| California Lutheran University’s School of Management continues to provide a stimulating environment for our learners and the community around us, even in these unusual times. Today, we are once again happy to share a selection of exciting news, updates, and upcoming events with our communities in Southern California and beyond.
We encourage you to stay current on what’s going on at the School of Management by following our Showcase page on LinkedIn. |
|
 |
Celebrating the 5th Annual PRiME Competition
This year, we held our 5th Annual PRiME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) Competition as part of the university’s Festival of Scholars. 16 finalist student teams from various graduate and undergraduate programs competed with their sustainability-focused projects. Most impressively, 4,870 community members cast a total of 14,610 votes!
In addition to the competition, we honored faculty mentors Loredana Carson, Patrick Manning, Judy Richards and community member, alumna, and supporter Joanie Burns. Many thanks to our judges and panelists Joanie Burns, Wilson Hago, and David Jones, moderated by students Michael Effatian and Princesa Martinez. Thanks to the event organizer and PRiME leader Valeria Makarova, graduate assistant Dulce Gallardo, and our staff members Rosie Baker and Hana Petr!
To view the winners, teams, and event recap, you can visit this link. |
|
|
CERF Event Highlighted Research on the Latino GDP
On March 29, Dr. Matthew Fienup, Executive Director of the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting, and his research partner, Dr. David Hayes-Bautista of UCLA, hosted an on-campus event highlighting their fascinating research on Latino GDP. Both delivered short keynotes and engaged with the audience at the Preuss-Brandt Forum in a Q&A session. Their work highlighted how valuable CERF’s research on the topic is and how much it is aligned with the university’s identity as an HSI. CERF presents its report at the U.S. state and metro levels to thousands nationwide. The full report at the national level can be downloaded here. |
|
|
Biggest Ever New Venture Fair & Students Heading to Portugal
The New Venture Fair is an expo-style event where each team decorates its booth and demos its product. 68 teams from high schools (as far as Bakersfield) to Executive MBA students participated in the largest New Venture Fair event since its inception several years ago. A few hundred guests visited the startup booths, engaged with the student teams, asked questions, and voted for their favorites.
Some of the teams included a platform for creators to find and support each other; a marketplace for environmentally-conscious fashion; an app to connect first-time founders with resources; a fitness and wellness app to cultivate a like-minded community; physical products like protein powder, vitamin lollipops, and energy drinks; an app to find a toilet no matter where you are, and many more!
The event closed with Mike Panesis (Executive Director, Steven Dorfman Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship) announcing the competition winners, who received cash prizes ranging from $300 to $2,500. The School of Management’s gratitude goes to Kristin Bell (Program Manager, Hub101) and the NewCo Foundation, whose generous gift supports the annual New Venture Fair.
During the summer, thanks to the generosity of donors Dave and Dawn Gross, we were able to send students to the 3-week long European Innovation Academy (EIA) in Porto, Portugal. We look forward to sharing their experience soon! |
|
|
Full Report of CESI Undocumented Workers Event is Released
In February, the Center for Economics of Social Issues (CESI) held a successful event on the topic of Undocumented Workers titled “What Does it Take to Call a Place a Home?” for an audience of close to 200 people.
The event included keynote presentations by Jamshid Damooei (Director, Undergraduate Economics and Executive Director, CESI), and Susana Cruickshank (President of the Centre for International Cooperation and Public Management Studies) and engaged with a panel of experts consisting of Yissel Barajas (CHRO, Reiter Affiliated Companies), Maureen McGuire (CEO, Farm Bureau of Ventura Country), Álvaro de Regil Castilla (Executive Director, The Jus Semper Global Alliance), and Nidia Bello (Santa Paula Policy Advocate, CAUSE). Participants heard about the immense economic impact that undocumented workers are making on the county’s economy and the human face of the issue. The event and the underlying study were also covered in the VC Star in “California Lutheran University study aims to dispel myths about undocumented immigrants.”
