Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Twenty-eight of the nation’s best student traders met up in New Orleans on Nov. 14 to test their skills trading simulated live oil and gas futures, but unlike most competitions, the winners of this event weren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest profits.
 Brian Allen (MBA '11), left, and Daniel Sadik (BSM '10) discuss results during the inaugural Tulane Energy Trading Competition. The Tulane Energy Trading Competition was the first university trading competition to reward participants for using strategies to minimize risk. While other competitions award prizes based solely on profits, the Tulane Energy Trading Competition used a method for measuring risk—the so-called Ulcer Index—to penalize students who took on too much risk. Serving as judges were executives from top energy and trading firms, who quizzed students on their strategies and watched closely as they executed their trades.
“The idea was to create a trading competition that is more aligned with what employers want in the marketplace,” says Joe LeBlanc, assistant director of the Tulane Energy Institute and organizer of the competition. “We think that by adjusting for risk, combining several different performance measures and using the best trading software from Trading Technologies and Thomson Reuters, we’re creating a competition that rewards responsible trading and more accurately reflects the way trading is truly practiced in today’s energy firms.”
Aneal Tenjarla of the University of Texas at Austin won first place in the competition, Stephen Cacioppo of the Freeman School came in second, and Matt Gitelis of the University of Illinois took third place. The Freeman School’s Kellen Hayes and Carnegie Mellon’s Alexander Kirov placed fourth and fifth respectively. Top winners could choose between a cash prize and internships with trading firms such as Webster Capital, Mirant Corp. and TXU/Luminant.
Tenjarla said the contest was a great opportunity to learn trading strategy from industry insiders in a realistic environment that felt like an energy trading firm.
“This is probably the closest thing you can get to actually trading besides committing actual value and risking actual money,” says Tenjarla, who plans to work as a financial analyst after graduation. “Before this competition, I really didn’t know much about different trading strategies, different patterns of trading or how to use this technology. By the end of this, I felt like I got a good education.”
 Stephen Cacioppo (MFIN '10) earned an internship with Chicago-based Webster Capital for his second-place finish in the competition. The event’s judges gave the competition high marks for helping to teach students the importance of managing risk.
“They are trying to show people how to take risks properly and that there actually are downsides to how you approach trading,” says Parker Drew, managing director of RBS Sempra Energy and a competition judge. “They are trying to make people have to make cogent risk decisions or what I call ‘skin in the game.’”
In addition to Drew, the competition featured judges from Mirant Corp., TXU/Luminant, Geneva Trading, Sequent Energy, Webster Capital, Aardvark Energy, ConocoPhillips, CitiGroup, Entergy Corp., Shell Trading, LIM, Johnson Rice and Goldman Sachs.
The competition took place in the Trading Center, the Freeman School’s state-of-the-art electronic trading classroom. Participants used Trading Technologies’ X_TRADER platform and Thomson Reuters’ 3000xtra software, the same tools used by professional traders at leading energy firms.
“The bulk of energy trading activity has moved from the trading pits in New York and Chicago to computer screens,” says Leo Murphy, university program manager with Trading Technologies, one of the event’s sponsors. “For this reason, we felt it imperative to arm students with the same software that is used everyday by professional traders.”
The 28 students who competed earned the right by participating in a team-based remote competition in October. Twenty-one teams from 13 business schools competed online over two weeks, using a mock $100,000 account to execute at least five trades per day. The top seven teams based on risk-adjusted return qualified to participate as individuals in New Orleans.
The Tulane Energy Trading Competition was presented by the Tulane Energy Institute and the Tulane Energy Club and sponsored by CME Group, Trading Technologies, Thomson Reuters and LIM. For more information about the competition, visit http://trading.tulane.edu.
Tags: Joe LeBlanc, Trading Center, Tulane Energy Institute
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Monday, November 16th, 2009
For more than a decade, the Financial Risk Manager (FRM) certification has been the globally recognized benchmark for expertise in risk management. Now, thanks to a unique partnership between Freeman and the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), students can earn a master’s degree in risk management while simultaneously preparing for the FRM examinations.
