This issue of The Journey captures the essence of what makes the Farmer School of Business a very special place . The “formula” isn’t complex, but combining its elements requires raw materials, dedication, resources, the ability to accurately gauge upcoming shifts in the market, and the agility to continually innovate to align our curriculum with future needs
The raw materials are, of course, our students, and they are truly exceptional, as you will see from our student highlights, award-winners, and the stats on our 2024 graduates and the class of 2028 who entered Miami this fall.
The school is internationally recognized for the quality of our faculty and staff and their enduring dedication to student success. What’s less well known, but equally as impressive, is their ability to combine their teaching excellence while also helping to advance their areas of expertise through their research (some research is done in conjunction with their students!), and in this issue, we introduce you to our named professors, celebrate award-winners and highlight some of this year’s research . We also spotlight some of the curriculum innovations that ensure that our students will continue to graduate Beyond Ready to add value to their organizations on day one .
The impact our alumni and business partners is another critical factor in our students’ success and well-being They are actively engaged in mentoring, providing support for competitions, partnering with faculty to provide students with real-life experiences in and out of the classroom, and working on advisory boards. They also provide much-needed funding to fuel our curriculum and facilities innovations. Some, like Johnny Sirpilla, add to that list of engaged alumni by serving as our Executive in Residence, others like the Miami alumni founders and general partners of 1809 Capital, a financial return venture capital fund composed of Miami alumni limited partners / investors focused on leveraging the Miami network to invest in early-stage private companies and then donate back to the Miami University Foundation the majority of the general partner profit and carried interest.
I hope that you enjoy reading this issue, and that it makes you proud to be a part of this amazing place that we call “home . ”
JENNY DARROCH Dean and Mitchell P. Rales Chair in Business Leadership
Meet the Class of 2024 FAREWELL CLASS OF 2024
“ Miami is one of the top schools in terms of how many partners we have at Ernst and Young and there’s a reason for that. Students from Miami and the Farmer School of Business, the y’re client-ready from day one. The y will not let us down, and that really is the primary reason we’re so focused on the students at Miami.”
- DAVE MEYER PARTNER, EY (retired)
COMPENSATION
For students who reported salary information, the average total compensation, including signing bonus, was $73,219
More than 35% of the students who received a full-time offer reported a signing bonus averaging $5,519 35%
90 DAYS AFTER GRADUATION
96.8% Employed full time, continuing their education, starting their own venture, volunteering, in the military, or not seeking employment
3.1% seeking employment
More than 300 EMPLOYERS sought to hire our graduates
A SAMPLE OF EMPLOYERS
• Abercrombie
• Deloitte
• EY
• Fidelity Investments
• Fifth Third Bank
• JP Morgan Chase & Co.
• Plante Moran
Students had an average of 1.49 INTERNSHIPS
• Procter & Gamble
• PwC
• Terillium
AND WELCOME CLASS OF 2028
Graduating students who are Beyond Ready remains our top priority, and motivated, high achieving students value that . Almost 11,000 high school seniors applied for entry this year –a 9.6% increase from last year.
OH Residents 57%
Domestic non-resident 41% International 2%
INTERESTING FACTS:
Enrollment in the FSB Honors Program is up 83% from last year (165 students enrolled) and participation in Summer Scholars rose 22% from last year
MALE AND FEMALE SPLIT:
CURRICULUM INNOVATIONS
Our students and their families invest their time, talent, and treasure in the Farmer School of Business . Our obligation is to reward their investment with the most valuable educational experience possible . Accordingly, we continuously strive to increase the value of an FSB education
One way to increase the value of an FSB education is to provide our students with more flexibility to pursue the academic programs they believe best advance their interests and career aspirations. This year the FSB decreased the total number of credit hours we require students to take from academic divisions other than the FSB from 52 to 39. This change provides students with an additional 13 credit hours that they can now decide how best to pursue whether inside or outside of the FSB, depending on their own particular interests and needs.
Another way to increase the value of an FSB education is to help our students more fully leverage the valuable support services we offer, including the FSB Careers Office. One barrier to students utilizing the FSB Careers Office is a simple lack of awareness of their services, which is partially due to the Office’s current less-than-prominent location in the southwest corner of FSB. To remove this barrier, we are creating an FSB Careers work space in a prominent location in the Forsythe Commons of FSB where students often gather to work and socialize. The basic idea is to increase FSB Career Office awareness and usage by creating a defined space in the heart of the building where students, FSB Career staff, and employers can all work and interact together. The new space will officially open in early February 2025.
This year the FSB decreased the total number of credit hours we require students to take from academic divisions other than the FSB from 52 to 39.
Student Academic Achievement Awards
The Farmer School of Business recognizes the most academically talented seniors in the graduating class The number of students recognized represents a proportion of the graduates in each area of study .
Delta Sigma Pi Scholarship Key
Evelyn Mary Marchant
Cameron Phillip Resatar
John M . Waterhouse
Accountancy Academic Achievement Award
Ellen Ann Scott
Victoria Faye ElHaje
William J. McKinstry Award
To honor the top School of Business Economics majors
Trevor Michael Minyo
Robert David Staub III
Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship
Nicole Jurado
Olson Finance Achievement Award
Adam Alvin Swab
Wilbur J. Brown Memorial Award
Anna Lynn Boyer
J. Belden Dennison Award
Robert David Staub III
Outstanding Academic Achievement in Human Capital Management & Leadership
Allison Jo Slaw
Roy Sandquist Family Award
Outstanding Academic Achievement in Information Systems & Analytics
BA Best Major: Samantha Marie Erne
IS Best Major: Evelyn Mary Marchant
Marketing Academic Excellence Award
Jacob Matthew Stone
Marketing Student Achievement Award
Grace Elizabeth Sloane
Alissa Rae Weaver
Outstanding Academic Achievement in Supply Chain & Operations Management
Cameron Phillip Resatar
Katelyn Michelle Hartings
Faculty Highlights
The Farmer School is widely recognized for our faculty’s dedication to our students’ success We are routinely ranked as one of the top 10 schools for faculty quality, student experience, and outcomes .
Less well-publicized is their dedication to advancing their fields of expertise and bringing those perspectives and insights into the classroom. In 2024, our faculty authored or co-authored 121 journal publications and were featured in 65 presentations as well as being recognized as subject-matter experts by major public media including Forbes, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, and Entrepreneur magazine Last year, they authored or were featured in hundreds of articles .
Here are just a few highlights of their activity.
As Chair of the American Accounting Association (AAA) Auditing Section Standards Committee, Associate Professor of Accountancy Jon Pyzoha led a team of academics in critically evaluating newly proposed U S and international auditing standards By leveraging findings from academic studies, the committee provided eight commentaries to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to address questions and concerns about the proposed regulations These commentaries, published in Current Issues in Auditing, not only bridged the gap between academic research and regulatory practice but also highlighted the critical role of academia in shaping effective auditing standards . Through their efforts, Pyzoha and his colleagues underscored the importance of collaboration between research, regulation, and practice to enhance the global auditing landscape
Assistant Professor of Economics
Peter Nencka’s article, “Knowledge Access: The Effects of Carnegie Libraries on Innovation” was published in the Review of Economics and Statistics . Between 1883 and 1919, Andrew Carnegie transformed access to knowledge by funding the construction of over 1,500 public libraries across the United States This visionary investment reduced the cost of accessing knowledge for millions and catalyzed a surge in innovation In cities that built libraries, patenting increased by 10-12% over the following two decades compared to cities that applied for libraries but did not receive them The study identifies two critical mechanisms driving this innovation boost: improved access to scientific knowledge and greater opportunities for collaboration These findings highlight the enduring value of public resources in fueling creativity and economic growth—a lesson as relevant today as it was over a century ago .
