September 25, 2003 Volume 3, Number 1

The Owen Graduate School of ManagementVanderbilt University

Cohen steps up as Owen’s COOTrusted professor values transparency, respect, and hiring top faculty

WSJ ranks Owen 15th in annual surveyof recruiters, cites student character

Salsa girls: Zeyniye Deveci, Mirjana Jovanovic, Erin Sullivan, PaolaMontalva, and Rasha Bader take a break at the “Carnival” LBA party.

First years react to orientationBrian Douglas surveys students after going throughthe radically revamped first week at Owen. Page 3

Trouble remains at the NYSEAndrew Bogle says the Big Board must root outthe conflicts of interest that foretold the Grassocontroversy. Page 6

Bill and Jim’s Excellent AdventureDeans Christie and Bradford hit the road thissummer and returned with helpful advice. Page 7

The Class of 04’s big list of jobsIt’s an awesome sight: all the internships of the nowsecond-year class stuffed on one page. Page 9

Upcoming EventsTown Hall MeetingsAverbuch, October 3-4

Training the Street Valuation WorkshopTBD, October 4

Predators Home OpenerGaylord Entertainment Center, October 9

Exam Week BeginsOGSM, October 13

Pete YornRyman Auditorium, October 14

Annual New York TripNew York, NY, October 22-24

Halloween PartyNashville, October 30

ContentsOutside the Vanderbubble.......................... 3Word Find & Student Quiz........................... 3CMC Update...……............………............. 4First Person.....……............………............. 6Bill Christie and Jim Bradford.....……..….. 7OSSA Update....……...........…………........ 8Internship List................................................ 9Internship Stories.............……….....…..…..10

By Stephen Plauché

Earlier this summer, Mark Cohenwas appointed Owen’s SeniorAssociate Dean. Cohen joined theOwen faculty in 1986 and is alsothe Justin Potter Professor ofAmerican Competitive Business.He replaces former AssociateDean Dick Daft and takes on anexpanded role in the day-to-dayoperations of the school. Thisentails the implementation of thestrategic plan, research and Continued on Page 2

ALONSO VALENZUELA

By Andrew Vecci

On September 17th, The WallStreet Journal named Vanderbilt asthe 15th-best MBA program in its2004 b-school rankings. While theimportance of rankings wasdownplayed in the spring, thenews provides an added boost toimproving school morale.

WSJ’s unique rankings arebased on the opinions of recruit-ers. In contrast, the BusinessWeek and US News rankings ac-count for such criteria as GMAT,GPA, placement and admissionfigures, and surveys of deans. Continued on Page 4

Venezia “stars” onTemptation Island

By Matthew L. Dadaian

This past Friday I, Matt Dadaianof New Jersey, was fortunateenough to sit down with ChrisVenezia, a second-year VanderbiltMBA student. Chris is a star onthe new FOX show, TemptationIsland 3 (TI3 for the layperson).TI3 is an unscripted, reality TVshow involving unmarried cou-ples, single tempters, an exoticlocation, and a lot of booze. Dur-ing the three-week show, Chrisplayed the role of a tempter.

After a long hard day out onthe golf course, Chris was readyto tell THE BOTTOM LINE every-thing surrounding his experienceon the island. My goal was tolearn about the “Real Chris Vene-zia.” As an added bonus, I wasalso lucky enough to have RyanJ, one of Chris’s fellow tempt-ers, at the interview.

Matt: What is reality TV?Chris: Reality TV is a chance forpeople like me to get five min-utes of national TV exposure.Ryan J: Or in Chris’ case, fiveseconds of exposure.I agree, that is about the amountof total airtime that he received.

operating budgets, the hiring andpromotion of tenure-trackfaculty, mentoring faculty, chair-ing the Committee on Instruction.He is also the primary point-of-contact for students and facultyon issues requiring the input of theDean’s office. In effect, Cohen isOwen’s COO, ensuring that cur-rent programs are consistent withthe school’s goals.

Last week, Cohen sat downwith THE BOTTOM LINE to discusshis new role.

TBL: What is your agenda overthe next 12 to 18 months?Cohen: My goals are, one, to makesure that Dean Christie is freed upto promote the school and, two,increase the transparency of theschool internally from the perspec-tive of both the students and thefaculty. In the past, not only werethe faculty not part of the gover-nance of the school but decisionsoriginating from the Dean’s officeweren’t transparent to the faculty.

Continued on Page 5

Owen also ranked 6th amongsmall schools and 9th amongprivate schools, ahead of Duke,Emory, Wake Forest, and Cornell.

Recruiters noted Vanderbilt’s“finance program and its graduates’strong character and team orienta-tion.” Vanderbilt historically hasdone well in the WSJ rankings,despite sliding to 26th last year.

MethodologyFrom November 2002 to March2003, WSJ conducted onlineinterviews with 2,191 recruiters.Each were asked to “rate schools

Erin Shinkleappraises the

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performanceat GeneralMills. Herstory is onpage 10.

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BottomLine

The

“One of my goals is to restore themutual respect that deterioratedlast year between faculty,students, and the Dean’s office.”

2 September 25, 2003 The Bottom Line

Cohen oversees Owen’s daily operationsContinued from Page 1

Interest in studentprojects hits new low

By David Egner

Bruce Lynskey oversees many of the projects studentsundertake with local companies, and he’s not happywith what he’s seeing from the Class of 2004. Of 25projects available to second-year students this fall, lessthan 10 are staffed, the lowest fill rate he has seen inthe two years he’s been at Owen.

Interest also sagged last fall, when 30 projectswere offered, but the problem is worse this year.

Lynskey concedes there is a seasonality factor:students, fresh from their internships, “may not be inthe mood” or are continuing projects started in thesummer. Students are also not in residence until justbefore classes start and may not factor projects intotheir schedules. Filling a project often requires aninterview, and an interested student may not be able tosecure a project until after the drop/add period. Otherstudents worry about being spread too thin.

Lynskey does not recommend a project as a fifthclass, but he fears that students “avoid projectsbecause they tend to be a lot of work and evaluationsare more or less in the hands of the client sponsors.”

Projects run for two mods, count four hours ofcourse credit (new this year), and receive a letter grade,assigned by the faculty member overseeing the project.

Lynskey says, “Final grades are hugely influencedby the client’s detailed evaluation. I’m surprised at howdemanding the clients are. On the one hand, that’sgreat for the students because it’s not going to be anydifferent in the real world. On the other hand, I dothink that most students are conservative and risk-averse, and those are not good qualities for business.”

“We strongly encourage students to be more ad-venturous and risk-taking and use the program to itsfullest. Our program will impact the rest of their ca-reer. The worst thing they can do is be too reservedand conservative. Most of the projects, with large firmsor start-ups, are highly entrepreneurial, an experiencetoo valuable to turn down.

“The recent WSJ rankings, taken from the as-sessments of recruiters, not deans or students, notedthat many graduates from top schools lacked ‘entre-preneurial skills.’ We need to take notice of this.”

Stiff competition for the best projects and themix of offerings may also turn students off. Of the 25offerings this fall, 16 were marketing projects. Forsecond years looking for work outside of Nashville,the appeal of projects going full-time may be lost.

Still, Lynskey feels the importance of projectscannot be overstated: “For the investment studentsare making, you should want to get the very most outof this. First, a project is an opportunity to apply whatyou’ve leaned in the classroom in a supervised busi-ness setting. Second, it’s usually a high-level corpo-rate project, so you’re getting great exposure, oftenmore than what you would get in a summer intern-ship. Third, it shows what kind of worker you are.There is a sea of difference between making goodgrades and taking a project that is not completely de-fined, formulating it, and hitting a home run. I hiredfresh MBAs almost every year of my ‘working’ ca-reer and never hired one without ‘project’ experience.”

Many untaken projects will be saved for the springsemester. Some projects will also be modified to startin Mod II. But the upshot of declining interest willlikely be fewer offerings in the future.

“We don’t like to tell companies that students arenot interested in their projects, because Owen can’tdo enough to get more plugged into the business com-munity. But my attitude now is to be more conserva-tive about bringing in projects. It won’t surprise me ifin December we end up turning some students away.”

A third goal is to restore themutual respect that deteriorated lastyear between faculty, students, andthe Dean’s office. Last, I am veryfocused on the area of faculty hir-ing. We now have up to five posi-tions that need filling in marketing,HOP, strategy, accounting, and fi-nance. I am absolutely committed tobringing in the best faculty possible.

TBL: What are your specific goalsthat fall outside the prescribedagenda of your office?Cohen: One area I am personallycommitted to is enhancing andimproving the environment for fac-ulty research here at Owen. By wayof example, we have started havingcross-discipline, school-wide facul-ty seminars where faculty presentstheir research to one another. Thishasn’t been done in the past so we’reexcited to see the results.

TBL: You have a long history ofworking in the public sec-tor. What lessons fromyour prior work will helpyou in your new role?Cohen: One thing you learnfrom government is to notemulate it in real-life. Typi-cally, universities have beat-en out governments in termsof bureaucracy. One of mymain concerns in cominginto this job was gettingbogged down in a huge bureaucracybecause I don’t have a lot of toler-ance for it.

TBL: Should Owen target profes-sors with real-life experience?Cohen: It is very important thatOwen professors and administratorshave some real-life work experience.However, that should never becomea prerequisite because you alwayswant to find outstanding people forthe faculty whether they haveworked outside of academia or not.

TBL: Last year, several studentsfelt their concerns with facultyfell through administrativecracks. How will you address thevarious complaints and requeststhat come across your desk?Cohen: I shared this with the newfirst years during orientation. The keything is mutual respect and under-standing between the students andthe faculty. Professors are profes-sionals and are, of course, concernedabout student issues. My philosophyis that students should always ad-dress a class-related issue with theirprofessor first. I would be disap-pointed if a student came to me firstbefore taking up the issue with theprofessor.

TBL: Most students do not under-stand why some professors don’tfeel they need to help studentsfind internships or full-time jobs.What are your thoughts on this?Cohen: Step back for a second andrealize that within any organization,there are always specialized roles.From the school’s perspective andthe student’s perspective we have twooutputs: high-quality research andhigh-quality students that get goodjobs. Most students don’t realize thevalue of high-quality research andhow highly correlated it is with stu-dents getting rewarding jobs. The factthat we have a world renownedfinance faculty, for example, has alot to do with attracting top financerecruiters to Owen.

Faculty is Owen’s mainresource and we need to figure outhow to use them to their best poten-tial. Research, teaching, and provid-ing service to Owen are the threethings that fall into every professor’sbailiwick. The real question is: Whatis the proper balance between these

activities? We hire a first-class CMCstaff to identify and cultivate recruit-ers. Thus, while it is fair to askprofessors to help find studentswork, we should not expect allfaculty to have the same abilities inthat area, and their time can bebetter spent on research or otherservice activities.

TBL: What part did you play inrestructuring the current first-year curriculum?Cohen: As head of the economics/strategy area, I played a large part inrestructuring the curriculum over thelast few years. This process wasdriven largely by student demand andemployer demand for a strategy con-centration. For instance, I had In-troduction to Strategy (the one-credithour course) added as a new courselast year and moved to Mod I thisyear and had Core Strategy (the two-hour course) moved to Mod III lastyear. The notion here was that ourstudents weren’t getting the big pic-ture until the end of the first year.Now, they get it up front.

TBL: Last spring’s rankingscaught many of us, including theadministration, by surprise. Howmuch do you value rankings?

