An Unparalleled Year, An Unrivaled Response
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n a year unlike any other, the University of Michigan Ross School of Business’ commitment to building a better world through business was steadfast, always at the heart of our operations. Our students, faculty, alumni, and staff persevered through the challenges of an unparalleled learning environment to continue building upon our world-class business education. As you will see on the pages of this yearbook, in 2020-2021 we found new, unexpected, and innovative ways to make positive impacts through business education and research. No matter your role, we thank you for being an integral and impactful part of the Michigan Ross community.
S U M M E R ’20
Ross Launches Business Corps to Give Students Summer Business Experiences In May 2020, the Ross School of Business leveraged its vast network of organizational partners and launched a new summer internship program for students, as the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted the availability of internships offered by companies across the world. In addition to this Michigan Ross Business Consultant Corps program, the school also announced the addition of a summer experience requirement to its Full-Time MBA Program, starting with the Class of 2022. More than 120 students participated in the virtual, eight-week Business Consultant Corps during the summer (July 1 - August 1, 2020), working directly with executives from sponsoring organizations on projects related to business strategy, digital transformation, marketing, and operations, among others.
First Ross Summer Academy Makes Pivot to Online Format The inaugural Summer Business Academy for introducing high school students to business careers pivoted to an online format in June 2020. More than 100 students participated in the academy, designed to give seniors and select rising juniors an inside look at what a college business education looks like. Students from underrepresented backgrounds or those who have overcome social and economic barriers were encouraged to apply. Students and parents from around the country took part in the academy, which allowed them to hear from Ross officials including Scott DeRue, Edward J. Frey Dean of Michigan Ross, and Norm Bishara, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs. Students also had a chance to interact with BBA students, faculty members, and each other.
Full-Time MBAs Lead Initiative to Raise $100,000 to Fight Racial Injustice Responding to the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, three Michigan Ross MBA students led a fundraising campaign to educate and raise $100,000 to fight racial injustice. The three students — Lauren Abuouf, MBA ’21; Harshita Pilla, MBA ’22; and Whitney Pollard, MBA ’22 — are members of the Consortium at Ross. The Consortium is a national alliance of top-tier business schools and corporate partners dedicated to increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in business education and corporate leadership. Ross students worked with their Consortium peers in other schools, initially to raise $20,000 for Color for Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. After meeting that mark in 12 hours, they decided to aim higher. Abuouf said the response from Ross students and clubs was “overwhelmingly positive.”
Ross MBA’s Team Wins $25K Prize in Startup Competition U-M MBA students took home the top prize in the Rice Business Plan Competition in June 2020 for their work in SlumberFlow, a startup that makes a device reducing the effects of obstructive sleep apnea. The team — consisting of Michigan Ross student Juan Noda, MBA/ MD ’20, along with fellow U-M graduate students Allison Powell, MSE ’16/MD ’21, and Lindsey Furness, BSE/MSE ’21 — won the $25,000 Pediatric Device Prize from the Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium during the competition. Powell developed the idea for SlumberFlow, a non-invasive nasal airway device, after seeing a patient experiencing severe obstructive sleep apnea during a research year of her medical school studies, and recognizing the need for a non-invasive nasal airway device. The team, which received assistance from Ross’ Zell Lurie Institute in advising and pitch refining, previously won the Michigan Business Challenge. In that campuswide competition, SlumberFlow earned a $15,000 firstplace prize for taking first place in the Invention Track.
Two Executive MBAs Recognized as Being ‘Best & Brightest’ of 2020 Recent Michigan Ross graduates Manu Malhotra and Rosalie Villapando were named in July 2020 among the “Best & Brightest” Executive MBAs in the Class of 2020 by Poets&Quants. The publication asked for recommendations from 53 top-ranked programs to develop the list, which contains individuals who “bring a love for growth and a distrust of the status quo.” Malhotra became chief medical officer at Henry Ford Health System a few months into the Executive MBA program. He chose Ross because of its international reputation, focus on strategy, and the convenience of the monthly oncampus format. Villapando is a senior vice president in strategy and operations for A&E Networks. She credited Ross’ strong ranking and reputation for thought leadership, as well as its culture of excellence as being primary factors in her decision to attend school here.
Incoming BBA Students Get Acquainted Virtually During Ross Summer Connection As we’ve all learned over the past year, it’s not really a requirement to be in the same room as someone to “meet” them. The fourth annual Ross Summer Connection program helped first-year BBA students get acquainted with each other virtually in July and August 2020 through a series of virtual classes, workshops, and bonding events. In addition to meeting their classmates, participants were also able to meet upperclassmen who served as mentors. The mentors helped prepare students for first-year required courses, introducing them to the rigor of Michigan math, writing, and microeconomics.
BBA Student, U-M Football Teammates Provide Outfits for Youth Sports Teams Thanks to Jake McCurry, BBA ’21, and his U-M football teammates, 150 young, low-income athletes in Cleveland received uniforms and sporting equipment. In July 2020, McCurry led The Uniform Funding Foundation’s donation day with 11 of his Wolverine football teammates. The foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 2018 by U-M football player Adam Shibley that helps underfunded sports teams by offering uniforms and equipment, as well as offering free camps, enrichment trips, and mentorship programming. The organization has also made donations to youth teams in the Detroit and Chicago areas.
Journal Honors Ross Professor’s Dissertation with Top Award Michigan Ross professor Derek Harmon won a prestigious award from the Administrative Science Quarterly for a paper he authored detailing the Federal Reserve’s effectiveness on bolstering confidence in financial markets. Harmon won the ASQ Dissertation Award, which honors the best paper published in the journal based on a dissertation. His paper “When the Fed Speaks: Arguments, Emotions, and the Microfoundations of Institutions,” found that efforts by the chair of the Federal Reserve to increase confidence can sometimes have the opposite effect, creating uncertainty in the markets.
Professor Earns Prestigious Honors for Coursework, Teaching Accomplishments Michigan Ross professor and sustainability expert Andy Hoffman earned two prestigious awards last summer for his excellence in teaching. Hoffman, whose latest course is titled “Business in Democracy: Advocacy, Lobbying and Public Interest,” is the Holcim (US), Inc. Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, professor of management and organizations, and professor of environment and sustainability at Ross. He was announced as the grand prize winner of The Moore School’s 12th annual Dr. Alfred N. and Lynn Manos Page Prize for Sustainability Issues in Business, which recognizes efforts to introduce or upgrade sustainability courses into business school curricula. Hoffman was also selected as a recipient of the 2020 ONE Teaching Award from the Organizations and the Natural Environment division of the Academy of Management, which recognizes accomplishments in the classroom and educational publications.
