Georgetown Business Spring/Summer 1999

Fueling an Entrepreneur’s Dream

The Future of Online Privacy

Managing Knowledge

SPRING / SUMMER 1999 volume 11 number iiBusinesst h e r ob e rt e m m e t t mc d on o u g h s c ho ol of b u s i n e s s

Georgetown

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

Dean Christopher P. Puto, Ph.D.

Senior Associate DeanWilliam Droms, Ph.D.

Editor Elisabeth Liptak g’98

Associate Editor Elizabeth Shine g’99

Contributing Writers Bindu Vaswani b’00Cheryl Arndt mba’99Leigh Jackman mba’00Nan Wang mba’00

Designer Nancy Van Meter

Photographers Evan ShephardKeith Tishken

Inquiries and updates should be sent to:

Georgetown Businessdean’s officegeorgetown universitythe mcdonough school 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 universitythe mcdonough school of businesswashington dc 20057

1Spring/Summer 1999

WEL

CO

ME

CONTENTS

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

A Program on the Move. . . . . . . . . 6

Fueling an Entrepreneur’s Dream 8

Securing the Future of Online Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Faculty Forum:Managing Knowledge . . . . . . . . . 16

Faculty and Staff News . . . . . . . . 19

Alumni Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

LETTER FROM THE DEAN

As the school year – and my first year as dean – draws to a close, I want to take

this opportunity to give you a progress report on initiatives taking place

throughout the McDonough School of Business.

The past year has been a whirlwind of activity, beginning with the announcement of Bob

McDonough’s unprecedented gift to the school. It has been gratifying to travel around the

country and meet alumni, parents, and friends who have generously made a commitment

to the future of this business school. And that future looks quite bright.

In the fall, we implemented a vastly new MBA curriculum that has received high marks

from students and recruiters. Modules of varying lengths have replaced traditional

semester-length courses and are timed to provide the academic support required for sum-

mer internships. The modules were interspersed with two weeklong integrative courses

focusing on the energy and global telecommunications industries. Next year, a required

international experience will be implemented, providing us with a real advantage over

other MBA programs.

A task force has been meeting throughout the spring to assess the quality of the under-

graduate experience, both academic and co-curricular. We have recently completed a cur-

riculum comparison with 10 undergraduate business programs. Current undergraduate

students participated in focus groups this spring; alumni and employers will be contacted

in the summer. The aim is to ensure that our undergraduate program is considered among

the very best in the country.

The growth of our MBA program in recent years has pushed our facilities to their limit.

I am pleased to report that renovation has started on the second floor of the Car Barn,

which will be known as the Graduate Business Center (see p.6). When students arrive on

campus in the fall, a state-of-the-art facility will await them. We are excited to be able to

offer students a modern facility as an interim step before our new building is complete.

On a final note, our MBA program ranked 26th in the latest US News & World Report rank-

ing. We are up from our 30th place ranking last year and showed improvement in two par-

ticular components – the survey of corporate recruiters and deans of business schools.

I expect that future rankings will positively reflect the continuous improvements we are

undertaking throughout the School.

Christopher P. PutoDean

1999 MBA Career Trends

The MBA Class of 1999 is reaping the benefitsof a strong economy, with a 22 percent increase inthe number of students reporting accepted offers atgraduation. The Class of 1999 had a median start-ing salary of $75,000, an increase of $5,000 fromlast year.

Consulting and finance continues to attract themajority of students. PricewaterhouseCoopers,American Management Systems, Arthur Andersenand KPMG are among the top consulting firmsrecruiting McDonough MBAs, while Citibank,Chase Manhattan, Merrill Lynch, and CS FirstBoston are among the top finance firms.

“McDonough MBAs are enjoying tremendoussuccess in the marketplace,” says Jackie Wilbur,director of MBA career management. “The fact thatwe have firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC)recruiting multiple graduates reflects the maturity ofthe McDonough MBA in the marketplace.” Inaddition to the 17 MBAs hired by PWC, six stu-dents were hired at each of the following compa-nies: Citibank, Intel and Enron.

The technology sector continues to hold appealamong MBA graduates. In addition to Intel, corpo-rations including IBM, MCI and Oracle recruitedfrom the class of 99. Ten students will join theentrepreneurial ranks, mostly in technology-relatedbusinesses.

McDonough Hosts National GWIB Conference

Five hundred students from over 30 MBA programs across the country traveled to Washingtonon February 6 for the 1999 Graduate Women inBusiness (GWIB) National Conference.

Dr. Mary Mattis, vice president of research andadvisory services for Catalyst, a leading research firmon women’s leadership development in business andprofessional organizations, gave the keynote speech.She spoke about the inequities that still exist forexecutive women at Fortune 500 companies.

Overall, panelists sought to explode myths ofgender disparities in the workplace, emphasizingthat both men and women need to be flexible indealing with perceived gender differences, whetherreal or imagined. One piece of advice preached by allpanelists was applicable to members of both sexes:find a career about which you’re passionate.

“The conference exceeded all of our expec-tations, not only in terms of attendance but in thequality of the discussion that took place,” said confer-ence director Mary Ryan (M’99), who along with co-director Stephanie Paul (M’00) and GWIB presidentBetsy Eisenberg (M’99), organized the conference.“Speakers and participants alike were energized bythe high level of interaction and learning thatoccurred. It was extraordinary to have such a diversearray of professionals gathered in one location.”

Leader of the Pack

PricewaterhouseCoopers

(PWC) remains the prima-

ry corporate recruiter of

McDonough MBAs this

year, with 17 hires from

the Class of 1999, and

eight internship offers

to the Class of 2000.

PWC received the

Employer of the Year

award in 1997 and 1998,

and has recruited MBA

students on campus

since 1983.

PWC sponsored this

year’s Graduate Women

In Business conference

and the Consulting Club’s

annual case competition.

PWC also supports

research at our Capital

Markets Research Center.

Inside Information

2 The McDonough School of Business

Dean Christopher Puto

(far right) with Jim Lafond

and Raymond Ranelli of

PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Tuning In To The Global Telecom Industry

First-year MBAs were wired about the opportunity to focus on the global telecommunica-tions industry during the final integrative course of the year.

Students were divided into teams representingcompanies in the telecom industry, including MCIWorldcom, AT&T, Nippon Telephone & Telegraph,Deutsche Telekom, and Sprint. The teams wereasked to identify strategic partners through alliances,joint ventures or mergers, and then negotiate a deal.Results of the negotiation efforts were presented to ateam of judges, including MCI Worldcom corporateexecutives and McDonough faculty, on the last dayof the week-long course.

“The regulatory, business and technical climateof the telecom industry allowed students to experi-ence business decision-making in a market charac-terized by immense change,” says Professor JohnMayo, who designed and led the course. “The teamexercise gave students practical experience with real-world data, and provided an ideal platform for stu-dents to integrate analytical skills in accounting,marketing, finance and strategy.”

Scott Schein (MBA’00) liked the practical focusof the course. “You can have the greatest plan in the world for a venture, but if you can’t sell the ideaand understand the potential partners’ needs, thedeal is dead,” says Schein. “This can get lost in allthe theories, but it was a main point in negotiatingpartnerships during the course.”

Gates Offers Future Vision of Business

If the 1980s were about quality and the 1990sabout re-engineering, then the 2000s will be aboutvelocity, Microsoft founder Bill Gates said whilepromoting his book, Business @ the Speed of Thought,during a March 25 address to McDonough students.

“Business is going to change more in the next 10years than it has in the last 50,” Gates told the Gas-ton Hall audience. Wearing a McDonough sweat-shirt, Gates shared the stage with big screen moni-tors showing his talking points. The audience reactedfavorably to a three-minute video presentation thatfeatured Gates in a takeoff on Saturday Night Live’s“Night at the Roxbury” skit, Jay Leno doing man-on-the street interviews, and a cameo by GeorgeLucas.

Gates suggested that he was a little nervousspeaking to college students because he said, “I’m adropout.” Gates left Harvard during his junior yearto found Microsoft. He is now the wealthiest man inthe world. He said, however, that “we don’t hiremany dropouts at Microsoft.”

3Spring/Summer 1999

Global Commuting

Cultivating a global per-

spective is natural when

you commute halfway

across the world for class.

Mounir Ayntrazi, owner

of Pumpkin Candies, has

been traveling from

Lebanon to the U.S. two

weekends a month since

February to earn a certifi-

cate in international busi-

ness offered by

McDonough’s Executive

Programs.

“I wanted to study

business at Georgetown

because of its great brand

name, but I didn’t want

to be tied down by

earning an MBA,” says

Ayntrazi. “The certificate

is a great gateway into

U.S. business.”

Ayntrazi graduates in

June. He won’t miss the

commute.

A CEOs Primer

You’ve just been named president of a small tomid-sized industrial firm and want to immerseyourself in “must” reading for CEOs. Who better toconsult than your former b-school professors? Anundergraduate alumnus who found himself in thisvery situation polled his mentors and received thefollowing advice.

Not surprisingly, three Harvard Business Reviewarticles made the list. The ground-breaking articleon strategy, The Core Competence of the Corporation(HBR May/June 1990) by Gary Hamel and C.K.Prahalad was cited along with Strategy and the NewEconomics of Information by Evans and Wurster(HBR, September/October 1997), a look at thestrategic use of information in an increasingly information-based economy.

What Makes a Leader? by Daniel Goleman, wasnoted for its discussion of “emotional intelligence”(HBR, November/December 1998).

The concept of knowledge managementappears in two recommended management classics:The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of theLearning Organization by Peter Senge (Doubleday,1990) and Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth ofOrganizations by Thomas Stewart (Doubleday,1997).

Robert Buzzell, a visiting professor from Har-vard, considers Peter Drucker’s tome, Management, abook all CEOs must have and consult occasionally.“However,” he adds, “no one can sit down and readit front to back.”

For those CEOs wishing to sharpen their nego-tiation skills, Getting to Yes by Fisher, Ury and Patton(Houghton Mifflin 1991) comes highly recom-mended.

The most interesting recommendation? AynRand’s Atlas Shrugged, called a “philosophical mustread” for any manager.

Trust, but Verify

As President Reagan discovered during arms control negotiations with the Russians duringthe Cold War, a little bit of ambivalence in inter-personal relationships is a good thing. And perhapsmore common than previously thought. Accordingto research conducted by Professors Robert Bies and Daniel McAllister, human beings both trust anddistrust one another at the same time, whether in theworkplace, personal relationships, or foreign policy.

Bies and McAllister, along with Professor RoyLewicki of Ohio State University (a former visitingConnelly Center scholar), propose a new theoreticalframework that takes into account the inherent tensions and multidimensionality of relationships.Their work was published in “Trust and Distrust in the Workplace: New Relationships and Realities,”in the July 1998 issue of Academy of ManagementReview.

“To assume that individuals either trust or dis-trust one another is a false dichotomy. People seg-ment their relationships all the time, trusting in onearea, but not in another,” says Professor Robert Bies.

How much trust people have depends upon theissues and the stakes involved. In joint ventures andalliances, business competitors must decide howmuch information to disclose to each other. WhenBoeing entered into an agreement with Japaneseengineers to produce its 777 airplane, corporate espi-onage and the loss of technical and proprietaryknowledge concerned them. Borrowing from themilitary’s “need to know” dictum, Boeing limited theaccess of the Japanese engineers to “secure” areaswithin the company.

Driven by the uncertainty of corporate reorga-nization and competition from a global marketplace,distrust and ambivalence may be on the rise. Biesand McAllister believe that it has always been there,but past research has focused on the positive aspectsof organizational behavior. The good news is thatindividuals can balance trust and ambivalence in theworkplace.

Measuring Up

The McDonough School

of Business ranked 26th

in the latest U.S. News

& World Report survey

of graduate business

schools, up from its 30th

place showing last year.

The school improved

substantially in its repu-

tation among corporate

recruiters.