Cohen: We have no choice but to livewith the rankings – we all have todeal with it because it does effect whoends up applying and ultimately en-rolling here at Owen. Objectively, wecan look at this and ask, “Why didwe fall in the rankings?” The fallmight have been a good thing be-cause a little crisis management hasmotivated us all to consider what weare doing well and not doing well inthe school. However, we shouldn’tlet the rankings drive our decisionmaking process here at Owen. In myview, our long-term objectives areconsistent with being highly ranked.

TBL: What is the most importantarea in regards to improving ourrankings? Would you put in asystem of rankings management?Cohen: We need to focus on betterexternal relations, corporate as wellas alumni. We are making greatstrides in improving that dimensionwith Dean Christie and Dean Brad-ford traveling all over to market theOwen brand across the globe.

With respect to a sys-tem of rankings manage-ment, I would say both yesand no. Yes to the extent thatwe are more aware of all therankings that are out there,what they look at, and wherewe stand relative to ourpeers. No, in terms of actu-ally managing the rankingsbecause one ranking usesone or two different criteria

while another ranking uses a com-pletely different set of criteria.

TBL: Students perceive that theadministration has little publicpresence? Will we see more of theadministration this year?Cohen: Perception is reality. One ofthe things we have done, with OS-SA’s assistance, is attempt to takepart in things on a social level withthe students. Like any executive, wehave to balance the need to interactwith our various stakeholders whileat the same time hunker down anddo our work. However, I will say thatDean Christie and I are committedto walking around the halls a bit moreand talking to students.

Students should feel that theycan come in and talk to me abouttheir concerns. I do have an open-door policy, but it is important to un-derstand what that means from apractical standpoint. If students haveclassroom concerns, they should talkto their professors before coming tome. Regarding non-classroom issues,students should first go through theproper channels which 99% of thetime is OSSA. On a personal note, Igreatly enjoy student interaction andam looking forward to getting outthere more often.

MARK COHEN, SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN

OUTSIDE THE VANDERBUBBLE

The Owen Graduate School of Management September 25, 2003 3

Incoming class survives busy, revamped orientation

If you get a break,check out a local park

By Jim Rodrigues

I realize that first years have been hard at work adjust-ing to life at bidniss school, so you may not have no-ticed the world outside of Vandy. It took our class awhile, but I think we’ve now found a few ways todistance ourselves from campus as much as possible.

To that end, I highly recommend taking advan-tage of Nashville’s park system. You have probablyseen Centennial Park across from Dudley field, butto truly escape, you only need to travel 10 miles downWest End, Belle Meade Boulevard, or Granny WhitePike (12th Avenue).

Going south on West End into Belle Meade Bou-levard, you will run into one of the Warner Parks. Thetwo parks in this system – Percy Warner (at the endof Belle Meade Boulevard) and Edwin Warner (at thecorner of Highway 100 and Old Hickory Boulevard) –total almost 2,700 acres and make up one of the larg-est city parks in the country. The parks contain ninehiking trails which range up to 4.5 miles. After fiveminutes on any of the trails, you will forget that youare only nine miles from downtown. In addition, theparks also contain picnic areas, scenic roadways, anequestrian center (home of the Steeplechase), horsetrails, running courses, and two golf courses, PercyWarner and Harpeth Hills.

Another piece of wilderness in Nashville isRadnor Lake – go south along Granny White, thenturn left on Otter Creek Road. Radnor Lake, a statepark covering more than 1,100 acres, has about sixmiles of trails. However, the wildlife, not the hiking, isthe real treat at Radnor. This state protected ecosys-tem is home to a remarkably diverse group of wildlifeand plant life including: songbirds, herons, geese, woodducks, green snakes, rattlesnakes, frogs, toads, fish,otters, turtles, beaver, wildflowers, blackberry bush-es, wild roses. Approximately 240 species of birds, 26of these waterfowl, have been identified at the park.If you visit the park at dusk, you will see plenty ofdeer come to the lake for an evening drink.

Of course there are plenty of other parks in townand throughout the state that are worth visiting, but ifyou want to truly escape for a few hours, the WarnerParks and Radnor Lake are where you need to go.These places are part of what makes Nashville sounique, and if you never make an effort to visit themwhile you’re here, you’re really missing out.

For more information on local parks go tohttp://www.nashville.gov/parks/parks.htm orhttp://www.state.tn.us/environment/parks/hiking.htm.

By Brian Douglas

Owen took orientation and super-sized it.

Based on feedback from theClass of 2004, this year’s enteringMBA candidates to got more thandouble the normal dose dished outto prepare student for the rigors ofbusiness school.

The prequel to the Owen ex-perience ran from August 13-22 andwas “vastly different” than previouseditions, according to Kelly Christie,Director of the Office of AcademicPrograms and Student Services.

“We restructured the entire pro-gram using the comments and sug-gestions from the class of 2004 as aguide,” Christie said. “We workedwith other departments at Owen topull it all together. The entire schoolbecame involved in the process andthe end result was a combined ef-fort of the many constituents tomake the orientation experience verypurposeful.”

A push to include Stats Campin orientation precipitated thechange. Previous classes had StatsCamp at a separate time. But includ-ing it as part of the overall orienta-tion broke it up and provided an op-portunity to include a key groupcomponent to the incoming class.

“Once we decided to incorpo-rate it, we realized even the studentswho were brilliant in Statistics couldbenefit from the group work,” saidBetsy Karounos, the assistant direc-tor of academic programs.

Other key changes included anexpansion of the CMC’s presence.Students had a chance to attend sixdifferent CMC sessions during

orientation, something Karounos saidwas a reflection of the times and aneed for MBA students to get on topof the job search process.

Excel and PowerPoint work-shops were added at the request ofsecond-year students, some whichassisted in teaching those classes. Adaily lunch with faculty was anotherfresh addition.

There was also some subtrac-tion as the normal curriculum ses-sion was removed and will be heldlater in the fall when students arecloser to making class choices.

So what did the new class thinkabout the revamped orientation?

“It was busy. There was an in-formation overload,” said BryanArndt, a first year from Franklin,Tenn. “Stats camp was good, but onthe other hand, it seemed like maybetoo much information was pulled outof the (regular) class. But I see wherethey were coming from. If youweren’t taking Stats, then you need-ed that (extra information). I alsoliked Strategy, and I thought it was agood introduction. It was nice to hearcases without pressure.”

Jon Nyswonger, a first yearfrom Oklahoma, said he thoughtorientation was long but thorough,but was a little surprised by the lackof team building.

Nyswonger also felt there is onemajor improvement that could bemade for next year: “They need tobreak up a couple of days,” he said.“You’re there, anyway. Offer a littlemore flexibility, some more free timeand social interaction.”

He was not alone. That wasone of the more common themes inthe suggestion box.

“Because we had done it in threedays, with eight we thought we hadso much time,” said Karounos. “Butwhen we started plugging things init turned out to be packed.

“The overriding comments saidpeople needed more free time. Butfrom our perspective, a lot of it wasoptional. A lot of the students obvi-ously pushed themselves to do it all.”

Emily Dunn, a first year fromBreckenridge, Colo., said the daysessions were effective.

“I didn’t expect it to be sostructured,” Dunn said. “If I couldchange something it would maybe beto make it a more gradual process.But I ended up appreciating it becauseI was more than prepared for whenclass started.”

But she also liked the atmo-sphere provided by the differentsocial activities.

“I thought it was nice everyonewas anxious to meet everyone else,”Dunn said. “I think we all developedrelationships quickly.”

Karounos said next year therewill likely be no evening social eventplanned the night before the finalStats Camp test (a complaint fromseveral who wanted to attend theSounds game but were afraid not tostudy), but overall any changeswould be a result of needs her officeperceives because the feedbackdidn’t indicate any major problems.

“We evaluate (orientation) large-ly based on the student survey, andthere was no one screaming for usto get or add anything,” Karounossaid. “We’ll just try to schedule alittle more free time. And no Statsexam after the baseball game.”

C A M P U S V I S I T S E R E C R U I T E R P Y AP L G K S D A R G R E D N U T O H S T Z L A K Z BV L F D R P N C A B Q R S T R O H S Y D N A V L GI G C S R U R E S U M A N I A O U T I M P I X O RR V N E A T E A E F O D I E C I C X H S N W K C OT A B R G E I F O O R N I T M L G O S S I P E H UU T N O M P N D Z A N T A S B U N A Z N O C R A PA B M D A I L Y N E W S B E C D L O V G R G I N ML O S Q A Z E N N A H L T B U C D A U C O L K C ED W M G U Z I J K G T E R A G E L T U Q U D P E EE E R A F A N E S E S K W O R M V I R U S A E S TN N R F T F L I I H E G L C U B H K S E P E T I IA T E G K O G P R G A A E J M U U M G N A R E S ND W Y S T R E S S T K S M K L L I C O I M S R I GC E D K Z L O I E R P F A C E B O O K U T S S F IN L L B K U R M K Z O N R A N K I N G S U P O T OM V N A W N A F P S R L A N O I T A N R E T N I OA E C V P N O R E C L A S S E S R Y D L U S R M US E M R E H P Q L C A F F E I N E N Q O N O T E Z

Study breakBy Leland Kass

Caffeine, campus visit,“Chances is,” classpak, coreclasses, daily news, Dores,erecruiter, Erik Peterson,facebook, gossip, groupmeeting, Hermes, hotundergrads, international,kegs, MPD, nametag, OwenTwelve, pizza for lunch,rankings up, Sams, Satco,stress, Starbucks, spam,resumania, ROI, Tin Roof,Vandy shorts, Virtual Dean,worm virus

Word Find

Can you name this student?1. Unjustly called a nerd (I did sayunjustly!)2. NOT Russian (really!)3. Goes to the “loo”4. Yet to taste roasted marshmallows5. Unable to pronounce Fort Lau-derdale (or roller-coaster for thatmatter) in one go6. Proud owner of 67 Mardi Grasbead-strings7. Howls at the full moon8. Emails assignments at 5:00 a.m.without being aware of it9. Prone to fly over pavement/stairs/chairs (also known as clumsy)10. Spellcheck offers “marijuana”

How about this one?1. “Studied” abroad in Dublin for asemester, learned to appreciate Guin-ness and how to buy bigger pants2. Won a partial college scholarshipplacing third at the U.S. AcademicDecathlon finals

3. Scored three points playing one-on-one against Kobe Bryant4. Chipped a tooth at age 7 trying todo the crane kick from Karate Kid5. Chipped the same tooth again twoyears later in a power see-sawingcontest (which this person won)6. Stops at Wawa for soft pretzelsthe first night of every trip home7. Was once a fairly seriousbass player in orchestras and jazzbands

8. Once caddied at a pro-am for agroup with Jack Nicklaus9. Wound up in Canada once afterdinner with friends because no onewas willing to point out that it wasan awful idea10. ”I literally dove through shit onceto catch a foul ball in intramural soft-ball. It was actually just fertilizer butthe catch was worthy of a SportsCenter highlight clip.”Answers at bottom of Page 8.

4 September 25, 2003 The Bottom Line

with which they were familiar.” Each top50 school was rated by a minimum of 20MBA recruiters with the overall rank basedon two primary factors: perceptions ofthe school and the school’s students(80%) and “mass appeal” (20%) “as de-fined by the total number of respondentswho recruit from that school.”

Students were measured on 26attributes recruiters consider most impor-tant when they decide “which schools torecruit from and which students to hire.”The most important criteria are: commu-nication and interpersonal skills (90%),ability to work well within a team (87%),analytical and problem-solving skills(85%), personal ethics and integrity(84%), quality of past hires (81%), andleadership potential (75%). The percent-age is the number of recruiters who saidthat attribute was “most important.”

