Georgetown Business Spring/Summer 1998

The Soul of a New MBA

Getting By With a Little Help From Some Friends

Democracy: Good for the Economy?

SPRING /SUMMER 1998 volume 11 number 2Businessg e or g e to w n u n i v e r s i t y s c ho ol of b u s i n e s s

Georgetown

Georgetown Business is published during the academic year by the Georgetown School of Business for alumni, parents,friends, and business colleagues

Dean Kasra Ferdows, Ph.D.

Senior Associate DeanRobert Thomas, Ph.D.

Editor Elisabeth Liptak

Associate Editor Elizabeth Shine

Contributing Writers Bindu Vaswani b’00Cheryl Arndt mba’99Eric Olson mba’98

Designer Nancy Van Meter

Inquiries and updates should be sent to:

Georgetown Businessdean’s officegeorgetown universityschool of businessold north buildingwashington dc 20057

phone: 202-687-4080

Georgetown Businesswelcomes opinions and commentsexpressed by its readers. Lettersshould be addressed to:

the editorGeorgetown Business

dean’s officegeorgetown universityschool of businesswashington dc 20057

Cover Photography: Keith Tishken

WEL

CO

ME

CONTENTS

Inside Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

The Soul of a New MBA . . . . . . . . . 7

Getting By With a Little Help From Some Friends . . . . . . . 10

Democracy: Good for the Economy? . . . . . . . . 12

Faculty and Staff News . . . . . . . . 14

Alumni Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1Spring / Summer 1998

LETTER FROM THE DEAN

As I prepare to step down from my role as acting dean and return to the

classroom, I wanted to give you an update on what is happening at the School

of Business.

In the fall, we will be implementing a new curriculum for our MBA students

that will feature many bold innovations and a fresh structure. It is a marked

departure from our existing curriculum, but one that borrows, in part, from the

modularity and cross-functional learning of our International Executive MBA.

You can read about the new curriculum in greater detail on page 7.

The innovations of the new MBA curriculum benefit the students as well as the

faculty. They will also help us as we embark on a redesign of the undergraduate

program next year. One of the immediate changes we will be making is offering

the international business survey course to freshmen. This course provides an

excellent introduction to all the core areas of business and will help students

make a more informed choice about their major early on.

On the recruiting front, we are well ahead of last year in placing our MBA stu-

dents. Over 65% of those seeking employment have accepted a job offer to date,

with a median starting salary of $72,000. We continue to work on enhancing

our relationships with corporations. One measure of success in this area is that

we had over 100 companies come to campus to interview our students, an

increase of over 75% since 1996. Our undergraduate students are also in great

demand. Approximately one-third of the seniors have job offers in the financial,

accounting, consulting, and marketing fields. Other students are going on to

such diverse experiences as law and medical school, family businesses, and the

Peace Corps.

This has been an exceptional year for the School in terms of fundraising. You

can read about our success in this area on page 5. To date, we have raised almost

$28 million since the beginning of our campaign almost three years ago. As we

go to press, there are several additional significant gifts that are being finalized.

You will hear more about these in the next issue.

This has been an exhilarating year for me and I have enjoyed it immensely. I

find many reasons to be optimistic about the future of our school. I am looking

forward to welcoming our new dean (about whom you will hear more in the

next issue) and to resuming my work as a professor.

Kasra Ferdows

Acting Dean & Heisley Family Professor of Global Manufacturing

Boot Camp

Georgetown business professors will put lib-eral arts majors through their paces this

summer in a boot camp designed to introduce stu-dents to the fundamentals of business.

The Gateway to Business program, created bythe School of Business’ Executive Programs, is thefirst of its kind offered in the Washington area, andone of the few such programs in the country. Theintensive three-week course is open to non-businessstudents at Georgetown and students from otheruniversities, as well as recent graduates who want toimprove their career prospects. Students are in classsix days a week from nine a.m. to seven p.m., withbreaks for meals. The curriculum includes segmentsin accounting, finance, marketing, communications,organizational behavior, strategy, and informationsystems.

“Our primary objective is to introduce liberalarts students to the language of business,” said AlRazick, director of corporate programs at the Schoolof Business. “We want to introduce topics likefinancial statement analysis and production opera-tions management, so students who have jobs canhit the ground running, and those that don’t will bein a better position to get them.”

Classes are held on the Georgetown campus,and rely heavily on business case studies and apply-ing academic knowledge in practical, team-orientat-ed projects. “The combination of business knowl-edge and the analytical and communication skills ofthe liberal arts results in students who are morecompetitive and better equipped to handle the com-plexities of today’s business climate,” said SylviaRobinson, director of the MBNA Career EducationCenter.

Although the program is not a mini-MBAprogram, Razick concedes it is good preparation forthose considering applying to graduate businessschools. “This program may encourage students toconsider Georgetown as a place to continue theirgraduate business education.”

Foreign Direct Investment:Is Theory Catching up with Reality?

Firms that enter foreign markets through for-eign direct investment (FDI), as opposed to

trade or licensing agreements, should continue toreexamine their strategy in light of changing inter-national economic conditions and industry struc-ture, according to British scholars Peter Buckley andMark Casson. Their paper was part of a series on thetheme of “Multinational Enterprise and EconomicAnalysis” in the first issue of the Journal of Interna-tional Business Studies (JIBS) published from theGeorgetown School of Business.

Buckley and Casson suggest that traditionaleconomic analyses of FDI fail to address subsequentperiodic decisions about reinvestments in changingcircumstances. Such management decisions are crit-ical and require flexible strategies if companies are tocompete successfully. Although such a view mayseem self-evident, the theoretical underpinnings andimplications of such an emphasis have not been fullyexplored, according to the authors.They believe thatthe conventional theoretical wisdom about FDIbehavior of firms largely focuses on factors that donot incorporate the dynamic features of either firmsor the environments in which they operate.

Buckley and Casson’s article, as well as the arti-cles by the other scholars, appeared in the Marchissue of JIBS, a quarterly publication sponsored bythe Georgetown School of Business and the Acade-my of International Business (AIB). The journal isedited by associate professor Tom Brewer, with asso-ciate professor Catherine Langlois as the deputyeditor and Persa Economou as the managing editor.

Ferdows NamedHeisley Chairholder

Professor and Acting

Dean Kasra Ferdows was

appointed to the Heisley

Family Chair in Global

Manufacturing. The chair,

established through a

gift from the family of

Michael Heisley (B ‘60),

will help further the busi-

ness school as a center

for the study of manu-

facturing from a global

perspective.

“Manufacturing is an

important sector of our

economy and I look for-

ward to expanding its

global focus here at

Georgetown,” said Dean

Ferdows. In addition to

continuing the business

school’s work in global

logistics, he plans to look

at global operations and

manufacturing trends in

the industrialized and

developing countries.

Inside Information

2 Georgetown University School of Business

Latin Women Lag Behind U.S. Counterpartsin Technology Skills

Astudy by Amina Harris (B’98) finds thatLatin American women are underexposed

to vital computer technology skills.Harris, a management technology major,

became interested in Latin American women’s atti-tudes towards technology while studying in Chilelast year. To discover the technology skills requiredby the Latin American marketplace, Harrisanswered advertisements for secretarial jobs inArgentina, Venezuela, Chile and Mexico.

Although Latin American employers are look-ing for many of the same technology skills as theirAmerican counterparts, Harris found that LatinAmerican women had little exposure to or formaltraining on computers for several reasons. Technolo-gy penetration in Latin American countries is signif-icantly lower than in other parts of the world, andtechnology use still tends to be dominated by men.Latin culture does not encourage the participation ofwomen in the workplace, and therefore does nottend to invest in training women to use technology.The resistance of Latin American women to tech-nology is also highly correlated with the strong valuetheir culture places on domestic family life.

“Understanding the causes of women’s resis-tance towards technology is especially important fordeveloping countries because their future competi-tiveness in the global economy greatly depends onthe effective use of technology,” says Harris.

Based on her findings, Harris has written apaper, “Understanding Latin American Women’sAttitudes Towards Information Technology: A Self-Efficacy Perspective.” She presented the paper inMay at a professional conference sponsored by theInformation Resource Management Association.She has also applied for a summer research grant atGeorgetown, and plans to travel to Latin America toconduct more research on this topic.

Searching for A Search Engine?

If your search for information on the World WideWeb turns up frustrating results, you are not

alone. In order to get the information you need, mostsearch engines pull in more junk along with the goodinformation. The problem of language ambiguity,which makes these search indexes so erratic, is mag-nified as the information stored on the web contin-ues to grow.

Research undertaken by School of BusinessProfessor William McHenry compared eight websearch engines on the basis of the traditional infor-mation retrieval measurements of recall and preci-sion. In layman’s terms, recall tells how close you areto getting everything you could possibly retrieve onthe topic, while precision tells you how much “junk”you’ve gotten along with the good information.

To compile the data, a class of 43 graduate stu-dents was divided into ten teams of four or five peo-ple. Each team came up with a query that they sub-mitted to the eight search engines. The queries werewide-ranging, from “What are the possible causes ofGulf War Syndrome?” to “Can the meteorite discov-ered in Antarctica be considered as evidence of lifeon Mars?”

Results showed that the average search enginefound less than one in five items that were relevanton the first 100 pages retrieved. The search enginesthat scored the highest on precision were Excite,Hotbot and OpenText, while Excite and Hotbot alsoscored the highest in terms of recall.

