Business Futures C A L I F OR N I A S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y, S A C R A M E N T O FA L L 2014
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яВо COLLEGE OF BUSINESS A DM INIST R AT ION
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Belgium
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Business Futures MISSION
The College of Business Administration at California State University, Sacramento, is the capital region’s educational institution of diversity that provides a strong foundation in business knowledge, skills and values through collaboration among faculty, staff and students in order to enrich their respective communities. VISION
To be among the top business schools and destination colleges in the CSU system. ADMINISTRATOR-IN-CHARGE
Chiang Wang FORMER DEAN
Sanjay Varshney SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN
Suzanne Ogilby
ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM (INTERIM)
Seung Bach
GivingThanks for Ten Amazing Years Message from the Former Dean:
A
s many of you likely know, this will be the last Varshney issue of Business Futures I’ll oversee. As I step down as Dean of the College of Business Administration and prepare for a new chapter in my life, I am thrilled to look back and celebrate all the successes of the last 10 years. We have come far, but the visibility, recognition, and strong brand we have created would not have been possible without a great team effort. I am grateful to a lot of people for that.
ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR GRADUATE AND EXTERNAL PROGRAMS
Monica Lam
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION ADVISORY COUNCIL Chair
Dennis A. Gardemeyer
WRITER
PHOTOGRAPHER
Justine Brown
Bruce Clarke
Academic Technology and Creative Services COORDINATOR
DESIGNER
Scott Olling
www.scottolling.com
Mimi Boonmee Phothichack CBA
Business Futures is published in the fall and spring of each academic year. The editorial office is in the College of Business Administration, Tahoe Hall 1010, Sacramento, CA 95819-6088. To contact the editorial office, send e-mail to: mimi@csus.edu . Cover: Lucien Reijns WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
(916) 278-6578
I thank President Gonzalez for having faith and confidence in a young 35-year-old when I first came to Sac State for my interview. I thank all the faculty and staff in the College for letting me push them hard to exceed expectations. It’s difficult when your vision triples their workload and then the state rewards them with furloughs. I thank all of the rest of the folks on campus – administrators, staff, support offices – for letting us run away with our ideas and supporting us through our crazy and unique ways of doing business.
I thank our students for engaging with us in meaningful ways and being an equal partner in elevating the brand of the College and the quality of the programs. I thank the alumni for coming together and building a community that makes us all proud.
region with the help of Melissa, and I can never forget Thomas, who has been my best friend and assistant since I arrived and is now part of my family. I have enjoyed working with each and every one of them throughout the years, and I look forward to strengthening those relationships for many years to come.
I thank the corporate and community sponsors that have generously invested in our programs and could not say no when I chased them down for money.
There are many others I must thank, and I realize that what we have today is special — something we should celebrate and cherish for a long time to come.
I thank the external Sacramento community for supporting us, our programs, our vision, and our passion.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve as Dean of the College of Business Administration these last 10 wonderful years. I know that CBA will be in good hands with whomever takes the reins next. Good luck to you all, and I hope our paths cross again along the road ahead.
I thank the new Provost Fraka for her support and encouragement in allowing me to stay involved in community projects and external relationships such as the Center for Small Business, the Executive MBA program, the Sacramento Business Review, and the CSU campus in Placer County. I thank all of those in my office, along with staff in the various CBA departments, for their hard work in building the College you see today. The MBA for Executives program became a signature program in the
Warm Regards,
Sanjay Varshney Former Dean College of Business Administration Sacramento State
By the Numbers
Contents
C ong rat ulat ions 16th! Intel #8 Cohort
to our EMBA graduating class
Robert Allen Eyefinity, Inc.
Mutasem Alqarwani Intel
Arielle Bailey
Alessandro Bocchio Guala Closure North America, Inc.
Jeffrey Civil
US Postal Service
Steven Bailey
Greco De Valencia Y Sanchez
Marla Ball
Rebecca Hagan
Republic Services, Inc. Intel
Apogee Imagine Systems, Inc.
Cardinal Health
CSAA Insurance Group, AAAA Insurer
Matthew Ball
Brandon Hall
Sharon Baumgardner
Steve Homer
Umpqua Bank
Blue Shield of California
Mydax, Inc.
Tamara Hurwitz
Sutter Health/Medical
Shaheen Kaplan
Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Shawn Merritt
Brandon Price
Teledyne Microwave Solutions
Robert Robertson Intel
Teledyne Microwave Solutions
Scott Roys
Robert Meza
David Sahakyan
California Technology Agency
Charlotte Pelker
Teledyne Microwave Solutions
Big Valley Storage
We apologize for the incorrect information printed in the Spring 2014 issue; there is not a Health Management concentration within the EMBA program, it is a NEW concentration within our MBA program.�
Dignity Health Los Rios CCD
Sandhya Sanghvi Intel
Robert Sarkisian Sutter Health
Jonathan Smith
Teledyne Microwave Solutions
Annie Sosa Citizen Hotel
Teresa Stark
Kaiser Permanente/Health
Alan Stead Intel
Burk Stearns
Sacramento County
Leticia Valadez State of California
Ken Wood
New Wave Hearing Aids
4 Business Futures Celebration 6 Sanjay Varshney 10-Year Legacy 8 Belgium Study Tour 10 EMBA Success Stories: Sanchez, Ansel, Kim, Klein 13 Alumni Success Stories: Buzi, Pretzlaff, Beebe 16 Student Life/New Faculty: Kamara, Catlin 17 Faculty Research 18 Target Case Competition 19 Corporate Associates 20 IMBA Program 22 Dean’s Award: Petlowany 23 FAME Scholarships: Spence, Johnson 24 Business Honors Program 25 ICBSC 26 Center for Small Business 27 Center for Entrepreneurship 28 CBA Advisory Council Thank You 30 CBA Events 31 CBA New Staff: Wang, Phothichack, Azad 32 CBA Supporters: Thank You 33 Class Notes 34 MBA for Executives Program 35 Banquet Sponsor Thank You
Back Cover:
CBA Commencement Ceremony
Celebrating
10-year Celebration
SACRAME C A L I F O R N I A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y,
10 Years of Business Futures BUSINESS FUTURES
BUSINESS FUTURES
BUSINESS FUTURES
BUSINESS FUTURES O L 24 W W W.C S U S . E D U/C B A • S P R I N G 20 0 8 • V
Sac State’s CBA:
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21 W W W.C S U S . E D U/C B A • FA L L 20 0 6 • V O L
25 W W W. C B A . C S U S . E D U • FA L L 2008 • V O L
IN E SS ADM IN IS T R AT I O N SACRAMENTO • COLLEGE OF BUS C A L I F O R N I A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y, IN E SS ADM IN IS T R AT I O N SACRAMENTO • COLLEGE OF BUS C A L I F O R N I A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y,
LLEG E O F BUSIN E SS ADM IN IS T R AT I O N C A L I F O R N I A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y, SAC R A M E N TO • CO
IN E SS ADM IN IS T R AT I O N SACRAMENTO • COLLEGE OF BUS C A L I F O R N I A S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y,
BUSINESS
California Moving Systems:
A Powerhou Region
Global Business:
India
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Fortune’s Best
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state sacramento ADMINISTRATION
« Dean Varshney led members of the Executive MBA program and CBA faculty and staff through Delhi, Agra, Mumbai, Bangalore and Singapore. p 4
state sacramento ADMINISTRATION COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
Top U.S. financiers Warren Buffett (cover)andCarlBassengagewithCBA students and faculty
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Sacramento Speaker Series
A Passforion
Education
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State of the World According to
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udapest and
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The New Chinese Reality page 6
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N IS T R AT I O N OF BUSINESS ADMI MENTO • COLLEGE U N I V E R S I T Y, SAC R A C ALI FO R N IA S TAT E
C A l I FO r n I A S TAT E u n I V E r SI T y, SACr A M E n TO
C A L I f O R n I A S TAT E u n I V ER SI T y, SAC R A M En TO
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Dubai and Istanbul
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Emerging Powers EMBA in Brazil and Argentina
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Mark Frederick, CEO (right) Robert Stone, CFO Pacific Power Management, Inc. EMBA SMUD #2 cohort, graduating 2010
A Tale of Two Business Models:
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upth poweforrgrow
Diane Boyer-Vine, Legislative Counsel of California —and CBA alumna Story on page 4
Energizing Region CBA Alumni
the
Rio de Janeiro, location of the EMBA study tour 2009 Story on page 4
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sacramento state COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
res tu Fu ss e n si u B s re tu u F ss e n si u B Business Futures s We u er P aipei MENTO U N I V E R S I T Y, S A C R A C A LIFOR NI A STAT E
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SACR A M ENTO T E U N I V E R S I T Y, C A LIFOR NI A STA
SACR A M ENTO T E U N I V E R S I T Y, C A LIFOR NI A STA S P R I N G 2013
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all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.” — Bill Clinton
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EMBA in
EMBA in
Business Futures SACR A M ENTO T E U N I V E R S I T Y, C A LIFOR NI A STA FA L L 2014
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his year marks the tenth anniversary of Business Futures magazine. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff, faculty and business partners that have helped bring great stories, engaging editorial, and amazing images to life over the last ten years and 20+ issues.
ity never fail to amaze us and form the genesis of the powerful stories we’ve been able to tell.
Most importantly, I’d like to thank our current and former students, whose passion, creativity, intelligence, and ingenu-
Sincerely,
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
Here’s to an amazing first 10 years. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years bring!
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10-year Legacy
A Last ingLegacy I
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n his 10 years as Dean of CBA, Sanjay Varshney has certainly made a splash. From new academic initiatives, to community involvement activities, to forays into international territories, Dean Varshney has elevated CBA and Sac State to a new level. As he moves on to other adventures, we look back at some of the impactful initiatives he brought to life during his tenure.