The Wall Street Journal: Owen 15thContinued from Page 1 A Hidden Gem

The WSJ once again ranked Vanderbiltas a “hidden gem,” schools that recruit-ers think “don’t receive the attention andrespect they deserve.” Owen studentsreceived particular praise for their “solidfinance skills and general-managementperspective” as well as interpersonalskills, personal ethics, and teamwork.Such soft skills were among the mostimportant to recruiters participating inthe survey.

However, Vanderbilt “got its lowestratings for its faculty’s expertise, stu-dents’ international perspective andawareness of corporate-citizenshipissues. Recruiters also said Owen needsto attract students with stronger workexperience, as well as increase its namerecognition in the corporate world.”Efforts by the Dean’s office are focusedon improving the program’s profile.

By Melinda Allen

As I talked to my peers this summer, onefact became evident: The teamwork thatled to our excellent internship placementnumbers this past year is rare. My hatgoes off to the Class of 2004 and theentire Owen community for partneringwith the CMC towards a common goal,100% placement.

Students helped students in aformalized program called “Owen 2x1.”This program, kicked off by JohnOwens, facilitated lead sharing.

Not only were students in on thepartnership, but faculty, alumni and se-nior administration ALL were makingphone calls, traveling to search out jobopportunities, referring resumes toemployers, and coaching students. Over14 faculty members helped generate andfacilitate job leads for students, in addi-tion to myriad of alumni of all class yearswho rose to the challenge.

Internally, the same spirit wascontinued amongst the Owen staff.Obviously, Dean Bill Christie and Associ-ate Dean Jim Bradford worked closely

with the CMC, but they weren’t the onlyones. The Alumni and Development staffasked for money, and then some – JOBS!Executive Education and Program Staffhelped identify EMBA’s whom might bein a position to help find students jobs, aswell as working providing an entree tocompanies like TVA.

You add to the above group efforts,the fact that the number of on-campusplacements, CMC-facilitated hires, andOwen-facilitated hires increased from2002 to 2003. We also saw an increasein placements from the Internet, specifi-cally corporate websites.

As we look forward, I challengeeveryone to remain motivated and ener-gized around our common goal becausewe can utilize placement as one mecha-nism to drive the school forward. Weremain cautiously optimistic about thisyear ’s recruiting cycle and remaincommitted to the external marketingnecessary to have a repeat of last year!

We are also pleased to announcethat, as of this week, our interim num-bers for the Class of 2003 place us at87% with offers and/or accepted offers.

Partnerships producing resultsCMCUPDATE

By Joseph Pulaski

Last year, as many second years mayremember, the Cork & Barrel club wasrelatively non-existent. As many studentskept asking about upcoming events, theclub answered with only empty promises.

This year Cork & Barrel hasreturned with a new executive board andmany more promises. For the $15membership fee, you’ll get monthly wineevents, free subscriptions to WineXmagazine (claiming to be the Maxim ofwine magazines), discounts at local winestores, and a monthly newsletter.

Unlike last year though, they havealready come through on some of thepromises. The new website, available onBlackboard, has a modern design with

links to everything from interestingarticles to career information. They havealso published the first newsletter whichhas been posted on the website. A localwine store, Nashville Wine and Spirits,has already agreed to a 10% discount formembers. Plus, the first club event isplanned for Friday, September 26th. Itwill be a wine-sharing event whereeveryone will bring a bottle of wine andthe club will provide appetizers.

One of the club co-presidents,second-year David Mekeel says the clubis for everybody who enjoys wine. “Theclub is dedicated to the taste and cultureof wine without any of the pretensionnormally associated with drinking wine.We are aimed at both the experienced andinexperienced palettes alike.”

Cork & Barrel returns with a splash

By Kelly Christie

Welcome to the Class of 2005, andwelcome back to the Class of 2004!

First, please join me in thanking BetsyKarounos, Associate Director of Academ-ic Programs and Registrar for coordinat-ing a fabulous orientation. Betsy is alsoresponsible for the day-to-day operationsof our office. She is a wonderful firstpoint of contact for your academic ques-tions, and I am grateful for her help andexpertise. We both look forward to work-ing with all of you.

In my role as the Director of theAcademic Programs and Student Servic-es, I will continue to get to know youbetter as we work together to enhanceyour Owen experience. You can expectthe Office of Academic Programs andStudent Services to be a place where youcan share your concerns and ask yourquestions – be they academic or person-al. We will help you with your curricu-lum, discuss various concentrations,suggest project options, help you plan abalanced schedule and suggest coursesthat might interest you. We will offerspecific guidance if you plan to takecourses in another school at Vanderbiltand we can direct you to appropriateUniversity resources for solving specificproblems. We will make referrals to

other departments for counseling orstudy skills assistance. I will meet withyou to handle disciplinary matters inconjunction with the Senior AssociateDean Cohen, make decisions on studentpetitions, and help you resolve conflictsat Owen and Vanderbilt. I will help youprioritize your commitments when youare feeling overwhelmed and will help youcontact your professors in the cases ofillness or emergencies.

Ours is a place where you can turnfor answers. We will try to see thingsfrom your perspective and make sugges-tions that are attuned to your needs. Butwe will also explain our precedent, theschool’s policies and the faculty and ad-ministration’s expectations.

I encourage you to do the best youcan as you juggle multiple priorities inyour MBA program. Share your outsidecommitments with your group membersand together you can work to manageyour time and accomplish your goals.Things might take an unexpected turnevery now and then but remember thatyou are here to learn from new experi-ences and to grow – academically,professionally and personally. You havemade a tremendous investment in your-self and I salute you. Betsy and I lookforward to helping you make the most ofyour time at Owen!

OGSM’s friendly, neighborhoodtroubleshooters are ready to help

CONGRATULATIONSTO THE CLASS OF 2004 FOR RECORDFINANCE INTERNSHIP PLACEMENTS

John Mears AEA GroupHoward Anger American ExpressBrian Alldredge Avondale PartnersDavid Egner Avondale PartnersSean Leonard Avondale PartnersSungsoo Jun AXAMatt Levenson Banc of America SecuritiesChris Rogers Banc of America SecuritiesJon DeCoite Bar-KMatt Hedges Bear StearnsJason Allbert Black & DeckerCalandra Turner Black & DeckerJackson Lapin Boyle Investment Co.Matt Dadaian Cohen Klingenstein & MarksPerry Gooch Colliers Turley Martin & TuckerBrandon Beal Corinthian CollegesLee Bell Courage CapitalTrey Ripley CPS LandScott Hastings Delaware InvestmentsJohn Owens Detwiler, Mitchell & Co.Quentin Hicks Deutsche BankStephen Plauche Deutsche BankBrian Johnson FastIronBilly Tornabene Friedman, Billings, RamseyChris Venezia Friedman, Billings, RamseyHelen Comer GaylordGordon Quinby GaylordXin Liu GE Captial AviationJD Anderson US GAODaLynn Barker US GAOStephen Burr Goldman SachsJerry Feldman Goldman SachsTodd Landon Goldman SachsMark Smith Goldman SachsJeff Cantrell Halsted Surgical ConsultingScott Kubiszyn Harbert ManagementJono Huddleston Harpeth CapitalKris Douglas Healthcare Realty TrustMark Sullivan Holliday Fenoglio FowlerKyle Irwin HoneywellThanh Nguyen HoneywellDavid Wafle Honeywell

Adam Cruse HCARaj Ajmera HSBCRawit Han-utsaha HSBCPeyton Bush JP Morgan ChaseDaniel Dunn JRS InvestmentsJeremy Landa Krol lChristy Mayo Lehman BrothersDoug Owen Mellon VenturesBrian O’Neill Mercer, Inc.David Easthope Merrill LynchKatherine Bishop MontaVista SoftwareJoe Gibney Morgan KeeganCharlie Starnes Morgan KeeganJonathan Sucato Morgan KeeganAndrew Bogle Morgan StanleySharon Shih Outokumpu CopperClint Liebenberg Parkplus, Inc.Mitch Bollinger ProventureLuis Mirabal QualcommTemilade Oyeniyi Ronin CapitalJirat Tuntha-Obas Ronin CapitalJack Rainer Sandler O’NeillAnthony Schaffer Solare PublishingBrian McCann Solve InteractiveRob Zaegel Southeast Community CapitalKunal Gupta Stanley Access TechnologiesBenjamin Green State StreetRick Daley Sunrise Senior LivingMatthew Lederer The Bank of New YorkMicah Hatten The Southern CompanyGraham Fuller The Vanguard GroupMike Brandon Trammell CrowPaola Montalva T V AHayes Bryant UBS Investment BankNelson Rangel UBS Investment BankMcNeill Wells Union Planters BankEd Lim Vanderbilt UniversityChristopher Rand VUTCTodd Schneider VelocityHealth CapitalMirjana Jovanovic VelocityHealth CapitalRuss Fallis Wachovia SecuritiesLeigh Spangler Yum! Brands

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

The Owen Graduate School of Management September 25, 2003 5

Dadaian onVenezia on TI3

Matt: Tell me a little bit about theshow you were on? How was the showstructured?This sounds like a Plauché question.Chris: This is a stupid question! I willanswer it as quickly as I can. Basicallyyou have four monogamous couples andthey split them up and the four coupleguys go on an island with fourteen singlechicks and the four couple chicks go onan island with fourteen single guys. Anduh, it’s pretty much a big sword fight forthree weeks.Ryan J: It’s a free for all. They really kindof let you go at it, but most of the time itcomes down whether you’d rather takeshots with a couple of cool guys and getreally wasted (at 11 in the morning) or letsome stupid chick cry on your shoulderand become a sobbing wet pillow.Yeah, I would probably take the drunkenroute myself. Sounds like those girls musthave been a pain in the ass.

Matt: Have you ever gotten too sickfrom being drunk to hook up with agirl?Chris: Yes, quite often actually.

Matt: Have you ever puked thenreturned to hooking up with her, with-out brushing your teeth?Chris: I have never vomited, not brushedmy teeth and then hooked up with a girl.I’ve played the whole “boot and rallygame” but I like to brush the teeth anduse the mouthwash.Ok, so you claim you brush lightly.

Matt: How many times have you usedthe line on a girl “You’re beautiful andI love you” not to someone that wasrelated to you?Chris: I never use such lines. I prefer lineslike, “I’m finally getting to dance withthe girl that I wanted to dance with thewhole night” and “Hi, I’m Chris, I’m sin-gle, and I’m not wearing underwear!”God, that must have worked wonders foryou. Do you mind if I try those lines?

Matt: Did you hook up with any girlsonce you got kicked off the show?Chris: I played the make out game onoccasion. I don’t remember their names.Matt: You don’t remember?Chris: I don’t remember their names.Matt: You see them on the show now.Do you not remember them now?Chris: (chuckling) Is it hot in here?Sinner. Just for the record this interview-er doesn’t agree with such behavior.

Matt: How cheesy are you on a scaleof 1 to 10 and why?Chris: Apparently I’m about a 9 on thecheesy scale. I don’t think I am, I thinkI’m just a friendly guy but I guess a lotof guys out there are a**holes so thesegirls aren’t used to friendly guys. I amnot trying to be cheesy, but that seems tobe the reputation that I have.

I’m not too convinced with that answer.See below.

Matt: How many of your shirts havesleeves?Chris: (laughing)Ryan J: These questions are well thoughtout, you obviously know Chris well.Chris: Most of my shirts have sleeves. Ishop at GAP Kids a lot and I try not tobuy any shirt that is larger than a medi-um. If I do have to buy a large, becauseI particularly like the shirt, I put it in thedryer for at least three hours before wear-ing it out in public.

