DIVERSITY DYNASTY
Dawg Days
Evening MBA students win national case competition An MBA team from the Foster School’s Business and Economic Development Center (BEDC) took first place at the 2012 National Minority MBA Case Competition held at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. The team of first-year Evening MBA students, Brent Bauslaugh, Rakesh Saini, Ksenia Karpisheva, Ben Lapekas, beat out teams from 18 other business schools from around the US including UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, Indiana University and Boston College. The grand prize for Foster’s Evening MBA students? $7,500. Additionally, Lapekas was recognized as the best presenter and Bauslaugh won first place for best question-and-answer session. Each of the 18 competing teams had 20 minutes to provide a solution to a case dealing with strategic choices for a third-party commercial loan servicing business at Key Bank. EJ Burke, Key Bank’s head of real estate capital and corporate banking services, adds that “the University of Washington team’s presentation represented a thorough understanding of a very complex and difficult case. Their recommended solutions were actionable and thought-provoking.” A team from the BEDC has placed among the top three teams nationally for the past four years in this diversity competition. n
Foster alumni show their Husky spirit in the desert
Long-time Washington booster Herb Mead (BA 1956), center, was honored at a UW Foster brunch held during Dawg Days in the Desert, an annual series of alumni events held in Palm Desert. Surrounding Herb and his wife, Sharon, are program speakers Bruce Nordstrom (BA 1955), Carol James and Husky football coaching legend Don James. Not pictured, Kirby McDonald (BA 1968) also spoke and organized sponsorship at The Vintage Club.
Leading the U Bill Ayer is the latest Foster graduate to serve on the UW Board of Regents In January, Governor Chris Gregoire appointed Bill Ayer (MBA 1978) to a four-year term with the UW Board of Regents. Ayer, the long-time chairman and CEO of Alaska Airlines and Alaska Airlines Group, announced his retirement from the company in February. A three-decade veteran of the aviation industry, Ayer joined Alaska Air in 1995 and has led the nation’s 7th-largest airline and its 13,000 employees since 2002. He is chairman of the Puget Energy Board and a director of the Museum of Flight and Angel Flight West, as well as current chair of the Foster School’s advisory board. With Ayer’s appointment, the 10-member Board of Regents now includes four Foster graduates. The others are Chair Kristianne Blake (BA 1975), president of the accounting firm of Kristianne Gates Blake, PS; Orin Smith (BA 1965), retired president and CEO of Starbucks; and Joanne Harrell (BA 1976, MBA 1979), senior director of E-Government Programs at Microsoft. n
Showing their purple and gold spirit at the Dawg Days brunch, Charlie Hogan (BA 1959), Nancy Hogan and Tom McFarlan were among more than 130 Huskies who joined Dean Jiambalvo for this March 11 outreach event.
spring 2012
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