A Year to Remember at Ross
2019-2020
Challenges. Opportunities. Successes.
Although the 2019-2020 Academic Year didn’t end as planned, it was still a remarkable school year for many reasons – some of which we could have never imagined. Please enjoy browsing these pages to relect on the many challenges met, successes achieved and activities held at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business last year. And, as always, thank you for your help in fostering such a wonderful and impactful Michigan Ross community.
SUMMER
2019
Ross Welcomes First Online MBA Class Michigan Ross took a huge step forward in its educational oferings with the debut of its inaugural Online MBA program. More than 70 students were accepted into the rigorous program through which students from across the U.S. join their classmates in live, interactive sessions made possible by the new Michigan Ross Digital Education Studio. In addition to the live classes, students also take self-guided courses on their own time and come together on campus for in-person residencies over the course of their degree. These residencies step beyond the typical online MBA program by providing collaborative opportunities for action-based learning.
Ross MBA Student Runs One of America’s Best Food Trucks Everyone likes a food truck. Everyone loves a food truck with a mission to feed its community’s soul as much as its belly. Ahmad Nassar, MBA ’20, and his brother, Mike, operate Detroit 75, a food truck named by U.S. Weekly as one of the country’s Top 10 food trucks. Although Detroit customers can’t get enough of the mobile restaurant’s garlic cilantro fries and sandwiches, its humanitarian mission is where it stands out. The Nassars use food as a platform to pay many Southwest Detroit residents a livable wage, invite students to paint street art in the community, and advocate for children’s nutritional competency.
MBA Student’s Podcast Gives a Voice to Arab American Women Ross MBA student Rima Fadlallah’s podcast series “Dearborn Girl” highlights the irony of hailing from Dearborn. While the Detroit suburb is home to the country’s largest Arab American population, perspectives from the city’s women population are few and far between. The weekly podcast aims to broaden the perspective of those who hear the term “Dearborn girl,” which may have a negative connotation to it. The podcast is just one part of the “For Dearborn” brand that Fadlallah, MBA ’20, and co-founder Yasmeen Kadouh are developing toward the goal of creating a “digital multi-media movement that inspires courageous conversation within Arab/Muslim communities globally.”
Ross Takes the Classroom Across the Country with Digital Education Studio No longer limited by geographic location, Michigan Ross unveiled its Digital Education Studio as a centerpiece ofering for the school’s irst Online MBA program. This SmartStage system, designed by London-based White Light Ltd., enables online students to see and engage with classmates and faculty as if they were seated right here in Ann Arbor. Ross is the irst academic institution to utilize this technology, developed to be used by broadcast television outlets as an innovative alternative to green screens. Ross will collaborate with White Light to update the technology as needed as it expands its 7 digital learning opportunities.
‘Rockstar Prof’ Greer Joins Sanger as Faculty Director Lindy Greer was named a “rockstar prof” in Poets&Quants’ list of the “Top 40 Under 40 Business School Professors.” She immediately took her talents to Michigan Ross, becoming an associate professor of management and organizations as well as the faculty director of the Sanger Leadership Center. She said Sanger’s ability to bridge research and teaching, science and practice, and diferent university stakeholders, drew her to Ross. Her research on leadership has looked at how to design and structure teams, manage conlicts, regulate emotions, and develop inclusive cultures for diverse teams.
Och Initiative Reshaping the Future of Women in Finance In 2014 there were 34 female BBA students pursuing a career in inance at the Ross School of Business. In ive years that number more than doubled to 69 students. The Och Initiative for Women in Finance – established following a generous gift from Jane Och (BBA, MAcc ’86) and her husband Daniel Och – promotes careers in the inance industry to female BBA students through a series of educational workshops, mentoring opportunities, and trips to inancial epicenters. Marking its ifth anniversary in 2019, the Och Initiative can be proud of its results: Females now account for 35% of the inance student body, up from 22% in 2014. Women who pursue careers in inance upon graduation from Ross are also landing compensation packages identical to their male counterparts, with a median base salary of $85,000.