Matt: You physically remove thesleeves from a lot of these t-shirtsthat you wear, is that correct?Chris: I’ve been known to cut off thesleeves of some of my shirts.Don’t worry folks he’s not the least bitcheesy though.

Matt: How many Hawaiian shirts doyou own that have no buttons?Chris: This is a funny story.Matt: I bet it is.Chris: I went to this guy’s bachelor partyin Baltimoreand at theend of thenight hegave thisshirt to meand said,“This is foryou. I wantyou to getas muchluck out ofthis shirt asI have.”I have un-fortunately gotten no luck out of it.

Matt: For the record this shirt has nobuttons and you have worn this shirtout in public at such places as theJimmy Buffet concert last year.Chris: I don’t remember if I wore it tothe Jimmy Buffet concert.I guess some people have a selectivememory. See last April’s THE BOTTOM LINE.

Matt: Describe your perfect girl.Chris: I would say that any one of thelovely first-year girls at Owen fits thatdescription. See I told you I am a 9 onthe cheesy scale. She could also be thebartender at the Tin Roof.Can’t really fault the guy for honesty, canwe? And yes Chris does speak for ALLguys pretty much.

Matt: Did you or did you not modelclothes with Scott Kubiszyn before youleft for Temptation Island? What wasthe atmosphere like at this event?Chris: (laughing) I uh…I needed someperfect clothes for Temptation Island andScott Kubiszyn seems to have a closetfull of cheesy outfits to choose from. Sohe brought them over to my house sothat I could try them on and make surethey would fit because Kubiszyn is alittle more round than I am.

Matt: Was there music playing in thebackground as you walked down therunway?Chris: There was a lot of Enya playing aswe walked down the hallway. We had amirror at the end of he hallway.Hey guys, don’t quit your day job.

Matt: Have you ever pranced beforeon a golf course?Chris: I have never pranced on a golfcourse before. I have danced before on agolf course.

Matt: So you didn’t prance up to theball in the company of Don Ricca, RickArnao, and myself last week?Chris: Prancing would be the wrongword; I think I approached the ball in ajovial manner.He was prancing around. Please feel freeto ask Don, Rick, or myself.

Matt: Do you constantly check your-self out in the mirror when you are inthe weight room? How many weightgaining shakes do you drink per day?Chris: I look around a lot in the weightroom, it’s not like I am looking at myself

per say.

Matt: Howwere theshow’s pro-ducers?Chris: Yeah,there wasone produc-er in partic-ular, JenniferGrace. Sheactually gotfired fromthe show

from getting to close to some of the guys.I spent a lot of time with her.This was supposed to be a professionalquestion, but Chris likes to talk abouthis kissy face adventures.

Matt: Did you have any feelings forany of the guys in Temptation Island?Chris: Um…Yeah there were a couple ofthe guys on the show that I got a longwith fairly well. It wasn’t the brightestbunch of guys that’s for sure, but I thinkthere are a couple of guys that I got alongwith and may keep in touch with.

Matt: Did you get the guys’ numbers?Chris: I did not get any guy’s number onTemptation Island.Matt: Ryan, does Chris have younumber?Ryan: Yes.Matt: OK, just wanted to make surefor the record.Ryan: In fact, he calls several times a dayjust to “see what I’m doing.”Chris: I have a lot of IM screen names.That’s great, we’re all real proud of you.

Matt: Were you on the island thewhole time or did they bring you inonly for certain scenes?Chris: Uh. I was on the island the wholetime before I got kicked off.

This was a valid concern to the manyviewers within the Owen community.

Matt: How old are your sisters?Chris: 20 and 19.Matt: Have they ever dated a guy fromNew Jersey before?Chris: No, they don’t date guys.Matt: What are their phone numbers?Chris: How about my brother’s number?Matt: No thanks, THE BOTTOM LINE isnot interested in that information.The line to meet these lovely ladies startsbehind me.

Matt: How many times a week do youshave your chest hair? Why don’t youjust use Nair?Chris: I like to shave my chest about oncea week, unless we have a big night outand then I will shave it immediately. Idon’t use Nair because it tends to irritatemy skin and I have very sensitive skin.Chris is a very sensitive individual.

Matt: Do you or do you not own a DVDbox set of “Sex and the City?”Chris: I don’t own any DVD’s. My room-mate Peyton Bush owns “Sex and theCity” and “Big Mama’s House.”Peyton, how did they let you in theMarines?

Matt: How many girls on TemptationIsland were impressed that you wentto a Top 15 business school?Chris: I don’t go to a Top 15 businessschool, I go to Owen.Ouch. I think I hear OSSA and the Dean’soffice screaming in agony.Matt: How many people on the islandcould spell “business school?”Chris: (laughing) Well, I will tell you thatthere are certain guys like Ryan and Ianthat could barely spell their own name letalone “business school.”Sounds like a convention for mentalgiants.

Matt: Have you ever told a girl, “Thisis the guy, behind the guy, behind theguy” and what did she say? How longuntil she walked away?Chris: I have used that line before. I onlylike to pull that out if they seem to laughat things like, “Hey this is my good friendMatt I want you to meet him” or “Hey,come here you.”That’s really witty, right on the spothumor Chris, thanks.

Matt: Who is your role model besidesMatt Dadaian?Chris: Chad Upjohn.Oh boy, where do I even begin?

Matt: Do you spit or swallow your shotsof alcohol?Chris: I drink with the best of them.If anyone was splattered by a shot of JackDaniels at the LBA party, please see ChrisVenezia.

Matt: Thanks, Chris. This has been areally enlightening interview. I’m sureyou have a wonderful acting andmodeling career in front of you.

Continued from Page 1

Matt and Chris stare down women in Hillsboro Village.CHRIS VENEZIA

6 September 25, 2003 The Bottom Line

First Person

Anu Subramony, Editor-at-LargeLeah Small & Leland Kass, Advertising MgrsStaff Writers: Shannon McDonald, BrianReidy, Jonathan Sucato, Alonso Valenzuela

Contributors: David Airaudi, Melinda Allen, JimBradford, Hayes Bryant, Stephen Burr, Bill Christie,Kelly Christie, Matt Dadaian, Jon DeCoite, HansDempsey, Brian Douglas, David Easthope, DanielKaufman, Clint Liebenberg, Dave Mekeel, OliviaNash, John Owens, Anu Pardeshi, Jim Rodrigues,Carolyn Schneider, Erin Shinkle, Amy Sullivan,Andrew Vecci, Judy Wilson. We thank you all.

Signed letters and articles represent only the views oftheir authors and do not reflect the views of THE BOTTOM

LINE or the faculty and administration of the OwenGraduate School of Management. Submissions areencouraged from students, faculty, alumni, and staff ofOwen. THE BOTTOM LINE reserves the right to edit andrefuse to publish any submission. Contact us atbottomline@owen.vanderbilt.edu.

BottomLine

The

Grasso’s gone, but conflicts at NYSE remainBy Andrew Bogle

After the stock market bubble burstin the spring of 2000, and thereseemed to be a new scandal everymonth, the New York Stock Ex-change (NYSE) attempted to haltsuch corporate malfeasance by im-plementing stronger corporate gov-ernance requirements for the firmsthat are listed on the Big Board. Well,I think it’s safe to say that the newstandards didn’t stop some corpo-rations from continuing to run afoulof the rules.

The NYSE is an enterprise thatis inherently conflicted due to its roleand structure. The Big Board is aprivate, not-for-profit entity and alsoa self-regulatory organization. Sowho does the board of directors lookout for? Its 1,366 members, the peo-ple who have driven the price of aseat to almost $2 million dollars, oraccording to an NYSE report onJune 5, 2003, the 85 million peoplewho invest, directly or indirectly,through the NYSE?

The conflicts at the NYSE arenot limited to its corporate structurethough. As John Bogle, founder ofVanguard, notes (WSJ, September19, 2003), the NYSE assigns a

specialist to every stock that is list-ed on its exchange. In his role, thespecialist sees every order submit-ted to the exchange. The rules of theexchange attempt to limit the use ofinside information by stating that thespecialist can only trade when thereis a temporary disparity betweensupply and demand. Yet the special-ist is also allowed to trade for hisown account, an obvious conflict ofinterest. The SEC bans floor brokersfrom trading for their own accountsyet exempts specialists because theyare supposedly providing a publicfunction. Yet people are willing to payalmost $2 million for the privilege ofbeing an NYSE member and to pro-vide a public service? There aremany virtuous people in the world,but I don’t think that there are manypeople that would say that the stockmarket is a place where people liketo give their money to others.

The board of directors of anenterprise is elected by sharehold-ers, or in the case of the NYSE, itsmembers, and the board is supposedto look out for the interests of themembers who elected them.

Let’s look at who comprisesthe board of directors at the BigBoard. The Vice-Chairman of the

NYSE is James Cayne who is theChairman and CEO of the Bear SternsCompanies. Five directors of theNYSE also head some of the largestinvestment banks in the U.S. and theirfirms are all listed on the Big Board.Granted these are some of the smart-est minds on Wall Street, but howcan they resolve the two diametri-cally opposed thoughts as looking outfor their own firm’s interests as wellas regulate themselves? The NYSEhas to undergo a transformation sim-ilar to the one the National Associa-tion of Securities Dealers (NASD)underwent back in 1995. The NASD,under some pressure from the SEC,was divided into three entities: a par-ent company representing brokerdealers, a for-profit exchange, and anot-for-profit regulatory group.

The NYSE is trying to servemultiple masters instead of the invest-ing public, its own listed firms, andultimately its own seat holders. TheNYSE is now caught up in its owntangled web of governance andcross-purposes. It is time for thisemblem of American capitalism torestructure its organization, toresolve its conflicts, and to eliminatethe barriers it has placed in the wayof fair competition.

By David Airaudi

No, this is not some tongue andcheek article on the way to date atOwen, nor is it an Owen 12 tell-allabout who’s hooking up with whom;this deals with the ever so enigmaticrites of the Owen info session.

Now, through the modern mir-acle that is email, that we are allaware that black sandals totally don’tgo with brown suits we can get onto more important issues, e.g. justhow will I, qualified, competitive,ambitious, ethical Owen student,secure this position while crushing,gracefully of course, my fellowclassmates – all of whom mind youI hold in the utmost regard and whol-ly believe would do a wonderful job,so if they get it instead of me I willbe overjoyed in their rightful successas I surf back to Monster. Right.

Back to the courtship…Sittingin a recent session I had aprofound thought, an epiphany if youwill, regarding this antiquated pro-cess we call “recruiting.” We (andby “we” I refer to experienced,

Look sharp, it’s courting season at Owendriven, intelligent, business profes-sionals) put on our shiniest outfit,pop a few breath mints, and proceedto dance our little jig as companiesdo us the “favor” of presenting aPowerPoint that breaks five basicTalbot laws. And we… we are likeseals at the circus, balancing ballson our noses in hopes that someonewill throw a wet stinky dead fish ourway. And we love it! We laugh aboutProfessor Shor’s MBA-writer jargonand we sit in awe of the “robust syn-ergies outlined in the current job ma-trices we’ve provided.” We acceptthat the “people who are successfulat (insert firm name here)” are thosewith qualifications like “enjoys chal-lenges,” “team player,” and “creativethinker.” Actually, I work best bydoing as little as possible by myselfand stealing all the ideas of my co-workers. And how is it that everylarge company has “that small busi-ness feel” while every small businesshas “that big company impact?” OK,now I’m just ranting, I digress…

Basically, we are an extremelytalented, ambitious, and intelligent

group and yet come info session timewe act like middle school kids whoget to drive in a car with their friend’shot older sibling. The irony is thatwe forget about all of the self-confi-dence and self-respect that got ushere in order to appear to be uber-astute business professionals; thetruth is we already are!