Legal Academy Honors Two Ross Professors with Prestigious Career Award The Academy of Legal Studies in Business awarded in August 2020 its 2020 Distinguished Career Achievement Award to two Michigan Ross professors: Lynda Oswald and Cindy Schipani. It was the first time two people from the same school received the award in the same year. At Ross, Oswald is the Louis and Myrtle Moskowitz Research Professor of Business and Law, while Schipani is the Merwin H. Waterman Collegiate Professor of Business Administration and professor of Business Law. The award honors members of the academy who show excellence throughout their careers in research, teaching, and service.
Ross Lecturer Named to Advertising Hall of Achievement Marcus Collins, MBA ’09, has had many achievements in his career — in August 2020, the Michigan Ross marketing lecturer added being a member of the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement to the growing list. Collins, one of eight 2020 inductees, joined the Hall alumni network of nearly 200 members who have shaped the landscape of advertising, entertainment, and media. Collins’ strategies and creative contributions have led to the success of Budweiser’s “Made in America” music festival, the launch of Bud Light Platinum, and State Farm’s “Cliff Paul” campaign, among others.
Alumni Give $6M to Launch Diversity Initiatives at Ross Stephen M. Ross and Jeff T. Blau announced in August 2020 a $6 million commitment to help Michigan Ross further its dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Their gift supports a spectrum of initiatives designed to attract, recruit, support, and offer innovative learning and work experiences for students from underrepresented backgrounds in real estate business and investing. Ross, BBA ’62, is chairman and founder of Related Companies, for which Blau, BBA ’90, is the chief executive officer. Both are highly engaged volunteers and donors for Ross and U-M. The Blau Initiative for Diversity in Real Estate and Infrastructure consists of four components targeted at students from underrepresented backgrounds: sparking interest in business and investing; attracting and recruiting students to U-M and Ross by making it more affordable; offering students learning experiences in real estate and investing; and providing internships for experiences in real estate and investing. The Related Scholars Fund provides scholarships to attract and support students from diverse environments, including those from low-income backgrounds, who are interested in pursuing careers in investing/real estate.
Detroiter Making Maximum Community Impact Through Her Real Estate Company Jonae Maxey, BBA ’21, is using her passion for making a positive impact to improve inner-city Detroit neighborhoods. Through her involvement in optiMize — a student-led organization at U-M to help students create projects that make a positive impact — Maxey developed her own real estate business, Maxey Real Estate Investments. Her goal is to buy and rehabilitate vacant properties in Detroit by using local businesses, and then lease to Detroiters with rent or rent-to-own agreements. In helping the city’s residents own their own homes, she also hopes to set an example for other young Detroiters.
Virtual Workshops Outline How to Be an Ally at Ross and Beyond A series of virtual workshops hosted last summer called Allyship 101 helped more than 200 Full-Time MBA students at Michigan Ross learn about pursuing social justice on a daily basis. Developed by Mariel Sena, MBA ’21, and Taryn Petryk, former director of diversity and inclusion at Ross, the four one-hour workshops tackled issues such as defining allyship, ways to show up as an ally, and how to commit to advocating for marginalized groups. Allyship 101 was designed to guide students through a journey of introspection, identifying the aspects of their identity that provide them with power and privilege, and how to build a plan of action for social justice based on the opportunities they have to make a difference.
Alums Acquire $20M Fund to Buy Homes for Individuals with Disabilities Three U-M alums found a way to lead with purpose during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing housing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Nestidd is a Chicago-based company founded by Andrew Parker, BBA ’11, and Tad Ritter, BA ’12. Amanda Parker, BBA ’17, serves as the company’s director of development. The company’s closure in the summer of 2020 on a $20 million fund allowed them to purchase homes to be leased to licensed Medicaid care providers who focus on adults with disabilities. Nestidd relieves the burden off care providers and helps clients get the best care possible by taking care of the entire leasing process, from reviewing the home, updating and renovating specifications for clients, to handling repairs and maintenance after tenants move in.
Ross 2020 MBA Grads’ Salaries Rise in Midst of Pandemic Demand for Michigan Ross MBA graduates remains high, as evidenced by jumps in salaries and signing bonuses secured by Ross 2020 graduates given to them by the top hiring companies. For example, The Class of 2020’s median salary rose to $135,000, up from $129,000 in 2019, and the average signing bonus rose to $30,000, up from $25,000 the prior year. Amazon was the largest employer of Ross MBA graduates, with EY, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Co., and Deloitte rounding out the top five hiring companies. Graduates found jobs in the locations they most desired as well, with 60% of grads taking positions in Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Boston. The top two industries for the class were consulting (36%) and technology (25%).
F A L L ’20
Guess who’s back? Ross BBA Program Again Lands in Top 3 of U.S. News Rankings The Michigan Ross BBA program is getting familiar with the top spots in U.S. News & World Report’s undergraduate business school rankings, once again landing in the No. 3 overall spot to kick off the 2020-2021 Academic Year. The publication also ranked Ross among the top 5 U.S. schools in six specialty areas, including the top spot in both marketing and management. Ross’ other top-five finishes were: finance (#3); production/operations (#4); quantitative analyses/methods (#4); and accounting (#5). U.S. News also ranked U-M as the No. 3 public university in the country. Rankings are calculated from scores in categories such as graduation and retention rates, undergraduate reputation, faculty resources, student selectivity, and alumni giving.
Two Ross One-Year Masters Programs Rank Among Best in World Two of Michigan Ross’ One-Year Master’s Programs were ranked in the top two spots in a report released last fall by QS World University Rankings. The school’s master of management program repeated as the top U.S. program, while moving up to the No. 15 spot globally, out of 148 participating schools. For the first time, the publication also included a list of the top master of supply chain management programs around the world — Ross earned the second spot in that category out of dozens of schools. QS used five key metrics for its rankings: employability, entrepreneurship and alumni success, return on investment, thought leadership, and class and faculty diversity.
