April 2007
Smeal Zine - April 2007
Speaker Series Bringing High-Profile Executives To Smeal
Smeal's guest speaker series, Leadership In Focus: Executive Insights, is in its third month and already bringing in some major players from corporate America to interact with students and faculty. Last week, Ernst & Young chairman and CEO James Turley shared some recruiting tips with students and offered an inside look at some of his organization's global initiatives. This month, several executives from the world of sports—including Ernie Accorsi, former general manager of the New York Giants, and Art Rooney II, president of the Pittsburgh Steelers—will convene to discuss the business side of sports at an event hosted by Smeal and the Dickinson School of Law. For more on this event, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/mar07/sportbiz.html.
Penn State Researchers Testing Futures Markets For Weather Forecasting
Economists at Smeal and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences are testing whether futures markets can be used to forecast the weather, and, so far, they've found the markets to be just as accurate as major forecasting services. The 60 participants in this predictions market experiment use allotted funds to bet on what they believe the high and low temperatures will be in different U.S. cities on a given day. To date, the weather markets have been as accurate as the major public forecasting services that serve as benchmarks for the research: AccuWeather, the BBC, CNN, and the National Weather Service. For more details, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/mar07/weather.html.
Ten Smeal Undergrads To Compete For Title Of 'The Next CEO'
Weeks of research and studying will culminate for 10 Smeal students as they take the stage at The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel on April 23 to compete in the college's unique chief-executive simulation challenge, The Next CEO. The contestants will have to think on their feet, posing as CEOs of multibillion-dollar global corporations to answer questions about how their companies should respond to complex business crises and major world events. The public is encouraged to attend the competition, which kicks off at 7 p.m. with a presentation by Erik Peterson, senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, on the Seven Revolutions, major trends that will change the world over the next 20 years. For details, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/mar07/nextceo.html.
Smeal Moves Up In Latest U.S. News Ranking Of MBA Programs
The Smeal MBA Program is ranked 16th among public programs and 34th overall in the latest edition of U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Graduate Schools," which was released last month. In the 2006 edition, the magazine ranked Smeal 18th among publics and 38th overall. Also last month, BusinessWeek magazine ranked Smeal's undergraduate program 13th among public colleges and 36th overall. bases its rankings on student and recruiter surveys and on data provided by the schools. The U.S. News rankings are based on the opinions of business school administrators and recruiters, as well as statistical information about the schools and their students. For more on the MBA ranking, visit .
Smeal To Host Executive MBA Spotlight In Philadelphia
On April 19 in Philadelphia, the Smeal Executive MBA Program and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce will host Executive MBA Spotlight, an event designed for local business leaders to get a taste of the Smeal Executive MBA experience. Smeal professor Al Vicere will share some of the leadership development strategies and tactics of the Fortune 500 companies he has consulted. Smeal alumni Victoria Green, senior consultant with the Hay Group, and Matthew Schuyler, Capital One's executive vice president and chief human resources officer, will then join Vicere for an interactive discussion on leadership development. For more details and registration information, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/mar07/emba.html.
May Memorial Set For Eugene Kelley, Smeal Dean Emeritus
Together with his family, Smeal will host a memorial service in May for Eugene Kelley, dean emeritus of Smeal. Family, friends, colleagues, and former students of Kelley's are invited to attend the service at 10 a.m. on May 17 in the Helen Eakin Eisenhower Chapel on Penn State's University Park campus. A reception will follow at noon in the Paquerilla Spiritual Center's Garden Room. Kelley, Smeal's second dean and a pioneering scholar in marketing management, passed away Feb. 10 at age 84. For more on his many contributions to Penn State and the field of marketing, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/mar07/kelley.html.
Smeal Associate Dean Edits Book On SMEs In The Global Economy
A new book edited by Gerald Susman, associate dean for research, explores the challenges and opportunities that face small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) competing in the world economy. The book features chapters by leading experts in entrepreneurship, innovation, and international business. It is based on presentations made at Smeal's Third Klein Symposium, an event that brought together leading academics from North America, Europe, and Asia, and senior executives from U.S. and Canadian companies to discuss the international strategies of small and medium-sized businesses. For more information on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Global Economy, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/mar07/susman.html.
Retail Lecture To Feature Smeal Alumnus
A guest lecture this month at Smeal will feature an alumnus of the college offering insights from his years of experience working for one of the world's most successful consumer products companies. Joseph Solimando '81 MBA, senior vice president, global operations and technology, and chief information officer of Disney Consumer Products, will deliver the Melvin Jacobs Retail Leadership Lecture at 11:15 a.m. on April 26 in the Business Building's Struthers Auditorium. For more information, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/releases/mar07/jacobs.html.
Reminder: Manufacturers To Discuss Lean Operations And Employee Involvement
Manufacturing executives from four of the most successful operations in the United States will gather this month at Penn State to discuss their experiences introducing change in their plant processes. The 61st meeting of the Advanced Manufacturing Forum, hosted by Smeal's Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change (CMTOC), will convene April 12 to 13 at Toftrees Resort and Conference Center in State College, Pa. For more details and registration information, visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/cmtoc/forum/forum61.html.
Media Round-Up
Members of the Smeal College faculty are contacted regularly by the world's news media. In March, faculty members were featured in media outlets such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Entrepreneur magazine, and India's Economic Times. For a complete list, please visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/news/innews/index.html.
Programs and Events
Penn State Executive Programs is currently accepting reservations for its upcoming programs. Please visit http://www.smeal.psu.edu/psep/date.html for more information or click the links below for some of the specific programs being offered.
May 7-11
Finance For The Non-Financial Manager
http://www.smeal.psu.edu/psep/finance.html
May 21-25
Essentials Of Supply Chain Management
http://www.smeal.psu.edu/psep/mesc1.html
June 24-27
Coaching Skills For Managers And Executives
http://www.smeal.psu.edu/psep/csme.html
REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu.
Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the Center for Digital Transformation, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.