FALL
2019
Ross Partners with Chicago’s PEAK6 to Help Launch Fintech Careers To address a workforce gap in the growing intech sector, Ross partnered with PEAK6 — a Chicago-based investment irm co-founded by Jenny Just, BBA ’90, and Matt Hulsizer — to launch a comprehensive Fintech Initiative. The core goals of the initiative are: to attract and develop faculty with expertise in intech; foster students well equipped for intech careers; and provide students with professional development experiences that create value for them as future employees. The Ross faculty co-directors of the program are Robert Dittmar and Andrew Wu. In its irst year, the initiative has made substantial progress in developing a digital education platform, academic programs, and immersive learning experiences.
+Impact Studio Opens to Tackle World’s Greatest Challenges Ross added an interdisciplinary, solutions-based campus hub to its Business+Impact initiative with the launch of the +Impact Studio. This space is designed to bring together graduate students from multiple schools and colleges across campus, so they can work together to address society’s greatest challenges. First-year eforts were divided into two groups: one using the latest intech research by Ross inance professor Bob Dittmar to improve inancial inclusion, and another using technology developed by marketing professor Eric Schwartz on how to identify lead in Flint water pipes. Both teams developed transferrable solutions that can make a positive impact on regional, national, and international scales.
Zell Lurie Institute Marks 20 Years of Success in Entrepreneurship, Venture Investing Entrepreneurship and venture investing education has grown in leaps and bounds at the Ross School of business over the past two decades. The reason? The Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies was established in 1999 with a $10 million endowment from Samuel Zell and Ann Lurie, on behalf of her late husband, Robert H. Lurie. The institute, which celebrated 20 years in September 2019, is now recognized as one of the top University-based entrepreneurship and venturing investing programs in the world. The Zell Lurie Institute further revolutionized its oferings in 2015, when Zell increased his commitment to the future of Ross students with an additional $60 million gift.
Ross Alums Reunite, Root for the Wolverines Michigan Ross alums traveled from near and far to Ann Arbor in early October to reconnect with friends and cheer on their Wolverines as they moved to 4-1 on the season with a 10-3 victory over the No. 19-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes. The weekend-long celebration included a moderated conversation with Condoleeza Rice, who also taught a master class and served as the Wolverines’ honorary captain for the homecoming game; an emeritus dinner for alumni celebrating 50 years or more at Ross; Club Leadership Summit featuring
Ross alumni clubs from around the country; Black Business Alumni Association mixer; and of course the reunion tailgate, featuring a live DJ set, a variety of food, and activities for young U-M fans in the Wolverine Kids Zone.
Disrupting Middle East Business Through Diversity The Executive Education program at Michigan Ross debuted its Women’s Empowerment Scholarship for aspiring executives committed to gender diversity in the Gulf Cooperation Council. The GCC is a political and economic alliance of six Middle Eastern countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. The scholarship is designed to inspire positive change and the evolution of women’s empowerment across the region, which is undergoing rapid social and economic changes. Winners were announced in November and celebrated at a special ceremony in December.
Ross BBA Grads’ Salaries Soar
Got jobs? Ross MBA Grads Do
It pays to be a graduate of the Bachelor of
Michigan Ross Full-Time MBA graduates broke all the records in 2019. This class established new highs in job placement – 96 percent accepted jobs within three months of graduating – and highest total
Business Administration program at Michigan Ross. The 2019 BBA Employment Report said it paid a median salary package of $88,500 to be exact – a signiicant jump from 2018’s $79,500. The recent graduates landed positions at 186 companies, including sought-after employers such as JP Morgan, EY, Citi, Deloitte, Morgan Stanley, Facebook Inc., Boston Consulting Group, Oracle, L’Oreal, Teach for America, Kraft Heinz Co., and Unilever. Job ofers were incredibly strong for the class of 2019, with 97 percent accepting a position by the end of September.
salary package. The largest number of Ross MBAs accepted jobs in the consulting industry (32 percent), with a base salary median of $150,000. More than half of the class took positions in New York, Chicago, Seattle or San Francisco, while 10 percent landed positions in one of 12 countries around the world.
