PRME Report 2021

UN Principles of Responsible Management Education Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) 2021 Report

Table of Contents

Letter From John Elliott, Dean, School of Business 3 School of Business Mission 4 Introduction 6 Fulfillment of the UN Six Principles of Responsible Management Education 7 1 — PURPOSE 8 2 — VALUES 16 3 — METHOD 22 4 — RESEARCH 27 5 — PARTNERSHIP 32 6 — DIALOGUE 35 Conclusion 39 Appendix A — CCEI (Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation) 40 Appendix B — The Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation 42 Appendix C — Awards & Rankings 43

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Letter from John Elliott Dean of the School of Business As Dean of the UConn School of Business, I am pleased to affirm our commitment to the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME), to promote these principles and support the ideas of the UN Global Compact. Over the last five years, we have continued to grow initiatives aligned to these goals. Some of our new initiatives include: The Financial Literacy Innovation Program (FLIP). FLIP’s goals are to educate high school students about personal finances, and help them to apply this knowledge to their college choice decisions, to lower the student-loan debt of students in the program, and to provide college access/awareness through near-to-peer mentoring with our current undergraduate students. This program focuses on inner-city schools and diverse populations.

Hillside Ventures is an early-stage venture fund supporting companies either founded by UConn alumni or that are in the sustainability, insurtech, or edtech industries. Hillside provides students real world venture capital experience as they invest in startups while receiving mentorship and guidance from a panel of expert alumni. The fund’s mission is to support the rapid growth of entrepreneurship at the University, and engage diverse personal and professional backgrounds, amongst others.

A new joint appointment between the School of Business and the UConn Human Rights Institute, Rachel Chambers is co-director of the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum. Dr. Chambers teaches “Corporate Social Impact and Responsibility” and “Business Solutions to Societal Challenges” and serves as a consultant for the UN Global Compact and Amnesty International.

Ongoing programs which continue to grow include: Innovation Quest (IQ) — bringing together students, faculty, and business professionals/alumni to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, Business & Human Rights Initiative, which engages with policymakers, businesses, and stakeholders to advance respect for human rights across campus, industry, and government.

Family Business Program which helps prepare and propel family business through innovative business strategy, organizational structure, management practices, human resources, leadership development, and succession planning.

U21 collaborations have increased through student participation in the U21 Global Citizenship Program, focused on encouraging students in their pursuit of solving some of the world’s most pressing issues identified through the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

We offer this Sharing Information on Progress (SIP) report as a testament to our ongoing commitment to these worthy principles.

John A. Elliott, Ph.D. Dean and Auran J. Fox Chair in Business

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UConn School of Business Mission

MISSION As part of a research-focused public university, the UConn School of Business has a mandate to engage our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners in activities to transform lives and the surrounding world, including: Educating the next generation of business professionals Discovering the next generation of business insights Attracting the next generation of business talent Supporting the next generation of Connecticut businesses In fulfilling this broad mandate, we emphasize activities that feature innovative thinking and community engagement.

VISION To be a sustainable business school at a public research university, recognized nationally for innovative research and teaching excellence, and recognized locally for student and faculty engagement with business and community partners. Our longstanding traditions provide the foundation to achieve this vision.

GOALS We pursue continuous improvement on specifics of our vision: 1. A sustainable business school at a public research university a. Educational sustainability: attract great students and outstanding faculty thought leaders by combining our external reputation with a supportive internal culture. b. Financial sustainability: generate revenue streams to support our mission – including tuition, fees, state support, business partnerships, and philanthropy – and rely on faculty and staff to steward our scarce resources. c. Community sustainability: minimize our environmental impact, foster diversity, and maximize student, faculty, and staff efforts to meet social needs in conjunction with the business and non-profit communities.

2. Recognized nationally for research and teaching excellence a. Academic programs: demonstrate teaching excellence through rankings similar to other public researchfocused business schools. b. Faculty departments: demonstrate research excellence among the top 25 public business schools in percapita output at top research journals. c. Staff leaders: support high levels of student satisfaction with both academic and non-academic content.

3. Recognized locally for student and faculty engagement with business and community partners a. Students and alumni: prepared for successful business careers across industries, and connected to employers in and near Connecticut. b. Business and community leaders: perceive our faculty as thought leaders on relevant topics and our students as important talent. c. Entrepreneurs across the university: engage with our students, faculty, and staff on core business topics to create new ideas, jobs, businesses, and industries.

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UConn School of Business Mission (cont.)

Our mission statement, vision, and goals confirm our commitment to all facets of academic excellence.

We are committed to providing the highest possible quality in teaching, research, and outreach in order to attain these goals. We believe that academic excellence in a modern business education requires an international perspective that strives to identify and address business challenges experienced by workers, managers, entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers, and the greater community. As part of New England’s premier public university, we are committed to enhancing the competitive advantage of Connecticut’s workforce in an expanding global business environment.

The School of Business is identified with excellent research-oriented faculty, talented students, successful alumni, and close partnerships with major corporations both locally and globally. Bolstered by support from the state of Connecticut, the University, our entrepreneurial programs, and private donations, the School is a nationally and internationally recognized institution for high quality research and for providing innovative training for a competitive workforce.

Historically, the growth of industries begins with creativity and innovation, followed by entrepreneurship, where old structures are broken and advantage accrues to those who envision and remake the world in new ways. Over time economic infrastructures and markets mature, and the nature of risk changes. Returns to explorers give way to those who are best able to deliver sustainable improvements in organizations, and in the lives and environments of the people touched by them.

Accordingly, UConn fosters an environment that promotes creativity, collaboration, and entrepreneurship in order to help accelerate innovation and shape future industry advances. By properly managing risk and shifting towards more sustainable business practices, the School of Business is helping to build the foundation upon which we can create a sustainable global economy. As we seek solutions to these problems, we are pleased to align our research, academic programs, and engagement with the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) and to reaffirm our membership in this most recent “Sharing Information on Progress” report.

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Introduction

The UConn School of Business joined PRME in the spring of 2009. The School recognized that the Six Principles for Responsible Management Education complement our commitment to prepare students for the complex issues of globalization, technological change, environmental responsibility, and social equity.

The School of Business strives to generate top-quality academic research on global business problems that has a real-world impact on business problems, practice, and education. We do this through our distinctive competencies, which include: An integrative curriculum that blends theory with contemporary practice.

Classroom pedagogy that provides a real-world context to business fundamentals.

Cutting-edge research that informs managerial practice, public policy, and teaching.

Strategic use of technology as an enabler in the solution of complex business issues.

Intensive experiential learning opportunities that provide a meaningful business context to the classroom.

Our approach allows our students to merge their experience and classroom knowledge when solving business problems in experiential learning programs. Some of these outside of classroom learning opportunities that bring students and the business community together include: the Student Managed Fund (SMF); programs supported through the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CCEI); the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program; and the Center for Advancement of Business Analytics (CABA).

All our graduate programs are closely connected with companies to ensure experiential learning remains at the forefront of our curriculum. Finance professor, Michel Rakotomavo, referring to the required capstone project for the MS FRM (Financial Risk Management) program says that the “projects typically require intensive interaction with and reporting to executives from the sponsoring organization. These experiences allow our students to apply what they have learned with the rigor and pace required by various businesses and other organizations.” Rakatomovo continues, “The fact that each of our students has to use their knowledge outside UConn at least twice during their tenure makes them very adaptable and accounts for the large breadth of finance and risk positions they hold right after graduation.”

In addition to capstone projects, the School of Business also supports various professional development and certificate programs that further facilitate interaction and networking between students and professionals.

All these, and others, will be highlighted in the report to showcase the School of Business’s commitment to preparing our students for an increasingly globally connected world.

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Fulfillment of the UN Six Principles of Responsible Management Education Principle 1 — PURPOSE Principle 2 — VALUES Principle 3 — METHOD Principle 4 — RESEARCH Principle 5 — PARTNERSHIP Principle 6 — DIALOGUE

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ONE PURPOSE PRINCIPLE

We will develop the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy.

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A primary objective of the School of Business (BUSN) is to recruit, admit, retain, and graduate the highest quality undergraduates and graduates and to provide them with a superior educational experience.

Across four campuses, the School of Business offers undergraduate degrees in twelve majors: Business Administration, Business Data Analytics, Digital Marketing & Analytics, Financial Management, Accounting, Finance, Healthcare Management, Management, Management and Engineering for Manufacturing (MEM), Management Information Systems (MIS), Marketing, and Real Estate & Urban Economic Studies. In addition, the School offers a number of business and inter-disciplinary minors such as Accounting; Analytics; Digital Marketing Analytics ; Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurship and Tech Innovation; Healthcare Management and Insurance Studies: Professional Sales Leadership; Information Assurance; Real Estate and Management. In addition, BUSN offers business minors to non-business-school students in Engineering Management and Construction; Engineering Management; Business Fundamentals; and Entrepreneurship.

The School of Business also offers master’s degrees in Business Administration (MBA), Accounting (MSA), Business Analytics and Project Management (BAPM), Financial Risk Management (FRM), and Human Resources Management (HRM). Lastly, the School’s Ph.D. Program offers areas of study in Accounting, Finance, Management, Marketing, and Operation and Information Management.

The present success of our undergraduate and graduate programs is reflected in our admissions and national rankings. Not only has undergraduate enrollment in business programs grown by 31% over the last seven years, but the profile of each entering class has also become more competitive. During the same period of time, graduate student enrollment increased by 72%, driven in large part by new master’s degrees in financial risk management, business analytics & project management, and human resource management. Total student enrollment for Spring 2021 was 5,112 students, including 1,769 graduate and professional students.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING A hallmark of the University of Connecticut’s School of Business is its emphasis on experiential learning to create impactful linkages among students, faculty, and industry. Experiential learning plays a critical role in contextualizing what is taught in the classroom to emphasize when, where, why, and how it should be applied.

Experiential Learning is the most sustainable way to teach and so, at its very core, reinforces what the UN PRME principles seek to promote. Research and common sense shows that learning in collaboration with doing solidifies concepts and creates energy to keep growing and learning. To that end, the UConn Business School offers diverse experiential learning opportunities, including internships, field experiences, case study explorations, along with the integration of industry leaders into classroom sessions, to name a few. (In Principle 3, we discuss the professional partnerships and centers that further facilitate experiential learning.)

