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A Letter from the Dean

Public Offerings
NYU Stern, The Economist, and CFR.org talk global issues in the ’08 campaign; scholars and industry chiefs take the pulse of the credit crunch; how managers of hedge funds and quant funds find value; After Market Hours speakers reflect two sides of the entertainment industry; Marc Rotenberg sounds off on privacy in the Google era; and former UN Special Envoy Stephen Lewis rails at poverty and disease in Africa

Stern in the City
Developer Joe Sitt’s bold vision for Coney Island, By Jenny Owen

Ros Stephenson leads at Lehman Brothers Corporate Finance, By Rika Nazem

Going Short and Winning Big
8 questions for John Paulson

Cover Story – The Values Proposition
NYU Stern prizes a well-rounded education that teaches about business and its role in society, not just how to maximize shareholder value, By Thomas F. Cooley and Doug Guthrie

Special Feature – Building Connections
A dramatic facilities renovation brings the campus up to par with its growing reputation, By Marilyn Harris

Leading Indicators
Stern’s CEO Series: Doug Conant of Campbell Soup talks about reviving the iconic consumer food giant, and John Mack of Morgan Stanley reports on global trends in the finance industry

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

Office Hours –
Faculty Research

The Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Early signs of a credit crunch were hidden, but discoverable,
By Yuliya Demyanyk and Otto Van Hemert

Does Chatter Matter?
Record industry marketers may want to tune in to the Web to spark album sales, By Vasant Dhar and Elaine Chang

Paying a Premium
The faulty assumptions consumers make that lead them to overspend on insurance, By Zur Shapira and Itzhak Venezia

PEER TO PEER
Student Life in Washington Square and Beyond:
Doing good in Costa Rica, creating an interactive résumé, going green in Washington Square, and lending “social dollars”

Alumni Affairs
Alumni News and Events: Community-building initiatives, professional resources for alumni, the first Alumni Business Conference, and alumni in Los Angeles

Class Notes

Past Performance
Charles Waldo Haskins, accounting evangelist and Stern founder, By Marilyn Harris

 


1. Alumni danced the night away, celebrating the chance to reconnect with each other, the School, and its fabulous New York City location.

2. From left to right: Sally Blount-Lyon, Vice Dean and Dean of the Undergraduate College; Mary Ellen Georgas (MBA '93), Chair of the Alumni Council; William R. Berkley (BS '66), Chairman of the Board of Overseers; and Thomas F. Cooley, Dean, at the Alumni Ball.

3. Members of the 2007 Alumni Ball Committee helped plan the event.

4. The New York Public Library's stately
Astor Hall provided a grand entrance and meeting place for Stern alumni and their guests.

5. Attendees took advantage of the opportunity for a private viewing of the Library's special exhibition: "Beatific Soul: Jack Kerouac on the Road.”

6 - 14. Alumni and guests enjoyed a festive holiday evening in one of New York City's most esteemed historic landmarks.

 

 

Strengthening Our Community through the Support of the Stern Fund

Over the past three years, Caroline McKeon (BS '09) has worked hard at building a sense of community at NYU Stern, which isn't easy, given the School's urban setting and non-traditional campus. “Coming to Stern from a small town in Massachusetts, having a sense of community was extremely important to me,” said McKeon. “I was delighted that on my first day of freshman orientation, I was connected to a small group of students with whom I would spend the next four years.” McKeon explained that throughout her time at Stern, her group continually reconnected with one another. “From eating soup at Au Bon Pain after Professor Al Lieberman's class to taking a group golf lesson at Chelsea Piers, we had some great times exploring the City together.”

McKeon's experience was the product of a program launched by Stern Undergraduate College Dean Sally Blount-Lyon in 2004 to foster a sense of camaraderie, pride, and community among students. Called the Cohort Program, it is funded by alumni and corporate support of the Stern Fund and lasts throughout all four years of the students’ academic career. Upon matriculation, students are placed into groups of approximately 50 students, with whom they share experiences from their first day at Stern through graduation day.

