2018

The Big Blockchain Question Will it take over the world, or is it more hype than reality?

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Financial risks of franchises Connecting farmers and customers A record-breaking capital campaign FEATURED STORIES

10 14 CHANGING THE FUTURE OF FLIGHT THE BIG BLOCKCHAIN QUESTION Sara Jones, MBA ’10, was one of the first people named Will it take over the world, or is it more hype than reality? to work on Boeing’s ambitious HorizonX project.

22 26 CONNECTING LOCAL FARMERS WITH CUSTOMERS LIVING BUSINESS LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE Alumni Bill Brinkerhoff and Kathy Sample, MBAs ’89, In a new Ross course, students navigate the are helping to reinvent food shopping. ambiguity of running a real-world business.

30 33 MICHIGAN ROSS ANNOUNCES PART-TIME MBA: ONLINE VICTORS FOR MICHIGAN New program aims to drive innovation 16,000 donors and counting help Michigan Ross in business school education. exceed $400 million capital campaign goal.

34 44 20 QUESTIONS FIRST PERSON Getting to know Rachel Gutierrez, BBA ’08, the Tall Order cofounder Dan Friedman, BBA ’12, describes how founder of natural drink company Bom Dia Brands. he turned a family tragedy into a business that gives back. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

DEPARTMENTS

Edward J. Frey Dean, Stephen M. Ross Professor of Business 2 LETTER FROM THE DEAN Scott DeRue Leading the way for business to make Chief Marketing Officer a positive impact on the world. Jennifer Monaghan

Editorial Director 4 ROSS BY THE NUMBERS Tedra White The latest facts and stats about Michigan Ross, Editor its reach, and its influence. Bob Needham

Writers Tara Cavanaugh, Bob Needham, Greta Guest, Christopher Ankney

ALUMNI NEWS Creative Director Liene Karels

Designer 36 CLASS NOTES Gretchen Hehlo The latest news from classmates. Production Manager Fay Sommer

OBITUARIES Printer 40 EPI Marketing Services

Vol. 49, 2018. Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. This publication is produced once a year by the Office of Marketing and Communications and made possible through the generosity of private dona- ROSS THOUGHT IN ACTION tions. ISSN 0046-0400 For more information, contact Dividend, Office of Marketing & Communications, Ste- phen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, 700 E. University, Kresge Hall, 4th Floor West, Suite K4510, 8 GETTING THE LEAD OUT: Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234. 734-763-7022. DATA SCIENCE AND FLINT WATER The Regents of the University of Michigan: Professor Eric Schwartz leads effort to predict which Michael J. Behm, Mark J. Bernstein, Shauna Ryder Diggs, homes are more likely to have lead water lines. Denise Ilitch, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew C. Richner, Ron Weiser, Katherine E. White, Mark S. Schlissel (ex officio) 12 INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES University of Michigan Nondiscrimination Policy Notice: MEASURE UP AGAINST FRANCHISES The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/ affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable Research by Professor Francine Lafontaine and federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and colleagues finds that franchising is just as risky as affirmative action. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for independent ownership. all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity and Title IX/Section 504/ADA Coordinator, Office for Institutional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, (734) 763-0235, TTY (734) 647-1388. For other University of Michigan information call (734) 764-1817. © 2018 The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan

Stephen M. Ross School of Business Dividend is the alumni magazine of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

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Tell us at [email protected] or 734-763-7022. Letter From the Dean LETTER FROM THE DEAN 3

he holidays are upon us and we are well on for positive change. With an unwavering commitment T our way to having one of our most incredible to building a better world through business, Michigan years in the history of Michigan Ross. This fall, Ross is poised to be on the forefront leading this we welcomed our strongest group of graduate and change. Through our thought leadership, we are undergraduate students in Ross history, with record- challenging the status quo and illuminating a new setting academic credentials. We continue to attain future for the role of business in society. Through top rankings, with nine of our graduate specialty our education programs, we are preparing the disciplines included in the Top 10 by U.S. News next generation of leaders with the character and & World Report. The only other school with this capabilities to build a better world through business. distinction is Stanford. Our MBA program achieved And through engagement in our communities—local its second-highest U.S. News ranking in school history, and global—we are developing business innovations and our undergraduate program continues to be in partnership with leading companies and public- recognized among the top five in the country. And sector organizations that will drive economic this year Michigan Ross became the first top-ranked prosperity and social change for generations to come. business school to launch a part-time online MBA that will set a new standard for digital education. It is no longer business as usual. We are on a mission to build a better world at the intersection We are also making great progress with our of business and education in ways that will make Business+Impact initiative. A few weeks ago, we all Wolverines proud! In the near future, you can hosted an event in partnership with The Aspen expect major innovations and developments that will Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based educational amplify these efforts and our impact even further. and policy organization. Together we provided a forum for academics and business executives to We look forward to sharing our progress with reimagine how business can be a positive force for you in the coming months. We wish you a economic prosperity and social change. More than wonderful holiday season with your family! 80 individuals from all over the globe convened at Michigan Ross for this inaugural event, full of hope Go Blue! about the possibilities of what academia and the business world may accomplish by working together.

We are living in one of the most transformative times in history. Today’s CEOs must be focused on Scott DeRue more than simply driving profits. Business leaders Edward J. Frey Dean are held accountable today more than ever before Stephen M. Ross Professor of Business for how their organizations address major social issues such as changes in employment and job readiness, healthcare and well-being, and sustainable development in our communities. This presents a huge opportunity for business to be a powerful force We Are Michigan

Ross. Programs and Students Among The Best in the World 9 Specialties Ranked in the Top 10 by U.S. News & World Report

Ross Full-Time MBA program Highest number of women ever rose in major U.S. Rankings in our Full-Time MBA program

Highest720 average scoreGMAT ever for incoming Full-Time MBAs C- S U I T E 11,872 applicants 11 C-SUITE to Ross Programs EXECUTIVES AND CEOS in our newest #1 public university Executive in the nation for the 6th year in a row MBA class —QS World University Rankings, 2018 ROSS BY THE NUMBERS 5

REAL, Life-Changing, Unprecedented Career Hands-On Experiences Outcomes for Students

of Executive MBA grads receive a promotion within 18 194 84% months of graduation startups career consultations created by 879 offered to Ross alums Ross grads $155,000 median pay package 2013–17 for 2018 Full-Time MBA graduates

More than $129,000,000 $77,168 median pay package raised for U-M for 2018 BBA graduates startups

7 student-run $10 million investment value of funds, the student-run most of any investment business school funds Top Hiring Companies

193 companies advised by Ross students 2017-18 7 companies actively managed by Ross students in the Living Business Leadership Experience (LBLE) Home to the Strongest, Most Respected Thought Leaders Supportive Alumni in the World Across Industries 16,000 $ Alumni Donors to 9.8in sponsored million research directly Capital Campaign involving Ross faculty

in 9thtotal research contributions —University of Texas ranking More than 750 students are supported by alumni-funded scholarships 40+ Awards and Honors given to Michigan Ross 108 faculty for their contributions Countries to scholarly research Michigan Ross alumni live in 108 countries around the globe ROSS BY THE NUMBERS 7

Transforming Companies Making an Impact From the Inside Out on the World

162 companies sponsored MAP projects in 2018 20,000water samples examined from the 316 Michigan Ross Flint water crisis Executive Education programs held in 2018 25 students serve as board fellows

$ A10 Ross class million helped one startup raise $10 million in funding

8,800+ 49 30 Tauber Summer Projects tackling individuals participated Executive Education real logistics and operations challenges, in Executive Education ran programs in 49 experiences different countries. resulting in $560 million in cost savings and aditional revenue

Companies participating in 615 BBAs working on addressing United Nation’s Executive Education Programs Sustainable Development Goals Hail. Victors. Getting the Lead Out: Data Science & Flint Pipes Professor Eric Schwartz leads effort to predict which homes are more likely to have water service lines made of lead.

Copper or lead? It’s the burning question “The risk still varies from house to house,” in Flint as the painstaking process to find, Schwartz said. remove, and replace lead pipes continues. Lead leached from the pipes when the water was not properly treated for more than two years University of Michigan students and professors, after a switch to the Flint River in April 2014. working with the city, helped answer that question The researchers estimate that their method of with data science that predicts which homes have lead inspecting, identifying and targeting pipes for pipes. They estimated that three out of four houses replacement could save as much as $10 million— in Flint have lead in their service lines, which are the a 10 percent savings and roughly equivalent to pipes connecting each home to the city water system. replacing the lead pipes in an additional 2,000 “Knowing which homes to inspect homes. Much of this savings is in avoiding can reduce the costs of replacing unnecessary excavations, since each unneeded their pipes with safer ones and dig can still cost the city thousands of dollars. more efficiently get the lead out The study was directed by Schwartz and Jacob of Flint,” said Eric Schwartz, U-M Abernethy, now an assistant professor at the assistant professor of marketing Georgia Institute of Technology. Other co-authors at Michigan Ross. “The approach were U-M students at the time, Alex Chojnacki could serve as a model for other cities to follow.” and Arya Farahi, and Jared Webb, a visiting Speeding a solution can save money and deliver student from Brigham Young University. safe drinking water to residents. While the state has deemed the water safe to drink, doubts remain about whether a home has lead pipes buried underground. ROSS THOUGHT IN ACTION 9 GETTING THE LEAD OUT

Schwartz and colleagues coordinated with Captricity, The FAST Start Team also began using hydrovac a data technology company, to further the efforts to trucks to inspect underground pipes before digitize Flint’s water department’s 100,000 historical sending the costlier digging several feet to public work records on mostly handwritten index the pipe location. The hydrovac can dig a cards, dating back to 1910. Captricity donated the use precise hole very quickly and observe the pipe of its artificial intelligence software for handwriting material for around $250 per inspection. recognition, transforming the scanned cards into The U-M researchers’ methods then focused on usable data. That data was provided to the city’s targeting inspection efforts to most efficiently team managing the pipe replacement project, called find and replace lead pipes. The team also built a the Flint Action and Sustainability Team (FAST). data collection app for the city and its contractors The city’s FAST Start Team, which has now to keep track of their work and those funds. received over $100 million from the federal “The biggest public investment resulting from and state governments, is making progress in Flint’s water crisis is the large-scale removal of lead removing lead service lines. But as many as 75 and other dangerous pipe materials from residents’ percent of the city’s homes are still exposed. water service lines—the pipes connecting most “Professor Schwartz and his team’s assistance pipes to their water system,” Schwartz said. made a huge difference,” said retired Brig. Across the country, more than 6 million homes Gen. Michael McDaniel, who coordinated connect to their municipal water systems with lead the FAST program in Flint in 2016-17. service pipes, putting the industry’s estimated cost “We hope the city of Flint continues to to replace them near $275 billion. The replacement receive the funding needed to replace all of costs would be lower if cities knew which homes its lead-tainted service lines, which I think have the lead lines, but even determining the could happen over the next three years.” material composition of a single buried pipe is expensive and can cause unneeded digs. “Many cities like Flint, facing huge uncertainty due to imprecise record-keeping and limited budgets, are already developing plans for large-scale pipe replacement,” Schwartz said. The methods could apply to any municipal or private utility that faces the same budget constraints in attempting to remediate a similar public health issue. Schwartz and Abernethy began their work in Flint in 2016, following a project initiated and funded by Google, to support the development of a mobile app allowing Flint residents to determine their homes’ risk levels and other useful information.