Every year, there are multiple opportunities for UConn students to engage and increase their awareness of how leaders’ actions can affect society through smarter, more efficient, and more responsibly sustainable business practices. Sustainability emphasizes the potential for long-term environmental, social, economic, and cultural well-being and requires economic innovation and collaboration. Sustainability embraces the potential for growth and productivity through the inclusion of environmental, social, ethical, and human rights issues into the long-term planning of organizations. Sustainable practices integrate the triple bottom line of profit, people, and planet, into core business decisions and utilize economic innovation, collaboration, and technology to reinforce its goals.

Following are a few of the many and varied cross-discipline events UConn students have engaged in over the past two years.

NEGOTIATION COMPETITION Perhaps one of the best ways for students to experience impactful education is when they interact with students from other disciplines with similar passions and learn how to integrate their skills to complement each other.

Annually, (including in 2020 and 2021), UConn law and business students have teamed up for a Negotiation Competition. Every year 45 to 60 UConn students (20-25 teams) participate in this two-day event, focused on

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reaching an agreement to solve a business dispute. Business and law alumni serve as competition judges, while faculty from both schools coach and work with the teams. The winning MBA/Law student team earns the right to represent UConn in an international negotiations competition.

In 2020 and in 2021, the international competitions were also online, but our teams were very well prepared and in 2020, the UConn Business-Law team placed third in the International Negotiation Challenge.

The competition is organized by Professor Nora Madjar from business and Professor Jessica Rubin of the law school. “It’s great to see the law and business students work together, contributing their respective skills,” Rubin said. “They experienced negotiation the way it really happens, which makes the skills that they developed in this competition extremely valuable.”

STUDENT MANAGED FUND UConn has a longstanding commitment to the protection and advancement of socially responsible practices that reflect respect for fundamental human rights and the dignity of all people. The Student Managed Fund (SMF) was established in 2000 to provide UConn students in business with an opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience in fiduciary management of investment assets. At the close of the 2020-2021 academic year, the fund has grown close to $5 million.

The SMF has historically been managed by two 10- to 12-member student teams of fund managers (one undergraduate and one MBA) under the guidance of a fund director, a faculty advisor, and an external board of advisors with strong investment expertise. Due to overwhelming interest and an increased number of exceptional candidates, the SMF program has continued to grow over the past several years.

During the 2020-2021 academic year, for the first time, there were four SMF teams including two undergraduate teams in Storrs with 11 team members each, as well as a Graduate team in Hartford comprised of FTMBA, PTMBA, MSMath and MSFRM students. In addition, for the third year we hosted a Stamford team which was a blend of undergraduate and graduate team members. After another strong recruiting season, we welcomed 45 new SMF team members in the Fall of 2021.

The fund strives to invest in companies that are compliant with federal and state labor laws, respect international human rights, and practice sustainable business. Promoting these values is central to the fund’s commitment to ethical investment and corporate social responsibility.

The SMF program has become a signature student program within the School of Business and the selection of students remains highly competitive, as the program attracts many of the school’s most outstanding students.

Over 400 students have now completed the program since its inception 21 years ago.

HILLSIDE VENTURES Established in 2020, Hillside Ventures is an early-stage venture fund supporting companies either founded by UConn alumni or that are in the sustainability, insurtech, or edtech industries. Hillside provides students with real-world, venture capital experience as they invest in startups while receiving mentorship and guidance from a panel of expert alumni.

The fund’s mission is to support the rapid growth of entrepreneurship at the University, engage professionals from diverse backgrounds, pave the way for students heading towards private capital, and present many other opportunities that would otherwise not be available at the undergraduate level. To date, the fund has raised more than $1M in donations to be used for pre-seed stage investments and to support educational programming Hillside Ventures seeks to invest in early-stage—pre-seed to Series A— companies, preferably featuring a UConn connection as part of their management team. One area they focus on is startups aiming to improve sustainability. Investments of up to $25,000, with the opportunity for follow-on funding, will be made to help companies grow and continue on a path toward profitability.

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In 2020, UConn students participated in the Northeast Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), a regional section of the international competition hosted by UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. VCIC is the world’s largest venture capital competition: a highly competitive event where budding venture capitalists from around the globe face off and take on the role of real venture capitalists. Following the creation of Hillside Ventures in Fall 2020, UConn students returned in Spring 2021 to VCIC with a team of six students who finished in second place. Hillside plans to host one of the VCIC regionals this winter.

LEARNING ACCELERATORS UConn’s experiential learning accelerators—some of which are mentioned in the introduction to this report— bring together talented students, top business faculty, and front-line industry executives to investigate and develop solutions to real-world, real-time, complex business challenges.

These unique, practice-based initiatives integrate traditional teaching and classroom experience with high-profile corporate partnering to significantly close the gap between theory and practice. This intensive experience is what ultimately gives University of Connecticut students a competitive edge, with the highly desirable real-world experience that today’s global employers demand.

Our unique experiential learning accelerators enable blended teams of undergraduates and graduate students to work on real-world projects in intensive research environments under the dual guidance of faculty and corporate project managers.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Leadership and career development are vital and important components of the student experience. Through participating in programming that supports those areas, students learn leadership characteristics which are essential to preparing them for future roles as global leaders.

GLOBAL BUSINESS LEADERSHIP SEMINAR SERIES To support the focus on leadership development the Global Business Programs Office in the School of Business provides the Global Business Leadership Seminar Lecture Series (GBLSS) each spring semester. Through the series, UConn students can earn a professional development certificate by attending lectures led by international business leaders. The certificate is achieved by attending three out of the four GBLSS lectures offered during the semester and provides a great place to network while enhancing the understanding of the global economy.

In 2020, the series highlighted many current and recent MBA students who were professionals in their own right as well as international. The series was focused on these business professionals sharing insights into their own culture as well as how they found “doing business” in the U.S. The speakers featured were Utkarsh Gupta MBA 21’ who shared his experiences of working as a business analyst before moving to the Middle East to start his own food tech company. His experiences included many examples from his native country of India. Wei Wang of China, MBA ‘17 shared the radical career change she underwent moving from earning a Ph.D. in Material Sciences to becoming an MBA with a focus on insurance studies. Wang shared that she hopes to utilize her analytical skills and business knowledge to develop insurance products that better suit the needs of small business owners.

Finally, Tijana Grujic, MBA ’15 shared her experiences and observations moving from Belgrade to the U.S., from M&A Consulting to Valuation Management at Cigna. These speakers helped students see the U.S. business culture from a new perspective and hopefully helped prepare them for a global future.

FUTURE LEADERS PROGRAM The Future Leaders program holds workshops designed to support the academic mission of UConn. It promotes collaboration with schools and colleges in order to nurture tomorrow’s leaders in all academic disciplines. The Future Leaders program is designed to augment a student’s major or career path.

This program invites students to explore their individual leadership styles and strengths. It encourages them to build connections between their leadership skills and their academic pursuits. It also helps the students identify gaps in leadership and makes them aware of leadership challenge and opportunities. Lastly, the Future Leaders

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program encourages students and gives them a chance to take an active role in positively influencing the University and also the community as a whole.

Working in collaboration with faculty from different schools/departments, the Future Leaders program offers workshops on such topics as StrengthsQuest, values awareness, communication, ethical decision making, leaving a legacy, leadership theory and more. All are focused on building upon students’ particular major or field of study.

LEARNING COMMUNITIES Integration of PRME purposes throughout the UConn School of Business does not stop at the academic boundary. As with all learning, it spills over into everyday life. An excellent example of this is the Business Connections Learning Community (BCLC).

An experimental Learning Community, the BCLC opened in 2010 exclusively to incoming UConn business students. Designed to foster their success, the BCLC’s goal is to make students feel a part of the School of Business from their first days on campus. Whether visiting Wall Street or local companies, traveling abroad, enjoying a lunch-time lecture on how to make the most of LinkedIn, or providing creative case solutions for Target, the BCLC program caters to the needs of aspiring business students. The programs offer a supplement to the traditional curriculum and are a special benefit of living in the community.

Currently we have 195 students living in the BCLC on the Storrs campus. In addition, in 2018 a BCLC was also opened on our Stamford campus and that now serves 63 students.

Every Business Connections student is given the opportunity to benefit from the specialized experience of the Business Connections House. The primary components of this experience involve three interdependent, experience-based models: the living model, the learning model, and the connections model. Combined, these models are designed to offer an accelerated learning environment that enables each student to fully realize his/her potential within the School of Business as early as possible.

STUDENT-LED INITIATIVES Beyond standard classroom activities, UConn business students and their classmates are also involved in student organizations and volunteer efforts working to address social, economic, and environmental issues.

The Undergraduate and Graduate Finance Associations hosts a finance conference which is a student-led initiative. Each year they provide an enriching experience for both students and professionals. In 2020 and 2021 they were held virtually.

A student group actively engaged in sustainability leadership at UConn is the law school’s Energy and Environmental Law Society. EELS provides students with information on current topics in the fields of energy and environmental law to encourage increased awareness, as well as information on career opportunities in both fields.

ECOalition is a student group, founded in Spring 2015, that serves to unite leaders of environmental groups, organizations, and committees on the UConn campus. Its mission is to increase communication among campus environmental groups and leaders, to promote sustainability, and to raise awareness of environmental issues.

EcoHusky is a UConn student organization founded in the fall of 2004. The group organizes projects and events, such as “Earth Day Spring Fling” and “EcoMadness”, in coordination with the Office of Environmental Policy and other environmentally-oriented groups on campus and in the local community. Other members of the ECOalition are the Student-led Spring Valley Farm, and the ECO-House Learning Community. Moreover, ECOalition partners with the UConn Student Government to promote environmentally sustainable activities across campus.

Global Brigades is a student organization that acts to provide quality, sustainable healthcare, public health, water, environmental, and micro-finance initiatives to developing communities in Ghana, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

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The UNICEF Campus Initiative is a student-led humanitarian aid organization that provides children around the world with healthcare, nutrition, education, emergency aid, clean water and vaccinations among other things.

And as part of UConn’s commitment to developing active global citizens, Community Outreach’s mission is to engage students in meaningful service activities that enrich their learning and enhance the quality of life for others in their local, national, and international communities.

The HealthCare Management Society is a student-run organization that provides peer and professional networking opportunities, as well as an informational exchange on healthcare issues. Our Healthcare Management & Insurance Studies Advisory Board, comprised of many highly successful industry leaders, stays actively engaged with our HealthCare Management Society students through events such as mock interviews, building resumes, career guidance, and a yearly etiquette dinner.

