The latest news from Freeman
May 14th, 2012
The Freeman School has signed an agreement with China’s Xiamen University to begin offering two new dual education master’s programs for Chinese students.
 Ira Solomon, dean of the Freeman School, and Xiaohui Qu, dean of Xiamen University's Institute for Financial and Accounting Studies, at January’s signing ceremony in China. Beginning this year, students at the university will be able to earn a Master of Accounting or a Master of Finance degree from the Freeman School along with a graduate certificate from Xiamen’s Institute for Financial and Accounting Studies. The agreement calls for Freeman to admit up to 30 students per year into each of the two master’s programs, with the students beginning their studies in China and then completing the degree requirements during a nine-month residency at the Freeman School. The first cohort of students is scheduled to arrive from Xiamen in August 2012.
“Building a strong network of global alumni is one of our priorities,” says Freeman School Dean Ira Solomon, who traveled to China in January to finalize the agreement. “This new agreement connects us with a population of outstanding students designed to be among China’s next leaders in business, government and professional organizations, so we’re delighted to have Xiamen University as a strategic partner.”
Xiamen is widely considered to be among the top universities in China. According to University Undergraduates Teaching Assessment and Chinese Universities Evaluation Standings, Xiamen is ranked 11th in China, and a recent study by Brigham Young University ranked Xiamen No. 1 in China for accounting research.
“This will be a great program for Tulane University,” adds Solomon. “I’m looking forward to working closely with the administration and faculty at Xiamen and the Institute for Financial and Accounting Studies to develop additional opportunities for partnership and collaboration.”
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May 11th, 2012
More than 150 alums spanning 45 years of the Freeman School turned out on Friday (May 4) for Freeman’s second annual Graduate Alumni Reunion Party.
 More than 150 alumni from the classes of ’67 through ’07 attended this year’s Graduate Alumni Reunion Party. The party was a chance for the Freeman School to recognize alumni of graduate programs (MBA, MFIN and MACCT) celebrating milestone graduation anniversaries. This year’s reunion honored graduates from the years ’07, ’02, ’97, ’92, ’87, ’82, ’77, ’72, ’67 and ’62.
The classes of ’82 and ’72 was the best represented with 20 alumni each in attendance, but even classes that only had a few members present were thrilled to see old friends and renew old friendships. In addition to alumni, a number of Freeman School faculty attended the reunion, including Dean Ira Solomon, John Elstrott, Frank Jaster, Jim Murphy, Eric Smith (MBA ’67), Kel Riess, Paul Spindt, Robin Desman Spindt (MBA ’97), Greg Thurnher (E ’02, MBA ’07) and Linda Baynham (MBA ’02).
While the party was decidedly casual and unstructured—it was scheduled to coincide with Jazz Fest after all—Freeman School Dean Ira Solomon delivered a few remarks, updating alumni on the school and recognizing the reunion chairs who helped plan the event. Dean Solomon also introduced Richie Gray (MBA ’12, MGM ’12), who provided alums with a student’s perspective on Freeman’s newest programs and initiatives.
After Dean Solomon spoke, Hardee Kilgore (MBA ’67), chair of the reunion committee for the 1967 class, took the floor and presented Dean Solomon with a check for $207,597, representing the collective gifts all of this year’s reunion classes.
Planning for next year’s graduate reunion is already underway, so if you have a graduate degree from Freeman in ’08, ’03, ’98, ’93, ’88, ’83, ’78, ’73, ’68, ’63 or beyond, keep an eye out for news on the 2013 reunion party. If you’d like to be involved with planning next year’s reunion, please contact Rhonda A. Brown, director of constituent services and initiatives, at 504-862-8470 or rhondab@tulane.edu for info.
 From left to right, Class of ’82 graduates Patricia Stern, Mo Dunne, Janet Lyman, Deborah Lamensdorf Jacobs, Barbara Frausto Davey and Robin Peppe Sterneck.  From left to right, Tim Walker (MBA ’92), Jeanne Salassi Walker (MBA ’91), Chris Gleason (MBA ’92) and husband Mark Gleason  From left to right, class of ’07 grads Jamal Brown, Morial Vallot (standing), Ricardo De la Puente, Enrico Toro, Nash Pjevac, Jo-Ann Grande-Pjevac and Monique Brown.  From left to right, Curtis Pollet, Tara Byrd (MBA ’97), Mike Atwater (MBA ’97) and Jennifer Fortier (MBA ’97).  From left to right, Class of ’67 grads Bill Gibbons, George Adams, Eric Smith, John Davis and Hardee Kilgore. To see more photos from the reunion, visit http://flickr.com/freemanschool. And if you haven’t yet made a class gift yet, there’s still time contribute by visiting https://tulaneuniversity.ejoinme.org/abfreeman.
