The last six months have been very exciting here at the A. B. Freeman School of Business. Since September, a large number of individuals — including students, faculty, staff, alumni and employers — have been meeting to develop a comprehensive strategic plan that will guide the Freeman School over the next five years or so. This planning process has been the most systematic, rigorous and inclusive in school history, and we expect the end result to be innovative, market-driven and reflective of our distinct capabilities as an institution. The process is now nearing its conclusion, and I look forward to sharing the plan with you in its entirety when it is completed.

At the same time, another planning group — the MBA Strategy Task Force — has been working to reposition our MBA program. Led by Professor of Management Science Geoff Parker and with support from the Freeman Consulting Group, the task force has been studying the global graduate management education market and developing recommendations to enable the Freeman School to compete more effectively in this rapidly changing space. The task force recently presented its preliminary report at a series of town hall meeting,s and, again, I look forward to sharing its full report with you as soon as it’s finalized.

By now, many of you are likely aware that the Freeman School recently discovered that certain MBA admissions data previously submitted to U.S. News & World Report for its survey of graduate business programs had been misreported. In January, following a thorough, independent investigation by a third-party firm engaged by the university, the Freeman School submitted corrected data to U.S. News & World Report and other organizations for the years 2007–2011. The Freeman School is committed to the highest possible ethical standards. It is deeply regrettable that this situation occurred, but our focus remains squarely on the future and our future continues to look very bright indeed.

Our cover story in this issue pays tribute to John Elstrott, professor of practice and longtime executive director of the Levy-Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship, on the occasion of his retirement. John is someone who has truly changed lives, educating and inspiring countless students to pursue their dreams and become entrepreneurs. That in itself would be praiseworthy, but John’s lifelong emphasis on ethics, social responsibility and the philosophy of “conscious capitalism” makes his contributions to the lives of our students and alumni that much more significant. While he no longer is serving as executive director of the Levy-Rosenblum Institute, John will continue to teach MBA students each spring, and I look forward to working with him to develop external support for some exciting entrepreneurship-related programs we are in the process of developing.

As I write this message, we’re about to begin what is traditionally our busiest time of the year. In the coming weeks, we’ll be hosting the Rolanette and Berdon Lawrence Finance Case Competition, the Tulane Business Plan Competition, the Tulane Council of Entrepreneurs Awards Gala, the Burkenroad Reports Investment Conference, and the 2013 Graduate Alumni Reunion. If you haven’t visited the Freeman School recently, I highly encourage you to attend one of these upcoming events. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many alumni at these events in the past, and I always come away humbled and inspired by their stories of how the Freeman School impacted their lives.

In closing, I’d like to remind you that that now is the time of year when many of our students are searching for jobs and internships. As someone who interacts with our students on a daily basis, I can say without qualification that they are among the most talented, highly qualified job candidates you’re likely to encounter. If you or your organization has hiring needs, I encourage you to contact our Career Management Center for resumes.

What should the A. B. Freeman School of Business look like in five years?

That was the central question posed to a large, diverse group of faculty, staff, students, alumni and employers in September 2012. Now, seven months later, the group—known collectively as the Strategic Planning Leadership Team—is preparing to release its findings to the entire Freeman community.

Freeman School Dean Ira Solomon assembled the team last summer to begin the difficult task of drafting a new strategic plan for the Freeman School. With more than 50 participants representing all the major stakeholder groups and professional support from Academic Leadership Associates, a nationally respected firm specializing in strategic planning for higher education, the effort is the most inclusive, most comprehensive strategic planning process in school history.

“I think we all share the view that it’s critically important for this school to determine what it wants to be on a goingforward basis,” says Solomon. “There’s a widespread recognition that we don’t have the scale to be everything to everybody, so this is the time where we’ve got to figure out where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.”

“It’s something that needs to be done,” adds Albin Soares (MBA ’13), president of the Graduate Business Council. “The business school has been around a long time, but the market has changed dramatically. Where do we fit in? What do we do well? Where do we go from here? That’s what we’re trying to figure out in these strategic planning sessions.”

The planning process is actually part of a larger initiative being undertaken at the university level. Seven years after Hurricane Katrina, Tulane is embarking on a major strategic planning effort designed to move the university beyond recovery and into the next stage in its growth. As part of that process, the provost’s office asked each academic unit to develop its own strategy document that will feed into the master plan, ensuring that key school priorities get the resources and support they need from the university’s central administration.

For the Freeman School, the process couldn’t come at a more critical time. Across the nation, business schools are facing increased competition from a wide variety of sources, including online programs, for-profit universities and institutions in Asia and Europe. At the same time, prospective students are becoming more demanding consumers, increasingly questioning the value of traditional business school offerings. Interest in the two-year, full-time MBA, long considered the flagship program at most business schools, has declined for five straight years, according to data from the Graduate Management Admission Council.

