The latest news from Freeman
December 10th, 2011
Tom Connor (MBA ’12) has worked on a lot of consulting projects but probably none as simultaneously inspiring and sobering as the one he recently undertook for CILSA, an Argentinean nonprofit dedicated to helping at-risk children and the disabled access educational and career opportunities.
 MBA students toured Reciduca’s recycling facility during November’s MBA Global Leadership trip to Buenos Aires. From left to right, Taylor Gilbert, Lindsey Varney, Freeman School program coordinator Laney Armstrong, Brittany Williams, Megan Peck, Joshua Rupert and Danielle Lee. (Photo by Johanna Kasper.) “There are a huge number of logistic, socioeconomic and cultural barriers they have to work around, so progress is often measured in inches,” Connor says. “I told the client the night before we left Buenos Aires, ‘I honestly don’t care about a grade. I just hope the work my team did helps you help your kids.’”
Connor was one of 80 Tulane MBA students who put their business skills to work for nonprofits in Buenos Aires as part of this year’s Global Leadership III course.
Last year about half the MBA class volunteered for public service work during their trip to Buenos Aires for the Global Leadership course. That initiative was so well received that public service was fully integrated into this year’s course.
Working in partnership with Help Argentina, an organization that connects people abroad with volunteer opportunities in the country, Freeman matched MBA students with four nonprofits in need of consulting services: Fundapaz, a producer of goat cheese made with milk from indigenous farmers; Reciduca, which provides job training and placement for at-risk youth funded in part through a recycling program; RACI, an umbrella group that supports nonprofits across Argentina; and CILSA, the group that Connor worked with.
The MBAs began working with the nonprofits in September, communicating via phone, Skype and email to learn more about each organization and the problems it was experiencing. Reciduca, for example, needed help identifying potential clients. Fundapaz was seeking recommendations on pricing and operations.
Working in teams of four, the MBAs spent eight weeks consulting with the organizations and then presented their final reports to the clients in person during their November program in Buenos Aires.
 Nathalie Jordi (MBA ’12), right, presents her team's recommendations to representatives from Fundapaz, one of four Argentinean nonprofits students worked with as part of this year’s Global Leadership III course. “We designed a complete outreach strategy for CILSA including contact timelines, a phone script, a form letter and even a few leads to contact,” Connor says. “Obviously, we’re not in Buenos Aires to help them out after this, so it was very important for us to give them a final deliverable that they could use by themselves.”
According to Director of Professional Education Stephen Estrada, who helped organize the project, the clients especially appreciated the templates and samples that students provided them with.
“That’s what they liked the best—the things that could be easily implemented,” Estrada says. “I think the clients were a little leery about what level of understanding the students were going to be able to get from such a distance. Considering the obstacles, they were surprised by how relatable and implementable the recommendations were.”
While public service is a requirement at Tulane’s undergraduate level, Freeman is the first graduate school at Tulane to begin to integrate service learning into its curriculum. According to Connor, that’s a move that benefits everyone.
“I think it’s important for MBAs to try to solve social problems, and it’s great that Tulane gives us that opportunity while we’re still in school,” Connor says. “I like getting the experience, I like helping people, and if I’m going to be a free MBA, I’d much rather it be for an organization that wouldn’t normally have access to the kinds of resources we can bring in.”
Posted in Freeman News, Student News | No Comments »
November 22nd, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 21, 2011
Contact: Ben Haimowitz
212-233-6170
HHaimowitz@aol.com
New Orleans – When it was reported recently that Eugene Isenberg was stepping down as CEO of Nabors Industries Ltd. with a $100-million severance-style cash payout, the expressions of outrage the award provoked recalled the response to such notorious severances as the $210 million bestowed on Robert Nardelli by Home Depot or the $140 million paid to Michael Ovitz by Disney.
As in those two earlier deals, the Nabors payout seemed richly unearned in view of the fact that his company had underperformed the S&P 500 for the prior-year period, five-year period and 10-year period.
 The Freeman School’s Peggy Huang says CEO severance agreements tend to lead to poor stock performance at S&P 500 firms. But, outrageous as severance arrangements can be, the problem with them goes well beyond doubts about their fairness or propriety, new research finds. Not only do they bestow often-undeserved rewards for past results, but they impair a company’s future performance as well, according to a paper that is the first to investigate how the structure of severance agreements affects shareholder wealth.
