MBA Rankings
The University of Portland’s Pamplin School of Business was ranked best part-time MBA program in Portland by U.S. News & World Report. The Pamplin School of Business’ part-time MBA program is ranked #109 out of 475 possible schools, according to rankings released March 12. See the full list here: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/part-time-rankings.
“The Pamplin School of Business continuously seeks to improve programming – we work very closely with faculty, our advisory boards and students to solicit feedback to ensure we are meeting the needs of the current business market,” Robin Anderson, dean of the Pamplin School of Business, said.
The Pamplin School of Business was also placed among the top “Tier One” listings according to CEO Magazine’s 2019 Global MBA rankings. The full list can be viewed here: https://ceo-mag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/2019-Global-MBA-Rankings5.pdf.
In addition, Study.com ranked the Pamplin School of Business #20 in the nation as part of their 2019 Top 50 MBA Schools list. The University of Portland placed higher than any other school in Oregon. Selection for the list was based on academic and career resources for MBA students, the quality of education in business, faculty, and more. To read more about the study.com ranking, please click https://study.com/resources/MBA-schools%20.
Business Analytics’ Students Collaboration with Warner Bros. Games
Dr. Naveen Gudigantala, Associate Professor of Operations and Technology Management collaborated with Kimberly Corbett, Pamplin School of Business alum, VP of Mobile Publishing & Analytics at Warner Bros. Games and member of the PSOB Bay Area Advisory Board, to create an experiential learning opportunity for students in his undergraduate Business Analytics class.
Warner Bros. Games helped Dr. Gudigantala prepare a case resembling a real-world business context. The students in this class were provided with the case and simulated data as part of a competition. Student teams analyzed the data using interactive data visualization tool (Tableau) and performed predictive analytics on the data to make recommendations. An executive team of analytics experts from Warner Bros.
Games flew to UP from San Francisco to judge student presentations and provided valuable feedback to help students understand the nuances of effective decision-making. Impressed with the quality of our students’ work, Warner Bros. Games also recruited four students for several internship and full-time positions. This effort underscores the importance of academic and industry collaboration for creating an effective learning environment and how such collaborations can result in student placements.
Student Club Competitions
KPMG Case Competition
The KPMG case competition held at Seattle University was held in March 2019. The team of sophomores included Cameron Lyons, Kayla Benson, Robert Merrick, and Jackson Miller and they took second place overall. The team worked several hours a week throughout this semester to prepare for the accounting competition. While the students thought the competition would focus on accounting, it turned out to resemble more of an entrepreneurship competition.
On the day of the competition, students were asked to develop an innovation that would help empower people to use financial statements in a more meaningful way. The students developed an app that addressed this need. From the name of the app, to the logo and wonderful hyperlinks, to the color coding to present information in a more useful format, their idea was well thought-out and their presentation masterful. In addition, Cameron Lyons won the MVP for the entire competition, a well-deserved honor.
Beta Alpha Psi Competition
Students from the Pamplin School of Business attended the Beta Alpha Psi Northwest regional conference in Spokane, WA on April 5th and 6th. Dominik Mayr (’19, Accounting), Ally Hikido (’20, Accounting), and Takeo Nystrom (’20, Accounting) represented the University of Portland’s Beta Alpha Psi chapter’s leadership.
They delivered a presentation about their officer transition and succession planning procedures. In this presentation, they shared information about how they use a shared drive to keep track of all documents, their annual officer transition and training dinner, how they reach out to all members to invite them to be part of the chapter’s leadership, and how they are working to be even more inclusive with Finance and Operations/Technology Management (OTM) majors. Their presentation was well-received, and several other chapters indicated that they intend to replicate the ideas in their own chapters.
Entrepreneur Scholar Reunion
The Pamplin School of Business hosted a 20-year anniversary of the Entrepreneur Scholars program during Reunion Weekend. Since its founding in 1999 by Dr. Robin Anderson, the Entrepreneur Scholars program has impacted the lives of undergraduate students from all disciplines in launching new ventures, experiencing different ways of assessing ideas and opportunities, and exploring major business centers around the US and abroad.
On June 29th, approximately 50 Entrepreneur Scholar alumni, donors, mentors, faculty, and rising cohort students gathered in the President’s Boardroom to celebrate 20 years of the esteemed program.
“Connecting with alumni and learning how the program impacted their careers made me grateful for my time as in Entrepreneur Scholar and I look forward to remaining active in the program as an alum,” said recently Entrepreneur Scholar Emma Triplett. The Entrepreneur Scholar program is the only entrepreneurship program to be selected twice as National Model Program.
A video recap and photos link from the event can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/AMemlX04mJU and https://drive.google.com/open?id=17xS9yVLXBFR_1s_J0EQfxezEHSMjlTCl
Inaugural Women in Business Showcase
Pamplin School of Business hosted its inaugural Women in Business Showcase on March 11, 2019, at the Portland Art Museum where 160 attendees came together for an evening of story sharing and networking.
Presented by the Bauccio Lecture Series and Pamplin Media Group, the event offered the opportunity to hear from C-level women executives and learn how they achieved success. Shannon Riggs, Partner at LANE, a Finn Partners Company served as Emcee and Julia Meskel, Head of Development Operations at Portland Art Museum, (also alumni of the business school’s MBA Nonprofit Program) served as co-moderator.
The following professional women (four of the five participants being University of Portland alumni) served on the panel:
- Paula Hayes, CEO Hue Noir Cosmetics
- Nikki Kobliha, Chief financial officer, PacifiCorp
- Katherine Phillips Durham, Principal, KMD Consulting, and former Chief Marketing officer, The Standard, and Vice president, HP
- Carey Wendle, OMP, KPMG US
To view the Highlight Reel, please visit – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw2Ivx-hSEw&feature=youtu.be