Investing 101 withWarren Buffett

Investor Warren Buffett

shared the secrets of his

investment success with a

group of MBA students

on May 14th. The chair-

man of Berkshire Hath-

away advised the stu-

dents, “Know your circle

of competence.” Buffett

said he doesn't invest in

technology companies

because he doesn't know

what they will look like in

ten years. Calling himself

“risk-averse,” Buffett said

that he would rather put

a lot of money in a com-

pany he understands well

than a little money in a lot

of companies he doesn't

understand. “It is also

important to pick people

who love the business,

not the money.”



Hoya businessstudents areleaving theHilltop by

the droves for foreign shores.But these jaunts overseas are no vacation. Globally-conscious business studentsare preparing for the futureby studying abroad.

According to recentlyreleased statistics from theOffice of International Pro-grams, the number of GSBstudents studying abroadthis year increased 20 percentfrom last year. This school year, 105 business stu-dents studied in universities in Europe, Asia, LatinAmerica, Africa, and Australia.

In the past five years, the number of businessstudents studying abroad has more than doubled.During the 1992-93 school year, 46 business stu-dents studied abroad. “So many of our business stu-dents are aware of the importance of experiencing asecond culture,” says John Hales, assistant dean forundergraduate students. But what is primarily aneducational experience often turns out to makesense professionally as well. “Even our students whogo to work at the big accounting firms are findingthey are working with multinational accounts or for-eign offices,” says Hales.

Business students who concentrate in interna-tional business are required to fulfill an internationalqualification, which can be met through languageproficiency at the business level, recent work experi-ence abroad, or study abroad. “The majority pursuethe international study abroad,” says Hales.

Students can select from 30 programs in 15countries, but business programs at British, Spanishand Australian universities tend to be the favoritechoices. “England has so much history, yet it’s only a

quick plane ride to anywhere in Europe,” says SaraNicholson (B’98). “It’s a good opportunity to exposeyourself to the way things are done in other countries.”

Although students can study at foreign univer-sities for less than it costs to attend Georgetown,cost is rarely a reason cited by students seeking tostudy abroad. “I don’t think the increase we haveseen is due to financial reasons,” says Hales. “Everytime you turn around there is something on thefront page of the Washington Post or USA Today thathas something to do with foreign business, and stu-dents recognize the necessity of being able to func-tion in a global economy.”

Jayson Morris (B’98) studied in the businessprogram at the University of Autonoma in Madrid,Spain. He concurs with Hales that students whohave the opportunity to study abroad should availthemselves of the opportunity. “The decision to goabroad was one of the best decisions I made,” saysMorris. “I referred to the experience in every jobinterview I had.” The foreign experience paid off –Morris will work for the prestigious internationalinvestment bank Credit Suisse-First Boston aftergraduation.

The Hoya Globetrotters

Oscar Ludwigson (B'98), Jayson Morris (B'98), and

Greg Morse (B'98) in Salamanca, Spain.


Coopers & Lybrand Makes First Corporate Gift to New GSB Facility

A $500,000 commitment from the consulting firm Coopers & Lybrand,

L.L.P., along with contributions from School of Business alumni and

friends at the firm, represents the first corporate donation towards the

new business school facility.

“Georgetown University is not only one of our most important

clients, but also a major source of talent for our firm,” said Jim Lafond,

Cooper & Lybrand’s mid-Atlantic area managing partner. “We are

proud to continue our tradition of partnership and support with this

landmark commitment to the future.”

A reception to announce the gift was held in the University’s

historic Riggs Library on April 1. Ray Ranelli, Cooper & Lybrand’s finan-

cial advisory services vice chair and father of Lisa Ranelli (B’00), pre-

sented Georgetown University president Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., with a

mock check symbolizing the gift. “Coopers & Lybrand, and 48 alumni

and friends of Georgetown at the firm, are demonstrating a serious

commitment to making this facility a reality,” said Fr. O’Donovan. “We

are deeply grateful to Ray and Jim for their leadership.” Commitments

to the new facility currently total over $16 million.

Coopers & Lybrand also supports the Center for Business-Gov-

ernment Relations, and scholarships for the School of Business’ Sum-

mer in Oxford program. Last year, Coopers & Lybrand was honored as

the premier employer of MBA graduates.

Laying the Foundations for Campaign Success

With only five months to go before the University commences the pub-

lic phase of its Third Century Campaign, the School of Business is almost

halfway towards it $60 million campaign goal.

Undergraduate financial aid receives a significant boost. Lance

L. Weaver (B'76) has established the Weaver Family Scholarship Fund

with a commitment of $1 million to provide scholarships for undergrad-

uate business students. This commitment is the largest financial aid gift

made to the School of Business since the beginning of the Campaign.

Board of Visitors member Ray Knape (F'53) has pledged a $1

million planned gift to the School of Business. Rob Johnson, director of

development for the School of Business, notes that planned gifts can

offer donors substantial tax savings and may also increase income.

A $500,000 commitment has been made towards the new busi-

ness school facility by the parents of an undergraduate business stu-

dent who wish to remain anonymous. This gift brings the total commit-

ments to the new facility to over $16 million.

MBA technology will be enhanced by a $100,000 gift from three

Georgetown alumni at HealthCare Financial Partners, Inc., a firm that

offers health care service providers with asset-backed financing. Partners

John Delaney (L'89), Edward Nordberg, Jr. (L'87), and Ethan Leder (L'89)

have made this gift in honor of School of Business professor John Dealy.

"I am honored by this recognition," said Dealy. "One of the

greatest pleasures a professor can have is to see his students apply their

skills in creating a successful business. That satisfaction is heightened

when as alumni, these students seek to add something to the George-

town educational experience."

Giving to the School of Business Annual Fund has increased 34

percent since last year, with gifts totaling more than $900,000. Among

other priorities, the Annual Fund provides vital research grants to the

faculty.

Gifts and commitments to the School of Business for this fiscal

year totaled almost $8 million. "We're off to a great start for the upcom-

ing campaign," said Dean Ferdows. "With the continued generosity of

our alumni and friends, we hope to continue this momentum."

Dean Kasra Ferdows, Ray Ranelli and Jim Lafond, Coopers & Lybrand, and President

Leo J. O'Donovan, S.J., at a reception to announce Coopers & Lybrand's commitment

to the new GSB facility.

Dividends

Cur-ric-u-lum, n.,

a specific course of

study [Latin, a race,

course, career, from

currere, to run]

2000

7PHOTO: KEITH TISHKEN © 1998

The Soul of a New MBA

When the MBA class of 2000

arrives on campus in August, it

won’t be business as usual. Gone

will be traditional semester-long

classes, replaced by modules of

varying length that focus on

the skills of business. Integrative

courses will periodically punc-

tuate the modules, tie disciplines

together, and focus on solving

business problems in a global

context. The first integrative

course will be an opening “live

case” that allows students to

interact with executives facing a

real business challenge.

2000


One of the benefits of the new curriculum is thatit is “front-loaded” and exposes students to all ofthe required MBA skills in their first year.“Front-loading” not only gives students the bestpreparation academically and for their summerinternships, but also allows students to focus onthe electives that suit their future career path in

the second year. With the new format and greater elective choices,students will also be able to tailor a career track, such as in finance,strategy or marketing.

The most dramatic change in the new curriculum will be arequired international experience in the second year. The entireclass travels to their choice of among several international cities,most likely in a developing region, such as Latin America, Asia orCentral Europe, and applies its skills to a business problem affect-ing a company in that region.

The one thing that the class of 2000 will not experience, how-ever, is the soul-searching process that brought about the changesfrom which they will benefit.

Creating a Process for Change

One of the most difficult aspects of change is that it requiresinward contemplation - an identity crisis of sorts - that requires anorganization to say what it is, but also what it is not. Successful busi-nesses do this all the time, but it does not come as easily to the aca-demic world, where a multitude of competing ideas is encouraged.

“Despite the teaching in MBA classes about flexible organiza-tions, just-in-time delivery, and innovation, academia has beenslower than the corporate world to practice what they preach,” saysassociate professor Bob Bies, who teaches organizational behavior.

Bies served on the faculty committee led by Lamar Reinsch,associate dean for graduate programs, which met throughout lastsummer to hash out recommendations for the new curriculum.Throughout the fall, a blueprint was vetted to all of the school'sconstituencies - students, administrators, faculty, recruiters, alum-ni, and boards.

John Bowlin (B '72), president and chief executive officer ofKraft Foods International, Inc., and a member of the School'sBoard of Visitors, was an integral part of the process. “We did aself-assessment and realized that we were good - but not goodenough to get us where we wanted to be, which is world class.”

Meeting between semesters in January, a team of faculty, stu-dents, and administrators worked out the final details of the cur-riculum design. One of the driving forces behind the change to avastly different curriculum was a momentum for change supportedby all of the business school's constituencies.

“There was an overriding perception of the desire to changethat drove the process, especially when difficult decisions arose,”said John Venusti (MBA '98) and vice president of the MBA stu-dent government. Venusti, along with 5 other MBA classmates,formed a student committee that reviewed the faculty proposal andsurveyed the students for their reaction.

Students liked what they saw in the proposal. They expressedconcern that quantitative skills be adequately addressed and thatthe new curriculum reflect the recruiting strategy -- from the kindsof students that GSB admits to the jobs they will get to their rela-tionship as alumni.