The full report, carefully researched and written by Jamshid Damooei, is now available to download. If you would like to view more information about the event, you can visit this page. |
|
|
Women in Business Mentor Thousand Oaks High School Students
On May 1, the School of Management’s Women in Business Club held a workshop for female students at Thousand Oaks High School about branding and preparing for college. Club members Andrea Brimmer, Brissa Castaneda, Jeanine Zayyad, Elsa Klubberud, Jaida Burgon, and Jamey Sinardi, as well as School of Management faculty member Tracy Nickl and Dean Gerhard Apfelthaler, spoke to students on the topic of “Brand you: Building an Intentional Personal / Professional Brand is Important.” To keep up with the club, you can follow their Instagram account. |
|
|
EMBA Students Complete an International Business Seminar to Ireland
As part of their curriculum, students in the EMBA program partake in a week-long intensive trip during a travel seminar to Ireland, where they visited companies and organizations, including Amgen, the Center for Taxation Studies, the Chamber of Commerce, Edwards Life Sciences, EPIC Museum of Irish Emigration, Guinness, IDS Ireland, Sparkd, and the US Commercial Service in Dublin. They were accompanied by Adjunct Professor (and former faculty member) Judy Richards. |
|
|
2023 Alumni Awards
In May, we awarded our annual Alumni Awards. The School of Management Distinguished Alumnus of the Year 2023 was awarded to Don Armstrong, founder, and CEO of Vitu. Don has hired interns from Cal Lutheran, employed our graduates, engaged in student-led consulting projects, mentored students, guest-spoke in classes and at events, serves as a member of my Dean’s Executive Council, and has supported the school with significant gifts.
The School of Management Young Alumna of the Year 2023 is Majd Abdullah Almaki. Recently, she spoke at a World Bank conference on data-driven decision-making for enhanced gender participation in the public sector. If you’d like to read more about our alumni, you can visit this page. |
|
- Vlad Vaiman (Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, together with Pelser, A. and Nagy, S.) has published a new book entitled “The improvement of Skills & Talents in the workplace”. Axiom Academic Publishers, Potchefstroom: South Africa.
- Vlad Vaiman (Associate Dean, Graduate Studies) published the book “Smart Talent Management. Managing People as Knowledge Assets” (2nd edition, Edward Elgar Publishing, together with Charles Vance and Ling Ju).
- Paul Witman (Information Technology) has entered pre-production for the 2nd edition of the Church Administration and Finance Manual. This 500-page book was originally co-authored by his father, a pastor, and two lay leaders in the church, in 1997. Witman and one of the original co-authors updated the manual for the 2020s and beyond, and expect to be in full production in September.
- John Garcia published “Measuring Valuation Uncertainty: A PCA Approach” in the journal “Applied Finance Letters”, Vol. 12 No. 1.
- Ran Lu-Andrews’ (Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies) research article (with Liang Fu and Yin Yu-Thompson) “An Overview of the Capital Raising Activities among Proptech Firms” has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Applied Business and Economics.
|
|
| At the School of Management, we have many events lined up for the events leading up to graduation in May. Join us for a mixture of online, hybrid, or in-person events. We continue to provide great topics, speakers, and educational offerings to our greater School of Management community! |
|
- July 12 (11:30 am, The Garland Hotel, LA): ACG101 12th Annual Women in Corporate Growth Luncheon
- Aug 23 (4pm, Sheraton Universal Hotel, LA): ACG101 2023 Real Estate Conference
- Sept 20 (12 pm, Virtual): Forward Together Webinar Series with Joe Hadley, Global Head of Artist Partnerships & Audience at Spotify. More information coming soon.
- Sept 21 (8:30 am): Executive Talent Management Forum: The Role of AI in Talent Management. More information coming soon.
- Oct 4 (6 pm, Lundring Events Center): Entrepreneurship Speaker Series. More information coming soon.
- Oct 6-8. CLU Homecoming.
- Oct 10 (11:30 am, Ullman 100/101). DEIJ in the Workplace – Overcoming Barriers & Navigating Success. More information coming soon.
|
|
|
|
