 |
 |
       |
|
         |
|
 
|
NYU Stern Global Alumni Conference Draws Alumni from 25 Countries to Sunny Barcelona More than 250 NYU Stern alumni from around the world convened in Barcelona, Spain, in early June for Stern’s fifth Global Alumni Conference. Drawn from more than 25 countries, the alumni attended a two-day session of panels with scholars, business leaders, and fellow alumni on business topics including restructuring the credit markets, the growth of global cinema, leading family businesses in the 21st century, and urban development as an engine for economic growth. The sessions were held at the Casa Llotja de Mar, an historic Gothic building that formerly served as Barcelona’s stock exchange. The opening reception was held in the garden of the Hotel Arts Barcelona, a waterfront hotel that was constructed for the 1992 Olympics. The closing dinner celebration took place at the Museu Nacional d’Art Catalunya, the national museum, housed in a building originally constructed for the Barcelona Exposition of 1929. Here are some highlights of the program, with links to the full video of each presentation.
Welcoming Remarks Watch the video of the opening remarks. NYU Stern and the Global Networked University “The idea that we are going to operate a major research university around the world is something quite exciting. What we are doing is truly unparalleled in the scope and scale we are undertaking,” Sally Blount "NYU’s campus in Abu Dhabi will be one of the signature institutions on Saadiyat Island, along with such elite cultural institutions as The Louvre and the Guggenheim Museum," Hilary Ballon Dean Blount presented the vision of NYU as a global network university as a model for education and research in the future. Shaped over the last two years, the global network university is a boundless institution with campuses around the world and programs that assure that NYU students and professors can learn, teach and do research in “idea capitals” around world. Hilary Ballon outlined the master plan for the NYU campus on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi – construction will begin in 2010, with the island campus opening in 2013. A downtown location, in an area that Ballon compares to Columbus Circle in its accessibility and appeal, will open to students in 2011. Watch the video of Dean Sally Blount and Professor Hilary Ballon’s presentation. Chat with Financiers “The financial crisis was caused by poor risk management. You need to have independent risk management and get the Board of Directors involved. We have had these rules since I was born,” Alfredo Saenz Banco Santandar, the world’s largest branch bank, had an extraordinarily good year in 2008 -- booking $9 billion euro in profits -- while competitors had “a terrible year.” CEO Alfredo Saenz attributed this success to a high quality balance sheet, no toxic assets, low leverage (asset to equity ratio of 12 to 1) and high levels of capital, and a low risk business model of commercial, not investment, banking. Strong and efficient banking rules and geographic diversification also contributed to the bank’s outstanding results. To maintain this growth, Saenz is focusing management on reducing business volume, putting more emphasis on revenues, and setting guidelines for liquidity management. Watch the video of Professor Roy Smith’s interview with Alfredo Saenz. Independent Film: The Growth of Global Cinema “There is a totally separate independent film business with a different set of economics. Overspend on marketing and you kill the profit; underspend and there is no profit," Michael Barker Complimenting NYU Stern for having one of the few programs that teaches entertainment as a business, Michael Barker shared highlights of his own career, from renting 16 mm films to libraries and prisons to forming United Artists Classics to co-founding Sony Pictures Classics. A breakthrough moment came in the 1970s when the economics of film were changing and Barker negotiated a career-changing contract with film director Francois Truffaut for North America distribution of his film, “The Last Metro.” The economics of this deal proved to be revolutionary -- $125,000 to Truffaut for distribution rights, with a 50%-50% split of the box office gross between the director and Barker and his partner, Tom Bernard. “The Last Metro” was a huge commercial success, bringing in $1.5 or $1.9 (check tape) in profit, and giving Barker what he called “an instant reputation” along with Truffaut’s resounding endorsement. Watch the video of Al Lieberman’s interview with Michael Barker. Conference Keynote “We are in the worst recession since World War II, and it is both globalized and synchronized,” Jordi Gual Jordi Gual provides a nuanced tutorial on the financial crisis, describing the current situation, comparing and contrasting the effects on the real economy in the U.S. and Europe, and outlining key elements of a sustainable recovery. Showing “glimmers of hope” he noted that liquidity tensions had subsided, and that since March 20009 there had been a departure from patterns seen in the depression of 1929. Nonetheless, there is a deep, global recession that is having a different impact on different