Six New Faculty Members Join Ross Last fall, Michigan Ross welcomed six new associate and assistant professors, including five in finance and one in marketing. The new faculty members are: Jessica Fong, Assistant Professor of Marketing; Andrey Malenko, Associate Professor of Finance; Nadya Malenko, Associate Professor of Finance; Shane Miller, Assistant Professor of Finance; Mirela Sandulescu, Assistant Professor of Finance; and Emmanuel Yimfor, Assistant Professor of Finance.
Diversity Reigns Among Members of the Full-Time MBA Class of ’22 The Michigan Ross Full-Time MBA Class of 2022 is a diverse collection of 49 bright minds — it’s also a record-breaking one in some ways. The class of 358 students hails from 28 countries, including the first Rosser from Andorra, with more than one third being U.S. students of color. Further numbers show that 43% are women, 14% are first-generation college students, while 7% are veterans, a Ross program record. The class also includes: two Olympic medalists; a professional hockey player in the National Women’s Hockey League; a Pentagon reporter/producer for ABC News; a Gender Equity Project Manager at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and the co-founder of a multi-million-dollar hamburger food truck. We see you, MBA Class of 2022 — we see you.
Ross MBAs Take First Place in Tauber Institute’s Spotlight! Event Full-Time MBA students from Michigan Ross were among the winners of the Tauber Institute for Global Operations’ 2020 Spotlight! Team Project Showcase and Scholarship Competition, held virtually in September 2020. During the event, business and engineering graduate students presented the results of their projects — aimed at developing solutions to challenges faced by large corporations — for a chance to receive a portion of over $40,000 in scholarship money. The first-place team, working on a project for Anheuser Busch InBev, consisted of: Marcos Coppa, MBA ’21; Murat Johnson, MBA 20’21; and Michelle Pawlow, EGL BSE-Env/MSE-IOE ’21. The team’s faculty advisors were Ross’ John Branch and William Schultz from the College of Engineering.
+Impact Studio Earns Acclaim as Exceptional Business Course The Aspen Institute once again honored Michigan Ross’ +Impact Studio course with its prestigious Ideas Worth Teaching Awards last fall. Taught by Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, “+Impact Studio: Translating Research into Practice” was selected as one of nine businesses courses to win the 2020 award. The awards are meant to “celebrate visionary faculty and the courses that tackle society’s largest, most embedded challenges of our time.” Last year’s awards recognized courses that “respond to the global crisis of 2020 by innovating in form and content, offering a new way forward for business, as society calls to rebuild.” The +Impact Studio course encouraged MBA students and graduate students from across U-M to address challenges brought on by the COVID-19 crisis and related economic landscape.
Handleman Lecture Highlights Business Leadership in Extraordinary Times Michigan Ross welcomed New York Times bestselling author and impact investing pioneer Jacqueline Novogratz as the 2020 Joseph and Sally Handleman Lecture Series speaker in September 2020. Novogratz, founder of Acumen and author of The Blue Sweater and Manifesto for a Moral Revolution, joined Scott DeRue, Edward J. Frey Dean of Ross, for a discussion on how to redefine business success from profits and power to prioritizing humanity and sustainability. About 1,500 people around the globe watched the online event, in which Novogratz said that those excelling in leadership in tough times are “moral leaders who are recognizing that this is an extraordinary time and it requires an extraordinary kind of leadership that truly does make decisions on behalf of others, not self.”
Accounting Professor Manages Paton Center, Wins Teaching Award Michigan Ross professor Reuven Lehavy had a busy year full of accomplishments during the 2020-2021 Academic Year. Lehavy, the Victor L. Bernard - Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP Collegiate Professor of Accounting, became the Faculty Director of the Paton Accounting Center in the middle of the year after a vacancy created by the predecessor’s retirement. Additionally, he earned the EMBA Neary Teaching Excellence Award, supported by Robert, BBA ’55, and Janet, AB ’54, Neary. The award recognizes those who go above and beyond in educating students, performing important research, and contributing to the evolution of business education. Professor Lehavy’s research interests include the use of financial analysts’ price targets, stock recommendations and earnings forecasts; firms’ use of accounting report discretion (earnings management); and the interaction between analysts’ earnings forecasts targets and firms’ reporting choices.
Four Ross Professors Earn Prestigious Awards from Academy of Management Four members of the Michigan Ross management and organizations faculty earned prestigious honors from the Academy of Management in September 2020. The Academy is a pre-eminent professional association for business school faculty and practitioners worldwide. Ross faculty members honored with the 2020 awards were:
• Sue Ashford, the Michael and Susan Jandernoa Professor of Management and Organizations and chair of Management and Organizations, received the Organizational Behavior Division Lifetime Achievement Award for her three decades’ worth of research in the areas of individual proactivity, leadership, job insecurity, and the gig economy. • James P. Walsh, an A.F. Thurnau Professor, the Gerald and Esther Carey Professor of Business Administration, professor of Management & Organizations, professor and chair of Strategy, received the Management and Organizational Cognition Division Distinguished Scholar Award for his work on cognitive processes that help or distort strategic decision-making, as well as his groundbreaking work on organizational memory. • Lindy Greer, associate Professor for Management and Organizations, Michael R. and Mary Kay Hallman Fellow, and the faculty director of the Sanger Leadership Center, received the Organizational Behavior Division Outstanding Publication in Organizational Behavior Award for her work in advancing the field of organizational behavior. • Jane Dutton, the Robert L. Khan Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Business Administration and Psychology, received the OB Division Mentorship Award for excelling at mentoring others in achieving their career goals through moral, social, and intellectual support — in particular, her work with doctoral students who now hold faculty roles in top business schools.
Ross Professor Speaks at United Nations Business Forum Ross professor Ted London delivered the keynote address at the Business Call to Action Forum in September 2020 as part of the United Nations General Assembly. London spoke on “Three Imperatives for the Journey Ahead” as part of the forum, which had a theme of “Reimagining Resilience Through Inclusive Business Innovation.” The business forum was developed by the UN to “accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals by challenging companies to develop inclusive business models that engage people at the base of the economic pyramid.”
