Happy Friday FEMBA,

Summer is over, classes have begun, and what a big September we just had! Below are a few highlights of the month, beginning with my commute to UCLA today…

CLUTTER

Coming up Overland, in the middle, can you see the teal truck? Barely?

…Neither could I, so I weaved through traffic and caught up on Pico.

Every time I see one of Brian Thomas’ Clutter vans I get chills. Three years after graduation, and over $100M in venture financing and he is opening new cities and hiring UCLA Anderson MBAs with his company, Clutter, every time he opens a new city. Wow!

Read the recent Forbes article here.

I followed the van on Beverly Glen until it took a right on Olympic. What a way to start Friday, seeing a UCLA Anderson success story!

So…

What else has been inspiring lately from UCLA Anderson?

THREE GLOBAL IMMERSIONS

How about out three Global Immersions, to Peru, Sweden & Finland, and South Korea.

Have you seen these two amazing photos of F-E-M-B-A spelled out by our students? Thank you Lucy Allard for having my great team leader Chris Thompson attend “Economic Environment and Business Opportunities in Peru” with Professor Terech.

F-E-M-B-A at Machu Picchu

F = Taylor Friend FEMBA ’19, John Dahlem FEMBA ’19

E = Kathryn Li FEMBA ‘19, Molly Johnson FEMBA ’19

M = Fiorelli Salvo FEMBA ‘19, Rachel Luskin FEMBA ’18

B = Vince Vo FEMBA ‘19, Aad Chavda FEMBA ’18

A = Alex Kim FEMBA ‘19, Tannis Mann FEMBA ‘19

Or how about this Global Immersion, “Entrepreneurship and Corporate Renewal in Scandinavia” (Sweden & Finland) with Professor George Abe ?

F-E-M-B-A in front of the Helsinki Cathedral

Shown here: Matthew Cham (’18), Carole Luong (’18), Anu Chikersal (’18), Kathy Pham (’18), Mackenzie Sherwood (’18), Lindsay Grob (’18), Janice Lee (’18), Leanne McGowan (’18), Mimi Yang (’18), Patrick Kiernan (’18). Thanks Leanne, for the photo.

F-E-M-B-A in South Korea

F: Ian McRae ’18, Victoria Lew ’19

E: Jessica Barnette ’19, Shelby Chambers ’19

M: Naomi Kalyani ’19, Van Nguyen ’19

B: Seth Houston ’19, Eleanor Fang ’19

A: Tony Wu ’19, Roshni Parikh ’19

2017 INCOMING STUDENT KICKOFF

Also inspiring, we ran a new event for the entering FEMBA Class of 2020, the 2017 Incoming Student Kickoff. It was super popular, and I’ve got big ideas to expand this idea to include upper class and alumni participation next year.

The Incoming Student Kickoff event sold out one week after launching; student response exceeded expectations.

466 tickets were sold to 287 unique purchasers, plus 179 guests (many of whom are also Anderson students). The 287 unique purchasers included:

43% of the entering Full-Time MBA class
20% of the entering Executive MBA class
26% of the entering Fully Employed MBA class
Alumni Executive Board President Dwight Holcomb, and FEMBA Council Leader Michael Khoda 19
7 Faculty and 9 staff

At the Rose Bowl (Entering EMBA student Stephen Austad, 3^rd from left, was part of the Flyover team):

UCLA’s epic comeback-for-the-ages: 34 unanswered points. Thank you Texas A&M (my alma mater…):

Networking on the bus ride to Pasadena…

Networking at the Game:

EMBA Pilot Stephen Austad (left) was a true Bruin underneath his Navy flight suit:

Stephen had a Bruin in the cockpit…

Everyone had a great time. Shown here, Assistant Dean Bonny Kim with new FEMBA Jermeen Sherman 20.

Me myself, unfortunately, could not attend in person. As much fun as I had organizing the event, I was already scheduled to be in Puerto Vallarta to see my son who was doing an exchange student experience in Mexico. I watched the epic game from a hotel bar.; thank goodness for satellite broadcasting!

UCLA TOP PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN THE NATION IN THREE SEPARATE RANKINGS

For the third time this month, UCLA was rated the top public university in the nation, this time by the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education ranking.

STAND AND DELIVER: SPEAKING POWERFULLY AND PROFESSIONALLY

For the second year, I had the honor of teaching my Stand and Deliver: Speaking Powerfully & Professionally, and Asking for What You Want workshop in Leadership Foundations. It was an honor to get to be in front of the Class of 2020!