“If we are focused as we have been for a number of years on a strong MBA program, expecting that to continue, that’s not going to happen,” says Business School Council member Jerry Greenbaum (BBA ’62). “That’s just not where graduate education is going in the future, so we need to clarify where it is we want to go and what it is we want to do.”

Since the process kicked off in September, the Strategic Planning Leadership Team has spent hundreds of hours studying the management education environment and developing five-year goals for the Freeman School along with strategies to achieve those goals and metrics to measure outcomes.

“By collecting all the inputs from the various constituencies and then organizing that input around a clear vision of where we’re trying to go as a school, you get clarity on what you’re trying to get done, but you also get the buy-in, which I think is critical,” says Business School Council member Jay Lapeyre (MBA/JD ’76). “It’s a terrific process.”

The inaugural Altman Scholars class.

“The world is flat,” proclaimed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in the title of his 2005 best-seller on how technology is leveling the global playing field, but that newly level playing field brings with it a new set of problems.

Last fall, Tulane University launched a new interdisciplinary program aimed at preparing students to take on the unique challenges of an increasingly interconnected world.

The Jeffrey A. Altman International Studies Program in Business and Liberal Arts is a four-year undergraduate program that combines advanced language training with business and liberal arts education. Made possible through an $8.3 million gift from the Jeffrey A. Altman Foundation, the philanthropic organization founded by Altman (BSM ’88), the program targets a select number of students who seek a more integrated understanding of the economic, political and social issues that define the contemporary world.

“It’s an incredible opportunity for students to gain technical business savvy and also the global thinking that comes with a liberal arts degree,” says Myke Yest, professor of practice at the Freeman School, who co-directs the program with Casey Love, senior professor of practice in political science.

Students completing the program will earn both a Bachelor of Science in Management and a Bachelor of Arts in a chosen liberal arts discipline, such as political economy, economics or history, but according to Yest, the program is more than simply a dual-degree offering. Each semester the Altman Scholars will take one course as a group, enabling the students to pull together their experiences in business and liberal arts as they explore global issues.

Myke Yest, left, and Casey Love are co-directors of the new Altman International Studies Program.

“Our goal is to make sure that the two areas reinforce each other and are being intertwined throughout the program,” New program aims to produce global scholars says Yest. “It’s the meshing of these worlds and the constant reflection of one back to the other that’s going to lead to a more robust experience.”

The Altman Scholars will also devote at least two years to foreign language study and spend their junior year abroad in a foreign-language-speaking country. This summer, they’ll get their first taste of international travel with a trip to Costa Rica to take part in a month-long program combining service learning with a course in cross-cultural communication and business.

According to Yest, graduates of the program will be qualified for careers in international business, government and nongovernmental organizations.

“Our hope is that after completing the program, Altman Scholars will be able to think in a much more global way,” says Yest. “Not only will they have strong technical proficiency in business, a language and a liberal arts discipline, they’ll have the ability to weave all these areas together and that’s really what this program is all about.”

John M. Trapani III, left, watches as Dean Ira Solomon announces the establishment of an endowed professorship in his honor.

Friends, colleagues and former students of John M. Trapani III came together in November to honor the longtime Freeman School faculty member with the establishment of an endowed professorship in his name.

Spearheaded by Stacey M. Berger (A&S ’76, MBA ’78) and David A. Sislen (A&S ’76), two of Trapani’s former students, the John M. Trapani III Professorship in Business Administration will support the teaching and scholarship of an outstanding early-career faculty member.

In announcing the professorship, Freeman School Dean Ira Solomon praised Trapani, the Streiffer Chair of International Finance and executive director of the Goldring Institute of International Business, for a career that has combined outstanding teaching with institutional leadership, most significantly partnering with universities around the world to expand the Freeman name and develop innovative new programs.

“As much as anybody—and maybe more than anybody— John has been an institution builder over the time he has been here at the Freeman School,” said Solomon. “I’ve traveled with John to South America, Central America and Asia, and I’ve had people tell me first hand. John has played a vivid role in the lifeblood of many individuals and institutions around the globe.”

Berger and Sislen helped raise more than $100,000 to fund the professorship, but the former classmates said that was a small price to pay to honor the man whose teaching and mentorship played such a significant role in their lives.

Trapani with former students Stacy Berger, left, and Dave Sislen, right, who led an effort to raise more than $100,000 for the professorship.