Common Raps with Ross about the Positive Impact of Business Common wears many award-winning hats: rapper, actor, author, and activist among them. On a fall evening at Hill Auditorium, he used all of those experiences to serve as a motivator during the annual Joseph and Sally Handleman Lecture Series. Wearing a T-shirt reading “Let Love Have the Last Word” – the name of his most recent memoir – Common asked the full house to follow their dreams. “If you ind something you enjoy and really believe in, the money will come. Find something you dream about, and do something to follow that dream every day. Figure out ways to use that dream to help people. We all have that ability to turn that dream to help the world.”
Playing with Purpose More than 200 graduate students from Michigan Ross joined forces with the Ann Arbor Public Schools district to generate support and funding for building an inclusive play structure, replacing an old one that was not accessible to children with physical disabilities. Challenged with creating positive change in the community, students developed marketing and fundraising strategies to raise nearly $1,200 over 24 hours for the Eberwhite Elementary Playground Rebuild project. The efort was part of the Sanger Leadership Center’s Business + Impact Challenge, a leadership development program sponsored by the Deloitte Foundation. The new, volunteer-built playground is now fully ADA compliant and play-friendly for all children at the school.
Ross Launches New Scholarship for Students from the U.P. Although it’s in the same state, Ann Arbor can feel like a world away from places like Sault Ste. Marie, Escanaba, and Marquette, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Michigan Ross is helping bridge the gap between the upper and lower peninsulas through a new U.P. Scholars Program. This undergraduate scholarship, which was announced in October 2019, aims to break down any perceived barriers of distance, culture, and inances by providing these students with access to scholarship funds, peer mentorship, career and academic guidance, and a strong cohort of fellow students. Starting in the fall of 2020, recipients will be selected based on inancial need, academic and personal achievement, leadership qualities, and commitment to service.
One-Third of MBA Students Give to Peers in Give-A-Day Fund Nearly 100 Ross MBA students, faculty, and staf donated thousands of dollars to the student-led Give-A-Day Fund, which supports students participating in an impact-focused internship. The fund asks MBA students to donate a day of their summer internship salary to their peers working at nonproit or public-sector internships that don’t ofer much inancial compensation. The amount of donations unlocked a $10,000 matching donation from an anonymous donor, increasing the impact to students following impact careers.
Ross Professor Works with Congress on Bank Mergers Jeremy Kress, assistant professor of business law, worked with congressional staf members to draft proposed legislation that would strengthen standards for bank mergers. Based on a paper the professor and lawyer published, the bill would address legal standards under which federal regulators analyze applications for bank mergers. The Bank Merger Review Modernization Act is sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Ill.; and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
WINTER
2020
Activist, Scholar, and Writer Angela Davis Speaks at MLK Symposium Angela Davis, a social justice pioneer for six decades, spoke at Hill Auditorium for the 34th Annual Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium Lecture, co-sponsored by Ross. Davis’ lecture was titled “The (Mis)Education of US,” which acknowledged that although we live in a diverse society, we still have a long way to go in terms of learning how to learn, live, and prosper with each other. The sold-out event was viewed by thousands who couldn’t make it to the auditorium, as the event was streamed live by U-M’s Oice of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, including inside Ross’ Robertson Auditorium.
Ross Gets on STEM Track for Full-Time MBA Students Ross expanded its full-time MBA program to include a STEMdesignated track beginning in Fall 2020. This move allows students interested in pursuing quantitative management and business analytics roles across many industries to participate in a formal program. The STEM track requires 18 credit hours to be completed from a speciic set of electives across many business disciplines, including accounting, inance, management and organizations, marketing, information technology, and operations.