The study, by Peggy Huang of Tulane University’s A. B. Freeman School of Business, reveals that firms with CEO severance agreements “show a significant underperformance in their future returns…underperform[ing] market benchmarks in the long run after controlling for size, risk, momentum, governance, and other factors.”
And particularly harmful, she finds, are agreements, not too different from the one Isenberg had at Nabors, that provide for an all-cash payout. In the words of the study, “Firms that award cash-only severance contracts (without the equity component) to their CEOs perform significantly worse than those firms that also include the vesting of equity component in the agreements.”
Indeed, all else being equal, Huang finds, a cash-only contract in force during a given year is associated with annual stock returns over the following three years that are 4.2 percent lower than the average returns of firms whose CEOs have no severance provisions in their contracts.
This contrasts with an average return lower by only 0.3 percent among companies whose CEO severance provisions specify payouts that combine cash with an accelerated vesting of equity. Such agreements typically allow the CEOs to sell immediately stock options and restricted stock that they might not otherwise have been able to touch for years.
Comments Huang: “Although less damaging to stock returns than cash-only agreements, deals with a large equity component, ironically, have the potential to arouse the greatest public outrage, because often it is equity that drives the dollar amounts of such deals sky-high. For example, people couldn’t get over the fact that Nardelli was walking away from Home Depot with $210 million after a record that was middling at best; yet, less than 10 percent of that amount consisted of cash. And it is cash-only severance provisions in CEO contracts that most undermine firms’ performance.”
She adds: “Unfortunately, all-cash severance deals may be spreading faster than others. Since 2003, the percentage of S&P-500 CEOs who have severance agreements with equity elements has stayed level at about 36 percent, while the total number of severance agreements has risen from about 50 percent to over 55 percent. That latter figure, incidentally, compares with about 20 percent in 1993, meaning that the percentage of S&P CEOs with severance agreements has almost tripled over the past two decades. The findings of this study suggest that is not a healthy development.”
Agreements lead to share-price volatility and increased risk
Huang’s conclusions are based on an analysis of the relationship between severance agreements and companies’ stock performance among the S&P 500 over the period 1993 through 2007. In an average year during that period about 40 percent of the 500 had contracts in force with CEO severance clauses, of which about 40 percent provided for all-cash payouts.
The professor finds severance agreements to be associated not only with stock underperformance but with high share-price volatility; with over-expenditure on research and development (which scholars view as riskier than other types of investments); with weak corporate governance, as measured by several standard indicators; and with increased incidence of CEO dismissals.
Wall Street has an inkling of these problems, Huang also finds, since stock prices, on average, fall by an unexpected 0.37 percent around the time when firms announce CEO severance agreements and rise an unexpected 1.41 percent when they eliminate them. Yet, statistically significant though these movements are, they “do not seem to anticipate the full extent to which those companies’ stock underperform the market, on average, in the future,” the professor writes.
For all the problems associated with them, severance deals have their defenders among scholars. As Huang explains, “Research suggests that CEOs are naturally disinclined to take managerial risks because so much of their wealth is tied up in a single company, in contrast to shareholders, who can spread their investment risk among many companies. One of the principal arguments in favor of severance agreements is that they provide a kind of insurance for CEOs that encourages them to take the risks required for company growth. Unfortunately, what this study reveals is that these agreements, particularly those providing for all-cash payouts, lead CEOs to take too much risk, as evidenced by stock volatility and overinvestment in research and development. In other words, management swings too far in the direction of risk.”
What, then, are companies to do? “If they can’t avoid severance deals altogether, they should insist that equity be substantially represented, so that payouts depend substantially on how well the CEO performs. In addition, boards should probably not make severance deals without first assessing whether they have the capacity to provide the extra level of vigilance that these agreements require. Unfortunately, CEO severance is generally associated with weak boards rather than strong ones.”
Huang is an assistant professor of finance at the Freeman School. She presented an earlier version of the study, which is entitled “Marital Prenups? A Look at CEO Severance Agreements,” at the 2010 annual meeting of the Financial Management Association.
Posted in Faculty News, Freeman News, Press Releases | 1 Comment »
November 18th, 2011
 Beta Gamma Sigma inductees Margaret Burdeno (BSM/MACCT ’12), Rachel Schneider (BSM/MACCT ’12), Jacqueline Lee (BSM/MACCT ’12) and Sally Horton (BSM/MACCT ’12). The Tulane chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honor society recognizing business excellence, welcomed its newest members at a ceremony on Nov. 17, 2011.
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 21 alumni chapters. Members currently reside in all 50 states and more than 160 countries throughout the world. Tulane’s chapter was established in 1924.