Ross Jumps into Top 3 of Entrepreneurship Program Rankings Based on the strength of its comprehensive offerings and support, Michigan Ross moved up a spot in October 2020 to No. 3 in Poets&Quants’ global ranking of top MBA programs for entrepreneurship. Ross also earned the No. 2 spot for the average percentage of MBAs launching a startup within three months of graduation (for the years 2017-2019). The Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies drives the school’s support for these students by placing them inside entrepreneurial environments where they can work on real problems and helps them in developing and launching their own business ventures.
Ross MBA Alum’s Startup Named One of Most Disruptive Thawra Network, co-founded by Rima Imad Fadlallah, MBA ’20, was named in October 2020 by Poets&Quants as one of 2020’s Most Disruptive MBA Startups. Thawra, which means “revolution” in Arabic, seeks to transform the sociopolitical outcomes for Arabs and Muslims in America through identity-affirming content and stories, according to Fadlallah. Along with her co-founder, Yasmeen Kadouh, Fadlallah was inspired to start Thawra Network due to their upbringing in Dearborn, Mich., home to the largest Arab concentration in any city outside of the Middle East. P&Q uses the list to honor MBA-founded companies with the potential to beat the 90% failure rate for startups.
Ross Invites B-School Deans to Discuss Racial Diversity Business school deans gathered virtually in October 2020 to discuss the role of the schools in advancing racial equity in Michigan Ross’ Race and Business Education Panel. Six business school deans joined Scott DeRue from Ross in participating in the event, including those from Duke; Yale; Northwestern; Virginia; Stanford; and New York University. Deans took turns answering questions related to three main questions: Where are we? How are we doing? What or how can we do better? Dean DeRue agreed with the other officials that business schools have work to do in catching up with the business industry when it comes to increasing diversity within the faculty and student body.
William Davidson Institute to Launch New Labor Practices Group Happy workers are good for business. Research shows that improving workers’ lives in small ways can have big bottom-line impacts. Achyuta Adhvaryu, Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at Ross, is proving this with hard data. His work found its place with the William Davidson Institute’s consulting services, in the newly formed Labor Practices group. This new area enhances learning opportunities at Ross and U-M, while demonstrating that good labor practices are an important part of commercial success. Adhvaryu is part of a team at the Good Business Lab testing innovative workplace practices via control trials in real business environments. “Our work is bringing a unique understanding of worker well-being, backed by rigorous data and impact evaluation methodology, to the discussion.” Ross students worked with Adhvaryu on these workers’ well-being concepts through the Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP) course.
Ross Gets Part of $5M Gift From Patricia W. Mitchell Trusts to Support Scholarships A $2.5 million gift to Michigan Ross will bolster the John H. and Patricia W. Mitchell Scholarship Fund. This fund, announced in October 2020, is part of a $5 million commitment to Ross to create the Mitchell Program for Business Ethics and Communications, designed to help develop ethical, diverse business leaders. In 2020, students awarded scholarships through the Mitchell Scholarship Fund were: Christian Kassab, BBA ’22, and Lindsay Gruskay, MBA ’21.
ExecMAP Helps Executive MBAs Tackle Business Projects Around the World The ExecMAP course helps Ross Executive MBA students immerse themselves in a wide variety of international business experiences. The 24 ExecMAP projects were conducted virtually throughout the Fall 2020 semester to address industry and business functions such as technology, healthcare, social impact, and manufacturing. The course provides the opportunity to gain knowledge of what it’s like doing business in a new culture. Firms included in the course included: HP Inc.; Microsoft; PEAK6; Riot Games; and The Othakarhaka Foundation.
Ross BBA Student Raises $30K to Build School in Malawi Simon Kim, BBA ’24, raised $30,000 through a social media campaign to help children in a village in the east African nation of Malawi get a new school building. Kim used TikTok videos to raise the funds for the school in Mphasi in less than three months. The new school helped address crowded conditions in the school, which held 750 students in just six classrooms. Kim’s viral videos got millions of views as he inspired people around the world by asking “What if I tell you that random people on the Internet can band together and build a school in a developing nation?” And they did.
Ross MBA Student Veterans Share Experiences at Virtual VETx Event In honor of Veteran’s Day, a dozen student veterans in Michigan Ross’ Full-Time MBA and Online MBA programs shared their experiences in the military during the virtual VETx event on November 13, 2020. Veterans delivered TED-talk-style speeches, connecting lessons learned in the military to leadership insights in business. Veteran students delivering speeches were: Joe Duggan, MBA ’22; Brian Louie, MBA ’22; Ryan Woodall, MBA ’21; John Murtagh, OMBA ’22; Josh Ahrens, MBA ’21; Joe Alvillar, MBA ’21; Chaz Crayne, MBA ’22; Patrick Holstad, MBA ’22; Robert Kent, MBA ’22; James Camarda, MBA ’22; Daniel Bader MBA ’22; and Jaehong Park, MBA ’21.
Female MBA Students Place Second in Pinterest Case Competition to Increase Diversity on the Online Platform Three Ross Full-Time MBA students were runners-up out of 27 teams in WeSolv’s Pinterest Competitor Analysis and Product Challenge in November 2020. The Ross team — Katarina Chan MBA ’21, Grace Kim, MBA ’20, and Nadia Ogene, MBA ’21 — won $2,000 for creating an innovative way for Pinterest to improve diversity. Teams were challenged to help Pinterest develop a feature to help underrepresented communities find inspiration on the platform. Judges said the Ross team stood out for its strong balance on creators and pinners and recognition that Pinterest is both a social and e-commerce platform.
Chris Adelsbach, BBA ’95
Jennifer Sherman, BBA ’86
Joe Wang, MBA ’13
Three Ross Alums Recognized for Their Dedicated Service to the School Michigan Ross announced in November 2020 the winners of the 2020 Michigan Ross Alumni Awards, which recognize the service and impact of extraordinary alumni as determined by their peers. The 2020 recipients were: Chris Adelsbach, BBA ’95, Bert F. Wertman Service Award, recognizing an alum for outstanding service to the school and/or the university; Jennifer Sherman, BBA ’86, David D. Alger Achievement Award, recognizing an alum whose attainments in their professional field have brought distinction to themselves, credit to the school, and benefit to their fellow citizens; and Junqing (Joe) Wang, MBA ’13, Young Alumni Award, recognizing exceptional young alumni enhancing Ross’ reputation by their professional achievements and/or continued service to the school, university, or community.