Students Pair Up with Startups to Pitch Innovations More than 60 Ross students pitched innovation ideas to 20 Michigan-based start-up companies as part of the 2019 Financing Technology Commercialization Pitch Competition in December. A record-breaking 100 students from across U-M and from other universities participated in this year’s competition, which serves as a capstone experience for the interdisciplinary Financing Research Commercialization practicum taught by professor David Brophy.
And the Award for Professor of the Week Goes to … Ross’ Sarah Miller, assistant professor of business economics and public policy, was recognized in January as Poets&Quants’ Professor of the Week. Miller was showcased for her research on the impact of the Afordable Care Act, particularly how its expansion led to thousands of lives being saved. Miller, who collaborated on the research with Sean Aletkruse of the National Institutes of Health, Norman Johnson of the U.S. Census Bureau, and Laura Wherry of UCLA, also estimated an additional 15,600 deaths could have been avoided had the expansion been adopted nationwide.
Students Practice the Worst Day of Their Career Sounds great, right? The Leadership Crisis Challenge acknowledges that not every day is sunshine and rainbows – sometimes there is a company crisis that needs to be dealt with, quickly and efectively. Hundreds of graduate and undergraduate from across the university participated in the challenge, a program developed by the Sanger Leadership Center and sponsored by PNC Bank which puts them in executive leadership roles at ictional companies. Teams have 24 hours to develop a response plan before presenting it to a company board of directors and real journalists during a heated press conference. PNC sponsored this year’s program. This year’s winning team – faced with responding to an autonomous rideshare vehicle colliding with a bicyclist on the leet’s launch day – was comprised of: • • • • • • •
Nicole Crosby, MBA ’20 Allie Gluck, MBA ’20 Elise Gordon, MBA ’21 Brad Kohlmeyer, MBA ’22 Brad Lorant, MBA ’22 Jacqueline Salamack, MBA ’20 Justin Woods, MSW ’21
Winter Wellness Week Shows the Way to a Healthier You Around the time many New Year resolutions are but a distant memory, Ross hosted the second annual Winter Wellness Week to remind students of the importance of building and maintaining a healthy, balanced lifestyle. The week’s activities included a presentation by life coach Greg Harden, healthy eating workshop, a free rowing workout class, and a student panel discussing tips on dealing with stress and keeping perspective in life issues.
Connecting Over Cultures Taking advantage of the global makeup of Michigan Ross, the FullTime MBA Program Oice launched a new Food, Friends, and Culture (FFC) series to help students have a cultural “show and tell� with their peers. Hosted in conjunction with cultural student clubs, each event is designed to help build understanding and awareness through the sharing of food, trivia, and interactive activities. Early events featured students from the Hispanic Business Association, African Business Club, and East and Southeast Asia clubs, with each event attracting approximately 200 MBA students.
Ross Joins Health Management Alliance Ross joined 18 other business schools around the world as a member of the Business School Alliance for Health Management (BAHM), an organization for top-ranking schools ofering healthcare-related programs. Ross ofers a concentration in healthcare management, as well as dual degrees with U-M’s medical school and schools of public health, dentistry, and pharmacy. The membership comes on the heels of Ross launching its Pinkert Scholars Program, which provides full-ride scholarships to MBA candidates focused on healthcare innovation.
