Accelerate Your Billion Dollar Network: Faculty Spotlight Jeff Scheinrock

Faculty Spotlight: The value of your UCLA Anderson education starts with our faculty. You learn from top research professors, whose ideas drive change globally, AND you learn from faculty who have “been there and done that in industry” and share their success with you.

Jeff Scheinrock, Continuing Lecturer, Faculty Director AMR/BCO, President & CFO at Originate (a pioneer in Venture Resources) brings a lifetime of corporate experience into his teaching. He has extensive experience in international financial markets, corporate finance and capital structure, acquisitions and strategic investment, and is a CPA.

Podcast highlights include:

• Three tips all new students can use
• Launching the UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator
  Seeing Senior Associate Dean Al Osborne and Executive Director Elaine Hagan of the Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation bring the Venture Accelerator to life
• Hiring 11 UCLA Anderson graduates to Originate!
• Teaching as a GAP Faculty Advisor
• Writing a book (The Agile Startup) with a FEMBA alumnus,
  Matt Sand, FEMBA ’10, President 3DEO
• Seeing the power of luck and timing — and a sense of humor!

Download our podcasts for offline listening.

Cornerstone OnDemand and FEMBA

Thanks to our current FEMBAs who hosted us at Cornerstone OnDemand last week.
Left-to-Right:
Pratik Savai 16, VP of Application Development
Margaret Chang 18, Operations Support Analyst
Aditya Shah 19, CPA, Senior Manager of Internal Controls and Compliance
Jordan Sugar 17, Talent Acquisition Project Manager
Isadora Dantas 16, Mobile Product Manager
Rich Headley 16, Software Product Manager

What an inspiring UCLA Anderson example of Sharing Success! Cornerstone was founded by Adam Miller, UCLA Anderson JD/MBA, and now Cornerstone is hiring lots of new Anderson MBAs. Great recruiting visit; thanks Cornerstone, for hosting us! Thanks Chris Thompson on our team, for creating the event!

Podcast: Gonzalo Freixes, Living the American Dream

You know him. You love him. You’ve traveled the world with him. But you probably didn’t know his whole story.

Adjunct Professor, Neidorf “Decade” Teaching Award Winner, and FEMBA Associate Dean Gonzalo Freixes in a candid, one-on-one interview discusses his family’s journey to America, and his lifetime career of paying it forward.

“Living the American Dream” is not a cliché for Dean Freixes. It is the story of his life. In this tribute to the power of education, Dean Freixes tells of his family arriving in the US as political refugees with all their worldly belongings in one suitcase. From these austere beginnings, Gonzalo’s life and career has touched thousands of UCLA students, undergraduate and graduate, both on-campus and around the world. And after graduation, his connections continue in ongoing relationships with SO many alumni.

Dean Freixes’ leadership and contributions have architected and guided many of the distinguishing pillars of FEMBA, including our

• Global Access Program
  Over 600 international companies consulted, and counting!
• Global Immersion courses
  Over 2,000 students have now studied in over 20 countries!
• FLEX schedule
  Gonzalo’s own Flex course includes a build-your-own elective bonus feature
• Network of entrepreneurial alumni
  Gonzalo offers inspiring examples of connecting with high-impact alumni globally

This summer (for new and current students and alumni only) enjoy Dean Freixes live at FEMBApalooza 5, where he will be hosting a Learning on the Lawn segment titled, “Taking Your Business International.”

Enjoy!

Download our podcasts for offline listening.

 

Most Famous FEMBA: Corey Berse 2011

I had a star sighting Sunday morning, walking down Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica.

“Hey Dylan,” came the voice of none other than Corey Berse, FEMBA 2011, Vice President, Head of Marketing, Houlihan Lokey. Corey was leaving breakfast with his wife Heather and we got to catch up.

“Are you still running the Commercial Challenge?” Corey asked during our conversation.

“No. I had to let go of that last year, as we wanted to focus on FEMBApalooza,” I replied.

For your Monday viewing pleasure, allow me to dust off two of the finest pieces of FEMBA cinema ever produced, the 2010 and 2011 All-Anderson Commercial Challenge, prize-winning entries submitted by Corey and his amazing FEMBA team “Exploding Head Productions.” These Commercials have stood the test of time! Enjoy.

 
 

Corey will be attending FEMBApalooza 4, so bring your autograph books. Maybe he’ll reunite Mark Harper and Belinda Cheng and all those amazing 2011s…  We can dream, can’t we?

 

 

Small world: two continents and two random UCLA encounters

The FEMBA network spans the globe…from Westwood to Hong Kong! Yesterday, I was jogging at lunch on south campus and who did I see but first-year FEMBA Bashir Tafti ’17 M.D. Bashir is a Clinical Instructor here for UCLA Health.