Global Business Ambassadors, students who serve as an advisory council to Global Business Programs (GBP) also oversee three new initiatives begun during the Covid-19 pandemic in Fall 2020. The Global Business Newsletter Committee (NewCo) allows students to publish research in areas on international interest; the Culture and Language committee (CuCo) are building bridges to cultural centers across the campus through activities such as Global Marketplace Chats; and the Sustainability Committee (SuCo) sponsors an article/book meeting bi-monthly and is working with the Global Business Programs staff to create an educational co-curricular program on sustainable business.

The annual International Business Case Challenge for undergraduate students also sponsored by UConn’s GBP is offered every fall semester. The case competition has been running for more than 10 years and hosts students teams from Italy, Ireland, Australia, Germany and from around the U.S.. Australia was added in 2020 when the competition was held virtually and are participating again in the 2021 virtual event.

A unique aspect of this competition is that teams are composed of students from different universities, who must quickly bond as colleagues as they devise their strategies. The strategic reason is so that students have the opportunity to network with their future peers and colleagues in the business world.

Coming from different cultures, offering different business styles and offering a wide range of knowledge they become a team. The event provides practical experience toward a responsible business worldview for the good of society at large and interactive practices that will grow a sustainable global economy. In 2020, students tackled the problem of how best to allocate resources for expansion or acquisition for a ride-sharing company operating in the Middle East and Northern Africa. In 2021, student teams will consult on live cases for small companies in Indonesia and Japan.

GRADUATE PROGRAMS Advanced study fosters new ideas, the discovery of new knowledge, and the development of solutions to the greatest challenges facing business and society. Listed in Principle 2, UConn offers a comprehensive portfolio of graduate-level business programs designed to prepare tomorrow’s business leaders for success in a rapidly changing, global economy.

These programs include Connecticut’s oldest and largest MBA program, ranked in the top 20 in the nation; a top 10 ranked online Masters of Science in Accounting, and a brand new Masters of Science in Fintech enrolling for Spring 2022.

Among the graduate programs, the MSBAPM (MS Business Analytics and Project Management) program continues to receive recognition for excellence. In 2021 this program ranked No. 8 among MS Data Science Programs by Predictive Analytics Today and No. 9 in the nation for Data Analytics by Eduniversal Best Masters.

MSBAPM students can elect to take a course in Global Technology Management focused on how external influences shape strategy for global organizations. Through this course, students travel to Munich, Germany for a 1-week abroad experience to visit global corporate partners. Students are able to apply global technology topics, such as GDPR, ethics, international project management and sustainability in real-world application.

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The MBA programs (Executive, Full-time, Part-time and Online) at UConn School of Business prepare students for leading in a global business environment. Business Leadership core curriculum components focus on concepts, skills, and perspectives that are key to playing leadership roles in business organizations. This includes developing strategic, global perspectives in decision-making that build sustainable organizations and take into account the role of business in society.

The Financial Times, a London-based newspaper that serves the international business community, ranked UConn’s MBA program No. 16 among public colleges in the U.S.; No. 42 among all U.S. MBA programs; and No. 77 on the global stage. The rankings included top business programs across the world.

Beyond official student organizations, UConn MBA students also provided volunteer support for local organizations aimed at addressing socioeconomic and educational issues in Connecticut and beyond.

Though student engagement efforts were largely pivoted to online and virtual formats over the last two academic years due to COVID-19, MBA students continued to work with local nonprofits in the Hartford metro area to impact the local community.

In November 2020, MBA students joined a public Build Day for Hartford Area Habitat for Humanity. Students traded notebooks and computers for hammers and rakes, and after completing housing renovations in Hartford’s North End they learned first-hand from Habitat staff about “sweat equity” and the financial wellness planning the organization provides to community members in need. In February 2021, MBAs worked with Junior Achievement to virtually visit second and third grade classrooms to help students understand financial literacy, business, and entrepreneurship.

The newest addition to the graduate programs comes with the launch of a Master of Science degree in FinTech.

The UConn Board of Trustees approved this program on April 28, 2021. This graduate degree will prepare people to participate in the rapidly changing intersection of finance, technology, and analytics. The degree will be a combination of study from two departments at UConn: Finance and Operations and Information Management (OPIM). The program will involve 36 credits of study, including a shared set of core courses to be taken by all students and a few elective options to allow students to focus more deeply on specific interests.

UConn offers many advanced graduate business certificates, including its newest one in Corporate and Regulatory Compliance, offered in partnership with the School of Law, for business professionals who are interested in careers in compliance, ethics, internal monitoring, regulatory affairs, and related areas.

The School of Business’ Center for the Advancement of Business Analytics (CABA) connects UConn researchers and students to companies and organizations in Connecticut who want to gain insight into their business practices and processes through business analytics. Founding partners LIMRA, Stanley Black and Decker, and Tableau working together with the UConn School of Business program help to make CABA’s mission of being New England’s leading resource for business analytics and data science a reality.

As part of a capstone project, 36 UConn graduate students in the MSBAPM program were asked to provide data analysis, customer insight, and e-commerce support to consumer giant Henkel, whose North American headquarters are in Rocky Hill, Conn. UConn has developed a strong partnership with Henkel, a consumer company whose three U.S. business units include: Adhesive Technologies, Beauty Care, and Laundry & Home Care. The projects involved creating competitive analysis and effective strategies for omnichannel branding, reviewing data to gain insight and recommend innovative areas to exploit sales. A second project addressed aggregation of data from e-commerce marketplaces to help make business decisions and process efficiency.

OPIM professor Jennifer Eigo said the 36 students who participated in the projects were able to apply their skills in ways they hadn’t before, and that the experience will enhance their value to future employers.

“One of the appeals of this project is that everyone does laundry, but they learned about supply chain, innovation, packaging demands and additional complexities of business,” she said. “Our students were able to work with real and complex big data. In class they use smaller data sets with well-defined objectives. This project pushed their skills, not just solving a technical problem but a business problem, and enabled them to come up with actionable recommendations.”

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Outside of the classroom, UConn graduate students are involved in several organizations that have an impact on student education and society at large.

The UConn Net Impact Graduate Chapter partners with the renowned nonprofit Net Impact, a group that inspires a new generation to use their careers to tackle the world’s toughest social and environmental problems. UConn’s graduate chapter of this organization entered its fifth year in the 2021-2022 academic year. The group provides students with the opportunity to network with other students and professionals interested in creating positive social and environmental change through their careers. Through events focused on professional development, community service, and networking, students can engage with the surrounding community in numerous ways.

The Net Impact Grad Chapter is open to any graduate student looking to make positive contributions to society through their future, or current, profession. The chapter provides the network and resources to inspire emerging leaders to build successful “impact careers” — either by working in jobs dedicated to change or by bringing a social and environmental lens to traditional business roles.

The UConn Graduate Consulting Club provides pro-bono consulting services to local businesses providing valuable insights using data analytics, marketing, and business strategy.

In addition to the masters programs, graduate education success also thrives in the UConn School of Business Ph.D. program, where candidates regularly participate in conferences, publish papers, and affect undergraduate students through their teaching. Alumni from this program enter faculty positions at mostly R1 research universities.

The ultimate goal of a Ph.D. program is training the next generation of researchers. UConn faculty realize that the creation and dissemination of knowledge go hand in hand when it comes to doctoral training. Two recent examples demonstrate this commitment. Lauren D’Innocenzo was recently honored as a Poets and Quants “Best 40 under 40 Professors” award. Monique Domingo, Ph.D. candidate in Management, also reinforced the program’s focus when she recently said, “Both of my advisors, as well as other faculty in the management department, have... provid(ed) me with a generous amount of unique opportunities. Despite some of them not specializing in women leaders, they still supported my initial curiosity in this pursuit which showed me that they care about my personal exploration and development. To this day, I am grateful to have had rare experiences in my research journey with leadership, such as speaking with high-ranking women officers in the military as well as working with field data in the context of surgical and NASA astronaut teams.”

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TWO VALUES PRINCIPLE

We will incorporate into our academic activities and curricula the values of global social responsibility as portrayed in international initiatives such as the United Nations Global Compact.

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Speaking about the UN Global Compact (UNGC), UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres explained, “What started as a niche group of 44 business leaders has now blossomed into a global movement, encompassing more than 10,000 companies, 3,000 non-business stakeholders and 68 Local Networks. All of these participants are championing the idea that business has a key role to play in creating a world and a global economy where people and planet alike can thrive.” The UConn School of Business supports and invests in the ideas that make up the Ten Principles of the Compact.

The UConn School of Business curriculum, faculty and students are engaged in promoting the values of both the UNGC and the UNPRME to teach and train students to prepare them to change the world in a positive way. We work in cooperation with the Global Affairs office here at UConn and partner with many companies to develop globally oriented business education programs. A testament to this commitment was demonstrated in the fact that from 1996 to 2019 the School of Business housed a Department of Education CIBER (Center for International Business Education and Research). Fully understanding the importance of this focus, our current Global Business Programs office was established and continues many of the flagship programs for students established under the CIBER. The GBP has facilitated the renewed connection with PRME to tap into its many resources in order to benefit students and faculty.

UNIVERSITAS 21 Our membership in Universitas 21 facilitates student mobility and increases opportunities for both student and faculty exchange programs.

In 2010, UCONN became one of only three U.S. members of the prestigious Universitas 21 network, the leading global network of research universities for the 21st century. Universitas 21 is the leading global network of research-intensive universities, working together to foster global citizenship and institutional innovation through research-inspired teaching and learning, student mobility, connecting students and staff, and wider advocacy for internationalization. With expertise in strategically important areas such as food security, water and sustainability, UConn was an obvious choice to join the organization. All Universitas 21 member institutions are research-led, comprehensive universities providing a strong quality assurance framework to the network’s activities. More than a decade later, UConn is already recognized as a strong, active member of this prestigious research university community.

One of the U21 student programs promoted to the UConn community is RISE (Real Impact on Society and Environment), an international showcase of student achievement in sustainability and social innovation designed to accelerate the scale and impact of student-led projects by connecting them with a network of experts in academia and industry.

The newest student-focused initiative of U21 is the Global Citizenship Program hosted and embedded for 3 semesters (since it’s inaugural semester) in our School of Business BUSN 1801 course, “CQ for the Global Marketplace.” The 3-week program is an experiential online course which develops the skills and competencies students need to advance their understanding and implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It consists of nine hours of asynchronous learning and up to five hours of synchronous reflection workshops for a cohort of more than 2000 students across 23 research institutions around the world.

One of our UConn business students said, “My biggest learning came from talking with students from around the world; it was amazing to hear their perspectives and realize that we all have a common goal. It is encouraging to know that there are many passionate students with different resources that when all pooled we can make a major impact for the best.”