Ross MBAs Fare Well at Healthcare Case Competition A team that included four Ross MBA students inished second in the 17th Annual Biotech and Healthcare Case Competition at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management last month. Eleven teams were selected from 56 applicants to participate in the event, which gave teams one week to solve a ictional scenario facing the healthcare industry. The U-M team, which competed against peers from top U.S. business schools, took home a cash prize of $2,000 for their runner-up inish. The team consisted of the following students: • • • • •
Clinton Bourbonais ’21 Alex Erikson, MBA ’21 Molly Fallon, MBA ’21 Natasha Suddhi, MBA ’21 Ben Swanson, PhD/DDS ‘24
MBAs Work Quickly To Win WDI’S 24-Hour Competition Ross students were among multiple U-M teams that participated in the William Davidson Institute’s irst 24-Hour Case Competition, which tasked students with inding demand solutions for a power company building a mini-grid in Uganda. The teams had one day to research Bakulu Power and wouldbe customers before presenting their solutions to a panel of judges. MBA students Maneel Grover and Avinav Sinha won the competition, earning a $3,000 cash prize.
U-M Regent & Ross Alum Weiser Funds New Real Estate Center University of Michigan Regent Ron Weiser, BBA ’66 made a gift of $10M to Michigan Ross for the establishment of the Weiser Center for Real Estate, which will ofer a suite of courses at the intersection of business and real estate. The center will provide the opportunity for students to learn from real estate professionals, apply their knowledge in practice, and prepare for their career in the complex ield of real estate business. The center will ofer undergraduate and graduate courses on real estate inance, real estate law, real estate investing, asset and property management, sustainable development, and more. Another center ofering is the launch of the Weiser Scholars Fellowship, which allows up to six students to be accepted annually for student support and fellowship activities.
What Does it Take to Sell Out the Big House? Nearly 140 Ross students participated in Datathon 2020, tasked with analyzing ticket sales data to develop recommendations on selling out each game at Michigan Stadium. The winning team of three BBA students – Julia Averbuch, BBA/BSE ’23, Quinn Favret, BBA ’22, and Alex Hedge, BBA/BS ’20 – proposed a price optimization and targeted marketing strategy to increase tickets sales. They suggested raising prices for three-ticket packages by $50, as well as a plan to host events aimed at attracting underrepresented markets to games. Expert judges from Datathon sponsors LLamasoft, Deloitte, and umlaut, as well as representatives from the Paton Accounting Center and Michigan Athletics, evaluated the top teams’ solutions.
SPRING
2020
Ross Full-Time MBAs Set Out to Raise $100,000 to Fight Racial Injustice Following the deaths of Americans including Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, three Ross MBA students decided to take action to ight racial injustice. Along with Consortium students from other business schools, Ross students Lauren Abuouf, MBA ’21; Harshita Pilla, MBA ’22; and Whitney Pollar, MBA ’22, set out initially to raise $20,000 in June for Color of Change, the largest online racial justice organization in the U.S. When they reached their goal within 12 hours, they decided to get more ambitious, hoping to raise $100,000. In addition to raising money, the students also asked people to address racial injustice in a personal manner by becoming more educated about the issue.
Five Ross Students Make ‘Best & Brightest’ Lists Three MBA students and two BBA students from Ross were named to Poets&Quants’ lists of the Best & Brightest students from the class of 2020. Madeleine Carnemark, Christopher Lee Owen, and LaTresha Staten were selected as the Best & Bridghtest MBA students. Globally, 100 graduates from 72 MBA programs made the prestigious list for their ability to “distinguish themselves by their ability to create and seize opportunities from day one.” Nominees were evaluated on their extracurricular activities, academic and professional achievements, and the insightfulness of their responses. Meanwhile Ross BBAs Liza Hochberg and Sachit Grover were selected by Poets&Quants as two of the “Best and Brightest” class of 2020 undergraduates from the top 50 business schools. The publication selected these two students based on their academic excellence, extracurricular leadership, personal character, and overall impact on their B-school program. Hochberg served Ross as BBA Council president, while Grover was president of the Ross Entertainment and Digital Media Club.
Ross’ Business Consultant Corps Expands Internships, Development Opportunities To help address the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on internships, Ross developed the Business Consultant Corps. This program allows students to work directly with executives from sponsoring organizations on projects dealing with business strategy, digital transformation, marketing, and more. Participants receive real-world leadership experience while earning a stipend. The Corps also features weekly workshops led by Ross faculty and mentoring provided by both faculty and alumni. To further boost learning opportunities, the school also added a summer experience requirement to its Full-Time MBA program beginning with the Class of 2022.
