March 28, 2024

Executive-in-Residence Roberta MacDonald ’72 to Speak Oct. 19

Roberta MacDonald ’72, senior vice president of marketing for Cabot Creamery Cooperative, will serve as the 2017-18 Executive-in-Residence. MacDonald will speak in the HCC Digital Auditorium on Thursday, Oct. 19, at 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. All sessions are free and open to all.

Executive-in-Residence

Roberta has nearly 40 years of consumer product marketing experience, the last 28 of which she has spent as senior  vice president of marketing for Cabot Creamery Cooperative. She has helped turn the small, farm family-owned dairy cooperative into a national player through creative, award-winning and occasionally over-the-top campaigns.

Roberta previously served as Vermont’s first marketing director, a position created for her by former Vermont Gov. Madeleine Kunin in 1984. She has been recognized with many awards for design, promotions and high-impact public relations programs, including the highest individual award by B Corps. Prior to moving to Vermont, Roberta provided marketing consulting and/or staff services for the San Francisco Opera, National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation, American Express, Information Industry Association, NYU, CBS and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Roberta is a long-time champion of the co-op movement and speaks frequently about how Cabot rewards volunteers for an indelible brand connection with its farmers’ values. In her free time, she volunteers for hospice services in Burlington, Vermont.

The Executive-in-Residence program is coordinated through the UMW College of Business. Since its establishment in 1989, the primary purpose of the University of Mary Washington Executive-in-Residence program has been to provide UMW students with the opportunity to interact with well-known and established leaders in the corporate world and to enhance students’ knowledge of the free enterprise system. In addition, the program encourages the involvement of local business leaders in the life of the University.

Staff Rate Available for Seminar: Taking the Mystery out of Project Management Lingo with Cara Parker ’05 MBA

A UMW staff rate of $50 per session is being offered for the series (includes 2.75% service fee).

Taught by Cara Parker ’05 MBA

Project management skills are a necessity for ensuring ideas become actual results.  New findings from the Project Management Institute suggests organizations that focus on excellence in project management execution reduce risk, improve performance, save money and achieve a greater return on investment.  All these components equal high performance.  This interactive workshop will give you the basic terms, roles/responsibilities, and tools to manage your next project from start to finish.  Bring one of your projects that you are currently working on (or getting ready to start) to the class.

Learning Objectives:

*  Learn what a project is and what it isn’t

*  Understand the five phases of a project’s life cycle (start to finish) and the components of each phase

* Manage expectations of and communicating with your “stakeholders”

*  “Juggling it all” using a Project Management Plan

You will receive the following tools and templates that can be customized to your firm’s needs: Project Management Plan, Work Breakdown Structure, Quality Tool, Communications/Status Templates

Fridays, 8-10 a.m. at Cary Street Partners

Please visit https://quikpayasp.com/umw/commerce_manager/payer.do?orderType=COBrefreshMBA_UMW to register.

Fontem Awarded Best Paper Award at INFORMS Conference

Bellah Fontem, assistant professor in the College of Business, received the Best Paper award at the INFORMS conference for “An Optimal Stopping Policy for Car Rental Businesses with Purchasing Customers.” Fontem’s fellow finalists were from Texas A&M and Ohio State. The paper studies revenue-maximizing decision rules for car rental firms that serve both rental and purchasing customers using the same pool of cars.

Majid Article Accepted for Publication

Kashef Majid, assistant professor in the College of Business, has co-authored an article with Hari Bapuji in International Marketing Review titled “Institutional Differences and Integration Difficulties: How Location of Headquarters and Component Sourcing Affect Firm Responsiveness.”

Richardson Gives Talk at Virginia Library Association Annual Conference

Lynne Richardson, Dean of the College of Business, presented at the Virginia Library Association’s annual conference in Hot Springs, Virginia, on Oct. 28, 2016.  The title of Dean Richardson’s talk was “Manager or Leader:  Should I be Either or Both?”

UMW Executive-in-Residence, Kyle Ragsdale, Chief Marketing Officer for Billy Casper Golf, on Campus Oct. 20

The 2016 UMW Executive-in-Residence, Kyle Ragsdale, will be on campus Thursday, Oct. 20. Ragsdale will speak in the Digital Auditorium of the Hurley Convergence Center at 9:30 a.m, 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. All presentations are free and open to the public.

Ragsdale is the Chief Marketing Officer of Billy Casper Golf (BCG), the largest domestic owner-operator of golf courses, country clubs and resorts. He is also the Managing Director of Buffalo.Agency, BCG’s wholly owned full service marketing firm focused on golf, sport and lifestyle brands. During his tenure at BCG, he and his team have built an industry leading dynamic marketing platform enabling a scaled data driven marketing approach responsible for nearly 3 percent of golf played in the United States.