Finally, our courses, combined with experiential learning opportunities, support our commitment to Life Transformative Education (LTE) in the School of Business, exploding the idea of the ivory tower. Learning is meant to change the student, the teacher, and the world around them.

TEACHING AND LEARNING In order to affect that change, the School of Business pursues a two-pronged effort to strengthen teaching excellence. First, we endeavor to enrich student learning and knowledge acquisition by enhanced faculty

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engagement and fulfillment in instruction. To these ends, we have created a Research and Teaching Excellence Committee and Undergraduate Curriculum Revision Task Force to propose initiatives designed to develop greater student-centered, participative and experiential learning and to provide instructional development opportunities for faculty. Second, we are auditing our use of instructional resources with the goal of enhancing productivity, but in a manner that balances two objectives by (1) enhancing student learning and faculty engagement and (2) enabling greater research productivity by improving faculty instructional efficiency and synergies between their research and teaching.

Marketing professor Kevin McEvoy, a champion of real-world learning and a perennial favorite educator among students, has been awarded the University Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award from the UConn Foundation.

McEvoy, who has worked for corporate giants including General Foods, Colgate Palmolive, Pepperidge Farm (Campbell Soup), Haagen-Dazs (then Pillsbury), and consulted with industry leaders including McNeil Consumer (Johnson & Johnson), Good Humor/Breyers (Unilever), Keebler, SC Johnson and many others, said he wants to develop students who think like industry professionals.

“I treat them like they’re working for a company,” he said. “I say, ‘I’ve got news for you. Your bosses won’t give you a test, they’ll give you a task. I want to prepare you for that. Get your hands dirty. Show me what you can do!’”

ACADEMIC ENRICHMENT In the past two years, the School of Business has hired 20 new faculty members to support their mission, from a consultant on human rights for the UNGC, to an entrepreneur with experience in MENA, venture consulting for start-ups, researching social conditions that support entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurs need to communicate across all business functions by integrating the best business and engineering principles/practices. They also need to identify customer needs and develop technical solutions that satisfy those needs in a financially viable way. Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a two-part class in which collaboration exists between the School of Business and School of Engineering. Teachers focus on product design process along with business principals required for any viable startup and enterprise.

Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation is also a new minor offered which allows students to take more classes in our School of Engineering.

The experiential nature of this course enables students to go through the process of conceiving of a new product, building a minimal viable product, developing a business model/business plan, and testing the market.

Students learn the art of successful pitching and presenting business models to successful entrepreneurs.

Corporate Social Impact and Responsibility, taught by Rachel Chambers, a course cross-listed with UConn’s Human Rights Institute, is popular among students. This course addresses social impact and human rights implications related to global operations of multinational corporations across different industry sectors. Students study the regulatory environment and competitive contexts that govern responsible business conduct on a global scale. They also learn how to navigate regulatory mandates and design social responsibility strategies to increase a firm’s reputation, reduce costs, and improve its competitive positioning while respecting the principles of human rights.

Business Solutions to Societal Challenges is another course offered in the business law and human rights programs. It examines market-based solutions to social and human rights challenges, and analyzes how companies create value for society and business. It also discusses the role of for-profit businesses as agents for positive social impact in changing legal, regulatory, policy, and market environments. Also addressed, are regulatory and business strategies for long-term economic viability, sustainability, and human rights, and how business opportunities like social innovation, statutory benefit corporations, corporate social certifications, social investment, shared value, strategic philanthropy, and serve emerging markets.

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Introduction to Venture Capital offers students insights into the venture capital space and prepares them for a role in Hillside Ventures, our student venture fund. The knowledge gained from this course creates a strong background for and supports any prospective Hillside analyst, serving as a prerequisite for joining Hillside Ventures (Principle 1).

In Business Decision Modeling, MSBAPM students perform a portfolio allocation of stocks based on Newsweek company green rankings, and evaluate if green stocks or “dirty” stocks have better returns for given risk tolerances. Route optimization (vehicle routing problem) topics are also covered in the projects, which efficiently routes a delivery truck across the state of Connecticut with the goal of conserving fuel. Moreover, in the Visual Analytics course, several teams completed sustainability-based projects using publicly available data.

In 2020, teams looked at climate change, overfishing, food insecurity (particularly in developing countries) and air quality changes due to COVID lockdowns.

A class on environmental management, taught by Prof. Farhed Shah, tackles the economics of energy issues with special reference to local and regional environmental quality, global climate change, and energy markets.

Economics of Energy, Climate, and the Environment examines the environmental and economic implications of developing alternative sources of energy, as well as regulatory policies in relation to transportation, industry, commercial and residential energy use. Meanwhile, in the Introduction to Deep Learning course, students predicted statewide energy demand in Texas as a function of weather data (wind, rain, and cloud cover).

The Full-Time MBA program includes two core courses that address ethics, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility. Increasingly business leaders worldwide are recognizing the importance of organizations and broader business systems that enable stewardship of long-term value creation for all their stakeholders.

Sustainability in the Global Business Environment is now required within UConn’s MBA program. Taught by John Mandyk, former Sustainability Officer at UTC, it provides students with the opportunity to examine approaches to meeting complementary and competing needs of shareholders, customers, employees and communities through the design and maintenance of global value chains.

MBAs work in teams to explore value creation, investor transparency, corporate social responsibility, supply chain considerations, policy landscape and organic business growth strategies that stem from sustainability. Students assessed alternative business models and management practices designed to enhance sustainability for an increasingly global array of stakeholders. Specific topics included social enterprise management, environmental strategy, corporate social responsibility, conscious capitalism, socially responsible investing alongside issues relating to social, environmental, and economic ecosystems.

The Business Law Department serves an invaluable service function for every academic discipline in the School of Business. Taking great care to see that every School of Business student is educated in the nature of legal proceedings and the interaction of law and business, the Business Law Department is also the student’s resource for exposure to ethical issues in the business community. The department’s important contribution to the education of tomorrow’s business leaders is not limited to the presentation of an introductory breadth course.

All undergraduate students in the School of Business are required to successfully complete The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business. This course examines the institutional foundations of law including court systems, court procedures, and constitutional law. The application of law to shape the legal environment of business through government regulation and legal liability is examined through exploration of tort and product liability, worker protection, and business organization law.

Similarly, MBA students are required to take Business, Law, and Ethics in Modern Society, which studies the formulation, interpretation, and application of law to business. This course incorporates the study of ethical issues that arise in contemporary business settings, including professional conduct and corporate social responsibility. It explores major areas of legal regulation to which businesses are subject, including tort liability, contract law, partnership and corporate law, employment and labor law, intellectual property law, environmental regulation and sustainability, and financial regulation. The course emphasizes active, experiential application of legal reasoning and analysis, and the global and comparative dimensions of legal and ethical issues.

In keeping with the boom in entrepreneurial spirit and due to unprecedented demand, UConn’s School of Business is offering a 10-credit summer business program for undergraduate, non-business majors who want

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to gain valuable business acumen and expand their general business knowledge. The seven-week Business Fundamentals Certificate Program is one of only a few offered by AACSB-accredited schools. During this intensive summer program, students receive classes in Business Data & Analytics, Managerial and Interpersonal Behavior, the aforementioned Legal and Ethical Environment of Business class, and participate in career development training.

FACULTY INITIATIVES To underscore the critical importance of accomplished faculty to student learning outcomes, Professors Robert Bird, Stephen Park, and newly hired faculty member Rachel Chambers, were all among the standouts at the 2021 conference of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB). Bird received the Ralph Hoeber Memorial Prize for outstanding article for his work titled, “Caremark Compliance for the Next Twenty-Five Years,” forthcoming in the American Business Law Journal, the premier journal in the discipline. His article explores the emergence of new case law obligating boards of directors to proactively monitor their organizations in order to avoid legal liability.

“The legal environment of business is a complex and ever-present force in business today. When necessary, the law can change quite rapidly and respond to crises in society. The more students and employees understand the better equipped they will be to navigate the legal environment,’’ said Bird.

Chambers, who joined the faculty as an assistant professor of business and human rights this fall, was elected as an officer to the organization’s International Section, a rare honor for a newer faculty member.

Park was recognized as a finalist for the best conference paper award and the environmental sustainability paper award for his work titled “Legal Strategy Disrupted: Managing Climate Change and Regulatory Transformation.”

It addresses the strategic implications of regulatory responses to climate change and explores how firms can enhance their resilience to the transition risks arising from climate-change regulation. He also received an Outstanding Reviewer Award from the American Business Law Journal.

PANDEMIC INFLUENCE Finally, UConn broke an enrollment record in Spring 2020 with more than 4,000 undergraduates registering for a course addressing the business, health, and societal implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Professors from the School of Business played a pivotal role in the creation and presentation of “The COVID-19 Pandemic: Impacts on Health, Business and Society,” a free one-credit course offered online.

The business portion of the course addressed the economic, financial, corporate, employment, and leadership aspects of the crisis. The popular course was subsequently offered to faculty, staff, and alumni.

Lucy Gilson, Associate Dean of Faculty and Outreach, led the development of the business module.

“One of the advantages of being part of a leading research university is the ability to pull together experts from different disciplines and give students access to a broad range of expertise, knowledge, and analysis,’’ she said.

“In order to have an impact and be available to our students, it had to unfold quickly.’’

Despite the pressure to move their traditional courses from in-person to online, the faculty were eager to participate, she said. They created the interdisciplinary course in less than a month.

“It was clear from the start that the faculty wanted to make sure that all students, whether business majors or pursuing other courses of study, fully grasped the enormity of the crisis on business and industry, and its powerful and multifaceted impact on the economy,’’ Gilson said.

Professor Greg Reilly, head of the Management Department and one of six School of Business presenters, said he wanted students to better understand the new world they were living in.

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“I hope they came away with a greater appreciation for the magnitude of the challenge leaders face in responding to the crisis,’’ Reilly said. Many companies fought to ensure the short-term well-being of employees while simultaneously battling to keep their businesses viable.

“While there are no easy answers, I believe that better-educated citizens will more effectively hold leaders to account for their decisions while, at the same time, better appreciate that sacrifices will be needed for everyone involved to weather this economic storm,’’ Reilly said.

Two faculty from Finance, Jose Martinez and Paul Gilson, along with Robert Bird from Business Law, and David Souder from Management, with his Ph.D. student Dhavni Badwaik, rounded out the business faculty supporting the University level COVID Course.