Professor of Marketing Gillian Oakenfull served as guest editor for a special issue of the Australasian Marketing Journal titled “Humanising Marketing: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Marketing Scholarship.” This issue brought together cuttingedge research that explores how marketing can better reflect and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion By curating contributions from leading scholars, Oakenfull has helped to elevate the dialogue around creating more inclusive marketing practices, impacting both academia and the professional marketing community
In her study “Institutional trading, news, and accounting anomalies”, published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics, associate professor of finance Feifei Wang analyzed a large dataset of accounting-based capital market anomalies and found that institutions frequently traded in the wrong direction for overreaction anomalies but aligned effectively with underreaction anomalies . Wang’s findings indicate that institutional trading often amplifies mispricing tied to overreaction anomalies, while helping to correct mispricing in underreaction anomalies These mixed patterns of trading do not necessarily indicate superior anomaly exploitation skills . Instead, they are closely linked to institutions’ tendency to follow the sentiment embedded in financial news such as earning reports and newswire releases .
Associate professor of information systems and analytics, Joseph Nwankpa’s article “Complicated App Settings Are a Threat to User Privacy,” published in The Conversation, brought to light how convoluted application settings jeopardize user privacy . The article sparked widespread discussion within the technology community, achieving remarkable recognition as one of the top five most-read articles in The Conversation’s technology section for seven consecutive weeks. Nwankpa’s work was also picked up by CBS and aired nationally on 57 news outlets. The article’s influence underscores the critical importance of accessible, userfocused technology in safeguarding privacy
Henry Jin, associate professor of management, published “An experimental investigation of environmental knowledge sharing in a supply chain competition situation” in International Journal of Operations & Production Management In an era where sustainability is paramount, buyers increasingly urge suppliers—even direct competitors—to collaborate on environmental initiatives . This study combines experimental methods and interviews with an international panel of supply chain managers to examine this dynamic . It identifies three critical factors influencing sustainability knowledge sharing: the personal values of suppliers, the competitive landscape, and the type of influence (expert versus coercive) wielded by buyers By proposing a novel theoretical framework, the research illuminates how these elements interact to either strengthen or weaken supplier consortiums’ sustainability efforts at an individual level
TOP 5 public university for faculty quality
POETS & QUANTS 2025
Following the Global Settlement—a landmark agreement in 2003 aimed at resolving conflicts of interest among investment firms—financial analysts began extensively using the “top pick” designation . This provided greater granularity in assessing buy-recommended stocks but also introduced the potential for new biases Associate professor of finance Xi Liu’s article “Are Analyst ‘Top Picks’ Informative?”, published in the Review of Financial Studies, reveals that portfolios of these stocks deliver an impressive abnormal performance of 17.6% per year. Top picks outperform general buy recommendations and other analyst strategies, offering superior investment value. Both institutional and retail investors respond to these designations, but institutional investors demonstrate an uncanny ability to identify the most valuable top picks at the time of their announcement. The findings highlight the enduring complexity of balancing transparency and performance in financial markets.
A study published by Associate Dean for Faculty Excellence and Professor of Economics Melissa Thomasson seeks to understand if strategic investment in healthcare infrastructure can bridge racial and systemic inequities Her study, published in the American Economic Review, highlights the transformative effects of a largescale hospital modernization program initiated by the Duke Endowment in North Carolina during the early 20th century. Between 1927 and 1942, over $53 million (in 2017 dollars) was allocated to enhance healthcare access and quality across the state. This funding spurred a significant shift from lowerquality to higher-quality hospitals, and resulted in a dramatic 60% increase in high-quality physicians per 1,000 births. Additionally, poorly trained physicians decreased by 5.5%, elevating the standard of care. The findings resonate today as communities grapple with disparities in healthcare access, emphasizing the enduring impact of targeted investments in modernizing healthcare infrastructure to address inequality.
Associate professor of management Darryl Rice’s article “The impact of ethical leadership on Black employees’ workplace experiences: Echoes from Black culture and history” finds that supervisors play a pivotal role in fostering racially just workplaces . This study, published in the Journal of Business Ethics, reveals that ethical leadership among supervisors significantly boosts workplace engagement among Black employees . Moreover, it reduces instances of ostracism by fostering psychologically diverse environments . By drawing connections to Black culture and history, the research underscores the transformative power of ethical leadership in creating equitable and inclusive organizational cultures . TOP
5 public university for career outcomes and skill development
POETS & QUANTS 2025
LIFE LESSONS Lead Alum Back to the Farmer School
This fall, Johnny Sirpilla, a 1988 accountancy grad, served as the Farmer School’s (FSB) Executive in Residence His journey leading to this commitment has more ups and downs than a world class roller coaster, and he has reframed that experience and turned it into a power for good .
“When I was leaving Miami, the anxiety in me said that my senior year, I need a job for graduation . But I didn’t need one job offer I need a lot of job offers I set a goal that I needed eight offers from all the big eight accounting firms . I wanted four offers from banks . And I picked retail as another segment that I wanted three there I wanted 15 job offers And I got 15 job offers I was wired that I had to have all that ”
But there was another goal that he had set for himself –getting married and having three children before he turned 30 A month before graduation, he met his now-wife Susan at a fraternity function “I asked her, ‘Do you have a job?’ She said no . I asked, ‘You’ve been looking for a job?’ She said no I was thinking, ‘This is never going to work out ’ I thought, ‘I just found my soulmate,’ And we got to the job question and I’m realizing that this girl, as amazing as she’s been, how is she going to catch up to me?
“What I didn’t understand is her approach was exactly what I needed She told me, ‘You thought you had it all figured out Well, you didn’t . This is another way to get to success .’ I was so proud of her I started to understand that there’s a different way to go through life other than my crazy intensity . ”
He also achieved his second goal – having three children before turning thirty when Susan gave birth to triplets –Nicholas, Mary, and Peter, only to have the unimaginable occur, with all three babies passing away shortly thereafter .
With the help of a psychologist, and the psychology classes Johnny had taken at Miami, he and Susan learned that they could deal with their loss and pain by reframing the experience . “The psychologist said ‘Johnny, you don’t have to let go of Nicholas, Mary, and Peter You can hold onto them and hold them in your heart as tight as you ever imagined
But you have to let go of the dreams that you had for them in this life Parenting them, attending school events, sporting activities, their weddings — those things aren’t happening, but you can hold onto them,’” he said “So I started thinking that if I can hold onto them, I can maybe make this work, to be their dad and have a relationship with them . ”
He took his experiences and what he learned from them to create his book, “Life Is Hard, But I’ll Be OK .” “I wanted to write this book for all those who struggle when life is hard and to those who provide strength and wisdom for the journey Whether it’s divorce, illness, financial challenges, or problems with your career, the book is written to create hope for you, to help people along the road in the journey,” he told a group of Farmer School students .
The loss of Nicholas, Mary, and Peter also caused an almost seismic shift in the way Johnny viewed himself “I decided to change into the man I wanted to be . I could honor Nicholas, Mary, and Peter’s lives differently by having their life be one of significance, not only in changing me as a man overall, but giving me the opportunity to someday, hopefully, be a father again, and to parent with such passion, and to be so thankful to my wife .”
“I genuinely can’t survive in a setting where there is so much tension between so many people, and on things that are not of significance, and that we are creating our own problems for each other.”
Not only did my wife and I have to figure out our own lives, at 28 years old, that were shattered, but it made it so hard to go back to work . Because when I got to work, there were situations put in front of me that truly were not problems . They were of no significant consequence yet there was high emotion Energy was being placed in problems rather than solutions .
“I was an RV dealer I was in retail . We were responsible to put people in great vacation settings and have them live out their dreams for their time off and family time It was a gift to be able to be in that industry . The noise that was going on at work and the lack of respect to associates, to each other, was something that I could no longer stand for . ”
“Prior to losing the triplets, I was the guy in my 20s saying that I needed my employees to leave their personal problems at home so that they could come to work and we could focus on fulfilling hopes and dreams for families . I could say that because I didn’t have a personal problem at home . I was raised in a blessed home with loving parents who taught me faith, the value of hard work, living with values and integrity . I was so blessed, and so I didn’t really have the proper respect
for other people’s journeys I realized that I needed to make a change . ”
“I set out on a quest for a year I announced to my team, and we were a small business, maybe at the time had 40 or 50 employees, and announced that we’re going to go on this journey, but we’re going to go on this journey together . Of course, my whole team knew what happened with Nicholas, Mary, and Peter, and were respectful . I said, “This is not just because my life has changed dramatically for the worst that I’m bringing this concept to you I genuinely can’t survive in a setting where there is so much tension, negativity, and focus on what is bad Let’s accept the challenge to be better, pull together, solve problems, and enjoy our professional relationships while genuinely delivering raving fan customer experiences . ”
That year he did classroom training, renamed the dealership training area as the Forward Focus Room He created a biweekly company newsletter and used the book Chicken Soup for the Soul to help change the culture .