The Cohort Program has become extremely successful, allowing students to enjoy many enriching cultural, social, and intellectual experiences, such as exclusive dinners and networking events, Broadway shows, and museum exhibitions. They also visit the headquarters of local corporations and are mentored by alumni sponsors, who bring high-level work knowledge and experience to them outside the classroom. This initiative has been enthusiastically received by students and has become a hallmark of Stern's Undergraduate College.

McKeon has served as the programming director for her Cohort Group for the past three years. In this role, she is the student solely responsible for planning all of their adventures. “I have been able to not only gain a great deal of leadership skills, but also a sense of personal accomplishment,” she explained.

NYU Stern's community extends far beyond the reaches of its students. The ability to build lasting personal and professional relationships at the School does not end the day a student graduates. Both students and alumni can avail themselves of the School's resources. One such valuable resource is the Career Center for Working Professionals, which was established in 2003 with the generous support of the Stern Fund.

Exclusively reserved for NYU Stern working professionals – alumni of both the MBA and undergraduate programs, and Part-time and Executive MBA students – the CCWP gives alumni and students access to an experienced and dedicated group of professionals that can assist them as they advance through career transitions. Through individual counseling, mock interviews, workshops, professional development seminars, networking forums, and job postings, the CCWP assists with career planning and job development at every stage of the job search. Since its inception, the CCWP has been able to assist more than 1,700 alumni and 3,000 students with their careers.

Eduardo Carbajosa (MBA '01) is one such beneficiary. “As an alumnus,” he said, “the CCWP has been the greatest resource in my most recent job search. I was able to meet with members of the CCWP for both career guidance and to examine their job postings. In addition, they were able to help me tailor my résumé for the specific position that I was looking for, which was an extremely beneficial service. The office was professional and helpful, assisting me every step of the way. As a result, I was able to secure two solid offers in one week, plus the potential to be selected by a third employer.”

The Cohort Program and the CCWP are just two of the initiatives that NYU Stern offers to enable alumni and students to find meaningful ways to connect with the School. Both programs are made possible through the support of the Stern Fund, the annual fund in which unrestricted alumni gifts are invested. The flexibility of unrestricted Stern Fund gifts – and continuing donations – are vital to the growth of the School, as the dollars enable Stern to fund the projects that keep it on the cutting edge of business education and to develop much-needed programs, such as the Cohort Program and CCWP, that enrich the lives of both students and alumni.

 

 

SWAP Enhancements Provide More Professional Resources for Alumni

The Office of Alumni Relations & Development is pleased to announce the launch of the newly enhanced online alumni community, SWAP. The new system has been redesigned to offer a more robust, comprehensive, and user-friendly site for the Stern community. The revitalized SWAP still contains all your favorite features, like an advanced search tool to help you find your friends and classmates; class notes, so you can stay abreast of your fellow alumni accomplishments and announcements; a comprehensive calendar of events and RSVP tool; and online management of your profile, including the ability to update your contact information and set up your e-mail forwarding for life. In addition, the new SWAP has three new and improved resources that we encourage you to explore: Career Center, SternBID, and GABE.

 

Career Center

To better serve the alumni community, we have partnered with the Career Center for Working Professionals (CCWP), to manage the career center portion of SWAP. In the improved career center, you can now access all of your career-related resources through a newly developed personalized Career Account. Some new and exciting features of the system include the ability to:

• Apply to job postings directly through your account

• Customize job agents that will e-mail relevant job postings to you at the frequency of your choice

• View and register for career workshops and seminars delivered through CCWP

• Upload and save résumés and cover letters

• Access career resources and handouts for your job search all in one place

 

SternBID

Stern Business Information Directory (SternBID) is a suite of online business databases, academic journals, newspapers, and other resources, which has been made possible by a generous gift from the MBA Class of 2006. The system provides free access to the following online research resources:

• Tablebase, which provides access to tabular information on companies, products, industries, countries, and markets

• Business Source Alumni, a database that provides more than 1,540 full-text business magazines and journals

• Business Monitor Online, which offers daily macroeconomic, financial, and company news and analysis on emerging and key global markets

• Research Library, which features a diverse mix of scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers covering a wide range of subject areas