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THREE METHOD PRINCIPLE

We will create educational frameworks, materials, processes, and environments that enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership.

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Physically present across the state, our students and faculty connect across many different types of industries and organizations to affect change, create relationship, and open doors for experiential real-world learning. In addition to its main campus in Storrs, UConn has four regional campuses: Avery Point, Hartford, Stamford, and Waterbury. In addition, UConn’s School of Law and Graduate Business Learning Center are located in Hartford, and the School of Social Work is in West Hartford. The main UConn Health campus, including the schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine and John Dempsey Hospital, is located in Farmington. This state-wide presence means we connect our faculty, staff, and students to locales, to communities, and the industry and economy across the state. Business cannot thrive in an educational bubble, nor can business be taught effectively in an ivory tower, but the interaction that occurs when Higher Ed intersects Community creates the perfect environment for learning experiences.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP Supporting the economic growth of that community, the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CCEI) helps support students in their journey to become successful entrepreneurs. Through various programs students can win funding to make their ideas a reality. Programs included Get Seeded, Accelerate UConn, and others. Through Get Seeded, CCEI has awarded over $10,000+ in seed funding to business startups that range from addressing food insecurity and sustainability to innovations in insurance. This program is held multiple times per year and is open to both graduate and undergraduate students.

Accelerate UConn helps students determine the commercial viability for new ideas. The program helps students craft ways to clearly communicate their value propositions, identify target markets that could generate demand, and helps them build revenue models that align with their goals.

CCEI offers aspiring business students a real life, hands-on learning opportunity through its Verge Consulting program. Verge Consultants (VCs) are graduate and professional school students who work with CCEI, the UConn School of Law, and Connecticut’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to help UConn startups overcome the hurdles of entrepreneurship. Through a partnership with the SBDC, Verge Consultants receive mentorship from the SBDC and get the opportunity to work directly with UConn and Connecticut-based startups. Consultants receive a stipend of $5,000 for nine weeks of consulting between June and August.

In addition to Verge Consulting, CCEI offers students the opportunity to participate in a Summer Fellowship program. The Summer Fellowship program was created to leverage core competencies of UConn faculty and students, draw on the knowledge of community business leaders and stakeholders, and support entrepreneurs in the process of developing the infrastructure and partnerships needed to launch their businesses. The goal of the Summer Fellowship program is to help entrepreneurs move out of the conceptual stage of venture development, and into the marketplace. Sessions include goal setting, defining their business model, mapping out key milestones, sales and growth strategy, customer acquisition, data-driven decision making, and forward planning. The program concludes with an overview of additional resources available both through the university and externally.

INNOVATION QUEST PROGRAM (IQ) The School of Business is the leader in the UConn Innovation Quest Program (Idea to Prototype to Business).

IQ is an interdisciplinary competition that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship among students at all degree levels across UConn. From its inception in 2012, over 2,000 students from 82 different majors comprising nearly 650 teams have participated. Each year, the top three teams are awarded a total of $30,000 in prize money, and the top teams participate in the IQ Summer InQbator designed to help move them from “Idea to Prototype to Company.” UConn alumni and successful previous program participants serve as mentors and advisors both during the program and after an IQ company is launched. There are numerous IQ success stories, the latest of which includes Veradermics, which just received $20.7 million in a Series-A round of financing to support clinical trials of its first product, “WartPatch,” a disruptive kid-friendly wart treatment for children.

WERTH INSTITUTE In 2016, the Deans of the Schools of Engineering and Business worked together to establish the UConn Entrepreneurship and Innovation Consortium. For the first time in the university, this initiative brought together

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more than 30 university units with activities in the entrepreneurship space. The consortium’s success, activities, and achievements became the foundation for securing the gift/endowment and commitment (amounting to $22.5M) from Peter J. Werth to establish the Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in December 2017.

From business to nutritional sciences, engineering to the arts, the Werth Institute has distinguished itself as a dynamic and multidisciplinary environment where all UConn students can find an opportunity to learn, connect, and innovate alongside their entrepreneurially minded peers and with the help of seasoned educators and mentors. The institute, under the leadership of Dr. David Noble, faculty member in the School of Business Management Department, brings together student and faculty programs fostering entrepreneurship and innovation that have potential commercial applications and can be used to create new companies. In addition to nurturing innovation, the institute facilitates entrepreneurship speaker forums and hosts an entrepreneur-inresidence to instruct students.

In 2020, the Werth Innovator F3 Cohort launched to address the gender gap that exists in the business world when it comes to female-founded ventures. This cohort of Werth Innovators was selected at the beginning of the fall semester from a pool of first-year female identifying students. Based on the initial success of F3, an additional cohort has been added in this fall and is open to traditionally underrepresented populations within entrepreneurship.

Now, after less than four years, The Werth Institute has been recognized for its unique, accessible, and broadbased approach to entrepreneurial education by the prestigious Deshpande Symposium, with the 2021 Award for Excellence in Curriculum Innovation in Entrepreneurship.

A brand new Werth project is the Start-Up Studio on the Stamford campus - a two-semester entrepreneurial working co-op experience for undergraduates working together to create technologies and products for the real estate and construction industry. Throughout the cooperative educational experience, students will gain competencies in the entrepreneurial mindset, project management, design, and engineering.

THE WOLFF FAMILY PROGRAM IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP This program exists to bring successful entrepreneurs into contact with the University’s students. The program sponsors an endowed chair position, the Thomas John & Bette Wolff Family Chair in Strategic Entrepreneurship.

Some 25 teams have participated in the Wolff New Venture Competition since 2016, with six winners (including the first year when two were selected). The competition has provided $105,000 to the startups, which have gone on to notable success. Those novel businesses have raised $16.2 million in funding, with $13.2 million of that coming in 2020.

In 2020, Peter Goggins ’21 was the grand-prize winner of the Wolff New Venture Competition for Pisces Atlantic.

Pisces Atlantic aims to render fishmeal-based formulations obsolete by providing species- and applicationspecific feed formulations that are economical, effective, and generally superior to conventional feed solutions.

Other startup finalists included: alumna Hayley Segar ’17 who has created a new line of flattering women’s swimwear called “Onewith”; graduate student Janoye Williams, , who created a mobile app called Junity that will connect teenagers with educational, employment, and mentorship programs; alumnus Jeremy Bronen ‘20 and his team who created SedMed, a toilet-life/assistance project to help the elderly and disabled use the bathroom safely; and medical resident Reid Waldman, who created VeraDermics, a company that will deliver wart-treating medication via a microneedle patch.

EDUCATION ABROAD Educating global citizens requires providing those future citizens with opportunities to engage their world in an authentic way. To that end we continue to create opportunities that facilitate the interaction of studentmeets-world through our many and varied Experiential Global Learning (EGL) programs. UConn School of Business is firmly committed to not only the continuance of our globally focused programs, but innovation

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that allows students from all walks of life to gain a global perspective, and pique their passion to make the world a better place.

Working closely with the EGL office, we promoted, encouraged, and provided scholarships to students participating in their new Virtual Internship Program. Business school students were supported by funds from the GE Global Learning Center. This program gave students the opportunity to be employed by companies in Dublin, London, Prague, Paris, Madrid, and Geneva. In turn, participating students helped EGL promote the program to their peers, assuring classmates that although the work was virtual, they felt engaged with their international teams, learned a great deal about cross-cultural work etiquette, and had the opportunity to experience doing business in another country.

HONORS PROGRAM We continue to make our undergraduate business programs more attractive to the brightest and most motivated students by creating a formal, community-based Honors Program that includes: an honors section of the core introductory business courses for each department and an honors section of the universally required Management capstone course. Honors students are assigned faculty advisors a year early.

A new component of the Honors in Business curriculum is a class focused on leadership. This course explores leadership from a multi-disciplinary perspective with students examining the core elements of effective leadership. There are two goals for the course: 1) to help students better understand and harness their own leadership style and 2) to explore, in depth, the core elements of effective leadership, the traits and behaviors of exemplary leaders and leadership in practical application.

OFFICE OF DIVERSITY INITIATIVES The Office of Diversity Initiatives (ODI) in the School of Business focuses on the development of strategic partnerships to create and sustain a diverse and inspiring environment for excellence in teaching and learning.

Increasing numbers of admitted students from diverse backgrounds prompted the creation of a new role, the Associate Director of the ODI, and the addition of Alfy Roby to the team. Both Alfy and ODI Director, Seanice Austin administer programs, serve as mentors to students, work closely with focused student organizations, and serve as a liaison with corporate partners. Students are encouraged to participate in a wide range of professional annual conferences to develop not only their professional skills but to gain networks and contacts within their future profession. The office works tirelessly to increase opportunities for students.

MINORITY ACCESS NATIONAL DIVERSITY & INCLUSION INTERNSHIP PROGRAM “Developing Tomorrow’s Workforce.” The Minority Access National Internship Program is designed to help talented undergraduate and graduate students experience the diversity and scope of career opportunities available in the federal government and other participating entities. The program provides students with the opportunity to merge academic theory with practical application in the workplace.

The School of Business, through its partnership with the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) works to correct the imbalance of gender diversity in technology and computing. Gender diversity positively correlates with a larger workforce, better innovation, and increased business performance. Increasing the number of women in technology and computing also has the potential to improve the design of products and services to better serve a more diverse population, as well as increase economic and social well-being by providing more women with stable and lucrative careers.

Over the last five years, we have continued to partner with and encourage our students to participate in the workshops and symposium hosted by the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA). ALPFA provides many programs and benefits to aspiring Latino students interested in accounting, finance or related career professions.

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The National Association of Black Accountants (NABA) holds an Annual Eastern Region Student Conference.

The conference includes two and a half days of workshops, seminars and interview sessions, all designed to better prepare minority students for careers in accounting and financial management disciplines.

Blackstone’s Future Women Leaders Program is a unique 1.5-day experience among financial firms, giving participants early exposure to finance and business through interactive information seminars, networking, and skill-building sessions.

HIGH SCHOOL OUTREACH PROGRAMS In addition to serving the undergraduate population, the ODI has extensive outreach programs to high schools in the state of Connecticut. The School runs a Financial Literacy Innovation Program (FLIP) for high school students in East Hartford. The brainchild of alumnus Joe LaBrosse ’85, CFO and founder of Grove Property Fund LLC, the program is taught by UConn faculty and staff, and UConn undergrads serve as mentors.

The Hartford Promise is a large-scale college scholarship fund and college success program for Hartford public school students, offering high achievers a college scholarship of up to $20,000. UConn offers an additional scholarship to make their college dreams more affordable.