The Financial Times

entered the rankings

business for the first

time, rating MBA pro-

grams on a worldwide

basis. The London-based

newspaper put the

Georgetown MBA

program as 34th in

the world.

Forbes magazine

may jump on the

rankings bandwagon

later this year.


Checking the Nation’s Economic Pulse

How healthy are the finances of U.S. house-holds? The Credit Research Center (CRC) is pro-viding a diagnosis.

Using anonymous credit data, CRC is analyz-ing consumers’ credit use and debt burdens to pro-vide geographic profiles of the nation’s fiscal habitsthat can be used to predict economic performanceand consumer credit patterns.

“Credit bureaus are sitting on a goldmine ofconsumer information,” says Michael Staten, CRCdirector. “We’re tapping this information to providea snapshot of the whole economy.”

In partnership with Trans Union, a leadingcredit information company, CRC is publishingtheir research results in Monthly Statements: A Profileof Consumer Borrowing and Payment Behavior. TransUnion also provides credit data from their nationaldatabase that CRC analyzes.

Trans Union began compiling their nationalcredit database in 1992, the beginning of the currenteconomic expansion. “Once we go through a down-turn, we’ll be able to provide a snapshot of economicbehavior under a range of conditions,” says Staten.

Because credit use has never been analyzedgeographically before, Staten believes there will be a strong demand for CRC’s analysis, especially fromthe risk management industry and marketers. Healso foresees using this data to develop hypothesesabout other economic trends, such as analyzing consumer spending to gauge average income in aparticular region. State governments could use thisanalysis to predict potential tax income. “There’senormous potential to mine this rich data,” saysStaten.

How Do Firms Know What They Know?

If the 1980s was about squeezing productivity outof the assets of firms, the 1990s has increasinglyfocused on knowledge as the underutilized asset ofthe firm. With the shift to an information-basedeconomy, management strategists such asMcDonough Professor Robert Grant have beenstudying the role of knowledge in the production ofa firm’s goods and services. Grant is currently look-ing at the organizational capabilities within thesemiconductor and oil industries to see how firmsorganize to exploit knowledge within their firms.

While much of the research literature to datehas focused on how firms learn, Grant’s researchfocuses on capturing the know-how that alreadyexists within firms. “Articulating firm knowledge isoften the key challenge, as well as knowing whatknowledge is important,” he says. He cites the dilem-ma faced by companies that try to integrate special-ists’ knowledge in a way that benefits the firm.“Many companies bring engineers and marketerstogether to learn what the other does.This may notbe an efficient way to exploit knowledge because itcan undermine the benefits of specialization.”

Grant distinguishes between explicit knowledge– something that can be put into data form, such asa treasury management system – and tacit knowl-edge – something that cannot be easily quantified orextracted. Tacit knowledge includes informationsuch as that which sales personnel gather intuitivelyand on an informal basis. This hard-to-measureinformation may be more important to firms,according to Grant.

His article, “Toward a Knowledge-Based Theo-ry of the Firm,” appeared in a special issue onknowledge management in the Winter 1996 editionof the Strategic Management Journal, which he co-edited with J. C. Spender.

Slamdunking the Hoyas

The McDonough invest-

ment team (Class of ‘99

members Melissa Lucas,

Courtney Droms, Chris

Kenny, Jude Gorman

and Mike Salemi) took

third place in the Tucker

Anthony Big East Stock

Challenge.

The team scored big with

Amazon.com and Yahoo

stocks, and was leading

the pack during the

eighth week of the Chal-

lenge. They finished the

contest with 53.44% of

total return. First place

went to the University

of Pittsburgh.

The McDonough team

won $7,500, which will

support athletic schol-

arships. They also beat

the “other” Hoyas,

who placed 10th in

the Big East.

5Spring/Summer 1999


With its turreted red brick,heavy glass and brass doors, and greenmarble tile foyer, the entrance to the CarBarn on Prospect Street doesn’t immedi-ately call to mind academia. Despite itshistoric past, its entrance more closelyresembles that of a corporation.

But in the fall, the majority of menand women streaming through the CarBarn’s doors won’t be reporting for work.At least not in the corporate sense. They’llcome to the Car Barn to learn the lan-guage of business, to earn their MBAs. OnSeptember 1, the McDonough MBA pro-gram – including classrooms, program andadministrative offices, and student facilities– will open for business in the new Gradu-ate Center on the Car Barn’s second floor.

Designed by RTKL, a leading Wash-ington, D.C. architectural firm, emphasiswas placed on creating a professional envi-ronment with the technological capabilitiesto equal or exceed those of any leadingMBA program.The Graduate Center is aninterim facility until construction can beginon the new business school building.

Within its 32,000 square feet area,it has four case-style classrooms, each withtiered seating for 65, Ethernet connectionsat every seat, and dual overhead digitalprojectors. A computer lab accommodates50 students, and the eight new studentbreakout rooms will also be equipped with networked computers. The studentlounge is configured with 100 Ethernetports to connect laptop computers to theMcDonough network. The Career Centerfeatures video conferencing capabilities for

The McDonough MBA:

Entrance to the new Graduate Center on Prospect Street.

7Spring/Summer 1999

long-distance interviews, as well as a pro-fessional environment for on-campusrecruiting.

Coming on the heels of Bob McDon-ough’s $30 million endowment gift to thebusiness school, the Graduate Center sym-bolizes the forward thrust of the program.Last July, Christopher Puto became deanof McDonough after an extensive interna-tional search, bringing a decade of corpo-rate executive experience as well as aca-demic experience at Duke University, theUniversity of Michigan and the Universityof Arizona. In the fall of 1998, McDon-ough instituted its new integrated MBAcurriculum.

Puto feels the synergy that comesfrom having the MBA program housed asa unit in one building is vital. “The Gradu-ate Center will substantially strengthen theMBA students’ strong sense of communi-ty, and will have a positive effect on theireducation,” says Puto. “It’s a tremendousboost to our continued, upward movementas a program.”

Associate dean for graduate programsLamar Reinsch believes that the newMBA curriculum has also placed greaterdemands for new technology and space.“This isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity,” saysReinsch.

Understanding the connectionbetween space and growth, and recogniz-ing that a rising MBA program raises allareas within the school, twelve undergrad-uate business school alumni provided themajority of the $4 million to make theGraduate Center a reality. “MBA candi-dates are the ultimate value-driven con-sumers,” notes Mark Frantz (B’69), aGraduate Center donor. “McDonoughmust provide state-of-the-art facilities tomaintain its recent momentum in thecompetitive marketplace.”

Donors to the Graduate Center

Thomas Bindley B’65

Jerome Claeys B’65

William Divane B’64

John J. Fauth B’67

Robert Flynn B’65

Mark Frantz B’69

Paul Kelly B’70

Gerry Kenny B’71

Allen Merritt B’62

Charles Trunz B’75

Anonymous

Tobin Richardson (MBA’00), presi-dent of the MBA student government,believes the interim facility marks the pro-gram’s progress towards the top tier ofglobal business education. “The GraduateCenter marks another milestone in reach-ing that goal,” says Richardson.

Plans for a new, permanent businessfacility are also gaining momentum.Fundraising for the new facility is atapproximately $19 million, almost halfwaytowards the $40 million dollar goal. Thenew facility will house all McDonoughprograms-undergraduate, graduate andexecutive programs-under one roof. Putoanticipates architectural design parametersto be established in the next 18 months.

Which will provide more momentumfor a program that’s already on the move.

Elizabeth Shine

A Program On The Move

Construction in progress on the Graduate Center.

Fueling an Entrepreneur’s Dream

9Spring/Summer 1999

Ifat first you

don’t succeed...

you just may

have what it

takes to be an

entrepreneur.


Notwithstandingthe spectacular success stories of a BillGates or Steve Jobs, most entrepreneursexperience setbacks and some outrightfailures along the way. But they all pos-sess one trait in abundance – persistence.

For five members of the MBA class of 1998, persistence seems to be paying off at last.

A second-year elective course inentrepreneurship required them to con-ceive a new business venture and write abusiness plan. The result is two technolo-gy-driven entrepreneurial ventures. PangeaLimited, an alternative fiber optic networkprovider in northern Europe was hatchedby MBA classmates Matt Carlson,Stephanie Adams, and Christian Jepsen,along with Niklas Munck, an exchangestudent from Sweden who took the coursewith them. Peter Mellen and Scott Miticcreated headlight.com, an e-commerce sitethat sells units of learning via the internet.

The push to turn their ideas intoaction came from an energeticentrepreneur-turned- adjunct professorTom McKnight. “Tom was definitely arah-rah, you-can-do-it kind of guy. His bigthing was that he wanted to see businessespop out of the class,” says Matt Carlson.

The entrepreneurship program atGeorgetown focuses on just that — teach-ing students how to turn their ideas into abusiness. Program director and ProfessorElaine Romanelli views entrepreneurshipas a disciplined skill set that can be learnedand mastered. “It is not magic, it is aboutdoing the hard work of networking, of

knowing a business inside and out,” saysRomanelli. “I don’t think business schoolscan instill a personality trait, but we canteach students how to start a business.”

A donation in 1994 from Jan andTom Phillips of Phillips Publishing Com-pany, and Tom McGeary, founder ofMagTek, turned the goal into a reality.Their gift established the GlobalEntrepreneurship Studies Program, whichRomanelli directs. In addition to teachingstudents the art of entrepreneurship frompractitioners in the field (see sidebar), theprogram links students to the localentrepreneurial community through fieldwork and networking opportunities. Anadded bonus for Georgetown students islocation – Washington’s technology corri-dor exposes them not only to a wealth ofentrepreneurs, but also to the larger com-munity of venture capitalists and consul-tants, who provide invaluable advice tobudding start-ups.

A student-run club, the GeorgetownEntrepreneurs Association (GEA), supple-ments the classroom experience through amonthly luncheon series and a twice-yearlyforum, Entrepreneurial Edge, that givesearly-stage entrepreneurs an opportunity topractice their pitches and receive feedback.Typically half of the attendees come fromoutside the university.

Kit Cooper (MBA 99), president ofGEA, presented his and classmate AlbertoFernandez’ company idea – a Mexican-based call center servicing the US Hispan-ic market – at the April forum. “The pan-elists we assemble have read and know thebusiness plan in advance, so it is a greatopportunity to learn from others and notbe defensive,” he says. After Cooper’s pre-sentation, one of the panelists – a partnerfrom KPMG – invited him to meet someof his partners. They have agreed to pro-vide tax and audit advice free for a certainperiod of time.

Scott Mitic (MBA’98) and Peter Mellen (MBA’98)

(top row, second and third from left)

with headlight.com employees.

11

Pangea’s founders went througha similar process of soliciting feedbackfrom as many sources possible, includinglocal telecom “stars,” faculty, and students.“One thing I think we did well was to beaggressive in seeking out feedback and toexpand our network of contacts, becausewe really wanted a bullet-proof businessplan,” says Carlson.

Feedback is essential to would-beentrepreneurs, but it can also be brutal,ranging from nay-sayers to prominentexecutives who tell you how bad your ideais. “We’ve had a number of experiences likethat and they are incredibly bruising,” saysPeter Mellen of headlight.com. “But theyare also useful because we wouldn’t havetaken the quantum leaps otherwise.”Mellen looks back on these experiences asturning points in helping refine andimprove their business plan.

Entrepreneurship has captured theimagination of business students across theUnited States in recent years, fueled by therise of the internet, more and better-coor-dinated sources of capital, and a desireamong students to forge a different careerpath from their parents, who faced theuncertainty of corporate downsizing in the1980s. A survey by the Graduate Manage-ment Admission Council of MBA stu-dents revealed that 22% of the class of1998 planned to launch a company withinfive years.

But the Georgetown entrepreneurs ofthe MBA class of 98, as well as the class of99 (who number ten aspiring entrepre-neurs) are part of a larger trend of studentsstarting businesses right out of businessschool. It used to be common for studentsto go to business school and get some con-sulting or industry experience beforelaunching a business.