“By accelerating finance and other classes, Georgetown's newcurriculum will definitely help students be even better preparedand more competitive with other students for summer internshipsand permanent jobs,” said Pat Bonan, managing director, ChaseSecurities, Inc.

The Tie That Binds

“If you ask students why they come to Georgetown, you will oftenhear, 'the international perspective,'” says Diana Cortes, a second-yearMBA student who helped survey students on the new curriculum.

The Georgetown name is highly regarded around the world,in part because of the many School of Foreign Service alumni wholive and work abroad. Although many universities have beenattracting international students in recent years, a diverse student

Cur-ric-u-lum, n., a specific course of study

2000


population has always been a Georgetown tradition. The businessschool is right in step with the university. The MBA class thatbegan last fall had a 30% international student population.

The new curriculum builds on Georgetown's inherent inter-national strengths throughout. In addition to the opening live casein international business and the required international experiencein the second year, an international “thread” course will be spreadover three modules and integrate and link the material learned inthe modules to the international marketplace.

International business is more than a theme in the new cur-riculum, but an overarching strategy that recognizes that the globalmarketplace will continue to become even more international overthe next decade.

Mark Frantz (B' 69), chairman of Frantz Medical Develop-ment, Ltd. and a member of the School's Graduate AdvisoryBoard, believes that the new curriculum complements this strategyand will help further the School's positioning in the marketplace.“A major upside of the new curriculum is the larger opportunity itpresents to establish a unique identity for the MBA program.”

Nathan Richardson, a member of the MBA class of 1998 andthe student curriculum committee, typifies the kind of student thatthe new curriculum will help foster. A French speaker who workedin Senegal before returning to school, he will work for Citibank ina rotation that will take him to London, Istanbul, Manila, Bahrain,and finally to one of the emerging markets. Richardson believesthat his knowledge of finance and his ability to perform in thedeveloping world are what attracted Citibank. “The internationalfocus is important, but we need to compete in a larger category, notjust a niche.”

Associate Dean Lamar Reinsch agrees. “We're an MBA pro-gram first, international second. We want to turn out people whoare solid MBAs, not just plain vanilla MBAs, but who can usebusiness skills throughout the whole world.”

A Built-in Mechanism for Change

“One of the best things about the new curriculum is that it pro-vides the vehicle to respond to markets needs and market changes,”says Alan Randolph, a second-year MBA who served on the stu-dent committee.

The integrative courses are the mechanism that allows forcontinuous change. The live case will change each year, and by def-inition, will change the decision tools that are used in the secondintegrative course. The industry selected in the third course willalso change, as will the sites for the international experience.

“The new MBA curriculum will always be evolving, which is achallenge for the faculty who sometimes wish it would settle down.But like the business world, it is always evolving,” said Lamar Reinsch.

By Elisabeth Liptak

[Latin, a race, course, career, from currere, to run]

PHOTOS: KEITH TISHKEN © 1998


There are a few things you wouldn’texpect if you had an interviewwith IBM. You wouldn’t expect to

be told that if you wear a suit, you wouldn’tget hired. You wouldn’t expect that yourfriends, also competing for positions at thecompany, would be hired along with you.Yet this is precisely what happened whenDavid Gee (MBA’94) hired MBA class of1997 alumni Jeff Fassett, Leslie Givens,Kris Lichter, and John Wolpert to helphim promote IBM’s hot new program-ming language, Java.

Gee, a 29-year-old native Londoner,is in charge of promoting Java, a program-ming language for running software onany kind of computer. IBM licensed Javafrom Sun Microsystems, which inventedit, and is betting that Java is the productthat will break Microsoft’s monopoly ondesktop software.

That’s a tall order to fill. Gee, Java’ssole evangelist at IBM, needed to build ateam to spread the word about Java amongsoftware developers. He needed peoplewho had a strong entrepreneurial streak,

who could work well together, who couldachieve in an environment that lacked a lotof structure. He needed pioneers, quickly.Looking to build a team of Java proselytiz-ers like himself, he turned to his almamater.

From a stack of resumes, Gee selectedthe four students to interview. Fassett,Givens, and Lichter had all workedtogether on MBA teams for various class-es. Although Wolpert hadn’t worked in ateam setting with the others, he wasfriendly with Fassett. “We were told that if

Getting by with a little help from some friends.....

John Wolpert

Leslie Givens

David Gee

Kris Lichter

Jeff Fassett


anybody wore a suit, they wouldn’t get ajob, so not to bother coming,” recallsLichter.

Lacking ties (or in Leslie’s case,pantyhose), the team showed up for theirinterviews. Gee asked each candidate aprisoner’s dilemma question-why should Ipick you over all the others? Without con-sulting each other, each candidateanswered identically. “We all wound upsaying the same thing--that Gee shouldhire us as a team, and this is why I shouldbe on the team,” says Wolpert. “By thetime he interviewed Jeff Fassett, and hesaid the same darned thing, I think Davidgot it into his head that he should hire usas a team.”

Wolpert describes the team as being“insanely happy” when they learned Geehad hired them, even though they were ata group disadvantage in terms of negotiat-ing power. “We all said yes on the spot,”says Wolpert. “We knew that the offerDavid got us was the best he could, and weweren’t going to haggle.”

The first nine months at IBM havebeen alternately challenging and rewardingfor the team. Located in Silicon Valley, faraway from IBM’s headquarters in NewYork, the team has been charged with con-vincing software developers worldwidethat Java is, in Silicon Valley-speak, hip,cool, relevant. To do something this cut-ting edge, in a company as established asIBM, has meant that the team has had tocreate its own culture, its own strategy, itsown structure from scratch.

By nature of its pioneering mission, theteam has a high profile at IBM.They agreethat their Georgetown team dynamicenabled them to survive those critical firstmonths as they tried to establish them-selves. “We get a lot of ‘pushback,’ a lot ofpeople looking at us under a microscopebecause they either don’t agree with whatwe’re doing, or they do agree, but they’retrying to figure us out, because what we’redoing is not normal to them,” says Lichter.“Without the sort of core and faith thatcomes from the team dynamic, I don’t knowwhether we would have survived.”

Givens agrees. “One of the most valu-able aspects of being part of a team is thatalthough you don’t know the company, youdo know your team mates,” says Givens.“You feel comfortable right off the batwith these people, you feel like you can relyon them. It makes it a lot easier.”

Despite the ‘pushback,’ the team canpoint to a number of successes. Nike, Ral-ston Purina, Charles Schwab & Co., andthe International Petroleum Exchange areamong the roster of companies using Java.Their high-profile at IBM has earned

them coverage on the first page of TheNew York Times’ business section. InMarch, the team held a successful JavaOnetrade show in San Francisco.

In the constantly evolving technologybusiness, the team is aware they cannotrely on past accomplishments. Their goalof making IBM a trendsetter once again inthe computer industry is not a certainty,and the team harbors ambiguous feelingsabout the relentless change. “Not feelingsettled is tough,” admits Wolpert. “You feellike a surfer, but being a surfer is good. It’sa challenge, but it’s OK.” Yet the uncer-tainty of their position, their goal,strengthens their bonds to one another.They not only work together, they social-ize together, taking a day off to go to anamusement park and making every effortnot to talk about work.

Two weeks before the JavaOne tradeshow, David and the team sat together,sticking labels on invitations to a lunchparty to celebrate the launch of jCentral, anew Web-based service IBM offers to Javadevelopers. Their willingness to pitch inand help with this menial task exemplifiesthe team spirit they’ve shared since theirfirst semester at Georgetown, the teamspirit that keeps them going as they chartunknown territory with Java. No task is sooverwhelming that it can’t be tackled witha little help from some friends. The team isgreater than the sum of its parts.

By Elizabeth Shine

“Not feeling settled is tough,”

admits Wolpert.

“You feel like a surfer,

but being a surfer

is good.

It’s a challenge,

but it’s OK.”

PHOTO: ANN DOWIE / NYT PICTURES The New York Times Company

Academics have puzzled atlength about democracy'spossibly deleteriouseffects on national eco-nomic performance. It

has often been claimed that democraticpolitics has a necessary cost in terms ofeconomic growth, which wealthy countriescan afford, but which emerging marketcountries cannot. An authoritarian “stronghand” is perhaps better suited than demo-cratic political institutions to manage thechallenge of market liberalization andrapid economic growth. It is not surpris-ing, therefore, to find U.S. firms investingand U.S. banks lending heavily in nationswith authoritarian regimes, and the U.S.government making accommodations withauthoritarian regimes.

Either lending money to authoritarianregimes or investing extensively in societieswith authoritarian regimes is poor businesspractices, all other things considered, or so Iargue. Regarding democracy and economicgrowth, I (with John T. Woolley at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara)find that democracies differ from dictator-ships in that democracies seek either low

volatility growth strategies or highervolatility strategies that are predictably wellcompensated by higher rates of growth.Regarding political liberalization and eco-nomic liberalization, I find that economicliberalization arises from democratic politi-cal contestation, and that economic liberal-ization is more likely to be sustained withpolitical liberalization than without.