The Summer Business Academy (SBA) is a 3 week, all-day program for 15 – 25 high achieving college-bound students who are interested in pursuing careers in business. The Academy takes place on the UConn Storrs campus.

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FOUR RESEARCH PRINCIPLE

We will engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances our understanding about the role, dynamics, and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable social, environmental and economic value.

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The University of Connecticut is one of the nation’s leading public research universities, and is ranked among the country’s top 25 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. Sponsored research expenditures totaled $285.8 million during fiscal year 2020.

The UConn School of Business focuses on research that contributes to solutions that improve the quality of life globally; that addresses issues of sustainability; that contributes to the management and execution of efficient global health care; that improves the use of data analytics in solving societal and business problems; that supports and improves entrepreneurial ventures and economic development infrastructures; and that helps manage and reduce risk and uncertainty. Our research must have an impact on practice and theory and be valuable to the business community and the broader society.

High quality research remains the coin of the realm in academia, driving reputation with colleagues, potential students, corporate partners, and other stakeholders. We are committed to enhancing our research productivity and research impact by conducting and publishing research in premier journals in our fields. Further, we encourage interdisciplinary research both across departments between School of Business faculty and with faculty in other schools and colleges.

ACADEMIC RESEARCH UConn is a Carnegie Foundation Research University, consistently ranked the number one public university in New England and among the top 25 public universities in the nation. We are lauded for the breadth and the range of our research programs. In fact, research opportunities abound even for undergraduate students.

Within the School of Business research is highly valued and the productivity of our faculty is frequently acknowledged though external rankings. For example, the Center for Real Estate was recently ranked No. 3 in the world for productivity — lead by Professor John Glascock, Chinmoy Ghosh, Jeffrey Cohen, and Alex Van der Minne.

The most recent UT Dallas ranking place UConn School of Business at No. 48 overall (No. 24 public) which is up from No. 57 five years ago. We are ranked as a Top 20 program for Tax and OPIM is ranked No. 33 by UT Dallas (Top 10 public).

Professors in the Management Department continue to be ranked among the most prolific and highly regarded scholars in the nation. Over the last five years, the UConn management faculty ranked No. 17 in the nation, based on the number of articles published in eight top-tier management journals, according rankings prepared

by Texas A&M/University of Georgia. In 2019 two management professors were listed in the Web of Science Top 100 Most Cited list: John Mathieu and Lucy Gilson.

RESEARCH CENTERS CENTER FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF BUSINESS ANALYTICS The mission of the Center for the Advancement of Business Analytics (CABA) is to be New England’s leading resource for business analytics and data science, helping partner organizations develop and enhance their analytics capabilities. CABA’s goals include becoming: • an outlet for faculty engagement through research projects, business interactions/projects; • a channel for knowledge dissemination by offering workshops, conferences, certifications, short courses; • a focal point for community services by providing a repository of data, thought leadership, newsletters; • a conduit for student engagement promoting projects, experiential learning, capstone, internships.

CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE AND URBAN ECONOMIC STUDIES The Center for Real Estate and Urban Economic Studies is dedicated to cutting edge research and the training of skilled individuals for all segments of the industry. We provide numerous services to Connecticut’s real estate professionals and to the Department of Consumer Protection. Our activities embrace many disciplines including finance, statistics, economics and geography. Our teaching and research has long been ranked among the very best programs in the U.S. and Internationally.

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CONNECTICUT CENTER FOR ECONOMIC ANALYSIS CCEA specializes in economic impact and policy analysis studies, as well as advising clients regarding business strategy, market analysis, and related topics. CCEA focuses particular attention on the economic and business dynamics of Connecticut. CCEA’s studies of state issues are founded on data sets maintained by Amherst, Mass.based Regional Economic Modeling, Inc. (REMI), which licenses dynamic models of the state’s economy.

CCEA was created at the request of Governor Weicker in 1992 to serve the state’s citizens by providing timely and reliable information regarding Connecticut’s economy and to evaluate the potential impacts of proposed policies and strategic investments. By mobilizing and directing the expertise available at the University of Connecticut, state agencies, and the private sector, CCEA aims to equip the public, decision makers, and stakeholders with transparent analyses to facilitate systematic, thoughtful debate of public policy issues.

CONNECTICUT CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION (CCEI) CCEI is seeking ways to expand the number and quality of research presentations related to entrepreneurship and innovation at the School of Business, as well as supporting faculty and students as they attend conferences associated with entrepreneurship. To accomplish this objective, CCEI is now offering three types of grants to support this: 1. The CCEI Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Seminar Series continued in the 2020-2021 academic year.

This is designed to have multi-disciplinary appeal, so we welcome all disciplines to suggest speakers that can present research on entrepreneurship and/or innovation. A $1,000 honorarium will be granted to departments and centers seeking to host a speaker. The honorarium will be given per speaker and is designed to cover travel, hotel, and other expenses related to the visit.

2. The Entrepreneurial Research Grant - Travel Awards. Funding will be provided to faculty or Ph.D. students seeking to attend a conference or workshop, collect data, or work with colleagues on a project related to entrepreneurship or innovation. Travel award amounts range and will be based on available funding, the costs associated with the trip and the nature of conference or workshop.

3. Sponsorship to attend the Price-Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators, which trains faculty interested in teaching entrepreneurship. CCEI sponsors two faculty from around the university to attend this symposium (the sponsorship includes the Price-Babson registration fee of $3,150 per person, which covers program materials, meals, accommodations, and evening receptions). This symposium takes place twice per year, during winter break and summer break.

UCONN BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS INITIATIVE (BHRI) The Business and Human Rights Initiative (BHRI) at the University of Connecticut seeks to develop and support multidisciplinary and engaged research, education, and public outreach at the intersection of business and human rights. BHRI is a partnership between the School of Business, the Human Rights Institute, and Dodd Human Rights Impact at UConn.

Officially launched in 2016, BHRI seeks to develop and support multidisciplinary and engaged research, education, and public outreach at the intersection of business and human rights through the following activities: • Support of scholarly research and related public engagement by UConn faculty • Convening of conferences, roundtables, workshops, and other events • Engagement with policymakers, companies, advocates, and other stakeholders to advance respect for human rights • Support of student learning and professional opportunities in business and human rights The focus of BHRI-supported research in business and human rights include stakeholder engagement, finance and human rights, digital human rights, and corporate accountability mechanisms. In 2020, BHRI established a research partnership focusing on public finance with human rights programs at American University and the

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University of Pretoria. BHRI hosts a workshop series dedicated to the discussion of works-in-progress and other non-published research in the field that is highlighted in principle 6: dialogue.

THE HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE The Human Rights Institute (HRI) at the University of Connecticut is a leading innovator in research and teaching that critically engages contemporary dynamics and discourses on the theory and practice of human rights throughout the world. Their research publication, the Journal of Human Rights, seeks to broaden the study of human rights by fostering the critical re-examination of existing approaches to human rights, as well as developing new perspectives on the theory and practice of human rights. The journal aims to meet a globally growing interest in the study and practice of human rights by serving as an arena for the public discussion and scholarly analysis of human rights, broadly conceived.

The HRI offers students internships with premier domestic and international human rights organizations.

After a rigorous application process, students selected to participate in each of these opportunities are granted substantial financial support from the Human Rights Institute.

THOMAS J. DODD RESEARCH CENTER Through Dodd Human Rights Impact, the Human Rights Institute fosters a culture of human rights through engagement and community impact in Connecticut and around the world. The human rights legacies of Senators Thomas J. Dodd and Christopher J. Dodd are honored and extended by supporting outreach programs to advance understanding of and respect for human rights, including initiatives in human rights education, business and human rights, democracy and dialogues, and human rights film and digital media.

On Friday, October 15, 2021, President Joseph Biden visited the University of Connecticut Storrs campus to speak at an event marking the dedication of The Dodd Center for Human Rights.

INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH UConn is also a Carnegie Foundation Research University, consistently ranked the number one public university in New England and among the top 25 public universities in the nation. We are lauded for the breadth and the range of our research programs. In fact, research opportunities abound even for undergraduate students. The university has more than 100 research centers and institutes that serve UConn’s teaching, research, diversity, and outreach missions. The university’s international ties are growing, and many of its programs, including human rights, biology, business, psychology, business, social work, and engineering, have a global focus.

RESEARCH INFLUENCED BY THE PANDEMIC UConn Marketing Professor Debanjan Mitra and colleagues from the University of Houston, Columbia, and Emory published research in 2021 in the Journal of Marketing. Marketers often collect and analyze customer information that is easy to access and synthesize, but omit or gloss over the deeper and more valuable analytics that can foster a powerful competitive advantage for their corporations.

“We discovered how firms can make use of data from multiple sources to acquire, retain, and develop their customer base and, consequently, strengthen and grow their businesses,” Mitra said. “We completed our research just as the pandemic began. Especially now, during such a precarious time in business, when customer behaviors are evolving, these findings are particularly relevant.”

Their research paper, titled “Capturing Marketing Information to Fuel Growth,” reviews factors that contribute to the disconnect between the data that companies capture and productive use of that information. In particular, the researchers found that companies tend to gravitate to readily accessible statistics, and ignore rich textual data that captures impressions and emotions. These findings play a significant role in a product’s success and eventually on the firm’s growth.

In quickly changing times, such as a pandemic, prior information is less relevant than what companies are experiencing in the present day, he said. Despite enterprise leaders’ and researchers’ optimism in the potential

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that data offers, there is a disconnect between the volume created and the ability of organizations to capture that potential to foster growth. This is particularly true in supporting customer relationships – creating new customers, retaining, and developing them, Mitra said.

“In many cases, companies are ‘steeped’ in their ways. They’ve typically done things a certain way and continue doing it without question. They’ve culled the same data over the years and plan to continue it, without seeing the need to change,” Mitra said. “We have technology that can capture many different types of information beyond numbers. It needs to be culled on a continuous basis through sophisticated platforms capable of realtime outputs.”

His advice to company marketing executives is to collect ongoing and different data and categorize it in terms of acquiring, retaining, and developing customers. That data can then be harnessed to devise the firm’s customer strategy quickly and efficiently, making it possible for the corporation to respond to any changes in the context, be it competition or the overall environment as in the case of the pandemic.

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FIVE PARTNERSHIP PRINCIPLE

We will interact with managers of business corporations to extend our knowledge of their challenges in meeting social and environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly effective approaches to meeting these challenges.