“I was not necessarily the most motivated student when I came here to Tulane,” said Sislen, president and managing director of Bristol Capital Corp. in Bethesda, Md. “Until I found John’s class and discovered an interest that sparked something I cared about—something that explained the world to me—I would have continued to be an undistinguished student. It was not only finding a topic that was exciting to me but also a guy, someone who could get me through the bizarre elements of economic theory, that really changed my direction in life and gave me that motivation.”

“John was an extraordinary professor and we really enjoyed the experience and the feel in his class and what he taught us beyond economics,” added Berger, executive vice president of PNC Real Estate – Midland Loan Services in Washington D.C. “It’s an honor and privilege for us to be able to give John the tribute that he deserves for what he contributed to Dave and I personally and what he’s contributed to the Freeman School and Tulane University.”

In acknowledging the professorship, Trapani shared some humorous recollections of Berger and Sislen before reflecting on the meaning of being honored by former students.

“There are many accolades we get in academia, but to be recognized by your former students in my mind is really the highest accolade of all,” Trapani said. “It’s my hope that the Trapani professorship will be used to nurture education as a personalized sharing relationship between students and faculty in the same way that I’ve had the fortune to experience here at Tulane.”

In August, the Freeman School unveiled a new lab dedicated exclusively to the Bloomberg Professional service, the world’s leading financial news, data and analytics platform.

Bloomberg is the world’s leading provider of news, data and analytics for finance professionals. Now, thanks to a new agreement, the Freeman School is making the company’s flagship desktop product—the Bloomberg Professional service— fully available to students.

Over the summer, the Freeman School acquired 12 new subscriptions to the service, enabling the creation of a new computer lab dedicated exclusively to Bloomberg. The lab, located on the first floor of Goldring/ Woldenberg Hall I, provides students with 24-hour access to real-time and historical data on commodities, derivatives, equities, fixed income and foreign exchange securities.

“Bloomberg offers users a staggering array of financial tools and information,” says Ira Solomon, dean of the Freeman School, who worked closely with faculty, staff and representatives from Bloomberg to make the lab a reality. “By making those tools and information available to students, we hope to enhance their understanding of key concepts and reinforce the theories they’re learning in the classroom.”

While the Freeman School’s Turchin Library has offered students limited access to the Bloomberg Professional service for a number of years, the new lab allows faculty members to fully leverage the power of Bloomberg in the classroom, enabling projects that let students apply conceptual knowledge to real-world examples.

David Lesmond, for example, is having his Master of Finance students conduct a financial analysis of a firm, including forecasting what the company’s earnings are likely to be at the end of the semester.

“They’re using Bloomberg for almost everything,” says Lesmond, associate professor of finance. “As opposed to simply doing a problem at the back of a textbook, they’re using actual data to determine characteristics that we’d otherwise just talk about. It makes the lessons learned a lot more real.”

With the opening of the new lab, Freeman students now have access to the two leading financial data products on the market: the Bloomberg Professional service and Thomson Reuters Eikon, which is installed on work stations in the Freeman School’s Trading Center. According to Lesmond, that gives students a tremendous advantage.

“Every desk that does financial analysis is either going to have a Reuters terminal or a Bloomberg application,” Lesmond says. “By giving our students that experience while they’re still in school, they’re going to be able to step into those environments seamlessly and start contributing from day one.”

In 2012, ManpowerGroup ranked accounting as one of the five hardest jobs to fill. That talent shortage is expected to continue through 2020 as more and more accountants reach retirement age. Those numbers aren’t lost on the staff of the Freeman School’s Career Management Center.

The Career Management Center’s inaugural Accounting Leadership Institute featured presentations from 27 accounting professionals representing 14 different organizations.

To help meet the nation’s growing need for accounting professionals, the CMC organized a two-day program for prospective accountants as part of October’s Freeman Days Chicago. The Accounting Leadership Institute was a professional education and networking event designed to introduce students to the variety of career options available in accounting. Held at the Hampton Inn and Suites Chicago Downtown, the institute featured a day of educational sessions on career management and workplace skills led by Chicago-area accounting professionals followed by a day of information sessions with employers.

“Our primary goals were to educate students on accounting career options, to enhance their professionalism and to help them expand their networks in a major market with a large alumni base,” says Margie Cartwright, career consultant at the CMC and organizer of the institute. “Most of the organizations we partnered with for the institute hadn’t previously worked with the Freeman School, and they all expressed enthusiasm for staying connected with us in the future.”

In all, students heard from 27 accounting professionals, representing 14 organizations from the public, private and nonprofit sectors.

“The opportunity to ask questions was invaluable,” says Jess Dallager (BSM/MACCT ’13). “We got candid responses that I think were eye opening for a lot of us. You can’t get those insights from a textbook.”