Prior to BCG, Ragsdale served as the top revenue and finance officer at Vox Media, publisher of SB Nation, The Verge, Vox.com, Curbed, Racked, ReCode, Polygon and others.

Prior to Vox, Kyle was Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs at Georgetown where he was recognized as one of the top marketers in college athletics. Kyle is an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown where he teaches Sports Marketing in the Master of Sports Management program.

Since its establishment in 1989, the primary purpose of the University of Mary Washington Executive-in-Residence program has been to provide UMW students the opportunity to interact with well-known and established leaders in the corporate world and to enhance students’ knowledge of the free enterprise system. In addition, the program encourages the involvement of local business leaders in the life of the University.

Tickets Now Available for the Leadership Colloquium @ UMW

Pamela Bridgewater, career ambassador, will give the keynote lecture at the 23rd annual Leadership Colloquium at the University of Mary Washington. The conference, centered on the theme “Real Women, Real Issues, Real Solutions,” will take place at UMW’s Stafford campus from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3.

During her Foreign Service career, Bridgewater helped open communication channels between the African National Congress and the U.S. and, as special coordinator for peace in Liberia at the height of a civil war, led a U.S. delegation to peace talks that set that country on a road to recovery. Bridgewater served as U.S. ambassador in three countries under three different presidents: President Bill Clinton appointed her U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Benin; President George W. Bush named her U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana and President Obama appointed her as Ambassador to Jamaica.

The daylong event also includes a variety of seminars from speakers including Michelle Caldwell Thompson, Donna Tyson, Mauricio Velasquez, Hope Taylor and Linda Worrell.

The registration fee ($179 for registrants before Oct. 1, $199 from Oct. 1-31, and $219 from Nov. 1-6) includes breakfast, a buffet luncheon, afternoon tea, and all sessions, forums and materials.

*NEW* Student tickets are available for $30, and groups of five or more may register at the discounted rate of $179 through Oct. 21. For more information or to register, visit http://www.umw.edu/lcpw/.

Sept. 22: To Be Thrilled or Not to Be? Key Megatrends at Work with Dr. Janamitra Devan

Thursday, September 22, 2016, 7 p.m.
Woodard Hall, Room 202
This event is free and open to the public

Janamitra Devan, Ph.D., will discuss key megatrends that are shaping the world we work in. Some are great; others may turn out to be disastrous. But all will impinge on the way each of us work in the future, and will impact income and wealth creation.

About Janamitra “Dev” Devan, PhD

Janamitra Devan currently advises several senior leaders on a range of economic, financial and policy issues.  He is currently a member of the Chinese B20 Task Force on the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).  He was the Senior Advisor to the Chair of the Turkish B20 in 2015. In that capacity, he was responsible for guiding Fortune 500 B20 Corporate leaders in the formulation of recommendations to the G20 Heads of State that took place at the end of 2015. He successfully steered the process to obtain endorsement from G20 Heads of State for the formation of new multilateral organization, the World SME Forum, which was inaugurated in 2015.

Dev is a recognized expert on megatrend assessments, competitiveness, strategy and leadership.  He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Competitiveness that advises the organization formulate an agenda for global leaders attending the annual Davos Forum. He is also a member of the ‘Future Circles’ initiative of the Government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and WEF, comprising a group of 30 global intellectual leaders who advice the Cabinet of the UAE on mapping their future strategy.  He is also a member of the Airbus Industries Group’s STAR Program, a grouping of top luminaries in various fields who regularly interact with Airbus Group’s Group Executive Committee members.  He is also a member of the Global Dean’s Council of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and Senior Advisor to the premier Turkish think-tank, the Economic Policy & Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV).

Dev has held several leadership positions throughout his career.  He was until recently the Vice President of the World Bank and IFC’s Financial & Private Sector Network (2009-2013), and prior to that, the Director for Asia at the McKinsey Global Institute in Shanghai (2006-2009).  Earlier in Washington DC (1999-2006), he served as McKinsey’s Director of Operations of its flagship Global Strategy Practice, and before that as Principal Consultant at Standard & Poors DRI/McGraw-Hill (1992-1998).

Gower Publishes Article in Organization Management Journal

Kim Gower, assistant professor in the College of Business, co-authored an article with Barbara Ritter and Patricia A. Hedberg titled “Enhancing Teacher Credibility: What We Can Learn From the Justice and Leadership Literature,” Organization Management Journal, 13 (2), published online 6/22/16 (see the link:  http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/xb7qMHsVs2E8wgIbJnvm/full).

Business Faculty, Alumna Receive Acceptance for DSI Annual Meeting

Belleh Fontem and Rachel Graefe-Anderson, both assistant professors in the College of Business, along with Hannah Tibbett ’16, report the following acceptance: “Bermudan Put Option Pricing under Risk Aversion in Bilateral Gamma Models,” Proceedings: DSI Annual Meeting,  November 19-22, 2016, Austin, TX.