The study was presented in August at the 24th An estimated three out of four SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery houses in Flint have lead and Data Mining in London, the premier in their service lines. machine learning and data science conference.

—GRETA GUEST Michigan Ross Alum Working to Change the Future of Flight CHANGING THE FUTURE OF FLIGHT 11

Sara Jones, MBA ’10, was one of the first people named to work to Boeing’s ambitious, future-looking HorizonX organization when it was announced in 2017. Now, her work with the company on creating the next generation of the aerospace industry is getting recognized in the press.

Jones was recently listed among the 40 Under 40 in across Boeing. Finally, the team develops ways to drive Seattle by the Puget Sound Business Journal for her thought leadership and set the tone for the industry. contributions to the future of business. Jones is a “We act as a membrane principal strategist for Boeing’s HorizonX and NeXt for the Boeing company teams, which includes three other Michigan and Ross It’s like a research to bring new, exciting alumni—Michael Hauser, MBA ’02; Duane Gardner, and development technologies into the BSE ’14; and Tyler Jackson, BSE ’15 , MSE ’16. department, business and also “There are four Michigan alums on the team,” but with the dial leverage those Jones said. “And we sponsored a MAP project turned up so technologies to find new last year to help us look at disruptive mobility. high past 11 that market opportunities and With more than 4,000 alums, the Michigan it broke off. pursue new products,” network is wonderful out here in Seattle!” Jones said. Together, along with a team of about 50 people, “We’re charged with creating new ventures, and they work on identifying, commercializing, and that’s where a lot of my Ross education comes operationalizing the future technologies and into play because I focused on entrepreneurship business models that will help Boeing not only stay and new venture creation while at U-M.” competitive, but lead innovation in the aerospace That focus on entrepreneurship, and a history industry. Their vision is to bring flight closer to in and passion for the arts (she’s a former home through initiatives like autonomous passenger performing artist and sits on the board of Pacific and cargo air vehicles, hybrid electric airplanes, Northwest Ballet), means Jones is well suited and the ecosystems that will support them. to this work of changing what is possible. The team employs four main ways Boeing can change “Having been an artist, you develop a discipline to fail its approach to move faster and accelerate innovation. a thousand times before you get something perfected,” Jones calls them her “four levers of action.” Jones said. “The arts help you develop the ability First, the group invests in early stage companies using to persevere through challenges and failures. And a dedicated venture capital fund. Next, they create that failure helps you see things in new ways, forces non-traditional partnerships with other companies you to develop new approaches to old problems, and startups to create new business opportunities. A and envision a future that’s different from today.” third lever the team works on is building and designing —CHRISTOPHER ANKNEY new products leveraging engineering and talent from —PHOTO BY ANTHONY BOLANTE Independent Businesses Measure Up Against Franchises Research by Professor Francine Lafontaine and colleagues finds that franchising is just as risky as independent ownership.

One of the key selling points of a franchise business— “Franchising is no safer on average than that it mitigates some of the risk of starting a independent business ownership, and business—can give franchisees a false sense of security, says a University of Michigan researcher. in some cases is actually more risky. Of course, business failure is a fact of life. Our point Michigan Ross Professor Francine is that this is just as true for franchisees as it is for Lafontaine analyzed U.S. Census other players in the economy,” said Lafontaine, senior data for industries where associate dean for faculty and research and a professor franchising activity is strongest, of business economics and public policy at Ross. such as restaurants and traveler accommodations, and found that Lafontaine was joined in the research by Xu Zhang, substantial business risks exist even assistant professor of marketing at London Business when people invest in a franchise. School, and Marek Zapletal of Brattle Group, an This is contrary to popular notions that a franchise economic consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass. is a much safer way of going into business. ROSS THOUGHT IN ACTION 13 FRANCHISE RISK

KEY FINDINGS Comparing business owner characteristics across new franchised and independent businesses, The one-year survival rate of new single- Lafontaine said there was interesting evidence establishment businesses is about 6.3 percentage of “self-selection into franchising.” points higher for franchised than for independent businesses. The difference in the two-year About 70 percent of business owners are male in survival rate is 8.4 percentage points. these data, and a greater percentage of franchised compared to independent businesses are started by Controlling for factors that may lead an individual to men. People in the 25-34 age range are more likely pursue a franchise rather than open an independent to start an independent business, while 35-44 year business reduces the difference in survival rate to olds are more likely to start a franchised business. about 5 percentage points for the one-year survival rate and 6 percentage points for the two-year survival rate. Also, there is a difference in formal education for owners of the two types of businesses. People with Conditional on surviving for a year or two, a high school education or less, or with a vocational the survival differences between franchised or technical education, are more likely to start an and independent businesses disappear. independent business, while those with some college Benefits to starting out as a franchise include or more education are more likely to start a franchise. brand name awareness, operational experience One interpretation of the results is that franchisors and possible cost savings from more efficient supply screen potential franchise owners and select chains and bulk purchasing, the researchers say. business characteristics, thereby preventing some Drawbacks that independent business owners avoid less developed or valuable ideas from reaching the include franchising fees, royalties on revenues market. Independent businesses are subjected and less adaptability to market conditions. to this screening by the market in their first year “These differences allow for the possibility in business instead, leading to more failures of of superior performance by either franchised independent businesses in the first year. or independent businesses,” Zhang said. In addition to screening, the analysis also finds evidence that the franchisor’s business knowledge “The coexistence of both types of and brand name contribute to the short-lived businesses in the marketplace further survival advantage for franchise businesses. suggests that neither form of business “We therefore conclude that while we find some ownership clearly dominates the other.” evidence of a survival and growth advantage of franchising, this advantage is rather small and Franchising is an important form of business concentrated in the first year or two,” Lafontaine said. organization in many retail and service industries, —GRETA GUEST which themselves constitute a growing segment of the U.S. economy. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 560,086 establishments of franchised chains in 2012, contributing $193 billion in payroll for their 10.8 million employees. The analysis included data from the retail trade sector, the accommodation and food services sector, and other services sector. These sectors accounted for 43.4 percent, 27.6 percent and 6.3 percent of franchisee businesses, respectively. Will cryptocurrencies and other uses take over the world, or are they more hype than reality?

arlier this year, Michigan Ross hosted an event for alumni in E Los Angeles that went viral online. The featured attraction: Scott DeRue, the Edward J. Frey Dean, conducting a public interview with Charlie Munger—one-time University of Michigan student, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, highly successful investor, Warren Buffett partner, and respected business guru. Shuffling through index cards submitted by the packed audience, DeRue drew a laugh as he noted, “Half my questions here are about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.” “Well, I can answer those very quickly,” Munger responded. “I think it’s perfectly asinine to even pause to think about them.” Warming to the subject, he expressed skepticism about the technology’s safeguards against abuse, then went even further: “It’s luring people into the concept of easy wealth without much insight or work … It’s totally insane.” Yet the topic is unavoidable: New cryptocurrencies are popping up. The industry has started a lobbying operation in Washington, D.C. Entrepreneurs are pushing new uses for the underlying technology. And a video of Munger’s interview on the Michigan Ross YouTube channel has racked up more than 100,000 views, plus countless thousands more on other sites. The concept’s biggest supporters and critics both seem to agree on at least two things: There are a lot of unknowns, and there’s a lot at stake. COVER STORY 15 THE BIG BLOCKCHAIN QUESTION Questions About Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies are the most obvious, and so far the most popular, application of blockchain. Supporters believe that it’s more secure than other methods of electronic financial transactions. This appeal has generated intense interest from those hoping to invest Blockchain 101: early in a potentially world-changing technology. Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, has What Is It Exactly? generated tremendous hype over the last couple years. It promised a completely secure way to So how should someone try to make financial transactions online, untroubled by regulation or oversight. Investors loved start making sense of it all? First, the idea, and prices skyrocketed—at first. some important basic concepts: Questions quickly emerged—is Bitcoin more a currency or a commodity? The process of “mining” new Bitcoin is complicated and obtuse; it also requires a great deal of computing power and energy Cryptocurrency consumption. Some say the community of users Virtual currency in the online realm. controls the process, but it does so with no regulation Independent of any government or or oversight. Additionally, merchants have been regulation, it’s worth whatever the slow to accept Bitcoin as a payment method. market says it is. There are many In an essay in the online magazine The Hill late last different competing cryptocurrencies. year, Andrew Wu—an assistant professor of finance and technology and operations at Michigan Ross— Bitcoin urged extreme caution to anyone considering investing. The most popular and best-known “From the merchants’ perspective, the extreme cryptocurrency. Its price shot up last volatility of Bitcoin makes it a poor working year—from less than $1,000 to more capital solution and an accounting nightmare. than $15,000—only to spend much of This seems to defeat Bitcoin’s original promise this year dropping. Ether and Ripple are as a means of cashless transaction,” Wu wrote. among the better-known competitors. “So what are investors betting on, then? Speculative Blockchain psychology. The main reason to buy Bitcoin seems to be the hope that, somewhere down the road, exists The technology that underlies cryptocurrencies. This is where it starts some poor schmuck willing to buy it for more money.” to get complicated, but the main things Ross Professor of Finance Robert Dittmar explained, to know are that it’s essentially a way to “Your basic macro textbook tells you what counts as store encrypted data, and that access—and a form of currency—something that provides stable the ability to make changes—is controlled value and is readily accepted as a means of exchange. jointly by all the users. The general Cryptocurrencies fail that definition. Obviously concept is called “distributed ledger” their prices in exchange for dollars are extremely or “immutable ledger” technology. COVER STORY 17 THE BIG BLOCKCHAIN QUESTION

