With J. Scott Di Valerio at Alumni Honors
It was an honor to present J. Scott Di Valerio (BBA, ’85) with the Arthur E. Hughes Career Achievement Award at the Alumni Honors event last weekend.
Scott is the chief financial officer of Coinstar, Inc. He recently joined our SBA Board of Advisors, bringing his considerable finance, operations and management experience.
Prior to joining Coinstar, Scott held leadership positions at other world-class organizations, including the Lenovo Group, Microsoft, The Walt Disney Company, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Remember all the innovative ideas at the Social Innovation Challenge (SIC) presentations that I wrote about in March? Well, last week I attended the awards ceremony and found out which of the many bright ideas received funding from our judges.
Dr. Patricia Marquez speaking at Social Innovation Challenge awards ceremony
Dr. Patricia Marquez, Director of the Center for Peace and Commerce, addressed the large group with some thoughts about creativity that made me want to take off my shoes and play in a sandbox. That’s because she asked us to remember what imagination was like for us when we were children – anything we could dream could be possible. That’s the spirit of the SIC.
But the SIC is also about imagination grounded in reality. And the better the student social innovators are at developing a realistic, sustainable implementation plan for their innovation, the more likely they are to receive funding for their ideas.
Twelve finalists were honored at the awards ceremony. Teresa Smith, a student in the Nonprofit Leadership master’s program, received the top award of $10,000. Her program, Eat Better Today, is a mobile food truck that will deliver meals to homeless persons.
Casey Hoffman, a MS in Global Leadership student, received $7,000 for an educational product designed for children with autism. Innocent Rugaragu, a MA Peace Studies student, was awarded $5,000 for Farming to End Poverty, a zero waste hybrid agri-business. Kristina James and Amber Zimmermann, both MA Nursing students, also received $5,000 for Nutri-Fort. Their product is a nutritional supplement to fight malnutrition that they will produce and sell in Dominican Republic. Two additional finalists received $1,500 each for their programs.
Teresa Smith receives her award as other SIC finalists cheer her on
‘Tis is the season of awards and honors. I am proud of our many talented students and the outstanding faculty who prepare them for these competitions. Master of Science in Real Estate (MSRE) students and undergraduate real estate students earned big honors in recent weeks.
The Argus Team: Alex Leonard, Skye Morland, Dan Buoye, Mike Kelly and Bryan Grissinger
The MSRE students placed second and defeated 27 other graduate programs in the Argus Software University Challenge. Students had to address the issues in a case study about a complicated redevelopment project, even conducting extensive market research as part of their work.
The undergraduate real estate team took third place in the annual USC International Real Estate competition. This team is the first to bring a trophy home to USD in the three years the school has participated in this competition. The event includes real estate programs from around the country and the world. Congratulations to Dietrich Nascimento, Brandon Arner, Milan Brandon, Eric Hertel, Adrian Hochstrasser and Cassandra Wells.
Ken and Margie Blanchard with Professor Curtis Cook
Drs. Ken and Margie Blanchard want to help our business students develop into the effective and influential leaders the world needs. They put that vision into action at the first annual Blanchard Leadership Forum at USD last weekend.
About 70 undergraduate and graduate students joined the forum and participated in innovative learning activities to enhance their ability to be influencers at any level of their personal, community and professional lives. The Blanchards’ message of leadership that unleashes the potential of people and organizations for the greater good resonated powerfully with the forum attendees.
Ken Blanchard is a prolific author of books on leadership, with over 30 titles and 20 million copies sold, and he is a popular keynote speaker for many organizations around the country. Margie Blanchard, an influential keynote speaker and leadership researcher, has a special passion for inspiring women to lead at a higher level. Professor Curtis Cook is faculty director of the Leadership Forum as part of the SBA’s Undergraduate Leadership Development Program.
Move aside, Shark Tank. The SBA’s V2 (Venture Vetting) competition for University of San Diego students stole the entrepreneurial spotlight last week. With 3 angel investors, thousands of dollars in prize money and professional quality student presentations, V2 has become a force to be reckoned with.
USD alumni, Tom Breitling (’91) and Lorenzo Fertitta (’91), and SBA Advisory Board member, Andy Laats and his wife Liz, provided the $15,000 in prize money.
Four finalists competed for the prize with a 10-minute pitch per presenter and one-on-one time with each investor. The angel investors are successful entrepreneurs themselves: Kathleen Parker; Andy Laats, Co-founder and president of Nixon Watches; and Hans Petersen (MBA,‘98), founding director of Endeka Group.
Congratulations to SBA undergraduate marketing student, Max Ball, and his business partner, Keyan Taji, for winning $7500 for their mobile app development company, Approach Mobile. This business has already procured over $120,000 in mobile app development projects with clients such as Hertz, NBC and Target.
Of the remaining prize money, $5500 went to USD senior, Chase Yost’s venture, Bottle Talk. With the scan of a QR code on the bottle, a consumer like me can connect with the winery that produced the bottle of wine I’m considering purchasing. Awards of $1000 each went to Scoto, a mobile app that helps users organize their online activity from various sites, and Venturely, an online networking platform to connect college entrepreneurs with advice and resources for launching their business ideas.
It’s not too early to start thinking about launching your idea in next year’s competition. Professor Mike Lawless teaches entrepreneurship courses at the SBA, and he is already thinking ahead to the V2 in 2013. He is also the advisor for the Entrepreneurship Club, a great place for aspiring entrepreneurs to get advice and lots of pre-competition venture vetting throughout the year.
Here’s a clip from the SBA’s V2:
Golf and prizes, anyone?
Just to be clear, I was not playing golf last Thursday afternoon. But, many of our alumni and friends were playing and having a lot more fun than I was. They were at the 4th annual SBA Golf Tournament at the Rancho Bernardo Inn.