And he told his employees, ‘At the end of this year, everyone is up for reemployment, and no one’s job is guaranteed .’ “I wanted everyone to understand that I’m going to take this that seriously, but I’m going to give people a year to get on board . I’m not saying that I’m universally right . What I’m saying is if you agree to work in this company, you are going to walk up the steps of integrity and honor and care for each other every day when you come in the threshold of our doors to come to work. If you can’t do that, that’s okay, and I wish you well, but you won’t be working here anymore I’m going to pour into you as much as I can, so that we can become something better . ”
At the end of the year, he did end up letting go of two critical people in the organization, wishing them well on their journey, and regretful that they couldn’t adapt
“The great thing that happened through that year is that I was getting so many different notes from family members, mailed to me, ‘I don’t know what’s happening at work, but I’m seeing my spouse come home different.’ It was so cool to see that.”
When Johnny was 36, he sold his company to Camping World, which was just getting started buying dealers. “I was one of the first acquisitions, and then I eventually became president and then moved to the parent company as Chief Business Development Officer. We became a multi-billion dollar company with 10,000+ employees, and I was honored to serve on the executive team with other amazing colleagues that were really committed to building this national brand. It was from that experience that I started pouring into all the things that I thought and felt as a leader should be. I witnessed hardships in other families, and realized the responsibility I had to send them home to their families after a hard day’s work feeling valued and appreciated so they can pour into their families positively and return to work ready to go the next day. If they were treated poorly at work, they would bring that energy home and not be prepared to properly handle life outside of work. They’d return to work the next day in a darker state and the vicious cycle just continues. This approach changed culture and it worked for the bottom line as well. It turned out to be a really good business strategy.”
Fifteen years later, he retired and turned his energy to what he called “passion projects.” That included investing in other companies, serving on boards for public and private companies, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a large health system, becoming an author, devoting more time to keynotes and public speaking, and connecting with the Farmer School, spending time with Farmer School dean Jenny Darroch, and journeying to Oxford to talk as an executive speaker for the Farmer School during Stress Less Week at Miami, where his talk included wisdom from the book he authored, “Life is hard, But I’ll be OK.” As he explained in the talk, “My time at Miami was pivotal in terms of understanding how I think and realizing that my thought patterns placed me in a
state of fear for the future. I realized that I needed to first lead my own life with passion and purpose and then find a way to impact others. I found that calling through servant leadership and those seeds were planted at Miami while serving my fraternity.”
In a post-Covid environment, Johnny’s talk really resonated with the students. “if I could choose a place to do every keynote that I’ll ever do for the rest of my life, it would be at college campuses. I look at those students and see from them the stress and pain that they might be feeling as they’re starting their young lives professionally, and my heart aches for them, and I want to be able to offer some wisdom.”
That led to more conversations with the school, culminating in his becoming the Executive in Residence for the Farmer School.
“I’m the combination of so many people who I’ve been blessed to learn from and be in their presence as they inspire and drive change. I’ve taken those lessons in to expand my thoughts and perspectives as a leader. Miami set the foundation for all of it. Combining my interest in accounting and finance classes with my passion for psychology classes, I left Miami well prepared for a life in business while learning to process my own mental health challenges. With Susan and our journey to build a family, having a respect for psychology and the critical role the life saving theories would provide for me has served me well.”
“There was the respect that I wanted to show back to Miami for what the university did in creating such an amazing environment for me to mature and grow and of course, find my wife. We have been so proud to be a Miami-merger couple.”
In his role he has given his time and talent as a mentor and coach to students, hosted small group discussions with student, faculty, and staff groups, served as an executive speaker, partnered with the university office of student life, and one of the five companies he invested in and served as a board member, Pro2Cool by TecTraum, was the client for FSB’s capstone Highwire Brand Studio class .
“Mr. Wonderful” Shares Keys to Success
Kevin O’Leary may be “Mr . Wonderful,” and one of the “sharks” on ABC’s popular show “Shark Tank,” but he’s also a serious investor . “Going into the pandemic, I had investments in 54 private companies representing all 11 sectors of our economy in almost every state, everything from wireless charging to insecticide, commercial kitchens, airlines, real estate, you name it,” he said “And the reason you would do that if you’re an investor, is the simple concept of diversification, because at no one time is every sector declining . The diversity of our economy, the largest on Earth, means there is always something good happening, happening somewhere ”
O’Leary was the featured speaker for the Farmer School of Business Anderson Distinguished Lecture Series this year, weaving stories about his career with advice for those who hope to start their own business someday.
He explained that the pandemic led to a significant shift in how businesses marketed and sold to consumers. “People ask me, ‘Why is the stock market at all-time highs today?’ Because America has changed. It’s more efficient, it’s more productive, and it’s more profitable,” O’Leary said. “100 million people got hip to their phones. They started using every app they’d never used before, in every service imaginable. And many services started to grow in the middle of the pandemic, many great entrepreneurial companies were started then in the chaos of a basement, when people can’t even go outside, and 100 million new customers were born online in nine months, an extraordinary change.”
“When you order products and services directly from a company, you form a relationship. They know who you are, you know who they are, but there’s something else, and this is the magic -- You get the data. What size did they order? What
color is their preference? What flavor did they like? When did they buy it? Where do they live? How many people live in the house? All of that data that no one had ever gathered before, whether you were a small company or a large company, it didn’t matter, billions of bits of data pouring onto your servers by the minute that you never had before,” O’Leary said. “There wasn’t any middleman anymore. You’re making your product and shipping it right to the customer, and your margins went from 50 cents to sometimes as high as 82 cents. Margins exploded because direct to consumer models also exploded.”
O’Leary also talked about some of the Shark Tank deals he’s made that used unusual methods of attracting the attention of customers, from a mother-daughter cupcake team that posted their arguments on Facebook to a cleaning fluid company that ran commercials in the middle of the night –featuring O’Leary himself .
“A great manager, a great entrepreneur, is able to distinguish, 24 hours a day, even while you’re sleeping, the difference between the signal and the noise . What is that? Every day, if you’re an entrepreneur, you have a mandate . You have to achieve a certain goal . ”
“It’s a remarkable story, but as an example of what’s occurred up and down the economy, forced to do direct to consumer business was incredible, and building that relationship with the customer in a whimsical way -- in Sara’s case, with a commercial that was funny, or in the case of Tracy and Dani, a soap opera -- this is what every company is trying to do now,” he said. “The concept of CAC -- customer acquisition cost -- is now the metric of every class taught here, I’m sure. And then the idea of ROAS -- return on ad spend. So once you know what it costs you to acquire a customer -- if you spend $10,000 in advertising, you need a ROAS of over two and a half times. That’s what we look for as venture investors. Do you understand social media? Do you understand CAC? And do you know your ROAS? That is the essence of most businesses today.”
“A great manager, a great entrepreneur, is able to distinguish, 24 hours a day, even while you’re sleeping, the difference between the signal and the noise. What is that? Every day, if you’re an entrepreneur, you have a mandate. You have
to achieve a certain goal. Maybe you have to double sales in the next year. Maybe you have to do something about cutting costs. Maybe you’ve got to set up new social media campaigns. There’s always something you have to do, and you’ve got to get it done. That is the signal,” O’Leary said. “Everything else around you is the noise, the stuff coming at you on social media, the phone call you don’t have to take, the party you shouldn’t go to because you’re not finished at work yet.”