Ross Launches ‘Maymester’ for Undergraduates Ross ofered rising junior and senior U-M students the opportunity to earn core and elective business credits in just four weeks through the new Maymester program. The Maymester ran from May 5-29, which is three weeks shorter than the U-M spring term. Virtual courses offered during the inaugural Maymester were: Business Economics; Sales Management; Consumer Behavior; and Coding with Python. Students could also access virtual resources and programming from Ross’ Oice of Undergraduate Programs and the Career Development Oice.
Carson Scholars Program Marks 15 Years of Merging Business and Public Policy More than 800 undergraduate students have gotten a irst-hand look at how business and public policy impact each other while participating in the Carson Scholars Program, which marked its 15th anniversary in 2020. Established through a generous gift from David Carson, BBA ’55, the three-credit course includes an opportunity for Ross students to take part in a unique learning experience hosted in Washington, D.C. There, students visit with members of Congress, and White House staf, as well as representatives from advocacy organizations and journalists. The trip was conducted virtually this year, with oicials connecting with students via Zoom to share insights about the nation’s capital.
First-Ever Virtual Commencement Although the COVID-19 pandemic separated students, faculty, and staf physically, the Michigan Ross 2020 Virtual Commencement helped bring them together as one Wolverine family. A host of distinguished U-M alumni and guest speakers logged onto Zoom from their living rooms and patios to ofer words of advice and encouragement to the 1,584 Ross graduates tuning in across the country and world. Tom Brady, BGS ’99, Jim Harbaugh, BA ’86, and Mary Kay Haben, MBA ’79, were among the U-M alums who spoke during the ceremony, while Stephen M. Ross, BBA ’64 – through his informal wardrobe choice – reminded us all that it was OK to have a bit of fun during a pandemic. After the main ceremony, individual virtual celebrations were held for each program. Ross graduates, faculty, and staf were also able to share memories, photos, and well wishes in program-speciic virtual memory books.
“We are here as one family, connected, and that’s what really matters,” said Brad Keywell, founder and CEO of Uptake. “Even though we can’t be together in person, what we’re doing is reflective of the Michigan way. We are taking lemons and we are making delicious lemonade.” Brad Keywell, BBA ’91 Founder and CEO of Uptake “Obviously, what we’re all dealing with with COVID-19 provided us an incredible lesson: We never know what moment is promised to us. We never know what day is ours. We never know what day will be our last. So, what do we do? You seize the day; you seize the moment you have. That’s the only one we have.” Tom Brady, BGS ’99
“We are celebrating an extraordinary group of people. Those who have excelled in school, and who not only will excel in their careers, but who will live up to the mission of the Michigan Ross School of Business and create a better world through their contributions to business. Today you graduate from one of the top schools in the world, one of the finest academic institutions in the world.” Scott DeRue, Edward J. Frey Dean of Michigan Ross
Ross Responds to COVID-19 Challenges Despite the unexpected nature of the end of the 2019-2020 Academic Year due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the University of Michigan Ross School of Business rose to the challenge, with students and faculty adjusting and thriving in an all-virtual learning environment. From our remote, socially distanced locations, students attended classes, took part in experience-based programs – even graduated in the school’s irst-ever virtual commencement ceremony. Members of the Ross community also used the pandemic to inspire their work in the form of fundraising and discovering ways to address others’ hardships during this time, as you’ll read about in these pages. “Michigan Ross is a community committed to making a positive diference in the world, and this deep sense of purpose is evident in the tremendous response by our community to make an impact and support others through this crisis,” said Scott DeRue, Edward J. Frey Dean of Michigan Ross. “The actions and contributions by our students, faculty, staf, and alumni are inspiring, and I’m incredibly proud of what we continue to achieve together during this challenging time.”