That was Scott Mitic’s plan. “Whatsurprised me was that I crossed the barrierfrom wannabe entrepreneur to action-ori-ented entrepreneur. I think the catalyst wasTom McKnight and meeting Peter, whowas like-minded and driven to makesomething happen now rather than later,”he says.

Still, taking the leap while in businessschool is no mean feat, requiring steelydetermination and hours of work outsideof regular classes on phone calls, meetings,and refining the business plan. For thefounders of Pangea and headlight.com, thework began in earnest after the fallsemester of their second year. Both walkedout of their entrepreneurship course withthe semblance of a business plan, but withmuch work still to be done.

“We went home over Christmas andeach of us decided to think about whetherwe really wanted to be doing this,” saysChristian Jepsen, one of the four Pangea

founders. “Everyone came back sayingthey wanted to make a go of it.”

Mitic and Mellen vowed to start abusiness together over lunch in the sum-mer after their first year – marked by asymbolic “burning” of their resumes – butthe process was still difficult. As classmatescycled into the job search and successfullylanded plum jobs in consulting or finance,they wondered whether trading theirMBA training and a prestigious job forsomething so uncertain was worth it. Awalk past the career center and even a sin-gle job interview seemed out of the ques-tion. “There is an incredible psychologicalmomentum that a class of bright, over-achieving students create towards one ideaof success. We defined success in differentterms, but it was daunting to break fromthe traditional path,” admits Mitic.

Mellen recalls a critical turning pointin their decision to make the leap intoentrepreneurship. “I walked into ElaineRomanelli’s office around Christmas and Itold her that I didn’t think this onlinelearning thing was going to happen. Shejust said, ‘No. You can’t do this, your idea istoo good.’ That was a crucial conversation.If Elaine had not been there to support us,I’m not sure we would have had thestrength to stay the course,” says Mellen.

Since leaving Georgetown, Mellenand Mitic have set up shop in San Francis-co, built a large library of learning content,and redirected their business strategy tofocus solely on individual customers whoare seeking skills to succeed on the job.

Spring/Summer 1999

Scott Mitic (MBA’98) and Peter Mellen (MBA’98) ,

co-founders of headlight.com.

If


A presentation before Silicon Valley’sBand of Angels, ground zero for internetinvesting, yielded significant funding andmarked the company’s first key milestone.They now employ a staff of 10 and expectto be up and running in the summer onthe website www.headlight.com. Theirgoal is tens of thousands of transactionsper month. If all goes according to plan,they look to raise additional financing by year-end for branding and audienceoutreach.

Pangea’s founders are also in thebuilding phase, literally speaking, con-structing a 5500 kilometer fiber-based net-work that they plan to sell to carriers suchas MCI Worldcom and France Telecom.

Along the way, the original plan of usingsubmarine-based technology shifted; sub-marine cable will make up only a quarterof the network now. With the build-outestimated at $400 million, funding wascritical. Matt Carlson moved to the New York area to oversee that aspect of the business. In November, they struckgold, receiving $100 million in equityfinancing from the New York based Dolphin Communications. A deal with a major investment banking firm is cur-rently in the works.

The rest of the team works out of anoffice in Amsterdam. Stephanie Adamsconcentrates on the complex Europeanlicense and regulatory issues, while Chris-tian Jepsen, an engineer by training, han-dles network development. Niklas Munckis busy making contact with potential cus-tomers who will buy or lease marketingcapacity on Pangea’s network.

“There is an incredible

psychological momentum

that a class of bright,

overachieving students

create towards one idea

of success. We defined

success in different terms …

– Scott Mitic (MBA 98)

If all of this sounds a bit intimidatingto the non-entrepreneur, Matt Carlsonseems unphased. “I never thought of thisas an enormous risk. The scale was big, butwe face the same challenges as otherentrepreneurs. It basically comes down tothe same thing, convincing somebody thatyour idea is going to work and thenputting it in place,” he says.

The entrepreneur’s lifestyle may notbe every business student’s dream, but forthose with the drive, it is a career choice assurely as consulting, finance, or marketing.Aspiring entrepreneurs can take heartfrom Scott Mitic’s advice. “The only thingstopping students from beingentrepreneurs is the belief in their ability togo out and take the chance. There are athousand and one reasons why not to takethe chance. But there is one really goodreason and that is the opportunity to be anentrepreneur.”

Elisabeth Liptak

13Spring/Summer 1999

and building a management team.

“I’ve seen hundreds of (start-up) com-

panies and thousands of business

plans and I know what is likely to

work,” he says.

Paul Centenari has spent hundreds, if

not, thousands of hours writing those

plans. A Harvard MBA, he and his

brother left the investment banking

business in Denver to buy Atlas Con-

tainers, a corrugated box company in

Severn, Maryland. The two have been

on a buying binge, snapping up seven

allied companies in the last 10 years.

“In one of those deals, we were buy-

ing a company losing a great deal of

money. We spent 400 hours doing the

business plan, presented it to 18 bankers and

16 turned us down,” he says. “Students like

these kinds of stories. They like to hear how

what they study has a real-life component.”

It is no surprise, then, that Centenari’s

entrepreneurship course focuses on how to

write a successful business plan. Described by

students as “intense,” he’s been known to

meet with student groups for hours at a time.

“Paul is one of those guys who can’t do some-

thing less than 150%,” says Kit Cooper (MBA

99), who took his class in the fall. “He brings

the same drive that makes him a success in

business into the classroom.”

Centenari has been teaching entrepreneurship

to undergraduate and graduate business stu-

dents at Georgetown since 1997. Although

undergraduates are less likely to start compa-

nies right away, he definitely sees their poten-

tial in future ventures. The MBA students from

his fall class are a different story. At last count,

seven of his students plan to launch companies

when they graduate. In addition to Kit Cooper

and Alberto Fernandez’ service call center,

Juliana Lutzi has launched online training

courses for the financial industry. Abraham

Chehebar and Luis Gajate have started a bot-

tled water company. Alberto Rios and Fernan-

do Betancor will be owner/operators of a box

business affiliated with Atlas Containers. Other

entrepreneurs from the class of 99 include Chris

McLaughlin (JD/MBA ‘99), who has started

SmartPortfolio.com, a company that provides

investment analysis and advice via the web,

and Karen Williams, who launched KR Informa-

tion Services, Inc., an online art gallery.

Who says entrepreneurship can’t be taught?

Some say entrepreneurs are born and

not made. Don’t tell that to Jonathan

Silver and Paul Centenari. The two

adjunct professors not only bring real-world

entrepreneurship to the classroom, but also

enthusiasm and encouragement for their art.

“Some personalities may be better suited to

starting a business, but the process of building

a company can definitely be taught and

improved upon. There is an experience curve

in entrepreneurship and this helps students

get a leg up,” according to Silver.

By day, Silver is a managing partner in Com-

monwealth Holdings, a private equity partner-

ship that invests in and acquires small to mid-

size operating companies. Since 1997, he has

been exposing business school students to the

realities of running a business – developing

ideas, finding capital, positioning the product,

Jonathan Silver advises MBA students about entrepreneurship

at the fall Career Extravaganza.

THE NEW BUSINESS MENTORS


Professionals who sit at adesk all day can actually be engaged in backbreak-ing labor. Tony Mazlish(MBA’91) may have the cure.

Mazlish, founder and owner of theHealthy Back Store, wagers it’s yourergonomically incorrect office chair that iscausing you pain. “A lot of people try touse the 10-year old clunker chair until ithurts,” says Mazlish. “Hurts” is the opera-tive word-the Bureau of Labor Statisticsstates that work-related musculoskeletaldisorders account for approximately 34percent of occupational injuries with daysaway from work.

A search for a good office chair to easehis own painful back alerted Mazlish tothe entrepreneurial opportunities in sellingergonomic products. Leaving his job at theventure capital fund Hungarian American

Enterprise Fund (HAEF), Mazlishopened the first Healthy Back Store inRockville in 1994. Today, the HealthyBack Store has locations in Washington,DC, Virginia, North Carolina, and California.

Like most entrepreneurs, Mazlishdidn’t hit success with his first businessidea. In college, he launched a businesscalled No Sweat, marketing designersweatpants. After college, he started abusiness selling products to college stu-dents that “flopped pretty quickly,”Mazlish recalls. He then opened up TheRayBan Man, a sunglass store, but ran itinto the ground after a year and a half.“I didn’t understand the financial side of business,” says Mazlish, who studied art history in college. This led him toGeorgetown’s MBA program, which hecredits for developing his accounting and financial skills.

Although he worked for HAEF afterearning his MBA, Mazlish was infectedwith the entrepreneurial bug, and his expe-riences at HAEF only reinforced his desireto be in business for himself. “At HAEF, Ihelped a lot of people start their own busi-ness,” recalls Mazlish. “And I knew I want-ed to be on the other side of the desk, run-ning my own business.”

While Mazlish enjoys being his ownboss, he advises would-be entrepreneurs toknow themselves before they sink moneyinto a venture. “I think the biggest chal-lenge in starting your own business is stay-ing out of your own way,” says Mazlish.“Everyone has their glaring weaknesses,and the trick is figuring out what they are,not letting them sink your business, andhiring people to complement your weak-nesses.” To save him from himself, Mazlishappointed a board of directors to strength-en his own accountability.

Entrepreneurs are notorious for serialstartups, selling a business after developingit from its embryotic stage in order to startanother one. Does Mazlish see this in hisfuture? “Entrepreneurs don’t become rest-less,” says Mazlish. “They are restless. I’vebeen restless since day one. I don’t envisiondoing this forever, but having said that, Ihave the world’s greatest job. I love it.”

A Back-Saving Business

Tony Mazlish (MBA’91)


Most Internetsurfers do notscrutinize a website’s fine printfor their privacypolicy – what

information the site collects about themand how they use it. Professor Mary Cul-nan is the exception. A highly regardedexpert on information privacy at TheMcDonough School of Business, Culnanrecently conducted a survey of more than300 consumer-oriented web sites in theUnited States to see how many disclosetheir information practices.

Privacy watchers in business, govern-ment, the media, and consumer advocacygroups eagerly awaited the results of thestudy, released in mid-May (available onwww.msb.edu/faculty/culnanm/gipp-shome.html). After all, it was just one year ago that a Federal Trade Commission(FTC) study reported to Congress thatprivate industry was doing a vastly inadequate job of posting their privacypolicies on the Internet. At the time,only 14% posted any privacy disclosure on their web sites.

“The FTC essentially told business todo it on their own or there would be a lawrequiring it. Because the Internet is a glob-al medium, there were potential tradeissues with Europe, where privacy disclo-sure is required. There was also growingconcern about collecting information onchildren,” says Culnan.

Six months after the FTC report wasreleased,The Direct Marketing Associa-tion approached her to do a study for them.But the Online Privacy Alliance, a largeindustry group, convinced her to do abroader study.The FTC endorsed the plan.

The 1998 FTC study conducted arandom sample of all commercial websites, while Culnan’s study focuses on siteswith the heaviest consumer traffic. Thesample was culled from an initial list of the7500 most frequently visited web sites pro-vided by Media Metrix, a web audiencetracking company. Each site visited had aminimum of 32,000 users during themonth of January. Twelve GeorgetownMBA students helped gather the datafrom the sites during spring break inMarch.

The web surfers noted which sitescollected personal information andwhether the company stated its privacypolicy or information practice, such as “Wehave a secure server.” In analyzing the pri-vacy disclosure statement further, theylooked for how sites notified consumers, ifconsumers had a choice in whether infor-mation was collected about them, whetherthey had access to the information, andwhether the information was secure.

Out of the 364 companies eventuallysurveyed, the researchers found that 65.7%of the Web sites posted at least one type ofprivacy disclosure – either a notice of theirprivacy policy or a statement about howthe information they collect on their sitewas used. The study also found that 92.9%of the sites collected at least one type ofpersonal information, such as name, emailor postal address, while 56.9% collected atleast one type of demographic information,such as gender, preferences, or zip code.