Full-Time MBA Students Show Why Tech is for Everyone The Tech Club at Michigan Ross held its annual Tech Week Nov. 30-Dec. 4, 2020, focusing on the theme of “Tech for Everyone.” The programming brought together professionals, students, and alumni to discuss the latest industry and technology trends, and ways of making them accessible to all. Discussion topics included the exploration of how inclusivity can be built into technology, from hiring diverse talent to creating more accessible products.
Award-Winning Course Looks to Build Back Better Post-COVID Five teams of graduate students from around U-M showcased their project findings Dec. 7, 2020 at Demo Day for the +Impact Studio’s BA 670 Course, which had a theme of “Building Back Better in the Wake of COVID-19.” The teams worked on their semester-long projects with a collection of organizations to discover unmet needs and develop solutions for pandemic-related challenges — with a focus on women- and minority-owned businesses and nonprofit organizations. Students worked virtually on their projects across four continents, nine time zones, and six countries for the projects, which ranged from food insecurity to funding for small businesses.
And the winner is …. Ann Arbor! Confirming all of our deeply held beliefs, Ann Arbor was named in December 2020 as the best U.S. college city in WalletHub’s latest rankings. The city known by insiders as A2 earned the top ranking due to its academic and work opportunities, fun social environment, and reasonable cost of living. This rankings win follows WalletHub’s crowning of Ann Arbor as the Most Educated City in 2020, while Money.com named Ann Arbor one of its 10 Best Places to Live if You Work From Home. Hail yes!
Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice with New Business Journal A new journal co-founded by Ross professor Wally Hopp aims to improve communication between management scholars and business leaders. Launching online in late 2020, Management and Business Review (MBR) is an ambitious publication that hopes to bring management insights from the academic research world into the hands of working business leaders. Hopp is the C.K. Prahalad Distinguished University Professor of Business and Engineering and professor of technology and operations at Ross. MBR is unique in that it does not focus on a single discipline — instead, it publishes articles in any area of business — and is not tied to one university, as it is run as a cooperative venture of a dozen business schools.
Part-Time MBAs’ Competition Highlights Importance of Workplace Diversity A team of Ross Weekend MBA students won the inaugural PartTime MBA DEI Case Competition in December 2020 for their recommendations to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion at a multinational beauty company. The team of WMBA2 students — Jake Supron, Alisha Punjabi, Mara Wittmann, and Mike Dobmeier — competed against five other teams in front of judges from Google, McKinsey, EY, and Campbell’s Soup.
Ross BBA Alum Invests in Detroit Alongside Other U-M Alumni Justin Golden, BBA ’02, is making a difference in low-income Detroit neighborhoods after joining efforts with other U-M alumni to establish a company focused on providing affordable housing in the city. Greatwater Opportunity Capital, founded in 2018, is a real estate private equity investment management and development firm with a passion for directing investments from the public and private sectors into Detroit. Greatwater invests primarily in multi-family residential housing in Detroit’s low-income Opportunity Zones, looking for deep value in distressed, long-neglected buildings. Golden said the strong and supportive U-M alumni and professional network was instrumental in Greatwater’s development, linking him to firm co-founders Roger Ehrenberg and Jon Opdyke.
Ross Professor’s New Course Study Looks at Ethics and Culture in Finance A case study co-written by a Michigan Ross professor is part of a broader effort to improve ethics in the finance industry. Jeremy Kress, assistant professor of business law, represents the school on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Education and Industry Forum on Financial Services Culture, which works to promote ethical conduct in the financial services industry. The group hopes the case studies — meant to create an ethically gray choice one may face early in their career —will one day be used in business courses and training programs. Kress partnered with an executive from HSBC on a case study about the ethics of bidding in an auction.
Ross Professor Earns Top Honor from Business Communication Group The Association for Business Communication awarded Michigan Ross professor Priscilla Rogers with its Fellow of the Association Award for 2020. The top honor bestowed by the association recognizes excellence in business communication and related areas of study. Rogers, associate professor emerita of management communication, studies writing and speaking as management activities, focusing on issues of efficiency, solidarity building and relaying bad news. She has proposed decision-making tools for improving the effectiveness of subordinates relaying bad news to superiors, CEOs presenting poor earnings to analysts, and more.
Three Ross Faculty Members Make P&Q List of Best Undergraduate Professors Three Michigan Ross professors were named in December 2020 to Poets&Quants’ list of the Top 50 Undergraduate Professors of 2020. Professors Cheng Gao, Assistant Professor of Strategy, Jeremy Kress, Assistant Professor of Business Law, and Julia Lee Cunningham, Assistant Professor of Management & Operations, were selected for the honor alongside professors from 33 top undergraduate business schools. This was the first time multiple Ross professors were named to the list, which began in 2017. Nearly 900 professors were nominated for the honor, with the publication evaluating a total of 107 professors in two categories: research and testing.
W I N T E R ’21
Ross Lands in the Top 5 of P&Q Best Business Schools List In January 2021, Michigan Ross was once again named as one of the top undergraduate business schools in the world by Poets&Quants, a designation the school has earned for three straight years. Touting the school’s “highly selective admissions standards and stellar record in career outcomes,” Ross earned the No. 4 spot on the “2021 Best Schools for Business Majors” list. P&Q ranked schools on three primary criteria: admissions standards; academic and co-curricular experience as measured by student satisfaction; and employment outcomes.
Survey Says: Ross is Best-Run MBA Program When it comes to having a top-notch administered MBA program, it doesn’t get any better than Michigan Ross, according to a survey released by the Princeton Review in January 2021. Ross was ranked No. 1 for best-administered program based on MBA student ratings of how smoothly their business schools are run and how easy it is to get into required and popular courses. Nearly 18,000 students from nearly 250 schools were surveyed for the rankings, evaluating schools on measures such as faculty quality, classroom experience, family friendliness, resources for women and minorities, as well as how well the school prepared them for careers.
Ross a School to Keep Your Eyes On, According to P&Q It turns out we’re not the only ones keeping an eye on our wonderful business school. For the fourth time in five years, Poets&Quants named Michigan Ross in January as one of the “10 Business Schools to Watch.” In doing so, it cited the school as being one of the most innovative and newsworthy MBA programs in the country. It also highlighted the Ross alumni network, action-based learning programs, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts for reasons the school is setting the standard for peer schools to follow.
