Marshall - USC Marshall - University of Southern California

USC
Winter 2006
Marshallinc.
A publication for the USC Marshall School of Business community
STUDENTS
REACH OUT TO AID
VICTIMS OF
Hurricane Katrina,
Pakistan Earthquake
SABRINA KAY’S
Pattern of
Success
RUDOLPH GIULIANI
And USC Marshall
Celebrate Leaders
WARREN
BUFFETT
USC Marshall
MBAs Meet
The Oracle of
Omaha

A publication for
the USC Marshall School of Business community
Editor
Jaye Scholl
Marshall
USC
inc. CONTENTS | WINTER 2006
FEATURES
Senior Editor
Dagmar King
Associate Director,
Communications
Ted Twine
Art Director
Taylor Johnson
Production Manager
Clara Gharibian
Web Producer
Drew Traglia
Contributors
Robert Barnett
Rob Feinstein
Clara Gharibian
Brian Hong
Anh-Thu (Chloe) Nguyen
Kimberly Storin
Photographers
Berliner Photography, LLC
Pamela Butler Fraser
JCH Studio
David Roberts
Michelle A.H. Smith
Eric Sullano
Dean
Yash Gupta
Director, Marketing and
Communications
Mary-Kay Demetriou
University of Southern California
Marshall School of Business
Citigroup Center
Los Angeles, CA 90089--8201
marshallnewsletter@marshall.usc.edu
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DEPARTMENTS
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MBAs Meet Investor Warren Buffett
Real World Gets Dry Run at Experiential Learning Center
Sabrina Kay Follows A Pattern of Success
MBA Student Lance Patak Creates Device for Critically Ill
Students Reach Out to Hurricane and Earthquake Victims
Rudolph Giuliani Headlines Leadership Celebration
Alumni Serve as Mentors and Advisors
Entrepreneur Robin Richards Seeds Contest with $50,000
Dean’s Message
Faculty and Staff
Faculty in the News
USC Marshall School of Business Awards
Student Life
Students Present Seaport Study to ABAC in Korea
Around Campus
On Book Tour, Kinko’s founder Orfalea Stops at USC
Entrepreneurs Vie for $25,000 Prize
Dann Angeloff Ends Six Years at Marshall Associates
Sports Business Institute Debuts
USC Marshall Offers EMBA in San Diego
Bangkok Is New Site for Business Outlook Conference
Thomas Barrack Named Entrepreneur of the Year
Scholarship Luncheon Honors Donors, Students
Alumnus George Sheth Receives Award
Staffers Relocate to Downtown L.A.
Alumni Calendar
Class Notes
Doing Business In….Tehran
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 1

DEAN’SMESSAGE
Dean Yash Gupta
Dear Members of the USC Marshall
Community,
Building a first-rate academic institution,
whether it is a university or a business
school, requires a sharp focus on an
intangible asset we call intellectual capital.
More difficult to measure than hard
assets, intellectual capital consists of ideas,
concepts and knowledge. It is, in short,
the “product” of an academic institution.
In this letter, I want to talk about how the
USC Marshall School of Business is growing
its intellectual capital.
In the same way that a financial portfolio
grows through capital appreciation
and the inflow of new cash, intellectual
capital grows by nurturing existing assets
and by attracting new ones. We provide
an environment that allows our current
faculty, Ph.D. candidates and researchers
to generate knowledge through their
research, teaching and mentoring talents
and we seek to add to those “assets” by
attracting new top-rated faculty, energetic
Ph.D. candidates and dynamic
researchers.
In the year ahead, my goal is to hire
16 tenure-track faculty members— associate
or full professors—who will be
given tenure at the time they are hired or
who can expect to be offered tenure
within a few years. We want to hire
tenure-level faculty for two reasons. One,
they have already made significant contributions
to their fields and that, in turn,
attracts other faculty and Ph.D. students
who want to work with them. Two, they
know the ropes. They can co-write an
article with a junior faculty member or a
Ph.D. candidate. They can give a rookie
instructor tips on teaching undergraduates.
They’ve got enough gravitas to win
the respect of MBA students. They make
our intellectual capital grow.
As many of you have heard me
remark, my wife is the only person I have
courted with more persistence than
tenure-track faculty. That’s because there
is a severe shortage of business school
professors. The shortage has been years
in the making and it promises to get
worse, judging from a view of the
pipeline that is delivering the supply. The
Association to Advance Collegiate
Schools of Business, or AACSB, which is
the organization that accredits and represents
business schools, found that in
2003, there were 500 more positions
available for Ph.D.s than candidates
available to fill them. The gap is expected
to grow to 1,142 by the year 2007 and to
2,419 by the year 2010, which is why my
colleague, Tom Gilligan, vice dean of
undergraduate and Ph.D. studies, is
working hard to get the word out about
the enormous job opportunities that
exist for Ph.D. candidates. (USC Marshall
typically brings in 15-20 Ph.D. candidates
each year from a pool of 325 applicants,
but most graduates of our Ph.D.
program then leave for other institutions
to promote cross-pollination.)
Why hasn’t the theory of supply and
demand kicked in It comes up short
when applied to doctorates in business
administration. Some graduate schools
can pay a newly minted Ph.D. who has
just been hired as an assistant professor
close to $200,000, counting salary and
benefits. In addition, as Tom laments,
“Investment banking firms offer our
junior faculty two or three times what
they are making teaching at the university.
They have to love the lifestyle to stay
in academia because we can’t compete
on salaries.”
This is what keeps Kevin Murphy,
USC Marshall’s dean of faculty, from
enjoying carefree weekends. As Kevin
puts it, “Building intellectual capital is
the single most important challenge that
we face, but also the most difficult.”
In addition to the red-hot competition
for tenure-track faculty, Kevin also
has to sell candidates on Los Angeles.
The business school is working on creative
financing to help faculty members
afford homes here, but big complex metropolitan
areas such as Los Angeles dissuade
some candidates. One approach
Kevin is considering is a simultaneous
hiring of four professors in a closely
related field.
“If we offer the job to one professor
at the University of Chicago, he or she
might not come,” Kevin tells me. “But if
we hire that person and two of his or her
co-authors, we might be able to attract a
fourth, and all of a sudden, we fundamentally
change the place.”
With this preamble, you can understand
what pleasure it gives me to introduce
the 19 new faculty members who
joined us this fall. Their photographs
appear on the accompanying page. The
Leventhal School of Accounting welcomes
Nerissa Brown, an assistant professor
who recently earned a Ph.D. in
accounting from the University of
Maryland; Bob Shames, a professor of
clinical accounting who holds an MBA
from St. John’s University; and Jieying
Zhang, an assistant professor who
recently earned her Ph.D. from MIT.
The Department of Finance and
Business Economics welcomes Tyrone
Callahan, an assistant professor of clinical
finance, who has a Ph.D. in finance
and an MBA from UCLA and who has
been a visiting professor at USC
Marshall for the past two years; Pedro
Matos, an assistant professor of finance
with a Ph.D. from INSEAD; Andy
Neumeyer, a visiting associate professor
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USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

(L to R) Stephen Byars, Robert McCann and Marion Philadelphia joined the Center
for Management Communication.
The Department of Finance and Business Economics welcomed six new members.
Pictured (L to R) Michael Raith, Selale Tuzel, Tyrone Callahan, Andy Neumeyer and
Pedro Matos. A sixth new member, Antnios Sangvinatsos, is pictured in row below.
Koichi Mera joined the Department of Management and
Organization.
Antonios Sangvinatsos joined the Department of
Finance and Business Economics.
Murat Bayiz joined the Department of Information
and Operations Management.
Leventhal School of Accounting welcomed three new
members: (L to R) Bob Shames, Jieying Zhang and
Nerissa Brown.
of business economics with a Ph.D. from
Columbia University; Michael Raith, a
visiting associate professor of business
economics with a Ph.D. from the
London School of Economics; Antonios
Sangvinatsos, an assistant professor of
finance, with a Ph.D. in finance from
New York University; and Selale Tuzel, an
assistant professor of finance with a
Ph.D. from UCLA.
Koichi Mera joins the Department
of Management and Organization as a
professor of clinical, having received his
Ph.D. from Harvard University. Four
new assistant professors joined the
Department of Marketing: Kristin Diehl,
(L to R) Joseph Priester, Lan Luo, Kristin Diehl and Ken Wilbur joined the
Department of Marketing.
who holds a Ph.D. from Duke University,
Lan Luo, who earned her Ph.D. from the
University of Maryland, Joseph Priester,
who has a Ph.D. from Ohio State
University and Ken Wilbur, who earned
his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.
Murat Bayiz is a lecturer in the
Department of Information and
Operations Management. He has a Ph.D.
from UCLA. Three people have joined
the Center for Management
Communication: Stephen Byars, an
assistant professor of clinical who has a
Ph.D. from USC; Robert McCann, an
associate professor of clinical who
earned his doctorate at UC Santa
The Lloyd Greif Center for
Entrepreneurial Studies
welcomed Elissa Grossman.
Barbara and Marion Philadelphia, an
assistant professor of clinical who did
her coursework at the University of
Hamburg, Germany.
Finally, Elissa Grossman, an assistant
professor of clinical, has joined the
Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial
Studies. Elissa earned her doctorate from
UCLA.
On behalf of the USC Marshall School
of Business community, I would like to
extend a warm welcome to our new faculty
members.
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 3

FACULTYANDSTAFF
THOMAS O’MALIA REDUX
NEW ASSOCIATE DEAN
CHERIE SCRICCA
OVERSEES MBA
PROGRAM
Thomas O’Malia
After spending more than three years developing a distance-learning project for
USC’s Office of the Provost, well-known professor Thomas J. O’Malia has
rejoined the faculty as director of USC Marshall’s Lloyd Greif Center for
Entrepreneurial Studies. He has also been reappointed as the Orfalea Director’s
Chair in Entrepreneurship.
The Orfalea Director’s Chair was established in 1998 through a generous
contribution of Kinko’s founder, Paul Orfalea, a 1971 graduate of USC Marshall.
O’Malia has been the only holder of this endowed chair.
O’Malia became a faculty member of USC Marshall’s entrepreneur program
in 1981 and served through 1991, returning in 1995 as the Greif Center’s director.
During his distinguished career, O’Malia earned multiple teaching awards and his
television series on entrepreneurship, “Building the Dream,” is now in its fourth
season on PBS. He has written extensively on entrepreneurship and has been
involved in a variety of successful start-ups. O’Malia also held executive positions
in the banking industry and wrote a best-selling financial textbook used by major
banks and mortgage lenders nationwide.
NEW ENDOWED CHAIR FOR MARK YOUNG
S. Mark Young has been appointed as the George Bozanic and Holman G.
Hurt Chair in Sports and Entertainment Business. Young is a professor of
accounting in USC Marshall’s Leventhal School of Accounting and until his new
appointment, had held the KPMG Foundation Professorship in Accounting. He
received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh and has published more than
30 articles. An expert in manufacturing organizations, Young has recently focused
on the entertainment industry. His endowed chair was established in 2002 by
Marilyn Hurt Bozanic in honor of her husband and her father, both of whom
were ardent supporters of USC.
Cherie Scricca
Cherie Scricca has been appointed associate
dean of USC Marshall’s full-time,
part-time and executive MBA programs.
With oversight for the entire program, her
responsibilities include recruitment, enrollment,
student services, registration, scheduling,
curriculum, and career development.
Scricca brings 15 years of academic
leadership to USC Marshall, having served
most recently at the Robert H. Smith
School of Business at the University of
Maryland as associate dean for masters programs
and career services, from 2001 until
2005. Previously, she oversaw business
school, law school and undergraduate
admissions for Minnesota State University,
Hastings College of Law and Golden Gate
University. She also served as director of
admissions at the Haas School of Business
at the University of California, Berkeley.
Scricca is also a member of the Graduate
Management Admission Council (GMAC)
MBA Reporting Criteria Task Force.
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USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