“Out of his entire lecture, there was one bit that really stood out to me. It’s the difference between the “signal” and the “noise” with its relation to leadership. His take: Great leaders are those who can consistently separate the signal— the core objectives they must achieve — from the noise, or distractions that pull them away from their goals,” junior Jake Goudie said after the talk . “Leadership is all about relentlessly focusing on executing the essential tasks and tuning out those unnecessary distractions. This is a skill that isn’t innate, but is one that can be developed with discipline and sacrifice.”
O’Leary concluded with what he called the “definition of leadership” – three things that all successful entrepreneur pitches have in common:
• The ability to communicate the opportunity in 90 seconds or less
• Being able to convince investors that they lead the right team to execute the business plan
• Knowing their numbers and having a comprehensive understanding of their business model
“You get all three of these right, your chances of getting funding go up geometrically on Shark Tank and everywhere else on Earth . This is the essence of leadership, right here . This is how you lead You can do this It’s hard, but if you get all those three, you will be successful over and over and over again,” he said
“My takeaway? Branding . Understanding how your audience interacts with your brand is everything as we live through this “Great American Digital Pivot”,” senior Una Marijan said in a LinkedIn post “His insights emphasized cutting out the noise and focusing on the signal . Finding what drives you, setting realistic goals, and building a team focused on achieving them How? Reading the room Listening Being bold enough to step outside of the box . ”
“His insights on the perfect pitch, knowing your audience and confidence were truly inspiring. A great reminder that whether you are pitching an idea or a product, it’s all about communicating value effectively. He made sure we, as college students, know that we are the future,” sophomore Juliet Caplan said in a LinkedIn post.
“He was extremely inspiring and captivating as he discussed the ever changing economy, the challenges and opportunities of the pandemic on entrepreneurship, and what it takes to be a successful leader,” senior Alivia Tamer said .
New Park Honors Dick and Joyce Farmer
The Farmer Family Sculpture Park, a triangular space located near the brick columns leading to the Farmer School, features a bronze sculpture of Richard (Dick) and Joyce Farmer. Richard T. Farmer, founder of the Cintas Corporation, gave the business school its name.
“I can tell you that dad would be very proud to be here today and to see this. While he was never one to brag, he would often tell me how proud he was to have his name associated with the business school at Miami,” son Scott Farmer said at the dedication ceremony.
“He wanted it to be the best. He would tell me how much Miami meant to him and the impact that it had on his life. And he wanted to preserve that opportunity, that potential for young people for years to come.”
The couple’s pose is based on a much-loved photo of them taken during a photo shoot a few years ago.
“The statue captures the most beautiful image of Dick and Joyce together. An image that touched my heart, as it reminds me of the importance of family, of love, and of treating each other with mutual respect and how we don’t achieve success alone. It really does take a village,” Farmer School dean Jenny Darroch said.
After graduating from Miami University in 1956 with a business degree, Dick served in the U.S. Marine Corps and then joined the family business. After helping it expand, Farmer left the company in 1968 to start his own venture, which became Cintas Corporation. In the early 1970s, Cintas purchased the Farmer family’s company. Dick took Cintas public in 1983 and led it as Chairman and CEO until 1995, surpassing $1 billion in sales for the first time. He remained as Chairman for the next 14 years, and in 2009, was elected Chairman Emeritus, a position he held until his passing in 2021. His service to Miami University included terms as a university trustee, foundation board member, and chair of the Board of Visitors of the Richard T. Farmer School of Business.
Joyce Barnes Farmer earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1957 and has served on Miami University’s Parents’ Council, Reunion Committee, and the School of Education and Allied Professions’ Advisory Council.
“Dick, who was an incredibly hard worker and frequently away, often said he could never have accomplished what he did without Joyce’s support and superb management of the home front,” friend Roger Howe said. “She has more than earned her place on this bench.”
In 1992 the Farmers provided the cornerstone gift to the School of Business. In 2005, they announced a $30 million leadership gift through the Farmer Family Foundation, of which $25 million helped underwrite the construction of the Farmer School of Business building.
In 2022, it was announced that the Farmer School of Business, Miami University, and close friends of the Farmers who sit on the FSB Board of Visitors had commissioned the sculpture park to carry on Dick’s legacy.
“This is an incredible way to recognize mom and dad here on campus. We look forward to many, many years of being able to come up and see it as we walk in and out of the doors of the school. And we can’t thank you all enough,” Scott Farmer said.
The sculpture was created by Michael Tizzano at his studio in Worthington, Ohio. He spent two days working on it in the Farmer School commons and answered questions from students and faculty. The sculpture was cast and assembled at Casting Arts and Technology in Cincinnati.
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“I have so many friends at di erent colleges that are strictly doing busy work when I get the opportunity to create a business, invest in real companies, and connect with top talent around the country— and we call it class.”
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INTERDISCIPLINARY
For the fourth year in a row, at least one student from every undergraduate major at the university enrolled in an entrepreneurship class. This creates a diverse, interdisciplinary environment that fosters creative creative thinking, strategic skills, and decisive action.
PRACTICE-BASED/IMMERSIVE
Our program emphasizes hands-on learning, with students engaging in experiential opportunities to apply their skills in real-world scenarios. Through various co-curricular programs, they gain immersive experiences and actively solve practical problems.
ECOSYSTEM INTEGRATED
Last year, our students and student-led startups received mentoring, coaching, and advice from more than 800 angel investors and venture capitalists, social enterprise and accelerator directors, startup founders, social entrepreneurs, corporate innovators, and other ecosystem builders.
Careers Commons Created to Further Enhance Student Outcomes
When students returned to Farmer School of Business this semester, they quickly noticed that the east wing of the Forsythe Commons is being turned into the new Career Commons
Jenny Darroch, Farmer School Dean and Mitchell P Rales Chair in Business Leadership, explained, “We want to make a statement to anyone who walks into FSB that we mean it when we say we focus on employability and ROI . That is why we placed the Career Commons at the front entrance of FSB Our Beyond Ready commitment means that we will do everything we can to prepare and position our students for success. The Careers Commons is designed to more actively engage our students earlier in the career exploration process and to encourage students to build more meaningful relationships with employers, our careers staff, and each other, along the way . ”
“The Career Commons is a reflection of the university’s commitment to the “careers everywhere” strategy. We want parents and prospective students to see that commitment when they tour FSB . We want our students to regularly recognize this commitment as well and enjoy the space we created to help them engage with specialists who will help them grow and develop their careers,” Schweinfurth Director of Career Development Michael Webb said .
“When we have employers in, they will now use the Career Commons When we have workshops that are career related, they too will now be in the Career Commons . When a department wants to host an activity that’s career related, that space is open to them,” Webb said “We specifically designed the layout and the furniture selections to not only be comfortable but be rearrangeable so we can meet a variety of employer, faculty, and staff needs.”
While installing doors and windows may give the appearance of a closed-off or private area, Webb said that when there is not an event or formal workshop, the space will continue to be available for students to lounge in, do homework and group work, and will have a small selection of complimentary snacks .
“The dean has made a commitment to be one of the nation’s top business schools, and in order to do that, we need to prepare our students completely and as much as possible to compete,” he said . “We developed the Career Commons because we wanted to have a space where we can welcome employers and give them the opportunity to show just how wonderful our students are . ”
“ We developed the Career Commons because we wanted to have a space where we can welcome employers and give them the opportunity to show just how wonderful our students are.”