The Costs of Democracy, National Economic Perfor-

mance, and the Sequence of Liberalization

The hypothesized negative relationshipbetween democracy and growth has strongtheoretical underpinnings rooted in howvoters in a democracy respond to inequali-ty generated by market competition. SinceAdam Smith, political economists haverecognized that market liberalization leadsto higher levels of income inequality. Alsosince Adam Smith, political economistshave worried that political demands forredistribution of wealth and income aretoo easily realized in democracies, com-pared to autocracies, where rulers are pre-sumably “insulated” from popular demandsfor redistribution. Insofar as redistributionreduces growth, democracies will grow less

rapidly than non-democracies. Recentpapers in economics journals offer modernversions of Adam Smith’s theory. Highlevels of inequality are harmful for subse-quent economic growth, they suggest,because in democracies, high inequalityleads to policies that reallocate nationalincome from investment to consumption –thereby slowing growth. Emerging marketnations, which are generally characterizedby very high levels of existing inequalityand low levels of national investment, arepoorly positioned to transfer nationalincome from consumption to investmentin a democratic context.

A second version of the “insulation”thesis regards international financial andtrade liberalization, which poses a thornydilemma for governments beyond theinvestment versus consumption tradeoff. Itis known that international economic lib-eralization is strongly associated withincreased national wealth, as well as withincreased income inequality. It is also asso-ciated with the rapid transmission of exter-nal shocks to a domestic economy, whichcan destabilize an economy. Governmentsinsulated from democratic political pres-sures are more likely to sustain internation-al economic liberalization than are govern-ments that respond to citizen demands forprotection from the consequences of exter-nal shocks.

In short, the near-consensus amongacademics has been that the net effect ofdemocracy is highly likely to be lessenedeconomic growth, and that the “proper”sequence of economic liberalization andpolitical liberalization is therefore “eco-nomics first.” What a remarkable reversalthis is from the time of John F. Kennedy andhis “Alliance for Peace,” which was premisedon the idea that democracy and economicgrowth were reinforcing processes.


FACULTY FORUM:

Democracy: Good for the Economy? By Professor Dennis P. Quinn

Despite this theoretical near consen-sus, the empirical results on whetherdemocracy helps or hurts growth are veryambiguous. Woolley and I reviewed 27previously published empirical studies, andfind that a third find a positive relationshipbetween democracy and growth, a thirdfind a negative relationship, and a thirdreport no relationship. Why?

Democracy and Risk and Return

Democracy's distinctive feature (comparedto non-democracies) is that it is a mecha-nism whereby citizens have a routinizedopportunity to oust incumbent politicians.Democracy can be thought of as a meanswhereby deviations from citizen prefer-ences (or changes in voter preferences) arecorrected, where the behaviors of govern-ment officials are (more or less) circum-scribed, and where competing politicalgroups are induced to reach compromise.This view of democracy is consistent withvoter studies, which show that voters getwhat they want because public opinionand public policy are closely linked.

In this light, a long-term deviationbetween voter preferences and public poli-cies seems unlikely. Is it possible that thedemocracies do not always strive for thehighest rates of growth because voters donot want governments to undertake poli-cies that might lead to the highest possiblerate of growth? Democracies perhaps,compared to autocracies, undertake a dif-ferent form of economic liberalization, onewhere some of the costs of liberalizationare compensated, which thereby producesan economic growth that is lower, but lessvolatile, and more sustainable.

This suggests that the theory aboutdemocracy and poor economic perfor-mance contains a problematic assumption.We know that voters want increased

wealth, and judge politicians based uponnational economic performance. We alsoknow, however, from financial economicsthat investment risk (i.e., volatility) andexpected return are positively associated. Ifwe then pose the question of democracyand economic performance in the risk andreturn framework of financial economics,the issue is this: do voters want the highrisk that is generally associated with highexpected return? As with investors whenthey cannot easily diversify away risk, weexpect voters to be generally risk averse,and to prefer growth strategies that miti-gate risk.

Democracies, then, should be distinc-tive not in their rate of growth, but in theway growth is related to volatility. Citizenseverywhere would reject higher volatilitythat is not adequately compensated, butonly in democracies could we expect thesepreferences to be reliably reflected in out-comes. What we expect to be common toall democracies is that voters will be rela-tively more effective in demanding thatadditional risks (e.g., losses from liberaliza-tion) be compensated.

The image in Figure 1 draws on ananalogy between private investment deci-sions and national economic performance.Following this analogy, “risk” can bethought of as the volatility of a nation'sgrowth rate over time (the standard devia-tion of a nation's annual economic growthshown on the X axis). “Return” can bethought of as the observed (ex post average)national growth rate (on the Y axis). Effi-ciency can be operationalized as any pointon the line made by the risk-return perfor-mance (or risk-adjusted growth) of theworld's best-performing economies, whichis termed the efficient countries’ line.Thedistance from the efficient countries’ linemeasures how far from the risk-return per-

formance of theleading economiesa nation is – itmeasure a coun-try’s growth gap.Figure 1 plotsaveraged data1974-89 ongrowth rates (Yaxis) and risk (Xaxis) for 108countries, andclusters them bylevel of democra-cy. From Figure 1,one can see thatalmost all coun-tries that werehighly democraticin 1972-73 are located near the efficientcountries’ line, 1974-89. Most high volatili-ty countries are all non-democratic. (This isstrongly supported by multivariate regres-sion analyses, whose results will not bereported here so that the author will stayfriends with the reader.)

The results of our research are: 1) theeconomic performance of democracies issuperior to that of autocracies, oncevolatility is accounted for; 2) political andeconomic liberalization are reinforcingprocesses, with the proper sequence of lib-eralization, “politics first.” Therefore, firmsare more likely to find stable and liberaliz-ing economic environments in those soci-eties with democratic institutions.

The implications are clear – democra-cies reflect the risk aversion of voters intheir growth strategies – democracies out-perform autocracies and sustain economicliberalization – don’t lend your money (or your shareholder’s) to authoritarianregimes.


DENNIS QUINN

Professor Quinn teaches

and conducts research

in business and

public policy at

the School of Business.

From Night to Day

That’s how Karen Newmandescribes the change requiredto create profitable companiesin the former commandeconomies of Central Europe.Drawing on nearly seven yearsof research and experience inthe Czech Republic, Newman,an organizational behaviorexpert, has recently completeda book, Managing RadicalOrganizational Change, withco-author Stanley Nollen.

The book describes casestudies of six Czech enterprisesthat the authors examined dur-ing frequent trips to the regionand teaching engagements atthe Czech Management Cen-ter. “The book is meant todevelop insights and knowl-edge about radical organiza-tional change in conditions ofextreme turbulence in the mar-ket and legal environment,”says Newman.

The upheaval facing thesefirms was daunting. To beginwith, Newman explains, anenormous infrastructure hadbeen built around a set ofassumptions, many of whichdisappeared almost overnight.Unfortunately, no new struc-ture was ready to stand in itsplace.

“There was no legal code,no bankruptcy law, no conceptof insurance.” On a more prac-

tical level, there were often nophones or electricity.

Newman believes that thedifference between success andmediocrity in Central Europecan be attributed to the visionto act on good ideas.The abilityto nurture a customer focus,long absent in an economycharacterized by shortage ratherthan competition, has also beencritical. “Some of them stillhave a hard time figuring outthat customers pay the bills.”

Finally, Newman believesthat leadership is crucial in anenvironment where people areused to taking orders from thetop. “The willingness to bedecisive has been critical tothose who have managed thechanges best,” says Newman.

Reinventing Government

School of Business profes-sor Rob Grant is helping toreinvent government. Herecently testified before thecongressional subcommitteeon government management,information, and technologyabout strategic planning pro-cesses in the private sector.

Congress is consideringamendments to the ResultsAct, which demands greateraccountability from govern-ment departments and agen-cies by requiring them to sub-mit three-year strategic plansto Congress. But congressionaldissatisfaction with the planssubmitted thus far has resultedin a call for strategic plans tobe submitted annually.

Grant believes that anyorganization that engages instrategic planning needs to doso on an annual basis. “Doing astrategic plan on a three-yearbasis means the plan becomes

irrelevant,” said Grant. “Theprocess does not become part ofthe whole decision-making pro-cedure within an organization.”

Strategic plans provide abasis for accountability andimprove the decision-makingprocess, but they are also evolv-ing documents, according toGrant. “The planning process isthe whole point of makingstrategic plans,” said Grant.“You’re continuously updatingyour strategy for the future, soyou can adapt to new legislationor a change in circumstances.”Grant’s testimony emphasizedthe importance of the strategicplanning process rather thanstrategic plans themselves.

Grant, who teaches strate-gic management to MBA stu-dents, is well qualified to testifyon the strategic planning pro-cess. His recent books includeContemporary Strategy Analysis,which is widely used in MBAprograms in Europe and NorthAmerica, and Restructuringand Strategic Change in the OilIndustry.

Faculty and Staff NEWS

Rob Grant


Karen Newman

PHOTO: KEITH TISHKEN © 1998

Are you telecompetent?

Video-conferencing, e-mail, cell-phones – the infor-mation age promised instant,and improved, communica-tion. But business professorJeanine Turner argues that newtechnology forces people to re-evaluate the way they commu-nicate. “When you introduce anew communication context,like video-conferencing, peoplebegin to find the interactionproblematic,” says Turner.“They start to question currentprotocols for communication.”

Examining communica-tion issues in the field oftelemedicine, where medicalservices are provided via tech-nology, Turner is seekinganswers to how both organiza-tions and individuals respondto technological change. She iscurrently studying patient andphysician perceptions aboutthe quality and efficacy ofremote care provided viavideo-conferencing.“Telemedicine provides anincredible opportunity to studyhow the communication thattakes place between organiza-tions and individuals is trans-formed and changes to keep upwith technology,” says Turner.