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Tags: MRISK, risk management, salvatore cantale
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
The Freeman School jumped seven spots in the latest Financial Times ranking of executive MBA programs. Freeman’s EMBA program is now ranked 64th in the world and 22nd among U.S. programs.
 Financial Times ranked Freeman's Executive MBA program 22nd among U.S. programs. Financial Times bases its ranking of executive MBA programs on measures of alumni success, program diversity and quality of faculty. Graduates of Freeman’s executive MBA program reported an average salary of $163,859 three years after completing the program, and graduates experienced a 50 percent increase in average salary compared with their levels prior to entering the program.
“We bring great students into our program and pair them with great professors,” says Russ Robins, associate dean for executive education. “Students integrate new insights into their decision-making and as the curriculum progresses, application to work projects becomes more sophisticated and more meaningful. In one to three years, we can clearly see and quantify the value added.”
To see the full ranking, visit http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/emba-rankings.
Tags: EMBA, executive education
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Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
The Freeman School has earned a national reputation in recent years for its use of cutting-edge technology to teach energy trading. Next month, Freeman takes another step toward establishing itself as one of the nation’s leading institutions for the study of energy with the first Tulane Energy Trading Competition.
The Tulane Energy Trading Competition will take place on Nov. 13 and 14 in the Freeman School’s trading center. Twenty-eight students from five top business schools will travel to New Orleans to put their skills to the test in a unique competition with highly coveted internships at top trading firms on the line.
 Twenty-eight students from five top business schools will visit the Freeman School's trading floor in November to participate in the first Tulane Energy Trading Competition. What makes the Tulane competition unique is that participants will be judged not solely on profit but on risk-adjusted returns and the ability to articulate and execute a logical trading strategy, a crucial distinction according to Joe LeBlanc, assistant director of the Tulane Energy Institute and organizer of the event.
“The idea was to create a trading competition that is more aligned with what employers want in the marketplace,” says LeBlanc. “We think that by adjusting for risk, combining several different performance measures and using the best trading software from Trading Technologies and Thomson Reuters, we’re creating a competition that rewards responsible trading and more accurately reflects the way trading is truly practiced in today’s energy firms.”
The competition began on Oct. 12 with a two-week remote phase for 21 teams from 13 business schools. Each team was given a mock $100,000 to trade and was required to execute at least five trades per day. While most trading competitions reward the team or individuals who generate the highest profit, the Tulane Energy Trading Competition uses a method for measuring investment risk known as the Ulcer Performance Index to penalize teams that take on too much risk.
At the end of the two weeks, the members of the top seven teams qualified to participate as individuals in the final round in New Orleans.
Another innovation of the competition is the prize structure. Rather than cash prizes, the Tulane Energy Trading Competition will offer internships with Webster Capital on the CME/NYMEX, Luminant Energy and Mirant Energy to the top three participants. While most trading competitions award cash prizes to students, LeBlanc says that sends the wrong message to the public at a time when many people blame high energy prices on speculation.
“We think awarding internships is the right thing to do because students want jobs and internships more than anything,” says LeBlanc. “It also supports the mission of the Freeman School by providing an opportunity for students to further their education through an opportunity with a top energy trading firm.”
The Tulane Energy Trading Competition is presented by the Tulane Energy Institute and the Tulane Energy Club and sponsored by CME Group, Trading Technologies and Thomson Reuters. For more information about the competition, visit http://trading.tulane.edu or contact Joe LeBlanc at 504-314-2662 or jleblan@tulane.edu.
Tags: Joe LeBlanc, Trading Center, Tulane Energy Institute
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Monday, October 12th, 2009
Whole Foods Market co-founder and CEO John Mackey drew the wrath of many longtime customers in August with a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that proposed free-market alternatives to healthcare reform, but the article was vintage Mackey, combining the iconoclastic executive’s strong beliefs in the power of capitalism and the importance of social responsibility in business.
