contents

A Letter from the Dean

Public Offerings
Economists and other experts discuss how to shore up confidence in credit markets; The Haskins Award goes to former Treasury chief John Snow; Amazon CEO Jeffrey Bezos talks strategy; advice for board members during volatile times; Nathan Myhrvold's deep think on competitive industries for the long term; the economic health of Asian nations; IBM's Joe Dzaluk and leading academics dissect global outsourcing; Moody's Chairman Raymond McDaniel holds forth on the credit crisis

Stern in the City
CEO Theresa Bischoff's American Red Cross serves nine million New Yorkers, By Rika Nazem
Former Knicks forward Cal Ramsey now plays for the larger New York community, By Jenny Owen

Keep Your Seat Belts Fastened, the Ride's Not Over
8 questions for Richard Bernstein

Cover Story — It's Time for a Broader View of Risk Two NYU Stern professors say that the strategic consideration of risk — and the risk management function — demand re-evaluation in the wake of the past 18 months, By Marilyn Harris

Special Feature — "A Look to the Future" Some 300 alumni gathered in New York for the 2008 Alumni Business Conference, with provocative panels led by NYU Stern faculty and alumni and a first-class collection of thought leaders, By Marilyn Harris

Leading Indicators
Stern's CEO Series: John Hofmeister, recently retired president of Shell Oil, debunks some myths about oil supplies and the energy business

Prospectus
New faculty appointments, noteworthy papers, awards, and honors

Office Hours –
Faculty Research

After Hurricane Katrina
The response to the disaster may have been shaped by the amount of power of the various players, and what that could mean to you, By Frances J. Milliken, Joe C. Magee, Nancy Lam, and Daniel Menezes

The Home Court Advantage
Why investors still weight their portfolios to local equities in a boundary-less market,
By Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh and Laura Veldkamp

Think Again
Going with your first instinct? You may be proceeding under a faulty assumption, By Derrick Wirtz, Justin Kruger, Dale T. Miller, and Pragya Mathur

Peer to Peer
Student Life in Washington Square and Beyond: Studying in Shanghai, the "mentee" experience, talking new media to executives of the Tribeca Film Festival, the global study tour goes Latino

Alumni Affairs
Alumni News and Events: Linking in with LinkedIn, hotel discounts, reunion celebrations, the 2009 Global Alumni Conference in Barcelona

Class Notes

Past Performance
Dr. Robert Kavesh, beloved teacher of generations of Stern students, is honored with an endowed professorship in his name, By Marilyn Harris

 

 

 

As the new academic year gets under way, we at NYU Stern are fully engaged in driving the dialogue between business and society. Our vigorous faculty, our ambitious student body, and the many high-profile business and government leaders who participate in our events make for a rich intellectual life. The past six months were no exception.

Alan Greenspan (BS '48, MA '50, PhD '77, Hon. '05), Paul Volcker (Hon. '83), and Henry Kaufman (BA '48, PhD '58) stopped by in May to fête our own Dr. Bob Kavesh (BS '49), whose long and distinguished service is being honored with an endowed chair, the Robert Kavesh Professorship in Economics.

A few hundred alumni, faculty, and administrators spent an evening uptown at the Plaza Hotel to present The Honorable John W. Snow, chairman of Cerberus Capital Management and former US Treasury Secretary, with the Charles Waldo Haskins Award, bestowed on an outstanding individual whose career has been characterized by the highest level of achievement in business and public service, and to celebrate the success of the Campaign for NYU Stern. Back at our Washington Square campus, Amazon.com CEO Jeffrey Bezos described himself as a "change junkie," and Colgate-Palmolive Chairman Reuben Mark and Marty Lipton, founding partner of Wachtell Lipton, talked about pressures in the boardroom during uncertain times.

Uncertainty in various markets was a theme of many of our distinguished speakers and panelists, and it appears throughout this issue. Richard Bernstein (MBA '87), chief investment strategist for Merrill Lynch, answered some pointed questions on volatility in the equity market. John Hofmeister, former CEO of Shell Oil, discussed the vicissitudes of the energy market. At the Alumni Business Conference in May, themed "A Look to the Future," some 300 graduates heard an impressive roster of faculty and business leaders discuss the emergence of social networks, but also the uncertainty in global credit markets.

Similarly, our cover story takes on the theme of dealing with uncertainty. Two finance professors, Ingo Walter, newly appointed vice dean of faculty, and Aswath Damodaran, our valuation guru, give a lot of thought to re-evaluating risk and its management — and though they come at it from different directions, both believe that a broader understanding of risk management is needed, and thus also its function within an organization.

We are proud of our faculty, of a student body that is focused on achievement on the global stage, and of our accomplished graduates. Our leadership position has attracted impressive new faculty this academic year, and we welcome them to our community.

One of the functions of a university is to give its scholars room to push the limits of knowledge, and our faculty is most prolific in this regard. In this issue, we mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with some important research into the interplay of hierarchy and communications during the disaster's aftermath, led by management professors Frances Milliken and Joe Magee. They used those well-documented events to parse the nuances of how the hierarchical power of the various players who responded to the disaster may have affected their communications and hence the response.

In our many activities, we are fortunate to have an involved body of alumni, and we are, as ever, grateful for your continued interest, participation, and support.

Thomas F. Cooley
Dean