CYBER SECURITY EXPERT TERRY V. BENZEL
RECEIVES JOINT APPOINTMENT
Terry V. Benzel, a nationally recognized expert in computer security and cyber
terrorism, has been named a research scientist at the Institute for Critical
Information Infrastructure Protection, an Organized Research Unit and Center of
Excellence at the USC Marshall School of Business.
In this position, Benzel is responsible for helping to develop Systemic Security
Management as an open source body of work and further develop its public/private
partnerships in information security research.
Benzel is also deputy director of the Computer Networks Division at USC’s
Information Sciences Institute, part of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. At ISI,
she has been leading an effort to develop ways to protect computer networks by
building sealed-off computer “test beds” where researchers can safely unleash “risky”
code and viral programs to test their effects and vulnerabilities.
Terry V. Benzel
VICE DEAN JAMES ELLIS MOVES TO
OFFICE OF THE PROVOST
James Ellis, who
joined the USC
Marshall faculty as an
associate professor of
marketing in 1997 and
rose quickly within the
administrative ranks to
become a vice dean, was
appointed to the
University of Southern
California’s Office of
the Provost as its senior
executive director for
global initiatives. In his
James Ellis
new position, Ellis is
responsible for developing a major globalization initiative to
expand USC’s international presence, to increase its leadership
role in the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and to promote
USC worldwide.
In 1998, Ellis accepted an appointment as director of the
Family Business Program (now the Family Business Network)
and in 2003, he was named associate dean of undergraduate
programs—administering to curriculum, admissions, advising
and student programs for 4,000 USC Marshall undergraduate
students. Though his administrative duties grew, Ellis maintained
good relations with his students and in 2003, Ellis was
chosen by undergraduate students as the recipient of the prestigious
Golden Apple Teaching award. In July of 2004, Ellis was
named vice dean for executive education and subsequently,
became vice dean for external relations as well where he reenergized
the business school’s fund-raising efforts. He began
his new duties for the Office of the Provost in October 2005.
INTERNATIONALIST JOHN
WINDLER JOINS GLOBAL CENTER
John Windler
USC Marshall School
of Business appointed
John Windler as director
of operations for the
Center for Global
Business Excellence (C-
Globe). Windler will
keep his position as
associate director of
USC Marshall’s federally-funded
Center for
International Business
Education and Research
(CIBER).
C-Globe supports
and coordinates international activities at USC
Marshall, including facilitating international research
and alumni outreach and providing logistics for international
experiential learning through programs such
as Pacific Rim Education or PRIME, Professionals and
Managers GLOBE, and the executive MBA’s ExPORT
program.
Since 1997, Windler has served as the director of
USC’s International Offices, working with office directors
in Tokyo, Taipei, Hong Kong, Jakarta and Mexico
City to strengthen USC and Marshall’s connections to
alumni and friends around the Pacific Rim.
Windler received his undergraduate degree in business
administration with an emphasis in management
and finance from California State University at
Fullerton and an MBA from USC.
—By Brian Hong
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 5

FACULTYINTHENEWS
Reporters and editors worldwide seek USC
Marshall faculty members for their expert
commentary. The following is a small sampling
of print, on-line and broadcast media
in which they have been quoted.
The New York Times: Tom O’Malia, a professor
and in-coming director of the Lloyd
Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies,
was quoted in a story about business
schools that are offering intensive courses in
innovation and entrepreneurship. O’Malia
noted that starting a business allows graduates
to step outside of the constantly changing
corporate world and to chart their own
path. “There’s no job security,” O’Malia said.
“If the average corporation must recreate
itself every 3.4 years, you need to think
about controlling your destiny.” Current
USC Marshall School student Emily Chan
was quoted, as were two USC Marshall
graduates. November 16, 2005
Des Moines Register: Christine Porath, an
assistant professor of management and
organization, commented on how one in
eight people switches jobs because of an
instance where they have felt disrespected.
Christine Porath
Porath said a lack of respect is a growing
societal and workplace problem and that
“employees’ lack of regard for one another
through verbal behaviors less aggressive
than bullying – can affect a company’s bottom
line.” November 14, 2005
KABC-TV: John Matsusaka, professor of
finance and business economics and president
of the Initiative & Referendum Institute
at USC, commented on advertisements for
or against the eight ballot measures that
appeared on California’s special election ballot
in Novermber 2005. Matsusaka was
also interviewed by the Associated Press and
Reuters about the importance of the special
election to interest groups and Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger. November 14, 2005
Bloomberg: Alec Levenson, USC Marshall
research economist, was quoted on the fight
to save the last C-17 manufacturing plant
located in Long Beach, California. “It can be
very difficult for the people who go through
it, but from a macro perspective for the local
economy, it wouldn’t be a huge blow,’”
Levenson said. November 14, 2005
Delores Conway
Forbes: Delores Conway of the Lusk Center
and an associate professor of information
and operations management, was quoted in
a story about Americans investing in international
real estate. “It turns out investing in
Europe has been a good idea, because the
Euro has increased in value to the dollar,”
Conway said. November 11, 2005
Daily Bruin: David Stewart, a professor of
marketing, commented on how armed
forces find ways to attract youth while
deaths in Iraq rise: “The notion of the military
as a preparation for life is a very powerful
motivator,” said David Stewart.
November 11, 2005
Orange County Business Journal: Ravi
Kumar, professor and vice dean for graduate
and international programs, commented
on how locals looking to upgrade their business
skills at graduate schools continued to
fill regional programs this fall, though an
expanding economy limited growth. “USC
saw growth of 3%, or four students, at its
OC operation in Irvine,” said Ravi Kumar.
“Most people are looking to keep their
jobs.” Dr. Kumar was also quoted in an
OCBJ story about how many Southern
California business schools have been
reshaping their programs with a goal of
helping future MBAs become familiar with
the challenges of China, India and other
international economies. October 31, 2005
Ravi Kumar
The Times of India: Warren Bennis, a professor
of management and organization,
was featured in a Q&A on how leaders have
to be problem solvers in response to his
research paper, “How Business Schools Lost
Their Way” from the May 2005 issue of
Harvard Business Review. “The problem
with scientific research arises when you
don’t balance questionable knowledge creation
and what is important for business
education. The balance between relevance
and rigor is important.” October 24, 2005
Variety: David Carter, assistant professor
and executive director of the USC Marshall
Sports Business Institute, was featured in an
article announcing the institute’s launch and
its first event, the Sports & Events Marketing
Experience West Jan. 13-14 at USC. The
article cites Carter as a sports consultant to
business and municipalities who appears frequently
as a TV pundit and serves as sportsbusiness
commentator on American Public
Radio. October 18, 2005
Los Angeles Business Journal: Peter
Giulioni, executive director, MBA Career
Resource Center, commented on USC
Marshall’s dramatic rise in the Wall Street
Journal/Harris Interactive rankings, which
showed USC Marshall School’s ranking
jumping from 23rd on the regional list to
10th on the national list. Peter Giulioni was
credited with reaching out to recruiters and
restructuring the career center. “If a recruiter
only has the capacity to visit 10 schools on
the West Coast, they may look at the rankings
and say, ‘I really believe that USC has
to be on my short list,’” Giulioni said.
September 23, 2005
Continued on Page 20
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USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

AWARDS
USC MARSHALL SCHOOL
OF BUSINESS HONORS
GENOMIC PIONEER
network in Asia.
In October, Axel Ullrich, director of the Department of
Molecular Biology at the Max-Planck Institute for
Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, received the European
BioBusiness Leadership Award. He is a leading innovator in
biotechnology responsible for developing cutting-edge therapies
for diabetes and breast cancer.
The Global BioBusiness Initiative at USC Marshall, directed
by Dr. Gurinder S. Shahi, seeks to encourage interdisciplinary
leadership in the biobusiness arena, including healthcare,
biomedical, agricultural, food, environmental and emerging
technology areas in the life sciences and biotechnology.
ASIAN BUSINESS LEADERS RECEIVE
“SPIRIT OF TROY” AWARD
Yash Gupta, dean of the USC Marshall School of Business,
traveled to Korea and Thailand in October 2005 to present two
Asian business leaders with USC Marshall’s “Spirit of Troy”
award. The award honors business leaders who embody the
spirit of Troy by being faithful, scholarly, skillful, courageous
and ambitious. More than 120 USC alumni and friends in
Seoul turned out for the award ceremony and reception on
October 27 to honor Yang Ho Cho, MBA ’79, chairman and
chief executive officer of Korean Air. On October 29, more than
200 USC and Marshall alumni gathered to honor Goanpot
Asvinvichit, MBA ’81, president and chief executive officer of
the Government Savings bank of Thailand and advisor to the
Minister of Commerce in the Royal Thai Government.
Between 1988 and 2000, 12 business leaders received the award,
which was then known as the “International Award for
Business of Excellence.” Dean Gupta reinstated and renamed
the award in 2005.
Biogeneticist J. Craig Venter receives his award from Dean Yash Gupta.
USC Marshall School of Business awarded J. Craig Venter,
the biologist at the forefront of mapping the human genome,
its first North American BioBusiness Leadership Award. The
award ceremony was held on December 7, 2005 at the USC
Davidson Conference Center.
Dr. Venter, founder and president of J. Craig Venter
Institute, heads Synthetic Genomics, Inc., a company seeking
ways to use synthetic genomes to engineer microorganisms for
energy and environmental purposes.
A scientist with a reputation for outspoken views, Venter
chided the public for failing to see that biotechnology can offer
society more than just new drugs. He cited its potential to create
renewable energy sources or a treatment for cancer by identifying
each receptor and each mutant and the way information
flows between them.
The event included a panel of experts featuring Bill
Costerton, director of the Center for Biofilms at the USC
Dental School, Dr. Ahmed Enany, executive director of the
Southern California Biomedical Council, Allison Kraigsley, a
doctoral candidate in molecular biology and vice president of
the USC Graduate and Professional Student Senate, and Dr.
Laura DeFrancesco, senior editor of the journal Nature
Biotechnology. It was moderated by Richard Drobnick, director
of the Center for Global Business Excellence at the USC
Marshall School of Business.
In April 2005, USC Marshall presented its Asia-Pacific
BioBusiness Leadership Award to Dr. Prathap Reddy, founder
and chairman of the Apollo Hospitals Group, based in
Chennai, India – the largest hospital and healthcare services
Korea Air Chairman and CEO Yang Ho Cho receives the “Spirit of Troy” Award.
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 7