Key issues surroundingtelemedicine, including licen-sure and liability, also haveconsequences that are broadlyapplicable to other telecom-munications technologies.

“Legal and policy issues followthe development of technolo-gy,” says Turner. “If you look atthe Web, this new communi-cation environment has raisedmany issues like copyrightsand freedom of speech.”

Turner began her researchwhile working with a universi-ty medical center that providedmedical services to prisoninmates using telemedicine.“We understand how to becompetent communicators inface to face interaction,” saysTurner. “But how do webecome ‘telecompetent’ orga-nizations and individuals whocan use telecommunicationinfrastructures to communicateeffectively?”

Turner, who joined thebusiness faculty in August,recently was appointed asadjunct research assistant pro-fessor at Georgetown’s Depart-ment of Radiology.

Banking CompetitionMeans More Money For Minority-Owned Businesses

How does competitionamong banks influence thewillingness of banks to extendcredit to minority-and female-owned small business?

Recent surveys haveuncovered race-based differ-ences in lending to small busi-ness owners, showing thatbusinesses owned by whitemales are more likely to receivecredit than those owned byminorities. Yet no studies hadexamined whether there wereany statistical reasons thatmight explain why minoritybusiness owners are less likelyto be granted loans than whites.

Using credit applications,denial rates, outstanding loans,and interest rates across demo-graphic groups, along withlocal bank market structure,School of Business professorKen Cavalluzzo, and his sisterLinda, examined why minori-ty-owned businesses were lesslikely to receive credit. Caval-luzzzo and Cavalluzzo foundthe answer lies in competition– minority groups in less com-petitive banking markets paymore for credit, and are lesslikely to have loans, than thoselocated in more competitivebanking markets. “Small busi-nesses are an important ele-

Ken Cavalluzzo

ment in the U.S. economy,”says Ken. “The more we under-stand about the credit problemsbusiness owners face, especiallyminority owners, the better offeveryone will be.”

The Federal Reserve isapplying Cavalluzzo’s and Cavalluzzo’s research to analy-ses of home mortgage marketsand minority default rates tobetter understand the problemsminorities face in obtainingmortgages.

Cavalluzzo’s and Cavalluz-zo’s research will be publishedin the August edition of theJournal of Money, Credit andBanking.


Jeanine Turner


Almeida Studies Info Swap

How business informationis passed on-whether

by telephone, the printed page,e-mail or face-to-face conversa-tion-affects how that knowledgeis utilized, according to ProfessorPaul Almeida.

"We're so taken with theInternet and modern telecom-munications that we justassume that if we send infor-mation through these chan-nels, it automatically registerswith people," says Almeida."But this is not the case."

Almeida is studying theway scientists in the biotech-nology industry disseminateand shape knowledge to createcommercially usable products.Looking at the biotech indus-tries in the United States, theUnited Kingdom, Germanyand Japan, Almeida is examin-ing the extent to which univer-sities, companies, and researchlabs interact and exchangeknowledge. He is also evaluat-ing the impact of this interac-tion on the success of a nation'sbiotechnology industry.

Almeida warns that in theage of cyberspace, geography

and human interaction are stillvital in disseminating knowl-edge. "Maybe I have to useface-to-face communicationwhen sharing concepts that arevery subtle," said Almeida."This permits a dialogue, andthat's important in buildingtrust and sharing information.Most firms must use a combi-nation of mechanisms in a flexi-ble manner to harness organi-zational knowledge effectively."

Almeida notes that elec-tronic communication may bemaking the world a smallerplace, but he cautions againstbecoming too reliant on suchfaceless methods of communi-cation. "People say that we areone global village," said Almei-da. "But are we really? We stilldo not have all the answers."

Almeida, together withSusan Bartholomew, a visitingprofessor from CambridgeUniversity, recently won a$10,000 grant from the Centerof Innovation ManagementStudies at Lehigh Universityto study "The Systems andMechanisms of Inter-organi-zational Knowledge Transferin the Biotechnology Industry:A Cross Border Comparison."

IN THE MEDIA

■ Michael Pastore (MBA’99) was one of a team of MBA students noted

in the March 26 issue of The Wall Street Journal for winning the first con-

sulting case competition at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Busi-

ness Administration in Rochester, N.Y. Pastore and his teammates

assessed ServiceMaster Corporation’s management services unit, and rec-

ommended strengthening employee-incentive programs.

■ The March 25 issue of The Washington Post features a story about

PepsiCo CEO Roger Enrico donating his salary towards a scholarship fund

for PepsiCo employees in which Professor Robert Bies was quoted. “It is

very unusual for a CEO, especially one at a company of this magnitude

and visibility, to give up his salary for a philanthropic purpose,” Bies said.

“Nine hundred thousand dollars is real money … I actually believe he did

it for sincere reasons.”

■ Professor Jim Angel’s research was cited in a March 16 Wall Street

Journal article on the proposed merger of the Nasdaq and Amex stock

exchanges. The Journal cites Angel’s research that the regulatory envi-

ronment gives the regional stock exchanges a “sustainable position.”

■ A January 12 Washington Post article reports that executive educa-

tion programs nationwide are flourishing, and managers who participate

in them often benefit professionally and financially. “Rahul Bhandari, a

management consultant, has taken two new jobs with increased responsi-

bility since successfully completing programs at Georgetown in executive

leadership and management; his salary has also doubled,” notes the Post.

■ In a January 20 Investor’s Business Daily article on Nasdaq’s perfor-

mance during last year’s October 27 stock market swing, Professor Jim

Angel noted that “Nasdaq has passed the market test. The fact that com-

panies choose to stay with Nasdaq is evidence that Nasdaq is doing

something right.”

■ The Credit Research Center’s study on how debtors who apply for

personal bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code could

repay some of their debts from future income has generated considerable

media interest. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Des Moines Register,

The American Banker, The Journal of Commerce, and The Dallas Morning

News have cited the Center’s study in various articles on bankruptcy.


Paul Almeida and Susan Bartholomew


78 Kathie Preier gave birthto her third child, NatalieIlana, on January 15th. Kathieand her family now reside inWest Hartford, Conn.

80 Fred Vandenberg and hiswife, Marjorie Williams, wel-comed their third child, andfirst daughter, Rebecca Patrice,into their family. The familyresides in Rye, N.Y.

82 Ronald E. Blaylock joinedthe board of directors of theAdvantica Restaurant Group,Inc. He is the founder, presi-dent, and chief executive offi-cer of Blaylock & Partners,L.P., a New York-based invest-ment banking firm.

82 Sylvie A. Durham wasnamed partner at Weil, Got-shal & Manges L.L.P. inMarch. She works in the firm’scorporate department in NewYork and specializes in struc-tured derivatives, products andfinance.

84 John R. Farrar, Jr. and hiswife Phyllis, are new parents.Their second daughter, Julia,was born on January 15, 1998.John is a technology directorand a principal of Optech Sys-tems, Inc. in New York. Thefamily lives in Ringwood, N.J.

85 Nancy Hubbard Burton-Prateley received her doctoratein April 1997 from OxfordUniversity, England. She isnow a consultant specializingin mergers and acquisitionsand is also an associate fellowat Templeton College. Hersecond son, Nicholas, was bornon December 16, 1997.

85 Curtis L. Buser recentlybecame a partner at ArthurAndersen, and is currentlywith their communicationsand technology group.

86 Kevin Sheehan marriedClaudia Ryan (C’86) in NewYork City on October 4, 1997.

86 Ashley Jones Tagatac isnow a vice president in saleswith Morgan Stanley’s equityfinancing group. She offersfinancing and clearing servicesto hedge fund managers. Ash-ley and her husband, Chris,live in New York City, and areexpecting their first child inApril.

86 Sami L. Toutounji (L’89)and his wife Emma are nowsettled in Paris with their newdaughter, Alexandra, who wasborn last July. Sami is a partnerat the law firm of Shearman &Sterling.

87 Richard Lucas and hiswife Lynne celebrated thebirth of their first child,Katherine Anne, in September.Richard is a partner at Arnold& Porter, a Washington D.C.law firm. He specializes incommercial real estate financ-ings and transactions.

88 Tom Granville is themanaging director, principal,and co-founder of WhitneyCapital Company, a NewYork-based national develop-ment firm specializing in mul-ti-family housing. He holds amaster’s degree in developmentand investment from the NewYork University Real Estate


UNDERGRADUATE

63 Raymond H. Shevenelljoined Mooney Engineers asthe general manager of opera-tions in March.

72 Ronald R. Rich wasnamed vice president of A. J.Martini, Inc., a general con-tracting firm based in Malden,Mass. He is responsible forbusiness planning and corpo-rate development.

75 F. Paul Maloof (L’78) wasnamed of counsel at Hass &Anderson, P.C., in November1997. He is licensed in Vir-ginia, Maryland, and the Dis-trict of Columbia.

75 Michael Sheehan is apartner in Sheehan & Associ-ates, an executive search con-sulting firm. He currentlyresides with his family inRochester, N.Y.

76 Donald MacNeal recentlyran for a seat on the RumsonSchool district board of educa-tion in New Jersey. He is apartner at Arthur Andersen,New York.

77 Robert J. Bojdak wasnamed district executive vicepresident for underwritingadministration at KeyBank, awholly-owned subsidiary forKeyCorp. Prior to joiningKeyBank in 1992, he was vicepresident and deputy creditofficer at Mellon Bank inPhiladelphia.