Bashir is one of the eight Medical Doctors in the FEMBA Class of 2017; it still amazes me that we have 8 doctors in one class. (I’m calling all the top part-time MBA schools to verify, as I don’t think there’s a school in the country that can boast that.)

Bashir: Great to see you Dylan. Good for you getting some exercise. Hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you. Remember what you said in Leadership Foundations, about seeing your thinking about business change almost immediately as you go through FEMBA? Well that has been my experience. I noticed it last Fall Quarter that I was already looking at problems (and solutions!) with new eyes from the moment FEMBA began.

Well, you might say, Most MDs in any part-time MBA program and a random meeting on-campus, well that’s pretty good, but…What else to you got Dylan?

So, as you know, I was in China with two of the four Global Immersions UCLA Anderson offered over Spring Break.

In Hong Kong, at the Hyatt Regency in the New Territories, as I’m leaving the elevator, I hear, “Hey…Dylan?”

I turned to see a face I knew I knew, even though I couldn’t place it.

“What are you doing here?” asked Sumukh Shevde, FEMBA 2013, Director, Product Management, Wireless Power Solutions, Qualcomm.

“I’m here with a bunch of Anderson students on a Global Immersion! Why are you here?” I asked. (Here we are below, with our selfie in the lobby.)

“I’m on a global team and we’re meeting. It’s actually a job that Anderson helped me get. We’ve got a very cool technology that we’re very close to launching. We all meet here periodically to get everyone in the same place,” Sumukh told me.

“Well, we’re all going to be in the lobby in a few minutes. If you have time, come down and I’ll introduce you. It’s Professor Gonzalo Freixes and we have FEMBA, EMBA and MBAs all in the program.”

“Give me five minutes,” said Sumukh.

Next thing I knew, Sumukh was back in the lobby, wearing–I am not making this up–his UCLA t-shirt.

“Sumukh, that is so great you travel with your UCLA colors!” I said.

“Yes, this is my workout shirt,” he replied. “I never travel without it!”

“Well we’re having an alumni mixer tomorrow night, downtown, and you’ve got to join us!”

Left to right above: John Childs FEMBA 16, Jessica Luchenta staff, Professor Gonzalo Freixes, Emily Stephens FEMBA 16, Andy Howard MBA 16 and Sumukh Shevde FEMBA 13.

It really is a small world, when you get connected to UCLA Anderson.

 

Dropped my guacamole: SuperBowl Ad has FEMBA Nick Avallone ’11

There I was. Watching the SuperBowl. Eating my chips, when BAM!

Was that Nick Avallone, FEMBA 2011, former FEMBA Council President, Global Marketing Communications Manager, Hospira, on national TV?   Why, Yes, it was.

Nick Avallone during the SuperBowl.

I tracked Nick down this week. Of course, he was in London.

Dylan: Saw the commercial. Couldn’t believe it. What was the story?

Nick: Yes, that really was me, although I was only in the teaser, not the full length Super Bowl spot, but still exciting. And, a great story about how McDonald’s has been launching a new brand image, focusing on bringing the “lovin'” back to communities, or at least highlighting that in their campaigns.

The back story in a nut shell is I had gone into a McDonald’s, and when ordering, was surprised by their “pay with lovin'” approach. Cameras were hidden, and I didn’t know I was being filmed until after I was done, when they filled me in they were creating a video, and walking out the door. This was several months ago, during a 1 store pilot, and the videos they captured have transpired into their newest campaign. (If you haven’t seen their other new commercials, check them out; one focuses on arch enemies, one highlights the signs in local communities, etc.)

I’d be happy to fill you in even more if you’re interested. I’m in London until late tomorrow…feel free to blog away. 🙂

At $4.5M, for 30 seconds, I figure America got to see Nick for the bargain price of $200,000. He’s on-screen at about the 4-second mark.

Homesick Halloween, 1993

Happy Halloween 2014,

It’s an overcast afternoon in Los Angeles, with a slight chance of rain. I’m leaving early today to get home to my two trick-or-treaters: my S.W.A.T.-team costumed second-grader and my little puffy-penguin two-year-old.

21 years ago–in the fall of 1993–I was a first-year MBA student at the University of Chicago. I was 24 years old and having my big life experience, starting grad school in the big city. One of the youngest people in my class, I was clueless about how to best leverage a top-tier MBA experience. It was like someone gave me a Ferrari, when all I wanted was to go to the store for a gallon of milk.

I had a History degree with honors from Texas A&M, but in the two years since graduating, the world hadn’t beaten a path to my door. Getting my MBA from Chicago was my attempt to make something happen, but I really couldn’t tell you what that “something” was.