volatile, and in addition, not everybody is accepting them as a form of payment. And so they do a bad job Potential for of being a real form of payment per se.” In addition, he said, it’s currently a lot easier to buy Bitcoin than it is to sell it for the supposed current price. Other Uses Dittmar, along with Wu, teaches a FinTech Bitcoin, however, is far from the only cryptocurrency. Innovations class at Ross. The two are also Ether, built on a blockchain platform called Ethereum, conducting research into companies that use and Ripple are probably the next-best-known types. cryptocurrency releases as a way to raise capital. However, new versions of cryptocurrency come along “The way that I look at cryptocurrencies is that regularly, with different features and structures. they're acting more like a virtual commodity at Blockchain is the technology underlying these different this point,” Dittmar said. “Something is worth cryptocurrencies. The concept gets its name from what you believe it's worth, so in that sense a the computer code behind it, which literally consists cryptocurrency isn’t that much different than gold.” of a chain of digital blocks of data. It’s set up so that One difference, however, is that commodities no individual can change the information; it’s jointly are regulated. “Because Bitcoin is just controlled by the entire group of users, and there’s completely unregulated at this point, a record of all changes. While using that technology issues of market manipulation and so on for digital currency was the first widespread become a real concern,” Dittmar said. application, other uses may offer greater potential. As the chief operations and technology officer “People who may not know exactly what they’re at Bank of America, Catherine Bessant, BBA doing can potentially get themselves into some ’82, clearly sees both the limitations and the real trouble in these kinds of things.” potential of blockchain technology. Bessant was recently named the most powerful woman in banking for the second straight year. “I think of cryptocurrency in three ways: the ‘asset class’ of cryptocurrency, its use as a payment vehicle, and as a technology platform. As an investment, that’s a decision for investors. As money to be paid or received, it’s an anathema that goes against the foundation of financial institutions and violates the transparency between sender and receiver that we strive to maintain,” she said. “As a technology, we’re looking for ways to harness its value.” Those ways might include record keeping, clearing At the alumni event in LA, Charlie Munger also and settlement, digital identity, multi-party questioned the underlying security of Bitcoin. “It’s aggregation, reinsurance, and more, Bessant said. one thing to think that gold has some marvelous value because man has no way of getting more gold or getting it very easily. So it has the advantage of rarity. Believe me: Man is capable of somehow creating Bank of America currently has 89 more Bitcoin,” Munger told the audience. “They blockchain-related patents tell you they’re not going to do it. But that means they’re not going to do it unless they want to … When and applications. there’s enough incentive, bad things will happen.” “Virtually any asset of value can be tracked and traded on a blockchain network, which can help reduce risks and cut costs for all involved,” she said. A Ross Alum “It’s a great technology, we’ve just got to find the right business use for it.” Makes It Work While blockchain technology hasn’t been widely That use will capitalize on the particular advantages adopted yet, individuals are already finding ways of blockchain. Ross Professor Dittmar said the to use it effectively. For example:John Kang, MBA technology boasts two key advantages: integrity, ’10, recently launched Reasi, a real estate escrow or immutability, of the data; and decentralization. company based on blockchain. The company Security is an important advantage of blockchain, completed its first deal in August, and Kang is he said, although it’s not as guaranteed as some using blockchain as its financial backbone. like to believe. Users have keys, like passwords, and some can be stronger than others. “My company is an online peer-to-peer real The decentralization aspect is powerful, Dittmar estate escrow company, and blockchain reduces said: “Let's say you had two different hospitals that transaction friction and improves security,” had to interact in some kind of way. Oftentimes the problem that we have is that recordkeeping in one “Blockchain has the potential to displace many hospital is done on some completely different system financial institutions from the functions they than recordkeeping in another hospital. In principle, a traditionally perform (think payments, escrow, blockchain-based system could allow both hospitals to lending). A P2P, blockchain approach translates into retain their own recordkeeping systems, but talk to one substantial cost savings for the masses,” Kang said. another across a blockchain-based system. And that has “More broadly, many industries/applications can potentially interesting applications in lots of places.” benefit from an immutable and fully accountable Dittmar sees parallels to the initial dot-com ledger. Beyond finance, an immutable ledger could be bubble of the late 1990s. “This technology seems invaluable for medical records, chain of ownership and to have a ton of potential behind it, but I also see fractional ownership of assets (digital particularly), lots of smoke and mirrors—people saying, ‘Ooh, voting, insurance, and supply chain, among others.” blockchain.’ If you put blockchain in your name, Even Kang, though, sees limitations and has all of a sudden your stock price will go up. There outstanding questions, including the need for are a lot of applications in which it is unclear why regulation and the concentration of crypto it's much different than using a database, and I wealth among a small number of owners. think that that’s where the question still lies.” “Scalability is the largest issue, although it should be solvable,” Kang said. “Decentralization comes at a processing power cost, and the computational speeds just aren't there yet. A few months ago, just one Ethereum decentralized application, Cryptokitties, Beyond finance, an immutable essentially crashed the entire global network—imagine ledger could be invaluable if there are thousands of these decentralized apps?” for medical records, chain of ownership and fractional ownership of assets (digital particularly), voting, insurance, and supply chain, among others. COVER STORY 19 THE BIG BLOCKCHAIN QUESTION

So what should an interested business person do? Follow the latest news. Learn as much as possible What’s Next— from trusted sources. Try to figure out where the technology might truly offer a solution for And How to your business. If you invest, do so carefully. “Buy a small amount of Bitcoin,” Kang recommended.

Get Ready “I always believe you learn faster when you have a stake. Students like Rishi Prasad, BBA ’20, will likely Watch YouTube videos and get very familiar with the play a major role in how the blockchain story strategic benefits and concepts—P2P, decentralization, develops. Prasad founded the Michigan FinTech immutability, security. Take online training courses, club, and is cofounder and president of its offshoot particularly on the technology development if you’re a coder.” Wolverine Blockchain. He’s already seen high demand among potential employers for students Bessant agreed that educating oneself is important: with knowledge of blockchain and related subjects. “While true blockchain functionality will not exist in He, too, understands both the potential and the the immediate future, most large financial institutions limitations of the technology and its future. are already looking at multiple use cases,” she said. “My view is that it depends in part on the maturity “I participated in an enriching discussion in May on of the technology we will see in the next few years, this exact topic at a Michigan Ross roundtable event but far more on people’s reaction to it—which is hard in New York City. Continuing to stay up to date on to predict. The overpromotion of blockchain as a emerging technology is critical to understanding their universal solution has led to many misconceptions near- and/or long-term application and impacts.” about the technology and can create confusion in Dittmar summarized a lesson he emphasizes in the effort to determine what the technology can class: “As business students, your comparative actually solve,” Prasad said. “It’s still early days for advantage is probably not in terms of designing some this space, but there are some incredibly smart, new blockchain-based solution. Your comparative intelligent and driven individuals—developers, advantage is understanding why it’s a good solution venture capital firms, enterprises, and financial to a particular business problem. That's really what institutions—working on improving this ecosystem.” people need to weigh,” he said. “If I know very well what blockchain does, then I can say, ‘Yes, this seems to be a smart solution to the challenge we face.’”

—BOB NEEDHAM Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Michigan Ross

As cryptocurrencies and blockchain WOLVERINE draw considerable attention in BLOCKCHAIN CLUB the business world, Michigan Ross undergraduates and other U-M students last year formed Ross is engaging with these same the Wolverine Blockchain club to topics in a number of ways. educate members and the general student body about blockchain and related digital issues. This year, the group expanded to include graduate students. The club features independent FINTECH INNOVATIONS project teams that pursue specific subjects in depth, weekly meetings Ross offers an undergraduate elective course called that include a presentation and FinTech Innovations, which spends two or three book-club-style discussion, and weeks on blockchain, cryptocurrency, and other monthly “town halls” open to related subjects. the broader U-M community. “We’re trying to provide a 360-degree view of what “As demand for career fintech looks like,” says Professor Bob Dittmar, opportunities in this industry one of the instructors for the course. “We talk grows, we plan to place a heavier about the technologies that are developing around emphasis on career development alternative methods of payment, and then how for both our club members and the blockchain and cryptocurrencies fall into that.” broader Michigan community,” The course has proved extremely popular, and a said Rishi Prasad, BBA ’20, co- graduate-level version will be introduced soon. “I hear founder and president of the a lot from students—undergraduates and MBAs—that club. “We are in talks and have they're interested in this,” Dittmar said. Last year as a active relationships with leading non-credit outgrowth of the class, 20 students worked companies such as Coinbase, with Alphabet on two fintech projects that involved a Ripple, and IBM Blockchain.” trip to London, where students met with a company that’s exploring blockchain solutions for insurance. SECTIONCOVER STORY NAME 21 THESOMEONE’S BIG BLOCKCHAIN NAME HERE, QUESTION MBA ’15

THE MAP PROGRAM EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

The Michigan Ross MAP program—in which The Ross Executive Education teams of students in nearly all Ross degree team has developed a custom programs work on solving a real-world program for the Industrial and challenge for a sponsor organization—is open Commercial Bank of China, the to blockchain and cryptocurrency projects. world’s largest bank. The two- week ICBC program, taught by Last year, one MAP team tackled a project for ICICI Professor Nigel Melville, covered Bank Limited of Mumbai, India. The team was asked a variety of fintech issues. to explore the applicability of blockchain technology in retail banking, and specifically addressed the potential of three different possible applications in the Indian market.