“The findings seem to show that com-panies have worked to develop privacypolicies since the FTC’s report last year,”says Culnan. “There was a hope that theindustry would self-regulate, and it appearsthat is happening.”

Securing the Future of Online Privacy

Professor Mary Culnan


Knowledge-management is a buzzword1

The definition of the term is imprecise, itsapplication is uncertain and its utility isquestionable. Yet numerous articles onknowledge-management appear everymonth in academic and business periodi-cals and the phrase knowledge-manage-ment is on the lips of every managementconsultant. So, will knowledge-manage-ment soon slip quietly away like so manybusiness buzzwords of the past? Perhapsnot.

Beneath the hype of knowledge-man-agement lies a very real challenge fortoday’s firms. Firms are crucibles of knowl-edge - managerial, operational, and techni-cal. They exploit this knowledge to com-pete successfully, gain profitability andgrow. Yet, which firm can claim to harnessits knowledge fully and effectively? Whichorganization does not re-invent the wheelalmost on a daily basis? Which organiza-tion thoroughly exploits its ‘best practices’or rejects its ‘worst practices’? Which firmcan always find (within the organization)all the knowledge needed for decisionmaking? Few, if any. That is why there willalways be opportunities for firms toincrease their operational efficiency, man-age risk and learn by better exploiting theresources and capabilities within the orga-nization or within their external environ-ment. The opportunities to gain a compet-itive advantage through managingknowledge are many, even if the precisesolutions of knowledge-management arestill unclear.

The Wonders of Information Technology

The current emphasis on knowledge man-agement owes much to the recent advancesin Information Technology (IT). In fact,the terms knowledge management andinformation technology are often usedsynonymously. In his new book, Business @ the Speed of Thought, Bill Gates says thatcompanies “...need to respond quickly toemergencies and opportunities, to quicklyget valuable information to the people inthe company who need it, and to quicklymake decisions and interact with cus-tomers.” Indeed, in many companies today,computer-based information systems areincreasingly used to transfer electronic dataand effectively link suppliers, customersand organizational units. Wal-Mart, a firmhardly prone to extravagance, invested ear-ly and heavily in a sophisticated computer-based information system to help tracksales, inventory, and supplies. The instantand reliable information from this systemcontributed in an important way to thefirm’s lower operating costs vis-a-vis itscompetitors. Today, Wal-Mart employsnearly 1500 computer professionals to runits information systems. Similarly, FedExtakes pride in its advanced IT systems thatit views as critical to customer service.COSMOS, the firm’s multifaceted track-ing system, is continuously upgraded andseen as a major source of competitiveadvantage. Recently, the versatility of com-puter-based information systems has beengreatly enhanced through groupware,intranets and a range of user friendly soft-ware, making IT the backbone of mostfirms’ knowledge management systems.

The Challenge of Transferring Tacit Knowledge

Though IT has proved extremely useful tocompanies in facilitating the flow of dataacross organizations, these computer-based information systems also have limi-tations that arise from the nature of orga-nizational knowledge.

Recent research in the area of knowl-edge management has shown that knowl-edge is ‘sticky’ and remains localized with-in firms and regions. For instance, firms inthe semiconductor industry find that theyneed a physical presence in Silicon Valleyto keep abreast of the fast-paced changestaking place in the field. Why doesn’t thisregional knowledge flow to firms all overthe world in this very global and techno-logically sophisticated industry? Myresearch shows that part of the answer liesin the fact that knowledge is embedded inpeople, and the regional mobility of engi-neers and conversations between industryinsiders have much to do with the flow ofknowledge. This regional flow of knowl-edge arises from the tacit nature of knowl-edge. Tacit knowledge is by nature difficultto articulate (for example, try to verballyteach someone to swim or ride a bicycle), isoften accumulated through experience andis inherently uncodifiable. IT systems arenot always useful in the transfer of tacitknowledge.

Tacit knowledge exists not just at thelevel of the individual but at the organiza-tional level too. Take the example of aprominent semiconductor firm that decid-ed to move a wafer fabrication plant fromSilicon Valley to Arizona. To avoid losingany of the knowledge embedded in theorganization, the firm transferred most ofthe personnel involved in the facility, alongwith the plant blueprints, the machinery

FACULTY FORUM

Managing Knowledge: The Real Challenge


and instrumentation. Though the firmtransferred all the codifiable knowledgeand through the replication of the originalfacility in the new location, much of themore tacit knowledge, it took the plantmany years to reach the original level ofproductivity. The knowledge embedded inthe fabrication plant was more than anyindividual or group could point to or iden-tify. By changing their location, the firmlost some of the know-how that it previ-ously possessed! IT systems can provideonly partial solutions for the transfer oforganizational know-how.

Complementary Mechanisms ofKnowledge Transfer

Electronic information systems may per-mit low-cost knowledge disseminationacross many individuals, but they permitonly limited complexity of language, flexi-bility of format, degree of personalization,and interactivity. Thus “lean” IT basedmechanisms, while suited to the transfer ofhighly codifiable knowledge, become lessefficient as knowledge becomes more tacitand complex.

In many semiconductor companies,managers view richer communicationmedia including voice media (telephone),combined video-voice media (video-confer-encing), and written media (fax, paperreports) as important complements to com-puter-based information systems. Forexample, telephone communication isviewed as a highly interactive bilateralmedium permitting clarification and inter-pretation of electronic data and problem-solving activity; video-conferencing is usefulin building consensus; faxes permit easy and

quick communication of graphic sketches;written memos and reports provide authori-ty and authenticity to support electroniccommunication.The most tacit knowledgecan be transferred only by the “rich” mecha-nisms - by moving individuals and teamswho possess the requisite know-how.

Scientists in the biotechnology indus-try acknowledge the value of electronicallytransferred data but emphasize its depen-dence upon the credibility of the sourceand the ability to query, discuss, and verifythe data. This broader trust building isfacilitated by a variety of richer communi-cation modes, such as telephone conversa-tions and face-to-face meetings. Thus, tofacilitate the transfer of broader organiza-tional knowledge, firms need to use com-plementary mechanisms simultaneously.

The Cornerstones of KnowledgeManagement

While companies are increasingly intro-ducing formal systems of knowledge trans-fer discussed above, they also rely on infor-mal systems as well. For example,knowledge is the basic currency for a man-agement consulting firm like McKinsey.The firm has a number of IT based sys-tems to facilitate the flow of data and factsfrom one consultant to another.

However, McKinsey’s most powerfulknowledge management systems are itsinformal ones. Consultants point to theutility of networks of personal acquain-tances and the common culture of ‘givingand asking for help’ as being the most use-ful knowledge management systems. For aglobal company like McKinsey, the com-mon organizational culture of shared val-ues, heritage, and behavioral norms helpsovercome many of the barriers posed bydifferent national cultures and systems.

Knowledge-Management and Sustainable Advantage

Knowledge management systems based onIT alone are likely to lead to only a fleetingadvantage, since they can be easily imitat-ed. Wal-Mart’s recently settled lawsuitagainst Amazon.com is an example.

Firms, however, have a tremendouscapacity to manage knowledge through avariety of mechanisms — by standardizingprocedures and formats, issuing directivesto administer coordination between units,setting policies to influence inter-personalrelationships between employees, and pro-viding a common culture to facilitate com-munication and cooperation. While firmshave made huge strides in the use of IT totransfer information worldwide, the nextchallenge of knowledge management liesin the design and operation of organiza-tional structures, management systems,and shared culture that can facilitate themovement of both information and tacitknowledge.

As businesses globalize, firm advan-tages arising from traditional sources suchas the unique access to capital, labor ormarkets can expect to decline. Corre-spondingly, a firm’s ability to develop,access, integrate, and deploy knowledgeacross its worldwide system is likely togrow ever more critical. Only by integrat-ing their information technology withtheir organizational structure, systems andculture can firms achieve a sustainablecompetitive advantage through the man-agement of knowledge.

1 This article is based in part on research conductedjointly with Professor Rob Grant and Jaeyong Songin the semiconductor industry and Susan Bartholo-mew in the biotechnology industry.

By Paul Almeida, Assistant Professor, The McDonough School of Business

Slovak Republics was his way of helping the citizens of these

economies help themselves make a transition to a democrat-

ic market economy.”

Paluszek and Garrity’s significant commitments bring

the total Third Century Campaign fundraising for business

school financial aid to $2 million. The Campaign has allot-

ted a $17 million goal for business school financial aid out of

the $100 million McDonough goal.

“To sustain a diverse, academically rigorous, student

body, we must continue to enable every student who is quali-

fied a chance to pursue admission to McDonough, regard-

less of resources,” said Dean Christopher Puto. “The schol-

arships endowed by our alumni, faculty and friends

emphasize our commitment to a student body that reflects

American and international business.”

McDonough Annual Fund donations experienced a 9.6

percent increase over last year, bringing the total raised to

date for FY99 to $1,403,288. Fundraising for the 1999

MBA Class Gift to date stands at $196,000, with more

funds expected from matching gifts. Eighty-four percent of

the gift will go towards the new business school facility and

16 percent to scholarships.

Several business school undergraduate alumni con-

tributed funding for the interim Graduate Center in the Car

Barn (for more details, see page 6).

Undergraduate Financial Aid

Continues To Draw Support

Commitments to McDonough undergraduate financial aid

continue to grow.

Stephen M. Paluszek (B’79), a member of Georgetown

University’s Board of Regents and the Alumni Association’s

Board of Governors, has given $350,000 to establish an

endowed scholarship fund in honor of his parents. The Jean

and John Paluszek Scholarship Fund will provide financial

aid to middle-income families of undergraduate business

students with demonstrated financial need.

“Georgetown opened me up to opportunities I may not

have otherwise pursued,” says Paluszek, a principle with

PRB Advisors LLC, an investment management firm. “I’d

like others who may not be able to attend Georgetown to

have that opportunity.”

Paluszek has offered to mentor scholarship recipients

and hopes they will consider contributing to the fund after

graduation. “I want students to learn that as alumni they can

make a difference,” says Paluszek. “They won’t realize that

unless we tell them. If everyone gives a little, collectively,

that’s very powerful.”

The estate of John Garrity has given $108,600 to the

John T. Garrity Fund, which will provide international study

scholarships for undergraduate business students. Garrity,

who was a member of the business school faculty, had a

strong interest in international business. From 1990 to 1995,

he ran the Advanced Management Institute, a Georgetown-

affiliated program that trained managers making the transi-

tion from state-run to privatized industries in the Czech

Republic and Slovakia.

“John was profoundly committed to helping the less

fortunate help themselves,” said Professor Dennis Quinn.

“The program for management education in the Czech and

Dividends


McDonough MBAs Have The Edge On International Careers

Many U.S. MBA pro-grams characterize themselvesas “international” withoutdefining what internationalreally means.

In the fall, a task force wasformed to examine aspects ofinternational business atMcDonough in comparisonwith other leading internation-al business MBA programs,including internationally-qual-ified faculty and their research,and international job place-ment for MBAs.

A look at McDonoughMBA career placement statis-tics shows that graduates of theprogram are in fact seekingand finding internationalcareers.

Approximately seventeenpercent of McDonough MBAsfind employment internation-ally, according to a survey ofplacements from 1996–98conducted by the MBA careermanagement office. Thisincludes U.S. studentsemployed abroad, and interna-tional students employed out-side their home countries.

In 1999, half of the corpo-rations recruiting at the schoolwere seeking students forinternational placement.“McDonough has a growingstrength in international job

placement that appears to besuperior to peer MBA pro-grams,” according to ProfessorStan Nollen, co-chair of theinternational business taskforce.

The task force’s findingsalso indicate that McDonoughappears to have a more inter-nationally experienced facultythan other top U.S. schools.