This semester’s inductees, including members from the MACCT, MBA, MFIN, MGM, MRISK and PMBA programs, were the following:
- Rafael Arango Chavarriaga
- Arturo Belmar Mendez
- Margaret Burdeno
- Fernando Campillo y Aguilar
- Elena Carranza Nakasone
- Eliot Chahuan Abedrabbo
- Xi Chen
- Michael Chiappa
- Inaki de la Parra Barreras
- Guilherme Fernandes dos Santos
- John Randall Frost
- Taylor Gilbert
- Richard Gray
- Meghan Greeley
- Sally Horton
- Nianxiong Huang
- Vincenzo Lambiase
- Benjamin Lee
- Jacqueline Lee
- Stefany Lerner Ara
- Chiyu Ma
- William Marshall
- Caskey Miller
- O. LaCour Miller
- Rodrigo Pacheco Mercado
- Dane Pearson
- Megan Peck
- Gerardo Pini Giussiano
- Ryan Riseman
- Steven Scaffidi
- Rachel Schneider
- Sandra Schneider
- Izzah Shahbaz
- Ajaypal Singh
- Matthew Talbert
- Gary Tang
- Shiv Thukral
- Liang Tian
- Adrian Townsend
- Yujue Wang
- Yao Wu
- Luo Xue
- Bo Yuan
- Bing Zhao
- Dan Qiao Zhao
- Jiang Zhu
 From left to right, Beta Gamma Sigma inductees Ajaypal Singh (MBA ’12), LaCour Miller (MBA ’12), Shiv Thukral (MBA ’12), Meghan Greeley (MBA ’12) and Izzah Shahbaz (MBA ’12).
Tags: Beta Gamma Sigma
Posted in Freeman News, Student News | No Comments »
October 24th, 2011
The Freeman School executive MBA program moved up a spot in the latest Financial Times ranking of the world’s top executive MBA programs.
 In the latest Financial Times ranking of executive MBA programs, the Freeman School’s EMBA program is ranked 74th in the world and 25th among U.S. programs. The Freeman School’s executive MBA program is now ranked 74th in the world and 25th among U.S. programs. The ranking was published Oct. 24 in Financial Times and on FT.com.
Financial Times ranks executive MBA programs on measures of alumni success, school diversity and quality of faculty. Three years after finishing the program, graduates of the Freeman School’s executive MBA program earn an average salary of $167,458 per year, an increase of 54 percent over their pre-EMBA salary. In addition, the Freeman School ranked 19th among the top 100 in the category of work experience, which measures the previous experience of EMBA participants according to criteria including seniority of positions held, number of years in each position, size of company and any international work experience prior to starting the EMBA.
To see the full executive MBA ranking online, visit FT.com. To learn more about the Freeman School’s executive MBA programs in New Orleans and Houston, visit http://emba.tulane.edu.
Tags: executive education, rankings
Posted in Freeman News | No Comments »
October 13th, 2011
So it turns out there’s a reason why you could never throw out that wobbly old bookcase you put together in college. Call it the Ikea effect.
 Assistant Professor of Marketing Daniel Mochon says consumers tend to value self-made products more than similar professionally assembled products. Photo by Sabree Hill. In a forthcoming article in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Tulane researcher Daniel Mochon argues that consumers tend to value products they build themselves—such as furniture from Ikea—more than similar professionally built products.
“Usually when people think of building their own furniture, they think it’s sort of foisting cost onto the consumer and therefore it reduces value,” explains Mochon, assistant professor of marketing at Tulane’s Freeman School of Business. “But what we find is that people actually come to love the things they have created.”
In a series of experiments, Mochon and co-authors Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely asked subjects to build simple items—such as Ikea storage boxes or origami figures—and then compared their willingness to pay for those items to their willingness to pay for similar pre-assembled products. Surprisingly, participants were routinely willing to pay more for the items they put together than for the professionally assembled items.
Mochon attributes the phenomenon to what psychologists refer to as the need for effectance.
“People just have a fundamental need to feel like they can intervene in the world,” says Mochon. “By creating stuff, they have a way to signal to themselves and others that they can intervene. I think that’s why people love do-it-yourself projects so much. It’s a way to show you have control over the world.”
The researchers’ findings also help to explain the popularity of sites like YouTube, which rely on user-generated content. Mochon says users get the same kind of satisfaction from uploading a self-made video that they get from assembling an Ikea bookshelf.