RESEARCH

ALUMNI EVENTS Professors Robert Dittmar and Andrew Wu recently completed research into “initial coin Occasional alumni events focus offerings” for a paper to be published in the near on fintech issues, including a future. “These are situations where a company, roundtable discussion in New instead of doing typical venture capital or finding York earlier this year. Catherine funding in other places, will instead offer a (digital) Bessant, BBA ’82, the chief coin to raise money,” Dittmar explained. operations and technology officer at Bank of America, was among “This is still a pretty a fledgling market but seems the participants. “I find that the to be becoming more common. To some extent, it university does a brilliant job seems to be replacing crowdfunding in terms of of bringing together the well- thinking about starting businesses. We’re trying to rounded and diverse slate of get some understanding of what these different coin industry experts to discuss topics offerings look like, and what characteristics do well that may be of interest to their or do poorly. It’s a bit of a new frontier in terms of alumni audience,” Bessant said. thinking about ways to raise funds for a business.”

—BOB NEEDHAM Anyone who doubts that small business can have a big impact These Married Ross MBAs might want to look at Argus Are Connecting Local Farm Stop. Farmers With Consumers

ounded, owned, and operated by a “We started to discover that the local food system needed some F couple who met while they were both help, that there were a lot of producers and small farmers that students in the Michigan Ross MBA program, were in need of more sales, at prices that were sustainable the business is essentially a year-round, for them,” co-owner Bill Brinkerhoff said. “And then there everyday farmers market. Based in Ann was also this tremendous interest from consumers to buy all Arbor, it sells produce and meat exclusively these local food items, and they really wanted to buy them from local growers. As customers across in a way that was authentic and direct from the farm.” the country become more interested in The impact of their work is substantial: They’re providing where their food comes from and how the area’s independent farmers with an important source of it’s produced, the concept has proven to revenue; they’re giving customers a place to find fresh, locally be a hit—quickly exceeding sales goals grown food in all seasons; and they’re employing a growing and expanding to a second location. number of people who are similarly dedicated to the cause. After Brinkerhoff, SEIO ’87/MSE ’89/MBA ’89, and Kathy Sample, MBA ’89, his wife and partner, earned their degrees, they initially worked for large companies on the East Coast. CONNECTING LOCALSECTION FARMERS NAME 23 SOMEONE’S NAMEWITH HERE, CUSTOMERS MBA ’15

In 2001 they moved back to Ann Arbor, but remained in corporate roles. Then they started thinking about having a bigger impact on the local community. Local food struck them as the right focus. “The farmers markets are great, but they are (mostly) only one day a week and in Michigan, most of them don't go year- round,” Brinkerhoff said. “That was a big disconnect between fantastic producers and highly interested consumers.” They did some research, asking farmers and other experts if a purely local, year-round produce market could work. The answers were encouraging, so they and one other business partner invested their own money in opening the first store, on Liberty Street at the western edge of downtown Ann Arbor. “When we did our projections we thought it would take a couple years to grow to the volume that we achieved in the first month. As soon as the door opened on Liberty, it's been everyday nonstop interest,” Brinkerhoff said. The Impact

The Argus Farm Stop mission, written into its bylaws, is to grow the local food economy—and it has, providing more than $1 million in revenue each year for local farmers. At the same time, shoppers can find fresh, local produce all year. “When you find a mission that resonates, talented people come out of the woodwork,” Sample said. “So we have a lot of part-time people. We have a lot of U-M students. We have a couple of high school students. We have people with a wide range of skills, from people who've worked on organic farms, to people who cook, to people who have farming families and just don't farm themselves right now. It's the mission that's the common goal.”

And the Argus operation loves to create personal connections between the customers and the suppliers.

“When the farmers come in here, they'll linger, and you'll have a customer in, and over time you learn which customers have brand loyalty to which farmers,” Sample said. “If Joan Ernst is in here and I see a customer who usually buys Joan Ernst's bacon, I'll make sure they meet each other. People are looking for that.” CONNECTING LOCAL FARMERS 25 WITH CUSTOMERS

The Business Model

The biggest impact, however, may be The concept works so well that last year, providing independent farmers with a Sample and Brinkerhoff opened a second regular revenue source that helps keep their location, in a building on Packard Street that work economically viable. Argus operates had formerly housed Clague’s Market for as a low-profit limited liability company, several decades. They now have more than so most of the profit goes back to producers. 40 staff members between the two locations.

“What we wanted to do was to break the Launching and managing a growing paradigm in a traditional store where you business means the couple draw try to negotiate the supply price as low as heavily on their MBA education, possible so you keep pushing the price down more so than in their previous careers. to the farm and you raise the price as high “I feel like we've used every part of our as you can to the customer. We wanted to business training,” Brinkerhoff said. get rid of that entirely, so in this store, if “We're doing our own accounting. We're you see something for sale, you know that doing our own marketing, personnel. as much as possible goes to the farmer, Normally you leave business school and with Argus just breaking even,” Brinkerhoff maybe you go into a functional area or you said. That’s meant 75 to 80 percent of sales manage something in a bigger company being paid out to the farms, compared to an and that's what we both had done. But this, average 15 percent in traditional stores. you really have to pull out your basics.”

—BOB NEEDHAM —PHOTOS BY WILL BRINKERHOFF & DOUG COOMBE

LIVING BUSINESS 27 LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

LIVING BUSINESS In New Course, LEADERSHIP Students Navigate the EXPERIENCE When Kiva McGhee, BBA ’18, walked into her first day of Ambiguity of Running the LBLE course last fall, she wasn’t sure what to expect. A course with both BBA and MBA students was unusual enough, a Real-World Business but throw in the fact that the course was new, the syllabus non-existent, and executives from major corporations were At a meeting in Shinola’s LBLE allows students to establish sitting in the room, waiting downtown Detroit headquarters, and lead a functional team in a expectantly … McGhee had never the executive boardroom buzzed real, operating business unit, seen anything quite like it. with questions about a new work directly with executives of product. Should it weigh less? a sponsoring company, and learn “On the first day, I met a ton of Is the price right? How would it under the supervision of faculty high-level leaders at Shinola, help meet the company’s goals? advisors. A pilot class last year saw and that was so surprising to students run projects for Ford and me,” McGhee said. “I realized The intensive, two-hour strategy the NRP Group as well as Shinola; we were actually getting the session was guided not just by this year the course has expanded opportunity to work with the Shinola executives in the to seven partner organizations. It’s important stakeholders”— room but also by Michigan Ross proving to be yet another way that executive-level management students taking part in a new Michigan Ross is revolutionizing of a pretty unique company. course unlike any other found business education. in business school: the Living Shinola is dedicated to the rebirth Business Leadership Experience. of the City of Detroit in myriad ways: Its headquarters and factory are stationed downtown; workers are local and paid fair wages; and all of its watches, jewelry, and leather goods are made in the city. For its partnership with LBLE, Shinola asked Ross students to help manage the company’s foray into electronic goods, specifically audio products. The students were divided into four functional teams—supply chain, finance, marketing, and e-commerce. Oh, and one more thing: The students had to launch a new audio product, Shinola’s first pair of headphones, in just 11 weeks. “I think it was a bit of a shock,” For example: Shinola didn’t ask “They dove right into a very said Will Stockert, MBA ’18, who the finance team for its input ambiguous environment where worked on Shinola’s supply chain on pricing, but mid-semester we didn’t have time to do a lot team for the launch. “But at some the students suggested the price point, all the teams realized that be lowered—a change Shinola of hand-holding with them.” just like in any business, things made almost immediately. need to move fast. You either Near the end of the semester, the complain about it or you say, ‘Let’s four teams came together for one figure out how to add some value.’” of their regular meetings with This is the kind of thinking Shinola executives at their Detroit that prompted students to headquarters, and their work blew create plans for not only the the leadership team away. The upcoming headphone launch, supply chain team presented on but for other launches and customer preferences and ways products in the future. to produce the headphones for less cost. The marketing team “Often in classes, especially in case shared the benefits of social media studies, we have the expectation advertising and influencers, while that there is a specific answer we’re the e-commerce team had tested supposed to get,” said Jennifer how different website formats Zhang, BBA ’18/BMusA ’18. lead to a final purchase. Finally, Zhang worked on the finance team the finance team presented two with Shinola. She said learning dashboards—one to analyze the Ambiguity isn’t always easy to to manage the ambiguity of the performance of this launch and deal with, but that’s one of LBLE’s project was one of her biggest another to use in deciding which biggest challenges—and lessons. “ah-ha” moments. “With LBLE, products to launch in the future. Early in the first semester,Mike our biggest difficulty was figuring “We were impressed with how Barger, AB ’86, who is leading out what we needed to do in thorough and thoughtful they were the course, wasn’t surprised to order to make the product launch with their recommendations,” hear about this challenge from successful. We realized that it’s our said Shinola Vice President the students. “I said to them: job to anticipate what this needs.” of Marketing Alex Drinker. ‘Welcome to business.’” LIVING BUSINESS 29 LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