 Whole Foods Market CEO and co-founder John Mackey will deliver the luncheon keynote presentation at this year's Tulane Business Forum. On Friday, Oct. 16, Mackey will be in New Orleans to deliver the luncheon keynote presentation at the 2009 Tulane Business Forum, which this year focuses on the theme of corporate consciousness.
“The whole idea of corporate consciousness goes back to the basic business fundamentals of doing things in an ethical manner and being responsible and purposeful in how you gear your business,” says Tom Spiers (MBA ‘01), board member of the Tulane Association of Business Alumni (TABA), which organizes the annual event. “We thought this would be a good way to focus on how to return to core values and how certain large organizations are doing it and succeeding at it.”
In addition to Mackey, other speakers addressing corporate consciousness, ethics and social responsibility include Mark Quartermain, president of Shell Energy North America; Alan R. Yuspeh, senior vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer of HCA; and Gary Jay Saulson, director of corporate real estate with PNC Financial Services Group.
The forum will also feature a panel discussion on alternative energy and financing featuring Jon Guidroz, director of project development with Free Flow Power Corp.; D’Juan Hernandez, president and CEO of Sun Energy Group; and Eldon Klaassen, CEO of Allegro. The discussion will be moderated by Michael L. LeBourgeois, principal of NGP Energy Technology Partners in New Orleans.
The 2009 Tulane Business Forum will take place at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. Registration and continental breakfast will begin at 8 a.m. and the forum will begin at 8:30 a.m. For more information about this year’s program, visit tulanebusinessforum.com.
Tags: John Mackey, social entrepreneurship, Tulane Business Forum
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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
The Freeman School of Business is one of the top five graduate schools in the nation for entrepreneurship, according to a new survey by Entrepreneur magazine and the Princeton Review. The Freeman School is ranked No. 4 on the list of Top Graduate Programs for Entrepreneurs. The ranking appears in the October issue of Entrepreneur and is available online at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges.
“We are grateful for this ranking that recognizes the quality and uniqueness of our entrepreneurship programs,” said John Elstrott, executive director of the Freeman School’s Levy-Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship. “This ranking reflects the commitment of our students, faculty and staff to engage in the reinvention and rebuilding of New Orleans through entrepreneurship. The programs and courses at the A. B. Freeman School of Business are dedicated to teaching and implementing the principles of conscious capitalism and social entrepreneurship that are redefining how free market economies function around the world.”
 John Elstrott, executive director of the Levy-Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship The Freeman School has built a strong reputation in recent years for social entrepreneurship, which refers to the use entrepreneurial principles to address social problems. More recently, under Elstrott’s guidance, the Freeman School has become a leader in promoting conscious capitalism, which calls for organizations to consider what is best for all stakeholders–employees, shareholders, the community and the environment–rather than solely focusing on shareholder returns. The 2010 Tulane Business Plan Competition, which will take place April 16, will be the first in the country to incorporate principles of conscious capitalism into its requirements.
Entrepreneur and the Princeton Review surveyed more than 2,300 schools to come up with this year’s ranking. Entrepreneurship programs were evaluated based on key criteria in the areas of academics and requirements, students and faculty, and outside-the-classroom experiences. “Each school that made the list demonstrates excellence in one or more areas–whether in regards to course offerings, the success of students post-graduation, sponsored mentorship programs or other important factors,” said Amy Cosper, VP/editor in chief at Entrepreneur. “While each program is unique, their inclusion in this ranking solidifies their place in an elite category of institutions offering a superlative level of education and preparedness that will play a key role in ensuring the success of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.”
Tags: entrepreneurship, rankings
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Saturday, August 29th, 2009
Howard Marks, chairman of Oaktree Capital Management and a highly regarded observer of economic trends and investment opportunities, will deliver this year’s R. W. Freeman Distinguished Lecture. The lecture will take place at 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 29, in Goldring/Woldenberg Hall, and is free and open to the public.
 In March 2008, the Wall Street Journal’s Peter Lattman wrote, “Everyone knows about the anticipation leading up to Warren Buffett’s annual shareholder letters. But for a certain Wall Street set, there are equally high expectations for the writings of Howard Marks.”
