Tag: olin

Washington University’s Olin Business School was proud to host the second annual Monsanto Olin Supply Chain Case Competition on Friday, February 3. Teams from top business schools across the country competed for bragging rights and the $10,000 grand prize. Participating universities included Michigan State University, the University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, the University of Minnesota, the University of Missouri, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Washington University in St. Louis, and last year’s champs, Texas Christian University. After much deliberation, the judges decided that UNC had delivered the top overall presentation, with second place going to WashU, and third place to Mizzou.

The competition was designed to give graduate students an opportunity to provide innovative business solutions to a case study written about Monsanto’s seed corn supply chain. Monsanto’s motivation for holding the competition was to foster and attract more supply chain management talent to work on food supply chain solutions for an ever-growing world. Monsanto’s Global Customer Care team, led by Mario Morhy and Marcelle Pires, was very pleased with all presentations and impressed by the level of talent and insight displayed by the teams.

1st Place $10,000:  University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
2nd Place $5000:  Washington University, Team Olin :Tom Siepman, Serena Chen, Ravi Balu and Samantha Feng
3rd Place $2500:  University of Missouri- Columbia

The case study used for the competition, titled “Monsanto Company: Production & Inventory Planning Challenges in Seed Corn Supply Chains,” was written by WashU’s Panos Kouvelis, Emerson Distinguished Professor of Operations and Manufacturing Management and director of The Boeing Center for Supply Chain Innovation. The competition was administered by Olin Business School’s graduate programs office, with Associate Dean Joe Fox acting as the master of ceremonies and his team, including Sarah Miller and Laura Fogarty, providing strong logistical support.

On behalf of the Olin community, The Boeing Center congratulates the UNC team on their victory and thanks all those who helped make this year’s case competition a great success!

For more supply chain digital content and cutting-edge research, check us out on the socials [@theboeingcenter] and our website [olin.wustl.edu/bcsci]

• • •

A Boeing Center digital production

Supply Chain // Operational Excellence  //  Risk Management

Website  • LinkedIn  • Subscribe  • Facebook  • Instagram  • Twitter  • YouTube

Recently, alumnus Todd Deibel, MBA ’97, took a few moments to catch up with Olin Alumni & Development. Check out Todd’s thoughts on how his Olin education helped prepare him for his career:

What are you doing for work now, and how did your Olin education impact your career?

I recently acquired and manage a company called Second Sight Systems, and I can honestly say I’m having the most fun I’ve ever had in my career. This can largely be attributed to the high-tech industries we serve (utilities and communications) and the incredibly talented people I get to work with every day.

Our company focuses on three areas: utility engineering services, industrial wireless systems, and communications tower services. We have positioned Second Sight Systems to be at the forefront of supporting customers who are investing in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) through our partnership with General Electric. We are also a tier-one supplier to Ameren for their Smart Grid modernization program. If you’re a technology nerd like me, there is absolutely no better place to be!

Olin certainly shaped me in a way I didn’t see coming. Through the Weston Career Center, I landed an internship at Texas Instruments and found my calling in the technology space.  Upon graduation, I took a position at Intel Corporation and had the fortunate experience of living and working in Silicon Valley, Germany, and the UK. I can guarantee you none of this would have happened had I not attended a nation-wide leading MBA program like Olin’s.

What Olin course influenced your life most, and why?

Operations with Dean Kropp is where I really felt like I hit my stride at Olin. Relative to my impressive classmates (kudos to the full-time MBA’ers of 1997!), I honestly felt over matched in just about every other class I attended. However, Dean Kropp had a presentation style and message that resonated with me, and it just clicked. To this day I think he’s one of the most brilliant, charismatic instructors I’ve ever come across, and his operational philosophy stuck with me as I managed multiple companies over the years.

(Quick side story: As I was getting to know him during my first year at Olin, I constantly addressed him as “Dean Kropp” (by his full name) and eventually I realized he was in fact not the “Dean” of the school but rather, “Professor” Kropp!  He never let me live that one down…God rest his soul!)

How do you stay engaged with Olin?

I have remained involved with Olin in several ways, but the two areas I focus on are mentoring students and providing scholarship funds. Mentoring both undergrads and graduate students of Olin is a humbling experience.

The talent level in these students is truly impressive and at times while I’m meeting with students I’m not exactly sure who is mentoring who!

I can guarantee you I get just as much out of our discussions as they do. It’s a great experience to get back on campus and to hear the stories of these students, and to act as a sounding board for career opportunities. In addition to this, my wife Jeni and I established a scholarship fund, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to get to personally know the students who are impacted by these funds.

Why is an MBA education important?

An MBA will force you to confront your weaknesses and help round out your managerial skillset. There is nowhere to hide in an MBA program. For example, no matter how long you put it off, you will eventually have to sit through a Statistics class! (Believe me, I tried my best to dodge that one.) But once you get after it, you begin to realize how quantitative theories are applied in just about everything we do in running a business. An MBA has a way of not only rounding you out, but also opening your eyes to a bigger world with bigger opportunities, especially coming from an internationally diverse program like Olin.

Learn more about Olin’s top-ranked full-time MBA program and reconnect with Olin through Alumni and Development.

Olin hosted its 20^th Annual Golf Invitational at the Sunset Country Club in St. Louis Monday, August 1, 2016. More than 100 alumni and friends of Olin participated in the  4-person scramble, 18 hole tournament. The morning started off a little dreary with some light rain and clouds, but that didn’t stop our teams from teeing off for a fun day on the links.

Congratulations to Scott Pinson, Chad Blatz, Kyle Pogue and John Jones on winning first place!

