CA Clean Innovation Conference Photos

Check out these highlights from the recent California Clean Innovation Conference:

07s Unify to Celebrate

On Sunday, May 20th the 2007 Full and Flex classes held a social reception to raise awareness of their combined class gift campaigns, nibbling on hors d’oeuvres and sampling choice wines above the Pacific Ocean. Underwritten by Union Bank and the Rady Alumni Association, the event was held at Il Fornaio in Del Mar.

The occasion was a tribute to the accomplishments of Rady students as pioneers of this start-up MBA institution and served as a welcoming of the 2007 class to the Rady Alumni family. The afternoon marked the first Rady-sponsored effort to co-mingle the Full and Flex 2007 students who have had very little interaction in the past due class scheduling. The occasion also helped build momentum before tomorrow’s opening of Otterson Hall, wherein the Class of 2007 will hold the last and final classes of their MBA careers.

During the event Professor On Amir addressed attendees about the importance of unity and Dean Sullivan offered comments in support of the effort. Unification of the 2007 class gifts is currenty being lead by Rady development and Mike Kirkwood ’07. Check out these photos:

Vanee Pho ’07 contributed this post.  Photos are courtesy of George Nagata ’07.

Elaine Kub ’07 Appears on CNBC

Corn is king for Elaine Kub ’07, who appeared on CNBC this afternoon to comment on the corn commodities market. You can watch her video here.

Kub made an early departure from PCH to start work at DTN as a Commodity Market Analyst. She shifted to a Flex schedule and travels back from Omaha every other weekend to attend class. You can see more of her work in this Market Matters post.

Congratulations go to Elaine on a great appearance and meteoric rise to prominence.

Keri Peckham contributed to this post.

Cusano Prospers with Options Study

For the Wire’s first independent study highlight we connected with Tony Cusano ’07, who recently completed a series of projects with Professor Rossen Valkanov.

For the duration of his second year, Tony worked on a trading strategy centered around options volatility. He was able to find a market input directly correlated with future volatility in a stock that could be exploited using derivatives. Tony was able to show a very high risk adjusted return (Sharpe Ratio) and due to the success of his independent study, is currently implementing his findings in the market.

Tony’s project sequence allowed him to investigate many strategies with a ‘master’ in a 1:1 setting. He has since applied his skills in practice with a San Francisco-based mutual fund, which was arranged by Professor Valkanov. Tony explained that an “independent study is so effective because it gives students the opportunity to explore special interest projects with input and guidance of from industry.” This, he claimed, “drastically increase[s] the caliber of the project.” In this setting, said Cusano, “customization is key and that’s what really separates an independent study from a traditional elective.”

Connection, Community and Contribution

For the purposes of sharing and feedback, here is the mission statement of the Rady Alumni Association:

The mission of the Rady Alumni Association is to build lifelong personal and professional relationships among alumni, students, the Rady school, and business leaders through connection, community and contribution.

Alumni Board Seeks New Rockstars

If you have an interest in joining the alumni board or an alumni committee, please contact Jan Tuttleman to get involved. The board is expecting 3-4 vacancies this summer as current members rotate off. This will usher us into a steady state composition of 12 elected alumni, an RSA representative, a development liaison, and a rotation of Rady administrators. Terms typically last for 2 years. The board meets over dinner on the third Tuesday of every month.

This is a great time for Rady and a great way to further your investment in and committment to this program.

Ramping for Summer Growth

With the Full-time class graduating in less than a month and the Flex class graduating in August, the Rady Alumni Association is poised to grow by over 190% this summer.

Once relocated in Otterson Hall, the Flex program will transition both classes to concurrent (same weekend) schedules. By September, the current student population will top 240 members. The graph below shows the projected growth of class sizes and alumni. The forthcoming evening program is included in the Flex count. PhD students, who are expected to enroll for the 2008-2009 academic year, are not reflected in this data. Click the graph to view a larger version.

Assistant Dean JoAnne Starr and Greg Stein ’06 contributed to this post.

Marketing Gets Creative

Rady Marketing and Communication has hired Heather Kane as a Creative Services Coordinator.  Heather’s primary job is to evolve the use of the Rady corporate identity across all print material, publications, and advertising.

Welcome aboard, Heather.

Rady Marketing & Communication contributed this post.

Career Connections Deploys Employment Survey

Rady Career Connections has deployed its ongoing employment survey for completion by the 2007 and 2006 classes. You will hear this time and again: please fill this out and keep it updated through graduation. It is a mission-critical tool for reporting the success of Rady graduates with respect to program rankings and development. Regardless of your job seeking status, please share 3 minutes to complete this survey.