“We have to work con-tinuously at maintaining andimproving our strength in inter-national business” says Nollen.“It won’t happen by itself.”

The task force will contin-ue its research on ways to fur-ther incorporate global educa-tion and research atMcDonough. “People havedifferent ideas, concepts andplans, but there is no model forinternational business educa-tion,” says Nollen. “We have tomake our own way.”

Investing In Emerging MBAs

George Munoz, presi-dent of the Overseas PrivateInvestment Corporation(OPIC), is responsible forhelping U.S. companies investin emerging markets. Thissemester, he was responsiblefor helping McDonoughMBA students understandthose investments.

“It’s important for stu-dents to realize that globaliza-tion will improve the standardof living for people around theworld,” says Munoz, explain-ing his desire to teach atGeorgetown. “But there is alsoa risk of harm if we are notthoughtful and knowledgeableabout how to do it.”

Throughout his course,Munoz focuses on the impor-tance of development strategyand the challenges in establish-ing stable economies that areequitable. “So many countriesare competing for attentionand development that thechallenge is ensuring that thecountries have a thoughtfulstrategy that brings economicdevelopment but also ensurespeople locally are not leftbehind,” says Munoz.

“He gave us frameworksthat are applicable to foreigninvestment regardless of loca-tion,” says Laura Mendelson(MBA’99), one of the studentsin the course. “Because he hasworked in both the public andprivate sectors, he can antici-pate the foreign country’s gov-ernmental concerns whileaddressing the needs of anAmerican business personlooking to invest.”

Munoz believes thatMcDonough’s internationalcurriculum provides studentsan edge in an increasinglyglobal economy. “McDonoughhas the reputation of attract-ing globally diverse studentsthat are self confident,” saysMunoz. “They are sophisticat-ed enough to know that thebusiness of tomorrow willrequire international transac-tions, activities, and profitsthat will impact America’ssuccess or failure.”

Faculty and Staff NEWS

George MunozProfessor Stan Nollen

Putting Service Industrieson the Operation Line

When asked to recommend “must read” mate-rial for a CEO, Professor JoeMazzola suggests IntellectualCapital: The New Wealth ofOrganizations by ThomasStewart. “It reflects my beliefthat managing intellectual capital is one of the primarymissions of a business.”

Managing and trainingpeople so they can produceeffectively and efficientlyacross manufacturing opera-tions is the focus of hisresearch. Mazzola has exam-ined the flexibility of usingemployees in more than onestage of the production pro-cess. He finds that, if donejudiciously, cross-training eachworker to perform a small setof activities can capture a largepercentage of the benefit that

IN THE MEDIA

■ Professor Scott Whisenant was quoted in a February 19th front-

page story in The New York Times (Melody Petersen) on the shortage of

students studying accounting.

■ Professor Jim Angel was quoted on the Dow breaking 10000 in

Richard Waters’ comment and analysis section of the March 17th edition

of The Financial Times, and the March 17th edition of Investor’s Business

Daily (Loren Fleckenstein).

■ Microsoft CEO and co-founder Bill Gates spoke in Gaston Hall on

March 25, promoting his new book Business @ The Speed of Thought.

The event was featured in or on: The New York Times; The Toronto Star;

The Scotsman (England); AAP Newsfeed; InfoWorld Daily News (Patrick

Thibodeau); News & Observer (Raleigh, NC); The Cleveland Plain Dealer

(Andrew Glass/Cox News); CNBC; The Los Angeles Times (Jube Shriver);

the Nightly Business Report; TechWeb News (Mary Mosquera).

■ The new McDonough MBA curriculum was featured in the April 5th

edition of BusinessWeek (Nadav Enbar).

■ Professor Mary Culnan’s survey of online privacy practices for the

Federal Trade Commission was covered in May 13th editions of The

Washington Post (Robert O’Harrow, Jr.), The New York Times (Jeri Claus-

ing) and The Wall Street Journal (John Simons).


Faculty and Staff NEWS

would result if they had beentrained to do everything, oftena costly and problematic pro-cess. He is also exploring waysin which manufacturing pro-cess innovations can be appliedto service industries.

“The operations of servicecompanies are fascinatingbecause of the human interac-tion and intangibility that areunique to services, and yettheir operations can benefitfrom the strategic transfer ofmanufacturing technology,”says Mazzola.

Mazzola comes toMcDonough from Duke Uni-versity, where he taught forover a decade. He will teach anew MBA course in the fall onmanaging service operations.He expects it will draw stu-dents interested in consultingand investment banking – thekind of students who will bemanaging intellectual capital inthe future.

Professor Joe Mazzola


Talk about a managementturnaround. Production andoperations management,(POM) the course that manyMBA students might ratherskip, turns out to be the coursethey most value, thanks to Pro-fessors Ricardo Ernst and KenHoma. The two made the listof “favorite professors” of theMBA class of 1998 in the lastBusiness Week survey.

Last spring, Ernst andHoma decided to experimentby teaming up to teach therequired POM course. Theexperiment was such a successthat future MBA students willbe able to benefit from the dif-ferent perspectives each bringsto the classroom.

Ernst, an academic knownfor his research in global logis-tics, has been teaching at thebusiness school since 1987.Homa was an operations andmarketing executive at Black& Decker, who joined theGeorgetown faculty in 1997.Their paths first crossed whenErnst was conducting researchat Black & Decker. Ernst laterhelped Homa teach his firstgraduate POM course atGeorgetown.

“We began to see that wehad an overlapping philosophyand approach to the content ofour courses,” says Homa. “Oneday, we were looking at the fol-lowing year schedule andalmost instantaneously we

both said, ‘Wouldn’t it be niceif we could teach this together;then we said, ‘why can’t we?’We couldn’t think of any rea-sons why we couldn’t and sowe did.”

The plan was to teach onalternate weeks, although theyended up visiting each other’sclasses to get a sense of conti-nuity. They also got together toteach both the first and lastclass of the semester.

“It ended up being alearning experience for us aswell as the students,” saysErnst. “We were sharing infor-mation all the time as to whatworked and what didn’t. It def-initely showed up in the class-room,” says Ernst.

Ernst and Homa pushstudents hard on quantitativeanalysis and rigorous case workthat students describe as“intense,” but a great learningexperience. The course alsoemphasizes useful tools thatstudents will be able to imple-ment on the job, such as orga-nizational flow charts.

“I came to business schoolwith an engineering back-ground and thought aboutgoing into operations, but did-n’t know what that meant,”said Roshena Ham (MBA‘00). “Like many students, Iwas surprised at how widelyyou apply operations. I thrivedon the class.” Ham and class-mate Karin Toth were inspiredby their classroom experienceto start a POM club whereoperations practitioners can

share their real-world experi-ences with business students.

Ernst attributes thecourse’s popularity to changedexpectations. “Students cometo the class thinking that oper-ations is going to be boring.Then they discover that it isnot boring and even useful. Ihave received e-mails from stu-dents doing internships whotell me that what they learnedis relevant,” says Ernst.

Homa agrees. “Operationsis the class everyone dreads. Soour job is to breathe life into it, demonstrate the relevance,and get students energizedtoward the area. Our greatestthrill is converting studentswho hadn’t thought of opera-tions as a career and suddenlydecide to pursue it.”

The Dynamic DuoRicardo Ernst and Ken Homa Bring the Academic and Actual Together in POM

Professors Ricardo Ernst (left) and Ken Homa engage students in class.


ject whose magnitude he didnot entirely anticipate when hefirst became the graduate dean.

Soon after he started,Reinsch was forming a taskforce to study the MBA cur-riculum, gathering evaluationsfrom alumni and corporaterecruiters, and setting plans inmotion to form the currentcurriculum.

“Lamar’s accomplishmentsare nothing short of heroic.Under his leadership, ourMBA curriculum has movedfrom 'good’ to ‘leading edge’,”says Dean Christopher Puto.

Reinsch’s position affordedhim insights into the adminis-trative side of running an aca-demic enterprise. But he looksforward to returning full-timeto his first calling, teaching.“I’ve missed my twin pas-sions—teaching and research,”says Reinsch. “I’m feeling a lit-tle rusty, but it will be a delightto be back in the classroom.”

Faculty and Staff farewells

Fare Thee Well

The Bard of the businessschool has departed.

Martha DeSilva (G’89),associate director of studentservices and local playwright,left McDonough in Novemberafter 13 years here.

“Marty cared about yourlife both as an MBA studentand as an individual,” notesDavid Gee (MBA’94). “Shealways had her finger on thepulse of student life.”

Her ability to connect withpeople did not go unnoticed.Mike Carlo ( MBA’94) felt shewould be perfect as a humanresources manager at Pricewa-terhouseCoopers, where heworks, and recruited her.

The corporate world isn’tstifling Marty’s creative urges.She is currently working on aplay, and recently received anaward from the MarylandCommunity Theatre Festivalfor outstanding original script.

From First to Last

Communications professorAnnette Shelby was the firstwoman to be granted tenure bythe business school in 1986,and became the school’s firstfemale full professor in 1992.But this spring was her lastsemester teaching. After 20years at Georgetown, Shelbywill retire from the classroom.

Shelby arrived at George-town after serving as a profes-sor at her alma mater, the Uni-versity of Alabama. When theMBA program started, Shelbyresponded to students’ requestsfor much-needed communica-tion skills by designing andteaching the first businesscommunication core class.

“Annette’s extraordinaryskills and unwavering determi-nation have been the drivingforce behind our communica-tions curriculum,” says DeanChristopher Puto.

Shelby still maintains con-tact with several former stu-dents, and has randomly

encountered students in suchdiverse places as Turkey, Rus-sia, Poland and Hong Kong.

More traveling is part ofShelby’s retirement plans, inaddition to completing someresearch products, reading, andenjoying her family.

“I will certainly missmuch of what I do here, but Itruly believe there is a time forall things, and the time justseems right for me to see whatlies around the corner. AndI’m really looking forward tothose challenges.”

But those challenges can wait.Says Shelby about her retirement:“The first thing I’m going to do istake a very long nap.”

It Takes Two to Replace Reinsch

When communications pro-fessor Lamar Reinsch ends hisappointment as the associatedean of graduate programs thisJune, it will take two people toreplace him. His position willbe split between the associatedean of graduate programs and the chair of the graduatecurriculum and standardscommittee.

“The time commitmenthas been the biggest chal-lenge,” says Reinsch. “The jobhas evolved over time, and theresponsibilities have grown.”

The design and imple-mentation of the new MBAcurriculum consumed much ofReinsch’s tenure. It was a pro-

Martha DeSilva

Professor Annette Shelby

Professor Lamar Reinsch

76 Edward J. Wehrner wasappointed CEO of WintrustFinancial Corporation in LakeForest, Ill., on May 22, 1998.Edward has been president ofWintrust since its formation andhas also assumed the role of chair-man of Lake Forest Bank & Trust,one of Wintrust’s six communitybank subsidiaries in suburbanChicago.

77 George C. Yeonas waspromoted to CEO of The FortressGroup, Inc. in McLean, Va, onMarch 25, 1999. He previouslyserved as the group’s president and COO.

78 Theodore C. Burns wasappointed senior vice presidentand CFO of Phoenix Internation-al Ltd., Inc., in October 1998.Phoenix, headquartered in Orlan-do, Fla., is a world leader ininstalled client/server retail bank-ing management solutions. Tedwas previously director in thefinancial advisory services group atPricewaterhouseCoopers LLP inWashington, D.C.

78 Lee D. Gottesman isserving as first vice president ofCongregation B’nai Israel in TomsRiver, N.J., and will be starting hissecond year as president of theInterfaith Hospitality Network ofOcean County, Inc., a non-profitconsortium of local churches andsynagogues. Lee has maintainedhis law offices in Toms River since1992, with an emphasis onbankruptcy law. He also recentlycelebrated his tenth weddinganniversary with his wife, Joy, andchildren, Sydney and Adam.