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As an example of exploring jointly effective approaches with our corporate partners, UConn received global attention for its commitment to ethical supply chain management, licensing, and branding as the winner of the 2021 International Collegiate Licensing Association Service Award.

UConn’s commitment starts at the top with its President’s Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility, which the award notes sets the framework for ethical engagement. It extends through the University’s Vendor Code of Conduct, which lays out key terms of business engagement. This code is demonstrated from the way undergraduate accelerators such as Student Managed Fund and Hillside Ventures make their investment decisions to our larger centers highlighted below.

CONNECTICUT CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION CCEI categorizes its offerings into five main groupings: venture support, entrepreneurship education, experience education, connectivity, and research and training. We highlighted their work in Principle 4 for their research endeavors.

As a partner, CCEI inspires a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation across all academic disciplines throughout UConn by offering programs that support new venture development, teaching courses that engage students in innovation and new technologies, and connecting the University with the greater entrepreneurial ecosystem within Connecticut.

The Center focuses its resources on ventures that have the greatest potential to create meaningful impact and enhance UConn’s entrepreneurial awareness and capability to tackle fundamental problems. CCEI strives to inspire and support a robust entrepreneurial culture across the entire University. We believe that students and faculty who gain practical experience in entrepreneurship and innovation will be more successful in their careers, either as innovative employees or self-employed entrepreneurs.

ENTREPRENEURIAL BOOTCAMP FOR VETERANS The University of Connecticut became a member of the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) consortium of business schools and universities in 2010. EBV enhances the power of entrepreneurship in communities and for veterans more broadly, by fostering an essential route for job creation and economic vitality. UConn School of Business’ school status as No. 48 among “180 Best for Vets: Master of Business Administration Programs” surveyed by the Military Times placed it within the top third of the nation’s schools in this area. Overall, schools were evaluated in five categories: university culture, student support, academic outcomes and quality, academic policies, and cost and financial aid.

UConn also created the Office of Veterans Affairs and Military Programs, agreed to waive all application fees for veterans, and expanded fall and spring tuition waiver for veterans to include courses during the summer and winter intersessions.

CONNECTICUT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE (CITI) Connecticut Information Technology Institute, a unit of the School of Business, provides non-credit IT focused training and supports work force development. A key partnership for CITI is its work with the State of Connecticut to ensure the training all Registrars of Voters (ROV).

UConn School of Business intentionally collaborates with Connecticut’s leading community organizations to focus on social, community, and leadership issues that are critical to this region’s economic sustainability.

These partnerships are led by our faculty, academic programs, centers, and student clubs. We support educational and leadership programming through sponsorships and engagement with Leadership Greater Hartford (LGH), Stamford Partnership (SP), and MetroHartford Alliance (MHA). Faculty and staff have been guest speakers at leadership events produced by these organizations and students have also benefited by attending such events to learn and network with industry leaders. Examples of such programs this past year are LGH’s Lessons in Leadership series and SP’s Stamford Innovation Week.

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THE FAMILY BUSINESS PROGRAM The UConn Family Business Program helps family businesses adapt and thrive in today’s rapidly changing economic and business climate. Through business and family-systems programming, we offer monthly webinars, quarterly workshops, and numerous networking opportunities. We help family businesses prepare and propel their business through innovative business strategy, organizational structure, management practices, human resources, leadership development, and succession planning.

SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER The UConn School of Business has an ongoing partnership with the Connecticut Small Business Development Center (CTSBDC) with the SBDC housed within the School of Business. SBDC provides business advising to small business owners and entrepreneurs to start, grow, and thrive in Connecticut. Providing comprehensive business assistance is their mission, and by partnering with UConn, they have the resources, tools, and online trainings to offer business help along the way.

The Family Business Program partners with SBDC on many occasions by co-producing workshops and webinars to educate family and small businesses and offer consultative resources. One particular success story for SBDC and Family Business Program is how our school proactively approached small and struggling businesses in Connecticut in spring 2020. Small businesses, many owned by families, were reeling from the impact of COVID-19; our school immediately connected our MBA and undergraduate talent with the Family Business Program and SBDC leaders to offer their time to support these businesses with their skills in business analytics, project management, supply chain management and more.

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SIX DIALOGUE PRINCIPLE

We will facilitate and support dialog and debate among educators, students, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organizations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responses.

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Dialogue is an essential aspect, if not the essential aspect, of an academic institution’s life. If there is little or no exchange of ideas, opinions, information, experiences or assumptions on a particular issue there is no growth, no improvement - no learning. While this type of exchange in the classroom is critical for personal growth - it is the interchange outside the classroom, on campus and off, that accomplishes the most public good.

At UConn and the School of Business, myriad lectures, conferences, consortiums, round-tables, symposiums, and robust debates occur on a daily basis. Sharing ideas and concerns, plans and pitfalls, goals, and grievances is what motivates us to do better, work harder, solve problems, and achieve great things. Following are some examples of dialogue that we at the School of Business have been engaged in over the last two years.

BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE WORKSHOP SERIES (BHRI) BHRI convenes events with business and human rights researchers and practitioners to present projects and exchange ideas. In addition, BHRI works closely with the President’s Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility at UConn as well as departments and programs in the Schools of Law, Engineering, and Education.

BHRI has hosted two roundtables for university-based programs in business and human rights worldwide.

In collaboration with the Sié Center for International Security and Diplomacy at the University of Denver, BHRI is addressing the ethical and practical challenges of supporting business and human rights research and engaging with companies, with one objective to identify and articulate best practices for university-based programs in the field. Among its other external partnerships, BHRI collaborates with the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum (for which Assistant Professor of Business Law Rachel Chambers serves as codirector) and is a member of the Global Business School Network for Human Rights (including the PRME Working Group for Business and Human Rights) and the Global Network Initiative (through UConn’s Human Rights Institute).

To support student learning and professional opportunities, BHRI fosters and advises on internship opportunities in business and human rights for undergraduate and graduate students at UConn. Students have interned with numerous civil society organizations and companies, including the Business and Human Rights Resource Center, Net Impact, and Social Accountability International.

BHRI also hosted a workshop series in March 2021 titled “A Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for Human Rights,’’ which included a discussion led by Dr Rachel Chambers, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Connecticut, and Jena Martin, a professor at West Virginia University College of Law. Their discussion targeted the global movement towards the adoption of human rights due diligence laws and the lack of such process in the United States. Civil society organization International Corporate Accountability Roundtable is stepping into the breach with a legislative proposal built on the model of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to prohibit corporations from engaging in grave human rights violations and to give Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice the power to investigate any alleged violations. xCITE CONFERENCE Originally established as a day-long conference for Connecticut women in Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, xCITE has since evolved into so much more. Still dedicated to bringing together women entrepreneurs and organizations from across Connecticut and beyond, xCITE is shifting its focus towards an increased frequency of networking and mentoring opportunities. The result of this shift is a reengineered program with an emphasis on building a committed network of women entrepreneurs and will engage participants year-round in meaningful opportunities designed to connect, support, and inspire.

The 2020 online program started with a presentation from UConn alumni, entrepreneur, and author Charlene Walters based on her book “Launch Your Inner Entrepreneur: 10 Mindset Shifts for Women to Take Action, Unleash Creativity, and Achieve Financial Success”. Following this, participants heard from a panel that consisted of five entrepreneurs who discussed their journey and what it means to be an entrepreneur.

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In 2021, Carrianne Polo founder and Chief Creative Officer at New Park Creative, a digital strategy and content development agency focusing on B2B brands joins us as the keynote speaker. Carrianne is a talented producer, creative director, and strategist with a diverse portfolio of clients spanning local non-profits to Fortune 500 brands.

EQUITY NOW SPEAKER SERIES The School of Business is proud to host the Equity Now Speaker Series, led by Robert Bird, Professor of Business Law and Eversource Energy Chair in Business Ethics. This series invites prominent business law scholars to lecture on how law and policy can facilitate equality, fairness, and inclusion in organizations.

The speaker series is co-sponsored by the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, Virginia Tech Pamplin School of Business, and Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Each of the four speakers featured in 2020-21 focused on modern legal and policy issues such as race, identity, sexual orientation, disability and gender equality in modern organizations.

Now in its second year, the Equity Now series has attracted top legal experts from across the nation and hundreds of attendees. This year’s presentations will focus on racial and gender equity, voter disenfranchisement, and workplace privacy violations.

“In the midst of this social revolution I thought, ‘How can we at the School of Business make a difference and bring these issues to a wide audience?’’ says Bird, who has organized the four-part speaker series on diversity and equity topics.

THE PH.D. PROJECT The leadership at the School of Business has long been focused on increasing the diversity of its student and faculty members and ensuring that UConn is a welcoming place for all. UConn is a partner school with this nonprofit organization, which serves as a catalyst for Black, Hispanic, and Native Americans to pursue their doctorates and become business professors.

Since 1994, The PhD Project has more than tripled the number of minority business school professors, from 294 to over 1,000. These professors are inspiring a new generation of business professionals. The PhD Project was founded upon the premise that advancements in workplace diversity could be propelled forward by increasing the diversity of business school faculty. As a school, we are actively engaged with the PhD Project and we currently have students in accounting and management who are part of the PhD project network.

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP SPEAKER SERIES The Global Entrepreneurship Speaker Series (GESS) continued in 2020 with guest speakers sharing virtually to expand student’s vision for entrepreneurship and innovation. GBP and the Werth Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship collaborate to welcome GESS entrepreneurs from all over the world. The 2020 speakers included topics on Ethical Artificial Intelligence Advisory to Revolution, Refugees, and Risk: International Entrepreneurship during the Arab Spring to Doing Business in Africa. As a result of its focus on entrepreneurship and innovation, the new program appealed to students from a variety of majors across the university. The 2021 series will begin this month.

ROSENBERG-MCVAY LEADERSHIP SERIES Even in a year of unprecedented upheaval, UConn attracted talented leaders to share on the importance of perseverance during the Rosenberg-McVay Business Leadership lecture.

Walmart CEO and UConn alumnus Bill Simon ’81, ’88 MBA discussed “Embracing Change in Challenging Times,” as the keynote speaker at the School of Business’ Rosenberg-McVay Business Leadership lecture on Oct. 22, 2020. The virtual presentation was open to School of Business students and alumni.

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The 2021 Rosenberg-McVay speaker will be Vice Admiral Sandra Stosz (ret.) the first woman to lead a U.S. Military Academy.

GENO AURIEMMA UCONN LEADERSHIP SPEAKER SERIES With the Geno Auriemma UConn Leadership Conference on hiatus due to the pandemic, a new speaker series was launched for the 2020-21 academic year for our graduate students.