That Halloween night the temperature was cool and brisk, but not bitter. I had no idea how much colder it would get, when winter really reached Chicago.

A festival was happening out on the Midway, a carnival/fair-like atmosphere with families and children in costumes. The trees had the last of their fall foliage and the air smelled damp and musty.

The six weeks leading up to Halloween had included two weeks of orientation and then the first month of classes. I’d probably been living mostly on adrenaline up to that moment: moving to Chicago, meeting my new roommates, buying my computer, doing orientation and then delving into the first four weeks of business classes (as a History major, I’d not seen Statistics, Economics–any of it–before). I barely had any work experience and I was quickly coming to feel like the “little brother” to most of my classmates.

That Halloween night, getting out of the b-school-bubble, seeing the little kids in their costumes, it all caught up to me. A wave of homesickness caught me off-guard.

What was I doing here?

I had a girlfriend back in Texas. We’d met the year after I graduated. She was smart and pretty and I thought she was awesome. But I also felt like there was no way I could ever support a family. Even if I’d had the guts to propose to her, there was no way I felt like she could say “yes” to me. I was going to Chicago to figure out how to make a living, so that someday I could be a husband.

That Halloween night, I saw all these families and thought about the small town of Denison, Texas, (population 21,000) where I grew up. I thought about what was happening in Denison that night. I thought about my own mom and dad and how they fell in love in college and got married directly afterwards, no MBA but they made it work somehow.

What was I doing? Borrowing $100,000. Living in Chicago. Taking classes with no background. Chasing something, and not having any real clue what that ‘something’ was.

The homesickness followed me as I wandered around the festival, eating a carmel-candied apple and feeling jealous of all the couple I saw with their families, their own little S.W.A.T.-teamers and their own little puffy-penguins.

21 years later, I am probably similar now to many of those parents I saw that night with my own two-year-old and seven-year-old. I know how to make a living now. My MBA paid off. It has given me two careers so far, the first with Siemens and this current, second career with UCLA Anderson.

That girlfriend from way back then? She and I didn’t make it.

But the woman I share life with now, my wonderful wife Marisa, she and I are living the life now that I could only dream of then. Am I grateful for my education? For sure. Am I glad I never have to do it again? Yes, that too.

It takes guts to pursue graduate study. It’s a leap into the unknown. I’ve been watching part-time MBA students here at UCLA since 2002. They juggle work, life and school in pursuit of their dreams. They inspire me to work hard every day to make sure UCLA pays off for them, the way Chicago paid off for me.

I’m going to pass out candy tonight from my porch in Culver City. I’m going to smile and laugh and be grateful.

Happy Halloween.

 

Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob J. Lew

This doesn’t happen everyday: Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob Lew, is speaking right here, right now, in Korn Convocation Hall. He’s en route to Cairns, Australia, for the Group of Twenty (G20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, but stopped off at UCLA Anderson to speak to a full house. His speech is also live-streaming on our Anderson website.

First topic: tax inversions and patriotism.

Next: US economic relations with Russia.
Next: China.
Next: Value of the Dollar.

Now, questions and answer period. The questions posed by students:
Syria and ISIS?
Scotland and UK?
Student loans?
Tax code reform, reactions from other countries?
Wealth inequality?
Communicating post-2008-financial-crisis efforts?
How to communicate contentious topics abroad, at home?
Dean Judy Olian, last question, immigration reform: As one-third of our students are international. How do we make sure they can work here, with their UCLA education?

4 great alumni, 1 great week

What a cool week this was, running into four great FEMBA alumni. It’s a small, connected world, living in FEMBA-land.

Monday lunch, Thai food on Pico with Paraag Lal 2004. Those of you in the 2017 class will recognize Paraag as the keynote speaker from Tuesday evening of Leadership Foundations.

Paraag Lal ’04 (CEO and Co-Founder at Carmen Road Entertainment) and Ellen (Keeler) Moore ’04 were the leaders with whom SuperSaturday Admission Interviews were launched back in 2004. This year, on November 8, FEMBA’s lifetime total of face-to-face admission interviews will surpass 5,000! That is 5,000 moments-of-truth that we have had with people applying for their MBA degree at UCLA–a big accomplishment.

Paraag also changed my life by taking me to an ashram in southern India. We spent 8 days on the ashram after first being on a FEMBA International Study trip in Mumbai and New Dehli with Finance Professor Subra and a very great group of FEMBAs, EMBAs and a few brave significant others.

Back in 2010, Paraag and me, on the top of the dormitory at the ashram, overlooking the back-waters in Kerala. The dress for the ashram was “all white” or at least that’s what Paraag told me. As you see, he was rocking his U2 360 concert shirt.