Ross Alum Gives $5M To Create New Scholarship for Those Showing True Grit Wanting to reward MBA and BBA students who’ve shown remarkable determination in making their business and life goals come true, a Michigan Ross graduate made an anonymous $5M gift in January 2021 to establish the True Grit Scholarship Fund at the school. Partial and full-ride scholarships will be awarded to current and incoming fulltime students who have shown incredible resilience and fortitude, for example by being first-generation college students, having overcome personal obstacles, serving in the military, or otherwise persevering challenges to stake their own path in the world.
U-M Welcomes Racial Equity Activists for MLK Symposium Keynote Lecture Two prominent human rights activists were the featured speakers January 18 at the University of Michigan’s 35th Annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium Lecture. Gloria House — poet, essayist, educator, and racial equity activist — and Malik Yakini — cofounder and executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network — addressed the virtual event’s theme of “Where do we go from here?” House and Yakini spoke on their impactful work in Detroit and beyond, as well as advancing antiracism efforts in today’s society.
Third Annual Women Who Launch Symposium Celebrates Women Leading Through Uncertainty One of the most used adjectives of the COVID-19 pandemic has been “uncertain.” The third annual Women Who Launch Symposium at Michigan Ross in January 2021 highlighted how female business leaders have been navigating the challenges and making the most of opportunities in these unprecedented times. Arlan Hamilton, founder of Backstage Capital, served as keynote speaker, while other speakers included: Helen Lo, founder of Lo & Sons; Claire Coder, founder/ CEO of FLOW; and Monica Wheat, executive director and cofounder of Venture Catalyst.
Leadership Crisis Challenge Goes Virtual, Throwing Students in Hacking Scandal Nearly 250 graduate students and alumni from Michigan Ross participated in Sanger Leadership Center’s first-ever virtual Leadership Crisis Challenge, hosted Jan. 28-29, 2021. This year’s challenge featured FullSafe, a smart home security company embroiled in a hacking and privacy scandal. Students strategized how to handle the crisis while receiving a flood of messages from FullSafe stakeholders. They worked all night developing a response plan to present to the company’s board of directors, played by distinguished U-M alumni and friends, the next morning. For the first time, a team of Ross PartTime MBA students took first place, receiving a $3,000 scholarship. Members of the winning team were: Elizabeth Fu, WMBA ’22; Natalie Juronoc, WMBA ’21; Gamal Elbialy, WMBA ’22; Juan Souchon, Evening MBA ’21; and Dennis Emmatty, Evening MBA ’21. “Every industry and company will face a time of unexpected challenge,” Fu noted. “Hopefully, I can take these lessons learned and apply them as a C-suite executive in the future.”
Ross Professor: Women Mentoring Men Could Help Solve Gender Bias in Business Michigan Ross professor Cindy Schipani proposed in a paper set to be published during the winter term that workplace inequality could be better addressed by having women executives serve as mentors for men. In the paper published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, Schipani and her coauthors argue that this gender mentorship could generate more empathy and willingness to see each other as people and work for everyone’s success. In an interview published on the Ross website, Schipani said the increased awareness of sexual harassment, pay gap, and low numbers of women on boards and in executive management positions has not moved the needle much in terms of results. She believes that women in higher positions could model leadership behaviors that are appropriate across both genders to more junior men on the corporate ladder.
Ross Names First Recipient of Full-Time MBA Black Business Student Association Fellowship For his significant impact on the community, TJ Banks, MBA ’21, was selected in February 2021 as the first recipient of the Black Business Student Association Fellowship at Michigan Ross. Meant to honor Black excellence at Ross, the $10,000 fellowship is designed for second-year Full-Time MBA students who are BBSA members. Banks was selected for his notable contributions to Ross, including serving as a Ross Student Ambassador, a Ross liaison to the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, and a member of the MBA council’s DEI Committee.
Students Help Local Businesses Solve Pandemic Problems in FinTech Challenge The second annual Fintech Challenge, hosted in February 2021, pitted Michigan Ross MBA student teams against each other to create solutions to tackle COVID-19 pains facing Ann Arbor businesses. Sponsored by the FinTech Club, Michigan FinTech Initiative, PEAK6, and Business + Tech, the challenge divided 65 MBA students into 11 teams — each tasked with exploring ways technology can help eight local businesses adapt and prepare for a post-pandemic world. Teams spent two weeks researching and devising solutions that they presented to a judging panel and the business owners. Members of the winning team, which won a cash prize of $4,000 were Alexa Yurick, MBA ’21; Alexander Bozzo, MBA ’21; Ellen Napoli, MBA ’21; Ali Frieder, MBA ’21; Phoebe Morgan, MBA ’21; and Christine Nelson, MBA ’21. This team was tasked with recommending technology solutions to consolidate customer data from internal and third-party systems used by Thrive Juicery. Judges selected the team as the winners for the members’ ability to clearly craft a story in presenting their findings and solutions to their audience.
$10M Gift from Alum to Fund New Real Estate Center at Ross Thanks to a $10 million gift from University of Michigan Regent Ron Weiser, BBA ’66, Michigan Ross will launch a comprehensive real estate center offering a suite of courses centering on the intersection of business and real estate. The Weiser Center for Real Estate, announced at the Board of Regents meeting Feb. 20, 2021, will serve as a hub where students can learn from seasoned real estate professionals, apply their knowledge in practice, and prepare for the complex field of real estate business. The center will offer undergraduate and graduate courses on real estate finance, real estate law, real estate investing, asset and property management, sustainable development, and more. Additionally, the center will allow Ross to work in coordination with the Taubman College of Architecture to further develop U-M’s real estate certification program, and introduce a new undergraduate minor in real estate.
Wellness Week Helps Students Support Each Other During the Pandemic Although we can’t get as close to our friends as we would like during the pandemic, Wellness Week at Michigan Ross showed there are still plenty of ways we can support each other and keep each other healthy. Identifying ways to “Stay Well Together,” the third annual week-long event in February 2021 identified holistic ways to keep physical, mental, and emotional health top of mind. The virtual lineup of events included yoga sessions, interactive workshops, and students sharing what they are grateful for by posting on a Gratitude Project jamboard.