The MBA for Executives Program: The EMBA program is a 15-month, cohort-based program designed for experienced professionals and managers who aspire to leadership positions. Classes are held at partner sites such as Intel, SMUD, PRIDE, Sacramento Metro Chamber, VSP, and Sutter Health.
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
IMBA in Singapore: When the College of Business launched its IMBA program in Singapore in 2013, it made Sac State the first California State University to offer an international degree program across the Pacific in Asia’s financial hub. Today, another 20 students have started classes, and next school year the program is expected to expand to as many as 30 students.
The Business Honors Program: The Business Honors program provides a specialized learning experience for the College’s best and brightest business students. The program offers each “cohort” of students a tailored liberal arts curriculum as well as a foundation in business knowledge.
| WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
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Business Review d | w w w. c b a . c s u s . e Vo l u m e 6 I s s u e 1
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Emerging Trends in
Sacramento’s Economy
Your Best Guide to Sacramento’s
Economy
Economic Forecast
The Sacramento Business Review Economic Development Report: The Sacramento Business Review is the bi-annual CBA emerging trends report. It includes quantitative pictures of the real estate, energy, capital and stock markets and predictions of the future. The independent publication has been recognized by the local business community as one of the most comprehensive and credible studies of the Sacramento business community.
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
The International Study Tour: EMBA students travel overseas to emerging markets each year for an international study tour. These special study tours “expose participants to the global business environment, so that they can see first-hand how fast-growing economies in developing countries provide opportunities for American businesses.” The idea for a study tour grew from an EMBA reading assignment, Thomas L. Friedman’s AACSB Reaccreditation: book The World Is Flat. The book 2014 marks CBA’s 50th year of impressed students with its granular continuous accreditation under analysis of interpersonal interaction the stringent standards of the in other cultures, and led to Association to Advance Collegiate interest in organizing a delegation Schools of Business. to emerging markets around the world. Previous classes have visited National Recognition: In China, Singapore, Dubai, India, 2013, U.S. News & World Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Report ranked CBA’s MBA Belgium, Taiwan, Peru, program second among Spain, Czech Republic, all CSU campuses. This Hungary, and Hong year, the same organiKong. zation rated our online Masters in Accountancy program among the 100 best in the nation. College of Business Advisory Council (CBAC): The CBAC provides input and assistance to CBA as it seeks to fulfill its mission. The CBAC is made up of a cross-section of alumni, corporate, government and nonprofit representatives and provides input to the dean on issues related to programs and curriculum, resource development, external relations and strategic planning.
Executive Speaker Series: The College of Business hosts the Executive Speaker Series in the fall and spring semesters. CBA invites leading experts to start a dialogue with students and the community about important issues of the day. The College has also joined a distinguished list of partners who actively support the Sacramento Speaker Series. Providing an open forum for the exchange of ideas, opinions and perspectives, this series host’s one lecture a month from October to May of each year. Speakers represent a wide range of subjects and have included Pulitzer Prize winners and Nobel Peace Prize laureates, world leaders, statesmen, distinguished journalist and authors, and other celebrated personalities. CBA
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Jewel of the EU EMBA Belgium
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hirty-five students, along with Dean Sanjay Varshney and several Sac State staff members, had the opportunity to visit Belgium in late July as part of this year’s SMUD IV EMBA cohort.
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of the present-day European Union to further integrate European economies.
This year’s cohort visited three cities – Bruges, Antwerp, and Brussels – and a number of organizations Belgium is an interesting region during their stay. Their first stop was from both an economic and a Barco, a global technology company business perspective. With exports that designs and develops visualizaequivalent to over two-thirds of tion solutions for defense and GNP, the country depends heavily aerospace, digital cinema, healthon world trade. One of the found- care, media and entertainment, and ing members of the European simulation and virtual reality. One of Community, Belgium also strongly only a few multinational companies supports deepening the powers that provides industry-size LED
and LCD displays, Barco displays are found in stadiums, convention centers and famous locations throughout the world.
the first company in the beverage industry to be listed on Fortune magazine’s “World’s Most Admired” companies list.
“The trip to Barco presented a unique opportunity to experience how an advanced technology company operates globally,” said EMBA student Andrew Grant.
Next, the group had a chance to visit the world-renown Antwerp World Diamond Centre. Antwerp has been the center of the diamond industry since the 16th century. Diamonds are brought to the city to be expertly cut and then distributed around the world. About 84 percent of the world’s rough diamonds pass through
The group next headed to Anheuser-Busch InBev, one of the world’s top five consumer products companies and
the district, making it the largest diamond center in the world. “The Antwerp Diamond Centre visit provided a window into a very unique, highly controlled business community which is undergoing great change with the advent of technology and alternative business models that look to skirt
SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
exchanges and sell diamonds direct,” said Grant. “The whole Antwerp experience (the city, its vibrancy, the food, supporting businesses) was very much enjoyed.”
Copco, a world-leading provider of sustainable productivity solutions.
“Kristian Vandenhoudt, vice president of human resources, presented one of the most exceptional One of the biggest highlights of the and enviable models of organizatrip from a business perspective, tional excellence and satisfaction according to EMBA student Dr. that any of us had ever encounMaya Heinert, was the visit to Atlas- tered,” said Heinert. “Many of us left
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
planning to send our business model and the people CVs to the company for that fill company ranks.” consideration.” The group also visited the new Red Star Line Museum and the Port of “Although the group Antwerp and enjoyed city tours of spent quality time with other businesses, both Bruges and Brussels. the engagement by Overall, Grant and Heinert both the team at Atlas, the feel they reaped much from the interest in answering Belgium experience. specific questions that we came to the meeting with, and “I gained a much deeper appreciathe detailed tour and effort spent tion for northern European busito explain the entire process of ness practices,” said Heinert. “I’m manufacturing and selling industry- reluctant to admit that I considered size air compressors was excellent,” European industry overall not as agreed Grant. “We all felt like we exciting or interesting as American really came away with a much business, with our love of high tech, deeper appreciation of the Atlas speed and innovation. Instead, I
found that many of our European counterparts not only exceeded us in their desire and push for newer, better technology, but that everyday business conditions and organizational cultures were somehow more grounded and nurturing than many in America.” “The trip presented the chance for all participants to gain important perspective on how businesses in other countries see themselves, operate within the EU competitive environment, and how they view the U.S.,” said Grant. “Such perspective presents a clear reality that the world isn’t so big, and business truly is a global affair.” CBA
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EpM l aB cA e Shuocl cdeesrs
Helping Those in Need Ryan Sanchez is dedicated
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to helping people through difficult times. As the sole proprietor of the Law Office of Ryan A. Sanchez, he strives to provide high quality legal services to individuals dealing with challenging issues such as divorce, custody, support, property division, domestic violence, and other family law matters. “I always wanted to be able to help those in need,” said Sanchez. “Going into family law allows me to practice in an area where I feel I can truly help people and hopefully make a difference.” Sanchez began working as an associate attorney at a busy family law firm after graduating from the University of California, Davis, law school and passing the Bar exam in July 2013. But he soon had the urge to go out on his own. Fortunately, he had the skills to do so. From 2007 to 2009, Sanchez attended the EMBA program at Sac State.
Leadership
Sanchez signed his first client in April 2014. Since that time, the firm has been growing steadily.
“I’m running every aspect of the business – from administration to going to court to making copies,” said Sanchez, whose office is on Fulton Avenue in Sacramento. “It’s hard work, but I’m very happy with my decision to become a sole proprietor.” Sanchez said the skills he learned in the EMBA program have been invaluable from day one. “I used the skills I learned in the EMBA program to help make my business successful from the start,” he said. “There is no way I’d have been able to do this without the things I learned at CBA.” Sanchez said the EMBA program also allowed him to form a close network of businesses contacts and friends he expects to keep his entire life. “The EMBA program at Sac State is really something special,” he said. “It’s not only a place where people can get a great basis for learning how to run a business and how to lead people, but it also allows you to create great networks. I’m still very close to a lot of my cohort members.”
Looking ahead, Sanchez said he hopes to eventually partner with other attorneys. “When I decided to start my own law firm, having the business background helped me He also plans to expand his areas of practremendously,” he said. “The tools I learned at tice to include tax, estate planning, and CBA made me confident that this was some- business litigation. CBA thing I could competently do on my own.”
SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
The Show Must Go On Natural disasters are on the rise.
According to the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, the number of people affected by natural disasters rose astronomically between 1900 and 2011, from a few million early in the 20th century to around 300 million today. At the same time, new and increasingly sophisticated computer viruses threaten vital corporate technology systems constantly. Business continuity and disaster recovery planning have therefore become increasingly critical components of doing business today. Brian Ansel has witnessed this growing demand and sought to do something about it. Ansel started Ansel Associates, a firm specializing in business continuity, emergency management and change management consulting services, in April 2014. Based in the Washington, DC area, Ansel Associates’ goal is to provide world class consulting services and expertise to U.S. and international clients, enabling them to prepare for any type of event that may disrupt their business operations. “I most enjoy assisting clients in thinking about things they may not have considered previously,” said Ansel. “Unless mandated by regulation or
compliance, many firms don’t think about what they would do or how to deal a disruption to their business - whether it’s due to a natural disaster, IT system outage, building fire, etc. Companies that do not prepare for these type of events frequently go out of business completely when these events occur.” Ansel got into business continuity and emergency management about 12 years ago. Most recently, he managed an international business continuity program for the International Finance Corporation, which is part of the World Bank Group. Ansel attended the EMBA program at Sac State from 2007 to 2009 as part of the Metro Mavericks cohort. He credits the program for giving him some of the critical skills he needed to launch his business. “By starting Ansel Associates, I’m implementing the business plan I created for my EMBA 260 course (my final project),” he said. “I’ve used the plan several times in starting the business and continue to use the business model I described in that plan today.” Ansel said the EMBA program also made him more comfortable taking risks in his professional career, ultimately helping him make the decision to launch his own firm. “All the EMBA courses included an element of entrepreneurship and I learned a lot from the instructors, speakers and classmates in that regard,” he said. CBA
WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
Advances
Kim was originally hired as CFO at Community 1st, which serves Auburn, Roseville, James Kim is on a roll. As reported and Sacramento, in 2007. But his new career soon hit a rough patch when the financial in the spring 2014 issue of Business Futures, crisis took hold in 2008. With the new bank’s Kim was recently recognized as CFO of the viability at stake, Kim and other Community Year by the Sacramento Business Journal, primarily for his efforts at navigating Commu- 1st leaders knew they needed to find fresh nity 1st Bank through the financial crisis. Now, capital. The bank first accepted $2.6 million Kim has been selected to become president from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to and CEO of Community 1st, succeeding cur- keep it afloat. Then, led by Kim, the bank raised $7.4 million from investors in 2011. rent CEO Robert Haydon, who will return to the chairman role. “It wasn’t easy to get people to cut a check to a bank while we were going through a banking crisis,” said Kim. “But thanks to our vision and our plan, we were able to get capital as well as shareholders that believed in what we were doing.”