Tags: Graduate Alumni Reunion Party, Ira Solomon
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May 9th, 2012
On a recent Friday morning, about a dozen undergraduate students gathered in a computer lab in the business school where they were directed to a website and asked to make various choices—everything from what to order for dessert to whether to go to a restaurant advertising a special to which NFL replica jersey to buy.
 Assistant professor of marketing Eric Hamerman oversees the Freeman School’s Behavioral Lab. It may sound like an online shopping session, but in fact the students were participating in behavioral experiments designed to help researchers at the Freeman School better understand the complexities of consumer decision-making processes.
The Freeman School’s Behavioral Lab hosts dozens of such experiments each semester. Located on the first floor of Goldring/Woldenberg Hall, the lab features 24 specially configured computer terminals that enable business school faculty to administer surveys, conduct experiments and collect the kind behavioral research data that eventually ends up in peer-reviewed journals. In a very real sense, the Behavioral Lab is where the science of consumer psychology begins.
“This lab is very similar to what you have in psychology departments in the sense that there are professors who do behavioral experimentation,” says Eric Hamerman, assistant professor of marketing, who administers the lab for the Freeman School’s marketing faculty.
Recent topics investigated in the lab include social media and its effect on purchase behavior, the effect of mood on consumer variety-seeking, alliteration in advertising, multitasking and purchase behavior, and the impact of the moral behavior of celebrities on product endorsements.
More than 300 students in TIDES and core marketing courses participate in studies each semester in exchange for class credit. While students may not be right for every study, Hamerman says they’re generally ideal for consumer behavior research.
“Are Tulane students representative of everybody in the country? Probably not. But are they consumers? Absolutely. If you’re studying human behavior and making choices, they’re a fine population.”
Tags: Behavioral Lab, Consumer Behavior, Eric Hamerman, marketing
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May 7th, 2012
Coby Kramer-Golinkoff (BSM ’13) isn’t your typical college student. In addition to handling his course load in business management and international development, the Freeman School junior is fundraising for the fight against cystic fibrosis. He hopes to save the life of someone very dear to him: his sister.
 Coby Kramer-Golinkoff (BSM ’13), center, has helped raise almost $200,000 for cystic fibrosis research. “My sister Emily has cystic fibrosis (CF), a life-threatening disease that affects her respiratory and digestive systems,” Kramer-Golinkoff says. “Emily works incredibly hard everyday to stay healthy and live as normal a life as possible, but over time CF diminishes her lung function. Her lungs now only work at a third of the normal lung function. My sister truly embodies strength, perseverance and optimism.”
A few months ago, Kramer-Golinkoff and his family, who are from Philadelphia, launched Emily’s Entourage to raise money and awareness for cystic fibrosis research. This semester, armed with some of the the skills he learned in professor of practice Ashley Keller-Nelson’s class on social media communications, he brought that effort to New Orleans.
“In December, I created a video that has been the core of our fundraising efforts,” Kramer-Golinkoff says. “We distributed our video solely through social media and encouraged people to not only donate but to spread the message.”
More than 500 students attended a fundraiser in April, purchasing more than 1,000 Emily’s Entourage tank tops and generating proceeds of more than $13,000. In addition, Tulane students Kendall and Libby Glazer, who started a line of jewelry called Stoney Clover Lane, are now selling a bracelet to benefit Emily’s Entourage. To date, the campaign has raised almost $200,000, with all proceeds going to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
“It has been unbelievable the way students have supported Emily’s Entourage and embraced our efforts,” Kramer-Golinkoff says. “I am so grateful to see such a huge portion of the student body come together and really make a difference. It shows the power that we have when we come together for a united cause.”
For more information about Emily’s Entourage, visit emilysentourage.org or facebook.com/emilysentourage
Tags: Coby Kramer-Golinkoff, Emily's Entourage
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May 4th, 2012
The A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University is the top school in the nation for MBA placement according to the latest U.S. News & World Report survey of business schools. The ranking was published in March as part of U.S. News’ annual report on America’s best graduate schools.
 In 2011, 98.1 percent of the Freeman School’s full-time MBA class who were seeking employment were employed three months after graduation. That percentage was the best of the 135 business schools that reported employment data to U.S. News and had at least 20 graduates seeking jobs.
Since 2008, the Freeman School has invested significant resources in its career services area, hiring additional corporate outreach personnel and rolling out a host of new initiatives to connect and engage with more recruiters and hiring managers.
