The Freeman School is partnering with two universities in China to establish new dual education master’s programs for Chinese students. This summer, the Freeman School will begin admitting students from Xiamen University in Xiamen, China, to Freeman’s Master of Accounting and Master of Finance programs. The offering will lead to a graduate certificate from Xiamen and a master’s degree from Tulane.
John Veihmeyer, chairman and CEO of the global accounting firm KPMG, has some advice for anyone interested in knowing what’s really going on in the world. “Don’t believe anything you hear on CNBC or MSNBC,” Veihmeyer told students at the Freeman School. “All you do if you watch those programs is get really depressed about the state of the world.”
Rob Lynch (MBA ’12) didn’t just start a new business in New Orleans. He helped start a new industry. Lynch is the founder of Bike Taxi Unlimited, which last year became one of three companies awarded the right to begin operating pedicabs in New Orleans.
A Freeman School-based venture with a plan to turn algae into crude oil was one of the big winners at the 2012 Tulane Business Plan Competition. ReactWell, developer of a patent-pending technology that uses underground geothermal reactors to convert biomass into synthetic crude oil, earned the top prize at the second annual Domain Companies New Orleans Entrepreneur Challenge.
The Freeman School honored Jerry M. Greenbaum (BBA ’62) as Tulane Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year and Jay Altman as Tulane Outstanding Social Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2012 Tulane Council of Entrepreneurs Award Gala, which took place in April at the Audubon Tea Room.
John Elstrott’s name has been synonymous with entrepreneurship education at the Freeman School for more than 25 years. Now, thanks to a California-based company, Elstrott’s name is synonymous with education in rural India as well.
If there was an overriding theme at this year’s Burkenroad Symposium, “Taming the Dragon: The Ethics of Doing Business in the World of Social Media,” panelist David Vinjamuri summed it up best. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” said Vinjamuri, founder of ThirdWay Brand Trainers and “Brand Truth” columnist for Forbes magazine. “There are many things that are perfectly legal and not at all ethical.”
Shaun Budnik, Manny Fernandez, Cheryl Hollander Goldstein (BSM ’84) and Dave Wilson, four business and civic leaders with long, distinguished careers, are the latest additions to the Business School Council, the advisory board of the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University.
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, spoke to Tulane students, faculty and guests on April 9 in an appearance sponsored by the Freeman School. Dimon, whose wife, Judy (N ’78), is a Tulane graduate, discussed the role of banks, the role of corporate America and the nation’s economic future in addition to answering questions from students.
The A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University has added six new tenured and tenuretrack professors to its faculty for 2012-13. Of the six appointments, three are for newly created positions, representing the first phase of an ambitious three-year faculty hiring plan initiated last year that will increase the size of the Freeman School’s research-active faculty by almost 40 percent.
The Mauthe family have been dairy farmers in South Louisiana for five generations, but in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, their small, family-owned dairy was forced to suspend operations. Now, with the help of celebrity chef John Besh and a team of Freeman School MBAs, the Mauthes hope to bring their fresh glass-bottled milk, Creole cream cheese and homemade cheesecakes to a new generation of customers.
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.
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 a perfect example of that theme.
New federal rules to rein in the banking industry may be causing a stir on Wall Street, but the regulations likely won’t go far enough to prevent a crisis like the 2007–2008 financial meltdown, says the Freeman School’s Paul Spindt.