Full Speed Ahead
In 2012, an additional $2.8 million was raised to repay the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The investments enabled Community 1st to survive the financial crisis while also setting them up to quickly find credit-worthy borrowers once the economy began to recover. The strategy paid off. While the average bank in the country grew just four percent last year, Community 1st saw 30 percent growth.
In May 2014, Community 1st Bank was named “Rural/Community Lender of the Year” by the Small Business Administration’s Sacramento District Office. “While other financial institutions held off during the financial crisis and waited for things to get better, we made a commitment to help people despite the challenges. As a result, we grew our bank while most others flat-lined,” said Haydon. “James did a great job as CFO during those tough times. Now it is time to ask James to step into the CEO role and lead us into the future.” Given continued instability in community banking today, Kim is up for a challenge. “When the U.S. came out of the financial crisis, the goal in banking was to get rid of ‘too big to fail,’” said Kim. “But if you look at what’s happened in the industry, there are less banks than there were, the bigger banks have become bigger yet, and the smaller
banks are struggling because of the cost of operating in a more intensely regulated environment where margins have shrunk.” Kim, who completed the EMBA program at Sac State in 2011, said as CEO he hopes to create an environment where Community 1st bankers can excel, thereby enabling the bank to excel. “We have the best bankers in Sacramento, and I want to enable them to succeed beyond their own expectations,” he said. “That’s what is rewarding to me, and that’s what makes me get up in the morning. The most profitable, successful businesses are the ones that find ways to mentor and groom their employees to perform at their best.” CBA
“It wasn’t easy to get people to cut a check to a bank while we were going through a banking crisis, but thanks to our vision and our plan, we were able to get capital as well as shareholders that believed in what we were doing.” —James Kim
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
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EMBA Success
Weathering the Storm (and the Drought)
Ana Klein first got acquainted with Sunsweet Growers Inc., the world’s largest handler of dried tree fruits, as a client when she worked at accounting firm Arthur Andersen. But when Klein decided to leave Arthur Andersen in 1999, Sunsweet wasn’t ready to let her go. Instead, they asked her to sign on as their finance manager. It turned out to be a “sweet” investment for everyone. 12
Though Klein joined the growerowned marketing cooperative during tough times (the company went through five CFOs in seven years, and was in the midst of a massive conversion in accounting software), she was determined to help put the company on the right path. She did just that, getting four promotions in four years and became Sunsweet’s
youngest and first CFO in 2004. Today, Klein serves as both CFO and vice president for the co-op, which represents about 300 fruit farmers in the Sacramento Valley. In 2014, she was named CFO of the Year by the Sacramento Business Journal.
Sunsweet partners procure fruit from local farmers. “Chile is our number one initiative right now, because a lot of U.S. prune farmers have been pulling out prune trees and planting walnuts instead. We don’t have the big crops we used to,” she said. “We now have to look at countries outside the U.S., like Chile and Australia, to augment our supply.”
Though Klein has been praised for her ability to produce flawless financials, her job is broader and more varied than the typical CFO. She is regularly involved in making Klein, who received a Bachelor’s decisions about all of Sunsweet’s degree in Accounting from Sac operations, has been at the State and completed the EMBA forefront of various mergers and program in 2011, credits some of acquisitions, and negotiates labor her ability to “think on her feet” to contracts every three years for the EMBA program. Sunsweet’s more than “I liked the 700 employees. “The EMBA program “I liked the EMBA union negotiations because it was program because it can be particularly not just about was not just about tough,” Klein said. “The textbooks, it was textbooks, it was last one lasted more about the real more about the more than five months.” world,” she said. “It real world.” was about learning Most recently, Klein — Ana Klein how to think on your was asked to take feet and how to on full operational respond to the types of challenges oversight of Sunsweet’s Chilean you face in business every day.” production operations and facility. Chile is a significant component of Sunsweet’s short and long term backup supply strategy and critical to their ongoing success. Klein now frequently visits Chile to help
Klein, who was recognized as the “outstanding EMBA student of the year” in 2011, is still involved with Sac State, serving as chair of the Organization for Executive MBAs.
“Ana has been an excellent alumnus and partner of the College of Business at Sac State,” said Melissa Sheldon, director of the EMBA program. “Ana has facilitated the engagement of the EMBA community, which has strengthened and grown through various events. Her leadership has driven the group to become a powerful network within the Sacramento community that we are extremely proud of.” Klein is also very involved in the community, serving as a board member for the Center for Land Based Learning (which motivates kids to be the next generation of farmers) and chair of the CFO Roundtable for the National Council of Farmer’s Cooperatives. “Ana’s outside commitment provides a great networking opportunity that she not only uses for personal growth, but also to help Sunsweet stay current in all best practices,” said Dane Lance, CEO and president of Sunsweet. “She is constantly looking for ways to grow, and doesn’t shy away from challenges.” CBA
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Alumni placeholder Success
Lighting a Social Media Fire
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Jason Buzi, what started as a fun way to donate money and bring people together turned out to be a crazy ride and a social media phenomenon. Buzi, who is now known as the man behind the “Hidden Cash” sensation, said he was simply looking for a fun, unique and anonymous way to give back. “I had done all the traditional things in terms of donating to various causes,” he said. “I wanted a fun way to get people involved in an activity and I wanted to use social media. I came up with various ideas, but my friends kept saying they were too complicated.” Then Buzi, who is a Sac State alum (Business and Economics, 1995) and a successful Bay Area real estate developer, latched onto something: what if he hid money in various places and then gave out clues about where the money was hidden? It was a simple idea, but one that had the potential to get people excited. Buzi originally planned to launch a website to post the clues, but a friend encouraged him to use Twitter instead. They then came up with a handle: @hiddencash.
“I figured we would have a couple of hundred followers and it would be a fun, San Francisco thing to do,” he said. So on May 22, 2014, Buzi hid money in a San Francisco park and tweeted out clues. But because there were few @hiddencash followers at that point, response was minimal. Soon after, Buzi contacted a local blog and did an anonymous e-mail interview about what he was doing and how he was doing it. He continued to make “cash drops” around the Bay Area, and before he knew it, he had a few hundred Twitter followers. From there, things escalated. National media got a hold of the story, and his Twitter followers suddenly leapt to over 100,000 within the next couple of days. Within a week, @hiddencash had over 400,000 followers and people were scrambling to participate in the viral scavenger hunt. “It was a very surreal experience,” said Buzi, who had flown to L.A. for a real estate conference during that time, where he made additional cash drops. “I was still anonymous, but I would go back to my hotel room and it was all over the TV news.”
After returning to the Bay Area, Buzi did an interview with the TV tabloid show Inside Edition. The next day, Buzi was “outed” by a voice analysis expert. Once his identity was revealed, Buzi said things got hectic. He received calls from strangers day and night and was inundated with requests for financial help. Reporters and news vans were harassing tenants and family members. “That part wasn’t fun,” he said. “I definitely have seen the best of people and the worst of people during all of this.” Buzi decided the best way to “fight back” was to keep going. So he appeared on Anderson Cooper’s show AC360 to confirm his identity and announce that he was expanding Hidden Cash by taking it to New York, Chicago, Houston, London, Madrid, Mexico City, Las Vegas and Paris over the course of the next month. On June 24, Buzi even brought Hidden Cash to Sacramento, hiding money both in Capitol Park and on the Sac State campus. While Buzi said it’s gotten harder to hide money without being discovered now that he’s more recognizable, he’s still able to accomplish the task. “I go late at night or early in the
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
morning and just make sure no one is around watching,” he said, “It’s not that hard usually. At Sac State, I even was able to do it in the morning with at least 50 people waiting there for me. But most were on the wrong side of campus. I hid it close to the theater. At one point, a girl with a bag passed me and said ‘Are you also looking for the hidden cash?’ Lucky for me, she didn’t recognize me.” Buzi said he hides the cash randomly in various increments and has no way of knowing whether all of it has been found.
Buzi
“We ask people to Tweet a photo when they find the money, but only between a quarter and half of people do,” he said. “I don’t go back and there is no way to know for sure, but with hundreds of people at every location, I am sure virtually all are found.” Buzi said after last summer’s whirlwind tour, he is now in the process of winding Hidden Cash down. “It’s taken a lot of time, money and energy, and I kind of want to get back to my regular life,” he said. “It’s been a great experience overall. There have definitely been some low points, but some people have been really inspired by it, and a lot of people have ‘paid it forward’ and given the money they found to charity. A lot of positive things have come out of it. But I can’t continue it forever.” CBA
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Alumni Success
Reworking the
Dr.
Robert Pretzlaff loves helping patients. As a pediatric critical care physician at UC Davis for 12 years, Pretzlaff helped get hundreds of sick or injured children on the road to recovery. But Pretzlaff also found he enjoyed building new programs and running healthcare organizations from a leadership level. One area of particular interest was healthcare financing.
