In March, Greg Harnish and Salvador Gala of Mars Snackfood came to campus and hosted a supply chain case study.  The event was attended by about 25 members of the MBA-SCMA and MMM program.  First we had lunch, and then we dug into the case.  They divided us into teams and gave us background information on the situation.  Based on the real-world experiences of a sugar buyer, we were tasked to make five buying decisions, spread out over a six month time frame.  Greg and Salvador had a spreadsheet into which they entered our decisions.  Each team gave their answer, and then explained how they came up with it.  Some of the issues that influenced our decisions were price and availability, and the conversation during the actual decision making periods varied greatly with topics ranging from crop and harvest issues to new supply options.  It was a really good experience to hear what thought process was used to get to each team’s decision.  I was interested to hear the ideas of the others because we all come from different work backgrounds and our experience levels vary.  In the end, my team didn’t win with the lowest budget, but we all won by taking away some new insights.

Marcia is a member of the class of 2009 and throws a mean game of darts.

-Marcia Murphy
MBA Class of 2009

Things do not exactly slow down over the summer. Like most MBA’s, I am working at my internship, trying to exercise a little more and spend some time with family and friends. A few weeks ago I received an email regarding an opportunity to participate in the Philadelphia LIVESTRONG Event as a member of TeamMBA. LIVESTRONG is the foundation started by Lance Armstrong devoted to fighting cancer, and TeamMBA is an organization designed to encourage and feature the community service of MBA students, faculty and staff. Since I had been riding regularly again, I figured I’d go big and sign up for the century. This meant I had to raise $250 dollars in short order and get ready to ride 100 miles up and down the hills of Montgomery County, PA. What I didn’t anticipate was the outpouring of support that I have received or the chain of events that would follow. Not only have I surpassed my fundraising goal, TeamMBA is far and away the leader in the team fundraising contest to date. As a result, there is talk that we will be invited to have dinner with Lance and get our pictures taken with him. As an avid and long time fan, I am in shock. Now, I just need to get ready to ride those hundred miles. Yeah, things do not exactly slow down over the summer.

If you would like to donate, please visit my homepage before August 21,  https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=262613&supId=226134007

 - Ken Holmes
MBA Class of 2009

This summer I interned at PNC bank’s Corporate and Investment Banking(C&IB) Division, in the Corporate Finance department as a Junior Relationships Manager (RM). My department lends credit to and deploys PNC’s tools and services in large corporations with annual revenues of $500MM and higher. PNC was named the Middle Market Investment Bank of the year by Investment Digest in 2008, was ranked amongst the “Most Admired Companies” in Fortune 2006 and PNC now is the number one lead arranger of market syndicated loans in the North East..

As an intern and Jr. RM, I spent a lot of time prospecting new clients. What that meant is I would review the 10-Ks, 10-Qs and credit ratings of customers that PNC would like to do business with and rate them based on their credit worthiness, liquidity, outstanding debt and overall risk profile. PNC has very stringent lending standards and its this risk averseness that has led PNC to book a 20% Net Income growth in 2Q08 compared with Net Income a year ago, while other banks and financial institutions are booking subprime related losses. My team and manager encouraged me to meet with other departments and locational teams of PNC. I went to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia locations of PNC C&IB and met with other businesses like Treasury Management, Capital Markets, Business Credit, Credit Policy, Asset Backed Securitization, Loan Syndications etc. My other job functions included, sitting on prescreen meetings (to screen new or existing clients), learning about PNC’s portfolio of clients, tools and services, developing a Formalized and Business Independant Client Acquisition strategy and developing a mechanism to get any RM’s portfolio breakdown by location, clients and facilities.

Thankfully within 6 weeks of my being with PNC I was offered a full time position within the C&IB. I am looking forward to the remaining weeks in PNC and am equally eager to go back to State College and to the blessed life of a second year MBA. A word of advice to the incoming class, if you are interested in Corporate Finance or in PNC, please give your 100% to Dr. Muscarella’s and Dr. Fisher’s classes. All the concepts taught in those classes come back to you while interning.

-Amishi Patel
MBA Class of 2009

I spent my summer working for Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, L.L.C. in the Global Pharma R&D Sourcing division, specifically supporting Clinical Services. I was tasked with developing two high-level budgeting tools, which allowed me to interface with both internal and external stakeholders. The tools will result in a significant time savings for the company and will provide consistent, accurate results on an ongoing basis. They also provide the ability to do more analytics on the tracked data and will aid in controlling scope and price creep on projects.