79 Edwin G. Davila-Bloise

(L’84 & LLM’88) was reappoint-ed for his fourth term as chair ofthe estate and gift tax committeeof the Greater Washington Soci-ety of CPAs. Edwin works atOber, Kaler, Grimes & Shriver,one of the nation’s oldest, full-service law firms. His practice hasfocused on estate planning, trustadministration, tax, and generalbusiness planning.

79 Paul J. Kinyon has joinedthe board of directors at Techni-source, Inc., a national provider ofinformation technology services.Paul is currently vice president atAEGON USA Realty Advisors,Inc., in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

80 Kumar P. Barve wasreelected for a third four-year termin the Maryland House of Dele-gates in November 1998. He wasalso reelected chairman of theMontgomery County House Del-egation and continues to serve aschairman of the subcommittee onscience and technology. Kumarwelcomes any comments or ideas.E-mail him at [email protected].

80 Peggy (Daly) McCrary

and her husband, John, are pleasedto announce the arrival of theirtriplet daughters. The girls, AvaCaroline, Ilsa Juliet, and IngridChristine, were born on October7, 1998, and join their four-year-old sister, Laura Catherine. Thefamily now resides in Tallahassee,Fla., where Peggy and John areboth CPAs.

UNDERGRADUATE

64 Barbara Durham wasnominated for a federal benchposition on the Court of Appealsfor the Ninth Circuit in January1999. Barbara has served as thechief justice with the SupremeCourt of the State of Washingtonsince 1995.

65 John Perez retired fromthe U.S. Air Force in December.His final assignment was as com-mander of the 105th supportgroup at Stewart Field, New-burgh, N.Y. Upon retirement, hewas promoted to brevet BrigadierGeneral and was awarded theLegion of Merit. John and hiswife, Ascension, live in CampbellHall, N.Y.

71 L. Mark Winston is prac-ticing law with Negroni & Win-ston in Maryland and Washing-ton, D.C. He was recentlyappointed chairman of the Mary-land Transportation Commissionby Governor Parris Glendening.

72 Chris Klein is senior vicepresident of ATM systems atBankAtlantic Bancorp, in FortLauderdale, Fla. Since Chrisjoined the institution in August1997, BankAtlantic has tripled itsATM base.

Alumni NOTES

Please e-mail your alumni notes

to [email protected]

or call Elizabeth Shine at

202-687-4080.

92 Michele G. Di Peitro leftpublic accounting to pursue acareer in the food industry. Shegraduated in January 1999 as salu-tatorian of her class at TheRestaurant School in Philadel-phia, earning a degree in the culi-nary arts. She currently lives inCherry Hill, N.J.

92 Jason L. Rottenberg andhis wife, Stephanie Renee, are nowresiding in Cambridge, Mass.,where Jason is finishing his firstyear at Harvard Business School.Previously he was a manager withArthur Andersen LLP in SiliconValley, Calif.

93 Joseph E. Culleiton

recently joined the Pittsburghoffice of Reed Smith Shaw &McClay LLP as an associate afterpassing the Pennsylvania state barexam.

93 John F. O’Brien, Jr. wasmarried to Melissa Pray onNovember 14, 1998 in Birming-ham, Mich. The couple resides inChicago, where John is a vicepresident at Everen Securities.

94 James P. Doherty, III hasjoined the Lafayette, La. law firmVoorhies & Labbé as an associate,where he will focus on admiralty/maritime law.

94 Trisha Teale was marriedto Scott Bonilla on February 20,1999, in Coral Gables, Fla. Thecouple also resides in CoralGables, where they are both CPAsfor large corporations in Miami.

85 John B. Wood was fea-tured in The Washington Post onNovember 30, 1998. He is presi-dent and chief executive of TelosCorp., a provider of computer net-working products and services.John lives in western LoudounCounty, Va., with his wife, Portia.

86 Greg Mazur graduatedfrom Harvard Business School inMay 1998, and has since beeninvolved in the start-ups of severalcompanies. He and his wife,Kathy, have two children, Michaeland Natalie, and live in Hopkin-ton, Mass.

87 Mary Keller Giemek andher husband, Thomas (C’86), wel-comed the arrival of their firstchild, Alexander John, on Novem-ber 2, 1998. Mary is currently avice president for NationsBank inBaltimore, Md.

90 Richard O. Leggett worksat Friedman, Billings, RamseyGroup, Inc., and recently pub-lished a report on IT services, pre-dicting a strong 1999 for the sec-tor. He has also been quoted in PRNewswire in January 1999.

90 James Quick and his wife,Melinda, welcomed the birth oftheir first child, Elise Alexandra,in October 1998. The familyresides in Reston, Va. John alsoran the Marine Corps Marathonlast year.

80 Scott Perry was nameddirector of marketing and researchby the Greater Tampa Chamber ofCommerce in November 1998.Previously, Scott has worked withthe Ybor City (Fla.) Chamber ofCommerce, AAA Auto ClubSouth, Lebhar-Friedman and theA.C. Nielsen Company.

81 Christopher P. Franco

recently formed CapeSuccess Inc.,a marketing and communicationsfirm that uses Internet and inter-active technologies, based in LakeSuccess, N.Y.

82 Miriam McCarthy Sadler

and her husband, John, gave birthto their third child, John Francis,on July 1, 1998. Miriam is a seniorvice president and manager of thecorporate and specialty lendingdivision at Crestar bank in Wash-ington, D.C.. The family residesin Silver Spring, Md.

84 Jim Selvaggi overseesoperations for Tremont Interna-tional Insurance Ltd., a CaymanIslands company that he helpedform. Jim lives in Hamilton,Bermuda, but still makes frequentvisits to the Washington area.

85 Susan Kreusch, and herhusband, Kevin Smead (F’83),welcomed the birth of their son,Spencer Frederick Smead, born onNovember 9, 1998. The familyresides in Wilmington, Del.


ALU

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TES94 Mark M. Wiedmer has

joined the New York office of Ful-bright & Jaworski LLP as anassociate. Mark will focus hispractice on corporate law.

97 Carlo Saba is with theloans syndication group at Bar-clays Capital in New York.

98 Jeffrey David Blumberg

is now a first-year student atDickinson School of Law inCarlisle, Pa.

85Linda Anderson co-founded aconsulting firm, Anderson Strick-ler, LLC, last year. The firm islocated in McLean, Va., and pro-vides real estate consulting ser-vices for colleges and universities.Linda recently hired fellow Hoyaalum, Michael Oliphant

(MBA’98). She lives in Frederick,Md., with her husband, HenryNino, and their two daughters.

87Sari M. Anabtawi is running hisown investment consulting com-pany, Sivana International, basedin London. The firm specializesin raising funds for private U.S.companies that are two to threeyears away from going public. Sarialso sits on the board of three pri-vate companies in the U.S.:www.learningbyte.com,www.webrfp.com and CenturyOffshore Management. He ismarried and has three children.

90Class Agent: Lorraine Herr

([email protected])9 South 021 Skyland Drive,Naperville, IL 60564

George Coundouriotis and hiswife, Valerie, celebrated the birthof their son, Alexander Coundou-riotis, on September 14, 1997. Valleft her position at Ford to be afull-time mother, while Georgecelebrated eight years there, mostrecently interviewing for strategicmanagement positions. George

reports that Bernard Poncelet

also is in Ford’s employ in London.Obviously, Ford knows where tosource great management talent!

Jason Wu is with Coca-Cola in Shanghai.

As this update goes to press, Ireceived a call from my sister, whois in law school, asking if I knewof a William Kummel. She wasreading an article about law firmeconomics in the Columbia Busi-ness Law Review written by thisillustrious Georgetown MBA.

I am training to run the ChicagoMarathon (again) this year andwould love to share tips and com-miserate with other runners in theclass. (Tell me your secrets, JaneAshton Hawes.) My maternityleave ends in May, so I will bereturning to AT&T and workingwith the consumer market. Myhusband, Mike, is gearing up foranother summer of competitiveskydiving and our little Emersonis learning to crawl. Please writewith news.

91Class Agent:

Mary Pat Blaylock

([email protected])

Bob Karig has retired to his homein Mount Vernon, N.H. Beforehis retirement, he was the manag-er of a consortium doing researchin advanced telecommunicationsand information distribution.


THE WAR OF THE ROSÉS

Selling the French on Californian wines

may sound akin to selling coal to the

natives of Newcastle. But it’s all in a

day’s work for Mike Novy (MBA’98).

Gallo Winery’s sales director

for France, Novy was recently fea-

tured on the front page of The Wall

Street Journal for his ambition to

crack the French wine market. And

not go cracked in the process.

“This job is an absolute roller coaster,” notes Novy. “It’s either an

extremely great day or a really terrible day.”

Approximately 98% of wine purchased in France is French wine.

Which means making Californian wines stand out in a 2% market share

that also features such notable wines as those produced by the Italians

and Germans. Novy’s marketing strategy is to coax the French into dis-

covering Californian wines. “The last thing you want to do is challenge

the quality of French wines, because the French feel pretty strongly

about their wine,” says Novy. “So we’re trying to make California a

region of choice for French consumers.”

Since entering the French market a year ago, Gallo has sold

20,000 12-bottle cases annually, and its premium Turning Leaf Vintner’s

Collection can be found in a handful of leading Parisian restaurants.

Novy’s cultural challenges also extend to managing a pan-Euro-

pean salesforce, including Americans, French, Germans, Italians, and a

Luxembourgian. He believes their various cultural perspectives strength-

en Gallo’s mission, although he acknowledges that managing across cul-

tures has caused the biggest challenge in the job. “The international per-

spective that’s part of the McDonough MBA has been really helpful in

dealing with a multinational sales organization.”

Henri IV, the first Bourbon king, dreamt of a chicken in every

French peasant’s cooking pot. Novy dreams of a bottle of Gallo on every

French dinner table. Sacré Dieu! His dream may yet come true...

MBA

Michael Novy (MBA’98)

ALU

MN

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TESJanis (Tindal) Gray was married

to Josh Gray in October 1998.Congratulations Janis! After hon-eymooning in Hawaii and SanFrancisco, Janis returned home toReston, Va., and to her job as asenior market analyst for Sprint.She does strategic planning forSprint business products.

92Class Agent: Jon Gafni

([email protected])1311 Ozkan St., McLean, VA22101

The overriding theme for the Class of92 is “my employer just got bought.”

Jon Gafni left Qwest Communi-cations after their acquisition ofLCI. He is now manager ofinvestor relations for GlobalTeleSystems Group, a leadingindependent owner and operatorof telecommunications companiesthroughout Europe. Jon is livingin McLean, Va.

Thanks to SBC Communications,Inc.’s acquisition of Pacific Bell,Vanessa George is now working(really hard) for SBC InternetServices in San Francisco, whereshe was recently promoted. Shealso recently moved to Oakland,Calif.

Niels Nielsen is at EDS workingon projects for The WashingtonPost that should keep him ridicu-lously busy until Y2K. Althoughhe’s been at this position for awhile, his employer keeps gettingbought. Systemhouse was bought

Laura Rodman was recently pro-moted to senior manager at Price-waterhouseCoopers. She now getsto work with Marty DeSilva

(G’89), who many of you probablyremember as associate director ofstudent services. Laura’s husbandRick recently returned to KPMGfrom Stamford Research InstituteConsulting. The couple boughttheir neighbor’s house in George-town and plan to put their currenthome up for rent (hopefully toMcDonough MBAs!) in lateAugust. Laura must really beworking too hard since the onlyperson she sees is David Gold-

berg – they work in the samebuilding!

Holly Fulgum has left her familybusiness to join her father-in-lawin the residential real estate devel-opment business.

Sue Benveniste, bucking theMBA trend, is still at Mars, herfirst job after business school. Sueis now a senior franchise manager(a.k.a. senior brand manager) on “M&M’s”. She’s having lots of fun and good (tasty) perks.The “M&M’s” Crispy launch washer baby.