countries, and will have long-lasting effects. Fiscal policy has responded more aggressively in the US, while Europe has been more cautious and reliant on monetary policy. Unemployment is growing in the US, while in Europe, the welfare state is cushioning the recession. For a sustainable recovery, he said that it is important to rebuild banking to assure the economy’s “blood supply,” to guarantee a non-inflationary environment, to have an open and more balanced world economy and to strengthen the macro-prudential (?) regulation of the financial system. Watch the video of Professor Jordi Gual’s presentation and joint Q&A with Dean Thomas Cooley. Restructuring and Credit Markets in 2009-2010 Panelists: Mark Patterson (MBA ‘86), Chairman and Co-Founder, MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC, Tony C. Alvarez II (MBA ‘76), Co-CEO, Alvarez & Marsal; and Fabio Cane, Head of Investment Banking, Intesa Sao Paolo “The old adage of “high risk, high return, low risk, low return” was turned completely upside down,” Professor Ed Altman “We have moved leverage from the basement to the upstairs – to sovereign government debt. This is scary,” Mark Patterson “We are seeing the globalization of restructuring,” Tony Alvarez “The financial crisis is different in the US and in Europe. The crisis was made by the media and by an exaggeration of the incentive system where there was no sense of ownership,” Fabio Cane The panel was moderated by bankruptcy expert Professor Ed Altman, who began by reprising what happened to the yield spread between high-yield bonds and 10-year Treasuries (a measure of credit risk) since the Global Alumni Conference in Florence in June 2007. Noting that the yield spread in June 2009 was exactly where it was the day before Lehman went bankrupt, Altman set the stage for a discussion on restructuring the credit markets. Mark Patterson highlighted the amount of leverage in the system, the “systemic gullibility” surrounding residential real estate, and predicted that the recovery wouldn’t happen until $4 trillion in write-offs had been completed. Tony Alvarez, whose firm is handling the restructuring of Lehman Brothers, pointed out the global demand for expertise in restructuring. He observed that lots of capital remains on the sidelines. Fabio Cane took the media to task for fueling the financial crisis with its reporting. He also cited the exaggerated incentive system and the fact that final buyers did not understand risk as other causes of the crisis. Architecture and Urban Development as Engines for Economic Growth Panelists: Robert Campbell, Architectural Correspondent for The Boston Globe; Jerry Cohen (BS ’53, MBA ’59) Partner, Tishman Speyer Properties; Josep Anton Acebillo Marin, CEO, Barcelona Regional, S.A.; Beatriz Plaza, Professor of Economics, University of the Basque Country Bilbao Moderated by Hilary Ballon, the panel discussed urban development on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, incorporating the varied viewpoints of an urban planner, a developer, an architectural critic, and a professor of economics, who has been closely involved with measuring the impact on tourism of the Bilbao Museum, designed by Frank Gehry. Family Business in the 21st Century: An Anachronism or an Institution for Economic Growth and Stability Moderator: Marti Subramanyam, Charles E. Merrill Professor of Finance, Alejandro Beltran, Managing Director, McKinsey Spain; Claudio Boada, Chairman, Circulo de Empresarios; Marc Puig, Chairman and CEO, The Puig Beauty and Fashion Group. “Family businesses are an important institution, even in the US where one-third of US businesses are indirectly controlled by families – think of Wal-mart, and Johnson and Johnson,” Marti Subramanyam “In a family business, you want to take the legacy, to build something and pass it on to the next generation. You are working for something that goes beyond one’s own existence,” Marc Puig “Family businesses tend to be more profitable than non-family businesses, and therefore tend to last longer," Claudio Boada “Research shows that the combination of family ownership and professional management provides the best of both worlds," Alejandro Beltran Far from being an anachronism, family businesses are generally more profitable and last longer – 20 percent enduring beyond the third generation. The panelists attributed the success of family businesses to their conservative grounding in tradition which fosters a long-term focus and their close attention to cash, particularly in efficient use of working capital and higher investment in R&D. The chief concern is succession-planning to assure the longevity of the business. With research showing that the combination of professional management with the family’s commitment to carry on the business as the strongest recipe for success, the panelists shared their own experiences and viewpoints on hiring professional managers, using outside directors and other issues of corporate governance. Watch the video of the Closing Dinner celebration and special entertainment, which included Flamenco dancers accompanied by a Spanish guitar orchestra in a special tribute performance. 
|
Host Committee
Conference Highlights