Sure we have a lot to learn, butI personally get insulted sittingthrough some HR pitch about howmany thank you notes they receivedafter their day at Harvard. I knowthat’s the game we have to play andI am just as guilty as anyone, but it issuch an unproductive cycle; as thediscussions become more canned andcliché so do our responses. This onlysevers to further us from the matterat hand – not getting a job, but find-ing out if this is a good (mutual) fit.Maybe when we get into those posi-tions we can look back and remem-ber that our audience doesn’t needthe sales pitch, they need candiddiscussions about the business. In themeantime, good luck, happy court-ing, and, of course, no sandals.

Don’t Let Up, Not Now, Not EverHorace once said, “Adversity has the effect of elicit-ing talents, which in prosperous circumstances wouldhave lain dormant.” Such sentiment is especiallyrelevant to everyone currently associated with Owen.Although we are still recovering from the hangover oflast spring’s rankings disappointment, many positivetrends have developed that might otherwise have nev-er taken place if not for our low ranking in U.S. News.

The major initiatives and events that were at leastpartially inspired by the drama include: the creation ofthe Six Pillars of Owen, a tsunami of marketing tripsby Dean Christie, Dean Bradford and CMC DirectorMelinda Allen designed to increase Owen’s externaltransparency to the corporate world, the hirings ofMarketing Director Yvonne Martin-Kidd and Associ-ate CMC Director John Hamilton, the promotion ofMark Cohen into the position of Owen’s COO, andfinally, the 100% internship placement statisticsachieved by the Class of 2004.

The argument can be made that these efforts havealready been recognized by corporate America and theU.S. media. In our last issue, we were unabashedlycritical of Owen’s administration. Now, we mustacknowledge that their hard work has been nothingless than extraordinary. We have too much positivemomentum to slow down. Now is the time to reclaimour status as a top-25 MBA program. With the com-bined strength of the two talented classes of studentsand the administrative changes recently instituted,Owen is poised to explode in terms of job placements,academic accolades, and community involvement.Don’t let up, not now, not ever.

David EgnerManaging Editor

Stephen PlauchéEditor in Chief

The Owen Graduate School of Management September 25, 2003 7

Fight for the underdog:a vision for Owen

By David Easthope

I admit that I was disappointed when we effectivelychanged the name of our school from Owen to Vander-bilt MBA. I attempted to explain my disappointment toother classmates but found myself tongue-tied. Onlyrecently did I discover the root of my frustration.By dropping the name Owen, we neglect the centralpersona of our school: the underdog

I am not advocating a return to the long-windedand cumbersome OGSM name. My plea would be onesmall gale against the wind of thousands. However,we must remember that the school did not changewhen we re-branded it. We must continue to fight forthe respect that Owen truly deserves, despite thestellar reputation of the Vanderbilt franchise.

Only when we fully embrace the underdogpersona will we truly achieve our potential as a top-tier MBA program. In my view, those students whohave been successful after leaving Owen have beenthose who embrace this underdog mentality, recog-nizing that the school does not automatically providea key to the corporate suite. Those who seek protec-tion by hiding under the umbrella of Vanderbilt andthose who expect the Vanderbilt name to providea ticket to success are usually met with severedisappointment.

Underdogs know that they have to fight, scratchand kick their way to the top. Think David versusGoliath. Think of Reagan bringing the Iron Curtain toits knees. Think Aung San Suu Kyi defying Burmesemilitary rulers. Think Robert Redford in The Natural.

This persona of the underdog should apply notonly to Owen’s student body but also to the entireschool. If Owen’s students are to exemplify theunderdog, Owen’s administration must fight for uslike we are the underdog. The “fighting for theunderdog” vision of the school would include a careermanagement center that confidently pushes forwardthe resumes of all candidates and unashamedly asksfor placement at the world’s top companies. It wouldinclude a Dean who wields clout in the hallwaysof Kirkland Hall and is able to attract prestigiouscorporate sponsors with utter confidence. It wouldinclude an admissions office that dramatically widensthe applicant pool to include the top students in thecountry by selling the attributes of the school with theskills of a politician. It would include professorswho, through their connections, unabashedly placetheir students into world-class internships and full-timejobs with zero reservations about their performance.It would include alumni who fervently sweepstudents in the door of their companies with the skilland savvy of those who smuggled contraband in theCivil War. Admittedly, we already have faculty, admin-istrators and support professionals who embody manyof these traits. But it almost seems half-hearted, as ifdone with little hope for actual success.

This underdog mentality will not developovernight, but an inkling of it currently exists insideall of us attending Owen. It may be a chip on ourshoulder for not being accepted to any of the Top 10schools in the country. It could be from our pastexperience with a start-up company struggling forcash. It could be from a peer who said an idea ofyours would never make it off the ground. It could befrom someone who said it’s impossible to succeed inthe U.S. without being a native speaker. Wherever itssource, mold it, shape it, and pursue it with unparal-leled veracity. Accepting and embracing the underdogmentality is the way to put Owen back into the top tierof global MBA institutions. Let’s be the underdog.

Let’s be Owen.

On the road again, we just can’t wait...By Bill Christie

and Jim Bradford

If it’s Tuesday, then we must be inNew Jersey! This past spring andsummer, Melinda Allen of the CMCjoined us as we made stops fromcoast-to-coast in support of theplacement mission of the school.Specially, we traveled to visit withnumerous employers from New Yorkto Charlotte, Atlanta to MorristownN.J., and Winston Salem to Seattle(Jim and Melinda made a quick callon Harrah’s in Las Vegas under theguise of a recruiting trip and tried tofully endow the school at the crapstable – didn’t work!).

The day typically begins with abreakfast meeting at 7:30 a.m. withalumni in preparation for the 9 a.m.company gathering. We listen intentlyto groups of alums as they brief uson the events of the meeting, whowill be present, and any key driversthat we need to specifically empha-size with the attendees. We’ve readthe research reports on the compa-ny, and are armed and ready to sellthe company on “Why Owen?”,discuss their talent needs and hiringprocess, and how Owen is bestpositioned to provide unique value.The process will continue with fouror five calls each day on differentcompanies, ending in a dinner meet-ing where our enthusiasm keeps usfresh, excited and attentive.

We’ve come away with aconsistent set of comments:

• For companies who havetraditionally hired Owen internsand graduates, they are generallyvery pleased with the quality ofthe work, the common sense andlack of “entitlement” that Owenstudents and graduates exhibit.

• For those who have not recruitedat Owen in the past, we face amore difficult task. It requires

the effort of the CMC, the Dean’soffice, students, faculty andalumni to open the doors.

• Employers expect students toknow exactly what they wantto do, to exhibit the determinationand passion, frankly the “hustle”to research the company, jobshadow alumni, travel at their ownexpense to visit the company’soperations even if the companyinterviews on campus.

• Alumni want to help, but theytoo are very busy. We need torespect their time. Before calling,students should do theirhomework, have thought throughtheir options and follow-up ontheir calls. The vast majority ofthe alumni are more than willingto help. Their expectations are thatthose inquiring know thecompany they are calling andwhat it is they want to do.

• The Dean’s office involvementhas turned out to be veryimportant. We were often told,“Your competitor schools don’thave their deans calling oncompanies.”

The bottom line (no pun intend-ed) is that we are working on yourbehalf to open doors and provide youwith the opportunity to demonstrateyour own value proposition to thesecompanies. But we can’t close thedeal. We need your help and invest-ment in your own future. The coun-seling, preparation, 2x1 program,networking and alumni assistancehave worked well. We must do evenmore. Here is what we ask of you:

1. Do the research, know theindustry, the company and thespecific job you seek. “I want ajob in finance or ops or market-ing” isn’t enough. What job? Why?

2. Visit the company before theycome on campus, at least virtual-ly. Many companies expect you tomake the effort to visit them, jobshadow, ask questions, showyour passion for what they do andwhy this is the industry, the com-pany for you.

3. Be professional. Be on time,follow-up, write thank-you letters.Casual emails, inappropriate dress,inappropriate conduct, lack of asense of urgency will lose theopportunity for you and those thatcome after you. You ARE theVanderbilt MBA program to thecompany and they believe yourepresent the entire studentpopulation.

4. Any internship is a 24-7 inter-view. You’re always beingwatched no matter the occasion,especially when you are at eventswith customers or clients.

5. Don’t burn our bridges. Even ifyou didn’t like the summer intern-ship, remember there are thosewho will come after you, studentswho will want the job you findunattractive. Your criticism of thesummer program should be con-structive and add value.

A partnership between theDean’s office, the CMC, faculty andstaff can produce the outcome weall desire. We look forward to work-ing with you over the next year in aproactive rather than a reactive mode,being the cheerleaders for the school,and help you make the most of theoutstanding academic education youare receiving at Owen. We have neverworked with a more dynamic, ener-gized and forward-thinking groupin our lives, and staying focusedon our goals will be the surest routeto success.

REPORT FROM THE

DEAN’S OFFICE

By Alonso Valenzuela

On January 16, 2002, President Bushannounced that the U.S. wouldexplore the idea of a free trade agree-ment with Central American coun-tries Guatemala, Honduras, El Sal-vador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.Negotiations are ongoing.

Such an agreement is longoverdue. Consider the following:

1. In 2001, the U.S. exported $9Bto Central America, the same asexports to Russia, India and In-donesia combined.

2. In 2000, US imports from the re-gion totaled $11.8B.

3. The US is the main source of im-ports into Central America (40%).

4. U.S. companies, such as SaraLee, Intel, Frito Lay, Citibank,Chiquita Brand, Dole, Fruit of theLoom, Colgate-Palmolive, ExxonMobile, Chevron Texaco, Bell-South, AT&T, Coca Cola, andPepsi, invest $4B in the region.

5. Central American countries haveall established democracies andimplemented reforms to encour-age privatization and open mar-kets. An agreement will commitCentral American countries todeeper reforms that will promotetransparency, market-based com-petition, real enforcement of law,and better working conditions.

6. A free trade agreement betweenthe US and Central America willcomplement the Free Trade of the

Americas, which the U.S. plans tocomplete by January 2005.

7. For a long time the region hasbeen an allied with the US in polit-ical and economical issues. An ex-ample of the close relationshipbetween the Central Americancountries and the US can be seenwhen Honduras, El Salvador andNicaragua even though poor andunderdeveloped countries, recentlysent troops to help in the recon-struction of Iraq.

These are just some of the rea-sons why the U.S. and Central Amer-ica should finalize their current ne-gotiations. The continuing growth ofCentral America-U.S. relations wouldbe greatly enhanced.

Make free trade with Central America happen now

8 September 25, 2003 The Bottom Line

Shanghai’s Bund and Mao Ming LuBy Brian Reidy

While most students are settling intotheir daily routines of school, I hadthe pleasure of traveling to Chinaprior to starting a semester abroadin Vienna. Although China is quitelarge, there are really only a few spotsexpats (non natives) will want tovisit, understand, and enjoy. One ofthese spots is Shanghai.

Dubbed the New New YorkCity, Shanghai is building and devel-oping with the fervor of a new typeof psychotic religion. Apparently, theword on the street is that three-fourths of the world’s constructionscranes are located in Shanghai. Tosay that they are building aggressivelywould be an understatement. It istruly amazing! After years of theChinese government allowing Shang-hai to play second fiddle to HongKong, they have now decided thatChina’s commercial center must beon the mainland. What the govern-ment says over there goes. Period.