STUDENTLIFE
Over lunch at one of his favorite steakhouses, investor Warren Buffett debates the merits of two California companies with MBA students Robby Saggu, far left, Sunil
Pradhan, second from the right, and Greg Padilla.
One-on-One with the
Oracle of Omaha by
Robert Barnett
For 24 USC Marshall School of Business second-year MBA
students, October 7, 2005, was like dying and going to investor
heaven. That's the day they found themselves in Omaha,
Nebraska for a question-and-answer session with the world's
savviest investor, Warren Buffett.
“He was articulate and down to earth,“says MBA student
Wayne Yamano about a man whose personal net worth of $43
billion makes him the second richest person in the U.S., after
Bill Gates. Fellow Trojan Jon Sullivan was equally impressed by
Buffett's “gift for reducing investing problems to their essence.”
If it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for USC
Marshall MBAs, it was also a chance for Buffett to impart some
of his wisdom about life—the main reason why, despite
requests from hundreds of organizations willing to make the
pilgrimage to Omaha, Buffett agrees to meet with, and only
with, college and university students.
“He sees himself as a teacher and he thinks he can have
impact on their lives while they're still young,” comments
Debra Bosanek, who works with Buffett at his holding company,
Berkshire Hathaway.
USC Marshall is one of some 30 or so business schools
worldwide whose students will meet with Buffett this year,
according to Bosanek, up from about 15 schools a few years ago.
First stop on the trip were tours of Borsheim's Fine
Jewelers, the largest independent jewelry store in the U.S., and
the Nebraska Furniture Mart, two of the 42 Berkshire
Hathaway operating companies.
Then at Berkshire Hathaway's headquarters in downtown
Omaha, the students questioned Buffett on topics ranging
from the stock market to healthcare reform. What advice
would he give MBAs entering the investment business, they
wanted to know.
“Work for someone you admire,” Buffett counseled. “I
found my passion working with Ben Graham,” he said, referring
to the father of value investing.
“When I first went into his office, I told him, ‘I'll work for
free.’ Graham promptly replied, ‘You're still overpriced,’”
Buffett quipped. “For me, money—the starting salary—wasn't
8
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

MBAs Meet Investor Warren Buffett
that important,” he added.
What about asset managers
going out on their
own
“Just start digging. Dig
into companies, turn pages
and wait for something to
jump out at you,” advised
Buffett. “Research, research, research. No one is going to tell
you about the great ideas.”
Stock market swings will “make you rich if you can keep a
level head and make rational, educated decisions,” said Buffett,
who famously avoided the high-tech meltdown in 2000, an
investment call that ended any doubt about his oracular powers.
(For the record,
Buffett calculates that
his annual rate of
return through 2005 is
31% versus the
Standard & Poor 500's
11%. By year's end, the
value of Berkshire
Hathaway's portfolio
of companies, stocks,
bonds and currencies
was $136 billion.)
Buffett credits his
balanced perspective
on the stock market
with living and working
in Omaha, and
described his hometown
as an ideal
retreat from the distractions
of “Wall
Street whispering 20 ideas a day in my head.”
And the view from his Omaha retreat is that it's unrealistic
for investors to expect double-digit returns on U.S. equities
when the global economy is growing by only five percent, he
said. Where, then, should investors look besides the U.S. stock
market
Berkshire Hathaway
invested in Petro China
because the price was
cheap, not because it was
“China.” Buffett says he
pays less for investments in
China because of the risk,
but he still believes these
investments are statistically
good buys. But one of his
long-term concerns is the
trade deficit.
“For me, money—the
starting salary—wasn’t
that important.”
“We want to be producing
things that China is consuming,”
said Buffett, pointing
out that in 1790 the populations
of the U.S. and
China were 4 million and
290 million, respectively.
“They are just now realizing
a business model that works for them and are unleashing
power that the U.S. recognized over 200 years ago,” said Buffett,
referring to the country's recent embrace of capitalism.
Responding to a question about white collar crime and
recent convictions, Buffett cautioned, “Judge every action as if
a smart and slightly unfriendly reporter was writing an article
about it for the front
page.” Avoid morally
For the man who has everything, a USC T-shirt for Warren Buffett, center. From left to right, Cliff
Remily, Greg Padilla, Suh-Pyng Ku, Thomas Holmberg, Joel Mann, Carmela Chiurazzi, Josh Weinstein
and Jonathan Kasen and, in the right front, Eric Scholten, Robby Saggu, and Sachin Dhir.
ambiguous situations.
“There is plenty
of money to be made
in the center of the
court,” he said.
At Gorat's
SteakHouse, where
Buffett hosted lunch
for the MBAs, USC
Marshall MBA Sunil
Pradhan pitched two
potential acquisition
ideas to Buffett,
Trader Joe's, the
Southern California
specialty grocery store
owned by the
German company,
Aldi, and In-N-Out
Burger, the privately-held hamburger chain. Buffett agreed that
he would like to own both, but preferred Trader Joe's. As a parting
gesture, he offered a finder's fee to the person who could
bring him the deal.
The visit was organized by Carmela Chiurazzi,
MBT Marshall alumna and
board member of the Los
“Judge every action as if
a smart and slightly
unfriendly reporter was
writing an article about it
for the front page.”
Angeles Chapter of the
USC Marshall Alumni
Association, and Suh-Pyng
Ku, director of the Center
for Investment Studies at
USC Marshall.
Robert Barnett is a freelance
writer, playwright and contributing
writer to Marshall,
Inc. He lives in Los Angeles.
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 9

Students Present to ABAC
STUDENT STUDY REVEALS BARRIERS
TO SEAPORT EFFICIENCIES
Seaport s that serve the
Pacific Rim region could dramatically
improve efficiency
and ease gridlock by sharing
information about their most
effective methods of operations,
by adopting compatible
software platforms and by
upgrading their facilities,
according to a study by a team
of second-year MBA students
at the University of Southern
California’s Marshall School
of Business.
The study, titled “Barriers
to Global Trade Through
Marine Ports,” was prepared
for the business advisory
group affiliated with the
Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation organization, or
APEC. The APEC Business
Advisory Council, or ABAC,
studies issues of economic
importance and provides
business perspectives to the
21 Pacific Rim economies that
belong to APEC. It is made up of 63 chief
executive officers— three from each of
the 21 Pacific Rim economies. ABEC
seeks to promote trade, investment and
technology cooperation among APEC
members.
The USC Marshall student team
presented its study findings at the ABAC
meeting in Busan, Korea, November 14-
16, 2005, and the results were incorporated
into ABAC’s annual report to
APEC. The ABAC meeting took place
just prior to the annual meeting of APEC
economic leaders in Busan on November
18-19, 2005. USC Marshall is the only
business school conducting research on
behalf of ABAC.
The USC Marshall study, based on a
survey of business and government
experts in shipping, freight-forwarding,
importing and exporting, ports and customs
in seven of the APEC economies,
The USC Marshall student team, (L to R) Chad Neault, Namrata Sharma, James Carson, Audrey Baca, Eric Scholten,
Wooyung Joo, Sonny Wong, Kaori Tsukamoto, Xi Tan, Julianne Wang, Jorge Matheu and Namrita Singh, present their
findings to ABAC in Busan, Korea.
found that an array of barriers hamper the
ability of goods to flow freely among the
Pacific Rim economies, from a shortage of
docking space and stiff regulations on
diesel fuel emissions in Los Angeles, to
tight security measures in Japan, to an
increase in larger ships and larger container
loads at all Pacific Rim ports. The report
identified pockets of progress, citing
China’s efforts to deepen its channels by
dredging, Japan’s new system of ranking
the chain of suppliers that participate in
seaport operations and Singapore’s generally
well-organized seaport procedures.
Other barriers to trade identified in
“Barriers to Global Trade Through Marine
Ports” include import quotas that delay
the delivery of goods, a reluctance of
shipping companies to alter their loading
and unloading schedules to take advantage
of off-peak pricing discounts, and
the practice of permitting empty containers
to be stored for long periods of
time at ports when space is scarce.
Members of the USC Marshall team
were MBA students Audrey Baca, James
Carson, Wooyung Joo, Jorge Matheu,
Chad Neault, Eric Scholten, Namrata
Sharma, Namrita Singh, Xi Tan, Kaori
Tsukamoto, Julianne Wangand and Sonny
Wong. They were advised by USC
Marshall faculty members Carl Voigt, a
professor of management and organization,
Dennis Schorr, a professor of marketing,
Richard Drobnick, director of the
Center for Business Education and
Research, and Ravi Kumar, vice dean and
director of the Center for Global Business
Excellence. The students, selected from
among 26 applicants, were chosen on the
basis of previous work experience, academic
excellence and leadership abilities.
10
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