“Dylan, you gotta try sitting on an elephant,” Paraag told me. It was a trip. SO much larger than riding a horse. Your legs are really wide. You climb up on the “elbow” of the elephant, when it’s knealing. Then, when the elephant stands up, you go up, and up and up, with it. There were these thick black hairs on its back.

Yesterday, Wednesday morning, with Hrag Hamalian ’14, in the A-Building atrium. Hrag and fellow ’14, Josh Schachter are making some entrepreneurial magic this year. More details will be coming in the next month. Hrag and I were working on a prototype together.

You’ve read about Hrag and Josh before, in an earlier post. Hrag was inspiring before FEMBA, during FEMBA, and now even more as a brand new alum.

Then yesterday evening, also Wednesday, with Catherine Algra ’08 at Back-to-School-Night. Our respective children happen to be in the very same elementary school class this year! We sat in tiny, little second-grader seats and heard a wonderful teacher tell us how she’ll be caring for the children this year.

Below is a chance to hear Catherine Algra ’08 (Senior Financial Services Manager at Betson Enterprises), reflect on her Global Access Program experience during FEMBA. Forward to 0:50, 1:50 or 5:25, to hear her reflections.

Today, Thursday afternoon, looked who stopped by to surprise me, Chaz Hales ’08, rocking his ZZ Top/Duck Dynasty beard. Chaz is one of my heroes, because he (just like Paraag, Catherine and Hrag) has carved out a very unique path with his FEMBA degree. Also, he’s been one of our alumni admission readers for over five years now!

Want more Chaz? Who doesn’t!  Below is his “90210/FEMBA” video made with friends from his 2008 class.

 

 

Spring Break 2014: FEMBAs in Israel, Hong Kong and Brazil

41 UCLA Anderson students traveled to Israel over Spring Break 2014. The group consisted of 24 FEMBA, 11 Executive MBA and 6 full-time MBA students and was led the Director of International Studies, Bonny Kim, and by Professor Stuart Gabriel, Arden Realty Chair, Professor of Finance and Director, Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA. Students earned 4 units of elective credit and made new friendships that will last a lifetime in this international study course, “Doing Business in Israel.”

This was Professor Gabriel’s second course in Israel. Above is a video from the 2012 Israel course. One unofficial tagline for UCLA FEMBA is “from handshakes to hugs.” Count the hugs in this video and get a sense of the life-long friendships people form here at UCLA.

2014 in Israel.   Can’t spell U-C-L-A without you. FEMBAs Tim Hui, Scott Huthmacher, Dinesh Shadrach, Kristin Moore, Yuliya Karuchek (standing up “L”), Christina Wang, Khoa Le, and Sayed Otaru (EMBA) giving it all for the photo!

Launched in 2008, FEMBA pioneered international courses for working professionals. Since then, FEMBA has delivered 33 courses to over 20 countries around the world. 1,737 students have participated in international courses as of Spring 2014.

Visit to Kaiima, a Bio Agri-Tech Company (shown here FEMBAs, 4 EMBAs, 1 MBA, Professor and staff). Stuart Gabriel (Professor), Khoa Le, David Wright, Jeff Zhou, John Fang, Scott Huthmacher, Arjun Ramamurthy, Sayed Otaru (EMBA), Tim Hui, Ben Kay, Stephen Shar, Chiao Cheng (EMBA), Kristin Moore, Yuliya Karuchek, Natalie Cariola (EMBA), Cindy Alsop, Viji Shastri (EMBA), Christina Wang, Chelsea Sellars, Megan Groh (full-time MBA), Dinesh Shadrach, and the one-and-only Bonny Kim!

Stephen Shar ’14, set a new FEMBA record this year. As a participant on the Israel trip, he was taking his sixth international course!

UCLA Anderson in Israel, Spring Break 2014. FEMBAs biking through Israel: Scott Huthmacher, Stephen Shar, Yuliya Karuchek, Dinesh Shadrach, Tim Hui, Arjun Ramamurthy, Darwin Thomas, Khoa Le

Here are some of the 2012 participants again, getting their U-C-L-A on!

The 2012 FEMBA Doing Business In Israel trip: Sam Fatoohi and the crew!   U-C-L-A, can’t spell it without you!

P.S.  Not to leave anyone out.

Over the same Spring Break of 2014, a separate group of 44 students were studying in Brazil with Professor Leo Bursztyn, while yet a different group of 49 students were in Hong Kong with Professors (and Deans) Carla Hayn and Gonzalo Freixes.

Oh, the Places We Go!

Professor Leo Bursztyn, who led the Brazil course

Senior Associate Dean Carla Hayn, who led the Hong Kong course

Assistant Dean Gonzalo Freixes, also on the Hong Kong course