“Placement is just one measure of an MBA program’s success, but I’m delighted to see that the hard work of our students is being rewarded,” said Ira Solomon, dean of the Freeman School. “Our Career Management Center does an outstanding job connecting students with employment opportunities, and it’s important to note that many of those opportunities have come, either directly or indirectly, from our alumni. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this exceptional level of success without their tremendous involvement and support.”
Tags: Ira Solomon, rankings, U.S. News & World Report
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May 2nd, 2012
This year’s Burkenroad Reports Investment Conference attracted a record attendance, and according to conference organizer Peter Ricchiuti, that’s a good sign for the economy.
 Peter Ricchiuti, right, says the best-performing Burkenroad Reports stocks this year were tied to consumer products and consumer confidence. (Photo by Stephen Daigle) “I think investors are starting to get a little bit of their mojo back, and that really showed up in terms of how many people came,” says Ricchiuti, professor of practice and research director of Burkenroad Reports. “The other reason is people are really sick of getting 0 percent on their CDs and money markets. I think that was a driving force, too.”
The conference, which took place on Friday (April 27) at the Westin New Orleans Canal Place, is an annual showcase for the small- and mid-cap companies covered by the Freeman School’s Burkenroad Reports equities research program, but it also serves as a barometer of sorts for the economy, and judging by this year’s results, consumer confidence is back with a vengeance. Of the 40 companies followed by the program’s student analysts, the best performers this year were all consumer-oriented firms.
Leading the pack was Conn’s Inc., a Texas-based electronics retailer, whose stock boasted a total return of 229 percent in the last 12 months. Conn’s was followed by Susser Holdings Corp., an operator of convenience stores in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana, which returned 98 percent, and Pool Corp., a wholesale distributor of pool and pool-related products, which returned 56 percent.
Perhaps an even bigger story at the conference this year was the disaster in natural gas prices. A boom in production coupled with an unusually warm winter has had a devastating effect on prices, and that drop has hit some Burkenroad companies hard. RPC Inc., an oilfield services company that does a lot of work with natural gas projects, has seen its share price fall from $18 to $9 in the last year.
The short-term picture may look bleak, but Ricchiuti says the long-term outlook for natural gas—an abundant domestic source of clean-burning fuel—remains bright.
“Sometimes, the stocks that are least loved turn out the best,” Ricchiuti says. “Last year at this time, everybody was worried if consumers would come back, and consumer stocks led the way this year. Now everybody’s fearing that natural gas will be swallowed up alive, so this is probably the time to be buying those stocks.”
This year’s conference attracted more than 700 attendees hailing from 18 states and three foreign countries, and in keeping with tradition, Ricchiuti says that number was almost equally divided between pinstriped professionals and so-called retail investors, the amateurs and hobbyists who attend the conference each year to help them better manage their IRAs and 401(k)s.
“We had some big-name professional people from some big firms, but you still had the housewives from Marrero, ” Ricchiuti laughs. “That was fun too.”
Tags: Burkenroad Reports, Burkenroad Reports Investment Conference, Peter Ricchiuti
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May 2nd, 2012
From BizEd Magazine, May/June 2012:
Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business in the southern U.S. has created a technologically supported educational model that aims to boost the number of doctorally qualified faculty in Latin America. In this model, Tulane offers a PhD program to Latin American business school professors, which allows them to study in their home countries via weekend and occasional weeklong modular courses. As part of this program, these professors stay at Tulane for parts of four summers to work on their PhD theses with their lead professors. During the school year, Tulane faculty travel to Latin America to teach the program’s courses.
To read the entire article, visit BizEdMagazine.com:
http://www.bizedmagazine.com/features/articles/north-and-south.html
Tags: BizEd Magazine, Latin American Faculty Development PhD Program
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April 24th, 2012
The Tulane chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honor society recognizing business excellence, welcomed its newest members at a ceremony in Goldring/Woldenberg Hall II on April 23, 2012.
 Beta Gamma Sigma inductees included, left to right, Wendi Zeng (MFIN ’12), Jordan Lambert (PMBA ’12), Guanqi Li (MFIN ’12), Josh Rupert (MBA ’12) and Xuanhao Huang (MFIN ’12). Beta Gamma Sigma is recognized by the educational and corporate communities as the highest recognition a business student can receive in a program accredited by AACSB International — the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
Since its founding in 1913, Beta Gamma Sigma has inducted more than 675,000 members from 507 collegiate chapters and 24 alumni chapters. Members currently reside in all 50 states and more than 160 countries throughout the world. The Tulane chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma was established in 1924.