Only a two-hour flight fromBeijing and the Great Wall, and onlya one-hour flight from Xian – hometo the 2,000-year-old Terra CottaWarriors, Shanghai is sitting in an

extremely marketable and accessiblelocation. With the help of BenMiddleberg, an ’03 grad that spentseveral years in China, I was able totrim the tourist fat and hit the bestplaces fast!

First stop: the Bund. The Bundis a strip of circa 1920 banking hous-es located on the very edge of theHuang Poo River, the city’s mainwaterway. The beauty of the Bundis that the Chinese governmentallowed these beautiful buildings toremain standing after the revolution,even though they were built byforeigners, specifically, Germans, theBritish, and the Americans. Thearchitecture and is a wonderfulthrow back to the days of old whenno expense was spared on detail,quality, and pure majestic grandeur.Although these buildings are only afew stories high, with 70- to 100-story buildings going up in the back-drop, it is really quite breathtaking.

After taking in a healthy doseof culture, I felt it was imperativethat I wet my whistle at some ofShanghai’s seediest watering holes.I decided to head on down to MaoMing Lu and Ju Lu Lu. Famedthroughout China as one of those

OSSA maps out bigplans for new year

By Clint Liebenberg

Welcome back Class of 2004 and welcome to the Classof 2005. I am excited to be back in Nashville after afulfilling summer in the Northeast. By all accounts,orientation was a great success, and the experienceprovided the incoming class with a glimpse of theVanderbilt MBA experience. I would like to thank thefollowing members of the Class of 2004 who donatedpart of their summer to ensure the success of the ori-entation program: Jim Leonard, Amy Kestel, AllesenCann, Kyle Irwin, John Owens, Shannon Daily, LeahSmall, Frazer Middleton, and Lance Hendren. JimLeonard deserves special mention for his input andideas to reshape Orientation.

OSSA has drafted a detailed outline of our objec-tives for the upcoming year. It’s available on the OSSABlackboard site. Our main goals are: (1) to ensure thesuccessful implementation of the Six Pillars of Owencommittees, (2) to continue to improve communica-tion, (3) to update and execute the strategic plan, (4)to achieve 100% internship placement for the Class of2005 and more than 80% placement for the Class of2004, and (5) most importantly, to have fun.

The Six Pillars of Owen committees are up andrunning. By the end of September, we will completean important piece of the puzzle: the appointment ofthe first year members. Each committee has alreadymet, and all are in the process of defining objectivesand action plans for the upcoming year. These com-mittees will provide valuable input into different areasof the community as we strive to continually improvethe Vanderbilt MBA experience. Please be on the look-out for the first Six Pillars of Owen newsletter whichwill give you more information regarding the progressof each committee. I am really excited about the rolethat these committees will play in our community dur-ing the upcoming year and beyond.

The Dean’s office has announced dates for townhall meetings for the first- and second-year classes.These meetings will be a great opportunity for you toprovide feedback to the administration and to listen tosome of their new initiatives. I also encourage you touse the new “Virtual Dean is In” discussion board.The Dean has committed to answer your questions assoon as possible, and will check the discussion boarddaily when he is in Nashville.

In my mind, one of the most important statisticsthat reflects the “never say die” attitude of VanderbiltMBA students is the Class of 2004’s 100% internshipplacement rate. Students (including the Class of 2003)helped and supported one another in their quest to findan illusive internship in a very challenging economy.It is no secret that many students landed excellentinternships all over the globe. Presidents from otherMBA programs are envious of our success (I know,I have spoken to them), and each one of you shouldbe commended. The 2x1 Owen campaign was a greatsuccess, and will be launched again in the new year.Rene Vuskovic should be thanked for a great idea, andJohn Owens should be applauded for his tireless ef-fort in nurturing the idea into an outstanding program.

The Thursday socials, morning socials, and tail-gates have all been well attended. These events areevidence of the “work hard, play hard” mentality thatis so integral in our culture. McNeill Wells (with all thepurse strings) and Chris Venezia (watch Fox at 8 p.m.on Thursdays) have lined up one or two other excitingevents during the year. Details will follow.

As always, if you have any questions or com-ments, please do not hesitate to speak to any of theOSSA representatives. We are here to help.

Clint Liebenberg is OSSA President.

places where “what goes on at MaoMing’s stays at Mao Ming’s,” I wasin no way let down. Lu, meaning roadin Chinese, is a strip similar to someof the world’s finest skid rows:Dublin’s Temple Bar, Munich’s KunstPark Ost, and New Orleans’ Bour-bon Street. A true pleasure for thecheap drinking afficianado. Unfor-tunately, a good portion of myinternship earnings apeared to evap-orate during my frequent researchtrips to Mao Ming.

I took a quick trip up to Beijingto see the Wall and the ForbiddenCity, but it is just too much to gointo. And, I could go on and on aboutShanghai, but given that I neverreceived the gift of writing in theEnglish language, I recommend youlook up more on the web if so inter-ested. I must now turn my sights toVienna, Austria, my new home forthe next three and a half months. And,in true Owen fashion, because Icould not throw the first kegger ofthe year with my studious roommateMason, Mark Smith and I havedecided to throw the first party tripfor our new friends abroad, on theopening weekend of Oktoberfest.More adventures are sure to come.

POSTCARD FROM

ABROAD

By Carolyn Schneider

This summer, WebMD introduced aformal MBA internship program. Ifour first year is an indication of whatthe program has to offer for our com-pany, I can only imagine the successwe will have in the future as we re-fine our processes. While many com-panies ease into new programs, weopted to dive right in, offering sixwidely varied projects. Luckily, wehad the good fortune of having fiveexceptional acceptances.

From an employer’s viewpoint,Owen’s CMC displayed true agilityeven though we submitted ourproject plans late in the game. Theyresponded immediately and provid-ed us with resume packets of highquality candidates within the week.Ultimately, we interviewed 3 to 4candidates for each position in a panelsetting. The final selections weredifficult because each candidatebrought so much potential value to ayoung company like ours. Four ofthe six students offered positionswere members of the Owen eBusi-ness & Technology Club.

WebMD is intently developinga Six-Sigma culture, so the internswere given specific projects designedaround process improvement, reduc-ing waste/errors and creatingconsistent and efficient processes.Deliverables ranged from developingmarket survey and assessment tools,designing and implementing telecom

audit applications, determining rootcause, and establishing a commonview of our customers across thebusinesses. The interns were pairedwith a supervising manager and asponsoring executive to ensure own-ership of the projects.

The experience and the qualityof work of the students exceededour expectations. Their enthusiasm,intelligence, and work ethic spilledover to even some of our more sea-soned employees. As the projectsdrew to a close, we felt it was im-portant to give the group visibility tothe executive team. We arranged aprivate lunch for them as guests ofthe CEO and the Senior ManagementTeam. Everyone had a great time!

For WebMD, the program wasan overwhelming success. Could wehave done things differently? Surebut this was just our first pass andthe students gave us some terrificideas for improvements for nextyear. What was a sure sign of suc-cess? When the managers come tome and say, “Find me somebody justlike our intern.”

We will continue to look topartner with Owen, and I hope thatits students will continue to have thedesire to stay in our fine city for thesummer (and beyond) at up andcoming companies like WebMD.

Carolyn Schneider, EMBA ‘02,is a VP of Human Resourses withWebMD in Nashville.

WebMD succeeds with five Owen internsALUMNI

VOICE

Special thanks to the sponsors of theOrientation Weekend Golf Scramble.

CHESSEBURGER CHARLEY’S

ROTIER’S RESTAURANT

SALON FXSTARBUCKS

SUPERCUTS

VANDYLAND

Answers to student quiz pn Page 3: Mirjana Jovanovic, Neil Campbell

The Owen Graduate School of Management September 25, 2003 9

Ginger Ahn Xtria Dallas, TXRaj Ajmera HSBC Bombay, IndiaJason Allbert Black & Decker Baltimore, MDBrian Alldredge Avondale Partners Nashville, TNJD Anderson U.S. GAO Huntsville, ALHoward Anger American Express Miami, FLRick Arnao Lucent Holmdel, NJTina Asamoah Skyline Medical Center Nashville, TNRasha Bader Whitney Johns & Co. Nashville, TNDaLynn Barker U.S. GAO Washington, DCBrandon Beal Corinthian Colleges Santa Ana, CALee Bell Courage Capital Nashville, TNJose Benavides Dollar General Goodlettsville, TNJonathan Ben-Moshe ACH Food Companies Memphis, TNKatherine Bishop MontaVista Software Sunnyvale, CAAndrew Bogle Morgan Stanley New York, NYMitch Bollinger Proventure Commercial Real Estate Nashville, TNFrank Bonsal 4GL School Solutions Nashville, TNAndy Bowers Aramark S&E Philadelphia, PASarah Bracken Whitney Museum New York, NYMike Brandon Trammell Crow Memphis, TNHayes Bryant UBS Warburg New York, NYStephen Burr Goldman Sachs New York, NYPeyton Bush JP Morgan Chase Dallas, TXAllesen Cann American Express Fort Lauderdale, FLJeff Cantrell Halsted Surgical Consulting Nashville, TNRicardo Carrion R J Reynolds Winston-Salem, NCChih-Hao Chen Vanderbilt Medical Center Nashville, TNEunice Chou ACH Food Companies Memphis, TNSpencer Clouatre US Army Ft Campbell, KYHelen Comer Gaylord Opryland Nashville, TNDavid Covington Mattel El Segundo, CAAdam Cruse HCA Nashville, TNMatthew Dadaian Cohen Klingenstein and Marks New York, NYShannon Daily Unilever Greenwich, CTRick Daley Sunrise Senior Living McLean, VAChristina Damon Harrah’s Entertainment Atlantic City, NJEmily Davis Nu-Kote International Nashville, TNJon DeCoite Bar-K San Francisco, CAHans Dempsey Mercedes Benz Montvale, NJZeyniye Deveci WebMD Nashville, TNMark Dickens VF Corporation Nashville, TNJosh Dorfman EMC Boston, MAKris Douglas Healthcare Realty Trust Nashville, TNBrian Duncan Deloitte Consulting San Francisco, CADaniel Dunn JRS Investments Nashville, TNDavid Easthope Merrill Lynch New York, NYDavid Egner Avondale Partners, Courage Capital Nashville, TNRuss Fallis Wachovia Securities Charlotte, NCKim Fauls FedEx Memphis, TNJerry Feldman Goldman Sachs New York, NYGraham Fuller The Vanguard Group Malvern, PAAldo Garcia Dollar General Goodlettsville, TNMark Gerber Honeywell Morristown, NJJoe Gibney Morgan Keegan Nashville, TNPerry Gooch Colliers, Turley, Martin & Tucker Nashville, TNLindsay Green Corrections Corp of America Nashville, TNPatrick Green EPS Systems Nashville, TNBenjamin Green State Street Corporation Nashville, TNBarbara Greenfield The Oxford American Little Rock, AKPaul Greenland Hewlett-Packard Boise, IDAjay Gupta Abbott Laboratories Chicago, ILRajiv Gupta BH1 (Baptist Health System) Nashville, TNKunal Gupta Stanley Access Technologies Farmington, CTShanon Gutierrez Sears, Roebuck and Co. Hoffman Estates, ILRawit Han-utsaha HSBC Bangkok, Hong KongScott Hastings Delaware Investments Philadelphia, PAMicah Hatten The Southern Company Atlanta, GAHenrique Hauptmann EMC Corporation Sao Paulo, BrazilTom Heath Advanced Plating Nashville, TNMatt Hedges Bear, Stearns New York, NYQuentin Hicks Deutsche Bank New York, NYMarty Hollander ACH Food Companies Memphis, TNAndrew Honeybone Shell Oil Houston, TXJono Huddleston Harpeth Capital Nashville, TNMichael Humber AEA Group Birmingham, ALTrotter Hunt Emerson Electric Sidney, OHKyle Irwin Honeywell Morristown, NJAmy Johnson Emerson Electric Sidney, OHBrian Johnson FastIron Nashville, TNMirjana Jovanovic VelocityHealth Capital Nashville, TNSungsoo Jun AXA New York, NYLeland Kass Lost Highway Records Nashville, TNLara Kauchak Rosemount Chanhassen, MNDaniel Kaufman Joseph Freed & Associates Chicago, ILMichael Keleher Union Planters Bank Memphis, TNScott Kern Deloitte Consulting Atlanta, GAAmy Kestel Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum Nashville, TNMaksim Kim Crescent Int’l, Momentum Marketing Nashville, TNJerry Kim Nu-Kote International Nashville, TNHyun Sock Kim Samsung Economic Research Institute Seoul, KoreaDonna King The Aerostructures Corporation Nashville, TNScott Kremeier Harrah’s Entertainment Lake Tahoe, NVScott Kubiszyn Harbert Management Birmingham, ALJeremy Landa Kroll Toronto, Canada

