Wednesday, February 27, 2008

GSB newswire




Here's a look at what's been happening at the GSB over the past few weeks:


Bill Gates, founder and chairman of Microsoft, visited campus on February 20 and gave a speech to students at the Harper Center. Gates talked about investing dollars where they are most needed, and how the Gates Foundation is trying to help. He pointed out that "less than 10 percent as much is spent on malaria as is spent on baldness. Malaria kills a million people a year." Gates emphasized that the current focus of businesses to innovate should incorporate innovations that will help the world's poorest citizens: "With all these rapid innovations - material science and cultural science, medical science, entertainment, the quality of video games, enhanced commercialism - we should really not just focus on what these breakthroughs mean for the richest two billion of the six billion on the planet." Gates also talked about some of his biggest challenges in managing people at Microsoft. “My mistakes were picking engineers and saying, well, if you’re a high IQ engineer, then you can manage people, basically on the belief that IQ is fungible,” he said, “because I don’t understand why it’s not. But it turns out, it’s not.” Over two hundred students packed into Room 104 of the Harper Center in an event that was so highly demanded that a lottery had to be conducted for tickets.


The webcast of this speech can be seen here.


In a recent New York Times article, Professor Austan Goolsbee said tax proposals by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama “would be fully paid for by closing business tax loopholes, cracking down on international tax evasion schemes” and restoring higher tax rates on some capital gains earned by the wealthiest taxpayers, according to an article published January 23. Professor Goolsbee is Obama’s senior economic adviser.


Clinical Professor Scott Meadow and Adjunct Associate Professor Linda Darragh were quoted in a Chicago Tribune article about entrepreneurs considering starting two businesses at the same time. “Look for a strategic link and a reason they fit together,” Professor Darragh said. “Unless I had Steve Jobs for both companies, I doubt I would consider backing someone who was working on two different deals,” Professor Meadow said in the February 11 article.


Gerald Beeson, MBA ’99 was promoted to COO of Citadel Investment Group LLC, a large hedge fund. Previously he was CFO of the fund which is based in Chicago. The announcement appeared in the February 7 edition of the Wall Street Journal.


Finally, over 300 students and their partners congregated at the River East Arts Center on February 23 for the 2008 Intrigue and Mystery Winter Formal. There were performances of old classics and modern hits by a live cover band, and this year's theme was a masquerade ball, so many students decided to get creative with their facewear. The setting was the dance hall of a modern art gallery overlooking the beautiful - and frozen - Chicago River. This event was put on by the Graduate Business Council. Thanks you guys for a great event!

Friday, February 22, 2008

Upcoming Admit Weekend

Congratulations to all our admits from Round I!

You have really impressed us with your experiences and qualifications, and we welcome you to the GSB community! We would like to take this opportunity to remind you about the upcoming Admit Weekend (March 7th). The Admit Weekend is a great way to get to know the school, the community and your fellow admits. We've got an exciting, informative and fun schedule lined up for you.

Here is what Becky - a 1st year student - has to say about it:

Hearing all the talk about Admit Weekend preparations here on campus reminds me of how I was feeling at this time last year. I was so excited to receive my acceptance from the GSB, but was a little nervous, kind of like a kid going off the summer camp. Would I know anyone? I had only communicated on the Admit Discussion Forum with a few other admits from the Washington, DC area. Would it be hard to make new friends? Was I going to freeze?

I can say now that my anxiety was unwarranted. I had a fantastic time at Admit Weekend, met some amazing people (who are some of my best friends today!), had a great time exploring the Harper Center here on campus and sitting in on a model class with the famous Kevin Murphy (and for those Freakonomics fans, Steve Leavitt sitting in the corner) and getting excited about taking microeconomics, hanging out downtown at Lucky Strike watching Rose try to bowl, and hearing about how much the current students loved the GSB. The weekend was a great start to my GSB career. Everyone I met was so excited to see me there, which eased any fears I had about not finding people to hang out with.

So, let me ease your anxieties, encourage you to make your plans for Admit Weekend and come have a fantastic time with us. Here are some logistical details to help you get started:

· Chicago has two airports: O’Hare and Midway. Midway is on the Orange “el” line that will take you into the downtown loop. O’Hare is much bigger and is served by all major airlines. It’s on the Blue “el” line which will also get you to the downtown loop. Information on public transportation can be found at http://tripsweb.rtachicago.com/.

· Hotel rooms certainly aren’t lacking in Chicago. Most people stay in downtown (GSB will run a shuttle from the downtown Gleacher Center to Hyde Park). The Admitted Student Website does have some suggested hotels here. Remember, weekends are a popular time to visit, so make your reservations early!

· Pack a coat. We’re realistic, Chicago can be chilly, and you’ll have much more fun if you are not cold. But take heart, the average temperature in March is in the 40’s.

· Get ready to have fun. If you talk to any first-year student who attended Admit Weekend last year, you’ll hear over and over again that Admit Weekend cemented the decision to attend GSB.

For more information, please visit this link on the admit website (requires login and password).
http://www.chicagogsb.edu/fulltime/admits/weekend/index.aspx


Want to discuss this topic some more? Head on over to the Chicago GSB Discussion Forums