This semester’s inductees, including students from the BSM, MACCT, MBA, MFIN, MNRG and PMBA programs, are as follows:
- Dylan Blackford
- Haley Burke
- Sam Capone
- Stephen Denis
- Richard Diamond
- Michael Dupin
- Maggie Ehrenreich
- Andrew Goltzer
- Lyndsey Grubb
- Seth Hamstead
- Xuanhao Huang
- Yuanze Huang
- Andrew Ip Ping Wah
- Jordan Lambert
- Stephen Lee
- Guanqi Li
- Weikang Li
- Jiazhang Liu
- Seth Lowinger
- Ronald MacWillie
- Daniel Rice
- Courtney Robinson
- Brittany Rosen
- Joshua Rupert
- Caitlin Ryan
- Savanna Speciale
- Hayley Tilton
- Charles Wilder
- Alexander Wolf
- Wendi Zeng
Tags: Beta Gamma Sigma
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April 23rd, 2012
Student teams from Tulane University and six other schools put their valuation and financial analysis skills to the test at the 16th annual Rolanette and Berdon Lawrence Finance Case Competition. The competition, an annual presentation of Tulane’s A. B. Freeman School of Business, took place on Friday (April 20) in Goldring/Woldenberg Hall II.
 Berdon and Rolanette Lawrence, left, and Freeman School Dean Ira Solomon, right, present this year’s first-place award to the team from Rice University. In addition to Tulane, this year’s event featured teams from Emory, Rice, University of South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Washington University in St. Louis and University of Texas at Dallas.
When all was said and done, Rice University took home first-place honors and the grand prize of $7,000 at the competition, Washington University won second place and a prize of $5,000, and Tulane earned third place and $3,000.
“With five hours to work on something like this, I thought all the teams did a fantastic job,” said competition judge Casey Herman, assurance partner and U.S. assurance leader for the Utilities & Power Generation Sector at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “The analyses and slide materials they put together in such a short time frame were just terrific. Really, the difference between the first-place team and the rest of the field wasn’t that great, so the level of analysis was very impressive.”
In addition to Herman, this year’s panel of judges included Chris Conoscenti, an executive director in the Oil & Gas Investment Banking Group with J.P. Morgan Securities, and Claire Liu, assistant treasurer for corporate finance at LyondellBasell Industries. Bill Reese, professor of practice in finance, served as faculty coordinator.
The Finance Case Competition began in 1997 and has been sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence since 1998. Berdon Lawrence (BBA ’64, MBA ’65) is the founder of Hollywood Marine and former chairman of Kirby Corp., a Houston-based operator of inland tank barges. Kirby purchased Hollywood Marine in 1999. Lawrence is also a member of the Business School Council and a former member of the Board of Tulane.
 The Freeman School’s team took home third place and a $3,000 prize at this year’s case competition. “Over the years I found that having a finance degree from Tulane was critical to my understanding of how to grow my company,” Lawrence said at Friday evening’s awards ceremony. “That finance education allowed me to build the company, and if I hadn’t had it, I don’t think I could have done it, so this is a way for me to show appreciation and give something back to my alma mater.”
Freeman School Dean Ira Solomon, who presided over the ceremony, praised Lawrence and the entire Lawrence family for their long association with Tulane University.
“We like to recognize individuals who have longstanding connections to our institution, and in that sense the Lawrence family is an exemplar,” Solomon said. “While Berdon’s connection doesn’t go back quite as far as the school’s founding, the Lawrence family has been connected to the Freeman School for a remarkable 50 years, with multiple generations attending educational programs here. That’s really something to celebrate, so we’re delighted to have their names attached to this wonderful educational program.”
Tags: Berdon Lawrence, Rolanette and Berdon Lawrence Finance Case Competition
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April 17th, 2012
From NPR’s Morning Edition, April 17, 2012:
NPR’s John Ydstie spoke with Peter Ricchiuti, professor of practice and research director of Burkenroad Reports, about the the boom in natural gas production.
Peter Ricchiuti, a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans and an expert on oil and gas production, says the normal supply-and-demand laws of economics aren’t working as they used to in the industry.
“Historically, this has always been kind of a self-governing mechanism,” Ricchiuti says. “When natural gas prices got too low, you’d start to see the industry lay down rigs until prices went back up again, and it was very effective. It was sometimes jokingly referred to as the ‘Redneck OPEC.’ ”
To listen to the entire segment, visit NPR.org:
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/17/150766635/u-s-has-a-natural-gas-problem-too-much-of-it
Tags: Burkenroad Reports, Peter Ricchiuti
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