Todd Landon Goldman Sachs New York & MiamiBrian Lapidus Kroll Nashville, TNJackson Lapin Boyle Investment Company Nashville, TNDonny Lau Yum! Brands Louisville, KYMatthew Lederer The Bank of New York New York, NYRyan Lein American Express Phoenix, AZJim Leonard American Retirement Corp Brentwood, TNSean Leonard Avondale Partners Nashville, TNMatt Levenson Banc of America Securities Charlotte, NCClint Liebenberg Parkplus Clifton, NJEd Lim Vanderbilt University Nashville, TNXin Liu GE Captial Aviation Stamford, CTJason Mann WebMD Nashville, TNChristy Mayo Lehman Brothers Atlanta & New YorkBrian McCann Solve Interactive Dayton, OHKelly McConnell Sara Lee Winston-Salem, NCShannon McDonald FedEx Memphis, TNJohn Mears AEA Group Birmingham, ALDavid Mekeel Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Nashville, TNAdam Menter Dell Austin, TXFrazer Middleton Vanderbilt University Nashville, TNLuis Mirabal Qualcomm San Diego, CAPaola Montalva TVA Nashville, TNOlivia Nash The Maverick Group Nashville, TNAmanda Nelson Prince Market Research Nashville, TNThanh Nguyen Honeywell Morristown, NJCarrie O’Brien JP Morgan Chase New York, NYCourtney Oishi Veuve Clicquot New York, NYBrian O’Neill Mercer Inc. New York, NYDoug Owen Mellon Ventures Atlanta, GAJohn Owens Detwiler, Mitchell & Co. Boston, MATemilade Oyeniyi Ronin Capital Chicago, ILMark Ozimek Mattel Los Angeles, CAAnu Pardeshi WebMD Nashville, TNSteve Pendray American Express Ft. Lauderdale, FLShou-Yi Peng Owen Graduate School of Mgmt Nashville, TNStephen Plauche Deutsche Bank New York, NYGill Potter Brown Foreman Louisville, KYMonica Powers Lands’ End Dodgeville, WIGordon Quinby Gaylord Entertainment Nashville, TNJack Rainer Sandler O’Neill Atlanta, GAGeetha Ramachandran Copeland Corporation Sidney, OHChristopher Rand Vanderbilt University Technology Co. Nashville, TNNelson Rangel UBS Warburg Stamford, CTSteve Reed WebMD Nashville, TNBrian Reidy American Express Ft. Lauderdale, FLKeith Rensink Merck & Co Inc West Point, PASusan Reynolds Junior League of Nashville Nashville, TNBrandon Rhymes United States Beverage Stamford, CTDon Ricca Wells Fargo San Francisco, CAStephen Rice American Express Ft. Lauderdale, FLTrey Ripley CPS Land Nashville, TNMarc Rochman Loews Cineplex Entertainment New York, NYJim Rodrigues Energy Logic Nashville, TNChris Rogers Bank of America New York, NYConsuela Sawyers General Electric Louisville, KYAnthony Schaffer Solare Publishing Providence, RITodd Schneider VelocityHealth Capital Nashville, TNJohn Schriber Pfizer New York, NYSharon Shih Outokumpu Copper Franklin, KYErin Shinkle General Mills Minneapolis, MNGreg Shipe Carrier Corporation Farmington, CTDave Sifford Harrah’s Entertainment St. Louis, MOLeah Small Shell Oil Los Angeles, CAMark Smith Goldman Sachs New York, NYLeigh Spangler Yum! Brands Louisville, KYCharlie Starnes Morgan Keegan Nashville, TNWendy Stewart Prince Market Research Nashville, TNJonathan Sucato Morgan Keegan Nashville, TNAmy Sullivan Gaylord Entertainment Nashville, TNMark Sullivan Holliday Fenoglio Fowler New York, NYErin Sullivan Mattel El Segundo, CAEllis Summers Public Defender’s Office Nashville, TNStephanie Swilley Smith & Nephew Memphis, TNVicky Taechatawewat Watson Wyatt Bangkok, Hong KongValli Thirunavukkarasu WebMD Nashville, TNBilly Tornabene Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Washington, DCJirat Tuntha-Obas Ronin Capital Chicago, ILCalandra Turner Black & Decker Baltimore, MDAlonso Valenzuela Sara Lee Winston-Salem, NCAndrew Vecci Sears, Roebuck and Co. Hoffman Estates, ILChris Venezia Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Washington, DCRene Vuskovic Lands’ End Dodgeville, WIDavid Wafle Honeywell Rocky Mount, NCSteen Watson Jackson Hole Land Trust Jackson Hole, WYMcNeill Wells Union Planters Bank Memphis, TNXin Weng Tractor Supply Company Nashville, TNMason Wimberley Cenntinial Hospital Nashville, TNElaine Woo Johnson & Johnson Sommerville, NJTim Wu BenQ Corporation Taipei, TaiwanYijan Wu Sony Electronics San Diego, CAKyota Yamaoka Eli Lilly Japan Kobe, JapanSam Yount Willis North America Nashville, TNRob Zaegel Southeast Community Capital Nashville, TN

Class of 2004 Summer Internships

10 September 25, 2003 The Bottom Line

AMY SULLIVANHOP

Gaylord Entertainment

I came to the Vanderbilt MBA program to make a careerchange from accounting to employee training anddevelopment. This summer, I spent 13 weeks at Gay-lord University (“GU”), which is the training and devel-opment leadership team of Gaylord Entertainment. Iworked on a number of projects that gave me a well-rounded, realistic job preview of my functional area ofinterest, Gaylord Entertainment Company, and the hos-pitality industry in general.

My work plan consisted of several projectsplanned by the GU staff. The timeline was flexible,which enabled me to participate in cross-functional,HOP-related opportunities as they arose over thesummer. I worked primarily on the following projects:

• Leadership roundtable discussions about thecompany’s values, serving over 400 leaders

• Brand-standard job procedure development withGaylord’s Grand Ole Opry leaders and RoomsDivision leaders

• Service profit chain audit• Job description benchmarking and strategic

assessment of job scopes• Strategic planning and budgeting process

I was exposed to the company’s orientationprocess, Service Basics training, Leadership CoreSkills training, and HR Partner meetings. I interactedwith corporate, hotel, and attractions division employ-ees at all levels within the company, from the CEO andCFO to horticulture employees to front office staff.

My experience with Gaylord Entertainment farexceeded my expectations and objectives. I gainedexposure to the training workflow process, understand-ing of the relationship between GU and other HR areas,and confirmation that employee training and develop-ment is the right career choice for me. The GU teamwelcomed a new perspective and balanced the useof my past experience/skills with respect for mypersonal career goals. For these reasons, my summerat Gaylord was a rewarding and valuable experience.

DANIEL KAUFMANReal Estate Development

Joseph Freed & Associates

I spent my summer in Chicago doing real estate devel-opment work with a local developer. The bulk of mytime was spent on four pieces of new business, two ofwhich are detailed here:

The Streets of Woodfield: When I arrived in May,we were considering the potential acquisition of theproperty (an entertainment/retail center located adjacentto Woodfield Mall). I worked with the acquisition teamon all of the physical and financial due diligence forthe property (i.e., reading leases, financial analysis,preparation and analysis of redevelopment alternatives,lender issues, Kimco JV issues, etc.). I’m proud to saythat this acquisition closed two weeks ago.

Suburban Downtown Development: Also in May,a 23,000 sq. ft. parcel had become available in thedowntown area of a suburb northwest of Chicago. Iwas placed in charge of doing a feasibility analysis forthat property and driving the contract process with theseller. I designed several potential development schemesof varying density/mix of uses and prepared therelevant financial analyses needed to justify the invest-

How was your summer? What did you do?Representatives from the Class of 2004 give us the inside scoop on their internship experiences

ment. The deal was ultimately authorized by ourinternal investment committee. The property is currentlyunder contract with closing (hopefully) pending.

ERIN SHINKLEHOP/StrategyGeneral Mills

I had three goals when considering what I wanted outof my summer internship: add value through meaning-ful projects, learn about HR, and have fun. My 12 weekswith General Mills (“GMI”) in Minneapolis as an HRintern within the Bakeries and Foodservice divisionallowed me to exceed all three of my goals.

I was assigned to two strategic projects:

• Design, develop, and schedule the company’sfirst-ever competency-based, mid-careerassessment center for director candidates.

• Reorganize critical divisional human resourcesto align with business strategies and leverageunique talents across the company.

I also assisted HR Managers and Directors withgeneralist duties as needed. I interacted with senior lead-ership, a team of consultants, GMI’s Organization Ef-fectiveness department, and HR employees at all levelsof the company on my projects. I was provided withresources throughout the summer to be successful, andmy recommendations were taken seriously and imple-mented before I returned to Nashville.

My internship didn’t end there. From BBQs at theCFO’s house, Broadway musicals, and formal happyhours to a company-sponsored intramural softball teamand regularly scheduled lunches with functional lead-ers, interns were recruited throughout the summer.

Despite the fun, the internship program is verystructured, with initial training, a mid-summer review,final assessment and presentations, and offers extend-ed before you leave. I knew throughout my internshipexactly where I stood and what I needed to do to en-sure I made an impact. The company has high expecta-tions, but the rewards are equally as great.

All in all, my summer with the Company of Cham-pions was awesome. And I even managed to get myphoto on a Wheaties box!

HAYES BRYANTInvestment Banking

UBS Warburg

I spent 10 weeks in New York with UBS InvestmentBank (UBS) as a member of its Global Industrials Group.As an Associate, I was expected to participate in avariety of activities including analyzing comparablecompanies, valuation, corporate strategy, inter-departmental coordination, and deal execution.

During my first day in the group, I was staffed ona live deal for a multinational manufacturing companybased in Atlanta, GA. The client company had given usa mandate to assist in its refinancing efforts. My teamat UBS would bring together the Debt Capital Markets,Syndicated Finance, Ratings Advisory, Liabilities Man-agement, Financial Sponsors, and Private Equity groupsto assist our clients. The deal, while small (about $3Min fees for the bank), required the expertise of manygroups because of its complicated logistics.