Alumni Organize Significant Donations for U-M Hospitals After living through the worst of the crisis in their country, around 100 members of the Michigan Ross Chinese Alumni Association helped bring the U-M Health System closer to COVID-19 preparedness with the donation of $42,000 and much-needed personal protective equipment. The donation supplied critical medical equipment to the U-M Health System and was part of a larger campuswide fundraiser organized by Chinese alumni, which secured $120,000 in monetary gifts as well as thousands of N95 masks, face shields, googles, protective coveralls, and more.
Alum Leads Henry Ford Health System’s Response When cases irst emerged in China, HFHS’ incident response commander Betty Chu, MBA `13/MD `95, and her team started a planning process and daily huddles with specialists to discuss how they would handle the virus if it came to the U.S. Chu was at the center of the emergency response plan the health system has used to efectively manage the crisis as cases spiked in Metro Detroit.
Alum’s Innovative Program Targets Food and Financial Insecurity Across the U.S. Get Shift Done, co-founded by Anurag Jain, MBA ’95, employed afected hourly workers in the hospitality industry to perform shifts for nonproit organizations and institutions in need during the COVID-19 crisis. In the irst two months after its launch in North Texas, Get Shift Done provided more than ten million meals at more than 60 locations across ten U.S. cities, registered more than 8,500 workers, and raised nearly $7 million to pay those workers.
Alums’ Argus Farm Stop Leverages Local Farmers’ Connections to Fill Grocery Gap While the supply network was still adapting for larger grocery players, Argus Farm Stop in Ann Arbor, founded by Kathy Sample, MBA ’89, and Bill Brinkerhof, MBA ’89, did not have to change their supply chain from local farmers. By making a quick pivot to online ordering, these two Ross alumni are now serving over 1,400 online customers.
BBA’s Podcast Helped Keep Students Engaged in Business Michael Sikand, BBA ’22, found himself with more free time in the midst of the pandemic. He decided to put that time to good use by launching Our Future: Looking Beyond with Michael Sikand, a podcast for young leaders that explores the key questions driving the future of business, technology, and policy. In each episode, Sikand interviewed executives and entrepreneurs, including many Michigan Ross alumni.
Faculty Launches New Website to Support Michigan’s Small Businesses Recognizing the shutdown’s immense inancial impact on the state’s small businesses, Josh Botkin, a Michigan Ross faculty member and entrepreneur-in-residence at the Zell Lurie Institute, created an easy way for patrons to support their favorite local establishments. His nonproit website, Save MI Faves, helped users easily ind and purchase gift cards to nearly 400 restaurants, bookstores, salons, and other shops across Michigan.
Alum’s App Helps the Fight Against Hunger As the number of people facing food insecurity rose during the pandemic, the usage of a mobile/web app, created by Jack Griin, BBA ’19, connecting individuals to free meal sites soared. During the irst four months of 2020, FoodFinder connected 115,000 people to food — compared to 14,000 people in the same period last year. At its peak in March and April, the volume of users surged to 3,000 a day, up from an average of 700 daily before the crisis.
Business Fraternity Fundraises for the Ann Arbor Community To ensure that, when they returned to campus, students could still visit many of their favorite places and organizations, Ross undergraduate students organized virtually to launch fundraising eforts for Ann Arbor’s small businesses and nonproits. The BBAs created a GoFundMe page and started a fun “Instagram Dare� fundraiser to raise money for longstanding Ann Arbor organizations, including Avalon Housing, Moon Cafe, BTB, and the Michigan and State theaters, among others.
RANKINGS When is a number more than just a number? When it’s your business school ranking number designated by a respected publication. Prestigious lists of where schools rank in terms of the quality of their BBA and MBA programs, value to students, diversity, and alumni networks are all important measures that students, faculty, families, and staf take into account when they consider which campus they’d like to join. Judging by the numbers, there are a growing number of reasons to consider an education and career at Ross.