This is the key component of LBLE a scalable business model for and the vision of Scott DeRue, the social and support services at Edward J. Frey Dean of the Stephen affordable housing projects. M. Ross School of Business. “We This year, LBLE has expanded even created this not only to prepare further. Engagement with the initial students for the jobs of today,” three companies is ongoing, and DeRue said, “but for the careers of four new partnerships have begun: tomorrow, so that they have what is needed to thrive in the future.” Michigan Academy for the Development of Entrepreneurs— DeRue first pitched the idea Developing a model for how to of LBLE to Tom Lewand, the support entrepreneurs in low- CEO of Shinola. Lewand, and middle-income countries AB ’91/JD ’96/MBA ’96, and build value creating tools and jumped at the opportunity. processes based on that approach “Shinola has a unique portfolio, Daily Fuel—Creating, launching, and retail is especially disrupted and managing a new revenue- right now. So we’re looking for all of producing digital media business the talent we can get. And as we’re aimed at current students and about five years into the sales cycle, JOBS OF TODAY, University of Michigan alumni we’re very much in startup mode,” CAREERS OF Lewand said. “So being able to draw Warmilu—Developing and on the expertise, talent, resources executing a market entry strategy TOMORROW that Michigan Ross has, to help for outdoor seating products that us diagnose and solve problems provide warmth via Warmilu’s Barger is the executive director immediately, is a huge benefit.” patented InstaWarmer technology of the Office of Strategy and Michigan Business Education Academic Innovation at Michigan So far, Lewand has been thrilled Navigator—in partnership with Ross, as well as a professor of with the results of Ross students’ Google spinoff Gooru, designing business administration. His work. He’s even made a few and launching a technology tool background is in aviation, both in job offers to LBLE students. that provides real-time navigation business as a founding member “This partnership is extremely guidance to students looking to of JetBlue Airways, and as a valuable to us in the near term, optimize their curricular and fighter pilot for the U.S. Navy. and infinitely valuable to us in the co-curricular experiences while long-term as we look for Shinola He even taught flight school for attending Michigan Ross more than a decade. The new to grow,” he said. Several students who took LBLE LBLE class is a lot like flight school. last fall term continued the course “Both courses are basically about THIS IS REAL in the winter, including Kiva how to operate effectively in a McGhee. She’s become a huge complex, volatile and ambiguous BUSINESS fan of Shinola—and of LBLE. environment,” Barger said. “It’s For the pilot year, in addition to “When you do a business case in not having students memorize Shinola, student teams worked with class, it’s already happened. It’s the playbook and then execute Ford on its Smart Mobility business, in the past,” she said. “But this is it. Instead, this is an experience developing a global business plan different. This is real business. in dealing with uncertainty and for the unit that has autonomous It’s changing constantly. It’s figuring out how to move the driving at its core; and with the an amazing experience we can team on the right path forward.” NRP Group, a Cleveland-based only get at Michigan Ross.” real-estate company led by David —TARA CAVANAUGH Heller, BBA ’87, on developing —ILLUSTRATIONS BY DAAN BOTLEK

PART-TIME MBA: ONLINE 31

Michigan Ross Offering a Part-Time MBA: Online Format New Program Aims to Drive Innovation in Business School Education Michigan Ross announced this summer that the school will offer an MBA for working professionals to be delivered mostly online.

The Part-Time MBA: Online is a new addition to “We are dedicated to providing a broader base of the Ross MBA program options, which include working professionals with a high-quality Michigan full-time, evening, weekend, executive, and Ross education, plus the flexibility, academic rigor, global formats. The first class of online MBA and support they need to succeed in business today students will enroll in the fall of 2019. and in the future,” said Wally Hopp, associate dean for Part-Time MBA. “With the addition of the “At Michigan Ross, we are deeply committed to online MBA, Michigan Ross will continue to lead preparing students for success in the ever-changing and define the future of business education.” world of business,” said Scott DeRue, the Edward J. Frey Dean. “We’re delivering the same high-quality The deadline for prospective students who wish to Michigan Ross education using a flexible design that enroll is May 20, 2019. Admissions standards will be as brings together innovations in digital education with rigorous as the other Ross Part-Time MBA programs; our deep commitment to action-based learning.” current Ross professors will provide instruction, guidance, and group activities; and the signature Ross The online program will feature a mix of learning action-based learning experience, Multidisciplinary opportunities to provide a holistic, thorough, and Action Project (MAP), will be required. personalized business education experience, including: Michigan Ross has been a long-time pioneer of real- • Courses that include both self-guided study and world learning opportunities. Since 1992, more than live, online class sessions led by a Ross professor 12,000 students have participated in MAP projects • Elective course options, allowing students to held in more than 98 countries. In 2017, Ross took customize their studies based on professional goals the learning by doing concept a step further with • In-person residencies on the Ross the creation of the Living Business Leadership campus focused on leadership, business Experience course. With the Part-Time MBA: Online, transformation, and innovation Michigan Ross continues to define a new standard in business education. See related story on page 26.

michiganross.umich.edu/programs/online-mba VICTORS FOR MICHIGAN 33

16,000 Donors and Counting Help BOLD IDEAS Michigan Ross Gifts have supported Business+Impact, a new initiative at Michigan Ross that provides Exceed $400 Million students with practical skills and insights to tackle complex social Capital Campaign Goal challenges and catalyze a career in social impact. This is part of Ross’s broader goal to nurture and deliver bold solutions to the How do you spell success? At Michigan Ross, we spell it Y-O-U. business challenges of our time, Generous support from Ross alumni and friends has made with donor support in this area our Victors for Michigan fundraising campaign an incredible totaling more than $59 million. triumph. We not only met, we exceeded, our goal. Earlier this fall, Michigan Ross announced that more than 16,000 individual donors contributed more than CAMPUS IMPROVEMENTS $400,000,000. These gifts have transformed Ross forever— More than $134 million in changing the physical face of campus, the way we teach, the donations during the Victors for way students collaborate and learn, and much more. Michigan fundraising campaign “Business is the most powerful force for economic and social supported projects that enhance change in the world, and we at Ross have the opportunity Ross’ preeminent campus space, to develop the next generation of business leaders—leaders making it even more ideal for who have the confidence, capabilities, and connections to connecting and learning. The envision the future and enable others to achieve it,” said vanguard of campus improvements Scott DeRue, Edward J. Frey Dean of Michigan Ross. has been the construction of Blau Hall and the renovation of Kresge Campaign funds have supported projects Hall. Historic gifts from Stephen M. Ross, BBA ’62, and Kara Ross, and opportunities in four specific areas: as well as Jeff Blau, BBA ’90, and Lisa Blau made this incredible campus transformation possible.

STUDENT SUPPORT ENGAGED LEARNING Michigan Ross Chief Development OfficerTom Wamsley said, The more than $90 million raised Generous donors have given $118 “Thanks to the extraordinary for student support initiatives million to make engaged learning support of our alumni and has made possible not only an a priority at Michigan Ross. Their friends throughout the campaign, increased number of available donations define the future of Ross will continue to make an scholarships—756 scholarships business education, including incredible difference in the lives were given to Michigan Ross new innovations in action-based of our students, faculty, staff students in the 2017-2018 learning, transforming learning and all those around the world academic year—but also the practices, connecting student who benefit from their work.” support of and development of experiences more directly to ongoing, new, and innovative career paths, and more. Read more about the capital outreach programs that help campaign online at michiganross. make a Michigan Ross education umich.edu/newsroom attainable for all students. —CHRISTOPHER ANKNEY hile working for Unilever, 4 What’s the biggest challenge 11 Who is today’s most W a British-Dutch transnational facing the coffee industry today? important business leader? consumer goods company, Rachel More and more people are Since I’m so involved with Amazon, I Gutierrez, BBA ’08, had a life-changing understanding the importance of have to say Jeff Bezos. He is brilliant. idea while listening to a presentation drinking high-quality organic coffee; 12 What’s a book that you’ve on food trends. The idea: creating a however, they aren’t willing to pay read recently? How was it? coffee flavored with real, natural spices. the price for it. They say they want The last book I couldn’t put down organic/fair-trade but then still want “I went home and starting experimenting was Red Notice by Bill Browder. to buy a bag for $4—it just doesn’t and couldn’t stop thinking about work like that. You have to pay for 13 What’s your best the idea,” she says now. Before long, quality in food and beverage. recommendation for a she founded a company, Bom Dia show to binge watch? Brands, named after the Portuguese 5 What has been your best Younger, since it’s based in NYC for “good morning.” Today, her coffee business decision so far? and is very entertaining. company is a top seller on Amazon. To launch on Amazon a few years ago. We’ve grown our Amazon business 14 Who or what is most played We recently asked Gutierrez to selling over 200 different coffee in your music library? to sit back with a fresh cup and products and it has been very successful. Latin music—Shakira, Mana, answer our “20 Questions.” Juanes, Carlos Vives. 6 What did you want to be when you were a kid? 15 Favorite comfort food? 1 Why did you decide to commit I wanted to work in fashion in NYC—I Chocolate, always chocolate. to all-natural flavorings? even went to shadow my cousin 16 What’s the most thrilling/ Via Bom Dia was my first product for a week who worked for DKNY. adventurous thing you’ve ever done? line. I launched it because there Once I realized the realities of the Traveling solo to Australia, Peru, Spain, wasn’t anyone selling 100 percent industry, I was no longer interested. etc. There is something so exciting about naturally flavored coffee. I saw it as exploring a new country alone. You end an opportunity that aligned with food 7 What advice would you up learning a lot about yourself and also trends. Now, we also have Cold Brew give yourself 10 years ago? Don’t stress too much over what your meeting a lot of interesting people. Lab, which is the second brand under career will look like in 5-10 years. I never the Bom Dia Brands umbrella. 17 Unfulfilled dream? imagined or predicted that I would To be a serial entrepreneur. Once you We also have partnered with 10 other be running my own coffee company. start, it’s hard to stop. It is so exciting to coffee brands and have become a top Enjoy the moment, work really hard, launch your own idea and business and seller of coffee on Amazon. We only and everything else will fall into place. to be your own boss. I love creating new have two employees, but we work products—so many ideas, so little time! with creative agencies, freelancers, 8 The thing you learned in business and third-party production partners school that you’ll never forget? 18 Must-have app on your phone? I will always remember the group to keep everything running. ClassPass for scheduling workouts. projects. Ross really focuses on 2 Which is your favorite solving problems with a team 19 Three people, living or dead, Via Bom Dia flavor? mindset, and that is 100 percent you’d like to have dinner with? I love the Cinnamon Chocolate flavor. applicable to real life in your career. Sheryl Sandberg, Deepak Chopra, Jeff Bezos. 3 Why is it important to source 9 Most-cherished Ross experience? your coffee from farmers you know? Joining AKPsi business fraternity. I 20 Most important We only sell high-quality organic coffee learned SO much from being with room in your home? and we know the source of all our beans. this group of like-minded people. Kitchen—everything revolves It is important to understand where your around the kitchen. coffee is coming from. It is one of the 10 What do you miss most most chemically treated crops in the about Ann Arbor? —BOB NEEDHAM Football games, NYPD pizza, walking world. There is a lot of low-quality coffee through the Diag, fall. College on the market that is full of chemicals. life is the best in Ann Arbor. 20 QUESTIONS 35 RACHEL GUTIERREZ, BBA ’08

RACHEL GUTIERREZ William Bubniak, BBA ’81, was inducted into the Midwest Real Estate News 2018 Hall of Fame, which recognizes commercial real estate Classprofessionals for their commitment to the Notes profession, customer service, and leadership in industry, community and civic organizations. He is executive vice president of Farbman Group, where he began his real estate career in 1988.