Alumni NOTES

Please e-mail your alumni notes

to [email protected]

or call Elizabeth Shine at

202-687-4080.

Institute. Tom and his wife,Stefanie Hecht Granville(F’89) live in Stewart Manor,N.Y. with their two sons.

88 Mark Spring is of counselat the law firm of Faustman,Carlton, DiSante & Freuden-berger LLP. He practices laborand employment law. Marknow lives in Folsom, Calif.with his wife Sheila Spring(B’90), and their daughterArielle.

89 Elizabeth Cannarozzirecently joined Nabisco’s foodservice division in Parsippany,N.J., as the manager of salesplanning and analysis. Herdaughter, Elena Elizabeth, wasborn last June. Elizabeth nowlives in Montclair, N.J. withher family.

89 Edward Clayton Englishand Jennifer Christine Lahrwere married in Morris Plains,N.J., in January. Edward is anaccounting manager at PraecisPharmaceuticals in Cam-bridge, N.J. The couple willlive in Brookline, N.J.

89 Richard Martorella isdirector of strategic planningand mergers and acquisitionsat Joseph E. Seagram & Sons,Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of theSeagram Company Ltd. Priorto joining Seagram, Richardwas director of strategic plan-ning for Sony Worldwide Net-works, a subsidiary of the SonyCorporation.

91 Janelle Lorenz Wrightmarried Jay Oscar Wright(B’91) on October 25th, 1997.Janelle is currently a buyer forSaks Fifth Avenue, and Jay isan investment banker withMerrill Lynch & Co.

91 Eugene (Geno) Zamoramarried Sheila Hellams onJanuary 2, 1998 in Santa Fe,N.M. Bob Chicoski (C’91)was the best man, and CharlieMorgan (C’91) was an usher.Tom Walter (B’91) and KojoMills (C’91) were also guestsat the wedding. Geno is nowworking in Santa Fe as anassociate with the law firm ofHerrera, Long & Pound, P.A.

92 Todd Kinney is presentlya senior associate at Cowen &Company in the technologymergers & acquisitions group.He is based in Cowen’s NewYork office, and resides inManhattan.

92 Kristen (Paulson) Wat-son was married in August1997. She graduated from theKellogg Graduate School ofManagement at NorthwesternUniversity. She is an accountmanager at CompuServe Net-work Services in Chicago.


TRENDSPOTTING IN THE TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY

The ability to synthesize information, step back, and discern trends and

patterns are all hallmarks of a Georgetown education. Chris Franco (B’81)

used these skills to forecast the demand for technology employees, and

has built an innovative consulting firm around the hot high-tech industry.

Franco is chief executive officer of Comforce Corporation, a high-

tech staffing and consulting firm. Only two years old, the company

already employs 8,000 technology consultants, has annual revenues

around the $500 million mark, and includes Microsoft, Sun Microsystems,

AT&T, Bell South, and Boeing Information Systems among its roster of

prestigious clients. “The business is growing beautifully,” says Franco.

“If we’ve been successful at anything, it’s been bringing really talented

people to work for us.”

Another factor behind the compa-

ny’s success is its rollup strategy, where the

company buys other technology consulting

firms, and rolls them into the parent com-

pany. Franco explains that this strategy has

been successful for Comforce because he

has bought businesses that are diverse in

terms of geography and customer bases,

and he has centralized services to save

money. “I want to bring in talented

employees and customer relationships we

don’t already have,” says Franco. “That

way we can grow the business without

cannibalizing ourselves.” Located in Lake

Success, New York, the company now has

88 offices nationwide, and is seeking to expand its operations to Europe.

To retain technology workers in a tight labor market, Franco initi-

ated Comforce University, a virtual campus on the Web that allows

employees to improve their skills in telecommunications and information

technology. Comforce also plans to market the university to its clients.

Franco sees Comforce’s future success in such innovations as the

virtual university. “We see future growth in the Internet-based delivery

of services,” says Franco. “The key is to scale up our Website and get

widespread usage.” Judging by the phenomenal growth Comforce has

experienced in its infancy, Franco’s assessment of this trend is probably

a sure bet.

UNDERGRADUATE

93 Brian (Rudy) Fuller wasnamed head coach of the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania soccerteam in late January. Rudy iscurrently an MBA student atGeorgetown University.

93 Andrew Kim is now asenior financial analyst atMiramax Films. He is also aboard member of the NewYork City alumni club, and isresponsible for coordinatingcommunity service and volun-teer events.

94 Jeff Staadt is associatedirector of marketing informa-tion with the internationaldivision of Sony Music Enter-tainment in New York. Previ-ously, he was with KPMGPeat Marwick LLF in Wash-ington, D.C.

95 Laurie A. Johnson joinedBT Alex. Brown Incorporatedin New York as an associateequity research analyst cover-ing community banks.

96 Ross F. Morrissey is cur-rently halfway through a six-month deployment to Oki-nawa, Japan, with 5thBattalion, 10th Marines. Heleft his home base of CampLejeune, North Carolina aspart of the unit deploymentprogram (UDP) in December.


87 Douglas Snyder wasappointed deputy chief of thedrug and chemical control sec-tion at the U.S. Drug Enforce-ment Administration. He nowresides in the Washington,D.C. area with his wife, Cary,and their 5-year-old son.

89 Curt Schooling recentlyleft Citibank after 10 years ofservice. He is now the directorof business development forE-Loan Inc., a small start-upcompany, which provides mul-ti-lender mortgage originationvia the Internet. Curt and hiswife, Susan, now live in Oak-land Hills, California withtheir son, Bryce.

90Class Agent: Lorraine Herr1800 West Roscoe Street, #413Chicago, IL 60657Thanks to everyone who sentholiday cards and greetings, aninvaluable source of informa-tion on our incredibly diverseand geographically dispersedclass.

Shelia Colgan is now based inDublin, Ireland and workingat Johnson & Johnson.

Jeanne Tsao-Wang, I hear, hasmoved to San Diego for ahuge promotion. Wow, thatGeorgetown MBA must haveimpressed someone!!

Steve Straske and his wife,Janice, have their hands full inFlorida with daughters Ellyand Davis, both of whom arequite photogenic!

Christine Campe-Price is on aone-year leave of absence fromMCI, staying home with herkids, Peter and Eliza. Chris-tine writes that she and Chrisare both doing just great andenjoying their young children.

Beth Laboe Edgar and herhusband, Jason, are settled inBloomington, Minnesota, justoutside Minneapolis. Beth isworking for 3M and travelingseveral weeks a year to exoticlocations all over Asia.

Jane Ashton Hawes and hus-band Dick are expecting theirsecond child later this year.Jane wrote an amazing articlethat was published in theFebruary issue of Runner’sWorld. Buy it!

Eileen Utter-Lessin is living inwonderful San Francisco. Sheis working for Charles Schwabin their general investor mar-keting group. Eileen is plan-ning trips to Hawaii (to per-fect that golf game) andChampagne, France.

I also hear from Eileenthat Kitty Swenson and herhusband, Steve, are living inSalt Lake City, Utah. Kitty is aportfolio manager and has twolittle girls.

Yours truly traveled toSwitzerland and Germany inlate December with my hus-band, Michael, my mom, sis-ter, and a handful of closefamily friends. We spent sometime with Mike’s relatives inBavaria and drove the auto-bahn to Munich where we had

a great visit with RolandManger and his girlfriend, Ire-na. Roland is the marketingdirector of Cybernet.

I am working for AT&Tand am proud to share a per-sonal highlight of 1997: finish-ing the Chicago Marathon on aglorious, sunny day in October.

Feel free to drop me a lineabout what is going on withyou!

Michael George Athanasonmarried Jennifer O’GormanBower in Pawtucket, R.I. inJanuary. He is now director ofcorporate finance at Ernst &Young in Moscow.

91Class Agent: Mary Pat Blaylock ([email protected])

Ned Read writes that he isworking as arts education spe-cialist at the National Endow-ment for the Arts. He alsoearned a certificate in organiza-tion development fromGeorgetown's School of Pro-fessional and ContinuingDevelopment. He lives inArlington with his partner, Ric.

Bill Ehrreich has moved tosunny Florida to work as asenior financial analyst for J.I.Kislak, Inc. His job is to findacquisition targets for thecompany.

Sandy Kupetz reports that shedid some interesting travel lastyear to Israel and Amsterdam.She is full-time mom to A.J.and Leslie.

MBA

ALU

MN

I NO

TES92

Class Agents: Jon Gafni & Niels NielsenShare your news! We would reallylike to expand our coverage tomore of the class, so e-mail usdirectly at [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also sendalumni notes c/o Elizabeth Shine,Dean’s Office, Georgetown Schoolof Business.

Like so many of our classmates,your correspondents have beenconsumed by careers and life.Since we last wrote, we havechanged jobs and careers,bought houses, moved, and, inJon's case, experienced the joysand challenges of being a father.So in this column, we'll catchup with a few of the manychanges in the lives of our class.

Family Matters

John Hannula and Mara Don-nenfeld recently became first-time parents to Max.

Mark Niles and Lori Pidick areenjoying son Griffin in theirnew home in Washington, D.C.

Cliff Favrot and his wife Bethrecently moved back to NewOrleans where Cliff took a jobin investment banking. FordFavrot has a baby brother,Michael.