Gender Diversity Reigns at Ross Exemplifying Michigan Ross’ commitment to improve gender diversity, our Full-Time MBA program placed seventh during the summer of 2019 in CEOWorld Magazine’s list of Top U.S. Business Schools for Female Students. At Ross, women thrive in impactful roles – 41 percent of leadership roles and 56 percent of professional clubs are led by females. The Michigan Business Women organization is one of the school’s largest student groups, fostering a healthy, inclusive environment for women by curating events providing personal and professional development.
Ross BBA Program Nets Its Highest P&Q Ranking In December 2019, Ross landed at the No. 2 spot in Poets&Quants’ ranking of Best Undergraduate Business Schools, up from No. 4 last year and No. 13 just two years ago. Calling it an “impressive” climb, the publication highlighted Ross’ alumni satisfaction is on the rise, inishing at second overall. Other notable factors include the school’s change from a three-year to four-year direct admit program and graduates earning more than $75,500 in salary in their irst jobs.
Ross BBA Program Keeps Climbing the Charts The BBA program at Michigan Ross continued its upward trajectory in the national rankings, landing at No. 3 in the U.S. News & World Report’s listing in September 2019. Up one spot from the previous year, the report ranked Ross at the top spot in the specialty areas of both marketing and management, while operations (#2), inance (#3), entrepreneurship (#4), and supply chain (#5) all landed topive marks. It’s easy to see why the report was impressed by Ross: The incoming class of 500 students had a high school GPA of 3.91 and an average SAT score of 1480.
Ross Moves Into Forbes’ Top 10 Ranking of MBA Programs Michigan Ross stepped up two spots to No. 10 in Forbes’ biennial ranking of MBA programs, released in September 2019. The publication ranks business schools solely on their “ive-year MBA gain,” the net cumulative amount the typical alum would have earned after ive years by getting their MBA rather than staying in their pre-MBA career. Forbes calculated that a Ross full-time MBA pays for itself inancially in less than four years.
Ross Named a Top MBA Alumni Network Ross’ ability to connect past, present, and future MBA students is the reason it has one of the “Best MBA Alumni Networks,” according to a Poets&Quants report released in the fall of 2019. When you earn an MBA from Ross, you get more than a degree, the report states — you have “an unspoken agreement to pay it forward, to open the same doors as alumni will unlock for you.” Having more than 51,000 Ross alumni in 108 countries across the world as thought leaders and mentors allows the alumni network to thrive with valuable networking and educational opportunities.
Ann Arbor A Great Place to Attend Business School There are many cities you can choose to live in as you attend business school, but there’s only one Ann Arbor. WalletHub selected A2 at the beginning of 2020 as the best small city to attend college or university, and No. 5 overall out of 400 cities included in the report. The county seat of Washtenaw County was also ranked as the Most Educated City in America in the report, boasting the highest percentage of college degrees of included cities. Finally, Ann Arbor was ranked third for top U.S. tech cities, based on its percentage of residents employed in STEM occupations and the number of people holding advanced degrees or science/engineering undergraduate degrees.
Ross Executive Education Moves Into Top 3 of Open Enrollment Global Providers The Ross School of Business moved up a spot this spring to place in the top 3 of global providers for its open enrollment executive education programs, according to a Financial Times report. One of just two U.S. schools in the top 10, Ross placed seventh internationally and second in the U.S. in the rankings, which look at performances in open enrollment and customized programs. The rankings are based on factors such as ratings from corporate clients, teaching methods, faculty, post-program follow-up, value of the program, and more.
This book was produced by the Oice of Development and Alumni Engagement at Michigan Ross. If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at RossDevAR@umich.edu.
University of Michigan Ross School of Business Office of Development & Alumni Engagement 701 Tappan St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 michiganross@umich.edu