ALUMNI AND FRIENDS FUND OUR FUTURE
The year 2024 witnessed exceptional philanthropic support for the Farmer School of Business, culminating in nearly $30 million in cash contributions and an additional $9 million in new pledges. This remarkable success reflects a strong alignment between donor priorities and the Farmer School’s strategic initiatives, which center on enhancing student outcomes, ensuring affordability, and adapting the curriculum to the evolving demands of business education
A testament to the Farmer School’s commitment to student success is David and Anita Dauch’s transformative multi-million-dollar gift, which named the Farmer School Academic Advising Center . Dean Jenny Darroch emphasized the impact of this contribution, stating, “This gift will empower us to expand our services to the 5,000 students we serve, ensuring that their Farmer School experience and subsequent career trajectories are optimized ”
The escalating cost of higher education is a pressing concern Addressing this challenge, Jim and Michelle Ryan, alongside the Grainger Foundation, the Hughes Family, the Mogk Family, and other generous benefactors, have taken decisive action to make a Miami University and Farmer School education accessible to a wider range of students Their philanthropic investments, coupled with the ongoing support of the Farmer Family Foundation, now sustain more than 25 scholars at Miami
In today’s dynamic business landscape, maintaining a relevant and forward-thinking curriculum is paramount The Farmer School is dedicated not only to providing students with a robust foundation across various disciplines but also to developing programs that resonate with student interests and meet the evolving needs of the marketplace This commitment is exemplified by the invaluable partnerships with leading corporations EY and US Bank have generously supported the Cybersecurity program; Bellwether Enterprises provides crucial backing for the Real Estate Center; Key Bank and William Blair have demonstrated leadership in advancing banking initiatives; and Stryker continues its vital support of the Med Tech Sales Certificate .
Dean Darroch expressed profound gratitude for this collective generosity, stating, “We could not provide the level of scholarships, services, and innovative curriculum and programs to our students without the extraordinary support of our donors . We are deeply thankful . ”
GOAL
$250 Million
$ 133,153,541 TOTAL FARMER SCHOOL CAPITAL CAMPAIGN AS OF 12/31/24
SCHOLARSHIPS
RECRUITING AND RETAINING TOP FACULTY
CURRICULAR AND CO-CURRICULAR PROGRAMMING
NEW AND EXPANDED CENTERS, PROGRAMS, AND INITIATIVES
The Farmer School
is the First Choice for Tomorrow’s Leaders
“A lot of colleges tell you that you'll be ready for a career but I haven't seen anyone do it as well as Miami. There wasn't anything that I faced in my internship that I hadn't already had experience with so I really feel ready to go into the workforce.”
Rachel ’24, Accountancy
“Miami has a phenomenal academic standard. It’s unbelievable. They really get you beyond ready. A lot of things that I had to do at my internship, Miami had already prepared me for, which I hadn't even realized. Miami does a great job of making sure that you're ready for the next step.”
Keshon ’24, Human Capital Management and Leadership
Top 5
public university for faculty quality.
300+ employers sought to hire our graduates.
Nearly 11,000
high-achieving students applied for admittance to FSB for 2024 .
12.15% increase in applications from women.
100% of Farmer School students participate in hands-on learning—starting in their first year here.
65%+ of Farmer School students studied abroad. (The national average is 16%).
Top 5 public university for career outcomes.
No. 7 for student experience
12 unicorns founded or led by Miami alumni since 2023.
12 CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies are FSB grads.
2/3 of students are members of an FSB student organization
No. 1 in research productivity in empirical supply chain management output. among non-doctoral programs in America. (2024 SCM Journal)
Faculty are regarded as subject-matter experts by Forbes, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal as well as major scholarly and educationfocused publications.
SHORT TAKES
Our students, faculty, staff, and alumni are amazing! Here are just a sample of their recent achievements.
ALUMNI
• Richard K. Smucker, former CEO and chairman (and current chairman emeritus) of The J M . Smucker Co . and 1970 Farmer School of Business alum, was one of four people to receive honorary degrees at Miami University’s fall commencement
• 1981 finance alum Rick McVey became a member of the Miami University Board of Trustees
• 1987 Farmer School accountancy alum Brad Kessel was recognized as one of the 200 Most Influential Leaders in West Michigan for 2024 by Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. Kessel is one of 11 executives named within the Banking & Finance industry and one of three category CEOs.
• 1988 finance and economics alum Stephen Prostor moved into a new role at Axos Bank as senior vice president and managing director of portfolio management in the bank’s fund finance team
• Jennifer Parker-Snider, 1990 marketing graduate, was named Austin medium company CFO of the year by Austin Business Journal.
• Amy Hudson, 1991 accountancy alum and chief operating officer at Mike Albert Fleet Solutions, won a Cincinnati Business Courier 2024 C-Suite award .
• 1998 finance and marketing alum Martin Shepherd became the new CEO and chair of CYDEF after its acquisition by Arch Access Control, a company Shepherd founded .
• 2001 Marketing alum Nick Affatato took on a new role as Chief Customer Growth Officer at Torani .
• 2003 alum Dave Knox was named the Kentucky Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame’s Mentor of the Year .
• 2003 alumna Michelle Herrick took on a new role as head of commercial real estate at JPMorganChase
• 2003 accountancy alumna Joy Mbanugo transitioned into a new role as CFO at CXAI
• Steven Budig, 2009 Finance alum, was promoted to partner at Goldman Sachs.
• 2013 marketing graduate Justin Hucke, founder and president of Madison + Eden, was named one of the Cincinnati Business Courier’s 2024 40 under 40.
• Connor Billing, 2013 marketing and psychology grad, and Rory Billing, a 2012 math, statistics, and quantitative economics grad, announced that their company, The Fan’s Place, a software-as-a-service platform that enables businesses to better engage their customers through fantasy sports contests, real-time trivia, live in-game predictions and more, has been acquired by Las Vegasbased BettorView, a sports streaming platform designed to activate the world of internet streaming content on their shared TV screens, for an undisclosed price
• A pair of Farmer School alumni were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Local 2024 for Cincinnati list . Connor Paton, 2023 Finance and Entrepreneurship graduate, is the co-founder and CEO of Noshable, a grocery concierge solution for vacation rentals . Emil Barr, 2024 Economics graduate, is founder and CEO at StepUp Social, a digital agency that empowers brands to reach a wider audience with best-in-class short-form video content. StepUp Social was sold to Candid in 2024.
• A Farmer School graduate was one of just 40 people in the United States to earn the Elijah Watt Sells award for his performance on the CPA Exam last year More than 86,000 individuals sat for the CPA Exam in 2023 . Dylan Boone, currently working on the tax staff at Plante Moran in Cincinnati, earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in accountancy in 2023 .
STUDENTS
• Sophomore supply chain operations and management major Caleb Chorley and his business partner opened Flow State Vintage, a new vintage clothing store in Uptown Oxford
• A pair of Farmer School of Business students were named to Yello & WayUp’s Top 100 Intern List for 2024. Gina Cardinale, a finance and accountancy student, interned in finance at Nationwide, while Joshua Schreiber, an organizational leadership and entrepreneurship student, spent the summer interning as a HR Technology Intern at Coinbase,
• The Alpha Upsilon chapter of Delta Sigma Pi won regional awards for Most Improved Collegiate Chapter, Outstanding Financial Operations Award for a Collegiate Chapter, Outstanding Alumni Relations Award for a Collegiate Chapter, and Outstanding Scholastic Development Award for a Collegiate Chapter .
NO. 8
entrepreneurship program in the world
POETS & QUANTS 2025
Faculty
are regarded as subject-matter experts by Forbes, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal as well as major scholarly and education-focused publications.
• A real estate and public administration double major has been named to this year’s Cincy Inno’s “Inno Under 25” list Una Marijan is one of six people named to the list In addition, six of the nine people on its “watch list” for the honor were Farmer School students or alumni:
» Emil Barr, founder of Step Up Social, a social media marketing agency that grew to $2 million a year in revenue . Step Up was acquired in 2024 by Candid Network
» Connor Paton, co-founder, Noshable, a tech platform that serves as a grocery concierge for travelers, specifically those staying in short-term rentals
» Tatem Lindner, founder and CEO of Silux, a designer silicone ring company
» Sylvie O’Connor, former Cintrifuse intern, current business operations associate at Cincinnati startup Tembo .
» Katherine McIntosh, intern at 1809 Capital, an Oxford-based venture firm; managing director of RedHawk Ventures, a student-led venture capital fund .
» Mason Seitz, intern at Cintrifuse Capital; current managing director of the Social Impact Fund at Miami University .