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“Healthcare financing in this country is completely dysfunctional,” said Pretzlaff. “That dysfunction often leads to the way we care for patients, or are unable to care for patients.” Pretzlaff wanted to help reform healthcare financing and find ways that would allow patients to get the quality healthcare services they needed without going broke. While he had all the medical knowledge he needed for his new endeavor, he lacked business knowledge.
System
In 2011, Pretzlaff enrolled in the EMBA program at Sac State to try to bridge that gap.
“I chose CBA over the business program at UC Davis because it’s a highly ranked program that would take me a year less to complete and cost about half the money,” Pretzlaff said. “It was my first good business decision!” After graduating from the EMBA program, Pretzlaff accepted a position as the associate director of the Faculty Practice Group at UC Davis, where he was able to start implementing new ideas and processes around healthcare financing.
After two years in that position, Pretzlaff was hired as the chief medical officer for St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, which consists of three hospitals in Henderson, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas.
of care, overseeing the Risk Department, and ensuring the three hospitals comply with regulatory requirements. He also oversees the cardiovascular service line and the medical staff department. Pretzlaff said a big part of his new role is helping ensure that the right care is delivered in the best evidence-based manner possible while dealing with the realities of healthcare finance at the same time.
I learned from the other students in the EMBA program was incredible. You get very insulated in medicine. Learning from the instructors and from my fellow cohort mates was enormously impactful. Having my eyes opened to what’s going on in the rest of the world really helped me to improve in my career.” CBA
“We have a large percentage of self-pay patients,” he said. “So it’s about how you deal with serving patients that are not going to be able to cover their healthcare expenses and yet still provide quality care and keep the organization running. It’s a real challenge.” Pretzlaff said his time at Sac State prepared him well for his new role.
“What affected me the most was the cohort As chief medical officer, Pretzlaff now has approach,” he said. “After being surrounded responsibilities that include improving quality by medical people for 20 years, the amount
SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
Diversity
Champion for
A
nthony E. Beebe, Ed.D., is the new president of San Diego City College, the oldest college in the San Diego Community College District. Beebe assumed responsibilities at City College in August of this year.
“One of the aspects I enjoy most about my current role is representing one of the most diverse student bodies anywhere,” Beebe said. “Being the largest border city in the U.S., we have people from all over the world represented in our students.” Beebe was previously the president of San Diego Continuing Education, a position he held for eight years. San Diego Continuing Education is the largest institution of its kind in the nation, serving more than 85,000 students on seven campuses across the San Diego metropolitan area.
“The Continuing Education experience prepared me well for the City College diversity,” said Beebe. “Students attending the seven campuses represented more than 135 different countries, with students speaking more than 50 different languages.” Beebe said one of the greatest challenges of both his current role and past role involve funding and dealing with a fickle state budget.
“In essence, the state budget is a political statement, being derived from negotiations between the Governor and the legislature,” he said. “Depending on political clout, higher education and community colleges, specifically, can come out ahead or wanting in the negotiations.” But the skills he learned through the MBA in Finance program at Sac State have come in
Alumni Success
handy in evaluating the budget scenarios coming from the state, Beebe said.
always a route business majors select, but I would certainly encourage it.”
“I still like to run a quick ratio analysis on the numbers just to get perspective,” he said.
Beebe said in his new role he hopes to provide the focus, leadership, and vision to enable San Diego City College to receive national recognition in advancing education in the areas of social awareness and change, civility, and degree completion.
Beyond the numbers, as Jim Collins of Good to Great fame would say, “getting the right people on the bus” is always a challenge. “San Diego City College has more than 1,000 employees, so there is a natural ebb and flow of people starting in careers and retiring from careers,” he said. “Each of these events can pose a challenge in different ways.” Beebe attended Sac State in 1987 and 1988, where he pursued his MBA so he could teach at community colleges. He taught as an adjunct business and computer faculty for several years, and then as a full-time business faculty member for Portland Community College’s Small Business Development Center. His beginnings as a business faculty member then led to various administrative assignments over the next 25 years in Oregon, Washington, and California community colleges, ultimately leading to the presidency of San Diego City College. “The well-rounded business education I received from Sac State did an amazing job of preparing me for what I wanted to do, which was teach in a community college,” said Beebe. “Teaching is not
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
“There is no reason San Diego City College cannot lead the nation in these areas,” he said. “The faculty have created a culture of social awareness and change, and recently a group of faculty have taken a serious interest in civility, participating in the creation of the Institute for Civil Civic Engagement. There are not many community colleges in the country that have embraced such an educational calling for the students served.” CBA
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Student Life/ New Faculty
Saidu Kamara
Building a Br and New Future
S
aidu Kamara is no stranger to hard work. Originally from Sierra Leone, where he taught math to middle school students, Kamara worked very hard (and was blessed with a little luck) and was granted a visa to come to the United States in 2006.
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Once in the U.S., Kamara knew education would be key to his future success, so he enrolled at American River College soon after his arrival. After working the night shift from midnight to 9:00 a.m. at a grocery store each night, Kamara would faithfully be seated in class by 10:00 a.m. “There wasn’t much time to rest, but I wanted to make the most of it,” said Kamara. “I wanted to get a career going and not just have a job. I knew hard work would pay off eventually.” Today, Kamara is in his second year at Sac State, where he is pursuing a business degree with
New Faculty: Jesse Catlin a concentration in general management. He is still working just as hard, but fortunately now has a schedule that allows him a bit of rest time before class each day and gives him Sunday and Monday nights off to prepare for school each week. “I’m so excited and challenged to pursue a degree at Sac State,” said Kamara, who is part of a new program designed to provide support and motivation to first generation students from foreign countries. “The staff and professors here have provided great encouragement for me to continue my studies.” Kamara hopes to graduate next spring. Following that, he plans to either work in business management or go back to his former love – teaching. No matter which path he follows, Kamara is sure to put a lot of hard work into it. “I so appreciate the fact that I was able to come to the U.S.,” he said. “It may be challenging at times, but I still have the opportunity to pursue my dreams and get my college degree, and that for me is amazing. CBA
Coming Home
J
esse Catlin, the new assistant professor of marketing at CBA, is no stranger to Sac State. Catlin completed both his undergrad (economics with a business minor, 2005) and master’s degrees (economics, 2007) at Sacramento State. He then headed to UC Irvine to pursue his Ph.D. “My professors at Sac State and the kinds of things I got to do while I was a student here were part of my inspiration to pursue my doctoral degree,” said Catlin. “I had a good experience as a student, and I’ve always had a lot of enthusiasm for the campus. I always thought it would be great to come back here on the faculty side someday.”
For the last two years, Catlin has been an assistant professor at Washington State University in Richland, teaching marketing to undergrad, MBA and Ph.D.-level students. But Catlin was born and raised in Sacramento, and when the chance to return to the area as a professor at Sac State came up, he jumped at it. This fall, Catlin will teach two undergrad Marketing 101 classes. “I’m looking forward to getting into the classroom and interacting with the students,” said Catlin. “I hope to do some real-world projects like getting companies into the classroom and doing mini consulting projects with them. I think that real-world experience and giving students the chance to apply the things they learn both in and out of the classroom is critical to building the business leaders of tomorrow.” CBA
SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
Looking Forward, Moving CBA
professors have been hard at work conducting research that will help lead us into the future. The following are summaries of research submitted for peer review in AY 2013-2014. Jessica Bagger: A Moderated Mediation Model of Personality, Self-Monitoring, and OCB This study investigated the combined impact of personality (conscientiousness and agreeableness) and self-monitoring (how somebody tries to manage how they are perceived by others) on whether employees are willing to go the extra mile for their employer (voluntary performance). The association between a coworker’s evaluation of the employee’s personality and the employee’s own evaluation of his/her personality depended on whether the employee did engage in self-monitoring. This study adds to a growing body of research showing that coworker ratings appear to be strong predictors of performance outcomes. Appearing in Human Performance.
construct justice climate, defined as team-level judgments of the fairness with which the team is collectively treated by an authority figure (such as their supervisor). Appearing in Small Group Research.
Andrey Mikhailitchenko: Consumer Protection in the Post-War Canada: Role and Contributions of the Consumers’ Association of Canada to the Public Policy Process A examination into the socioeconomic and historical sources of consumerism in Canada during the post World War II period. Canadian society was a kind of a world leader of consumer movement and a lot of processes that took place there in the 1960s-70s were in this or that way repeated later in other countries, first in USA and Western Europe, and then in Eastern Europe and some of the Asian countries. This is the first stage of a large scale consumerism analysis that will involve several historical periods and large number of countries in different parts of the world. Appearing in Journal of Consumer Affairs.
Jessica Bagger: Justice Climate and Peer Justice Climate An empirical examination of a new team construct (peer justice climate), specifically, whether or not coworkers generally treat one another fairly. Peer justice climate was compared to the
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
Bagger
Mickel
Ahead
Thomas Sandman: A Preliminary Investigation into the Adaptive Learning Styles of Business Students
By investigating the preferred learning styles for over 1,100 business students, evidence indicates that the preferred learning styles of business students may depend more on the course than the major, indicating that business students may have adaptive learning styles. Rather than having an innate, consistent preferred learning style, business students appear to adapt their preferred learning style to the subject of the course. This finding may have great impact on the process of curricular design and the array of pedagogical tools used in the delivery of a business course.” Appearing in Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education.
Yang Sun: Revenue sharing in assembly system with VMI under different decision modes Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) is a commonly adopted system in modern supply chains where an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) assembles parts from different
Mikhailitchenko
Sandman
Faculty placeholder Research
suppliers into the final product; however the fairness of its revenue sharing mechanism is questionable. This article discusses, theoretically, how a number of suppliers and the OEM can work together to “make the pie bigger” and then work on “a fair sharing of the pie”. Appearing in Control and Design.
pre-reform period i.e. before 1990s. This research measures and demonstrates how inequality among states has been exacerbated during the post 1990s periods. This trend can be attributed to the effects of globalization, deregulation and privatization. Appearing in GeoJournal.