Experiential Learning Center
CENTER PUTS
STUDENTS
THROUGH
DRY RUN FOR
REAL WORLD
Thinker Toys Not to students racing to fill orders for “satellite units” at Center for Experiential Learning.
It’s another day of mounting frustrations at the Hi Fli Satellite
Company, a manufacturer of specialty units for orbiting communications
systems. The vice president of operations is furious
that her supply manager failed to order enough parts. The
supply manager is afraid to tell the VP that the few parts that
are on hand are defective. Hi Fli Satellite’s Panglossian president
thinks the company can still meet its production schedule
if everyone works harder and faster.
Meanwhile, video cameras, discreetly mounted in room
corners and ceilings, capture every word and gesture of this
management team acting under intense pressure. Management
and communications experts stand by, ready to analyze and
critique the recorded behavior.
Welcome to the Experiential Learning Center at USC
Marshall School of Business, a world of simulated business
conditions designed to give participants a revealing look at
how they manage themselves and others, especially when plans
go awry. Do they come across as leaders or lemmings Are they
inspiring or demoralizing Can they express their ideas in conversation
clearly to others Do they write clear and concise
emails, or obfuscating jargon
With the possible exception of the Lyon University Center,
no other facility at the University of Southern California gets as
much use as the Experiential Learning Center, or ELC. Its two
locations, one in Popovich Hall and the other in the basement
of Bridge Hall, are booked solid from morning until evening,
year-round. Undergraduates, MBA students, company employees
enrolled in executive education programs and even
teenagers attending surrounding high schools all get a chance
to play company president, vice president, manager, supervisor
or employee at one of the Experiential Learning Center’s hypothetical
companies such as Hi Fli Satellite Company.
“No Marshall student graduates from the business school
without having had the ELC experience,” comments Gita
Govahi, who directs the center. Far from being forced to attend,
freshmen cite the school’s Experiential Learning Center as a
factor in choosing to attend USC.
USC Marshall has been placing students in simulated business
conditions since 1967, long before video cameras and computers
were available to capture the nuances of behavior. Now,
more than 60 courses taught at USC Marshall rely on the ELC
to round out academic instruction, resulting in a cumulative
120,000 hours of use by students a year, according to Govahi.
Typically, a business school professor books the ELC for
six sessions a semester. In most scenarios, students strive to
achieve a goal in a prescribed amount of time during which
they face unforeseen calamities. With Tinker Toys as “parts,”
the “employees” at Hi Fli Satellite struggle to meet production
schedules while having to cope with a fire at the manufacturing
site and the aforementioned shortages and defective
devices.
“It is amazing how easily students forget about the Tinker
Toys, the cameras and the somewhat artificial nature of the
environment,” comments Govahi.
The ELC’s professional trainers research, develop and conduct
the experiential and role-playing activities for USC Marshall
students and then conduct discussions after each simulation.
Allison Jaskowiak, an undergraduate at USC Marshall,
credits the ELC with transforming academic ideas into reality.
“Experiencing a concept is quite different than simply reading
and discussing it. After finishing an ELC exercise, I am always
surprised at how much better I understand the material that we
are covering,” comments Jaskowiak.
Max Gardner, who works at GE Commercial Finance in
New York City, says he is grateful he had the chance to watch
himself in simulated action, when there was no risk of humiliation
or failure.
“There are very few opportunities to practice your performance
during a meeting or negotiation in the real business
world,” says Gardner. “The ELC gives students a unique opportunity
to observe their own style at work and adjust it to be
more effective,” he adds.
Practice may or may not make perfect, but at least at the
Experiential Learning Center, practice makes it real.
WINTER 2006
USC MARSHALL INC
11

Profile | Sabrina Kay
A Pattern
of Success
by
Robert Barnett
Pamela Butler Fraser
Sabrina Kay
In 1990, entrepreneur Sabrina Kay
started a company called California
Design College, her modest office doubling
as her bedroom in her parents’
house. Her first class consisted of six
students studying for certificates in
computer fashion design.
Just twelve years later, in 2002, Kay
sold her school to Pittsburgh-based
Education Management Corporation
for enough money to retire. By then,
California Design College had grown to
500 students and offered accredited
Associate and BA design degrees in both
fashion and computer fashion design.
So you might assume when Kay
enrolled in USC Marshall’s Executive
MBA program in 2003, already a millionaire
many times over, it would be a
walk in the park. Not so.
“It was a very humbling experience,”
she recalls with a laugh. “The first
week, I was panicking. I didn’t understand
‘z’ statistics, multiple regression
analysis or MPV calculations,” she says,
referring to her courses in probability
and finance.
“I never knew any of that. Cash
12
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

flow was the way we did accounting in
my company,” she adds. But she loved
the academic challenge, and went on to
graduate with honors.
And now, armed with an MBA, a
track record in the business world and a
chance to catch her breath, Kay shared
some of her observations in a recent
interview with Marshall, Inc. about entrepreneurship,
the value of underestimating
risk and the benefits of perseverance.
Kay’s story begins in Korea where
she lived until she was 19, when she with
her family moved to Orange County,
California.
“Growing up, my mother convinced
me I was the prettiest and
smartest kid on the block,” she says.
“As soon as I moved to the U.S., I
was convinced overnight that I was
the ugliest and stupidest. I wasn’t
five-ten and blonde, and I didn’t
speak a word of English.”
With a BS degree in computer
science from California State
University at Long Beach, where she
also studied industrial design,
Sabrina went to work for a school that
taught fashion design. A self-confessed
overachiever, she rose in five years from
an admissions recruiter to director of
international students.
“My international students were paying
a lot of tuition,” Kay recalls, “but they
weren’t getting the value they deserved
out of their education due to language
barriers. They really didn’t know what
was going on.” Kay suggested that the
school add courses for the international
students, such as English as a Second
Language, and offered to coordinate the
program. Her idea failed to catch on at
the school, but stayed alive in her mind.
At about the same time, Kay became
interested in the new CAD/CAM technology,
which was just being introduced
into fashion design. With their threedimensional
capabilities, the new computer
software programs had the potential
to revolutionize the fashion industry.
The programs along with the proprietary
hardware were being sold to apparel
manufacturers for $250,000 each, but
there was no ongoing training for the
industry, which affected sales.
“I told the computer software companies
that they were having a hard time
selling the computers because the fashion
houses didn’t have people who knew
how to use them. I knew a lot of fashion
students who would be interested in
learning,” Kay recalls.
Kay saw herself as a bridge between
the two groups and her school was born.
“I signed a lease. I rebuilt the leased
space, got all the furniture, wrote the
curriculum, the catalogs, the textbooks,
negotiated a deal for the computers,
“The night security
guards and janitors
were my best
friends,” says Kay.
hired all the staff and faculty, recruited
the students, and started the school. All
in four months.”
Then began years of Kay pulling
all-nighters.
“The night security guards and janitors
were my best friends,” says Kay,
adding, “When you’re a micromanager,
you know every single inch of your business.
I had to. I knew how much toilet
paper we needed because I was the one
who changed it when we first started.”
In Kay’s 15-year business plan, the
first five years would be devoted to establishing
the school as a real academic institution
with a real product. The second five
years would focus on becoming profitable.
The third five years called for the school to
expand globally through online education.
Kay met her first two goals, but Kay
began to have second thoughts as she
approached stage three of her business
plan. Expanding into the international
market would take more capital and a
new corporate strategy. She had also put
her personal life on hold for more than a
decade. When Education Management
Corporation, which owns and operates
71 technical and professional schools and
colleges in the United States and Canada,
came knocking, Kay decided to sell.
Following the sale, she enrolled in
USC Marshall’s Executive MBA program,
a fertile two years that led to some
reassessments about corporate strategy
and insights into her management style.
“When I sold my company, I had no
debt,” says Kay. “Going to business school,
I realized that’s probably not the best
business practice because the corporation
had absolutely no leverage.” And rather
than manage her next company as a
self-described “benevolent dictator,”
Kay says she looks forward to being
a “servant-leader,” a person who
teaches rather than manages. She is
also taking her time in considering
options for her next business venture,
she says, concerned that success
might be more elusive.
“The second time, you’re not
desperate or driven enough. You’re
more careful, with too much delegating.
You’re not enough of a micromanager,”
she worries.
In the meantime, Kay has agreed to
join the board of a new business bank
opening in downtown Los Angeles in
spring 2006 and she is serving on the
planning commission of the City of Los
Angeles, appointed by Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa. Among her many philanthropic
activities, is an after-school program
for inter-city kids and a full-service
homeless shelter with the Weingart
Center in Los Angeles.
As for selling her company, Kay says
she has no regrets.
“I was very, very lucky that the business
didn’t fail. It gave me enough
money to retire and everyone in the
business was taken care of. And the company
is still doing a good job,” she says.
Starting California College of
Design reminds her of a passionate,
intense love affair, she says, adding,
“A first love may be your strongest love,
but I’m looking forward to experiencing
love again.”
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 13

Lance Patak
Pamela Butler Fraser
Lance Patak
Medical and
MBA Student
Lance Patak
Creates
Device for
Critically Ill
Working as a critical care nurse at UCLA’s Cardiothoracic
ICU while also studying for his medical degree, Lance Patak
often witnessed the frustration and despair of critically ill
patients unable to communicate verbally. Sometimes, these are
patients with tubes inserted in their throats to clear their passageways.
Often, they are just too weak to speak or even to hold
a pen. While sedating patients lessens their suffering, it can also
prolong hospital stays and increase the risk of pneumonia and
infection.
In 1999, Patak developed a communication device called
the Vidatak E-Z Board, a dry erase board with pre-printed symbols
and icons to help patients express an array of feelings and
needs. They can point to symbols for hunger, anger, thirst or
pain, or to pictures of the human body to indicate a trouble spot.
Or they can point to a simple “thank you” to express gratitude to
their caregivers.
From the beginning, the E-Z Board proved to be a hit not
only with the critically ill, but patients in hospices and rehabilitation
units, stroke and trauma victims and the elderly. Patak’s
company, Vidatak, LLC, began distributing the patented device
to hospitals throughout the country. In November 2003, Patak
began marketing the Vidatak E-Z Board with the help of a medical
school friend, Bryan Traugher, a gene therapy research scientist
at the National Institute of Health in Washington, D.C.
But Patak said it wasn’t until he enrolled as a first-year
MBA student at USC Marshall in 2005 that he began to see
larger possibilities for his young company. (He is pursuing a
joint degree and will return to medical school after completing
his MBA in 2007.) His professors at USC Marshall suggested
using the media to familiarize the public with E-Z Board. To
that end, in November 2005, two episodes of the television
series, “ER,” featured the E-Z Board as a standard prop and
Patak says the device has been “booked” for an appearance on
“Grey’s Anatomy,” the new top-rated hospital drama, and a
possible appearance on the “Today Show” in early 2006.
“In just 12 weeks, with the help of my business partner
and all of you, I have been able to turn my company upside
down,” Patak wrote in a communication to USC Marshall faculty
members. “USC Marshall provided a wealth of resources
and guidance that well-surpassed any expectation I could have
of any institution,” he added.
Patak, who holds business meetings with Traugher by telephone,
email and frequent cross-country flights, says that if
past is prologue, sales will increase an average 400% annually
for the next three years. The duo is meeting with potential
investors to discuss selling E-Z Board globally in 2006.
14
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