• For the seventh consecutive year, a Farmer School student has won a scholarship from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, but for the first time ever, two FSB students won the scholarship . Emma Gough , an accountancy and data analytics major, and Tommy Bandedo , an accountancy and economics major, received $15,000 scholarships for the 2024-25 school year
• A pair of Farmer School of Business supply chain and operations majors, Lexi Laskonis and Marissa Marquardt, were selected for the AWESOME Excellence in Education Scholarship from AWESOMELeaders .org . The AWESOME Excellence in Education Scholarship was created in 2013 to provide university women enrolled in a full-time supply chain degree program with the opportunity to attend the AWESOME Symposium and other networking opportunities in addition to $5,000 tuition assistance
• Masters of accountancy student Juliana Finley was a recipient of the Tax Executives Institute (TEI) - Cincinnati/Columbus Chapter 2024 Craig Schmidtgesling Excellence in Tax Scholarship
• Finance and entrepreneurship major Liam McAllister and finance major Jake Langdon were named CincyTech Fellows as part of the John W . Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship’s long-standing partnership with CincyTech that provides student-investors from RedHawk Ventures hands-on experience in venture capital .
• Economics major Maya Serrano and entrepreneurship minor Audrey Allen were named Miami University Provost’s Student Academic Achievement Award winners .
FACULTY
• Supply chain and operations management professor Lisa Ellram was named a WISE (Women Impacting Supply Chain Excellence) Legend at the WISE Future Leaders Symposium at the University of Arkansas Ellram was one of six educators to be named a Legend this year, the first year in which academics were eligible .
• Accountancy professor and chair Anne Farrell was named an Ohio Society of CPAs Power of Change honoree for 2024 .
• Lisa Ellram received an honorary doctorate in business from the Hanken School of Economics .
• Anne Farrell joined the Ohio Society of CPAs Board of Trustees
CALLED to Serve
For Alia Noor, it was her grandfather.
“I was working with my grandpa in his shop, and he asked me . ‘Alia, what do you want to do with your life?’ I told him, ‘I know I want to lead people .’ And he said ‘Well, if you’re really serious about being a leader, the best leaders come from the military . ’”
For Connor Pessler, it was family history and a desire to fly.
“I’m trying to get a medical service branch, I want to become a medical medevac pilot, because I think that’d be a lot of adrenaline . I want to save people . The medical field kind of runs in my family . My mom’s a nurse, grandma’s an EMT . ”
Alia and Connor are Farmer School of Business students, as well as members of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) . ROTC has been around since World War I, though its history can be traced back as far as the early 1800s . The program is designed to train college students to become commissioned officers in one of the United States’ seven military branches upon graduation .
On the surface, it may seem unusual to seek a business degree knowing that being part of ROTC includes a requirement to serve upon graduation . But learn more about Alia and Connor, and you see why they have chosen this path .
Alia
It’s perhaps a bit of foreshadowing when Alia talks about being a captain on her middle school’s soccer team, despite not being good at soccer “I was so bad I was a constant benchwarmer, but when my team needed me to step up, or needed someone to play goalie, and everybody was just silent, I always stood up,” Alia said . “Leading fulfills me as a person . Leadership was something where ‘I don’t have to do this, but I’d love to do this, and I will do this And if you need help, let me know . ’”
She was a junior in high school when she had that lifechanging conversation with her grandfather . “I looked into Army ROTC, I looked into the Navy side, and I looked into the Marine Corps I’m a little bit biased to the Marine Corps, because my grandpa was a Marine, my uncle was a Marine, so I kind of wanted to do the Marine Corps option,” Alia said
“Also, our dress uniforms are the best,” she laughed .
Halfway through her senior year of high school, Alia’s idea came to life “Two Marines, an officer and an enlisted Marine, they walked into my school with a big check with my name on it, and they gave this whole speech and this whole thing about how I got the scholarship It was right then when I thought, “This is real . This is what I want to do . This is what I’m committed to I want to lead people, and I want to lead Marines,” she said .
When she was choosing a college, Alia said, she was thinking about schools in San Diego and Texas, but her mother suggested Miami “I came to Miami, and I was like, ‘This is in the middle of a cornfield, Mom . Miami? I thought you meant Florida ’ I was being a brat, and I will admit that,” she said
“But I met the students there, and we talked, and I actually resonated with them. I felt like I could be a student in the Farmer School of Business. And then when I went to the other schools, I had the Farmer School as my standard, so all the other ones were way below,” Alia said.
“When I came as a freshman, I was still kind of skeptical about it, but I haven’t doubted it for a minute . Ever since my actual first day in my first class, I felt like the Farmer School challenged me . It pushed me, not only in the business world, but also in the leadership spectrum as well And I’m very thankful I actually, listened to my mom . You know, ‘Mother knows best,’ but she was right about this one,” she said .
Alia has kept herself busy at Miami, majoring in accountancy and minoring in naval science She’s platoon leader of the NROTC students who intend to become Marines . She’s a vice president in Helm, a NROTC student organization for generating revenue to support student events She has PT at 6 am on Wednesday and Friday . And she still finds time to be vice president of Miami’s racquetball club and to play the violin, something she did a lot between the ages of 4 and 17 . “I’m trying to get back into it right now . I’m currently working on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons spring Don’t ask me to play it . I can play the beginning, but then when it gets to the actual thunder part…” she said
Though she’s fighting for the honor of being a Marine, Alia said she’s hoping not to be assigned as a rifleman “Intelligence is one area that I’m looking into . I also like logistics -- the actual nitty gritty planning of operations So I could be foreign deployed on a ship, planning how we’re going to land on this beach This is how we’re going to provide aid to this country that needs humanitarian help . So those are the two areas
that I really like,” she said . “As long as I’m going to be able to lead Marines, that’s all I really care about ”
Alia said that her time at the Farmer School has been invaluable to her goals . “We have people that are really good at Excel We have people that are really good at the numbers We have people that are more outgoing and really good at presenting, but not necessarily the best at writing or whatever So we have to figure out what each person’s asset is and put it all together,” she said . “The man who founded FedEx was a former Marine logistics officer Dick Farmer was a Marine before he went on to found Cintas . Leadership is finding that middle ground of saying ‘Hey, I’m going to give you an order’ and “Hey, I need this done by this time’ and “Hey, I really see where you’re coming from, I understand it’s hard, and I’m here with you ’”
If it moves, Connor Pessler probably has a license to drive it
“I have my pilot’s license, my helicopter license, a boating license, driver’s license, and motorcycle license,” he said, noting that one thing he does not have is a commercial driver’s license “No, not yet My dad’s like, ‘You need to work on that ’ I’m like, ‘I’m getting there, Dad, just give me a second . ’”
Connor said that as he approached college, he was thinking about being an aircraft mechanic
“I started going to college right when COVID happened, and a big fallout of COVID was supply chain, so I started researching and looking into it, and it’s all logistics, from car to truck to plane to boat,” he said “I was seeing the failures that COVID caused, and finding that supply chain is always needed no matter where you are So it’s a stable job I can find a location anywhere I go and still put myself to work there . ”
He grew up about an hour away from Oxford, so Miami was on his radar for college . “I came here once and I just really liked the campus It was beautiful,” Connor said “It had the major I wanted, it’s only an hour away from home, so I can still come home to visit my parents So it was kind of a winwin for everyone . ”
Connor sought to enter Army ROTC even though there technically isn’t an Army ROTC program at Miami . “Xavier University is the host school, and we are a satellite of that program . But our satellite has grown substantially in the past ten years to the point that we do all of our operations here,” he said “If we continue to grow, we might become our own program . ”
Connor
“ Using large concepts like platoon or battalion operations are phenomenal examples of business management structures . . . ”
Much like Alia, Connor is a busy man outside of the classroom He works as an aircraft mechanic apprentice at an airport in Harrison a couple of days during the week, works weekends at the Oxford airport doing safety checks of the field and facilities, and has his own small company that provides security at off-campus events . “I just want to get my hands in as many pies as I can so I have plenty of options ”
So where does supply chain fit into all this? “That’s half of what we do as officers -- manage people and equipment Our objective is to move people or equipment from here to there . What’s the most efficient way to do that?” Connor said “Supply chain logistics is generally helpful anywhere I go, because the things you learn are applicable for marketing, for advertising, for management. Even in daily life, you can figure out how to streamline and maximize the time you have, which is what I already do so I can do more things.”