Ted Hunting, BBA ’85, was appointed senior vice president of marketing of Bright Pattern, which provides cloud contact center software that simplifies omnichannel customer service for customers, agents, and contact Sarita Nayyar, MBA ’87, was appointed to the Managing Board of The World Economic Forum. center managers. The international organization for public-private cooperation is best known for its annual meeting of financial executives and world political leaders held in Davos, Switzerland. Nayyar has worked for Robert C. Greening, the WEF since 2007 and is also its chief operating officer. Jr., MBA ’86, was appointed president of TJX Canada, based Roshunda Price, BBA ’87, JD ’93, was elected Paul Selvin, BBA ’89, in Toronto, Ontario. to the Presbyterian Villages of Michigan board was recognized on TJX Canada, an of directors. Presbyterian Villages of Michigan the Forbes “Best-in- operating company has a 72-year history of providing quality senior State Wealth of The TJX living and services to more than 5,000 Advisors” inaugural Companies, operates more than 450 stores individuals across Michigan. Price is a partner list. Selvin is a throughout Canada under the Winners, at Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C. and a member of financial advisor for Marshalls, and HomeSense banners and the firm’s corporate, real estate, and emerging Merrill Lynch, leading employs 25,000 associates. Greening is a and growth practice groups. the Selvin Group based out of New York City. founding member of the U-M Alumni Club The list is developed by SHOOK Research and of Ontario and is involved with several is based on due diligence meetings that Canadian charities. Scott Curtis, MBA ’88, was named head of Raymond James’ private client group, putting evaluate each advisor through qualitative him in charge of all the firm’s domestic retail criteria such as client retention and review Grant Grigorian, BSE ’84/MBA ’87, businesses. He was previously president of of compliance records as well as quantitative was named COO and CFO of CarSaver. Raymond James’ independent broker unit. criteria such as revenue generated for their firms. Selvin was also on Barron’s Magazine 2018 list of “America’s Top 1,200 Advisors.” Brian Hermelin, BBA ’87, received the Dream Beau Cummins, MBA ’89, was elected to a Maker Award at the Hillel Day School’s 60th two-year term as chair of the World Affairs anniversary celebration. He is managing partner Council of Atlanta. He is the co-chief and co-founder of Rockbridge Growth Equity, operating officer at SunTrust Banks Inc. LLC, a Detroit-based private equity firm. CLASS NOTES 37

responsibilities will be growing and managing Mark Brugger, Vito P. Gioia II, MBA the company’s global ethics and compliance MBA ’91, received ’05, was elected to program and managing the company’s litigation the 2018 Harrison the board of directors portfolio. Preis also was appointed to serve on Sylvester Award from at the Detroit Athletic the executive committee of Camp Twin Lakes’ Learning Disabilities Club. He is also a board of directors. For 25 years, Camp Twin of America wealth management Lakes has delivered fully adaptive, medically (LDAamerica.org). advisor with Fifth supportive, and inspiring camp experiences He developed Third Bank, where to more than 10,000 of Georgia’s children “Spotlight on Dyslexia,” an online conference he works closely with business owners on and young adults. that draws a national audience. He has also succession, exit planning, and philanthropy. designed “Dyslexia: Making It Personal,” , became the chief a simulation presented to hundreds annually, Raj Venkat, MBA ’99 Rich Lesperance, MBA ’99, was appointed business officer of hc1, a cloud-based as well as an online literacy training program CMO of Vivid Seats, one of the largest healthcare platform. He is responsible for on dyslexia for educators. Brugger volunteers online ticket marketplaces in North America. leading the information services division and with ProjectSearch.us, a high school internship Previously, he was vice president of digital partnership strategy. Prior to hc1, Venkat program for students with disabilities; and marketing and CRM for GrubHub. was vice president of strategy and business he co-founded SKIT—Special Kind of development for Angie’s List, where he played Improvisational Theater (skitprograms.com) a pivotal role in the company’s merger with for students and young adults with social skills, Michael W. Maher, HomeAdvisor. He has held senior leadership communication, and learning disabilities. MBA ’99, was promoted to director roles with MicroStrategy, Ingersoll Rand, and of information McAfee. In addition to his Ross MBA, Venkat Gerard Cunningham, MBA ’94, was appointed technology at Santa earned a master’s degree in chemical to the board of Ology Bioservices Inc., a Cruz Bicycles, located engineering from Ohio University and biologics-focused contract development in Santa Cruz, Calif. bachelor’s of science in chemical engineering and manufacturing organization serving He provides from Birla Institute of Technology and Science. government and commercial clients. leadership in digital transformation, strategy, and organizational change management. Christian Hartigan, MBA ’00, joined Coleen Kuehn, Santa Cruz Bicycles manufacturers technologi- Quadient as president and general MBA ’94, was cally advanced bikes and wheels for mountain manager of the Americas. honored as one of the bikers worldwide. Maher recently earned his “Digital 40 Over 40” APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional by Campaign, (CSCP) designation. a communications and marketing Naomi Pesky, platform, for her MBA ’99, was named success as chief media officer of Merkle. the first-ever vice president of strategy Julie Lange, MBA ’96, was named pricing and stakeholder and analytics manager at Munger, Tolles engagement for the & Olson LLP. Metropolitan Airports Commission for Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. David Curtis, MBA ’97, was appointed CEO of Graham Healthcare Group Home Health. Spencer Preis, BBA ’99, was appointed ethics NETWORKING and compliance officer and chief litigation Todd Ernst, MBA ’97, was named vice president of investor relations for GE. Ernst counsel of Southwire. Southwire is the largest & EVENTS joined GE from Raytheon, where he served manufacturer of wire and cable products in most recently as vice president of North America. In this new role, Preis’ primary corporate development. Dave Weinerth, MBA ’00, was named Seshagiri Ajjarapu, MBA ’02, Patrice Gopo, MPP/MBA ’07, published president of smart buildings with global accepted a position as director of her first book, “All the Colors We Will See: responsibility for Universal mCloud Corp., engineering operations at Lyft. Reflections on Barriers, Brokenness, and Finding a leading provider of artificial intelligence Our Way,” released in August 2018 with an and analytics and IoT connected asset care Michael Drath, imprint of HarperCollins. Gopo writes from technology. MBA ’02, became the perspective of being the black daughter of COO and CFO of Jamaican immigrants who was born and raised Pluto TV, a startup in Anchorage, Alaska. In this poetic and often Joshua Reed, MBA ’00, was named CFO of aggregating video for courageous collection of essays, she examines Aldeyra Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology a free, ad-supported the complexities of race relations, immigration company. Prior to joining Aldeyra, Reed served service. questions, and identity formation in our as vice president and head of finance for turbulent yet hopeful time of intersecting Bristol-Myers Squibb’s U.S. and Puerto Julie Mussog, BBA ’96/MBA ’02, was named heritages. With an eloquence born of pain Rico operations, a $12 billion business unit. to the board of directors of the Baltimore and longing, Gopo’s reflections challenge Washington Medical Center. She is CEO of the us to wonder if the very differences dividing Hao Wu, MBA ’00, earned the Best Documen- Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp. us might bring us together after all. tary award for “People’s Republic of Desire” at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival Awards. The film Sherwin Prior, MBA ’02, formed his own Nicole Krupp, BBA ’08, a senior account follows three popular entertainers in China transportation-focused venture firm called manager for Booking.com, was promoted to who earn money and fame via live-streamed Blue Victor Capital. From 2010 to April 2018, lead its new office in Salt Lake City. performances online. “People’s Republic of he was the managing director of GM Ventures, Desire” has also earned awards at other large where he helped the OEM invest in Turo, , was appointed director, competitions this year, including the Grand Lyft, and Cruise. Jared Rowe, MBA ’08 president and CEO of AutoWeb, a provider Jury International Documentary Feature Award of digital automotive services connecting at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival , was named CEO Justin DeWitte, MBA ’03 in-market car buyers with dealers and OEMs. and the Best International Director Award of Graham Healthcare Group Hospice. at the Documentary Edge Film Festival in Priscilla Flores, MBA ’10, was named vice New Zealand. More information can be Elif Sagsen-Ercel, MBA ’05, joined president of brand marketing at Universal Kids, found at desire.film. R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company as chief a network owned by NBC. strategy and transformation officer. Melissa Vernon, MS/MBA ’01, joined , was named Natural Capital Partners as director Amanda Lombard, AB ’05/MAcc ’06, Pushpa Vijayaraghavan, MBA ’11 of client engagement. was promoted to chief accounting officer one of the top “Women Leaders in Healthcare of Gramercy Property Trust. in India” by Medgate Today, a leading healthcare publication. Honorees were selected from the breadth of achievers in healthcare as well as Raymond T. Miller, BBA ’06, was policymakers and professional service providers. appointed to the board of directors Vijayaraghavan leads the healthcare and life of Navistar International Corporation. sciences advisory practice at Sathguru Management Consultants, a firm with Warren Shieh, MBA ’06, celebrated his expertise across strategy, investment wedding to Carrie Xu of Shanghai, China on banking, and innovation. May 12, 2018. Warren executes acquisitions for Deloitte & Touche in the U.S., and Carrie works in the sports industry, most recently serving as Jennifer Charters, MBA ’13, was named CAREER the senior manager of international business CIO of Flagstar Bancorp., Inc. She was development for the Pac-12 conference. previously CIO of Ally Financial. RESOURCES More than a dozen fellow Ross alumni from the classes of 2004-2006 were in attendance. Lindsay Compton, MBA ’13, landed a job at Google as manager, gTech brand specialist. CLASS NOTES 39