“People love their own videos,” says Mochon, who teaches a course on social media marketing at the Freeman School. “They see that badly focused video of their cat jumping on a sofa bed as the most amazing thing in the world because they created it themselves.”
Tags: Daniel Mochon, research
Posted in Freeman News | No Comments »
October 7th, 2011
The ideas presented spanned everything from urban farms to educational wetlands trips to an online crowdsourcing program to support underprivileged students, but in the end, it was an innovative approach to health care that captured the top prize at PitchNOLA 2011.
 Sarah Mason, left, and Arwen Podesta, right, won first place at this year’s PitchNOLA competition with their pitch for an integrative medical practice. Also pictures are Andrea Chen, second from left, executive director of SENO, and Stephanie Barksdale, manager of Tulane’s Social Entrepreneurship Initiatives. (Photos by Guillermo Cabrera-Rojo.) The Well, a multi-modal clinic combining primary, holistic and mental health care services, won first place at this year’s PitchNOLA competition, an “elevator pitch” contest for local social entrepreneurship ventures.
The competition, a presentation of Tulane Social Entrepreneurship Initiatives and Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans (SENO) with support from the Freeman School and the Tulane Entrepreneurs Association, took place on Thursday (Oct. 6) in the Woldenberg Art Center’s Freeman Auditorium.
In earning this year’s top honors, the Well edged out nine other ventures to win a prize package worth more than $6,000, including a $3,500 cash award, $2,000 in pro bono marketing and PR services from Trumpet Group, $500 in billable legal hours from the law firm of Baker Donelson, and a mentorship and pro bono technical assistance from SENO.
Serving as judges for the competition were Leslie Jacobs, founder of Educate Now! and chair of GNO Inc.; Eric Shaw, vice president of policy and programs at Foundation for Louisiana; and Nishith Acharya, executive director of the Deshpande Foundation, who delivered a keynote address to attendees.
The Well’s Dr. Arwen Podesta, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Tulane Medical School, and Sarah Mason, a registered nurse, won the competition with their pitch for a new outpatient clinic, one that would serve both the primary care and mental and behavioral health needs of patients. Podesta noted that the lack of a comprehensive approach to care at the clinic level results in many patients failing to receive the treatment they need.
“There are examples of integrative, holistic centers, but none that I know of that include mental health, psychiatry, behavioral health and addiction,” said Podesta.
That unique approach to meeting a significant social need impressed the judges.
“One of the things we were asked to judge was the level of innovation,” Jacobs said. “In our mind, they were clearly very innovative. This problem exists, it is the first we’ve heard of this type of solution, and we felt it was worth an investment to see if this could be viable.”
 This year’s PitchNOLA attracted more than 200 people, making it the biggest competition in the three-year history of the event. “The Well really had the passion,” added Shaw. “I think they could create a model that could be replicated throughout New Orleans and throughout the state.”
AMPS, a producer self-sustaining urban farms, won this year’s “audience favorite” award and a prize package worth $1,000. Audience members were able to vote on which pitch they liked best via text message during the competition.
Prior to PitchNOLA, LifeCity in conjunction with SENO and Tulane presented Green the Gras, a competition for ideas to make Mardi Gras more environmentally sustainable. Beadcycle, an initiative to reward individuals who recycle their Mardi Gras beads with tokens good for discounts at local restaurants, won the top prize of $1,000 plus consulting services from SENO.
This year’s PitchNOLA attracted more than 200 attendees, making it the biggest in the three-year history of the competition. According to Shaw, that attendance reflects the remarkable growth of social entrepreneurship in New Orleans.
“It really is a groundswell,” Shaw said. “SENO has been amazing bringing attention to it, Tulane has been amazing bringing attention to it, and a lot of foundations are supporting it. It really is a new type of entrepreneurship, to help people and address a need in the community.”
Tags: Levy-Rosenblum Institute, PitchNOLA, social entrepreneurship, Tulane Entrepreneurs Association
Posted in Freeman News | No Comments »
October 7th, 2011
John M. Trapani III has been appointed as the new head of executive education at Tulane University’s A. B. Freeman School of Business.
 John M. Trapani III, professor of economics and Streiffer Chair in International Finance, will serve as the Freeman School’s new associate dean for executive education. Trapani, professor of economics, Streiffer Chair in International Finance and executive director of the Goldring Institute of International Business, will oversee executive programs as associate dean for executive education.
He succeeds Russ Robins, who had served as associate dean since 2002.
