Tag: Poets & Quants

Picking a favorite professor is a tough assignment at Olin, but Poets & Quants dared to ask members of their Best & Brightest MBA list. Markey Culver, MBA’17, named John Horn, Senior Lecturer in Economics. Horn has a track record as an outstanding teacher and favorite prof – he’s received the school’s Reid Teaching Award five times from graduating classes since 2014. Students select recipients of the Reid Award that honors a teacher  “whose enthusiasm and exceptional teaching most inspire, energize, and transform.”

Here’s why Markey named Horn in the Poets & Quants survey:

Like business leaders, MBA professors are often the extensions of the cultures they work so hard to mold and maintain. Make no mistake: They aren’t teaching to enjoy those clichéd 9-to-5 clock outs with summers off. Washington University’s John Horn, for example, served as an unofficial board member for Markey Culver’s startup, helping her after hours with drafting strategic plans, refining the business model, and preparing to scale the operation.

John Horn

Horn was a Senior Expert in the Strategy Practice of McKinsey & Company, based out of the Washington, DC, office, before joining Olin. During nearly a decade, he worked with clients on competitive strategy, war gaming workshops and corporate and business unit strategy across a variety of industries and geographies.

He was also an adjunct professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Prior to joining McKinsey, John assisted major U.S. financial institutions with fair lending compliance as a consultant with Ernst & Young LLP. He also worked as an economic consultant with The Brattle Group, specializing in economic expert testimony in litigation support, including anti-trust and patent infringement cases.

Horn holds the following degrees:

PhD 1998, Harvard University
MA 1994, Harvard University
BA 1991, University of Michigan

Poets & Quants’ recently released “2017 Best & Brightest EMBAs” include two Olin standouts: Brian Estes and Katherine Buehner.

At 28, Brian Estes became the youngest Vice President in the history of A.G. Edwards and Sons, so it’s no surprise he was named one of St. Louis Business Journal’s “40 Up and Comers” shortly after. He’s now a Venture Capital partner at The St. Louis Arch Angels and SixThirty FinTech Accelerator.

“My biggest regret was not starting 10 years ago,” Brian tells Poets & Quants. “The program is so interesting and valuable that it’s a shame I did not take advantage of this educational opportunity when I was younger.”

“Brian brings a wealth of experience, an impressive track record, a no-nonsense approach, and a collegial attitude to his EMBA cohort,” says Stuart Bunderson, Associate Dean and Director of Executive Programs and the Co-Director of the Bauer Leadership Center.

“He is a natural leader who holds himself and other to the highest standards of excellence without coming across as negative, impatient, or superior. His passion for excellence pushes us as faculty and as a program to greater heights. We are very fortunate to have Brian in our program.”

Katie was flying Blackhawk helicopters before enrolling in the Executive MBA program, where she started a new professional chapter: entrepreneurship.

She partnered with a classmate to open a staff business. “We launched the company six weeks earlier than we had expected and grew four times quicker than we had anticipated,” she tells Poets & Quants. “The company was turning a profit in four months.”

Her impressive background—trailblazing in a male-dominated industry to a fearless transition into business—also caught the eye of both The Denver Business Journal and The National Business Journal, who profiled her this year.

“Katie  is hard-working, team-oriented, and incredibly bright. She gets things done without drama and in a professional way,” Bunderson told Poets & Quants. “But what is perhaps most notable about Katie – and incredible given her impressive military track record – is that she is just simply a delightful person…a humble, nice, and delightful person. Every one of her classmates would love to have her on their team.”

Congratulations, Katie and Brian!

News of Olin’s Shakespeare festival spread far and wide. With more than 700 people in attendance, it is no surprise that fans of the Bard are still buzzing with tales of mirth and merry that graced the stage on Mudd Field, April 23. The Poets & Quants website has posted a most positive account of the event:

Though connections between the Bard and the business world may not be immediately obvious, [Dean Mark] Taylor says Shakespeare’s plays have strong messages for business leaders and managers.

“Henry V’s Agincourt speech is truly inspirational,” Taylor says, “and two compelling maxims of which I often remind myself — from Shakespeare’s King John and Hamlet, respectively — are, ‘Strong reasons make strong actions’ and ‘We know what we are but not what we may be.’”

Dean Taylor opens Shakespeare at Olin festival. ©Photo by Jerry Naunheim Jr.

Chris Detloff, BSBA 2019, who is a member of the Dean’s Players told Poets & Quants, “Only at Olin could I experience such an unexpected and enriching adventure.”

The Dean’s Players.

Link to Poets & Quants article.

Two Olin seniors are featured in Poets & Quants For Undergrads’ second annual “Best & Brightest Business Majors” feature. 100 of the most accomplished seniors majoring in such fields as business administration, marketing, accounting, operations, and human resources are profiled on the website.