Andy Nguyen, MBA ’13, was appointed Joe DiMauro, AB a Fellow in Leadership for Greater Chicago, ’86/MBA ’15, a an organization that encourages civic impact financial advisor with across the city. Nguyen is a senior partner lead Merrill Lynch in Nominees Welcome: at Google, focusing on the consumer packaged metropolitan Detroit, goods industry. He also serves on the was recently named HONORARY PATON Leadership Council for the Chicago location an adjunct professor of the Posse Foundation. He welcomed of finance at the FELLOW AWARD a daughter in February. Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University. The Paton Center presents the Honorary Paton Fellow Award , was promoted to senior Jared Pratt, MBA ’13 to accountants who have made marketing manager for Global Marketing Nicholas Leiby, MBA ’15, joined Weinberg at Ethicon, Inc. Capital Group in Cleveland, where he will significant contributions as business serve as director. leaders. “Rising stars,” lifetime contributions, and posthumous Kristen Adamowski, BBA ’14, was promoted honors are all considered. to senior central operations manager, virtual James McCloud, restaurants at Uber. MBA ’15, was named executive vice For full details or to nominate president of national someone online, visit: Sam Barnes, business develop- BSME ’91/MBA ’15, michiganross.umich.edu/paton-fellow was promoted to ment for Entercom executive vice Communications. president and COO McCloud joins of Commonwealth Entercom from Major League Baseball, where Associates. He has he most recently served as group director been with Common- and vice president of sponsorship sales and wealth since 2012. Commonwealth is a design client services. engineering and consulting firm focused on high voltage power delivery and power Elizabeth Nakamura, BS ’15/BBA ’15, generation projects. Barnes also serves as accepted a position as a software engineer chairman of the Jackson College board of for Lyft. trustees, is the Jackson College representative on the Dahlem Conservancy board of Dr. Michael Ost, BS ’93/MBA ’17, was named directors, and is on the advisory boards surgeon-in-chief at West Virginia University for the Electric Power and Power-Gen Medicine Children’s. He is a pediatric urologist International conferences. and professor of surgery in the WVU School of Medicine.

Bryan Hickman, MBA ’18, was hired as senior vice president of investments at Invesque Inc. Most recently, he was a vice president of PASS US YOUR investments at Welltower Inc., where he was CLASS NOTES. responsible for underwriting new investment Submit your news online at opportunities and the asset management of a michiganross.umich.edu/alumni portfolio valued at approximately $4.5 billion. LIFELONG LEARNING

michiganross.umich.edu/alumniadvantage In Memoriam Christina “Nina” Meyer Cox, MBA ’14 Christina Meyer Cox passed away on Nov. 26, After exploring her artistic passions as an Nina was feisty and fearless, yet the most 2017 surrounded by her loved ones, after a long architectural designer in Atlanta and Brianny, kind and thoughtful person you would meet. courageous battle with cancer. France, she chose to follow her dad and She loved quality time with family, ND football, Born in Tokyo, Japan, Nina’s life and heart brother’s footsteps to the University of cooking, quilting beautiful works of art, and salt. were as full as the adventures her travels would Michigan. Nina excelled at the Ross School of All were amazed by Nina’s strength and take her over the 32 years of her life. After Business, working diligently to obtain her MBA determination to continue full time work while spending time in Switzerland and Canada, the degree in 2014. Nina’s work ethic earned the kicking cancer’s butt, on top of planning the Meyer family settled in Grosse Pointe, Mich., admiration of her peers, while her infectious wedding of her dreams. She was truly special. where Nina graduated from South High School. smile, kind and fun spirit brought joy to Nina’s passion for life was fulfilled when she She went on to pursue studies at Notre Dame, all around her. met Aaron. Their relationship was seamless a dream fulfilled, and to her dad a better option For three years, Nina worked with Exxon from the start and their commitment to each than other Michigan rivals. She graduated from Mobil Finance in Fairfax and Houston. Nina other grew stronger every day. Nina’s beautiful, Notre Dame in 2008 summa cum laude with a made significant contributions as an analyst sweet and fun-loving spirit will be affectionately Bachelor of Architecture, and French language, in internal audit and more recently in special carried on by her husband, Aaron; parents, along with lifelong friends and memories of projects with downstream controllers, but made Chris and Cindi; and brother, Nick. traveling to Rome drawing ancient buildings an even greater impact on her mentees, peers Memorial donations may be made in honor and eating gelato. and colleagues. Nina loved working in a of Nina to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation supportive culture that challenged both (crohnscolitisfoundation.org) or the Colon her creative and analytical talents. Cancer Alliance (ccalliance.org).

Ruth Gray Diefenbach, BBA ’72 Ruth Diefenbach passed away peacefully on Her family was her pride and joy, and they were Sept. 11, 2017, following a courageous steadfast supporters and comforters throughout seven-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Her her life and illness. absence will leave our world a little less joyful, Ruth was born in Detroit and raised in and she will be missed by her family and the Birmingham, Mich., where she attended many friends she made on her way through life. Seaholm High School and met her future At her passing, she joins her parents, Howard husband, Bill, at age 16 in the Birming- and Ruth Raymond. She is survived by her ham-Bloomfield Teen Center. She graduated in husband, William (Bill), her children, Christina 1972 with a degree in Business Administration (and husband, Andrew), Becker (and wife, from the University of Michigan (“Go Blue”), Sarah), and numerous cousins from Michigan. where she was active in the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and served as president of the Eta chapter. After college, Ruth married Bill, moved to and worked in the banking industry OBITUARIES 41 in Chicago, then moved to San Francisco in 1974, and was a member for 36 years. In most of encountered her. She was organized, efficient, where she worked as a certified financial analyst these organizations, Ruth assumed leadership and exact, and that is probably why she was for Crocker Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, and then positions and did much of the work. often stuck with calculating the dinner check ran her own business with a partner—Valuation With Bill, Ruth enjoyed several wonderful and managing the spreadsheet after a group Analysts. Ruth and Bill had a loving marriage trips abroad, including many to Europe, vacation. She had an expressive face and could for 45 years, and they lived in San Francisco’s Australia, Peru, Russia, Denmark, Norway, and calm a situation or silence a dispute by simply Seacliff neighborhood for 32 years. Japan. She also appreciated seeing family and glaring at you with her big, brown eyes. She Her desire to be a mother was realized twice college friends during annual trips to Michigan, was a dedicated and loyal friend who was always when Ruth gave birth to Christina in 1981 where they attended University of Michigan there to give advice, help, or just listen, and she and Becker in 1985. She was an ideal mother, football games and relaxed at a family summer was the “go-to” member of her family, business giving a great deal of love and guidance to her home, “Matabanic,” in Grayling. She and her associates, and circle of friends. There were children, who returned it throughout their lives, family also made annual pilgrimages for more many instances over the years when a especially when Ruth most needed it. than 40 years to Mt. Lassen, where they stayed distraught friend or neighbor called Ruth Her belief in giving back was evident by the at Drakesbad Guest Ranch and hiked, swam, with a question, an issue, or a crisis, which she many activities and organizations in which she played games, roasted marshmallows and invariably diffused by offering calm and logical participated, including Telegraph Hill Neighbor- told stories around a campfire. solutions. Those relatives, friends, and hood Center, Metropolitan Club, Kappa Alpha Ruth was an incredibly strong person in every neighbors will greatly miss their gentle Theta (sorority alumnus), P.E.O., and St. Luke’s way, from her physical health, to her long career and faithful counselor. Episcopal Church, where she led Sunday school as a certified financial analyst, and her primary Contributions in Ruth’s name may be made accomplishment of raising Christina and Beck. to StLukesSF.org, TelHi.org, KappaAlphaTheta. Ruth had an assured and peaceful personality, org, or Alz.org or to a charity of your choice. which was quickly evident to anyone who