Aside from my actual projects, I had ample opportunity to learn about other areas of J&J through various Procurement Leadership Development Program events. One of the major highlights of my summer was the open access and exposure to top executives, ranging from Directors to Vice Presidents, and even included both the CEO and CPO. J&J is all about passion and purpose, both driven by our Credo, and it is certainly a culture that I would be thrilled to build my career in. Overall I had a wonderful summer and am grateful for the opportunity that I had to join the 250+ Johnson & Johnson family of companies!

Emily MacPhail

So what was happening in the MBA Program Office over the past few months as our incoming first-year students were preparing to arrive on campus and while our second-year students were busy with internship activities?

One primary focus has been working on the launch of the newly redesigned MBA website, Student Exchange, http://mbastudents.smeal.psu.edu The Student Exchange is designed to be your one-stop website for the resources you need as an MBA student. As a matter of fact this very blog is on that site now. We think you will find the site to be quite beneficial and we solicit your feedback to ensure that the site is meeting your needs.

We said goodbye to some very good friends and colleagues who have moved on to new endeavors — Brooke, Kristin and Lauren will be greatly missed.

We welcome some new smiling faces to the 220 family, please be sure to stop by to meet them.

Stacey Dorang, Assistant Director, MBA Admissions

Sandy Simler, Staff Assistant, Primary Receptionist

Dulin Clark, Associate Director MBA Career & Executive Coaching

And, obviously, there has been a flurry of activity in planning and managing a variety of activities geared to benefitting our students such as company information sessions, tailgate sponsorship, MBA Alumni Advisory Board meetings and mentoring planning, Global Immersion preliminary negotiations, curriculum changes, career workshop planning, company visits, marketing and promotional planning – printed and web-based, ramping up for another successful admissions season, professional development conferences to attend and the list goes on and on.

Now the time is here to put many of these plans into action and to say:

“Welcome – Class of 2010” and “Welcome Back – Class of 2009”!

-Robin Brouse
Director of MBA Student Services

      There he sat across the conference room from me; room 218 to be exact. Clean cut, professional suit and a persona that makes others listen with curiosity. While eyeing each of us in the eye, his words of wisdom flowed stating, “Trust you hunches, ladies and gentlemen. Don’t move until you have resolved the funny feeling.” 

      The words rang deep in me and made complete sense. It sounded so easy! But I knew that only years of elevant experiences could bring one to such understanding. Well, Jim Stengel, the Global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Proctor and Gamble (P&G) is definitely the one who can confidently speak such words. On April 11th, 2008 I had the fantastic  opportunity of sitting in on a Marketing Association Executive Breakfast Q & A session with the man. A total of 14 of my classmates sat along with us and it was an open forum setup.  He briefly started off explaining his background and how through the production of desirable results he attained the Global CMO position back in 2001. He went on to explain that P&G  was the largest advertiser in the world and how it differentiated itself by understanding the  subconscious desires of the consumer.         

      He went on to answer various inquiries that the students presented. He explained  several different aspects of marketing such as the types of innovation; disruptive, sustaining, and commercial innovation. It was all really interesting to me because this is the first  semester that I have actually started taking marketing classes. And so, listening to an  individual in his position was a truly enlightening experience. And the biggest takeaway  which could be applied in other functions as well was that one should trust their instincts.  I think that spoke volumes to most people in the room because it is a fundamental piece in understanding business strategy and yet, the hardest to follow at most points. Overall,  it is a truly knowledgeable experience and one which left my classmates and me with great  respect for the man.

      Sahil Asthana, MBA Class of 2009

After graduating from Temple University, where he majored in management information systems, Sahil joined Accenture, LTd. and then, moved on to a boutique consulting firm. He brings his five years of consulting experience and perspective to the MBA program and hopes to apply it effectively within his studies.
Sahil chose to pursue his MBA at the Smeal College of Business because of the strength of the marketing and entrepreneurship portfolios and the chance to learn from well respected faculty. Along with the leadership position of vice president of corporate and alumni relations, Sahil is an active member of the MBA Entrepreneurship Association.