Stan Taylor, with Amy Mickel: Simpson’s Paradox: A Data Set and Discrimnation Case Study Exercise
Taylor Wells: The Buck Stops Here: The Impact of Perceived Accountability and Control on the Intention to Delegate to Software Agents
A data set and case study exercise for teaching a range of statistical concepts including Simpson’s paradox. Based on a real-life scenario where there was a claim of discrimination based on ethnicity. Highlights the importance of performing rigirous statistical analysis and how data interpretations can accurately inform or misguide decision makers. Appearing in Journal of Statistical Education.
Sudhir Thakur: Development patterns in India: Spatial convergence or divergence?
Users are increasingly relying upon software agents (e.g., Apple’s Siri) to perform simple and complex tasks, yet we know little about what drives our decisions to delegate to these agents. Contrary to how delegation typically works between managers and employees, this article shows that users are more likely to delegate to software agents when they perceive higher accountability as a means to shift blame to the agent and mitigate risk. Appearing in AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction. CBA
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Inequality in India existed during
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D igit al Wave
Riding the
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hat is the best way to engage customers using digital media? That’s the question Target Brands posed to this year’s CBA students as part of the Target Case Competition, an innovative scholarship competition and partnership between Sac State and Target Brands.
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According to various research reports, approximately 90 percent of U.S. adults own cell phones today, and 60 to 70 percent of those are smart phones. In addition, approximately 50 percent of U.S. adults own tablets and about 30 percent own digital readers. Given these statistics, it’s clear that brick and mortar stores can no longer rely solely on conventional market-
ing methods. This year’s Target Case Competition challenged CBA students to come up with ways Target can leverage digital media to complement their current marketing activities and drive higher sales. Eight teams participated in this year’s competition, which took place during the spring semester. The winning team designed several new digital media features for Target’s existing app, such as a customer loyalty program starring an animated Bullseye (the bull terrier that serves as the official mascot of Target Corporation).
“The design the winning team came up was great,” explained Professor Jeff Niu, who has been involved in the Target Case Competition since 2008. “Every time you purchase something, an animated Bullseye barks at you. You also get points in the form of dog biscuits, and you use your finger to grab biscuits and feed the dog. Bullseye then stores the biscuits in his doghouse and shoppers can eventually redeem them for purchases.” Target officials found the winning entry fun and engaging, as well as potentially easy and inexpensive to implement
company-wide. Though there is no guarantee Target will actually implement the winning entry (several universities participate in the program and Target accumulates the winning ideas and later further evaluates them for feasibility at their Minneapolis headquarters), Niu said the competition is a winwin for Target and CBA students either way. “Normally in class we focus mainly on theory,” Niu said. “This kind of real-world competition is much more engaging. It encourages students to think outside the box. A lot of times they come
up with ideas Target has never thought of.” Professor Yang Sun, who has been involved in the Target Case Competition since 2011, said several of the ideas Sac State students have come up with over the years have eventually been implemented at Target, including a program that integrated inventories at Target.com and Target stores, and a program that used an algorithm to improve loading and unloading of delivery trucks to make Target’s distribution centers more efficient. CBA
SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
Prog ram The Corporate Associates College of Business Administration at Sacramento State is highly regarded for educating the quality graduates that businesses seek out to fill their employment needs. Companies and organizations can help ensure that the University continues to provide excellent educational opportunities by joining the Corporate Associates program. Corporate Associates support student scholarships and assists the Dean in addressing other top priorities within the
College. In return for providing that vital support, they gain premium access to the College’s top students for job recruitment and placement opportunities. They are also offered opportunities to connect with faculty members skilled in the latest business trends. Giving levels allow donors to choose their degree of visibility and involvement with the College, including acknowledgement in College publications and electronic media, and invitations to special events. CBA
Corporate Associates
CBA Corporate Associate Members: American River Bank AT&T California Bank of America Bank of Sacramento CGI Chevron CohnResnick LLP Cushman & Wakefield Delta Bluegrass Company El Dorado Savings Bank Ernst & Young LLP Fiddyment Farms Five Star Bank Foundation for Agency Management Excellence
For more information on the CBA Corporate Associates Program, please contact John Power in the Office of University Development at (916) 278-6989.
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
Gilbert Associates Inc. Henningsen Cold Storage Heritage One Door & Building Solutions LLC Institute of Internal Auditors Intel InterWest Insurance Services, Inc. Moss Adams LLP North Valley Bank Pacific Claims Executive Association Principal Financial Group SMUD State Street Bank
Target Teichert Inc. Travelers Insurance Turton Commercial Real Estate Ueltzen & Company LLP Union Bank U.S. Bank USS-POSCO Industries Valley Industrial Claims Vera C. Hendry Foundation VSP Global Warren G. Bender Company Weintraub/Tobin Wells Fargo Bank
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IMBA Program
MBA Gone L
G lobal
ast May, nine men and women from Singapore joined 450 other Sac State CBA students for graduation ceremonies at Sleep Train Arena. But unlike their counterparts, the nine students receiving MBA degrees that day stepped onto the Sacramento State campus for the first time only the day before.
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The group was part of the inaugural cohort of Sac State’s Singapore-based International Master of Business Administration (IMBA) program. (The cohort included a total of 16 men and women, but not all IMBA students made the trip to Sacramento). “Stepping onto the grounds of the university for the very first time gave me a sense of home-coming,” said Karen Leong, the general manager of a retail company with a regional presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand,
Indonesia, Philippines and Australia. “The hospitality afforded by the professors and Sac State’s staff surpassed our expectations.”
When the College of Business launched its IMBA program in Singapore in 2013, it made Sac State the first California State University to offer an international degree program across the Pacific in Asia’s financial hub. Today, another 20 students have started classes, and next school year the program is expected to expand to as many as 30 students.
IMBA students earn 36 units and an MBA degree over 12 to 15 months. Each course consists of 10 days of online classes, followed by four days of face-to-face instruction from a Sacramento State professor flown to Singapore, and then another 10 days of online coursework.
Dr. Monica Lam, associate dean for graduate and external programs, said the IMBA program has unique appeal in Singapore, where the number of high-quality students far outnumber the number of affordable advanced learning programs. “I was looking for a university with known accreditations and being Sac State’s first cohort made it even more exciting for me,” said Leong, who said she found out about the IMBA program when she Googled U.S.-based MBA programs. “I want to be part of Sac State’s success in Singapore!” Vijin Venugopalan, an IMBA graduate that works as an assistant vice president for Mobile Payments at MasterCard, was also looking for an MBA from the U.S. that offered classes in Singapore. Venugopalan said he ultimately chose
SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
Sac State because the structure of the program allowed him to keep up with coursework despite a busy work and travel schedule. “I liked the structure of the program, the reputation of the university, the qualification of the professors and the optimal pricing,” Venugopalan said. “I also liked the case study approach, because executives from the industry can apply what they learn in class directly in their day-to-day business. The diverse crowd also made the class discussion very interesting in terms of the perspective of students from different industries.” The students said they studied in small groups and worked together on projects during the year. “The one module per month schedule is great for the busy
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
“I was looking for a university with known accreditations and being Sac State’s first cohort made it even more exciting for me.”
travelling executive, as we MasterCard for three months, stayed focused on one subject eventually landing a fulltime role at a time,” agreed Leong. there. “Moreover, the four days of The group that traveled to the U.S. face-to-face lectures with Sac last May also visited the Federal State’s own professors was a Reserve Bank in San Francisco, Pier selling point. The interaction —Karen Leong 39 and the Franchise Tax Board. and sharing was a tremendous take-over experience. Overall, “We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our study tour it opened up a new horizon for me and I may even branch and the graduation experience,” said Venugopalan. “We out of retail as I have more confidence to handle the are very thankful to all the faculty who were very kind to all unknown of other industries.” of us in terms of the time and thought they put together to make us all feel very special.” CBA Venugopalan said the program ultimately did affect his career choice. Halfway through the IMBA program, Venugopalan quit his former job and interned with
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Dean’s placeholder Award
Rising 22
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o matter the task, Terry Petlowany works hard. Petlowany graduated last spring with a degree in Business Administration and a concentration in Management of Human Resources and Organizational Behavior. During that time, she achieved and maintained an overall GPA of 3.9 in her academic work, graduating with highest honors and earning a permanent spot on the Dean’s Honor List. She was also a member of the inaugural Business Honors program and holds memberships in Phi Theta Kappa, Delta Epsilon and Beta Gamma Sigma honor societies. In 2013, Petlowany had the prestigious honor of being selected as CBA’s Outstanding Junior. This year, she received the Dean’s Award. “I was really surprised and honored,” Petlowany said of winning the award. “I didn’t see myself as a standout among my amazing peers. Sometimes it’s hard to see your own value, and when someone else points it out it can have a pretty substantial effect on how you view your own abilities.” Today, Petlowany is a program manager for Intel’s Visual Parallel Group operations team, which supports over 3,000 employees worldwide.
“My group looks at performance metrics and puts together initiatives to make organizational improvements when and where we need to,” she said. “That can include things like organizational development, organizational leadership, business processes, execution and improvement efficiencies, agile training, etc.”
ambiguity here, so that really helped. I didn’t want to hear it at the time, but they were right.” Petlowany said she enjoys working with new hires and interns and helping integrate them into the organization.