Outreach
USC Marshall
Rallies to Aid
“The Big Easy”
and Pakistan
by
Robert Barnett
MBA student Amanda Abrams removes furniture and possessions destroyed by Hurricane Katrina from a
woman's home, top photo; Left, IBEAR students Steven Cheng, left, Shuichi Kikuchi, center, and Aldo Iafrate
provide fun to raise funds; Right, An inspector checks tents procured by EMBA student Mustafa Bengali
before shipping them to Pakistan.
How much money would you give to
see a male MBA student deliver a class
presentation bare-chested and modeling
a grass skirt, or other students swim the
length of Popovich Hall's fountain,
attend class in a skimpy Speedo bathing
suit or sport a newly shaved head
When Hurricane Katrina ripped the
carnival mask from New Orleans in
August 2005 and, five weeks later, an
earthquake killed 80,000 people living
near the Pakistan-India border, USC
Marshall School of Business and its students
were quick to respond.
Applying their marketing skills, students
enrolled in USC Marshall's
International Business Education and
Research, or IBEAR, program raised
$5,000 for the victims of Hurricane
Katrina by promising to perform a variety
of public stunts for their classmates.
If donations hit $3,000, Grant
Ingersoll would shave his head. At
$3,500, Steven Cheng, a student from
Taiwan, would attend class in his pajamas.
At $3,500, Shuichi Kikuchi, an
IBEAR student from Japan, promised
to wear his Speedo swimsuit to class.
At $4,000, Thailand's Praphan
Sintuphandacha would swim in the
fountain, and at $4,500, Canada's Aldo
Iafrate would don that grass skirt for his
class presentation. By the end of the
campaign, donations tipped the $5,000
mark and, as the accompanying photograph
reveals, the promises were kept.
USC Marshall's administration also
extended a hand after Hurricane Katrina
forced the closure of New Orleans'
Tulane University and its A. B. Freeman
School of Business, with USC Marshall
enrolling four of Tulane's undergraduate
business students for the fall 2005 semester.
The school also established the USC
Marshall Hurricane Katrina Disaster
Relief Fund, which raised $2,688 for the
Red Cross and $350 for The Salvation
Army from students and faculty.
USC Marshall students also volunteered
their time. Amanda Abrams, a
native of New Orleans who is earning an
MBA in the Professionals and Managers
program, spent winter break there,
working with the local Jewish Federation
to coordinate volunteers from around
the country, and spending one day
removing belongings of a woman whose
house in nearby Gentily had been flooded
with four feet of water.
Some 20 USC Marshall students,
coordinated by Shyno Chacko, a secondyear
MBA student, also volunteered at
the Los Angeles Red Cross relief center in
the immediate aftermath of the hurricane.
They worked weekends and nights,
cooking and serving up hot meals to the
displaced survivors, providing referral
information over the phone at the call
center, and most of all, just listening.
“To have a friendly face to talk to
and to have someone hear their story
was important to them,” comments
Chacko, a former disaster action team
volunteer for the Red Cross in Boston.
Elizabeth Amini, who is in the MBA
for Professionals and Managers program,
worked with the House of Blues, a
chain of restaurants founded by Dan
Akroyd, to help locate 52 employees
from its New Orleans location who were
missing or displaced in the aftermath of
Continued on Page 20
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 15

Content Celebration >> x of | Leadership Content >> x | Content >> x
Rudolph
Giuliani Speaks
At USC
Marshall Gala
Celebrating
Leadership
Berliner Photography, LLC
Rudolph Giuliani
Yash Gupta, Dean of the University of
Southern California’s Marshall School of Business,
honored three business executives, Thomas O.
Hicks, General William Lyon and Edward P. Roski,
Jr., at a gala “Celebration of Leadership” dinner on
September 14, 2005 at the Regent Beverly Wilshire
Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New
York and a likely contender for the U.S. presidency
in 2008, gave the keynote address to 850 guests,
a list that included USC Marshall alumni, faculty
members, students and business executives. C.L.
Max Nikias, the recently-appointed provost of the
University of Southern California, also addressed
the gathering.
Dean Gupta bestowed the first annual
Marshall Phoenix Award on General William
Lyon, chairman and CEO of William Lyon Homes,
one of California’s largest residential home
builders. General Lyon, who had a distinguished
military career, is a Life Member of the USC
Board of Trustees and a noted philanthropist.
16
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

Edward P. Roski Jr.
General William Lyon
Thomas O. Hicks
Dean Yash Gupta addresses the audience at the Celebration of Leadership dinner.
Hicks received the first annual
Marshall Trojan Award. Hicks is chairman
and CEO of Hicks Holdings, a corporate
acquisitions firm based in Dallas,
Texas that also owns and manages sports
teams and real estate assets. Hicks, who
received his MBA from USC Marshall in
1970, was cited for his contributions to
philanthropy and civic organizations.
Dean Gupta awarded Edward P.
Roski, chairman and CEO of Majestic
Reality, the first annual Marshall
Renaissance Award. Roski, who earned a
business degree from USC Marshall in
1962, owns one of the oldest and largest
privately held real estate companies in the
U.S. He is also co-owner of the Los
Angeles Kings and the Lakers, a trustee of
the University of Southern California, a
member of the USC Marshall School
Board of Leaders and the recipient of the
Asa V. Call Achievement Award, the highest
honor given by the USC General
Alumni Association.
Giuliani, chairman and CEO of
Giuliani Partners, a consulting firm he
formed after leaving office in 2002, captivated
the audience with a recounting of
his role in the first few minutes after terrorists
crashed two airplanes into the
Twin Towers of the World Trade Center
in lower Manhattan, almost four years
ago to the day. Giuliani said minutes
after he arrived on the scene, he watched
as a man threw himself from the 102nd
floor of the North Tower.
“I realized we had no plan. New
York City had 35 plans for emergencies—
plans for anthrax attacks, for
suicide bombings and for smallpox
outbreaks. But we had no plan
for planes being used as missiles to
attack our buildings,” Giuliani told the
audience.
Chris Martin, left, Stan Ross, center, and Franklin Ulf, were honored as co-chairs of
the First Annual Leadership Celebration Dinner.
But one of his six principles of
leadership, Giuliani said, is relentless
preparation and despite the chaos and
confusion, he was able to direct emergency
workers to get generators delivered
to Ground Zero, contact the
White House, close the bridges and
tunnels and set up triage hospitals.
“If you anticipate everything else,
you’ll be ready for the unanticipated,”
Giuliani remarked. He cited as his five
other principles of leadership: knowing
what you believe, being an optimist,
having courage, working as a team and
communicating your ideas to people.
To the inevitable question about a
run for President, Giuliani responded,
“Ask me next year.”
Proceeds from the dinner, expected
to be an annual event, will be used
to provide student scholarships, Dean
Gupta said.
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 17

Career Advantage Program
JCH Studio
Roxane Herrera join classmates Christian Eder far right, and Warren Kang, second from right, at the Citigroup Private Bank offices of David Ajemian, MBA ‘88, who is
serving as the students' career mentor.
Mentor Program Offers Advice, Friendship
by Rob Feinstein
Raised by his mother in a single-parent household in Los
Angeles, Warren Kang had little exposure to the business
world, let alone a mentor who could advise him about a business
career. By the time he reached his junior year at USC
Marshall School of Business, Kang was full of questions. How
should he act in an interview How does someone network
Could he launch a career in finance
For help, Kang joined USC Marshall’s Career Advantage
Program, or CAP, a 10-year old program that matches juniors
and seniors with volunteer mentors drawn from USC Marshall
alumni. Like all CAP participants, Kang and two classmates
meet at least once a month with their mentors. Theirs is David
Ajemian, a director at Citigroup Private Bank who earned his
MBA from USC Marshall in 1988.
“He gives us the straight-up answer,” says Kang of
Ajemian. “He has real life experience, and it’s great to interact
with a senior person at a real company.”
Kang is just one of the 265 students matched this year
with one of the 95 USC Marshall alumni. The CAP mentors
have careers in finance, accounting, human resources, real
estate and consulting, among others.
CAP is one of USC Marshall’s most popular student programs,
in large part because it offers many students their first
chance to interact in a meaningful way with an adult other
than their parents or teachers. It is also popular because CAP
participants are not trying to get jobs with their mentors, just
guidance.
“The student has a confidante, which is especially important
at this age,” says Guillermina Molina, the director of
undergraduate student services and the person who coordinates
CAP each year. “For an undergrad navigating through
this complex environment, mentors become a compass to help
guide them through this complicated life,” she adds.
Ajemian demonstrated the value of a mentor when he
hosted his mentee group recently at his office in Beverly Hills,
Calif. Roxane Herrera, a 19-year old junior at USC Marshall,
peppered Ajemian with questions about early career choices
and was calmed by Ajemian’s perspective that her first job
would not set her career on an irreversible course.
“Our mentor has coached us to think outside the box, to
think big,” says Herrera. “You might major in economics and
wind up as an English professor. You can get into any profession
you want to. We’re getting the advantage of the experiences
of someone who’s already gone through what we’re about
to go through,” she adds.
Ajemian, who is serving his second year as a CAP mentor,
is already talking about what to do with next year’s group.
“Being involved with these kids is invigorating,” observes
Ajemian, adding, “They haven’t lost the idealism that all of us
had. It’s refreshing to sit with individuals who still have that
perspective.”
Michael McCall, who received his bachelor’s degree from
USC Marshall in 1988, has served as a CAP mentor since 1996,
the year the program began.
“I’ve tried the Red Cross and the Boy Scouts and the symphony.
They’re all great charities and organizations. But year in
and year out, this is the one I’ve remained involved in,” says
McCall.“You really get in touch with the core of what we’re trying
to accomplish as a university.”
For Kang, Ajemian is a role model. “It might sound corny,
but I want to establish a real relationship on a personal level,”
Kang says, adding, “Not just career-wise, but something genuine
and lasting.”
Rob Feinstein is a freelance writer in Los Angeles.
18
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

Robin Richards
Robin Richards
Entrepreneur
Asks, What
Better Place to
Nurture
Entrepreneurs
than USC
Robin Richard s is what venture capitalists
call a serial entrepreneur. He sees
an opportunity, converts it into a successful
business, sells the business for millions
of dollars, and starts all over again.
If you have never heard of Richards,
you probably know of one of his companies,
MP3.com, the online music-sharing
service that did battle with the recording
industry in the early days of the digital
revolution.
In 2001, Richards sold MP3.com to
the French conglomerate Vivendi
Universal and stayed on for a brief eight
months at its corporate headquarters in
Studio City, Calif., until his entrepreneurial
passions were stirred once more.
His fifth and current venture is
Notification Technologies. It is a telephone
communications service used by
large institutions such as public school
districts to send messages to parents or
employees, some of whom do not have
access to email but all of whom have telephones.
It also works when downed electrical
lines cut communications via cell
phones and computers.
With this introduction, it may not
come as a complete surprise that
Richards, who has no academic connection
to the University of Southern
California or its business school, has nevertheless
given USC Marshall $50,000 to
help sponsor the Marshall International
Case Competition, or MICC.
The MICC brings entrepreneurial
Olympiads from business schools worldwide
to USC Marshall each February,
where they spend an intense 24 hours
working out a solution to a business challenge
posed by a leading corporation.
The MICC is the largest case competition
in the U.S. Last year, 24 teams vied
to find the best way for biotechnology
firm Amgen to absorb its purchase of
another biotech firm. Ohio State
University won top honors. Corvinus
University of Budapest, Hungary came in
second and Pennsylvania State University
and Georgetown University tied for
third. USC Marshall last won first place
in 2000. The identity of this year's corporation
remains top secret until the contest
begins February 22, 2006.
Richards, who graduated from the
University of Michigan and spent twoand-a-half
years at Whittier Law School
before discovering his inner entrepreneur,
views entrepreneurial drive as having
the power to transform society if it is
tapped and nurtured.
“It's imperative that we make kids
believe that they can make it as an entrepreneur,”
says Richards during a recent
interview at the USC Marshall School
campus. Its energy holds particular
promise for the inner cities, he argues.
“Entrepreneurship is color blind. It's
the only way to control your destiny,” he
comments.
And, Richards asks, what better place
than Los Angeles and USC to nurture it
“USC is the most entrepreneurial
school in America,” says Richards,
adding, “Los Angeles can be one of the
great entrepreneurial cities of the world.
It's got ports, infrastructure, diversity
and lots of employee mobility. All it
needs is the momentum that comes
from leadership that says, ‘This is who
we are.’”
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 19

