Rady will make its annual trip to Petco for Padres baseball on Monday, September 17th. The game and reception cost $30 for alumni and are free for the incoming class of ‘09. This is a great event held on Petco’s Upper Deck Terrace that all are encouraged to attend.
The reception begins at 6:00 pm and game at 7:05. An RSVP is requested by September 10th.
Catherine Mi ‘07 is an embryologist at the San Diego Fertility Center and the founder and CEO of Fertility Tomorrow, an organization that provides education and guidance to women regarding fertility and egg preservation. The Wire caught up with Catherine just before she departs for month of enviable travel.
Wire: How has Rady impacted your job function and success?
Catherine: Rady has enabled me to understand projects from a management perspective and given me the resources to take a broader view of why a particular project may be beneficial to an organization’s long-term objective. Whether I am using the tools I learned from Quantative Analysis to prepare a research paper, examining how the implementation of a particular strategic plan will impact the success of the company, or managing a team with approaches from Mabel’s Leadership class, I am better prepared to face the everyday challenges of my career.
W: What class (or classes) do you retrospectively view as most valuable?
CM: The capstone of the Rady MBA Program, Lab to Market, was a truly invaluable experience in my MBA journey. Through the series, I was able to research and analyze a business opportunity that has since become Fertility Tomorrow, a company dedicated to offering women the education to understand their reproductive options, specifically fertility preservation and egg freezing. Lab to Market taught me the essential steps in evaluating a market need, assessing operational and marketing challenges, creating a business model, and perhaps most importantly, writing a successful business plan.
W: What are you reading these days?
CM: Amazingly, I have actually found time to start reading again! I’m about halfway through Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. It’s a memoir about her spiritual journey across the globe to seek out herself and all that she is truly passionate about. Through her travels, she is immersed in the culture of each setting — pleasure in Italy, devotion in India, and divine transcendence on the island of Bali. It’s a wonderful read and is a great reminder of the importance of maintaining balance in and finding passion for life.
W: Any updates in your family or personal life?
CM: My husband and I were married last August between Summer and Fall quarter, so we’ll be celebrating our first anniversary just after graduation! Since he also recently finished his Master’s program (Public Health at UCLA), we’ll finally get to spend some more time together. In the next few months, we’ll be headed to Napa, Costa Rica, and Cambodia to make up for all the weekends that have been dedicated to school!
Nobel laureate and Rady professor Harry Markowitz was recently featured in a Bloomberg news story about the effects of currency volatility on the profitability of carry trade strategies.
Congratulations to the Flex Class of 2007 on their recent graduation. If you missed the festivities, take a look at Scott Parish’s photo collection. Thanks for sharing, Scott.
Rady marketing professor On Amir was recently quoted in a SDUT article about the comeback plans of the “once-hot” sneaker maker Pony. With new owners and a headquarters in downtown San Diego, Pony is picking up its pace in the retro sneaker market.
After two weekends of travel and some serious crunch time in the new job, your editor is back. The pipeline of upcoming content is some of our best yet, so don’t go away.
The Rady Alumni Board will meet tonight at 6:00 pm in room 3S111 of Otterson Hall (the IT Conference room). This is the Board’s third meeting in Otterson as well as the first to include our new members and the Flex class of 2007 as alumni. Traffic data for the past month is included below.
Joe Baroldi (master brewer), Brian Campbell and Leif Christoffersen (each class of ‘07) have launched 3 Friars Brewing to produce and bottle Brown Robe Ale, a limited edition high-end Belgian ale. Each 24 oz. bottle will be numbered and a small portion has been designated for Rady to use as gifts for speakers and guests.
The launch is scheduled for next week’s Flex ‘07 graduation. Thanks (and cheers!) to Joe, Brian and Leif for this inspired effort.
Here’s a treat for the inner internet lover in each of you. Google Maps recently launched Street View in San Diego, providing 3-dimensional street-level photography from many of the city’s major roads.
This takes maps to a whole new dimension. Cruise down Torrey Pines Road, for example, and you get the following view of Otterson Hall.