• ABI/INFORM, which provides access to management and business literature and includes articles from academic, trade, and popular press journals

• ProQuest Newspapers, which offers access to the full-text articles of approximately 27 national, financial, and regional newspapers

• ProQuest Health Management, which provides access to journal literature in health administration

GABE

NYU Stern's Global Alumni Business Exchange (GABE) is an online forum, housed within SWAP, created to foster and support the entrepreneurial spirit abundant in the Stern community. Through GABE, alumni interested in entrepreneurship have the opportunity to exchange ideas, request and offer advice, and support each other in their new ventures, financially or otherwise.

 

Expand Your Network Today!

Visit the website at www.stern.nyu.edu/alumni to log on to SWAP to start exploring the new system – we hope you find these enhancements to be useful, both personally and professionally. With nearly 75,000 alumni in more than 100 countries worldwide, the Stern alumni network is growing stronger every year.

 

 

NYU Stern Alumni Council Helps Set the Stage for Stern's First Alumni Business Conference in NYC

The NYU Stern Alumni Council is a working committee of 21 to 24 alumni, comprising representatives from all of Stern's degree programs and a wide range of graduating years. As Council members, these alumni serve as ambassadors for Stern, actively engaging other alumni in support of the educational excellence of the School. The Council is also tasked with advising and assisting the administration on alumni interests and opinions, and growing and strengthening the community among and between alumni, students, and the School. To this end, the Alumni Council works on a variety of initiatives throughout the year, including working on the School's signature alumni events: the Alumni Ball, Global Alumni Conference, and, for the first time, the Alumni Business Conference in New York City.

New York 2008: Alumni Business Conference – A Look to the Future was developed by the Council, in conjunction with the Office of Alumni Relations & Development, as a sister event to the Global Alumni Conference – Stern's widely successful biennial international symposium. The Alumni Business Conference was conceived to offer alumni robust, content-driven programming locally in the years that the Global Alumni Conference is not being held. The Conference will feature industry leaders and scholars discussing a range of current and future market issues in breakout presentations, keynote addresses, and plenary sessions.

“Working with the School, fellow alumni, and friends to host an event of this magnitude in our hometown has been such a thrill,” noted Mary Ellen Georgas (MBA '93), Chair of the Alumni Council. “Being a part of the Alumni Council over the last four years has truly been a life-changing experience for me. It has deepened my relationship with the School; given me the opportunity to expand my network, both professionally and personally; and offered me a way to give back to Stern, not just financially, but with my time, my ideas, and my experience.”

To learn more about the Alumni Council and other ways you can get involved with the School, visit the website at www.stern.nyu.edu/alumni. For more information about the Alumni Business Conference, held May 16, 2008, visit www.stern.nyu.edu/alumni/newyork2008.

 

 

Michael Jay Solomon (left) with Bernie Beiser (BS '62) at the Los Angeles-area Stern Alumni Regional Group brunch.

The NYU Stern Office of Alumni Relations & Development and the Los Angeles-area Stern Alumni Regional Group held a brunch, “Where Creativity Meets Business,” for 60 alumni in February, highlighting Stern's emerging role in the entertainment industry. The brunch featured Executive Director of Stern's Entertainment, Media and Technology (EMT) program, Al Lieberman, Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and was graciously hosted at the Beverly Hills home of international entertainment entrepreneur and Stern Overseer Michael Jay Solomon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Solomon Entertainment Enterprises.

In addition to the Alumni Regional Group leaders Carolyn Chen (MBA '07), David Kelly (MBA '90), Eric Stern (BS '01), and John Ward (MBA '05), the Alumni Host Committee included Faisel Hussein (MBA '06), Joyce Lee (BA '86), and Mary Joan Schwab (MBA '89).

Alumni especially enjoyed the opportunity to see Lieberman, their beloved former professor, and to catch up with one another while taking in the breathtaking view of Beverly Hills. During his remarks, Lieberman shared updates about the EMT program and the advances it is making, as well as the new joint MBA/MFA degree offered by Stern and the Tisch School of the Arts.