“I like human interaction and helping people get settled in at Intel. It’s a large organization and Petlowany knew early on that Intel it can be overwhelming for some was where she wanted to work, so she interned in the training depart- people,” she said. “I’m also fasciment for nearly a year while she was nated by how you can influence finishing her studies at Sac State. She an organization’s culture – even a was then offered a full-time position large organization – by influencing and actually started her new career things like the integration process a few weeks prior to graduation. She and employee and leadership development processes.” credits CBA professors for helping her prepare for her new job. Petlowany said in addition to working hard at her new job, “One of the messages I heard she also plans to continue her continually at Sac State was that education. She hopes to begin you have to be comfortable with Sac State’s EMBA program in ambiguity,” she said. “The professpring 2015. CBA sors would give us assignments and we would want more information, more detail. But the message from them was that we needed to get comfortable with not knowing exactly what someone wants. That was a huge learning curve when I came to Intel. There is a lot of
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FAME placeholder Scholarships
New Beginnings
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eon Spence has experienced a lot in his young life. After high school he played professional baseball, acted, performed standup, wrote screen plays, owned a restaurant in Mexico, and became a dad.
After all of that, Spence decided he wanted to return to school and earn a degree. “I attended a number of different community colleges at different times during my life while I was also doing many other things,” he said. “But when I returned to the U.S. after living in Mexico for five years, I was finally ready to get serious.” Spence did just that. Today, he is 32 units away from graduating with dual finance and risk management concentrations. He holds a 4.0 GPA and was accepted into the Business Honors program last year. In May 2014, Spence was awarded the F.A.M.E. scholarship. “I was kind of blown away by it,” he said. “I’m a single dad, so for me this really is the gift of time to study more and spend more time with my seven-year-old daughter.” Spence also serves as a business tutor, and is a member of the Accounting Society. In his free time, he works as an instructor and coach for a local baseball academy, ensuring quality sportsmanship experiences for your players in his community. Following graduation in summer 2015, Spence said he plans to explore becoming an actuary. CBA
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
Full Steam Ahead
J
ordan Johnson is one seriously dedicated student. With no family support for college, Johnson knew success was up to him alone, so he dedicated everything he had to making it work - even when that meant living out of his car for a short time. After attending Folsom Community College, Johnson was able to save up enough money to transfer to Sac State. Today, he is finishing up his coursework and plans to graduate with a business degree and dual concentrations in finance and risk management and human resource management in the spring. While attending college, Johnson sought out strategic work experiences. His part-time job at a pizza restaurant earned him money, he knew, but it wouldn’t get him where he wanted to go career-wise. So Johnson interned at Vision Service Plan as an HR recruiter one summer, then completed a nine-week internship at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland this past summer. “I’ve been working really hard to climb that ladder and to make sure I have some good experience under my belt by the time I graduate,” he said. Last May, Johnson was awarded a F.A.M.E. scholarship. “I was very grateful and thankful to get the scholarship,” he said. “It’s been a rough journey going through college and I’ve worked hard, so I think I can be proud of it.” Johnson said he hopes to become a HR manager once he graduates and to eventually become certified in compensation analysis. CBA
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Cream of the Crop
BHON
C
BA’s Business Honors program has a lot to celebrate. Last spring, 18 students from the inaugural Business Honors cohort graduated. This fall, the program began its third year and saw a record number of applications submitted.
“Word is getting out, and competition to get into the program is growing,” said Professor Seung Bach, the Business Honors program manager. 24
CBA’s Business Honors program is designed to develop students as future business leaders and pioneers. The program immerses
students in a cohort-based learning experience that challenges them in critical thinking while building their decision-making and problem solving skills. Bach said the majority of the 18 Business Honors graduates from last spring had already moved into high-level jobs.
began their second year of the program.
The Business Honors experience is built around a three-tier curriculum structure that includes business foundation courses, integration courses, and a practicum seminar. This fall, 24 students were accepted Foundation courses provide into the challenging program. students with the basic tools of Selection is based on a rigid business knowledge. Integration screening process that weighs a courses challenge combination of factors including students and GPA, testing scores, an essay, and focus learning on interviews. Meanwhile, the second critical thinking, cohort of Business Honors students, problem who were recruited in Fall 2013, solving,
decision-making, integration of business resources and understanding business as an enterprise, and the practicum seminar brings executive managers into the classroom for discussions that focus on practice. The Business Honors program also provides students a number of opportunities to meet and interact with professionals in the Sacramento region to learn real-life
lessons. Last semester, the program hosted guest speakers from Cisco and EY, and students made corporate visits to Vision Service Plan and Pride Industries. “The program gives top-notch business students that have high academic ambitions and strong business skills a number of opportunities that can help them further those skills and prepare them to place in high-level jobs,” said Bach. “At the same time, the program helps address the needs of the labor force. It’s a win-win scenario and something that is much-needed.” CBA
SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
CBA Takes the
T
he MBA team from Sacramento State’s College of Business Administration bested 32 other teams from four nations to win the International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition (ICBSC) last April. ICBSC is a business simulation program wherein students run a simulated company in direct competition with other college teams.
Gold
culminates in April when teams meet in Anaheim for two-and-a-half intense days to complete the final phases.
“Their success was brought about by their hard work … and, most of all, the solid MBA education we provide here at Sac State.”
“In Anaheim, teams have to make decisions every two hours,” said Bach. “The judges then ask them questions about why they made certain decisions. They ask them things like, what was your strategy? What worked and what didn’t? They also have to do a final presentation to the judge’s panel, and then the judges determine the winners.”
“It’s a challenging, competitive event that ICBSC has been around for —Seung Bach provides students with 50 years. Sacramento State an exciting learning participated years ago, but then experience,” said Seung Bach, the team’s stopped. They resumed participation in 2011. advisor and interim associate dean of the “Their success was brought about by their College of Business Administration. hard work – holding a series of brainstormThe ICBSC competition begins in January. ing sessions and discussions – and, most of Each team represents a company and makes all, the solid MBA education we provide here decisions on behalf of that company in at Sac State,” Bach said. terms of production, marketing, business This year’s team consisted of Hao Dang, strategy, international logistics, quality conNowar Kayali, Jason Vu, Mike Fultz, Eugene trol, R&D, etc. For the first several months, Olson and Brandon Tong. They not only took students make a decision once a week, first in overall performance, but also earned submitting those decisions into a server, which runs the simulation. Students get the first runner-up for best documentation. results of those decisions and then make Sacramento State’s undergrad team, advised another round of decisions based on the by Dr. Jai Joon “Jay” Lee, also found success at previous round outcomes. The competition ICBSC, earning first runner-up for overall per-
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
p l a cI C eh Bo SC lder
formance and placing first for their business plan and annual report. . The undergrad team consisted of Andrew Cross, Max Sinitsa, Nancy Chan, Julie Francesconi, Tad Ochwat and Kelly Schofield. Students involved in the ICBSC competition also have the opportunity to network with business executives and students from around the world. This year’s teams came from the
Above: Undergraduate team at the award banquet with the faculty advisor, Dr. Jay Lee.
Left: Graduate team celebrating its achievement with the faculty advisor, Dr. Seung Bach. Below: Graduate team debriefing with competition judges after the award banquet.
United States, the United Kingdom, China and Canada. “The outcome was outstanding for both teams,” said Bach. “The students that get involved in ICBSC always say it is an extraordinary learning experience and a great opportunity to work with students from all over the world.” CBA
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Center for placeholder Small Business
45 Years and Still Going
A
Strong
fter 45 years, CBA’s Center for Small Business ner of today’s CSB) originally visualized the (CSB) shows no sign of slowing down. Center as a “place to bring small businesses and CBA students together for the benefit of CSB is one of the oldest and largest organiza- all.” And that’s exactly what CSB has accomtions of its kind in the United States. Founded plished. Today, CSB services are provided by in 1969, the Center has served over 3,000 CBA juniors, seniors, and graduate students small businesses in the Greater Sacramento under faculty supervision. Students are area over the years, offering free technical assigned to work with clients of the CSB as management assistance to both for-profit part of their coursework in various classes and not-for-profit organizations. and get hands-on, clinical experience. The community, meanwhile, gets free services in Dennis Gardemeyer, who created the Comall areas of business other than taxation, law, munity Service Business Center (the forerunand loan packaging.
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But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for CSB. After the U.S. Small Business Administration cut funding for the Center in 1995, Dennis Tootelian, who served as director of CSB for 30 years, reached out to local banks and other institutions to successfully rally to keep it open. Today, CSB services are provided compliments of Sac State and several financial institutions in the local area. That kind of community involvement has been one of the Center’s keys to success. Dana Smith, who was selected as CBA Alumni of the Year last year and is currently vice president and credit administrator in the Real Estate Industries Group at Union Bank, was offered a job in the Center for Small Business while attending Sac State. Smith and another student ran the Center together for a year. The experience left a lasting impression on him.
On the other hand, Smith saw how vital the free help the Center for Small Business offered was to business owners just getting started. “Those companies want the expertise you have to help them plan for the future, to help them budget appropriately, to help them avoid problems,” he said. “It’s very important to them to have people in the community add their voice to what they are doing and help them improve, no matter what kind of company it is.” In 2011, Tootelian transitioned management of CSB to the Dean’s office. Professor Seung Bach ran the program for several years, and today former CBA Dean Sanjay Varshney oversees it.