We just had our last Mod Squad meeting and in many ways the process
mirrored my first year at Smeal. As a Mod Squad representative, I had
the responsibility and opportunity to give feedback to the faculty and
staff in real time. Once a Mod we sat with all of the professors, the
dean and a representative of the staff and conveyed the anonymous
feedback we collected from our classmates. Delivering critical
feedback to professors in front of the dean the day before midterms
might seem problematic, but not at Smeal. While there was tension in
the room at times, the real driver of discussion was an unmitigated
desire to make the program as good as it can be. Changes were made in
real time in response to our feedback that improved the program. As
for my personal growth, I have met several people whose dedication to
their craft and to their colleagues make them role models to all of
us. Just like the first year has been as a whole, the Mod Squad has
been a challenging and rewarding experience.

Kenneth Holmes, MBA Class of 2009

Kenneth Holmes is the 2009 President of the Finance Association as well as a Mod Squad representative. Before returning to get his MBA, Ken held executive level positions in startups and small companies in three industries.

kdh206@psu.edu

One of the Citi Group Penn State alumni, Krishna Nadella gave a presentation of current Wall Street banking situation and career search strategy last week. It’s has been a priceless opportunity to get insights from the people who directly deal with sub-prime products, witness the asset write down and involve in the major Citi Group issues in the recent couple of months. 

For the 1^st year MBA, it is valuable to grasp the big picture of sub-prime mortgage and related such product with current finance class topics. For the 2^nd year students, in such difficult market situation, opinions from real bankers regarding to career search strategy in finance industry is crucial. During the conversation we all had the same question–what’s our value to the company when facing economy recession and people lay-off? Krishna gave us a great example of how he reacted effectively and efficiently to this situation.  

In addition to his working experience, he shared a lot of personal experience in job searching. He had strong interest in banking, and moreover, he had strong will to get a job in Wall Street. I was very impressed that during his MBA, he went to New York biweekly to meet with alumni and learn about career in Wall Street! His effort in continuously building network during his MBA and his career distinguished himself from other strong competitors in the market.  

It’s great time for me to meet with alumni who is so truthful. The next step is to improve my networking and work harder.     

-Paul Wang

 MBA Class of 2008

Paul wang is a second year student who has strong interest in investment and portfolio management. Originally from China, he believes that there is huge potential in China financial market and he would like to contribute his knowledge to the improvement of that market.

On March 27, 2008, Nat Stoddard, Chairman of Crenshaw Associates, was
a guest speaker for the Smeal MBA Program’s Personal Development
Series. Over a casual lunch, several dozen Smeal MBAs were treated to
Mr. Stoddard’s own fascinating career history and the history of
Crenshaw Associates, specialists in career management for senior
executives. Mr. Stoddard’s personal and industry-gleaned wisdom will
almost certainly prove invaluable to all those who attended this
interactive and informative luncheon. Most saliently, Mr. Crenshaw
noted that while many MBA students are focused on getting A job or
getting THE job when they leave school, it is most advantageous to
focus instead on one’s desired end result, and to search for positions
that are clearly on the path to that result. This shift in thinking
was, for me, a simple one to make, and has helped me already by
enabling me to hone in on precisely where I’d like to do my internship
– saving me time in my search efforts. Mr. Stoddard’s simple speech
is sticking with me and, I am sure, will shape what career moves I
take this summer and as I move to plan to leave Smeal next year.

Mary Gorman

MBA Class of 2009 

Mary Gorman managed a global supply chain the fashion industry for six
years before coming to Smeal for her MBA. She is concentrating in
Supply Chain Management and Corporate Financial Analysis and Planning.

The Center for Supply Chain Research (CSCR) sponsored the annual Spring Career Fair held on Feb 5^th and 6^th. More than 70 companies participated in the event, which was open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Due to the overwhelming response of participant companies, this was the first time that the Career Fair was held for two days. Recruiters from the top Supply-Chain companies in retail, pharmaceuticals, energy, healthcare, technology, logistics, aerospace and virtually every other sector held on-campus interviews. Some of the shortlisted candidates were invited by the companies to either interview at Penn State the following day or to visit their facilities for on-site interviews. Many Penn State alumni were also present as representatives of the visiting companies and shared their industry experiences with the current students. The Supply Chain Career Fair was a tremendous success in offering new career opportunities for supply chain practitioners and has continued to grow over the years.

Rohit Gurtu

MBA Class of 2009

Prior to Smeal, Rohit has worked for more than 15 years in the automotive industry. He has undertaken various roles in manufacturing, purchasing, and procurement with Maruti Suzuki, Honda Siel Cars, Delphi Automotive Systems, and Saud Bahwan Automotive, LLC.