Rady Welcomes New Advisor

We are pleased to welcome Sarah Hahn to Rady as our new Academic Advisor for MBA programs. Sarah comes from UCSD’s Sixth College (another resident of Pepper Canyon Hall) as an academic advising intern since July 2006. Sarah has been working as the director of the Women’s Center at USD while finishing her MA in Counseling/Student Affairs.

Before returning to graduate school, Sarah spent four years in the corporate world as Director of Communications at Natural Selection, Inc. in La Jolla. Sarah starts at Rady tomorrow in room 478. Stop by and introduce yourself!

Laurel Nelson contributed this post.

Listen Up!

To promote its upcoming executive education class, Biotech Demystified, Rady is running a two-week advertising campaign on San Diego NPR affiliate KPBS. Craig Venter is among the distinguished faculty involved in the program. You can register here to attend. You can also review the program flyer with its distinctive, Venter-like photo of the Scripps Pier.

Rady Marketing and Communication contributed to this post.

Credit Risk Booms on Campus

On May 9th the first biannual Rady Finance Conference was held on campus at UCSD. The conference was developed as a practioner and academic event designed to bring leaders in the area of credit risk together at the Rady School. Rob Engle, a Nobel laureate in credit risk, Robin Lumsdaine from the Federal Reserve Board, and Andreas Gottschling from Deutsche Bank presented at the conference along with a number of professors. Through student interships and events such as this conference, Rady is pursuing a closer relationship with Deutsche Bank in the area of credit and asset management. The event attracted over 120 participants from the school and local business community.

Rady Marketing and Communication contributed to this post.

Sanna Joins RSB

The Rady Student Board has expanded its membership to more effectively fulfill its mission to build a cohesive student culture. Flex ’08 student Nick Sanna was nominated and approved for a student board seat earlier this month. Nick is currently with Cardinal Health and his experience will be a valuable addition to the board.

RSB President Jasmine Pritchard ’08 contributed this post.

Passion Powers Clean Innovation Conference

The first California Clean Innovation Conference got off to a powerful start on May 11th at Caltech with stunning addresses from keynote speakes Dr. Nate Lewis and Vinod Khosla. The event was sold out days in advance and latecomers were turned away at the door of Caltech’s Baxter Auditorium. Rady’s Net Impact chapter played a crucial role in organizing this event under the leadership of Jay Brandeis and collaborators from UCLA Anderson and host Caltech. Sponsors included Rady, UCSD, Toyota, Chevron, AeroVironment, the Angeleno Group, and the Foundation for Enterprise Development. The conference included a dozen distinct sessions, thirty-six speakers and panelists, and over three hundred attendees.

Congrats to the organizers and sponsors of this fine event.

Alumni Board Technology Update

The web traffic slides from tonight’s alumni board meeting can be viewed here.

Rady Professors in Print

Professor David Schkade was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal regarding happiness and Professor On Amir in the SD Union Tribune regarding social marketing.

Rady Marketing and Communication contributed to this post.

Rady Joins Celebration of Icons

On February 11th Rady staff and student leaders attended the Connect Entrepreneur Hall of Fame luncheon. The event honored Dr. William H. Rastetter, former executive chairman of Biogen Idec, and former president and CEO of IDEC Pharmaceuticals. It was the fourth such event in Connect’s series honoring major business figures in the San Diego region. Dean Sullivan, Assistant Dean Starr, Graig Eastin, and representatives of AlisTech and Parichute were all in attendance.

Rady Marketing and Communication contributed to this post.

Alumni Board Meeting

The Rady Alumni Board will hold its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 16th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the Dean’s conference room in PCH. This will be our last meeting in the current building. Regular meetings on the third Tuesday of each month will resume in June.

Rady Positions for Road Ahead

Transitions continue to define Rady on the ground level.  This month marks yet another series of shifts, this time in personnel and residence.  CTO Erik Nelson recently resigned to take a post at Diversa and a new Graduate Academic Advisor has been hired to fill the role left vacant by the departure of Ginger Berglund last year.  The new hire is scheduled to start later this month, just when Rady begins packing for the move across campus to Otterson Hall.  Computing equipment will be the first to go late next week with Erwin Milan leading the human charge the week of June 6th.  Bring on the new digs!  In the first week of official occupancy, Otterson will host four elective classes and a happy hour in the new student lounge.

Independent Studies Surge in Popularity

Independent studies are experiencing a surge in popularity this quarter. Professor On Amir has become the IS lightening rod, followed at a distance by Foit, Krishnan, and Liu. This spring a full 65% of Rady professors are involved in independent studies, which has forced Rady to find innovative ways of crediting professors for this work. Studies have also created valuable linkages between students and industry, potentially evolving into a signature aspect of the Rady MBA. To capture these experiences, the Wire is launching a monthly series of posts about independent studies that will parallel the Alumni Spotlight. Click the graph below to view a larger version.

MBA Programs and 9 individual professors contributed to the data in this post.