class visits and a happy hour in Westwood. Photo below.

2) Having a career I can show my children. As you also see in the photo, I had my boys with me last night. My wife was on a business trip and my baby sitter was booked–so it was daddy-daycare evening. With some snacks and an iPad, the boys were able to hang out for a bit while I got to meet-and-greet new FEMBA 2017 class members.

New FEMBA 2017s greet each other at a welcome event (background) while my boys watch Netflix (foreground).

Awesome! Kimberly Freeman comes home to UCLA Anderson

Best news all week! Kimberly Freeman, FEMBA 2002, has joined the UCLA Anderson team. I’ve heard Kim speak on-campus and off-campus at multiple events and she’s always inspiring. She was one of the original FEMBA-commuters, flying to UCLA from her job in the Bay Area during school. After a very successful career with So Cal Edison, Kimberly brings her talents to UCLA Anderson as our new Assistant Dean for Diversity Initiatives and Community Relations, the position formerly held by Linda Baldwin. Here I am with Kim yesterday, discussing lots of big ideas for UCLA, plus reflecting on one of the Wooden Leadership books.

Kimberly Freeman, ’02, John Wooden and me

FEMBA 2006 Alumni Jeremy Amen and Peter Finkel

Had lunch Friday with two fantastic FEMBA alumni: Jeremy Amen, FEMBA 2006, is CEO of Crowd Source Development and Peter Finkel is an investment adviser with Eliot Finkel Investment Counsel, LLC.

Jeremy and Peter and I had lunch Friday here on campus to hear about their career victories, update on what’s new in FEMBA and discuss UCLA Anderson’s “Think in the Next” campaign. Jeremy and Peter, both successfully managing careers, family and outside engagements also maintain a friendship-for-life that had its roots in their common FEMBA education.

Jeremy Amen, ’06, CEO of Crowd Source Development

Peter Finkel, ’06, Investment Adviser, Eliot Finkel Investment Counsel, LLC

Top 13 UCLA contributions to state, nation and world for 2013

UCLA inspiration: 13 top accomplishments of the UCLA community for 2013, including new brain surgery techniques, new NCAA records, Nobel Prizes, Greening LA, Jane Austen as game-theorist, record-breaking donations and more.  Enjoy.

http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/top-ucla-stories-2013-249707.aspx