While this year’s event was just a pilot program, Cartwright says she’s hopeful the institute will become an annual part of Freeman Days.

“The evaluations we received were all very positive,” Cartwright says. “Going forward, we think the institute will be a great way to help expand our alumni base in selected cities and introduce students to a wider network of employers.”

The Tulane Business Forum’s panel on sports and economic development featured, from left to right, Mark Romig, Jay Cicero, Rick Dickson, Dennis Lauscha and Doug Thornton.

From the NBA All-Star Game and the BCS College Football Championship to the NCAA Men’s Final Four and the Super Bowl, New Orleans has reemerged as one of the nation’s leading destinations for major sporting events. At the 33rd annual Tulane Business Forum, which took place Sept. 28 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, a panel of local sports officials said that impressive post-Katrina run isn’t an accident.

“I can think back five or six years ago to conversations that all of us here had in terms of what can our industry do to impact and contribute to the recovery of our state,” said panelist Rick Dickson, Tulane athletics director. “It’s been very gratifying to help to facilitate these events.”

Joining Dickson for the panel discussion of sports and economic development were Dennis Lauscha, president of the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Hornets; Doug Thornton, senior vice president of SMG, the management company for the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and the New Orleans Arena; and Jay Cicero, president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation. Mark Romig, president and CEO of New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp., moderated the session.

Increased collaboration has been a big factor in attracting major sporting events to the city, but an even bigger factor may be the city itself. According to the panelists, no other city in the nation boasts world-class venues and abundant hotel rooms within walking distance of a hospitality center like the French Quarter. That compact footprint enables the city to save millions in hosting expenses. While Super Bowls in Indianapolis and Dallas have cost upwards of $35 million, New Orleans hosted Super Bowl XLVII for about $13.5 million.

“The reason we can do that is because of our footprint and because of everyone working together,” said Lauscha. “It’s really amazing when you think we’re going to have one of the best Super Bowls, and we’re going to do it for about a third of the cost of Dallas.”

Carl J. Schramm, president of Schramm & Co. and former president of the Kauffman Foundation, discussed ways to make America more entrepreneurial as this year’s keynote luncheon speaker.

With the title “Scoring Big: Building on Business Victories,” this year’s forum had a sports theme. In addition to the panel discussion, Tulane President Scott Cowen delivered a sobering talk on the state of intercollegiate athletics, an institution facing serious obstacles in the form of increased commercialism, challenges to amateurism, questions of integrity, a lack of financial sustainability and concerns over player safety.

“The current system is not sustainable in its current form,” Cowen said. “I want to be proven wrong. I believe very strongly in the value of intercollegiate athletics in the higher education community. I would just like to make sure that it’s sustainable and that it represents the values that we always envisioned for intercollegiate athletics.”

Delivering the keynote addresses this year were Carl J. Chaney, president and CEO of Whitney Bank, who discussed Hancock Holding Co.’s acquisition of the venerable New Orleans bank in 2010, and Carl J. Schramm, president of Schramm & Co. and former president of the Kauffman Foundation, whose luncheon keynote talk addressed ways to make American capitalism more entrepreneurial.

The program also included presentations by Beth A. Brooke, global vice chair of public policy with Ernst & Young, who discussed the potential impacts of the presidential election on business, and John C. Sheptor, former president and CEO of Imperial Sugar Co., who talked about how he repositioned Imperial for new products and markets.

Freeman student Brad Girson (BSM ’13) has helped raised over $60,000 for injured Tulane football player Devon Walker through the sale of T-shirts.

Within hours of learning that Tulane football player Devon Walker (SE ’13) had suffered a devastating spinal injury in the Sept. 8 game against Tulsa, Brad Girson (BSM ’13) and Jesse Schwartz (LA ’13) started brainstorming.

“We were sitting in our living room watching the game live, and we saw the injury happen,” recalls Schwartz. “We didn’t know the extent of the injury at the time, but when we found out, we just thought, ‘What can we do?’”

Girson and Schwartz had started a clothing line during their sophomore year, selling custom-designed T-shirts out of their dorm rooms, so it didn’t take long for the business partners to come up with an idea to create a T-shirt with Walker’s name and jersey number to raise funds for the family and rally students around the cause.

Tulane football player Devon Walker suffered a devastating spinal injury in the Sept. 8, 2012, game against Tulsa.

“It was kind of naïve,” Girson says. “We walked into President Cowen’s office Monday morning and said, ‘We have an idea to help Devon Walker. Can we meet with President Cowen?’”

