Message From the Dean — March 2023

This week, I am delighted to be connecting with some new and already engaged alumni in Southern California and Silicon Valley and it is wonderful to see how they are making GWSB proud! 

 

As we look forward to the second half of the spring semester, we have a great set of events and engagement opportunities for our GW Business community coming up. Let’s start with our commemoration of Women’s History Month.

 

 

On International Women’s Day, March 8, we will have a George Talks Business (GTB) session with the winners of the Globant ‘Women that Build’ Awards, which celebrate women leaders who are innovators and trailblazers of diversity and inclusion. The lead moderator for the session will be Professor Kathy Korman Frey, director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence (CFEE). CFEE Student Leadership Fellows Lena Ebadi, Alexis Nazitto, and Maiah Zaky will serve as co-moderators. I am looking forward to hearing the reflections and insights from this GTB. As a School, we’re proud to be a sponsor of the ‘Women that Build’ Awards, whose ideals of excellence, inclusion, and innovation are resonant with our mission. Our School has continued to be above the national average for the percentage of women enrolled in our full-time M.B.A. class, at 59% as of this academic year. 

 

I am also looking forward to offering a welcome address for the GW Women in Business (GWWIB) student organization’s 14th annual Spring Conference on Wednesday, April 1. 

 

 

I had the opportunity to speak with Scott Smith, principal, partner and cybersecurity lead at Ernst & Young, and Brandon Wales, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, during our GTB Cybersecurity panel last week. We had an excellent discussion. Our panelists shared ideas and thoughts regarding topics such as cyber risk, cyber incident reporting, and how important it is to use two-factor authentication, incorporating a great set of questions from our student audience.

 

These topics will surely come up again during our GW Business & Policy Forum on April 25. The keynote speaker lineup is growing, and the sponsors are as well. Please don’t forget to register and mark your calendars for this day-long event. 

 

 

On Presidents’ Day, GW celebrated student leaders. I am proud of what our students have done to support the mission that we pursue as a university and as a School of Business. They are collaborating with colleagues and alumni in events that enable them to encourage and elevate one another in their respective career development journeys and in nearly all aspects of their preparedness for the world ahead of them. 

 

On March 4 and March 25, I will be joining the student leaders of the GW Undergraduate Business Association (UBA) for their 10th annual ‘Intro the Industry’ conference, which is required and primarily dedicated for first-year students who are enrolled in our Business Leader Foundations (BADM) courses. 

 

I am also proud of our faculty who support our student leaders and who provide the experiential opportunities that take learning beyond the gates of our Foggy Bottom campus. A group of eight graduate students in our M.S. in Sport Management program (MSSM) recently went to the Phoenix area for the Super Bowl with Professor Lisa Delpy Neirotti, who leads the MSSM program as its director. This past weekend, Professor Neirotti welcomed hundreds of attendees and sport executives, including many alumni, to the Sports Industry Networking and Career Conference, a fantastic event that student leaders play a valuable role in organizing.

 

A number of alumni and student speakers will also present during the GW Investment Institute’s annual conference on Quant Investing on Saturday, March 25. 

 

Our preparation for the AACSB reaccreditation review is advancing. I was glad to bring back fresh ideas and takeaways from my recent trip to San Antonio for the AACSB conference. I will keep you updated on our progress. For my next monthly message, I’m hoping to share a book recommendation from one of our GW Business community members–please feel free to submit your suggestions.