From Page 6
FACULTY IN THE NEWS
The Globe and Mail: Ian Mitroff, a professor
of management and organization, was
featured in a “Monday Morning Manager”
column. Mitroff gave four pieces of advice
Ian Mitroff
about what Hurricane Katrina should teach
to managers: “natural” or “external” and
“human-caused” crises are interlinked; managers
must focus on the full consequences
of a natural disaster; managers must be
proactive; and managers should name a
senior officer whose sole responsibility is crisis
management. September 19, 2005
La Opinion: Quentin J. Fleming, an adjunct
professor of management and organization,
discussed how rising health care costs are
affecting small business. “Many small businesses
cannot afford health benefits, which
puts them at a disadvantage in attracting
and retaining quality employees,” Fleming
says. He suggests the answer may lie in
establishing universal health coverage, but
that will not be easy or quick. “If a universal
plan is not well thought out, it could make
the situation worse for companies and their
workers.” August 27, 2005
Los Angeles Times: Michael Kamins, an
associate professor of marketing, was quoted
in a story about advertising campaigns
by Wal-Mart and Target. Target bought all
of the ad space in the Aug. 22 issue of the
New Yorker magazine: “If you’re advertising
in the New Yorker, people will think
you’re pretty chichi,” Kamins said. “The
problem is, you have to deliver on that.”
August 24, 2005
Barron’s Online: Tom Taulli, lecturer, was
quoted in a story about why experts are
wary about consumer-staple stocks.
“Unfortunately, with funds, it’s marketing
the cool topic du jour; they flourish precisely
at the time that retail investors shouldn’t
be buying,” Taulli said. August 22, 2005
BusinessWeek: Harry and Linda DeAngelo,
professors of finance and business economics,
were quoted about their soon-to-be
published article “What’s Really Wrong with
U.S. Business Schools.” “Unless they wake
up to the dangers of dysfunctional rankings
competition,” they wrote, “U.S. business
schools are destined to lose their dominant
global position and become a classic case
study of how myopic decision-making
begets institutional mediocrity.” The
DeAngelos take issue with a previous analysis
of business school curriculum by Warren
Bennis and James O’Toole, also of the USC
Marshall School of Business. August 5, 2005
Los Angeles Times: William Holder, professor
in the Leventhal School of Accounting, was
quoted in a story about a possible crisis for
public agencies because of the growing costs
of retirees’ healthcare benefits. Holder said the
agencies need to address the problem sooner
rather than later. “The sooner you recognize it
and begin to manage it, the more manageable
it is,” he said. August 8, 2005
KPCC-FM: Gerard Tellis, a professor of
marketing, was interviewed on “Past Sunset”
about controversial ads, including a Hooters
billboard in Baldwin Park and a Dove “Real
Beauty” campaign. Dr. Tellis said there is
“intense competition and advertisers are
always looking for new methods to gain
attention. However, there are reasonable
and unreasonable ways of doing this and
attention doesn’t always focus on the brand.
Nevertheless, advertising is very important
for our free market.” August 3, 2005
US News and World Report: Kathleen
Kelley Reardon, a professor of management
and organization, was interviewed about
her new book “It’s All Politics: Winning in a
World Where Hard Work and Talent Aren’t
Enough.” “If you don’t understand the political
machinations [in the office], you’re
going to fail much more often,” she cautioned.
August 2, 2005.
From Page 15
“THE BIG EASY”
the hurricane. With the help of the Red
Cross and six fellow students at USC
Marshall, Amini assembled a team of 20
people to scour online databases. The
team identified 20 possible matches that
were given to the House of Blues for further
investigation.
Pakistan's October 8 earthquake
personally affected Executive MBA students
Mustafa Bengali, who graduated in
2002 with Class 16, and Ehtisham Ashai,
who will graduate in 2006 with Class 20.
Their challenge was finding a way to help.
“This region is totally inaccessible,”
explains Ashai, a native of Muzaffarabad,
the now-devastated capital of the
Pakistani portion of Kashmir and who has
relatives left homeless by the 7.6 temblor.
Ashai made a personal appeal in
class and raised more than $5,000, with
individual donations ranging from $30
to $1,000 and another $150,000 at a Los
Angeles event.
Bengali, a native of India who
moved to Pakistan as a child, organized
a project to procure tents. Working with
a friend in San Francisco, Bengali set a
goal of sending 450 tents to Pakistan.
Each tent needed to house five to seven
people against the brutal winter.
“All the tents for sale in Pakistan
had already been snapped up,” Bengali
explains. “So I searched the Internet,
trying to source tents in the United
States, Mexico, India, and Canada.” He
finally found a supplier in Yiwa City,
China, about a two hours' drive inland
from Shanghai. On November 2,
Bengali emailed his fund-raising request
to fellow members of Class 16.
“The response was overwhelming,”
says Bengali.
Class 16 provided Bengali with
enough money to buy 500 tents and to
ship them by air from Shanghai to
Pakistan. On December 3, 2005, a
month after Bengali's email appeal, the
tents left the Yiwa factory by truck for
Shanghai and were shipped to Pakistan
December 15th.
20
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

AROUNDCAMPUS
KINKO’S FOUNDER PAUL
ORFALEA GIVES HIS UNUSUAL
RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko’s and a 1971 graduate of
the USC Marshall School of Business, is by his account, one of
the business world’s most unusual success stories.
“I can’t write a letter. I can’t sit still. I hate sitting in an
office,” Orfalea told a spellbound crowd of more than 150
alumni, students and guests at the University of Southern
California’s Town and Gown Center in September 2005 who
came to hear his offbeat tale and to get signed copies of
Orfalea’s memoir, “Copy This!” He also hates meetings and
employee reviews, doesn’t use email, has never been able to fix
a copier machine and is famously dyslexic.
“I was lucky enough to be a horrible reader,” Orfalea told
the group, speaking without notes and standing among the
audience instead of on stage. This trait—he disdains the use of
the words “deficits” or “disabilities”—allowed him to focus on
the big picture instead of, say, academics, when he was in college.
It came into play in the spring of his senior year at USC’s
Marshall School of Business when Orfalea’s study group
assigned him the task of Xeroxing their joint research paper.
But when he arrived at the copying center, there was already a
huge line of people making copies of legal documents for the
trial of Charles Manson. Bingo. Business opportunity.
In 1970, with a $5,000 loan, Orfalea opened his first copying
business in a small storefront near the campus of the
University of California at Santa Barbara, where he had a girlfriend.
By the time he sold controlling interest to a private
equity firm in January, 1997, Orfalea’s chain of Kinko’s was
bringing in more than $1.5 billion a year in revenues. Kinko’s
was sold to FedEx in 2004.
His biggest surprise during Kinko’s rapid growth was the
lack of competition, Orfalea told the crowd. He credits letting
his employees become co-owners of Kinko's centers with creating
loyalty.
“I wrote a check and they wrote a check,” to form a network
of partnerships, Orfalea said. “I would much rather have
a little of something good than a whole lot of something bad,”
he added.
Eric Sullano
Paul Orfalea
Asked if he saw business opportunities today, Orfalea
described a sign he had just seen in a dry cleaning store near
the USC campus that advertised instant alterations. “That’s a
tie-breaker,” he quipped.
Someone could make a bundle selling coffee dispensed
from a backpack to people standing in lines, he suggested, or
shining shoes at Starbucks. Any play on $5 a gallon gasoline
and skyrocketing prices for natural gas offered lots of opportunities,
including investing in downtown real estate, finding
ways to cut transportation costs or reduce our reliance on airconditioning,
which Orfalea says accounts for 22% of energy
consumption in the U.S. Regardless of the business, Orfalea
cautions that success always turns on the same three considerations—motivating
workers, understanding customers and
balancing the checkbook.
The USC Marshall Alumni Association’s Los Angeles
Chapter sponsored the evening with Orfalea. Shruthi Aradhya,
BS ’03, and Thom Taylor, MBA ’01, both members of the
LA Chapter’s special events committee, served as chairs of
the event.
ENTREPRENEURS VIE FOR $25,000 PRIZE
USC Marshall and its Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC) again is offering $25,000 to the winner of its Second
Annual Business Plan Competition, open to all students and researchers on the University Park and Health Sciences campuses.
The contest began in mid-October, 2005 and runs through March 30, 2006. CTC’s Director Dr. Kathleen Allen looks at the competition
as “one way that we can recognize, reward and encourage entrepreneurship on the USC campus.” Judges consist of a
panel of investors who will base their decision on the quality and persuasiveness of the plan, the quality of the team and intent
to launch, market validation and the quality of the business model. Last year’s first-place winner, Irene Rhodes, with Consumer
Fire Products, has already begun marketing her fire prevention system called FOAMSAFE. In addition to the prize money, the
publicity she received from the contest helped jump-start her venture.
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 21

