California Lutheran University — School of Management update

Our Center for Economic Research and Forecasting (CERF) Continues to Make Us Incredibly Proud.   Executive Director Matthew Fienup and Director of Forecasting, Dan Hamilton, worked tirelessly over the last few months and on September 26, they presented a report on the contribution of the Latino community to the US economy at L’Attitude, one of the biggest events of its kind in the nation. It concludes that US growth heavily depends on Latino contributions. If the US Latino population of the US were an independent economy, its gross domestic product would make it the 8th largest country in the world, and it would be the fastest-growing among the world’s developed economies. The news of the report drew nationwide attention and was reported on many news outlets around the country including CNBC and the Wall Street Journal. The report and a “Fast Facts” overview are available from the Latino Donor Collaborative‘s website. Authors of the student are pictured (l to r): Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, Director of the Center for the study of Latino Health and Culture at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Dan Hamilton (CERF), Matthew Fienup (CERF) and Dr. Paul Hsu, of the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA.

Announcing a New Program Director!   Dr. Sabith Khan (pictured far right) is our new program director for the Masters of Public Policy and Administration (MPPA) program. Sabith joined SOM in 2017 as an assistant professor and has since been one of our most prolific faculty members. Students praise him for his commitment to student learning, and he has had a steady stream of publications. Recently, he joined the editorial board for Sage Publication’s Business Case series, taught an innovative graduate course on “Governance, Business and Technology” and also led a group of students (photo)on an international research field trip to Ecuador. Sabith has also been honored by the Pacific Coast Business Times as one of the “40 under 40” to watch on the Central Coast. We are very glad that Sabith has joined our leadership team.

Bringing Access to Executives.   Fireside Chats are designed to bring top executives (most are members of our Dean’s Executive Council) closer to small student audiences in an informal interview and Q&A format giving them the opportunity to ask pointed questions. These events are exclusive for officers, members, and advisors of Clubs and Associations at the SOM. The Spring event’s guest was Bryan Paulbaum, President and COO of Trader Joe’s. Mr. Paulbaum delivered fascinating insights into Trader Joe’s unique culture and openly discussed a broad variety of questions by our students. In addition to a very enjoyable conversation, he also presented all guests with Trader Joe’s gift cards. This Fall, our guest was Kim Congdon, Chief People Officer of Herbalife. Ms. Congdon shared her career path and enlightened students on the importance of organizational culture, mastering challenges, and continuous learning based on her own experiences in a variety of companies and industries.

Students Competing to Win.   We held this year’s intra-school event of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) National MBA Competition for Mergers & Acquisitions (“ACG Cup”). The competing teams had to present their recommendations for a comprehensive Mergers & Acquisitions case study from the virtual and augmented reality industry. Judges Chuck Best (VP, Procurement and Facilities, Blackline), Mark Levinson (Corporate M&A, Thompson Coburn), Andrew Williamson (Managing Director, Calabasas Capital) and Sumantra Sengupta Ph.D. (Assistant Dean for National Recruiting and Program Director, EMBA, MBA and MSM) did not have an easy decision, but ultimately awarded first place to the team consisting of MBA students Siuzanna Saparkina, Yuanyu Yang,  Yilin Li, Neha Philip, and Chintan Bhatt.

Alumni Making Us Proud – Again!   Cal Lutheran SOM alumnus makes the Inc. Magazine 5000 list of fastest-growing companies – again! John Maierjoined Blue Microphones, creator of award-winning microphones and headphones for audio professionals, musicians, gamers, podcasters, and consumers, as CEO in 2017. Having started out as a musician himself, John pivoted to the corporate sector in the ‘90s without ever leaving the music industry. In addition to 7 years as CEO of TC Group Americas, he also spent time on the retail side of the industry as the pro audio buyer for Guitar Center, and in sales and marketing with Alesis Electronics and Sound Marketing. John is a double Cal Lutheran alum and graduated from our Executive MBA program in 2018. Soon after, Blue sold to Logitech for $117M and under John’s leadership has become one of the fastest-growing companies in the nation according to renowned publication Inc. – and not just once. Blue is one of fewer than 1/3 of 1% of companies who made the Inc. 500/5000 list 10 times in a row! It’s an absolute privilege to have alumni like John.

Helping Us Lead Upward.   We’ve added two new members to our Dean’s Executive Council. Mark Palamountain (on left) is CFO of Limoneira, one of the most iconic companies in our region. Mark was appointed CFO, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary in 2018 and has been with the Company since 2012. Prior to Limoneira, he was CEO and founder of Perpetual Power LLC, a leading solar integration company specializing in finance and product technology. Paul Ross is the CFO of The Trade Desk (TTD). At TTD, Paul prepared the company for its IPO while helping grow TTD’s revenue more than 20x over the past five years. He and the leadership team created more than $10 billion in market valuation over the same period as the company transitioned from being a private enterprise to a profitable, NASDAQ listed company. Before TTD, he held several CFO roles in technology or related industries, including other publicly-traded companies. View our list of council members here.