“CSB helps businesses that could not otherwise afford consulting expertise stay in business and provides students with the types of hands-on, real-world experience “Working in the Center for Small Business they need to ensure they are prepared for was very interesting because I was able the workforce,” said Varshney. “The Center to obtain real-life experience working with small business owners and providing has provided a huge value to the college over the years and continues to provide CBA consulting work to them,” Smith said. “It a valuable way to stay connected with the allowed me to learn about business plans and how much work it really is to own your community.” own business. I started to understand how In addition to enduring the test of time, the if you don’t have a roadmap, you don’t quality of CSB may best be illustrated by the know how to get to where you want to 600 percent increase in requests for services be. I also learned about how to figure out in recent years, and the awards the Center what your goals are and how to accomhas won for outstanding performance from plish those goals.” the Small Business Administration. CBA
SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
Cultivating the Ent repreneurial Spirit This
fall, the Center for Entrepreneurship celebrates three successful and productive years, with one new venture moving in and one continuing on.
and used cars to determine the best fit based on a number of factors, including behavioral patterns as well as customer preferences. The company recently finished their website at the Center for Entrepreneurship and is in the final phase The Center for Entrepreneurship was of programming. They expect to designed as an incubator for small, launch the site and their services regional businesses. It provides soon, and Bach said the company entrepreneurs with the skills and has “made great progress.” resources needed to launch a venture and to identify and cultivate The newest resident, Plexense solutions to entrepreneurial probInc., designs and manufactures lems. Companies chosen for the nano-technology-based medical Center must be less than a year old, sensors. Plexense is currently original, scalable and ideally able to focusing on commercializing its collaborate with students to offer unique nano-coating technology an educational component to CBA. for low-coat, portable and simple The companies are given free rent, biological assay tool kits. Accordsupport and mentoring from faculty ing to the company, the unique and advisory board members. As nano-patterning technology of soon as the companies can walk on their own, they move out, and hopefully on to success. The ideal tenure of a company is six months. Founder and CBA Professor Seung Bach said the Center for Entrepreneurship currently has two companies in residence: The Right Car and Plexense Inc. The Right Car is an automobile comparison site founded by a Sac State undergrad student. The site allows users to easily compare new
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
Plexense will “open a new door to a biological screening means and will be extended to the low-cost clinical assay including antibody screening, molecular diagnostics, and point-of-care application.”
Center for Entrepreneurship
downtown Sacramento. Dubbed the “Sacramento State Business Outreach Center,” the new space is expected to open this fall.
“Our regional economy is driven by small businesses,” he said. “We cannot underestimate the importance of supporting it.”
“We felt it was important to have a presence downtown where a lot Plexense recently completed of the innovation is taking place design and the company is waiting in the local business world,” Bach on patent approval. Meanwhile, a said. “The Center is also ready to prototype will soon go into mass collaborate with other institutions, production offshore for eventual like the downtown partnership, the distribution in the United States. local Small Business Administration, etc. A downtown location will give “The medical sensor business is a us better access to those instituvery hot, emerging area,” said Bach. tions and perhaps provide more “We are very proud to have Plexense opportunities for both the Center at the Center and we expect big and CBA students.” things from them in the near future.” Overall, Bach said the Center’s The other big news about the goal is to play a significant role in Center for Entrepreneurship is helping build and promote the that it will soon occupy a space in regional economy.
The Center is also focusing on expanding their international reach this year. “Our goal is to expand our grasp a bit, and broaden the campaign,” he said. “That means better outreach to the international community, where an enormous amount of innovation is taking place.” The Center for Entrepreneurship currently has additional openings to fill. Potential tenants can contact the Center at 916-278-5258 or ceship@csus.edu. CBA
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Thank You CBA Advisory COuncil
The role
of the College of Business Advisory Council (CBAC) is to provide input and assistance to the College of Business Administration as it seeks to fulfill its mission. The CBAC provides input to the college dean on issues related, but not limited, to programs and curriculum, resource development, external relations and strategic planning.
Gilles Attia
Suzanne Diers
IT Project Manager Chevron Information Technology Company
Ted Hoffman
Garry Orsolini
Managing Partner DLA Piper LLP (US)
James E. Beckwith
Crystal Ekanayake
Toosje Koll
David Padmos
Douglas Busch
Ramona Farrell
Kenneth Macias
Tim Ray
Sandra R. Smoley
Christopher Cady
Paul Finn
Robert MacIntosh
Robert Rivinius
Donald Terry
Dale Carlsen
Dennis Gardemeyer
William Martin
Randy Sater
Elliott Troshinsky
Matthew Cologna
Thomas M. Gilbert
Jim McGrann
Debra Sleigh
Dave F. Ward
John DiStasio
Ed Graves
Michael Obermire
Dana C. Smith
Steven H. Weiss
President & Chief Executive Officer Five Star Bank
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to Our CBA Advisory Council
Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer (retired) Intel-GE Care Innovations
Division President KB Home
Owner The Sleep Train
Senior Director Cushman & Wakefield
CEO (retired) SMUD
Certified Public Accountant GALLINA LLP
Managing Partner Ueltzen & Company LLP
President, CBA Alumni Chapter Account Manager, Western Sales Region U.S. Postal Service
Chief Executive Officer Zuckerman-Heritage, Inc.
Certified Public Accountant Gilbert Associates, Inc.
Principal Ed Graves Consulting
Managing Principal Alliance Ventures
Technology Director, HP Education Services Hewlett Packard
CPA, Managing Director Resources Global Professionals
Founder & Managing Partner Macias, Gini & O’Connell LLP
President & Chief Executive Officer PIER 39 (retired)
President & Chief Executive Officer Bank of Sacramento
President VSP Vision Care
Principal Regional Vice President Ernst & Young
Executive Director, External Affairs Northern California AT&T
Principal The RHR Group
Senior Vice President Teichert Land Company
VP of Applications, Information Technology Catholic Health Initiatives
Director of Sales & Marketing USS-POSCO
Vice President, Real Estate Industries Group Union Bank
President & Chief Executive Officer The Sandy Smoley Group
Assistant Vice President, Community Development Officer Wells Fargo Bank
President & General Manager KCRA TV – Channel 3
Senior Account Executive InterWest Insurance Services Inc.
Consultant The Weiss Group
SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
CBAC News
A Two-Way Street
D
ave Padmos believes corporations have an inherent responsibility to give back to education. “We rely heavily on our education system to produce the next generation of leaders,” said Padmos, who is a partner at global professional services leader EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young LLP). “But it’s a two-way street. Businesses must work with educational institutions to let them know what we need, so they can ensure students graduate with the right skills to lead organizations like EY into the future.” To that end, Padmos recently became one of the newest members of the College of Business Advisory Council (CBAC), a group assembled to provide input to Dean Varshney on issues related to programs and curriculum, resource development, external relations, and strategic planning issues. Padmos received a Bachelor’s of Science degree with high honors in Business Administration MIS from Sac State in 1990. Over the last 20 years, he has led large, global transformations for companies in the technology and entertainment industries, helping them successfully consolidate functions and standardize processes and activities to achieve targeted benefits primarily using IT systems.
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
Padmos sees a bright future for the consulting field due to the current push for innovation and technology to enable companies to develop into higher performing organizations. Through his involvement with CBAC, he hopes to help guide current and future CBA curriculum to ensure it adequately prepares students for this type of work. Padmos was previously involved in CBAC under Dr. Russell Ching. During that time, he helped introduced CBA to a new enterprise resource planning tool from SAP that was just beginning to take off in the business world. “We talked to them about the SAP system, and how that was going to be an important software tool in the future,” Padmos said. “As a result Sac State began incorporating hands-on SAP practical experience in its MIS courses.” Today, SAP enterprise resource planning tools are used in many of the biggest companies in the world. Padmos said he hopes involvement in CBAC will also enable him to connect with students that can help EY grow its practice. “Knowing the diversity of students and the hard-working culture at Sac State, I think it’s a goldmine of potential future employees and partners,” he said. CBA
A Three-Decade Investment in Education
T
hom Gilbert founded Gilbert Associates 30 years ago, in 1984. Since that time, the organization has grown to become one of the best-known and most respected accounting firms in the Sacramento area. Today, Gilbert Associates has nine shareholders and 60 employees and offers a range of accounting and compliance services, as well as specialized services such as business valuations, consulting services, and outsourced CFO and controller functions. While business may have changed dramatically over the last 30 years, one thing that hasn’t changed is Gilbert Associates’ involvement with Sac State.
Council and the College of Business Advisory Council. “Involvement with Sac State is important to me on a number of levels,” said Gilbert. “From a business standpoint, we hire a large percentage of entry level accountants from Sac State, so it’s important for us to be involved with the university so students are aware of us and our career opportunities.” Five of Gilbert Associates’ nine partners are Sac State graduates. The firm also hires interns from Sac State on a regular basis. Gilbert said Sac State is also important to him on a personal level, as he taught accounting in the evenings at the university for over a decade. A Vietnam vet who went to college on the GI bill, Gilbert also received his MBA from Sac State in 1981.
“I was a teacher at Sac State for a long time before I received my MBA, but I “We have been associated with Sac State on credit the MBA courses for broadening various levels for all 30 years we’ve been in my base of business knowledge beyond existence,” said Gilbert. just the technical aspects of accounting,” Gilbert said. “The things I learned as a Not only is Gilbert Associates an SBA student helped me strive to broaden Corporate Associate, the firm Gilbert Associates beyond also offers the Steve Crocker accounting to be advisors Memorial Scholarship (named and consultants to the in honor of a former Gilbert businesses we serve as well, Associates partner). In addition, and that has been a core Thom Gilbert is a member element of our success.” CBA and past president of the SBA Alumni Association as well as a member of the SBA Advisory
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p l a Ec ve ehnotlsd e r
has many events throughout the year to bring together community business leaders, alumni and students for
networking opportunities. â?Ś Top left and center: CBA students and graduates at various CBA events. Top right: Musicians performing at CBA banquet. Center photos: Staff, students and community members at various CBA social gatherings. Bottom from left to right: Former dean Varshney and 30
community leaders, EMBA team building expedition, CBA staff at the annual CBA Banquet.
SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
p lCaBcAe hS o t al fd fe r
Dr. Chiang Wang Dr. Chiang Wang is the new administrator-in-charge of the College of Business Administration. He officially took the reins on July 1 and will lead CBA until a new dean is hired. Wang is an emeritus professor at Sac State. He retired in 2008 after 25 years of service at the university. During that time, Wang served as a professor of Operations Management, director of Graduate Programs, and associate dean for Graduate and External Programs in the College of Business Administration. Before his retirement Wang was also a management consultant to several administrative units on campus as well as to a number of public and private organizations.