95Class Agents:

Lisa Bell

Martina Ehlers

([email protected]),Kelly Reed

([email protected]),Scott Shore

by MCI, which was bought byWorldcom, which then sold thebusiness to EDS.

Glenn Hodges got his Ph.D.from the Technical University ofBerlin. He’s spent the last coupleof years as director of motorsportsand trade shows for ChryslerEurope, and has just moved backto the Detroit area with his wife,Silvia, to join the post-mergerintegration team of Daimler-Chrysler.

Maureen Clyne received a one-month residency at the Cill RialaigProject Artists’ Retreat in CountyKerry, Ireland for March 1999.Maureen spent the month continu-ing work on her landscape series,“Gothic Novels.” Her work hasbeen featured in six solo and 41group exhibitions, and is includedin over 20 private and corporatecollections. Maureen lives inArlington, Va., and her studio islocated in Washington, D.C..

93Class Agent: Jordan O’Neill

([email protected])

Elizabeth Holley Darden isworking at the Nature Conservan-cy in Arlington, Va., and is livingin McLean, Va.

Melissa Donovan is with thecorporate finance division at WaltDisney after leaving ArthurAndersen earlier this year. She alsodoes a comedy routine at severalLos Angeles nightclubs and wasrecently on Hollywood Squareswhere she won $2000!

John Judge and his wife, Jill,have moved from Virgina toAkron, Ohio. John is director ofstrategic integration for FirstEn-ergy, the nation’s 12th largest elec-tric utility. On July 21, John andJill had their first child, IsabellaHope.

Elizabeth Milly is now back inthe U.S. with Goldman Sachs,working in the healthcare groupand eagerly awaiting their IPO.

Taylor Simmons resigned aspresident of Simmons Associatesand accepted a position as seniormanager of market developmentfor Winstar in Tysons Corner, Va.

94Class Agent: David Gee

([email protected])

By the time you read this, we will beout of school for five years. We shouldbe thinking about our ten-yearreunion – any volunteers?

David & Michelle Gee moved toParis from Silicon Valley for thenext three years. David has takenan international assignment withIBM, which covers Europe, Mid-dle East and Africa Headquarters.It works something like this: youget the call on January 3rd, 1999in Calif. and you’re at your newdesk in Paris on January 24th.Their furniture is now very welltraveled, having taken six weeks toarrive in Paris on a ship throughthe Panama Canal. If anyone ispassing through Paris, please letDavid know.


Alumni NOTES

96Class Agents:

Leslie Blair

([email protected]),Tim Doyle

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

([email protected])

Michael Maier is director oflogistics and planning for RuschInternational, a medical devicemanufacturer located in Stuttgart,Germany. He recently completeda successful SAP implementationfor this company. Michael can becontacted directly via email [email protected].

Tim Doyle is enjoying his first-year as a law student in GeorgeWashington’s evening program.

Theresa Preslik and Sonny

Bhatia are engaged and recentlypurchased a house in Gaithers-burg, MD.

Carole Banks joined the publicrelations, issues management, andevent marketing firm of BarksdaleBallard & Company (Vienna, Va.)in February as corporate sponsor-ship manager. The largest eventput on by the firm is the wine fes-tival Vintage Virginia, which willbe held on June 5 & 6 this year inGreat Meadow, Va. In otherdevelopments, Carole wasengaged to Anthony Russo, a sys-tems consultant with NoblestarSystems, in March at the Game

Creek Club in Vail, Colo. Thewedding will take place in Wash-ington, D.C.. A wedding date hasnot been set.

Joseph Kane left U.S. Airwaysafter three years to join Micro-Strategy in a consulting role. Healso ran in the Boston Marathonon April 19th.

John and Aimee (Laman) Sut-

ton moved from Manchester, UKto Hoboken, NJ, in April 1999.John was transferred by his currentcompany, Sutton International, todevelop business in the Americas.They are looking forward to see-ing everyone.

Tammy Maddrey works as asenior consultant for a work-lifeconsulting firm called ManagingWork & Family, Inc.The firmhelps companies understand thechallenges their employees face inbalancing their work and familyconflicts.They also help seniorexecutives understand the drasticeconomic repercussions of notfocusing on the needs of theiremployees, particularly in this com-petitive job market. Finally, theyhelp companies implement family-friendly programs that are cateredto their needs and constraints.With a 14-month old daughterand a husband who travels 75% ofthe time,Tammy is living the lifeabout which she consults

Liza (Betts) Wallace is still withMCI WorldCom in partner mar-keting, and she just had a babyboy on February 11th. His nameis John Gordon Wallace III, buteveryone calls him ‘Jack.’

Dwight Gibbs is still the chieftechie geek at The Motley Fool(http://www.fool.com) where heruns a group of techies. He spendsmuch of his time ensuring thatFoolMart (http://www.foolmart.com) gets plenty of techie lovin’(read: trying to keep Jill Kiankahappy).

Ron Rosier is working at PricewaterhouseCoopers inArlington, Va.

Between various business ven-tures, Constantine Potamianos

is busy pushing the limits of sleepdeprivation and general businessdecorum. Constantine spendsmost of his time in New York as acorporate and securities attorneywith the law firm of GreenbergTraurig. He also recently helpedform the corporate finance groupof Chicago-based McDonnellInc., where he and the other prin-cipals advise and raise financingfor emerging companies, primari-ly in the technology sector. Hecontinues to manage TheGryphon Group Ltd., as well ashis new company, GryphonTelecommunications, Inc. Con-stantine would love to hear fromfriends in the New York area andwould also enjoy speaking withany alums who are involved inemerging companies. E-mail himat: [email protected].

Stephen Gaull is working in pri-vatized infrastructure projectdevelopment and finance for theBechtel Group and has been liv-ing in São Paulo, Brazil, for thelast two years. It is a big challengegiven the economic/financialenvironment, yet lots of fun aswell. Stephen has seen Mariano

de Beer a few times. He alsoworked on a project with SanFrancisco-based GeorgetownMBA Ramiro Sanchez-Gutier-

rez, who spent several months inSão Paulo. If you’re interested invisiting, please e-mail Stephen at:[email protected].

At this year’s Ultimate Four,Georgetown Legends Durga

Bobba, Ken Cruse, Clay Buck-

ley, Bob Ryan,Andy Libuser

(MBA’95), Chris Tiscornia, Razi

Karim, and Mike Hawk wontwo straight games before expiringof sheer exhaustion in the thirdgame. The Georgetown Legendswere led on the court by Clay andoff-court by Durga and Ken’sHUGE corporate contributionsfrom Host Marriott and Merck,bringing in over $10,000 for the IHave a Dream Foundation. Theylook forward to making the Leg-ends the conduit for everyone’scontributions in the future.

This past November, Joe Mohan

married Maria de Leon inBuenos Aires. Over 20 ofGeorgetown MBA’s finest were inattendance, partying till 7:30 a.m.at the reception, holding theirown, and doing our reputationproud across the globe!


MBA

ALU

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TES97

Class Agents:

Andrea Alexander

([email protected]),Jane Oyugi

([email protected]),Megan Mulvihill

([email protected]),Rochelle Cheng

([email protected])

Mollie Dougherty and Tanguy

de Carbonnieres proudly wel-comed their son Jacques into theworld on December 27, 1998. Heweighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. and is a healthy,wonderful addition to the family.

Kelly Taylor is manager of thespecialized program recruiting anddevelopment at Deere & Compa-ny (essentially the MBA recruitingand development program). It’llbe an interesting change of pacefor her to go from schmoozingwith the company’s units, dealersand customers in developing mar-kets like Latin America toschmoozing with the executivemanagement team and top MBAschools. Kelly’s address: K. L. Tay-lor, Overseas Parts Marketing,Deere & Company, (309) 765-4691, [email protected].

Megan Mulvihill relocated withher company, investment bankLegg Mason, to Chicago, whereshe has seen Matt Anderson and Laura Ferris. Meg and Laurawill soon be neighbors, living in the same apartment building in Lincoln Park.

In March, Phil Cefaratti, Scott

Humphrey, Scott Williamson,

Max Smith, Dan Smink, Todd

Corley, Megan Mulvihill,

Andrea Gothelf, Rosemary

Baisch, and Tom Javitch met inPhoenix for their 4th AnnualGeorgetown MBA Fantasy Base-ball draft. Rosemary is now livingin Portland, Ore., and is workingfor Labtec, Inc. Phil is back in theD.C. area; and Tom and his wife,Michelle, are enjoying their babydaughter, Megan Cecilia Javitch,who was born in July.

Andrea Gothelf and Meg Mul-

vihill have been travelling a lot.They also went to New Orleans inFebruary for a mini-reunion withKarri Ludwick, Tara Scalia, Kel-

ly Brighton, and Isabel Mar-

ques. While she was there, Meghad dinner with Greg Adams

and his wife, Julie. Greg continuesto work for Entergy in theirfinance department.

Continuing a tradition that beganwhile students at Georgetown,another trip is planned for NagsHead, N.C. Andrea Gothelf,

Meg Mulvihill, Rosemary

Baisch, Tara Scalia, Kelly

Brighton, Karri Ludwick, Isabel

Marques, Rob McDonald,

Rusty Heffner, Andreas Suma,

and Brian Mannle expect tospend Memorial Day weekendtogether in the Outer Banks. Onceagain, Jeremy Akel will be flyingin from Dubai for the occasion.

Class graduation speaker, Simon

Hitzig, and his wife, Gayle

Nathanson, have relocated backto Toronto, Canada - their home-town. Simon is now working forDundee Funds. He and Gaylewere in D.C. in January, and theygot together with former “group-mates” Chris Skelly, Molly

Moosbrugger, Fernando Tur-

mo and his wife, Sarah Luckam,and Megan Mulvihill. Chris hasbought a house in D.C. and willnow be living in Georgetown, justa few blocks from campus.

Grace DeFries and her husband,Stephen Aroesty, are the proudparents of Margaret Anastasia,born March 26.

98Class Agent: Brian Knox

([email protected])

Marcio Avillez works in strategicplanning for U.S. West in Denver,Colorado. He reports that he andDoug Beeman have workedtogether on a number of invigorat-ing assignments.

Ali Bastani has completed histraining with Goldman Sachs andhas moved to San Francisco tojoin the private client group atGoldman. He reports that hemisses living in New York butlooks forward to the shorter hoursin California.

Peter Brown works in Washing-ton, D.C. for Arthur Andersen intheir global telecommunicationspractice.

Chris Davies works in Moscowfor ICN Pharmaceuticals as adirector for strategic marketing fortheir eastern European operations.

Luis Miguel Diaz-Llaneza is inMexico working for Booz-AllenHamilton. He and his wife Moni-ca had a baby girl, Natalia, inDecember.

Mitchell Fenster works for TheBarents Group, the emergingmarkets consulting arm ofKPMG. His work includes valu-ing soon-to-be-privatized compa-nies in Mongolia.

Carlos Fonseca works for Citi-group in their global managementprogram. His assignments havelanded him in Turkey, India andBrazil.

Chris Gergen started up his owncompany, TeachLink, a new edu-cation technology company thatprovides on-line teaching assis-tance services to post-secondarystudents (www. Teachlink.com).He is also writing a book on socialentrepreneurship.

Kris Hammargren has joinedPrentice Hall Direct in Paramus,N.J., as associate marketing man-ager for business and professionalpublications.

Antwone Harris left his job withBell Atlantic and is now workingat home as a broker.


Alumni NOTES

OPERATING AT THE CENTER OF IT ALL

As an MBA student in Professor

Kasra Ferdows international

productions and operations

class, Michael Maier (MBA ‘96)

visited BMW’s manufacturing

plant in South Carolina for a

case study he was writing on

the company’s globalization

strategy with three classmates.

The experience came in handy

just a few years later when he

recommended that his company,

medical device manufacturer Willy Rusch AG, move one of their produc-

tion units to Northern Ireland.

“Most everything I learned in POM and global logistics I am now

applying on the job,” says Maier.