In addition, Yiorgos Bakamitsos has been appointed assistant dean for executive education. In that role, Bakamitsos will report to Trapani and manage the day-to-day operations of the school’s executive MBA programs in New Orleans and Houston. Bakamitsos will also have responsibilities for developing new executive education options.
The one-year appointments were announced by Freeman School Dean Ira Solomon.
“John has served the Freeman School as a professor, administrator and director for more than 20 years, and his wealth of experience and insight will be a great asset to all our executive programs,” said Dean Solomon. “As a longtime instructor in the EMBA program, Yiorgos brings knowledge, enthusiasm and a deep understanding of the executive education market to his new role. I am delighted to have John and Yiorgos on board in these new roles.”
Trapani served as the Freeman School’s director of executive and international programs from 1989 to 1991, and since then he’s served in a variety of senior administrative positions at the business school, including senior associate dean, vice dean and director of the Goldring Institute of International Business.
“The executive education market is undergoing a transformation, and we hope to be on the leading edge of that change,” said Trapani. “I’m looking forward to working closely with Yiorgos to improve and expand our executive education options.”
 Assistant Professor of Marketing Yiorgos Bakamitsos, center, will serve as the Freeman School’s new assistant dean for executive education, with responsibilities for managing the day-to-day operations of the school's executive MBA programs. Bakamitsos joined the Freeman School in 2005 as assistant professor of marketing and has taught in the executive MBA program since 2007. Prior to joining the Freeman School, he served as an assistant professor at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and as a lecturer at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He earned his PhD in marketing from the Kellogg School in 2000.
“The Freeman School attracts some of the brightest business leaders in New Orleans and Houston for its executive programs,” said Bakamitsos. “I’m excited by the opportunity to help create a more valuable, dynamic educational experience for these outstanding executives and working professionals.”
About the Freeman School
The Freeman School of Business at Tulane, originally the College of Commerce and Business Administration, was established in 1914 and is a founding member of AACSB, the premier accrediting body for collegiate schools of business. Today, Freeman is a leading, internationally recognized business school with more than 2,500 students in programs spanning four continents. The Freeman School is consistently listed among the nation’s best business schools by publications including U.S. News & World Report, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Financial Times and AméricaEconomía.
Posted in Freeman News, Press Releases | No Comments »
October 6th, 2011
This year’s Tulane Business Forum focused on growth through innovation and collaboration, and according to a panel of New Orleans economic development officials, the city’s remarkable rise in a host of national business rankings—everything from best city for attracting people under 25 with college degrees to top metro area for IT job growth—is perfect example of that theme.
 Tulane Business Forum presenter Leslie Jacobs, left, said recent success in economic development is a result of increased collaboration at the state, regional and local levels. “These impressive national rankings did not happen by accident,” said Leslie Jacobs, chairman of Greater New Orleans Inc., which leads economic development activity for the 10-parish southeast Louisiana region. “There is an alignment at the state, regional and local level that is unprecedented.”
Jacobs moderated a panel presentation on regional economic development at the 32nd annual Tulane Business Forum. The forum, an annual presentation of the Tulane Association of Business Alumni (TABA), took place at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside on Sept. 30. More than 700 people attended this year’s event to hear local and national business leaders discuss strategies that leverage innovation and collaboration.
Panelist Michael Hecht, president and CEO of GNO Inc., said the organization divides its efforts between business development—recruiting companies to come to New Orleans—and what he calls product development, or ways to make the greater New Orleans region more attractive to businesses.
Hecht cited a long list of product development initiatives championed by GNO Inc. in collaboration with other groups, including the elimination of capital gains tax on the sale of a business, incentives for digital media companies, angel investor tax credits, a tax incentive for creating well-paying jobs, and even social developments like educational reform. Those efforts have helped to attract high-profile companies like French computer and video game giant Gameloft, which plans to build a software development studio in New Orleans, and Globalstar, which recently moved its corporate headquarters from the Silicon Valley to Covington.
“The fact is, because of our good product development, we’re having business success,” Hecht said.
 Jay Grinney, president and CEO of HealthSouth Corp., delivered a luncheon keynote presentation on how the company recovered and rebuilt itself in the wake of a near-fatal accounting scandal. The forum also included presentations by Stephen Moret, secretary of Louisiana economic development, who talked about the state’s economic development efforts, and Walter L. Schindler, managing partner of SAIL Venture Partners, who highlighted investment opportunities in sustainable energy companies.