Around Campus
FOUNDER OF
USC MARSHALL
ASSOCIATES ENDS SIX
YEARS OF SERVICE
It’s easy to get sidetracked talking to
Dann Angeloff about any of his passions—family,
work and the University of
Southern California. Interested in the
business climate in southern California
Angeloff sits on six corporate boards and,
as president of the Angeloff Company,
consults with dozens of others as a corporate
financial advisor.
Want to talk about USC Angeloff
has been working on behalf of his alma
mater for nearly half a century, beginning
with his undergraduate years in
Dann Angeloff
the mid-1950’s and through his MBA years (he graduated in 1963) to the present. He
founded a group to support men and women’s sports when he was a sophomore,
served as chairman of the Trojan Board of Governors, a university athletics organization,
and was president of the USC Alumni Association, among his many volunteer
activities.
And he knows Trojan football. In 1996, Angeloff founded the Annual Trojan
Football Celebration dinner, a sell-out event that attracts 500 people each February to
recognize the 20 to 22 high school players who have signed letters of intent to play football
for USC in the coming year. (If you ask Angeloff why Tim Tebow, one of the country’s
top high school quarterbacks, chose the University of Florida over USC, he knows
the answer. “You have to realize that both of Tebow’s parents went to Florida,” he says.)
Yet another of Angeloff’s passions is the USC Marshall School of Business. Six
years ago, Angeloff founded Marshall Associates, the business school’s premier academic
support group. A division of USC Associates, its 45 members contribute a
minimum $2,500, with many giving $25,000 or more. As a result, Marshall Associates
has raised more than $2 million for the business school.
After six years of serving as chairman of Marshall Associates, Angeloff recently
stepped down, only to accept a new position on the USC Marshall Board of Leaders, a
newly-formed group that advises Dean Yash Gupta on the strategic direction of the
school.
“Without Dann’s leadership, it’s safe to say Marshall Associates would never
have gotten off the ground or have been so successful,” comments Chris Harrer,
MBA ’96, MSBA ’00, the current chairman of the Marshall Alumni Association and
who will succeed Angeloff as chairman of Marshall Associates.
“I like to give back and I enjoy the environment of USC,” says Angeloff.
SPORTS BUSINESS INSTITUTE MAKES ITS DEBUT
In recognition of the dramatic rise in the popularity of sports-related businesses,
USC Marshall has established the Sports Business Institute. David Carter, BS ’86, an
internationally recognized sports industry expert and assistant professor of sports
business at USC Marshall, has been appointed its director. The Sports Business
Institute will provide a center for scholarly research and executive education programs,
as well as offer seminars and symposiums for people interested in the sports industry.
SAN DIEGO SITE FOR
NEW EMBA PROGRAM
USC Marshall School of Business is
opening a center in San Diego, Calif.,
where it will offer its top-ranked
Executive Masters of Business degree
program, or EMBA. Applications are
now being accepted for the two-year
program that will begin in August 2006.
Classes will meet every other week, on
Fridays and Saturdays.
The executive MBA program is
designed for professionals who want to
earn an MBA while working. It will be
taught exclusively by USC Marshall faculty
members. The USC Marshall executive
MBA program was ranked No. 8 by
BusinessWeek magazine in its 2005 survey
of international programs. In addition
to its home campus in Los Angeles,
USC Marshall offers the executive MBA
degree at Shanghai Jiao Tong University
in Shanghai, China.
The USC Marshall executive MBA
program expects to draw students mainly
from the San Diego area. More than
9,000 graduates of the University of
Southern California live within a 25-
mile radius of the city and 2,100 of them
hold degrees from the USC Marshall
School of Business. The executive MBA
program also expects to draw students
from Mexico, building on USC
Marshall's long history of educating
business executives from the Pacific Rim.
In addition to the executive MBA
degree program, USC Marshall will also
offer executive education courses for
companies in the San Diego area.
Executive education courses are intense,
highly concentrated courses that can be
as short as a day or as long as a week.
Some courses are of general interest,
while others are designed around a
company's particular needs.
More information about the USC
Marshall EMBA program is available at
the website:
www.marshall.usc.edu/EMBA. For
executive education programs, see:
www.marshall.usc/web/CorpPrograms.
22
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

NEW ASIA/PACIFIC BUSINESS
OUTLOOK CONFERENCE TO BE
HELD IN BANGKOK
After nearly two decades of hosting the annual Asia/Pacific
Business Outlook Conference at its campus in Los Angeles, the
University of Southern California's Marshall School of
Business is exporting the popular economic forum to the
Pacific Rim, where it will rotate each fall among major Asian
cities. The first Asia-based APBO conference will take place in
Bangkok, Thailand on November 2-4, 2006. The original Los
Angeles-based APBO conference, now in its 19th year, will take
place April 3-4, 2006.
Kantathi Suphamongkhon, Thailand's minister of foreign
affairs, and Goanpot Asvinvichit, the president and chief executive
officer of the Government Savings Bank of Thailand, will
serve as co-chairs of the international steering committee for
the conference, with Dick Drobnick, director of USC Marshall's
Center for Global Business Excellence. The Center, which sponsors
the APBO conferences, supports and coordinates much of
the business school's internationally-focused activities.
Drobnick estimates that the inaugural APBO/Asia conference
in 2006 will attract some 200 participants from a dozen
countries, including the United States. APBO/Asia will build
on USC Marshall's growing presence in the Pacific Rim, a presence
that was significantly expanded two years ago with the
introduction of an international executive MBA program,
called the Global EMBA, in partnership with Jiao Tong
University in Shanghai.
“USC Marshall has one of the strongest global perspectives
of any U.S.-based business school and holding an APBO conference
in Asia is another step in developing that perspective,”
comments Ravi Kumar, the business school's vice dean for
graduate and international programs.
Drobnick predicts that an Asia-based APBO conference
will help USC Marshall to strengthen its relationships with academic,
political and business leaders in the region and with
USC alumni there, many of whom have leadership roles in
their countries. Kantathi and Goanpot, for example, both
received degrees from USC. Kantathi earned a Ph.D. in Political
Science in 1984 and Goanpot earned an MBA from the
International Business Education and Research (IBEAR) program
in 1981.
The APBO conference in Los Angeles typically attracts 50
Asia business experts and about 250 American business
participants each spring. For more information about the
19th Annual APBO/LA conference, please visit the
website:www.apbo2006.com. Information about the Bangkokbased
APBO conference will be available in the spring of 2006.
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 23

Around Campus
Thomas J. Barrack
REAL ESTATE
INVESTOR BARRACK
HONORED AS
ENTREPRENEUR OF
THE YEAR
by Kimberly Storin
Thomas J. Barrack, Jr., founder,
chairman and chief executive officer of
Colony Capital, was honored as the
2005 recipient of the Lloyd Greif
Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
“Entrepreneur of the Year” Award in
November 2005 at a celebration dinner
held at USC’s Town & Gown center.
In his introductory remarks, Yash
Gupta, dean of the USC Marshall
School of Business, reminded the audience
that entrepreneurs see the world
from a unique perspective.
“Failure is a sign of success in the
world of entrepreneurship,” Gupta told
the gathering of faculty, students, alumni
and guests. “It makes success taste
even sweeter. Failure itself is not
important. It is how quickly you can pick yourself up that makes a true entrepreneur,”
he added.
Barrack, a real estate investor who Fortune magazine called the “World’s Best
Real Estate Investor,” in its October 31, 2005 cover story, founded Colony Capital in
1990. He currently owns and operates more than $25 billion in real estate assets,
including hotel and casino properties around the world, from Singapore to Sardinia.
Colony Capital has provided an annual 21 percent return to its investors since 1990.
A native of Los Angeles, Barrack received his Bachelor of Arts and
Juris Doctorate degrees from USC. In his keynote speech, Barrack advised aspiring
entrepreneurs to focus on developing respect, trust and commitment with partners
and associates. “It may not pay off right away, but it will pay off in the future,” he
advised them.
Barrack also credited the Trojan network for helping his career.
“Serendipity plays a big role in my life – Trojans have been everywhere,” he told
the audience.
A champion of USC and of USC Marshall’s Entrepreneurship Program, Barrack
believes college and university life give students a place to grow and to learn how to
“run with a pack.” He recommended that students spend time “collecting silver bullets
and putting them into their pocket savings account,” a type of “karma bank”
where the more one gives, the more one gets in return. Having built a network and
honed one’s skills and knowledge, students can then break out of the pack and make
a name for themselves, Barrack advised. The best part comes next, he said.
“Get your toes to the edge of the cliff, feel the breeze and listen to the beat of the
drummer.”
Kimberly Storin is a second-year MBA student at USC Marshall and a contributing
writer to Marshall, Inc.
MBA AND
ACCOUNTING
PROGRAMS
RANK HIGH IN
SURVEYS
USC Marshall moved into 10th
place among nationally ranked U.S.
business schools in a survey of corporate
recruiters conducted by The Wall
Street Journal and Harris Interactive.
The survey, published on September
21, 2005 in The Wall Street Journal,
reflects the opinions of recruiters who
rate each business school and their
graduates on 20 different attributes,
including “students’ leadership potential
and communication skills, the
quality of the faculty and curriculum,
and the responsiveness of the career
services office.” The survey also asks
recruiters about plans to recruit at
the school in the future and the
likelihood of hiring its graduates in
the next two years.
USC Marshall’s Leventhal School
of Accounting, which consistently
ranks among the top accounting
schools nationally, was again recognized
for its programs by Public
Accounting Report, or PAR. In
PAR’s 24th annual rankings report,
the USC Marshall Leventhal School
of Accounting’s undergraduate
program was ranked 4th and its graduate
program was ranked 5th.
PAR also ranked the Leventhal
School of Accounting’s Ph.D. program
10th, a noteworthy achievement
in that most of the Ph.D. programs
with which USC Marshall competes
are pure research institutions that
offer no undergraduate or graduate
programs. USC Marshall’s Leventhal
School of Accounting is one of only
five schools (and the only private one)
that was ranked in the top 10 in each
major academic program. The others
are Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and
Texas.
24
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

USC MARSHALL CELEBRATES ITS SCHOLARSHIP DONORS AND STUDENTS
More than 270 people attended the 12th Annual Scholarship
Luncheon on November 16, 2005, to honor both scholarship
donors and recipients at USC Marshall School of Business.
Robert L. Rodriguez, the principal and chief executive officer
of First Pacific Advisors, an investment advisory firm with more
than $9.8 billion in assets, gave the keynote address. Rodriguez,
who earned his BS in business in 1971 and his MBA in 1975 from
USC Marshall, credited his finance courses for much of his success.
“My professors changed my life. They were absolutely
exceptional people,” he told the gathering. Rodriguez, a staunch
supporter of USC Marshall and its Center for Investment
Studies, encouraged students to view their lives as a cycle of
responsibility, beginning with an education, then developing a
career and then giving back to those who follow you.
“Look forward to it as a privilege but also a duty. It is an
investment that pays huge dividends with little downside risk
and huge personal satisfaction—sounds a lot like investing,” he
commented.
Toffler Niemuth, an undergraduate who was awarded
the Roy A. Anderson and Betty B. Anderson Endowed
Scholarship,
cited her
opportunities
to study and
work in Hong
Kong as highlights
of her
USC Marshall
experience.
Stephanie C.
Roth, an MBA
student, said
by receiving a
Guests mingle at a reception preceding the 12th Annual
Scholarship Luncheon for honorees and donors.
Rath Foundation Academic Scholarship, she was freed from
worry about how to repay student loans, which allowed her to
devote time to non-profit organizations.
More than $800,000 in USC Marshall scholarship funds
was awarded to business school undergraduates in 2005-06 and
more than a third of the 559 current full-time MBA students
receive scholarship support from USC Marshall.
GEORGE SHETH
George Sheth, a tireless supporter of all things USC and especially the USC
Marshall School of Business, was honored as the recipient of the USC Alumni
Association’s prestigious Widney Alumni House Award for 2005 in recognition of his
service as a member of the board of the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association. Sheth
took over as president of the organization in January 2006, and in this new role, will
also begin serving on
the USC Alumni
Association’s Board of
Governors in July.
“As a second generation
USC alum, I
was honored to
be recognized by
the USC Alumni
USC Alumni Association President and Trustee Gale Bensussen, left, with award
recipient George Sheth, center, and Judith Blumenthal of Alumni Relations.
Association. I’m
proud to serve the
university in my various
capacities,” Sheth
commented. The ceremony
honoring Sheth
took place September
17, 2005 at USC’s Town and Gown reception center.
Sheth, who graduated in 1996 from USC Marshall’s International Business
Education and Research (IBEAR) program, has volunteered in numerous ways for
his alma mater. He served on the USC Marshall Alumni Association’s National Board
of Directors, as president of the IBEAR Alumni Network for MBAs, as a mentor to
both MBAs candidates and Asian Pacific undergraduate students. He is also a member
of the executive committee for Marshall Associates, the business school’s premier
academic support group, and serves on the advisory board of USC Marshall’s Global
BioBusiness Initiative.
USC MARSHALL STAFF
ON THE MOVE
Citigroup Building has new USC Marshall tenants.
To make room for faculty offices on
campus, the USC Marshall External
Relations Department, including
Alumni Affairs, Corporate Relations,
Development and Marketing and
Communications, and a segment of the
Academic Information Systems department
have moved to the Citigroup
Center, 444 S. Flower Street. However,
telephone numbers, email addresses and
mailing addresses remain the same.
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 25