Ross Students Among First-Place Finishers of Michigan Business Challenge MBA and BBA students from Michigan Ross were among the winners at the Michigan Business Challenge presented by the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies in February 2021. Seventy diverse teams from a wide variety of schools across U-M competed for a share of more than $100,000 in prizes. First-place finishers were Lease Magnets, a virtual leasing platform co-founded by Amulya Parmar, BBA/BS ’22, and Varun Madan, BBA ’21; and EpiSLS, a novel medical device enabling automated allergy testing founded by Parker Martin, MBA/MD ’22.
Ross MBAs Prepare for Impact with MAP Kickoff Michigan Ross’ 2021 MAP (MultidisciplinaryAction Projects) program kicked off as a virtual experience during the winter term, providing first-year MBA students with the opportunity to tackle dozens of pressing business challenges. This year’s program featured 68 projects involving 52 participating companies and organizations around the world, with 50 projects sponsored by Ross alumni. To adjust to pandemic-related travel restrictions, Ross created a set of new programming and opportunities for team building, skill development, and networking. These additions included workshops focused on diversity, leadership, engagement, resilience, and practical skills.
Ross Alumni Share Insights into Overcoming Barriers to Black, Latinx Entrepreneurship Less than 3% of venture capital funding has gone to Black and Latinx entrepreneurs over the past five years. This startling statistic was the backdrop for a Michigan Ross alumni discussion on making venture capital more inclusive to entrepreneurs. The discussion, part of the Michigan Ross Business and Society Series, was moderated by Rashmi Menon, lecturer of entrepreneurship at Ross, and featured panelists: Vasco Bridges, MBA ’10, chief of staff in distribution at Northwestern Mutual; Latresha (LC) Howland, MBA ’20, and Marc Howland, co-founders of Breadless; Harlyn Pacheco, MBA ’12/MPP ’12/AB ’05, corporate business and strategy development at Microsoft Viva; and Marlo Rencher, MBA ’96, director of technology-based programs at TechTown Detroit. The panel discussed the resources they used to receive funding for their business ventures. For example, LC Howland said her first funding sources for Breadless involved tapping into support from the Zell Lurie Institute at Michigan Ross and the Eugene Applebaum Dare to Dream Program. Panelists also discussed the challenges to entrepreneurship — from imposter syndrome to the fear of failure — and how they are working to make the entrepreneurial ecosystem more equitable.
Ross BBA Grads’ Salaries Going Up Not even a global pandemic and challenging recruiting year could slow down Michigan Ross BBA graduates’ salaries and job offers. The 2020 BBA Employment Report announced in February 2021 found that the most recent Ross BBA graduates earned a median base salary of $85,000, up from $78,500 in 2019. Signing bonuses remained strong, with both classes receiving an extra $10,000. Ross’ 2020 graduates accepted job offers from 184 companies, including the top five hiring firms: EY-Parthenon, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citibank, Boston Consulting Group, and Capital One Financial Corp.
S P R I N G ’21
Addressing History of Anti-Asian Racism is Key to Healing, says CPO Faculty Affiliate Sometimes good intentions miss the mark when it comes to healing the divisions deeply embedded in American history, according to Courtney McCluney, Center for Positive Organizations faculty affiliate. McCluney wrote a piece titled “The American Way” for Forbes that examined how statements condemning the killing in Georgia of six Asian women and several others on March 16, 2021 actually work to “erase the violent, racist, sexist, and xenophobic acts targeting people of Asian descent.” She said that while “Asians and Asian Americans are well represented in Silicon Valley, they are least likely to be promoted to management and executive levels.” In her piece, McCluney asserted that history can often repeat itself, and for progress to occur, it would go a long way to “acknowledge and make amends “for Asian people and all groups that have and continue to be disenfranchised, marginalized, and oppressed in this country.”
Erb Institute Partners with Ford Motor Company to Develop ‘Model of Human Progress” U-M’s Erb Institute embarked on a two-year research project with Ford Motor Company to address the difficulty of benchmarking progress on social sustainability issues, whether among companies or against global goals such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Together, the team developed a new “Model of Human Progress,” which defined four core social impacts: preserving human rights; protecting human health, safety, and well-being; increasing access to social good; and enhancing societal economic prosperity. Speaking of the model’s benefits, Dr. Merriam Haffar, Erb Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow and Research Lead said: “Quantifying performance in this way allows corporations to more readily integrate social sustainability considerations into their operational, strategic, and product-level decisions. The objectives identified in this study and their associated metrics may be used in the future to develop different decision alternatives and then to assess how they perform.”
Ross Announces Student Loan Repayment for Full-Time MBA Grads Pursuing Social Impact Talk about making an impact — Michigan Ross announced in April a new program to provide educational loan repayment assistance to MBA graduates pursuing social impact careers. The Impact Advantage Program is available for Full-Time MBA graduates who obtain jobs in nonprofit, education, and public sector organizations and earn below the median base salary of the most recent graduating class. The program covers a portion of their Ross-related loan obligations — $7,500 per year for five years — while they are employed full-time at a social impact organization. For more than a decade, the business school has offered its graduates who go to work at nonprofit and public sector organizations the opportunity to receive need-based support through the Ross Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP). Through this program, since 2010, Michigan Ross has awarded over $500,000 in repayment assistance to dozens of its alumni. LRAP will remain in place for graduates of other Ross degree programs, and full-time MBAs who graduated prior to May 2021, while Impact Advantage will be available to full-time MBA graduates beginning with those graduating in May 2021.
Applebaum Family Gives More Than $1M to Ross to Support Business+Impact Initiative The Applebaum Family Philanthropy generously provided a gift of more than $1 million to Michigan Ross to support its Business+Impact Initiative, a multi-disciplinary program focusing on action-based learning in social impact. The gift will establish the Applebaum Family Business+Impact Experiences and Innovation Program at Ross. This new program will allow the school to expand its impact and design offerings, including the creation of a permanent endowment fund for need-based internships and scholarships to Business+Impact students. It will also provide funding for a range of impact and design activities, such as a new Applebaum Innovator-in-Residence, prototype development for models of social impact, community outreach, research, and more. Approximately 20 graduate and undergraduate students are expected to receive need-based scholarships and internships through the new program each year.