In the last phases of the transaction, ourclient’s management team embarked on a “road show,”visiting high-yield mutual fund managers across thecountry. I was fortunate enough to spend two days and

nights on the road and in the air with the Chief Execu-tive, the Executive Vice President and the CFO of theclient firm. I began by meeting the team in NewportBeach, CA, via John Wayne Airport on a Sunday night.After pitches at PIMCO and Pacific Life, our limousinedrove us to Los Angeles where we met with CapitalResearch and Trust Company of the West. We thenmet our Challenger 604 private jet for a short hop toSan Francisco to meet with Franklin-Templeton. Thatnight we slept in Denver’s historic Brown Palace. Thenext morning, I attended meetings at Janus and 3-PeaksCapital Management in Denver and AIM ManagementInc., and AIG in Houston before flying to Pittsburg whereI finally caught a flight to New York.

Often, an investment bank will send two repre-sentatives on a road show. One, the senior banker, isresponsible for the client. He or she manages the rela-tionship, answers their questions, relays informationsuch as the current pricing environment or the progressof the tender offer and generally does little else besidescheck voicemail and email. The junior banker (me, inthis case) is responsible for everything else: limo, plane,food, hotel, appointments, etc. His closest allies arecaffeine and a cell phone charger.

Road shows can be extremely stressful, especial-ly for a junior banker. However, they are usuallyregarded as a “reward” or “vacation” for those assignedto the task. I found it to be an exciting experience, butit could certainly have been a pitfall for my career hadthings not gone smoothly.

Overall, my experience in investment banking, andat UBS in particular, was very positive. Investmentbankers are usually bright and self-motivated, and work-ing in teams with such people is quite rewarding (imag-ine LTO with no slackers). I found that my opportuni-ties to learn from them and to develop my own skillswas limited only by my capacity to work hard. Fewindustries offer newly minted MBAs the opportunity tolearn so much in such a short period of time. I lookforward to returning to New York after graduation.

JON DECOITEReal Estate Finance

Bar-K

I worked for Bar-K, Inc., a distressed debt real estatehedge fund based in Northern California. As an intern,my job involved working closely with developers, realestate lawyers, accountants and management at Bar-K.Specifically, I worked on analyzing potential exitstrategies and building breakeven rental/sale models forexisting properties in their portfolio.

Bar-K is a hard money lender that pools togetherprivate investor capital to provide commercial andresidential mortgage loans. The company was startedin 1975 and currently manages over $400M of privateinvestor capital. Bar-K loans up to 70% loan-to-value(“LTV”) of their appraisal of the property (not theborrowers’ appraisal). This is done because theborrower will always think that their property is worthmore than it really is. Their loans are generallynon-recourse, first mortgages with interest paymentsonly and no prepayment penalty. There is a final balloonpayment due at the end of the loan. The companyusually charges 12% interest payments for the life ofthe loan. Bar-K will keep 1% as a management fee andpass along the remaining 11% to the investor. Theycharge 5% up front to do the deal (this is where theymake their real money). The company is able to chargethis high rate of return due to the desperate nature ofthe individual in need of the loan.

The Owen Graduate School of Management September 25, 2003 11

My experience taught me a great deal aboutan industry that I previously knew little about. I wasable to expand my network of contacts and developskills that will help me pursue a job in the real estatebusiness.

JOHN OWENSHOP/Strategy

Detwiler, Mitchell & Co.

In my internship search, I utilized on-campus recruit-ing and contacted alumni, but I strongly believednetworking with former colleagues, friends, and familywas perhaps a better way to go.

Early on in my search, I focused on investmentbanking, as that had been my job for the last nine years.However, one of the things I enjoyed most during mycareer was the recruiting season and the opportunity tointerview top-notch students and professionals. I haddecided earlier in the school year to become a dual con-centrator in HOP and Finance. However, at this point inthe recruiting season, I was perhaps unlikely to land aninternship in human resources. Consequently, I beganto pursue a back-up strategy I had outlined early in myinternship search.

For the first seven years of my career, I was ananalyst in the corporate finance department of J.C.Bradford & Co., a Nashville-based investment bank.During that time, I forged a friendship with the Manag-ing Director of Investment Banking, who later becamethe COO. Following the sale of J.C. Bradford & Co. toPaineWebber, this individual began a consulting busi-ness and ultimately became the Vice Chairman and COOof a Boston-based broker-dealer. I contacted him re-garding an internship and within a couple of days hesent me a written offer. My search was over.

Three weeks prior to my departure to Boston tobegin my summer internship, the Vice Chairman askedme to prepare a list of five goals I wanted to achieve bythe end of the summer. This list became my guide forevery project I assumed over the summer and now canbe found almost verbatim on my resume in the form offive accomplishments.

My job involved helping the broker-dealerdevelop, implement, and quantify the effectiveness oftheir human resource programs and policies. I coordi-nated the recruiting resources and strategy for the roll-out of the firm’s private wealth management division. Iauthored new-hire materials, including the creation ofthe firm’s Employee Handbook, ensuring governmentalcompliance. I also managed the undergraduate intern-ship program, which included recruiting, supervising,and administering performance reviews.

The internship far surpassed my expectations. Oneof the more intriguing assignments was one I receivedfrom the Board of Directors and CompensationCommittee, which involved the creation of a newequity compensation system designed to retain keyemployees – a great marriage between my financemodeling experience and human resource interest.Overall, I found the internship to be a great balance ofintellectually stimulating work and fun.

STEPHEN BURRPrivate Wealth Management

Goldman Sachs

I spent my summer working for Goldman Sachs’Private Wealth Management Group. I found that thebest way to land an internship on Wall Street is to bepersistent. You can never talk to too many peoplethroughout the entire process. Make sure that you fullyleverage our alumni network and your own personalnetworks. Owen alumni are usually very willing to spendtime with you and will try to point you in the rightdirection. Make sure that you are prepared for yourmeetings and conversations with the alumni. While it is

better to stumble on a question when speaking to analumnus, treat the interaction like an interview. Alumsare constantly formulating opinions of you and they willbe hesitant to pass your name along if they think thatyou are not fully prepared. Also, make a point of spend-ing time up in New York. It is one thing to speak with acontact on the phone, but you can make much more ofan impact if you can get in front of a person.

At Goldman Sachs I assisted teams of InvestmentProfessionals in managing equity, fixed income, andalternative investment portfolios for institutions and highnet worth individuals. Other responsibilities includeddrafting proposals for investment mandates andcompiling monthly and quarterly performance reportsfor clients. In addition to work responsibilities, there isa strong emphasis throughout the summer oneducation. For the first two weeks of the summer andfor a few hours each week thereafter, time was spentin a classroom setting learning about Goldman’sinvestment offerings and how to tactically allocateassets based on trends in the international macro-economic environment.

If you are interested in working in private wealthmanagement follow the markets and the macroeconomicenvironment religiously. You must be able to speakknowledgeably about these areas and to support youropinions of the markets in order to succeed throughoutthe interviewing process.

OLIVIA NASHBrand ManagementThe Maverick Group

Who ever thought you could find a legitimate internshipin branding while sipping adult beverages duringopening weekend at the Keeneland races? I didn’t.However, like the gambler that I am, I put all my moneyon the chance to work at The Maverick Group – a small,entrepreneurial advertising and marketing agency herein Nashville. As luck would have it, I was given theopportunity to help the company’s founder with thebranding, positioning, and image overhaul of the clear,distilled spirits brand, Players Extreme.

Because the brand was so new, on shelves for onlyone month, the position of Players Extreme wasnebulous at best. My internship position was equallyundefined. We were lucky to find each other. To savemyself from a summer of internet surfing, I designed aplan to figure out who was buying Players Extreme,who wasn’t and why.

To help better understand the “urban” marketlandscape, I spent a great deal of my summer hittingclubs like the Funky Buddha and Glow in Chicago –hey, research is funnier at 3 a.m.! Also, I got the brightidea to use some of what I learned in MarketingResearch, Marketing Engineering and ConsumerBehavior to create an web-based survey to (a) figureout qualitative needs of a consumer when drinking clear,distilled spirits (b) decide what Players Extreme shouldlook like and explain it to my design team, and (c) wherePlayers Extreme should target its marketing andadvertising dollars. It is surprising how many peopleare impressed by a pivot table in Excel, not to mentiona couple of crosstabs and frequencies (simple stuff!) inSPSS! For the first time in a long time, I felt like I wasmaking a difference.

Today, Players Extreme looks much as it did whenI started. WAIT, I can explain! The rollout schedule hasthe new look ready to go approximately one year afterthe launch. Extreme Beverage wants to minimize buy-back and distributor angst. So a soft relaunch is in theworks. The advertising has already taken on a muchsexier, more edgier look, as suggested by the research.However, Players Extreme is a fun, in-your-face adultbeverage experience, so there will still be eye-catchingtaglines like “Get Your Rocks Off,” “Party Your GlassOff,” and my favorite: “Get Lucky.”

HANS DEMPSEYMarketing

Mercedes-Benz

If your knees go weak for an engine’s purr or yournose fancies the smell of new car leather, thenMercedes-Benz USA’s the place for you.

I spent my summer in M-B’s newly-formedRelationship Marketing Department and worked withsome of the world’s finest marketers on varied aspectsof marketing, including: customer loyalty, data mining,and website design.

A budding marketer, I naturally found the experi-ence both helpful and interesting, but the most enjoy-able features of my summer lay outside the workexperience (no, I didn’t get a car). Highlights included:

• Offsite trips to the Bronx Zoo and the C SpotRide and Drive event (yes, I did drive the cars)

• The prestige of working on a world-class luxu-ry brand

• Exposure to interns from around the world –most are European

• Lots of good food and a fab parting gift (aTourneau watch!)

To land this delicious gig, a terrific friend at Owensubmitted my resume to her M-B contact afteraccepting an offer from another company. No paradeof a formal interview; a simple conversation sealedthe deal.

Although relatively easy to obtain and a greatexperience, this internship had one major disadvantage:While close to NYC, Montvale, NJ, is a 30-mile,45-minute commute if you live in the city.Traffic is miserable, so prepare to pay tolls and tohonk your horn.

All chalked up, I had a good time and learned agreat deal about marketing luxury brands, whichhappens to be my (hopeful) area of expertise.

ANU PARDESHIOperations

WebMD

I was fortunate to be one of the five Owen interns thatwere hosted by WebMD this past summer. Based inNashville, WebMD Envoy provides key business func-tions in the health care reimbursement cycle. They area clearinghouse for all types of batch and real-time trans-actions – enabling over 2 billion transactions each year.Envoy complements WebMD Health (the website por-tal) and WebMD Medical Manager (a total practicemanagement software solution) to complete the Web-MD brand of companies.

I was placed at the junction of the Sales andOperations divisions. My responsibilities were dividedbetween projects (70%) and taking part in some dailyoperations and short-term issues (30%). Each day Iwould face new challenges, a common occurrence at agrowing and young company like WebMD. I foundmyself driving data quality initiatives for the customerdatabase while at the same time supporting sales,finance, operations, and customer service. I quicklydiscovered that the value of good data to the businessside of a technology company is immeasurable and thepossibilities from having good data are endless.

Each day I worked closely with managersand directors – something that definitely sets theWebMD internship apart from others summer opportu-nities. In fact, once or twice a week I found myselfinteracting with vice presidents, Senior VPs, and theexecutive staff. How many of you got to spend timewith the CEO and executive management of a $700million dollar company? And how many of us werecalled by our first names when we met them? Well, atleast five of us did.

12 September 25, 2003 The Bottom Line