Jim Trauth ‘07 contributed to this post.
Congratulations to the Flex Class of 2007! Graduation will take place on Sunday, August 19th at 10:00 am. Graduates are to meet in the Graduate Robing Room (i.e., classroom 1S113) at 8:15 am. Dean Sullivan will deliver a welcome message to be followed by UCSD Chancellor Mary Anne Fox and commencement speaker Dr. Irwin Jacobs.
The class will give two faculty awards followed this year’s Flex graduate speaker, Carlos Gonzalez Garcia. A reception will follow the graduation ceremony at 11:45 am.
The Flex ’07s will also enjoy another Rady tradition: a graduation party the night before the big day. This year’s party will be held from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm on August 18th at the Lodge at Torrey Pines. There is one critical difference to this classy location: a cash bar. What happened to the wrist bands?
Graduates (and a guest) can RSVP at this link by August 9th. Above is commencement speaker Dr. Jacobs.
The solar power array on Otterson Hall is finally nearing reality. Central campus has confirmed that installation will take place between August 13th and September 7th, with a system commissioning and turnover to follow thereafter.
Details regarding the position and function of a system generation monitor — a sign describing the power generation and performance — are still being finalized among Rady, UCSD and Kyocera.
Those of you in large organizations will appreciate a new text that is under review for our core Organizational Behavior course. Click on the thumbnail to view in full size.
Steve Gerken ‘06 was recently featured in Continental Airlines‘ in-flight magazine regarding his experience at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. The article is about the benefit of getting your feed wet to study developing countries.
Todd Frank, an IR/PS student who studied in Costa Rica and Panama, was also featured.
Johann Lau ‘07 leveraged his MBA to transition from computer science into a marketing position at renowned software maker Autodesk. The move also took him to San Francisco, where he is firmly planted among a growing group of Bay Area alumni and, we hope, still enjoying his motorcycle.
Wire: How has Rady impacted your job function and success?
Lau: Transitioning from software development to marketing, I’m obviously performing different day to day tasks, but the Rady MBA has really changed the way that I think about solving problems. I think that overall, it’s helped balance my perspective…from an engineering point of view as well as from a business standpoint.
W: What class (or classes) do you retrospectively view as most valuable?
JL: Biotech strategy. Aside from the fact that it was a very engaging class, it was useful for me because it introduced me to a lot of concepts and techniques that would be later refined in other classes (P&Ls, negotiation, primary research techniques) and it did so while covering a topic that I knew nothing about — forcing me to learn quickly and to think on my feet during lecture.
W: How have your goals changed since graduation?
JL: In the short-term, I’m focusing on learning and experiencing as much as I can in the business environment. Down the line, I have aspirations of starting my own company, so that’s something that I’m going to start preparing myself for once I get a grip on my current job.
W:. Tell me about your transition to the Bay Area.
JL: Luckily, I already had a bit of a ‘home base’ up here comprised of other Rady alumni, friends from undergrad, and family. So far, I’ve been spending my weekends refamiliarizing myself with the the area and exploring different areas of the city. I’m going to be moving into a studio in the city in mid-August, so I’m looking forward to getting situated in a new area. I’m also pretty excited about now being able to snowboard more often and go to Cal football games again.
W:What are you reading these days?
JL: Honestly, other than various research papers and industry reports, I haven’t done much reading since the final weeks of spring quarter. I have, however, finally caught up watching episodes of Entourage. Next on my reading list might be the Harry Potter books. I haven’t read any of them and I’m not really big on fantasy novels, but after all the hype with the release of the latest book, I’m kind of curious to see what the fuss is all about.
ALUMNI: don’t forget to establish email forwarding and complete the Career Connections CSC Survey online. Both are critical pieces to your ongoing involvement in the Rady community and will take you, altogether, less than 10 minutes to complete.
Email forwarding is set via the alumni website by clicking the Email for Life link and entering a personal email address. The CSC survey is located right here in Community. It is a vital part of Rady’s future as a ranked and distinguished program — please keep your responses updated.