This year’s keynote speakers were Michael C. Slocum, president of commercial banking at Capital One, who delivered a morning keynote session on funding innovation, and Jay Grinney, president and CEO of HealthSouth Corp., who delivered a luncheon keynote on how the company rebuilt itself in the wake of its near-fatal accounting scandal.
Posted in Freeman News | No Comments »
September 20th, 2011
For the sixth consecutive year, Tulane University’s A. B. Freeman School of Business has been recognized as one of the top 25 schools in the country for graduate entrepreneurship education.
The Princeton Review ranks the Freeman School 14th on its new list of the nation’s top graduate programs for entrepreneurs. The ranking appears in the October 2011 issue of Entrepreneur magazine, which hit newsstands on Sept. 20, and can be viewed online at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges and www.princetonreview.com/entrepreneur.
 The Tulane Business Plan Competition is the only business plan competition in the nation dedicated to the principles of conscious capitalism. “We are delighted to again be recognized as one of the nation’s leading schools for entrepreneurs,” said Ira Solomon, dean of the Freeman School. “New Orleans has earned national headlines in recent years for its remarkable entrepreneurial resurgence. The Freeman School is proud to play a part in that rebirth.”
Fueled by a post-Hurricane Katrina wave of business students eager to participate in the revitalization of New Orleans, the Freeman School has in the last decade established a national reputation for social entrepreneurship. More recently, the Freeman School has become a leader in promoting conscious capitalism, a broader concept that calls for organizations to consider the best interests of all stakeholders—including employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders and community members—rather than focusing solely on shareholder returns. The Tulane Business Plan Competition, an annual presentation of the Tulane Entrepreneurs Association, is the only business plan competition in the nation dedicated to the principles of conscious capitalism.
“This outstanding ranking is a reflection of all the alumni, students, faculty, staff and entrepreneurs who have worked together to make it possible,” said John Elstrott, clinical professor of entrepreneurship and executive director of the Levy-Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship. “By devoting our passion and creativity to raising the level of entrepreneurship education at the Freeman School, we hope to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs and social innovators across the university and in the community.”
The Princeton Review surveyed more than 2,000 business schools for this year’s ranking. Each program was evaluated based on key criteria in the areas of teaching entrepreneurship business fundamentals in the classroom, staffing departments with successful entrepreneurs, excellence in mentorship, and providing experiential learning or entrepreneurial opportunities outside of the classroom as well as for non-traditional, distinguishable aspects of their programs.
The Freeman School of Business at Tulane, originally the College of Commerce and Business Administration, was established in 1914 and is a founding member of AACSB, the premier accrediting body for collegiate schools of business. Today, Freeman is a leading, internationally recognized business school with more than 2,000 students in programs spanning three continents. The Freeman School is consistently listed among the nation’s best business schools by publications including U.S. News & World Report, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, Financial Times and AméricaEconomía.
Tags: entrepreneurship, John Elstrott, rankings, social entrepreneurship
Posted in Freeman News, Press Releases | No Comments »
August 31st, 2011
Timothy G. Massad, assistant secretary for financial stability with the Department of the Treasury, will discuss lessons of the 2008 financial crisis as this year’s first Freeman Distinguished Speaker in Finance.
 Timothy G. Massad Massad’s presentation, “Dodging Disaster: What We Learned from the 2008 Financial Crisis,” will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 6:30 p.m. in the Loraine and Winslow Chadwick Auditorium (Room 131) of Goldring/Woldenberg Hall I. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Massad was confirmed June 30, 2011, by the United States Senate to serve as the Department of the Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability. In this role, Massad is responsible for overseeing the implementation and wind down of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
Massad previously served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability. He joined Treasury in May 2009 as the Chief Counsel for the Office of Financial Stability (OFS). He also later became the Chief Reporting Officer for OFS.
Prior to joining Treasury, Massad was a partner with the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York. He had a diverse corporate practice, with an emphasis on corporate finance, international transactions and representation of some of the firm’s corporate clients. From 1998 to 2002, he was the co-manager of the firm’s Hong Kong office, where he was involved in transactions throughout Asia, including in particular India and China. He also worked in the firm’s London office.
Massad left Cravath from December 2008 to February 2009 to assist the newly formed Congressional Oversight Panel, one of the oversight agencies for TARP. He served as a special legal advisor to the COP for its first report on the TARP investments.
Massad received a B.A. from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is married, has two children and lives in Washington, D.C.
For more information about Massad’s presentation, contact Rhonda Brown at rhondab@tulane.edu or 504-862-8470.
Posted in Events, Freeman News | No Comments »
|