Mike Murray and his wifeAnne now have two girls,Melina and Sara Beth.

Glenn Hodges was marriedlast summer to Silvia Dotzlerin Germany. He is now living

in Brussels, where he is direc-tor of motor shows and motor-sports for Chrysler Europe.

Mary Nowalk is getting mar-ried this summer and movingto New York City.

Letter from Europe

Bob McCarthy recentlyreturned from Bulgaria andreports that during his last tourof the continent he saw ChrisMelnyk and wife Liana outsideRome, Rajeev De Mello andfamily in Switzerland and JillComerton in Northern Ireland,among others. Al Kaiser is inLondon with the Bank of NewYork and has recently beenjoined by J.P. Neal – J.P. is on along-term assignment withWatson Wyatt in England.

Comfortably Employed

Jon Gafni and Mark Niles areboth working at LCI.

Steve Ryan is working at MCI.

Niels Nielsen works at MCISystemhouse. He is currentlyon assignment at The Washing-ton Post.

Vanessa George checked infrom Fremont, California,where she works for PacificBell Communications.

Debbie Mercer is a regionalmarketing manager for PizzaHut.

Bern Smolow is at GE Capital.

Kye Johanning is working infinance for the Airline PilotsAssociation and is one of sev-eral Georgetown MBAs whohave formed the Rock CreekInvestment Club.

Eser Ozdeger Tuncata isteaching and working in devel-opment at the Maret School inWashington.

Derek Bills is joining Fried-man, Billings & Ramsey inAlexandria, where he will beworking on financial informa-tion systems.

Sharon del Valle is working inBuenos Aires for Phillips Elec-tronics.

93Class Agent: Web Fletcher ([email protected])

Wayne P. Hewitt plans to mar-ry Geraldine Taylor on Octo-ber 31, 1998.

Denny Silverman and his wife,Elizabeth Buckingham,became parents of Erica SarahBuckingham in October 1997.Denny is currently a seniorfinancial analyst at MCGHealthCare, a benefits andcompensation consulting firmin Minneapolis.

94Class Agent: David Gee ([email protected])

Stanley Beraznik is currentlyworking at Citibank. Herecently moved to London tostart up a small risk manage-

ment and marketing team tocover large corporate and insti-tutional investors throughoutEurope.

Simon Black, and his wife,Alice, will be moving to Lon-don in April with their newdaughter, Zoë Hannah. Simonwill be setting up an office forDiefenbach Elkins, a brandstrategy consulting firm.

Win Chan has left Global One(Sprint International), and isnow a project manager in theMCI local service deliverygroup in Reston, Va.

Ron Cieri is leading an expedi-tion to Mt. Rainier in Junewith some of his MBA class-mates, including Tom Massey,Ted Kollina, and MartinaEhlers (MBA ‘95).

Andrew Dryer is managingdirector of U.S. operations atIndus International. He isbased at the firm’s San Francis-co headquarters.

Margot Jacobs left KPMGPeat Marwick last year, andnow works for a large Russianinvestment bank, UnitedFinancial Group, as an equityanalyst in the banking sector.She is also currently studyingfor the chartered financial ana-lyst exam.

Robert Marcum is now direc-tor of project devlopment atWärtsilä NSD. Recently, hesigned energy sales agree-ments, under which Wartsila


MBAAlumni NOTES


NSD will build, own, andoperate a cogeneration facilityon the Mexican island ofCozumel.

Alona Ponomareva was mar-ried to Steve Smith inSeptember 1997. Fellow classof 1994 guests included AdamStruve, Win Chan, and Mar-got Jacobs. Also in attendancewas Andy Corsig (MBA’93).The newlyweds spent theirhoneymoon in Spain and theCanary Islands. Alona leftErnst & Young corporatefinance to join the Internation-al Finance Corporation inWashington, D.C. as an asso-ciate investment officer in theLatin American andCaribbean department. Inaddition, Alona passed the lev-el 2 chartered financial analystexam, and is now busy study-ing for the level 3 exam.

Stephanie Prager works inproduct management at Mat-tel. She now handles the Cab-bage Patch Kids account.

Geoff Stricker is a telecomequity analyst at LehmanBrothers in Washington, D.C.

Ian Steinberg married EliseSchlackman in September1997 in Baltimore. Other classof 1994 members in atten-dance were Kelly Best, BeverlyWelch, Mary Vargas, AlonaPonomareva and Win Chan.The couple spent their honey-moon in Hawaii. Ian works at American ManagementSystems.

Mary Nowalk is planning toget married this summer andwill be moving to New YorkCity.

95Class Agent: Lisa Bell, Martina Ehlers([email protected]),Kelly Reed, & Scott Shore([email protected])Some 95’s may have a busy dayon September 6th 1998, asSusan Tomkin is getting mar-ried on the same day as class-mate Kerry Olsen. Susan isengaged to Marc Friedman,and is now working for USAirways in Arlington.

Scott Shore married Mari LuWhite in November 1997.That, coupled with purchasinga townhouse in Glover Parkhas, he says, pretty muchpegged the fun meter. But, onthe plus side, there is ampleroom for visitors. Joining himin the wedding festivities wereBruce Dincin and Ron Cieri(MBA '94).

Carrie Sauer, still working atSprint, is also seen about townscoring points for her touchfootball teams. If something'sgoing on, Carrie's there. Nowjoining Carrie in the legendary“Reservoir House” is BruceDincin. He just moved toWashington D.C. from Chica-go and is now working for USAirways.

Scott Shore also reports that hegot an e-mail from Pam Cald-well - the true 90's woman. She

RUNNING BUSINESSES TO RUNNING FOR OFFICE

When Mike Gottlieb (MBA'85) was

a student, he used to joke that a

Georgetown MBA would be great

training to be a politician because of

the emphasis on business-govern-

ment relations. Now that Gottlieb is

hoping to be the Republican nomi-

nee for Southern California's 29th

district in the U.S. House of Repre-

sentatives in November, he's finding

his business-government knowledge

is no laughing matter.

Gottlieb, who is competing

for the Republican nomination in June, describes himself as a progressive

Republican--fiscally conservative but socially progressive on issues con-

cerning transport, the environment and education. But rather than rely-

ing on government involvement to solve challenges in his district, such

as metrorail construction in Los Angeles, he believes business should

take a more active role in identifying problems and devising solutions.

"You can't rely on government to do everything."

Experience in corporate America is what Gottlieb believes distin-

guishes him from his opponent. After graduating from Georgetown, he

worked in various divisions of TRW before joining George Smith Part-

ners, a real estate development group. "Too few politicians understand

how the real world works," says Gottlieb. "Having worked in various

aspects of business for the last 13 years, I think I can offer some real

world experience."

Gottlieb credits his Georgetown education with increasing his

awareness as to how business and government can work together bet-

ter. "Being in the MBA program at Georgetown made me aware of how

poorly business and government work together," says Gottlieb. "My

goal is to get them to work together more efficiently."

Mike Gottlieb


MBA

will be telecommuting betweenSan Francisco and the Ken-nolyn Camp in San Jose, CA.

Steve Genn and wife Julie nowhave a united household. Steve isno longer on the road for hishealthcare consulting job and hasgone back to Arthur Andersen.He is based in the Washington,D.C. area.

Edward Boehme is still work-ing for MCI in the Washing-ton, D.C. area. When he's notanalyzing spreadsheets forMCI, he may be found explor-ing currents as he continues toteach himself how to sail onthe Potomac.

Andy Libuser and wife Andirecently bought a “nest” inHerndon, Va., and are expect-ing their first child in June.

Another addition to the D.C.crew: Michelle Russey hasmoved here from Connecticutand is working for Iridium.

Dionne Anthon is now work-ing for Deloitte and Touche inPhiladelphia doing softwaretraining.

Tony Hovsepian can often befound gallivanting around onvarious golf courses around thecountry, thanks to his US Air-ways passes.

96Class Agents:Leslie Blair([email protected]),Tim Doyle([email protected]),

Julie Jaoudi ([email protected]),Jill Kianka ([email protected]), & Miriana Martinova ([email protected]).

Michelle Berk practices corpo-rate tax law at Fried, Frank,Harris, Shriver and Jacobsonin Washington. On August 23,1997 she was married to EricGold.

Michael Berman is working onthe photo illustration of an epicpoem entitled “Save the World.”

Sara Conner was promoted tomanager at AT&T Solutionsin Chicago in January. Shecontinues to focus on develop-ing and implementing elec-tronic commerce strategies forher clients.

Bob Gabriel is a retail stock-broker for Salomon SmithBarney in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer Herron recentlyreceived a promotion to associ-ate product manager atSmithKline Beecham Pharma-ceuticals.

Kokeb Kassa is the director ofsales and marketing at Sound-Stone Entertainment in Cam-bridge, MA. Her company justlaunched http://www.sound-stone.com - a literary musicretail site.

Amy Kauffman is the directorof Campaign for America inWashington, and is involved inthe bill for campaign finance

reform. Amy and her husband,Ken Weinstein, recently had ababy girl, Raina. They live inGeorgetown.

Scott Keough works atMicroStrategy in October1997. Based in Vienna, Va.,MicroStrategy is a softwarecompany with a complete on-line analytical processing(OLAP) tool suite. Scott is onthe product management teamfor the company’s Web-basedproduct, DSS Web.

Sandi Mao is working as acompliance examiner atNASD Regulation in NewYork. She married KeithGeorge on November 8, 1997.