The golfers gathered for appetizers and cocktails in the club house where prizes were presented. First place went to the team with a dynamic EMBA duo: Kyle Pogue (EMBA’14), Scott Pinson, Chad Blatz (EMBA’14), and John Jones. Each team member received a certificate from Sunset Country Club for a complimentary round of golf.

Congratulations to the winning team and the players who aced each of the special prize categories:

Longest Drive: Turner Peters (MBA’14), Mary Jo Gorman (EMBA’96)

Closest to the Pin: Tom Barry

Putting Contest: Jeff Patton (PMBA’08)

Thanks to all of the alumni and friends who participated in this year’s Invitational.  And many thanks to the generous support from the following sponsors:

Clayton Corporation                               Commerce Bank

Garlich Printing Company                     HIMagine Solutions

Olin’s Graduate Programs Office          Maryville Technologies

                   Merrill Lynch                                             Midwest BankCentre

North Highland Worldwide Consulting

Spartan Light Metal Products, Inc.           Takara Belmont – Koken Division

A very special thank you to AB-InBev for supplying beer for the event.

If you are interested in this event and want to learn more about how you can participate in next year’s Olin Golf Invitational, please contact the Olin Alumni Office at olin.alumni@wustl.edu.

At the St. Louis Regional Business Council’s (RBC) Spring Reception for the Mentor Network Program, a panel of RBC Mentors shared sage advice with students.

Kathy Osborn, Executive Director of the RBC, advised the audience to “find a company with a mission you can get behind.”

Debbie Rub, Vice President & General Manager at Boeing, shared Boeing’s vision for the future as the company celebrates its 100th year. “Human flight is the future,” Rub declared.

The panel moderator was John Stupp, President of Stupp Bros. He kicked off the discussion by asking, “What lessons have you learned along the way?” Below are a few of the candid insights panelists provided:

Tom Manenti, Chairman and CEO, MiTek Industries:

• Show up on time (which Manenti said is actually 15 minutes early).
• Have organization skills.
• Have an open mind.

Wendy Henry, Managing Partner, BKD:

• Love what you do. Be passionate.
• Nurture and develop relationships.
• Learn your business, not just your job. Understand how it operates.

Tony Thompson, Chairman and CEO, Kwame Building Group:

• Don’t accumulate too many enemies at one time.
• Empathy in a leader is important.
• Inspect what you expect if you want respect.

Dan Gillian, Vice President, F/A-18 & EA-18 Programs, Boeing Military Aircraft

• Know your business and do your job first.
• Believe in the power of yes. Take risks.
• Manage your luck. Put yourself in the right positions.
• Be intentional and not prescriptive.

Additional insight and advice from panelists to come!

About the RBC Mentor Network. Every academic year, each of the 14 schools of business and engineering in the Collaboration recommends students, based on academic performance and interest in the St. Louis business community, to participate in the RBC Mentor Network. These students are then individually paired with a CEO or top executive of an RBC company to receive practical, “real world” knowledge and post-graduate opportunities.

Steve Malter with Donna and Mort Fleischer at MorDo Ranch in Phoenix, AZ.

Steve Malter and I had the privilege of spending a day with an amazing Olin alumnus, Mort Fleischer, BSBA 1958, and his delightful wife Donna.  Mort is an inspiration to me and Olin is very fortunate to count him as one of our own!

An experienced financier, entrepreneur and real estate investor, Mort is a founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of STORE Capital (NYSE: STOR), one of the largest, and fastest growing net-lease Real Estate Investment Trusts in the US. Over four decades, he has formed and managed more than 20 real estate companies, taking three of them public onto the New York Stock Exchange. His companies have successfully invested over $13 billion in single-tenant commercial real estate projects since 1981.

More importantly, Mort and Donna are using their means to make a difference in the lives of young people through their Fleischer Scholars Programs at Arizona State University and the University of Arkansas. These week-long summer programs for rising high school seniors are free to participants, and designed for economically disadvantaged high school students interested in pursuing business careers. Students selected for the program benefit from a multitude of resources as they learn the necessary skills for success in college and beyond.

In his forthcoming book, Building Your Mental Balance Sheet, Mort writes:

This saddle was commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Mort Fleischer for their saddle collection – the largest private saddle collection in the world.

“The inspiration came to me while I was on the campus of Washington University (my alma mater) in St. Louis, Missouri. High up in one of the university’s buildings, as I looked out toward East St. Louis, Illinois, which is actually one of the most poverty stricken cities in the United States, I realized that there had to be a lot of smart and talented students out there, who “didn’t know what they didn’t know.” I believed that if they were provided the right opportunities—like a college education—they could become responsible, productive citizens and make major contributions to the world that would otherwise go unrealized. “We will never fully achieve the American dream unless our society creates ways to bring the socially and economically disadvantaged people of this nation into the mainstream. I’ve come to understand that this wasn’t going to just happen on its own, in a society as complex as ours, nor did I believe that it could be accomplished by the American government’s welfare system. So I set out on my own to assist in bringing the American Dream within the grasp of capable young people…

“In America, your future is not determined by your past or your present circumstances. Your future is determined by you, and it starts now.”

 Thanks, Mort and Donna, for inspiring Steve and me with your vision and your care for others, and for your desire to make a long-lasting impact upon American society.

Click to learn more about the Olin Fleischer Scholars Program. 

“Getting to finally sit down for coffee this week with my Scholars in Business Scholarship Sponsor, Dan Manoogian, BSBA’82, was truly a highlight of my semester thus far,” said Lexie Sprague, BSBA, Class of 2017. “It was so fun to be able to share with him everything that I’m doing at Olin and on the soccer field.” (more…)