Olin’s representatives among this year’s honorees:

Jessica Landzberg
Major: Double major in Finance and Accounting, and completing the coursework for the Marketing Major
Co-Founder, Owner, & CFO of the campus Bear-y Sweet Shoppe candy business that provides hands-on entrepreneurial experience for underclassmen. Link to Jessica’s profile.

Colton Calandrella
Majors: Economics & Strategy, Entrepreneurship
Minor: Latin American Studies
After piloting the Ferguson Small Business Initiative, he is the Undergraduate Fellow at the Center for Experiential Learning, a role created for 2nd-year MBA students. Link to Colton’s profile.

“This is a first look at some of the leaders who’ll be shaping the discussions and decisions around business in the coming decades,” says John A. Byrne, founder and editor of Poets & Quants and the former executive editor of Businessweek magazine and former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “They are already so informed, creative, and versatile. I can’t wait to see what they do after they graduate.”

If this year’s “Best & Brightest” class could be summarized in one word, it would be “impact.” They were the scholars, advocates, volunteers, and mentors who often acted as the catalysts and consciences of their classes.

The 2017 “Best & Brightest” feature also includes in-depth profiles on each student in which honorees answer questions relating to their biggest lessons from business school, favorite executives and professors, dream jobs, and even the animal that best personifies them.

“We didn’t want to just list bullet points that you could find on Linkedin,” explains Jeff Schmitt, who organized and directed the “Best & Brightest” project. “We asked students to dig deep so readers could know why they pursued business, what they loved about it, and what they hoped to do with this knowledge. These students are role models. Our whole goal is to show potential business majors why it is such a valuable path — and what it takes to be successful in school and beyond.”

To compile this year’s Best & Brightest students, Poets & Quants reached out to 55 leading business schools, starting with programs listed in its exclusive 2016 Best Undergraduate Business Programs ranking. Overall, 49 programs responded, with faculty and administrators choosing two students per school based on “academic excellence, extracurricular leadership, personal character, innate potential, striking personal narrative, and overall impact on the program.” Due to the popularity of the 2016 feature, the number of student profiles was doubled to 100 in 2017.

The “Best & Brightest Business Majors” is the first of a three-part series recognizing the top business students. In May, Poets & Quants will unveil its 100 “Best & Brightest MBAs.” In June, Poets&Quants For Executives will honor the “Best & Brightest Executive MBAs.”

Source: Poets & Quants news release

December 5, 2016 was a day for celebrating at Olin. After news broke that Olin’s Undergraduate Program was ranked #1 by Poets & Quants, the students, faculty, and staff were invited to gather in the Piper Hallway in Simon Hall.

To celebrate, the Undergrad Office and the Marketing & Communications department had assembled an amazing array of goodies with only a few days’ notice.  The celebration included pretzels in the shape of a 1, St. Louis’ famous Ted Drewes frozen custard, pizza, and cupcakes. Students also enjoyed takeaways, including t-shirts, water bottles, and selfies at the photo booth.

One of my favorite things about Olin is the sense of community we foster, and Monday’s celebration showcased just that.

Click to expand image:

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They’re back! The MBA Class of 2016 have returned to share valuable lessons learned during their time at graduate school with the Poets & Quants website. Olin MBA Allison Campbell is quoted with others on learning from failure or changes in the scope of a project. Read Allison’s advice below.

“In truth, failure rarely feels like a normal step in the process.  For Washington University’s Allison Campbell, now an associate marketing manager at Walmart, the high odds for some failure in b-school compelled her to change her outlook and become adaptable enough to “roll with the punches.”

““Projects change and you have to be flexible and willing to evolve with them,” she explains. “Sometimes you have to take a more creative approach. Other times you have to start from square one. I had one project that changed scope three times before it took off in the right direction. It’s important to be able to multitask and focus on other pieces if you have a roadblock in one direction. Then you have to execute. Complete is better than perfect if you have a timeline.””

Link to more lessons from the MBA Class of 2016 on these topics:

• SELF-AWARE LEADERS ‘WALK THE TALK’
• BUSINESS IS ABOUT PEOPLE FIRST AND FOREMOST
• DIVERSITY AND MUTUAL RESPECT ARE FORCE MULTIPLIERS
• CLASSMATES ARE YOUR FUTURE WEDDING PARTY, BUSINESS PARTNERS, AND CONFIDANTS
• NEVER HESITATE TO TAKE RISKS
• BE DELIBERATE IN YOUR CHOICES
• IDEAS ARE THE EASY PART
• NEVER HESITATE TO ASK
• EMBRACE PERSONAL GROWTH
• DEVELOP YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE

Photo by Joe Angeles, WUSTL Photos, Commencement 2016