This exclusive speaker and workshop series offers currently enrolled UConn School of Business graduate student’s access to featured industry leaders who will share their real-world experience on what leadership “looks like” and what skills will get you there. What makes this series unique is that we don’t stop there.

We support the evidence each Executive Speaker offers and reinforce that it can be learned, via a threepart skills-based Workshop Series aimed to build leadership awareness, resilience, and further enhance communication and relationship building skills. Each session includes a call to action to reinforce what was learned. Speakers thus far include: Joseph M. Terranova, Senior Managing Director and Chief Market Strategist at Virtus Investment Partners presented “Strategic Pivoting with Humility and Grit.”

Joann DeBlasis ‘76, ‘83 MBA Former President at Accident & Health, Navigators Re, a brand of The Hartford Group and Robin Landsman ‘97 EMBA, Head of Leadership Development at Beaumont Bailey presented “Risk & Resiliency.”

A panel discussion on “What is ‘intrapreneurship’and why is it important today?” was presented by three alumni: Sophia Ononye-Onyia ’16 MBA’, ’13 Ph.D., Founder and CEO of The Sophia Consulting Firm; Sara Allen ’12, ’16 MBA, Product Delivery Lead, Behavioral Health at Cigna; and Zack Gould ’06, Co-Founder of G&N Insurance.

Karen Senteio, Executive Coach, Trainer and Facilitator and President at Karen Senteio Consulting presented “Brave Networking” and lead all the skills based workshops.

The skills based Workshop Series was funded by a gift from Mary Laschinger ’92, Former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Veritiv Corporation, to support leadership development.

In addition, Laschinger’s gift supported a presentation to our EMBA students from George Barrios ’87, ’89 MBA, former co-CEO of WWE, and Laschinger herself spoke to the EMBA students on the importance of COURAGE for real leadership.

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Conclusion

As it follows and shares the principles of PRME, The School of Business plays a vital role in providing information, knowledge, skills, mentorship, and networking for students, new ventures, and corporate entrepreneurial projects. As these activities comprise a greater share of Connecticut, US, and global economic endeavors, the School of Business offers expertise, experience, and intellectual resources that educate students spurring on the creation of companies and jobs.

The School of Business joins the other UConn schools and colleges in enhancing research, academic programs, and engagement to provide solutions to pressing global issues—sustainability, economic infrastructure, innovation, risk and uncertainty, health care, and managing and interpreting information.

We continue to reengineer our academic programs to recruit the most talented and motivated students and provide them with capabilities, intellectual tools, and critical skills to enable them to become future business leaders driving a global future of enhanced quality of life, sustainable economic growth, and reduced risk and uncertainty.

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Appendix A: CCEI

(Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation)

Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CCEI), established in 2007, is identified as an area of strength by the University and vital to the state and national economy, the School of Business, and the University, as a whole.

CCEI is committed to the University of Connecticut’s Core Values of Innovation, Leadership, Global Engagement, and Diversity. As part of one of the United States’ leading public universities, we benefit from the academic background, strength in numbers, and geographic positioning of the various populations we work with.

CCEI categorizes its offerings into five main groupings: 1. VENTURE SUPPORT Supporting entrepreneurs and innovators across the University of Connecticut by providing funding, programs, and mentorship to help accelerate their ventures. Programs offered under the venture support umbrella include: Get Seeded — Get Seeded provides students with the opportunity to pitch their ideas to an audience of their peers. Selected teams have an opportunity to pitch and earn up to $1,000 in seed funding. Students that do not yet have ideas or who are not ready to pitch are invited to attend and vote on pitches.

Traction — Supporting UConn-affiliated startups as they continue to work through their concept in researchbased technology. Participants learn the key elements of Business Model Canvas (BMC) and engage with Customer Discovery. This helps them better understand the market in which they are entering and the value they plan to provide to key stakeholders in the process.

Accelerate UConn — Accelerate helps faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students determine the commercial potential for their new ideas, technology, and products. Accelerate aids in developing strategies for bringing innovations to the marketplace.

CCEI Summer Fellowship — The Top 10 business startups from across the University of Connecticut are selected to participate in the Summer Fellowship program. Teams receive one-on-one coaching and mentorship from industry experts and entrepreneurs. Teams pursuing high-potential ventures formed through participation in other UConn entrepreneurship programs are encouraged to apply.

Wolff New Venture Competition — Features 5 of the top startups coming out of UConn each year. Teams are selected from the CCEI Summer Fellowship Program. These top 5 startup companies compete in front of a panel of venture experts and an audience of investors, mentors, and peers. One winner takes home the Wolff Prize of $20,000. This event is open to the public.

Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) — offers cutting-edge, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 veterans with disabilities resulting from their service to our country.

2. ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION Growing the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders through academic courses that engage students in innovation in emerging technologies. Courses are offered at the University of Connecticut at the undergraduate and graduate level across many departments including, Digital Media and Design, Engineering, Communications, and Law. Courses cover topics such as Biomedical Engineering, Insuretech, New Venture Management, and Digital Media Strategies for Business.

3. EXPERIENCE ENTREPRENEURSHIP Experiential learning and internship programs engage students with startups and small businesses in Connecticut. These programs include, Verge Consulting, InsurTech Fellows Programs, Entrepreneurial Internship program, BUILD UConn, HackUConn, and the Innovation Fellowship Program.

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Appendix A: CCEI (cont.)

4. CONNECTIVITY Fostering a diverse and collaborative community of students, faculty, and alumni entrepreneurs and innovators, all while supporting the greater entrepreneurship ecosystem within the State. Programs under the Connectivity banner include the Mentor Network, xCITE Women in Entrepreneurship Network, LAUNCHartford, and the Student Ambassador Program.

5. RESEARCH & TEACHING Propagating thought leadership in entrepreneurship and innovation through funding, research, and teaching projects, and organizing research seminars and events of consequence to business and society. Current offerings include: a. The CCEI Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Seminar Series b. The Entrepreneurial Research Grant — Travel Awards provided to faculty or Ph.D. students seeking to attend a conference or workshop, collect data, or work with colleagues on a project related to entrepreneurship or innovation. c. Sponsorship to attend the Price-Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators, which trains faculty interested in teaching entrepreneurship. CCEI sponsors two faculty from across the university to attend this symposium.

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Appendix B: The Werth Institute

The Peter J. Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation links the ecosystem of resources, programs, academic courses, funding, mentorship, education, and activities relating to entrepreneurship and innovation throughout the University. Established in December 2017 thanks to a historic $22.5 million gift from philanthropist and entrepreneur Peter J. Werth, the Institute seeks to unlock an innovative mindset in every student, instilling an inquisitive approach to rejecting the status quo and creatively attacking the problems we face. By facilitating partnerships and building relationships spanning schools, industries, and traditional fields of study, the Werth Institute provides exceptional opportunities for students, faculty, and alumni.

Under University leadership, the Institute brings together a myriad of programs that foster entrepreneurship and innovation, supporting ideas that potentially have commercial application and can be used to create new companies. In addition to nurturing innovation, the Institute facilitates programs including entrepreneurship speaker forums and hosts an entrepreneur-in-residence to instruct students David Noble is the Director of the Werth Institute. The entrepreneurial spirit at UConn has led to the launch of world-changing startups across a variety of industries. Students, faculty, and alumni have grasped the resources available to help turn their ideas into products and services that improve lives. UConn-supported businesses make a lasting impact on Connecticut’s economy and the future of industry. The Technology Incubation Program, for instance, has backed more than 100 startup companies, contributing to the creation of more than 2,000 jobs supported and sustained annually by the University. In addition, more than 600 U.S. patents have been granted based on UConn innovations, with 39 issued last year alone.

Signature programs for undergraduate students of the Werth Institute are NetWerx and Werth innovators, as well as affiliated student organizations, such as the CEOs - Creating Economic Opportunity. Creating Economic Opportunity (CEO) gives a diverse group of students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of entrepreneurship.

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Appendix C: Awards & Rankings

UConn is recognized as a leader in campus sustainability both nationally and internationally as a result of its longstanding commitment to the integration of sustainability into operational decision-making and the living-learning experience at the University. In order to track our progress UConn participates in several annual surveys that evaluate and rank institutions based on their sustainability performance.

CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF TEACHING In 2010, UConn received the elective “Community Engagement” classification. This classification was extended in the 2015 classification cycle and remained valid until 2020. The University of Connecticut is committed to its recertification as a Carnegie-engaged University and is awaiting the 2021 decision that affirms the priority we place on community engagement.

SIERRA CLUB UConn has once again been rated among the nation’s greenest schools in the Sierra Club’s annual “Cool Schools” rankings, which evaluate universities for their environmental sustainability. This year, UConn ranks #8, and maintains prominence as one of the world’s most sustainable campuses.

The Sierra Club rankings are determined using data collected by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) STARS self-reporting tool. Those results are reported in the 2020 Sustainable Campus Index. The Sierra Club then applies additional environmental criteria to arrive at its final rankings.

INDONESIA UNIVERSITAS GREEN METRIC UConn has been named the world’s 11th “greenest” institution of higher education worldwide among almost 800 peers whose sustainability efforts were reviewed as part of the 2019 UI GreenMetric World University Rankings.

The recently announced rankings recognize universities that excel in six indicators: campus setting and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transportation, and education/research.

This year, 780 universities from 85 countries took part, with UConn’s scores making it one of only two universities in the United States to reach the top 20.

UConn performed well in each metric, and particularly strongly in the areas of how it reduces and handles waste, and its educational and research activities in sustainability and environmental stewardship.

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Appendix C: Awards & Rankings

#

16

Public MBA Program in U.S.

#

– TFE Times (2020)

– Financial Times (2020)

#

1

Public MBA Program in New England

– Bloomberg BusinessWeek (2019-20)

#

29

Public MBA Program in U.S.

#

8

#

11

(excluding MBA)

– U.S. News & World Report (2021)

#

20

Master of Business Analytics Program in U.S.

– TFE Times (2020)

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Public Executive MBA Program in New England

– Ivy Exec (2020)

MSA PROGRAM

Best Online Graduate Business Program

MSBAPM PROGRAM

Top MS Data Science Schools

– Predictive Analytics Today (2021)

– Bloomberg BusinessWeek (2019-20)

#

1

Public Master of Finance in New England

TOP

5

EMBA for Entrepreneurs

1

Public MBA Program in New England

– Ivy Exec (2020)

#

– TFE Times (2021)

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