As logistics manager for Rusch in Stuttgart, Germany, Maier over-

sees customer service, an automated warehouse, and a global dealer dis-

tribution network that supplies anesthesia, urology, and surgical equip-

ment to hospitals in Germany and around the world. Being in operations

exposes him to all aspects of the business. “Logistics gives you a great

perspective on the sales, marketing, and manufacturing functions and

provides a gateway to the international markets,” says Maier.

A German citizen with a background in mechanical engineering,

Maier found the MBA programs in Germany too theoretical. The expo-

sure to experiential learning as well as students from diverse back-

grounds attracted him to Georgetown’s MBA program. “Students appre-

ciate the international diversity and perspectives in class discussions and

group work. I don’t think the international aspect of Georgetown’s MBA

program can be stressed enough,” he says.

With a long-term career goal of becoming a general manager in a

global company, Maier embodies the mission of the Georgetown MBA

program – to produce students with a functional skill strength and a

strategic perspective of the global marketplace who are poised for gen-

eral management.

Kristen Hinrichs works as aquantitative analyst for C&RResearch, a market research com-pany based in Chicago.

Rene Houle is on assignment inHawaii working in Pricewater-houseCoopers’ government con-sulting practice. He notes that heis now an expert on submarinesand surfing.

Nicole Kinnan works as a foodand beverage product manager forMarriott International. Her jobresponsibilities include analyzingthe financial performance andstrategic goals of all the restau-rants within the Marriott family.

Kristen Klemperer has joinedthe Central and Eastern Europeandepartment of the InternationalFinance Corporation (a section ofthe World Bank).

Shalini Lal has joined Convene,an on-line educational company,in San Francisco as a product mar-keting manager.

David McCarthy left his job withPricewaterhouseCoopers to take aposition with GE Capital. Henotes that he enjoys living in Con-necticut and wants many George-town MBAs to come visit him.

Bill McDonald works for IBMCorporation’s strategic consultingpractice. He keeps busy by playing lots of golf and reportsthat he recently broke 100 for the first time.

Peter Mellen and Scott Mitic

are in the process of raising signif-icant venture capital for theirstart-up company, Visiq. They willsoon be launching their e-com-merce web site for training (www.Headlight.com).

Stacy L. Meyer, now a projectmanager at CarrAmerica Develop-ment, Inc., married Thomas (Tom-my) L. Hazel on December 18,1998.Tommy owns and runs apatent research and services firm inArlington, Virginia.Tommy andStacy live in Fairfax County, Va.

John Olmstead will be enteringhis chief residency year in generalsurgery at Georgetown startingthis summer. He and his wifeKatie had a baby boy, AidanMaguire, in February.

Andrei Pogudin works forDeutsche Bank in London. Herecently completed his trainingprogram and now works in thederivatives section for DeutscheBank.

Alan Randolph works for Ernst& Young in their supply chainmanagement practice.

Patrick Rau works in the energymarketing department for Amera-da Hess Corporation, a leading,fully-integrated oil company.

Rowshan Sagynbekova worksfor AES Corporation in theRepublic of Georgia. She has beeninvolved in the debt restructuringefforts of AES after a recentacquisition.


MBA

Michael Maier (MBA‘96)

ALU

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TESJuan Trevino works as a brand

manager for Dos Equis Beer inMexico.

Jennifer Ullyot works for AOLin their interactive marketinggroup. She reports that Scott

Lush and Melissa Flemings

were married in February. BesidesJen, Ana Martinez, Rob Dyer,

Mary Jo Lock, Yasemin Yuce-

lik, Marcio Avillez, Mary Sue

Farley, Heather Hunt, Sabrina

Cellarosi and David Evans

attended the wedding.

Jiahong Wu works for the invest-ment-banking group of Donald-son Lufkin Jennrette in the HongKong office. He hopes manyGeorgetown MBA’s will come vis-it him there.

IEMBA

96Class agent: Thom Arnsperger

([email protected])

Ben Cass reports that he has sub-mitted his resignation to Pricewa-terhouseCoopers consulting inFlorida, and will be taking a posi-tion with a small technology firmin Richmond, Va. According toBen, “I believe this will be aninteresting and professionallyenriching career move. As most ofyou know, Bethanne, Andy, and Imoved to Orlando, Fla. for 14months for Bethanne’s job. Wehave recently relocated toAnnapolis, MD and I will beworking in Richmond MondaythroughFriday.”

Chip Christian was appointedsenior vice president for humanresources and public affairs at theRocco, Inc.’s board of directorsmeeting in March. Chip will bereporting directly to the CEO,and will have responsibility for thefollowing areas: human resources,public relations, total qualityassurance, regulatory and environ-mental compliance, and govern-ment affairs.

Gloria Garcia reports that class-mate Susan Bernhardt and herhusband Tam are the proud newparents of their first baby, ElisaKiera Bernhardt Bayoumi. Elisawas born on March 29th, andweighed in at 7 lbs. All are doingwell.

As a representative for Swiss tele-vision, Pietro Gerosa recently fin-ished making a presentation inPrague to the 700 members ofPromax Europe, the association ofmedia marketing executives,regarding the links and opportuni-ties between sponsorship and TVprogramming. Pietro’s wife, Terri

Frick, continues to learn the pri-vate banking business as a residentvice president in the Lugano officeof Citibank Switzerland. Accord-ing to Terri, “Learning how towork with and manage a privatebanking client in Switzerland is aninteresting counterpoint to 13years of working with Americandepartment store customers atMacy’s. It’s a whole differentworld!” On the home front, theGerosas will be welcoming “littleGerosa number 2” who is due toarrive in September.

Richard Vinci sent in the follow-ing news: “I have taken the posi-tion of senior vice president andprivate equity group head of Dai-wa SB (Sumitomo Bank) Securi-ties on Wall Street. Daiwa SB isthe largest investment bank inJapan and one of the preeminentfinancial institutions in the world.I am focused on global pre-IPOand M&A private equity opportu-nities based in New York City,London, Singapore, Hong Kongand Tokyo. Our focus is on tele-com, datacom, electronic com-merce, Internet and software tech-nology companies. Richard’s wife,Jackie, has resigned her job inWashington and we are finallymoving to the New York City area.We are building a home in Pelham

Manor, Westchester County on Long Island Sound. We are keeping our home in NorthernVirginia.”

97Class Agent: Lynn Miller

([email protected])

Paula Coe’s family moved toEngland this year. Although Paulais still working for Fuller, Coe &Associates, she has started teach-ing classes through Embry-RiddleAeronautical University as well.

Nicholas Davidson writes thatafter six month back in the UK,the Davidson family is fully adjust-ed to the damp and drizzle, butstill missing the Washington sun-shine. Nicholas is back in theDepartment of Trade and Industryworking on an interesting mixtureof telecommunications, broadcast-ing and Internet policy, under thetitle of head of infrastructure andconvergence policy. Nicholas sayshe would be happy to hear fromany IEMBA alums via e-mail, orto meet anyone passing throughLondon for a glass of warm beer.

98Class Agent: Debbie Weil

([email protected])

Michele Franck is traveling andworking in exotic places. Based inMunich, she enjoys weekends inSwitzerland. She also travels toTurkmenistan, where she isinvolved in a complicated financ-ing project.


Alumni NOTES

In Memoriam

Gary Maher (MBA’85),a consultant with the RONCO Group, an international consultinggroup, died on January 6,1999 at his home in Washington, D.C.

He had a heart attack.Survivors include his wifeMaggie and his parents.

Erik Gaull announced that he andKaren Severy will marry on June19th, followed by a two-monthhoneymoon to Hawaii, Japan,Bali, Vietnam, Cambodia, India,Paris, Turkey, Greece, Italy, andMorocco.

Dale Howell reports that he hasrecently accepted a new positionwithin Raytheon as the director offinance of the strategic systemsdivision of the company. This divi-sion does about $1 billion inannual sales. Dale reports that thejob is already quite challengingand he expects it to remain so inthe foreseeable future.

John Justino announced that hehas accepted a new position withPopulation Services International(PSI). He writes: “I will be takinga new job with PSI as a programmanager/country representativestarting in late May. PSI, a non-profit organization, is one of thepremier ‘social marketing’ groupsin the world.”

Maureen Lalor is enjoyingmaternity leave with new baby,Annie, and Jack, now 2. She willsoon be moving on from her busi-ness development position withCrossMedia.

After five years as vice president ofa mid-sized wireless telecommu-nications consulting firm, Alan Li

has formed his own company,Acumen Consulting LLC. Thisnew firm has already signed three

substantially sized contracts withmajor financial institutions to pro-vide executive level expertise incomplex loans deals to wirelesstelecommunication companies.

Kamran Sistanizadeh was oneof three inventors of record for animportant patent for Bell Atlantic.The patent stemmed from BellAtlantic’s pioneering work withdigital subscriber line (DSL) tech-nology which makes it possible tochange the rate of a DSL trans-mission “on the fly.” The enhancedflexibility extends the effectivereach of the technology, increasingthe number of households that canbe provided a high-speed link. Italso expands the range of commu-nications services that DSL cansupport, such as accessing theInternet and telecommuting.

Dennis Wilson wed VaninaDebled on April 3, 1999, inAlexandria. Va. Dennis’ profes-sional life is also going well - herecently returned from a businesstrip to Melbourne, Canberra andSydney, Australia to call onprospective clients for his law andconsulting practice.

Debbie Weil reports that she’sworking at Network Solutions(the dot com people) as a consul-tant in the marketing department.Debbie reports that it’s a livelyplace, as competition opens up toregister dot com, dot net and dotorg, and that she’s having a greattime - even getting used to thedrive out to Herndon, Va.


IEMBA


Georgetown...The Way it Was

Was the School ofBusiness foundedin 1957 or 1958?University archivesshow that both

dates have merit. The business schoolgradually evolved out of the School of For-eign Service. Business courses were intro-duced into the SFS curriculum as far backas the 1930s. However, the School of Busi-ness Administration was not launcheduntil the fall of 1957. But it was not untilthe following spring of 1958 that the Uni-versity’s board of directors voted to insti-tute the change formally.

The exact date of the business school’sfounding may be open to interpretation,but there is no disputing that JosephSebes, S.J., played the most influential rolein the school’s early history. A native ofHungary, he left his home country at theoutbreak of World War II to serve the

Jesuit mission in China. After the war,during which he was under house arrest ofthe Japanese army in Peking, he returnedto Rome to pursue studies at GregorianUniversity. The Communist takeover ofHungary in 1956 led him to the UnitedStates, where he pursued his interest inChina through a doctoral program at Harvard University.

In 1964, a few years after he beganteaching at Georgetown, Fr. Sebes wasrecruited by Father Edward Bunn, thenpresident of the University, to serve as act-ing dean of the business school. Althoughhe protested that he was an unlikely personfor the job, Fr. Sebes ended up being astrong advocate for the School at a timewhen the existence of separate schoolswithin the university was being questioned.

“Fr. Sebes turned around the fate ofthe school and changed the thinking ofother Jesuit administrators, including Fr.Bunn. He was very persuasive, a naturalsalesman,” said Othmar Winkler, professoremeritus at the McDonough School ofBusiness.

In a speech celebrating the businessschool’s 25th anniversary, George Houston(B’ 61), currently the president of MountSt. Mary’s College, said that, “...if it werenot for the dogged determination of Fr.Sebes, we might not be celebrating thisanniversary today.” He noted that Fr. Sebeswas the first person to serve the schooldirectly as a representative on the Universi-ty’s board of directors.

Although Fr. Sebes had to be per-suaded to serve as dean of the businessschool, it was he who ended up persuadingFr. Bunn and the University that a separatebusiness school was worth preserving.

Fr. Sebes as he appeared in an early

Hungarian passport photo.

Fr. Joseph Sebes, who served as acting dean

of the School of Business Administration, 1964–66.

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Documents

Georgetown Business Spring/Summer 1999