Thomas Robert Plenefisch, MBA/MSE ’92 Thomas Robert Plenefisch, beloved husband world’s great institutions and to have had the ease. With his family, he hiked, sailed, and visited of Irene; father of Elena Adele (21), Adrian opportunity to work beside people he respected important historical sites; he loved and revered Thomas (18), and Diana Claire (15); son of and admired as colleagues and friends. both the natural beauty and the history of the Dolph and Barbara; and brother of John, Bill For the last 10 years, Tom worked as a United States. He cherished his extended family and Amy; died June 5, 2017 in Kirkland, Wash., product manager at Crane Electronics, where he and his friends and colleagues. at the age of 55. oversaw the development of electronics for use Tom was a thoughtful man who used his keen Tom graduated from Cornell University in cochlear implants and other neurostimulator intellect and quiet humor to explore his world cum laude in physics and with distinction applications. Tom forged close relationships and share it with those he loved. He leaves a in all subjects. He earned an MBA with high with his colleagues at Crane as well as great hole in the hearts of many. distinction and an MS in industrial and customers worldwide. In August 2016, Tom was diagnosed with operations engineering from the University In business school, Tom met his future wife, an aggressive brain tumor. He bore this burden of Michigan. Irene Laporte, who was also an MBA student. with grace and dignity. Donations to the While at Cornell, Tom was accepted into the They were married in 1994 and were true American Brain Tumor Association or the United States Navy’s nuclear power program, partners in every aspect of life. They supported American Association of People with beginning a 25-year career in the Navy. He each other in their respective careers but most Disabilities would be greatly appreciated. served in the Submarine Service, aboard the importantly devoted themselves to their three USS Tautog, and was awarded the Navy children. Tom loved his wife with all his heart Achievement Medal. He retired from the Naval and loved and guided his children with complete Reserves as a captain in 2008. Tom felt commitment, sharing his broad interests and privileged to have been part of one of the love of learning with them. Among those interests were a love of nature, science, and music. Tom was a talented photographer who could capture the spirit of a family gathering or a breathtaking natural panorama with equal Gerald Prescott, BBA ’56/JD ’59 Gerald James Prescott Jr., 83, of Ann Arbor, degree. He was a member, and president, of distribution business in the early ’70s. Partnering passed away peacefully at the Avow Center in Sigma Chi fraternity. He graduated from the with IBM, Distributor Concepts provided Naples, Florida. Born in Flint, Mich., on May 26, Business School in 1956 and went onto receive software and hardware solutions to more than 1934, to Gerald James Sr. and Beatrice his law degree in 1959. 200 wholesale food distributors across the country. Smith Prescott. After passing the Bar he served in the United Jerry was a former president of Rotary and a He lived all of his adult life in Ann Arbor. States Air Force. When Lorna's father learned recipient of its Distinguished Service Award. He Jerry married Lorna Ball in 1957. Together they Jerry wasn't interested in practicing law, he was active with many community nonprofits raised four children, Sydney (Keith) Kiefner, Tom offered him a job at his company, The King including Washtenaw United Way and the First Prescott (Vaughan), Kristi (Mike) Boston, and Group. Jerry loved the business and was Presbyterian Church, where he has held many Dorie (Larry) Maugh. He is also survived by president of several state and national trade leadership positions. A true blue Wolverine, seven grandchildren who he loved dearly associations, receiving numerous honors and Jerry was a fan of Michigan athletics his entire (Whitney, Victoria, and Chip Kiefner; Andi and awards along the way, including Young life. He also enjoyed traveling the world with McKaley Boston; and Katie and Lance Maugh). Executive of the Year in 1964, Candy Man of Lorna and close friends. In retirement, he was He was preceded in death by his parents and the Year three times, and was inducted into the both an avid reader and an author. He wrote sister, Joan Prescott Hough. Candy Industry Hall of Fame. Jerry co-founded four novels, one of which became a number one A graduate of Flint Central High School, a new division of the company—Distributor best seller in Ann Arbor. Memorial donations Jerry went on to the University of Michigan, Concepts, one of the early pioneers in the may be made to The Rotary Club, The First where he received both a business and law computerization of the wholesale food Presbyterian Church, or The United Way.

Martha Medlar Valerio, BBA ’68/MBA ’69 Born in 1946 in Monroe, Mich., the daughter Martha, a very successful business woman, legislation in Washington, D.C., and awarded of Alice and Robert E. Medlar went peacefully will be remembered as an inspiration as she an honorary doctorate from Columbia College to be with her lord while being comforted by dealt with challenges head on. She was an of Nursing in 2015. family on Dec. 18, 2017. “She fought the good incredibly fierce, feisty woman, who was never Despite her demanding work, Martha found fight” while dealing with quadriplegia sustained to be underestimated. She was also a pragmatic time to give back to her community: Indepen- from an automobile accident in 1991. mentor who led by example and was emotionally dence First, Board chair and board of directors; Martha is survived by her mother, Dolly; invested. Martha was a groundbreaking female TEMPO Milwaukee, president; Community two sons, Joseph (Allison) and Anthony (Amy); executive, starting her career at Arthur Care, board of directors; and member of grandsons Joseph and Jacob; brother, R. Andersen, continuing to Touche Ross, and Wisconsin Housing and Economic Develop- Charles (Chris); and sister, Mary (Donald) Wahr. moving on to Northwestern Mutual Life, ment Board. In lieu of flowers the family She was preceded in death by her father, Robert where she retired in 2011 as vice president. suggests a donation, in her honor, to Indepen- E. Medlar, MD. Martha had a special group of Several of her many accomplishments dence First, Community Care, or Columbia long-term caregivers, Nervia Llewellyn, Earlene include: Top 5 Female Executives in the U.S.; College of Nursing. Spencer, and Victoria Clark, all who had became First Chief Information Security Officer at part of her family. Northwestern Mutual Life; awarded Professional She was a 1964 graduate of Jackson Dimensions Sacagawea 1992 Woman of the High School and graduated in 1968 from Year for “women who have demonstrated the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s significant achievements in their area of degree and a master’s in business professional expertise and in their commitment administration in 1969. to the community”; presenting federal disability OBITUARIES 43

Robert D. “Dan” Wagner, BBA ’57/MBA ’58 Age 83, of Cranberry Township, Penn., died on July 5, 2018. Born in Detroit, Mich., on April 9, 1935, son of the late George Garfield and Adeline (Lippert) Wagner; beloved husband of Catherine (Bradford) Wagner; father of Gregory, David, and Brian; grandfather to Dan, Allison, Anastasia and Natalia Wagner; brother of Glen Wagner and Betty Mae (Wagner) Bartlett. Dan was a United States Army veteran. He worked 37 years for PPG Industries, beginning in the glass division in Crestline, Ohio. He became director of corporate executive compensation, retiring from PPG while on special assignment in Paris, France, in 1997. Don’t miss the new season of Dan graduated from Cooley High School in Detroit and earned his bachelor’s degree and RossTalks, a series of events MBA from the University of Michigan, where alumni; featured guests; graduating in 1958. Dan was a trustee of Asbury and Scott DeRue, Edward J. United Methodist Church in Delaware, Ohio, and was recognized by PPG as their Citizen of Frey Dean, come together the Year for his service to Junior Achievement, to network and sound off Boy Scouts of America, and as chairman of the on a variety of hot topics in annual United Way Campaign in Torrance, Calif. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations business. Watch for details on to the Alzheimer's Association, 1100 Liberty upcoming events, including: Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222 or to the Wagner Family Scholarship Endowed Fund to benefit students and families with financial need at the UPCOMING EVENTS Mercersburgh Academy in Mercersburgh, Pennsylvania 17236. Please leave condolences Detroit...... Nov. 15 at schellhaasfh.com. Seattle ...... Nov. 28 Los Angeles. . . . . Nov. 29 India*...... Dec. 8 London*...... Jan. 14 Hong Kong*. . . . . May 26 *In conjunction with AAUM FIRST PERSON: HOW I TURNED A FAMILY TRAGEDY INTO A BUSINESS THAT GIVES BACK

I WAS 11 YEARS OLD WHEN counseling, but it also provided us support as we grew up, helping MY FATHER WAS KILLED IN THE with our college applications SEPT. 11, 2001 ATTACKS ON and resumes—things that our THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. father would have done with us.

My twin brother Mike and I— So when we decided to start a nicknamed “Twin Towers” for our business, we knew that we wanted height—went with our mother to to give back to Tuesday’s Children, hospitals in Manhattan to find out which is still very active. Although any information in the hope he its initial goal was to support 9/11 might still be alive, and to pass out kids like us, its services are still supplies (including socks) to first needed, and it provides support responders. We never found him, to communities after other but our story (and our connection tragedies, like mass shootings. to socks) didn’t end that day. My company is called Tall Order, As we grew up, we were able to lean and we specialize in making socks on an organization called Tuesday’s for men who don’t fit comfortably Children, which formed to support in standard-sized socks. I was children who lost parents on Sept. always jealous of friends who were 11. It helped in the immediate able to wear fun, fashionable socks. aftermath of our loss with grief But when I would go to stores that could accommodate my size, such as big & tall stores, the wildest pattern I could find was the occasional argyle. FIRST PERSON 45 DAN FRIEDMAN, BBA ’12

Launching my own company wasn’t we saw strong demand, which initially my goal. I always thought was exciting because summer that working for corporate America isn’t usually the time when was the only way to go. But when people are buying socks. We’re I was working at Bloomberg, my even expanding our size options, clients would always joke with offering some patterns in smaller me, saying: “What are YOU doing sizes, because we believe every here?!” They were poking fun at man deserves to “stand tall.” We my height—I’m 6’9” and people are hoping to make more clothing often assume I play professional options, such as sleepwear and basketball. But as I started to women’s wear, in the future. feel less fulfilled with my My business gives 10 percent of work, I began to its profits to Tuesday’s Children, ask myself the and it’s also partnering with same question: other nonprofits to support their growing up in Valley Stream, operations as well. I personally WHAT WAS I NY, while the new “Gold Coast believe business has more Collection” pays homage to the DOING THERE? responsibility than just making many friends he had from college profit and fulfilling a bottom line. I was always good at and post-grad who hailed from I fully believe a business should my job, and I enjoyed Long Island’s “Gold Coast.” We be involved with its community it, but it was lacking meaning. are still close friends with all of and its stakeholders, and that it these men across the two groups. I launched Tall Order just last should have some sort of mission year, in September 2017. It’s been and central purpose as to why it Creating these products has been a wild ride, full of surprises—many operates every day. Consumers an incredible way to honor my of them good ones. This summer agree, too: they like to buy products father. My brother and mother when they know not only the also work with me, which truly story behind it, but they feel like is a huge blessing. Our skill sets they’re part of the mission as well. are very different, and they complement each other. We are Every eye-catching sock collection all very committed to making we’ve created is named for a friend this as successful as possible. I of my father’s, and represents couldn’t do this without them, his personality in some way. and I know our dad would be For example, Kenny’s always in proud of the work we’re doing. motion, so that’s why there are swirls on our “Kenny” sock. Our The biggest thing I’ve learned from “Bim Collection” recognizes the this experience so far is that you close group of friends he had want to work on something that truly inspires you. Towards the end of my time at Bloomberg, I wasn’t passionate about my work. I didn’t see the significance of everything that I was doing. And now I can see the significance, the near and long-term payoff, of every single decision I make. It’s been a great ride so far, and we’re so excited to see where it goes from here.

—DAN FRIEDMAN, BBA ’12 NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE Stephen M. Ross School of Business PAID University of Michigan ANN ARBOR, MI 701 Tappan St. PERMIT NO. 144 Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234 michiganross.umich.edu

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