Connor said he believes that what he’s learned at the Farmer School of Business can take him far in the Army and beyond . “The Army, at its core, is a people business Working with people, managing strengths and weaknesses is crucial for everyday success The concepts we use moving around in the woods can be easily utilized for basic leadership principles, and disseminating information is all about what both businesses and the Army do,” he said “Using large concepts like platoon or battalion operations are phenomenal examples of business management structures, and business concepts like
streamlining and focusing on throughput at times is a huge advantage I am blessed to have, because moving personnel through training events quickly and moving equipment/food is such a huge part of what we do, even as a cadet .”
As Alia and Connor continue their journeys through ROTC and the Farmer School of Business, they embody the values of leadership, determination, and service With their unique blend of ambitions, they are not only shaping their futures but also preparing to make an impact on the world around them Their experiences reflect the enduring legacy of service and leadership within both the military and the business world, proving that the lessons learned in their classrooms, out in the world, and in ROTC, will carry them far, regardless of the paths they choose to take down the road
GREAT IDEA Pays Off for Students, Alumni, and the University
1809 Capital is a venture capital fund leveraging the Miami alumni network for investment capital and access to exceptional investment opportunities. The platform offers alumni engagement with Miami students and programs and delivers impact, both financially and through experiential learning initiatives. The fund raised its first fund launching in 2022 and has successfully demonstrated a unique strategy. The managing partners are now preparing to significantly expand the platform with the launch of 1809 Capital Fund II.
It all started while Jim Ryan (MU ’80 – marketing), met Brett Smith, the director of the Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship. Jim was serving on the Farmer School’s Business Advisory Council, and Brett frequently presented to the council on what the entrepreneurship program was doing.
Jim recalled. “I was always really impressed with Brett and the program. I was impressed with a couple of things. One is their curriculum that they were putting together, but more importantly, I was really impressed with how they were teaching students to think. I thought what they were teaching had application well beyond just starting a business. My background is with large corporations, and the way that they were teaching people to use design thinking and the like I thought had application in a corporate environment as well.
“As I got to know him a little bit better, I said ‘most of the better entrepreneurship programs have these loosely affiliated alumni programs. The one that I was most familiar with was the one affiliated with Notre Dame. It was the Irish Angels. I told Brett, ‘If you’d ever be interested in getting something like that started, I’d be happy to help.’”
“What’s very different from most funds is that 60% of what goes to the general partners (all Miami alumni) is donated back to the university .”
After Brett stepped down as chair to create the Center for Leading the Integration of Faith and Entrepreneurship (LIFE), faculty member Tim Holcomb was selected as the Altman Institute’s next leader. He had been talking with Mark Richey (MU ’80 - Systems Analysis) about the feasibility of a similar fund.
Mark’s connection started with our MBA program. “When I sold my company, I joined my first venture capital fund. I started working with Miami and the MBA program had a requirement for an internship. We served as a client, which led to being introduced to Tim Holcomb.
“I got connected to Tim and continued to provide internship opportunities because I started another entity called West Capital at that point. I think I’ve attended most of the RedHawk Venture Pitch competitions since Tim launched that class and that initiative. I was engaged, I was supportive.
“Tim said, ‘Why don’t you go talk to Jim? Because he still wants to figure out how to create a fund.’ I said, ‘I’d love to go talk to Jim knowing the support of an alumni of his stature would be an important validation with potential alumni investors (Limited Partners) and in developing collaboration with faculty, the administration and the MU Foundation. I went up to Chicago, for a breakfast , and it started a process. I outlined potential challenges of an alumni-based fund, including the importance of a financial return focused strategy (not philanthropic), in order to have a sustainable platform that delivers long term impact. He said, ‘Well, let’s go figure that out.’”
Mark and Jim realized they had lived a block away from each other for three of their four Miami years but had never met.
“Mark’s background is a whole lot different than mine in that he spent his entire career in the venture community, both in startup businesses as well as an investor in startup and early cycle businesses. My whole career was at the other end of that. We went about the business of putting this together. We studied the structure of a number of these other funds that were affiliated with alumni from other universities,” Jim noted.
And so 1809 Capital was created. The legal entity was established in 2021 and began making investments in the first quarter of 2022.
“The fund is structured pretty much the way any venture capital or private equity fund would be structured. After returning investors capital, 20% of the profits go to the general partners as compensation for delivering a positive return, and the other 80% goes to the investors.”
What’s very different from most funds is that 60% of what goes to the general partners (all Miami alumni) is donated back to the university.
Mark noted, “The reason we do it is because we believe in Miami and its mission, and we want to be supportive. The number one objective of the fund is financial return. For the alumni that are going to invest in the fund, we want first and foremost for it to be a financial decision on their part. They are just simply making a decision to invest, to put money into a venture fund to achieve a return outcome. Objective 1A is the impact.”
Jim continued, “People think that this fund is about philanthropy, and it is not. It is a return-first fund, so our expectation is that we generate top-quartile returns for our investors, and we take less as general partners as a way to donate some money back to the university.
Mark explained, “We co-invest with established, successful venture funds that have a Miami alumni manager. This gives us access to high quality opportunities. We of course consider
Miami alumni founded or managed companies. What we are demonstrating is the ability to leverage connection, either the founder or one of their major investors have a Miami connection. The second would be the investment firms that we partner with, all Miami alumni led - we use them to build our pipeline for companies that we invest in. Then the third area would be our general partners, our investment committee, and our advisory committee, all Miami alum. Then the fourth area would be all our investors are Miami alumni.”
There are currently 81 alumni investors in the fund. Mark shared, “They’re very interesting people, who have had success in their careers, who have generated wealth and are willing, very interested in, re-engaging. Almost every conversation is like, “Oh, I’d love to have a chance to re-engage with Miami. The fact that they’re enabling an impact on Miami, that’s a key selling point for them. They respect the fact that we’re focused on financial return, and they respect that we have a legitimate strategy to do it.”
Where the investors make money is when one of the companies that 1809 Capital has invested in either goes public or is acquired by another company. And that just happened as Coda, the fund’s first investment, was purchased by Grammerly.
Mark added, “That was our first investment - in the beginning of ’22, so the first investment we made is now the first exit that we have and it was a positive return. Plus, Grammerly is on a path to go public, so we think there’s an upside from here with that deal.”
1809 Capital is based in Oxford. “The launch of the Lee and Rosemary Fisher Innovation College@Elm (20 S. Elm, west end of High Street) is aligned with what our objectives are, and it led to us establishing an office in the Innovation Center,” said Mark. “This provides a platform to enable our alumni LPs to re-engage with Miami providing faculty and students access to mentors, advisers and industry experts. We’ve also developed a collaboration with the student venture fund,
RedHawk Ventures, to the extent that they now have located their offices in our offices. We’ve basically invited them to utilize our space, which has been a great thing for them, and I think has created a more cohesive team for them to have a place that they believe is their office.
“It’s also providing opportunities for them to sit with us and receive guidance. We’re helping them operate and behave like a standard institutional venture fund, which provides that experiential learning that’s a core component of Miami’s philosophy. We’ve enjoyed working with them. I think we’ve advanced their capabilities, and at the same time, we take advantage of those members to provide incremental resources and skill sets for us as well.”
Important to operating the fund is our formal student intern program. These are paid internships for three students during the academic year and one full-time during the summer, The internships are funded by the general partners’ 2% management fee. Not only is this incremental financial impact but also another exceptional experiential learning opportunity. The internships provide a full immersion in the operation of a venture capital fund and in the venture capital industry and how it works.
Mark concluded, “I would argue that these three students that by the end of this academic year, they would be the equal in terms of their knowledge, understanding, and skillset of any entry-level analyst in a large venture fund that’s typically coming out of a graduate school program.”
To date, 1809 Capital has had 13 interns, all gaining invaluable skills and experience.