Cowen quickly embraced the idea and with his support, the students placed an order for 384 T-shirts to sell at a rally being planned for Walker that Friday afternoon. By Friday morning, they had more than 800 online requests for shirts.

“We realized we were dramatically underestimating,” laughs Girson. “We sold out in an hour and a half.”

With the support of Tulane Athletics, Girson and Schwartz have since sold more than 3,000 T-shirts, generating over $60,000 for the Devon Walker fund, which was established to assist the Walker family with medical bills and other costs.

“Tulane does a really good job of instilling in students the idea of social entrepreneurship and giving back to the community,” says Girson. “When this injury happened, we knew we had to do something.” The Devon Walker recovery T-shirt is available online through the Tulane bookstore and the Tulane Athletics online store.

For more information about Walker’s recovery and ongoing support efforts, visit http://tulane.edu/devonwalker.

The Business School Council, the primary external advisory board of the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University, has recently added three new members.

Ozgur Karaosmanoglu

Ozgur Karaosmanoglu (A&S ’84, MBA ’87) is senior vice president, investments, and managing director at Raymond James Financial Inc. Prior to joining Raymond James in 1993, Karaosmanoglu served as an investment executive at Legg Mason and as an account executive and operations managers at Dean Witter. Karaosmanoglu is founder of the Global Wealth Management Group at Raymond James, which serves both retail and institutional clients with total assets of approximately $250 million. He served on the Raymond James Executive Council and is a member of the firm’s Chairman’s Council.

Dana Mcilwain

Dana McIlwain (BSM ’84) is a vice chairman and leader of the U.S. Advisory Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he provides strategy and direction for over 9,000 PwC professionals focused on helping clients through three areas of focus: Consulting, Deals and Forensics. Prior to being named leader of the U.S. Advisory practice, Mcilwain served as a member of the U.S. firm’s Board of Partners and Principals, and was the New York Metro Advisory Regional Leader and East Region Advisory Leader. He joined PwC in 1984 and is currently based in New York.

Matt Schwartz

Matt Schwartz (BSM ’99) is a co-founder and principal of the Domain Cos., a real estate development and management firm headquartered in New Orleans and New York. Since its inception in 2004, Domain has been involved in the acquisition and development of more than 3,000 housing units and 250,000 square feet of retail space in markets ranging from small cities and major established urban areas to pioneering and redeveloping urban environments. Prior to launching Domain, Schwartz was a vice president of Related Capital, then the largest multifamily owner and financial services provider in the country.

With more than 50 members spanning the United States and China, the Business School Council serves as the primary external advisory board of the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. In addition to leading fundraising activities and promoting the Freeman School externally, the Business School Council advises and assists the dean in the areas of strategy, curriculum and program development, marketing, admissions and placement.

Dean Ira Solomon, left, presents Jasmijn Bol with a plaque recognizing her investiture as the inaugural PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP Faculty Fellow in Accounting.

Jasmijn Bol was formally invested as the inaugural PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP Faculty Fellow in Accounting in a ceremony at the Freeman School on Nov. 15. The professorship was established with donations from Tulane alumni and friends at PricewaterhouseCoopers along with matching gifts from the PwC Foundation.

“It’s an honor to be associated with such a prestigious organization, and I’m appreciative of the confidence they feel in me and my research,” says Bol, associate professor of accounting. “Hopefully, my research can benefit them and provide insights that will be helpful.”

Bol joined the Freeman School in July 2012 after spending five years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, widely regarded for having one of the nation’s top accounting programs. Her research focuses on the subjective side of compensation contracting, exploring how managerial discretion influences performance assessment, contract design and promotion decisions. In August 2012, she received the American Institute of CPAs Best Early Career Researcher Award in recognition of scholarly work in the first five years of her career.

PwC Partner Casey Herman (BSM ’86), who led the fundraising effort, says the professorship strengthens what was already a close relationship between the Freeman School and PwC, which in the last three years has hired more Freeman graduates than any other company.

“I’m very proud of the fact that we’ve been able to grow Tulane and Freeman as a great source of talent for PwC,” says Herman, who serves as PwC’s firm relationship partner with Tulane. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that the value of a Tulane education comes from the faculty, so we were happy to contribute to that effort, and after having met Jasmijn, I was even more committed. It’s just a great opportunity for the school to hire a teacher and scholar of her caliber.”

Representing PwC at the ceremony were Dana Mcilwain (BSM ’84), vice chairman and leader of PwC’s U.S. Advisory Practice, and Kathy Nieland, managing partner of the New Orleans office. The event also featured remarks from Dean Ira Solomon and Jerry Greenbaum (BBA ’62), who spoke on behalf of the Business School Council.