Ross BBA Students Make Poets&Quants’ ‘Best & Brightest” List for Class of 2021 Ross BBA students Priyanka Khetarpal, BBA ’21, and Sven Wollschlaeger, BBA ’21, were among the top 100 undergraduate students awarded spots on Poets&Quants’ “Best and Brightest” list from the class of 2021. Khetarpal was involved in numerous student organizations at Ross, including serving as a Career Development Office finance peer coach, BBA student ambassador, peer recruiter for diversity outreach, and vice president of operations for Phi Chi Theta Business and Economics fraternity, as well as being a member of Michigan Business Women. During his first year at Ross, Wollschlaeger co-founded a 3D and virtual reality tech company called VenueTourist that specializes in higher-ed campus tour creation. The company was deployed at campuses across the country.
Three Ross MBA Students Land Spots on ‘Best & Brightest’ List for 2021 Ross MBA students Jonathan Rodriguez, MBA ’21, Neha Tadichetty, MBA ’21, and Clinton Bourbonais, MBA ’21, were named to Poets&Quants’ ‘Best and Brightest MBAs from the Class of 2021.’ Ross was one of a handful of schools with three students named to the list, which celebrates graduate students who are “the embodiments of excellence and the voices of their schools.” Rodriguez, working at Boston Consulting Group in Seattle following graduation, said he was drawn to Ross’ culture of interdisciplinary learning and the ability to pursue a dual degree at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Tadichetty, who began working at Boston Consulting Group in Austin, Texas following graduation, said she was drawn to Ross due to her engagement with the school in India, as well as the approachability of the school’s alumni. Bourbonnais, who is working at Sanofi Ventures after graduation, said Ross’ commitment to action-based learning and entrepreneurial offerings in the biotech space were key factors in his choice to come to Ann Arbor.
Michigan Ross 2021 Commencement
Ceremony Celebrates Resilience, Determination For the second straight year, the University of Michigan Ross School of Business took its commencement ceremony to the small screens for the safety of students and their families in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 1,500 students from 20-plus countries were cheered on virtually by their families and friends during the April 30, 2021 ceremony, with nearly 10,000 viewers watching the ceremony online within 24 hours of the service. The ceremony featured reflections, advice, well wishes, and insights from a number of 2021 class members, alumni, special guests, and Scott DeRue, the Edward J. Frey Dean of the school. The welcome was given by Ross BBA Council President Daniel Soper, BBA ’21. “If the past year has taught me anything, it’s to cherish and celebrate the important moments in life,” he said. “Today is
one of those moments.” Many of the day’s speakers noted the resilience and determination the Class of 2021 showed during the pandemic. “You’ve shown a level of resilience in the face of adversity and disruption, with the shift to online learning and job searching, finding whole new ways of connecting and collaborating,” said Mary Ellen Coe, BA ’89 (Economics/ Marketing) President, Global Customer Solutions, Google. “Through it all, you’re showing up and showing yourselves to be innovators. To be entrepreneurs. To be incredibly adaptive leaders in a time of great change.” Dean DeRue noted the momentous occasion the day represented for each of the graduates, as well as their potential impact on the world. “Today, we celebrate the human spirit,”
he said. “We celebrate a defining moment in the lives of our students. We celebrate a milestone that our students will forever remember. We celebrate the amazing accomplishments of our students, graduating from one of the top business schools in the entire world. And most importantly, we celebrate you, our students. … I want you to know how much inspiration you bring to all of us — our faculty, our staff, and certainly to me personally. There are truly no words that can fully express how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to serve as your dean. “Class of 2021 — our world needs you. Our world needs your creativity, your passion, your energy, your business knowledge, and skills. And most of all, our world needs your leadership. You have the power, the knowledge, the skills, the commitment, to build a better world through business, to live our mission, and to make a positive difference. To leave a legacy that all of us will be proud of.”
1. Keep your video on. Let the world see the authentic you, she said. “What the world will always need is the truest version of you.”
3. Share your screen. When asked why she chose Ross, she said, “It’s the community for me. It always has been, and it always will be. … From the moment I stepped foot on this campus and every time after, I was embraced by people that would impact my life forever. What struck me and honestly still does, is this deep desire to pay it forward. It’s almost like it was a requirement to be accepted by Ross.”
2. Schedule another meeting. “Rarely do we fail inside of our comfort zones, but failure joins the party when we take a leap of faith into uncharted territories. More lessons are learned from failure than could ever be learned from success.”
The virtual Ross Commencement took place the day before the universitywide Spring Commencement Stadium Experience, which was attended by about 5,000 people in a socially distanced environment at The Big House.
Briana Alexis Jones, MBA ’21, addressed her peers, recalling lessons learned from Zoom calls. She advised graduates to take the following Zoom lessons with them in life:
Dean Scott DeRue Bids Farewell to Ross In April, Scott DeRue, Edward J. Frey Dean and Stephen M. Ross Professor of Business, announced that he would be leaving the business school to transition to a senior executive position in the private sector (a job revealed in June to be president of Equinox, the luxury fitness company headquartered in New York, NY). During his five years serving as dean, Michigan Ross has achieved many important accomplishments, including enhancing programs for students, faculty research, and much more. Ross continues to be one of the top business schools in the nation under Dean DeRue’s leadership. In his announcement to the Ross and University of Michigan community, DeRue stated, “When I arrived in Ann Arbor in 2007 and joined the Michigan Ross faculty, it was my dream job. I was surrounded by my academic heroes, wonderful faculty and staff colleagues, exceptionally talented students, amazing alumni, and a campus community that embodies what it means to be the Leaders and Best. I felt a deep sense
of pride and good fortune to be part of such a wonderful community, and after 14 years, I still wake every morning feeling the same way. Our community, and each and every one of you, holds a special place in my heart, and I will forever consider the University of Michigan and Ross School of Business my family. Serving as your Dean for the past five years has been the greatest professional honor of my life. Because of your commitment to excellence and passion for our mission, over the past 5 years, we have been able to achieve great things, for which I am extraordinarily proud of and grateful for all of you.” In May, the U-M Board of Regents approved hiring Francine Lafontaine, William Davidson Professor of Business Administration and Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, as interim dean.
This book was produced by staff members Lisa Pappas, Joel Sensenig, and Abbie Buhr in the Office of Development and Alumni Engagement at Michigan Ross. Cover, intro, and seasonal page images were shot by Ann Arbor photographer Andrew Haseltine (Instagram: @goodnightannarbor). If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at RossDevAR@umich.edu.