Wang said his goal for the fall 2014 semester is to twofold: to ensure the college continues its excellent performance during the search period, and to prepare for the transition to the new dean. “Sanjay and all the other administrators and faculty have done an excellent job over the last several years,” Wang said. “I want to continue that so nothing falls through the cracks. I want to make the college as good as we can during the search, and to ensure we have a seamless transition to the new dean so that person can be successful on their first day.” Wang received an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from Tunghai University in Taiwan and a Ph.D. degree in Systems and Industrial Engineering from the University of Iowa. He has been very active in community service in the Sacramento region, serving on the Boards of Directors of the Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center, ACC Senior Services, and ACC Assisted Living, Inc. He also has been a volunteer at several not-for-profit organizations. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of California Northstate University in Elk Grove, CA.
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
Mimi Phothichack
Tatiana Azad
Mimi Phothichack joined the College of Business Administration in April 2014 as the Development Coordinator. As part of her role with the college, Phothichack coordinates the biannual production of Business Futures magazine, co-coordinates the CBA annual awards banquet, and serves as the liaison between CBA and the Office of University Advancement/Development on fundraising and donor priorities.
Tatiana Azad joined the College of Business Administration in September as the Administrative Analyst. Azad provides assistance of varying complexities to Associate Dean Bach. Under the direction of the Associate Dean, Azad serves as a resource to CBA faculty, students and staff, and coordinates the annual Business Honors reception.
Phothichack has an Associate’s degree in Communications and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services Management. She plans to pursue her Master’s degree with Sacramento State in the near future. Phothichack previously worked in the Vice President’s Office for University Advancement, and has been working on campus for a total of over seven years. She has a strong background in event management, executive administration, and community outreach.
Azad received her M.S. degree in School Counseling from National University of Sacramento, a B.A. in Liberal Studies from California State University, Sacramento, and a B.S. in Mathematics from Pedagogical University in Tajikistan. Azad has worked in the Student Health Center and the Department of Foreign Languages for a total of over six years. She has a background in academic advising, administration, and management. CBA
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CBA placeholder Supporters
During my tenure as Dean, I have had the privilege of meeting many remarkable community members who have contributed greatly to CBA. I would like to personally thank some of the following individuals and businesses for their contributions over the years and for helping CBA become one of the most highly regarded business schools in the country: SMUD, Union Bank, Dennis Gardemeyer, Nick Windeshausen, and Members of CBAC.
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SACRAMENTO STATE | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION | WWW.CBA.CSUS.EDU
C
lass
Notes
Tom Heacox (BS Business Administration, 1984) was honored by the Sacramento Business Journal as responsible for supporting clients in a 2014 Heavy Hitter in Real Estate. all their insurance efforts. He has 28 years of experience in commercial real estate. Chris Campbell (BS Finance,
pA la clm euhnmoinl id e r lAu
Hitter in Real Estate by the Sacramento Business Journal. He has 27 years of experience in commercial real estate.
also represents more than 35,000 jobs in the homebuilder industry.
Kelly Rivett (BS Business Administration, 1998) was honored by Nancy Park (BS Finance, 1987) has the Sacramento Business Journal as a been with Best Best & Krieger since Heavy Hitter in Real Estate for 2014. 1995) was honored as a 2014 Annie C. Hoong (BS Finance, 2011 and was recently promoted He has 14 years of experience in Heavy Hitter in Real Estate by the 2011) was recently hired as an to partner. Her work focuses on commercial real estate. Sacramento Business Journal. account assistant with Runyon real estate transactions, finance Kate A. Renwick-Espinosa (BS and business contracts for clients Dale Carlsen (BS Business Admin- Saltzman & Einhorn, Inc. where Marketing, 1998) has been recently she will be responsible of auditing in both the private and public secistration, 1984) founder and CEO named to the board of directors invoices, preparing and reviewing tors. Also, she handles agricultural of Sleep Train Mattress Centers was account statements, and monitorof Prevent Blindness where she transactions, business formations, named one of the Top Executives ing accounts. will help to establish nationwide corporate matters, loans, acquisiof 2013 by the Sacramento Business policies consistent with its mission tions and dispositions. David R. Inniss (MBA, 2004) Journal. formed a consulting company called Alice D. Perez (BS Finance, 1999) and goals. Craig Burress (BS Business Alan Chase (BS Marketing, The Koci Group LLC where he will be has been appointed by The CaliTracy Smith-Reed (BS AccounAdministration, 1987) was hon1984) has been hired as director CEO. He has over 15 years of experi- fornia Hispanic Chamber of Comtancy, 2000) has been promoted ored by the Sacramento Business of university enterprise program ence in the technology sector. to accounting services manager at merce as its CEO. For the last two Journal as a 2014 Heavy Hitter in development by California NorthReal Estate. He is executive vice Eric Jones (BS Accountancy, years, Perez has been president of Gilbert Associates, Inc. state University. president of CBRE Inc. 1994) who has been with the firm the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber Andrea Stirling (MBA, 2012) was Ethan Conrad (BS Strategic CohnReznick LLP for 10 years was of Commerce. Steve Chamberlain (BS Busihonored by the Sacramento Business Management, 1989) founder and promoted to office managing partness Administration, 1979) was Jeff Pherson (BS Business AdminJournal as a Heavy Hitter in Real owner of Ethan Conrad Properties, ner for the firm’s Sacramento office. honored by the Sacramento Business istration, 1985) was honored as a Estate for 2014. Inc. was named one of the Top Journal as a 2014 Heavy Hitter in Breanne Kelly (BS Finance, Heavy Hitter in Real Estate by the Executives of 2013 by the SacraDouglas Strauch (BS AccounReal Estate. He is senior vice presi2009) was hired as an associate Sacramento Business Journal. He has mento Business Journal. tancy, 1995) was promoted to dent of Colliers International. accountant by Cemo Commercial, been in commercial real estate for principal at Williams & Old, a CPA Patrick Downs (BS Accountancy, where she will handle general 28 years. Heath Charamuga (BS Busifirm. He has been with the firm for accounting needs. 2009) was recently promoted to ness Administration, 1994) was David Ragland (BS Marketing, 5 years where he concentrated his audit manager at Gilbert Associhonored by the Sacramento Business Dana Krause (BS Finance, 2002) 1986), senior project manager for practice in audit. ates, Inc. Journal as a Heavy Hitter in Real was hired by Big Valley Mortgage Granite Bay Development has been Estate for 2014. as a loan officer. He has more Ron Thomas (BS Business AdminJason Gallelli (BS Finance, 1991) appointed chairman of the North than 15 years of experience in the was honored as a Heavy Hitter in State Building Industry Association. istration, 1994) was honored as a Amy M. Callahan (BS AccounReal Estate 2014 by the Sacramento mortgage industry and works in He will be leading the community- 2014 Heavy Hitter in Real Estate by tancy, 2003) was hired as a sales the Sacramento office. the Sacramento Business Journal. He Business Journal. He is executive based organization, which repreexecutive with LP insurance Inc. has been in commercial real estate vice president of Voit Real Estate sents more than 400 homebuilder She was previously with State Kevin Larscheid (BS Finance, Services, Inc. Farm Insurance where she was 1983) has been honored as a Heavy and associate members and which for 20 years. CBA Richard Brandon (BS Accountancy, 2008) has been recently promoted to audit supervising senior from audit senior by Brown, Fink, Boyce & Astle LLP. He will be responsible for organizing engagement planning meetings as well as preparing planning memorandums. He is also responsible for completing audits, reviewing and compiling financial statements, and reviewing clients’ prepared financial statements.
BUSINESS FUTURES | FALL 2014
33
Sacr amento State
Investing in the advancement of future leaders. • Endorsed by the Sacramento business community. • 15-month, cohort-based program. • Convenient class schedule, meeting on Fridays from 3 to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. • Fall 2014 classes to be held at Sutter Health in Sacramento.
www.emba.csus.edu
As part of the curriculum, our students go on international study trips for a deeper understanding of global business, with a focus on emerging markets.
Jill Novelo
“My current employment and career advancement are directly attributed to the relationships I made through the MBA for Executives program. Access to the students, faculty and business leaders after graduation provides for ongoing networking opportunities.”
Manager, Public Relations VSP Global
EMBA Alumna ’07
join our network of 40,000+ CBA Alumni
AACSB–accredited: only 5% of business schools worldwide carry this hallmark of excellence.
We are deeply grateful to our 2014 Awards Banquet sponsors ________________________ E V E N T S P O N S O R S ________________________ TA B L E S P O N S O R S Aerojet Rocketdyne North Valley Bank v AT&T v Principal Financial Group v Bank of Sacramento v Resources Global Professionals Blue Diamond Growers Sacramento Business Journal Capital Public Radio Sac State CFA Society of Sacramento Business Alumni Chapter Chevron v Sac State MBA for Community Business Executives Program Bank v Sleep Train Comstock’s Magazine Sacramento Municipal Utility Cushman & Wakefield v District (SMUD) v Damore, Hamric & Target v Schneider, Inc., CPAs The Sacramento Bee Delta Bluegrass Travelers Insurance v Company v Ueltzen & Company LLP v Fiddyment Farms v Union Bank v Five Star Bank v University Advancement Gilbert Associates Inc. v USS-POSCO Industries v Heritage One Door & Building Solutions LLC v Vera C. Hendry Foundation v InterWest Insurance Services, Inc. v VSP Global v Moss Adams LLP v Wells Fargo Bank v v corporate associates
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_ FLORAL SPONSOR_
______ M E D I A PA R T N E R ______
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6000 J Street Sacramento, CA 95819-6088 20900701
CBA Graduation in the Fall
T
he commencement ceremony for the College of Business Administration will be held on Saturday, December 20, 2014 at 1:00 p.m. in the Sleep Train Arena. The staff, faculty, and administrators look forward to celebrating this remarkable milestone with their students, and in recognizing their many achievements throughout their time at Sacramento State. The College will also continue its longstanding tradition of recognizing their Golden Grads—graduates who have graduated 50-years ago!