United Way leaders sharpen skills

Congratulations to the second cohort of the Certificate in Business Management for Non-profit Leaders who ‘graduated’ on July 30. The program is a unique Olin partnership with the United Way of Greater St. Louis and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, and is offered to select executives with United Way agencies.  This year’s cohort included 11 top leaders from various services agencies. They completed a curriculum focused on effective application of strategy, leadership, management, finance, and marketing, while exploring several critical questions facing their organizations.

Guest Blogger: Michele Ralston, associate director of open enrollment, Olin Executive Education programs

Participants also completed a comprehensive active learning project in which they were asked to identify and investigate a key challenge faced by their organizations, and then develop recommendations and action plans for addressing the challenge.

To celebrate completion of the program, Dean Gupta and the Executive Programs team hosted a luncheon for the participants, members of their staffs, and agency board members. Each participant shared his or her project ‘elevator pitch’ and engaged in table discussions about the project.

Bonnie GSEM-Olin Talk 2Bonnie Barczykowski of the Girl Scouts of Greater St. Louis was selected to give a more in-depth presentation. Bonnie delivered a 25-minute project overview and made a compelling case for a program delivery innovation that was very well received by the 40 guests in attendance. In her talk, Bonnie credited the certificate program as a key catalyst that helped her re-frame an organizational challenge in a new light. We are so excited to see the impact of this certificate program with our students, their organizations, and the communities they serve.

DeCola Olin Certificate talkGuests at the luncheon were also treated to keynote remarks from Michael DeCola, Chief Executive Officer of HBM Holdings and Mississippi Lime Company.  Mike sits on the Board of the United Way and was co-chair for the United Way’s record-setting 2014 annual campaign.  He stressed the importance of clarity of purpose as well as the need for synergy with other community partners.

The Certificate in Business Management for Non-profit Leaders — along with the Olin United Way Board Fellows program and the Taylor Community Consulting Program — continue to place Olin at the intersection of leading business and non-profit thinking.

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