We had a great showing with 18 foursomes. And it seems we have some accomplished golfers among our alumni and friends of the school. Congratulations to our winning team, and thanks to all for coming out to play and helping to raise money for student scholarships!
1st Place: U-T San Diego (-15): Scott Comerford, Dan Hellbusch ‘01, Raul Salazar ‘00, Ross Bourne
Kyle Fitzgerald '04, SBA Alumni Council member (top); Patrick Dornan '06; Adam Bridges '05; Marc Roth
Nick Zech '10; Don Zech; Mark Hoekstra '86; Dan McCarthy
Even if you’re facing a down-to-the-wire weekend of working on your tax returns, Professor Tom Dalton explains why we should have extra sympathy for the plight of CPAs preparing taxes this year.
Professor Tom Dalton, smiling because his taxes are done
The year 2012 is an anomaly for tax season. In a normal tax season, it is difficult enough for the CPAs who have to work seven days a week, 12 to 18 hours a day preparing tax returns. They seldom see their family, a healthy meal, or even daylight from mid-January until April 15.
In 2012, though, CPAs have an extra three days of this grueling schedule. First, February adds an extra day to tax season because of leap year. Second, April 15 falls on a Sunday so tax season is automatically extended until Monday. Third, Emancipation Day is a holiday in Washington, DC on Monday, April 16 this year, so by law, Monday is a holiday for the IRS. All of this makes this year’s federal tax deadline April 17 – extending a normal tax season by three whole days!
Please, this year take your CPA to lunch (after April 17) and offer sympathy for his or her unfortunate plight as a victim of this perfect storm. The universe has conspired in 2012 to deprive the CPA of family, freedom, and sanity by adding three additional days of tax season. Your CPA will appreciate your kindness even if unable to express gratitude because of his or her uncontrollable sobbing. Be sure to bring a box of Kleenex.
Dr. Tom Dalton is Director of Undergraduate Programs and Professor of Accountancy and Taxation at the School of Business.
Microfinance Summit at USD
On April 4, some 150 people gathered at USD for the 4th annual San Diego Microfinance Summit. This is a day of inspiration, sharing stories, learning best practices, networking, and enjoying the wares of a number of local recipients of micro loans.
As an academic institution, we want to light a fire of inspiration in our students. It is gratifying to see how the speakers and participants at this summit do that. They are engaged in changing lives in creative ways through microfinance.
We also want to help students learn the sobering realities of making a difference in their communities and the world. Sobering, but not dampening, their enthusiasm. They need to know not only the inspiring stories, but also how challenging these efforts can be. And they need to learn best practices for overcoming the challenges. The classroom is a great start, but events such as this summit, and experiences with micro lenders, and even with loan recipients, can add richness and reality to the conversation.
I took this picture at lunch, where participants and the campus community could purchase crafts, food, art, and other products – all from loan recipients. It was inspiring and fun.
I enjoyed meeting many SBA alumni in Houston last week. They are friendly, motivated, and moving along in interesting careers. And they love USD! Here are the highlights of my meetings with these enthusiastic alumni.
Sam Adamo (BBA, ’02) is a criminal defense lawyer, Nick Janik (BBA, ’81) is a leader at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital, and Mark Ditman (MBA, ’94) is an assistant vice president at Rice University. Morgan McKay (BAC, ’06) is a specialist in disaster recovery. He started his own company with the goal of preparing firms in the oil, gas and other industries for innumerable disasters that could hamper their operations. He is currently opening operations in Singapore. Laura Simons (BAC, ’95), a consultant from San Diego, just happened to be in Houston working with a client, and she joined us as well.
In the oil and gas industry, John McInnes (BBA, ’02) works as a natural gas trader for ConocoPhillips. Clint Wetmore (BA, ’92; MBA, ’00) is a managing director and founding partner of Post Oak Energy Capital. This company is a private investment firm focused on growth capital investments in US energy companies.
Clint’s brother, Chad Wetmore (BBA, ’95), is the director of Corporate Development, mergers and acquisitions, at Service Corporation International (SCI). SCI is North America’s leading provider of death-care products and services. The company has more than 20,000 employees who provide funeral, cremation, and cemetery services to hundreds of thousands of families each year. It operates from a network of more than 1,800 funeral homes and cemeteries.
Finally, Kelly and Luis Zuniga are both graduates of the SBA. Kelly (MBA, ’91) is the executive director of the Houston Community College Foundation, and Luis (MBA, ’90) joined Apex Partners, LLC as a director in 2009. Apex Partners is a boutique investment banking firm providing a broad range of professional advisory services. The firm provides independent advice to clients principally seeking liquidity or growth capital.
I look forward to hearing more from this group as they continue to grow an SBA alumni group in Houston.
A beautiful day in the neighborhood
Our SBA community got out in the community on Saturday for a day of service and celebration with our neighbors.
Rose Cook, me, Pat Moulton, Karolina Rzadkowolska, Marc Lampe, Myla Wilson, Bridget Breitenberg, Mary Ann Pulis
Last Saturday was the 27th Annual Linda Vista Multi-Cultural Fair and Parade. The residents of Linda Vista, just up the road from USD, speak nearly 30 different languages. So when they put on a multi-cultural event, they know what they’re doing.
We had about 25 SBA volunteers and family members come out to help, and we did everything from organizing parade participants to sorting recycling to staffing the information booth. We’re looking forward to more of these opportunities, thanks to our dedicated service committee.
Here’s a photo of me with one of our SBA staff volunteers…
Tara Ceranic and friend
Wait, no, here’s the one with me in it…
With Angela Owens and her future MBA student