Marks co-founded Oaktree Capital Management in Los Angeles in 1995 and built the firm into an elite alternative and non-traditional investment company with over $60 billion in assets under management, but Marks has gained even greater notoriety in recent years for his eloquent, insightful writings on the economy.
Marks first began writing memos to investors in 1990, but his reputation grew dramatically in the wake of a January 2000 missive in which he accurately predicted the burst of the tech bubble. Since then his wit and wisdom on the economy and investing have earned him a cult following among investors.
Today, Marks no longer actively manages portfolios, instead devoting his time to running the firm and writing memos to clients. “The nicest comments I get on the memos are that I make complex things clear,” Marks told the Los Angeles Business Journal earlier this year. “So I want to keep doing that.”
Marks had almost 20 years experience in high-yield bonds and distressed debt when he and five associates established Oaktree in 1995 to specialize in those areas as well as convertible bonds, specialized private equity, real estate, emerging market and Japanese securities, and mezzanine finance. Today, the firm has over 550 employees and offices in 14 cities worldwide.
Prior to co-founding Oaktree, Marks led the groups at the TCW Group that were responsible for investments in distressed debt, high-yield bonds and convertible securities from 1985 to 1995. He was also chief investment officer for Domestic Fixed Income at TCW and president of TCW Asset Management Co., the largest of the TCW companies. Before that, Marks spent 16 years with Citicorp Investment Management, where from 1978 to 1985 he was vice president and senior portfolio manager in charge of convertible and high yield securities. Between 1969 and 1978, he was an equity research analyst and, subsequently, Citicorp’s director of research.
Marks graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School with a major in finance and earned an MBA in accounting and marketing from the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business, where he received the George Hay Brown Prize. He is a CFA charterholder and a Chartered Investment Counselor. Marks serves as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, and he chairs the university’s investment board.
The R. W. Freeman Distinguished Lecture series is the premier annual speaking event at the Freeman School of Business. The lecture series is named in honor of Richard W. Freeman (BBA ‘34), former vice chairman of the Louisiana Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Ltd. and a major benefactor of Tulane University. Mr. Freeman served on the Board of Tulane for 13 years. He received the business school’s Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1959 and Tulane University’s Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award in 1975. Mr. Freeman was instrumental in naming the business school in memory of his father, Alfred Bird Freeman.
Tags: Howard Marks, R.W. Freeman Distinguished Lecture
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Thursday, June 18th, 2009
 Peter Ricchiuti is quoted again in today’s Times-Picayune on McMoRan Exploration Co.’s groundbreaking Blackbeard drilling project. The mega-deep well, located just off the mouth of the Mississippi River, could end up producing the equivalent of 4 billion barrels of oil. Ricchiuti says the closely watched project has the potential to be a game changer for the industry.
Ricchiuti is research director of Burkenroad Reports, the Freeman School’s acclaimed equities analysis program.
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Monday, June 1st, 2009
 In its latest ranking of global MBA programs, Latin American business magazine AméricaEconomía has ranked the Freeman School 30th internationally and 20th among U.S. business schools. The ranking appeared in the magazine’s June 2009 issue.
In addition to the global MBA ranking, the Freeman School also appears prominently on the magazine’s ranking of the top MBA programs in Latin America. The Freeman School is listed as a dual-degree program partner with four of the top 10 schools in Latin America, including Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, ITAM in Mexico City, IESA in Caracas, and Universidad de Chile in Santiago. The Freeman School appears as a partner institution with more top Latin American schools than any other U.S. business school.
The Freeman School has been active in Latin America for more than 15 years, offering master’s, Executive MBA and faculty-development PhD programs in collaboration with prestigious universities across the region.
In 2007, the Freeman School launched the Global MBA, a new master’s program in which MBA students from Tulane and three Latin American universities form an international cohort and complete a series of courses focusing on global strategy offered in locations around the world.
Tags: AméricaEconomía, Latin America, rankings
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Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
The 2009 commencement ceremonies marked an historic end and a bright beginning for 769 newly minted alumni of the A. B. Freeman School of Business.
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Tags: commencement
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