What Mark, Jim, and the other alumni general partners have created is paying off big for students, alumni, and the university - providing valuable experience, connections, alumni engagement and funding for an institution near and dear to their hearts.
MARKETING TO WOMEN FOUR
TIPS FOR AVOIDING PITFALLS
By Jenny Darroch
First published in Business Information Oct. 2024
Women make more than 80% of purchasing decisions. But most brands struggle to reach, engage, and convert female customers. Here are four principles to help navigate the minefield that is marketing to women.
You have probably owned a Bic Cristal at some point. You may even have a Bic on your desk or table as you read this. As the world’s best-selling disposable ballpoint, it is so iconic that the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Pompidou Centre have incorporated the pen into their permanent collection. Yet even icons can fall from grace. In 2012, Société Bic launched a new product, targeted specifically at…women. “Bic for Her,” replete with “sleek silhouette and jeweled accents” and boasting a “thin barrel to fit a woman’s hand,” was an instant flop.
Customers posting on Amazon were universally scathing in their appraisal of the new product.
“I was going to write a review,” said one, “But then I remembered that, as a woman, my opinion doesn’t matter.” Another wondered whether “Bic will also bring out a new range of pink (or purple) feminine spanners, screwdrivers, electric drills, and angle grinders so that I can carry out my job as a bicycle mechanic without further embarrassing myself?” (Ironically, around the same time, Black and Decker launched a pink power drill for women which, like “Bic for Her,” was promptly discontinued.)
So deep was the disdain surrounding “Bic for her,” it prompted Forbes and others to pose the question: What were they thinking?
Bic, of course, is not alone in missing the mark in its efforts to market to women. Doritos, a brand of flavored tortilla chip, raised eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic with a “lady-friendly” version of the popular snack; one designed to be quieter in crunch and cleaner, leaving less residue on consumers’ fingers. And the reason for launching the new chip? “Women don’t like to crunch too loudly in public,” said Doritos manufacturer PepsiCo, “and they don’t lick their fingers generously.”
Lady Doritos was not a hit with women, nor with the media: “a solution,” as The Guardian newspaper crisply put it, to “a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Marketing new products to any audience is fraught with perils and pitfalls. Clayton Christiansen, the renowned scholar of innovation and disruption, found that of the 30,000 or so new products brought to market each year, as many as 95% will fail. Like “Bic for Her” and “Lady Doritos,” this includes products launched by well-established and successful organizations. According to one study, approximately 75% of consumer-packaged goods and retail products fail to earn $7.5m during their first year. That’s a lot of investment in innovation, development, and rollout efforts, for little return.
“ Market research company Nielsen estimates that women will own more than 70% of all discretionary spend globally by 2028, making them ‘the world’s greatest influencers’.”
But if marketing in general can be something of a morass for the most seasoned of brands and professionals, marketing to women can be an absolute minefield And it’s a minefield that marketers simply cannot avoid
“Market research company Nielsen estimates that women will own more than 70% of all discretionary spend globally by 2028, making them ‘the world’s greatest influencers’ ”
Women make up roughly half of the population, but we eclipse men in terms of consumer power. According to Bloomberg and others, women make well over 80% of all purchasing decisions in the home. Nielsen also finds that 85% of women say that if they like a brand, they will remain loyal to it.
Little wonder that women are considered one of the most (if not the most) coveted audience segments by so many in the marketing world . Connect with women and you could well be poised to unlock what TechCrunch calls the “trillion-dollar female economy ”
Get it wrong, and you risk alienating your key purchasing decision-makers, influencers, and super-consumers In a world where women feel that only 9% of brands are proactively marketing to them, it’s still more likely than not that you will get it wrong .
So how do you navigate this minefield? How do you reach women in ways that resonate with them and convert them into the satisfied and loyal customers your brand craves?
Perhaps the best place to start is getting back to a couple of basics
When marketing to women, getting back to the basics of understanding your customer, her needs, and how your product meets those needs is an excellent starting point.
Marketing to women: Four guiding principles to help you engage and represent women better
The legendary management scholar, Peter Drucker, famously said: “What the customer thinks he or she is buying, what he or she considers value is decisive – it determines what a business is, what it produces and whether it will prosper ”
There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence . And a lot that makes absolute sense
Today’s marketer has access to an unprecedented amount of data; from demographics to sales and purchase data, market trends to competitor insights, there’s a ton of information available for use to analyze and use But while having data at our fingertips is great, I wonder if we might have so much of it that we’re at risk of becoming data-fixated and forgetting to prioritize the customer; more specifically: the customer’s problem that our product is trying to solve
When marketing to women, getting back to the basics of understanding your customer, her needs, and how your product meets those needs is an excellent starting point . From there, you can see whether the data matches your hypothesis, or not . How do you go about doing this?
In my research and work on marketing to women, I’ve identified a set of critical questions or principles that you can use that will help you reach, engage, and market to female customers more representatively and more effectively . Here are four of those principles that you can use in your marketing efforts .
1. Get to know your customers: who influences, buys, and uses your products?
The first question to ask is how well you know your customers . Do you know what proportion of your customer base is women? How does this compare to your competitors’ customers or the population at large? It’s critical to have some sense of how gender shapes the group that you need to address Look at your data for insights here, and to understand how the women in your customer group behave Are they the primary decision-makers? Do they influence purchases, and if so, to what extent? Run the numbers to understand if they buy your product for themselves or others This will help you pinpoint the gender dynamics at play, and how to best focus your marketing to women: as influencers, buyers, or users .
2. Know why she buys.
Remember, even more than products, you are in the business of selling solutions to problems So, ask yourself: do you genuinely understand what those problems are? And if you don’t know what problem you are resolving, what’s stopping you from finding out? Whether yours is a multinational or a startup, you need to prioritize getting in front of your customers and having the conversations – be that via focus groups, questionnaires, or digital surveys – to help you identify the real pain points (and not imagined or invented problems, per Doritos!) that your product addresses . In turn, you are better able to modulate your marketing and communications efforts to align with this .
3. Treat women as knowledge customers and incentivize brand advocates.
Research shows that women are typically more knowledge-based and relationship-focused in our purchasing decisions; we tend to seek out the advice and opinions of other women, for instance, by reading or posting on social media . Ask yourself what you are doing in your marketing efforts to treat women as knowledge customers in this sense . And given that women are more active in knowledge sharing, ask yourself if you are doing enough as a brand to encourage and support influencing and brand advocacy Are you effective in your use of platforms and technologies that encourage women to engage with your brand and with each other?
4. Avoid ‘gender-washing’ and embrace blurred boundaries.
Women make up 50% of the population but we are not the same There are as many differences between women as there are between men and women This might strike you as obvious, but ask yourself: does your brand treat women as one homogenous demographic or do you proactively look for differences? As you reflect on this, think too about the different roles or hats that women wear in their lives, depending on context or time . A woman might simultaneously or at different times be a leader, a specialist in some area, an executive, a mother, a wife, a partner, a daughter, or a friend How does your brand acknowledge multiple and oftentimes blurred roles and boundaries when you communicate with women?
Marketing to women is complex and can be confusing As times and cultures change and evolve, the norms and ideas may also shift. Shrinking and pinking may not be reliable as a strategy (as Black and Decker discovered with their power drill), yet in 2023, the global phenomenon of the Barbie movie somehow made pink cool: wearing pink and embracing your femininity was suddenly synonymous with agency and power. Similarly, who would have guessed that Stanley, an industrial manufacturer of steel vacuum flasks, would come up with the Quencher, an outsized drinking vessel that has gone viral with women in the US in the last couple of years? But in a world where hugely popular artists like Taylor Swift assert the right to celebrate their femininity – and women’s rights are simultaneously being eroded in different parts of the globe, as the position of women in society is continuously shifting and changing – marketing to women can be enormously challenging.
Brands will continue to hit and miss the mark. But I believe that certain key principles can help navigate the minefield – principles that affirm the primary importance of knowing the customer and respecting her identity, individuality, and dignity, whoever she is.
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