Theresa Preslik recentlymoved from her job as a con-sultant with Coopers &Lybrand to take a position asmarket manager with GeneralElectric Information Services(GEIS) in Rockville. She willpromote electronic data inter-change and electronic com-merce solutions to companiesin the telecommunicationsindustry.

Matteo Recagni is a seniorproduct marketing engineerwith Altera Corporation. Heand Ramiro Sanchez-Gutier-rez share an apartment in SanFrancisco.

John Sanborn is one of thefounders of Chaos Consulting,an Internet design agency.John is also one of the found-ing partners of Leisure Travel

Marketing, an Alexandria-based company that createspromotional tools for corpo-rate travel agencies.

David Wigglesworth is a market development managerat ORBCOMM Global L.P.in Herndon, Va. ORBCOMMoperates a global wireless dataand messaging network thatwill utilize up to 36 low earthorbit satellites, and will enterfull commercial service in mid-1998.

97Class Agent:Andrea Alexander ([email protected])Jane Oyugi ([email protected])Megan Mulvihill ([email protected])Rochelle Cheng([email protected])

Kelly Taylor writes that she hasa new job at John Deere & Co.She is now working in partsmarketing for overseas regions,including Latin America. Dur-ing an upcoming business tripto Colombia, she is planningto meet up with Anne Lufkinwho is working for Deloitte &Touche in Bogota.

Jane Oyugi is also at Deloitte& Touche, and writes in a hel-lo to everyone from their SanFrancisco office.

The Bay area is also now hometo Mary Schneck who sent in ahello and new contact infor-mation from her job at 3Com.You can send her an e-mail [email protected].

Alumni NOTES


Andrea Gothelf is in the D.C.area and working for a health-care consulting company,which focuses on the biotech-nology and medical deviceindustries. She wrote to sharethe adventures of a bunch of'97’s who congregated in Tam-pa for the Third AnnualGeorgetown MBA FantasyBaseball Draft. Attendeesincluded:

Scott Humphrey, who is inAtlanta working as an opera-tions analyst for GeneralElectrics’ power systems divi-sion, and will be getting mar-ried in October;

Tom Javitch, who is in Cleve-land working as the director offinancial planning for OfficeMax. Tom and his wife areexpecting Baby Javitch thissummer;

Todd Corley, who is in NewYork consulting with TowersPerrin in change managementand diversity training, andenjoying newlywed life;

Phil Cefaratti, who is in theSan Jose area doing a little bitof everything for his boss andall the vice presidents’ as theaide to the chief executive offi-cer for Force Computers;

Dan Smink, who is in Denverdoing strategic planning for ahealthcare company and plan-ning a May wedding;

Scott Williamson, who is inthe D.C. area and working in

financial advisory services forCoopers & Lybrand;

Max Smith, who is in Cincin-nati working for Towers Perrinin human resources consulting.Max is also planning a summerwedding;

Rosemary Baisch, who isstruggling through the winterin Minneapolis while pound-ing away in marketing for 3M.(Rose also wrote in to say thatat least two houses of ‘97 alumsare scheduled to join the crowdof '98's headed for Nag's Headin late May. Come join thefun!); and

Meg Mulvihill, who is in Bal-timore (spitting distance toCamden yards) and is sellingmunicipal bonds for LeggMason.

Andrea reports, “The festivitiesincluded two Yankee springtraining games, a golf outing,and lots of beer and pizza aswe drafted our teams.”

Also expected at the beach thisMay is former class PresidentJeremy Akel who plans tocome in all the way fromDubai, where he works forTidewater Marine, a companythat specializes in oil-drillingsupport ships and services.Jeremy says that prior to hisarrival in Dubai, his work tookhim through 80% of Louisianaand placed him in an apart-ment a block from Bourbonstreet. (Wouldn’t you love thisjob?) Afterwards he traveled to

Egypt, where he lived in atrailer at a Red Sea Camp for amonth (then again…). Aftertwo months living in Cairoworking as the operationsmanager for Tidewater Egypt,he went to Greece for a weekover New Year’s, made cus-tomer calls in India, and visitedbusiness partners in Yemen.He says he now plans to travelto Baku, Azerbaijan for busi-ness development work andwill probably travel to Qatar aswell. Typically, Jeremy reportsthat, “Otherwise, its been verymundane…”.

Matt Anderson reportedlyspent St. Patrick's Day in Lon-don with Patty Molloy andsome other ’97s working inEurope.

Kevin Roots is working as aconsultant for AT&T Solu-tions in Virginia and wrote into say hello to all.

Abby Weinstock, one of seven'97's who now work at PriceWaterhouse (along with IsabelMarques, Elena Yiassemidou,Erica Webber, Deborah Chew,Kelley Grossman and Fernan-do Turmo), writes in that agang of ’97s got together forNew Year’s Eve here in D.C.Thanks Abby, for all thoseaddresses!

Laura Mayer also writes ingreetings from her job with theRed Cross and passes alongthat Melissa Tucker had a babygirl, Alexa Marie, on March 28.

IEMBA

96 Chip Christian has beengiven additional responsibili-ties at the Rocco Corporationin government relations, regu-latory affairs, total qualityassurance, and internal auditdepartments. This is in addi-tion to his work in humanresources and public relations.

96 Caulley Deringer wasrecognized by Carey Winstonas the top commercial realestate producer in the Virginiaoffice for 1997.

96 Terri Frick has been free-lancing on a six-month con-tract with Citibank in Lugano,Switzerland, where she isresponsible for client profiling.

96 Pietro Gerosa is the newdirector of business develop-ment and legal affairs for TSI,the Italian speaking branch ofSwiss TV, located in Lugano,Switzerland. He has beenthere since December and isresponsible for legal affairs,sponsorship, and outside salesof TSI programs.

96 Bill Harrison has changedmarkets from Brazil to Mexicoat the Export-Import Bank ofthe United States. He handlestransactions for the Mexicodivision, which is the Export-Import’s largest market.

96 Ron Pippin has been pro-moted to manager of strategicplanning and market analysisat Ericcson Inc.


Greg Spierkel has accepted theposition of president at IngramMicro Asia/Pacific, in Singa-pore. Greg and his family havebeen living in Singapore forthe last seven months.

97 Kurt Gastrock has beenpromoted to executive assistantto the president of technologyservices for Sprint. Kurt andhis family will be relocated toKansas City, Mo., as a result ofhis promotion.

97 Bill Grove is still workingfor Andersen Consulting,and was recently promoted toconsultant.

97 Bob Johnson becamemanaging associate at Coopers& Lybrand Consulting in January.

97 Susan McVay was pro-moted from project leader tomanager of lodging systemsstrategies and solutions forMarriott International.

97 Dennis Morris recentlybegan consulting with BoozAllen & Hamilton on man-agement consulting projectsfor government and commer-cial clients in senior levelstrategic planning and analysis,management assessments, andbusiness operations issues.

97 J. D. Pellecchia left theU.S. Marine Corps in Septem-ber to accept an investmentbanker position with Friedman,Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc.,located in Arlington, Va.

97 Eric Sklar was recentlyelected to the board of direc-tors of Business for SocialResponsibility. The organiza-tion was founded to promotecorporate responsibility and toprovide education in responsi-ble practices. In addition to hisresponsibilities as CEO ofBurrito Brothers, Eric hasbegun teaching entrepreneur-ship as an adjunct professor atGeorgetown.

97 Gene Troy has accepted aposition as senior consultantwith the Cadmus Group,located in Alexandria, Va.

97 Kim Watson has beenpromoted to manager of con-sumer and community rela-tions at Potomac Electric Pow-er Company. In addition, Kimwas asked to speak at theHoward University BusinessSchool on the topic of “Man-aging Corporate Change” onApril 2nd.

Alumni NOTES

NEW FOUNDATION SEEKS TO SERVE COMMUNITY

Remember the OB Challenge? Well, the honorable MBA project that

helped to raise funds for worthy causes has been taken one step further.

A new service foundation run by Georgetown MBA students has been

established to provide community-based organizations with financial

and strategic support.

"We felt that by creating a foundation, rather than having an

annual fundraiser, students would have a more long-term and coordinat-

ed impact on the community," says Cindy Ho (MBA'99), the fund's execu-

tive officer. "The foundation also allows alumni the opportunity to sup-

port Georgetown in a meaningful way."

Founded by Jim Anderson (MBA'98), the Community Service Fund

currently has a $3,000 endowment. "We want to find innovative ways

for the MBA program to impact the community," says Ho. "We want to

build awareness for the fund and develop ongoing relationships with

organizations in need."

Top priorities for the foundation this year are to designate a

$1,000 grant to a local community service organization and to raise addi-

tional endowment money. The foundation is currently reviewing applica-

tions for the first grant recipient.

MBA students involved with the fund also can gain valuable

financial and non-profit management experience through administration

of the fund's assets. "Managing this fund will help students become

more effective community leaders," says Ho.

The foundation is currently investigating alternative means to

expand its endowment, including fundraising events and investment

options. "Our goal is to raise an additional $3,000 over the next three

years so that we can continue to provide support to organizations in

need," says finance officer Denise Tran (MBA'99).

,

Non Profit OrganizationUS Postage

P A I DWashington DC

Permit 3901

georgetown universityschool of businessold north buildingwashington dc 20057-1008

Documents

Georgetown Business Spring/Summer 1998