Around Campus
2005 DEAN’S BUSINESS BREAKFAST
SERIES PROVES A HIT
USC Marshall School of Business introduced a lively forum
for the discussion of business and industry trends this past year
with the “Dean's Business Breakfast Series.” Hosted by Dean
Yash Gupta, the popular, early-morning events have delivered
high-octane talk about the economic outlook on a number
of topics.
Each month, beginning in September 2005, a high-powered
business executive spoke to a capacity audience of alumni,
local business leaders, faculty and students at USC's Town &
Gown reception center.
Northwest’s Gary Wilson Predicted Industry Future
Gary Wilson, chairman and principal investor in NWA,
parent of Northwest Airlines, kicked off the breakfast series on
September 7, 2005, during
the difficulties bedeviling
the airline industry in general
and Northwest Airlines
in particular. At the time
the No. 4 U.S. carrier was
negotiating with the union
representing 4,400 striking
mechanics and other maintenance
workers, filing
bankruptcy protection not
long after the event.
Gary Wilson
Emphasizing the
industry's belt-tightening, Wilson predicted that the days of air
flight attendants pampering passengers on trips across the continent
will probably never come back. “We've heard the message,
and the message is that travelers care more about price
than pillows,” he said.
Eric Sullano
Ex-Unocal Chief Recounted Final Months of Acquisition
Charles “Chuck” Williamson, former chairman and chief
executive of Unocal Corp., described his stressful final eight
months as head of the world's largest, publicly-traded independent
energy resource company at the second Dean's
Breakfast on October 12.
Williamson recounted the events leading to the bidding
war for Unocal between China National Offshore Oil
Corporation (CNOOC), one of China's largest state-controlled
oil companies, and ChevronTexaco Corp., the second-largest
U.S. oil company. Negotiations began at the end of 2004 and
waged for eight months.
“The battle was messy,” as Williamson put it. As bidding
intensified, it was anyone's guess which organization would
emerge the victor. But in the end, Unocal's board decided to
accept the ChevronTexaco bid after the U.S. Congress requested
a 121-day postponement to study the transaction's implications.
Robert Nardelli Disclosed Home Depot's Secrets
Robert Nardelli, Home Depot's president and CEO,
revealed how he turned a company headed for trouble in 2000
into the world's largest home
improvement retailer at the
third Dean's Breakfast on
Robert Nardelli
David Roberts
November 9.
Although Home Depot's
shareholder return is now
best-in-class among companies
listed on the Dow Jones
industrial average, Nardelli
acknowledged that he made
some missteps early on, such
as not doing enough customer
research. Armed with better knowledge, he upgraded the
merchandise, "cleaned up" the stores and signage, invested in
technology such as self-checkout stands, expanded into
Mexico, China, and other regions to tap the growing homeowner
market, and targeted aging baby boomers.
With 1.3 billion transactions a year and a store opening
every 48 hours somewhere in the world, Home Depot's success
shows.
Kerry Killinger Transformed Washington Mutual
Kerry Killinger, chairman and CEO of Washington Mutual,
rounded out the 2005 breakfast series on December 7. Ever since
he took over the helm in
1991, Killinger says he has
been driven to transform the
sleepy Seattle savings and
loan into the nation's leading
consumer bank. As of
June 2005, it ranked as the
sixth largest bank in the U.S.,
with assets valued at $323.53
billion.
Killinger's strategy is to
market to “the masses”—
underserved middle-class
David Roberts
Kerry Killinger
consumers, and small and
mid-sized businesses. With 28 acquisitions under his belt since
1991, Killinger has turned Washington Mutual into one the
fastest-growing financial services companies in the country.
Fond of five-year business plans, he said the organization basically
reinvents itself every five years to meet the demands of such
rapid growth.
26
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

ALUMNICALENDAR
The USC Marshall Alumni Association offers many events to give
alumni an opportunity to network with the business community
and with each other. The calendar of events is updated throughout
the week. For the latest information, please visit the website
at: www.marshall.usc.edu/alumni/events.
February 2006
1 and 2 - "USC on the Road: Texas”, featuring Major General
Charles Bolden, Jr., USMC (Ret.), USC Trustee, University of
Southern California, in Dallas on Feb. 1 and on Feb. 2 in Houston.
6:00 - 8:30 p.m.
11 - USC Marshall Alumni San Francisco Bay Area “Fourth Annual
Alumni Career Day,” featuring speakers, workshops and panel discussions.
A day designed especially for USC alumni, at HP in Palo
Alto, Calif. 8 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
21 - USC Marshall Alumni “Orange County Breakfast,” in Newport
Beach, Calif. 7 - 9 a.m.
22 - USC Marshall Center for Investment Studies: Distinguished
Speaker Series presents. Dr. Arthur Laffer, founder and chairman of
Laffer Associates, on “California Economics, Finance and Business,”
Town & Gown at USC. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
23 - “USC on the Road: Sacramento” featuring Elizabeth Garrett, Vice
Provost of Academic Affairs, USC, in Sacramento, Calif. 6 - 8 p.m.
March 2006
4 - Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies: “Entrepreneur
Networking Day” at Hoffman Hall, Edison Auditorium at USC.
9 - USC Marshall Alumni San Diego Breakfast, featuring Fredrica
Thode, President and CEO, HDOS Enterprises (Hot Dog on a Stick).
15 - “USC on the Road Event: Boston” featuring Steve Lamy,
Professor and Director, School of International Relations, USC College
of Letters, Arts & Sciences, in Boston, Mass. 6 - 8 p.m.
27 - “USC on the Road Event: San Diego” featuring Dr. Steven B.
Sample, President, University of Southern California, in San Diego,
Calif. 6 - 8 p.m.
April 2006
TBA - USC Marshall Alumni San Diego Breakfast: David Carter,
BS,'86, Exec. Director of USC Marshall's Sports Business Institute.
San Diego/Del Mar.
May 2006
10 - USC Marshall Alumni San Diego Breakfast: Patrick C. Henry,
MBA ’92, CEO, President and Director, Entropic Communications,
Inc. on “Convergence of Digital Entertainment Throughout the
Home.”San Diego/Del Mar. 7 - 9 a.m.
DEAN’S BUSINESS BREAKFAST
SERIES SPRING 2006
Each breakfast is held at
USC Town & Gown, 7:30-9:00 a.m.
For more information, please call
the USC Marshall Events Information Line at
213 821-5277 or visit the website:
www.marshall.usc.edu/CorporateRelations/Events
February 8, 2006
Kevin Sharer, Chairman, President, & CEO
Amgen Inc.
March 22, 2006
Michael J. Critelli, Chairman & CEO
Pitney Bowes Inc.
April 12, 2006
Mark R. Goldston, Chairman & CEO
NetZero Inc.
Leverage
your network.
Grow
your business.
Expand
your mind.
Connect today.
www.marshall.usc.edu/alumni
May 31, 2006
Ron Sugar, Chairman, CEO and President
Northrop Grumman Corporation
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 27

CLASSNOTES
Share your news with us!
Send photos, too, for possible
use to:
USC Marshall Inc.USC
University of Southern California
Marshall School of Business
Citigroup Center
Los Angeles, CA 90089-8201
marshallnewsletter@marshall.usc.edu
1948
Each year, the Los Angeles Downtown
Breakfast Club bestows its Roses and
Lemons Awards to people and organizations
deemed to have helped or thwarted
the City of Angels. At the 25th
Anniversary Awards breakfast in April
2005, the organization honored one of
its own. Bill Feathers, BS, received a
Special Recognition award as the
founder of the Downtown Breakfast
Club. Feathers, whose eponymous executive
search firm focuses on the real estate
and construction industry, says need was
the mother of his invention. “Downtown
needed something to bring people
together,” Feathers says.
1968
Douglas Buser, BS, MBA ’71 was elected
president of the Financial Planning
Association San Francisco Chapter.
Buser is a Certified Financial Planner
and managing director of the wealth
management firm, Golden Gate
Advisors, Inc., Oakland City Center. He
specializes in real estate investment and
business retirement planning.
1976
Lawrence E. Fisher, MBA, has published
the book, Why Buy In The Survival
Primer for Free
Thinkers in the
Stereotypical
Business World
(Outskirts Press,
Inc.). Fisher
describes it as “a
positive, quick
read for anyone
in business, especially
helpful for
X-Gen business
people passionate
about their
jobs, but think they have to sacrifice their
individuality to succeed.”
1978
Jim Covington, MBA, has joined Smart
& Final Stores in Commerce, Calif., as
the director of compensation, benefits,
and human resource information systems.
Before joining Smart & Final, he
was the compensation manager for The
Automobile Club of Southern California
and before that he was the manager of
compensation and benefits for
Mitsubishi Motors Sales of America. He
was a presenter at the 1997, 1998, and
2003 American Compensation
Association’s International Conference
and Expositions, and the 1999, 2000, and
2001 Benefits Management Forum and
Expo. Jim and his wife, Marianne, BA
’74, live in Orange, Calif.
1979
Karl Moore, MBA, was a visiting scholar
at the University of Hawaii’s College of
Business in the summer of 2005, where
he taught a course on international marketing.
Moore is an associate professor of
Management at McGill University. He
was recently appointed to McGill’s
Senate and will be the program chair for
the 2006 Academy of Management’s
management history division.
Alan Aufhammer, BS, joined the
Staubach Company, one of the largest
tenant representation brokerage firms, as
a principal and will help lead its Los
Angeles operation. Previously,
Aufhammer served as senior vice president
and a partner with the corporate
services team at CB Richard Ellis. He was
named to the Colbert Colwell Circle five
times while he was at CBRE. The award
recognizes the top three percent of performers
in the company nationwide.
1982
Joyce (Lara) Rooney, BS, was elected as
vice president of Southern California
AFSCME Labor Union District Council
36. Rooney is also union vice-president
and past-president of AFSCME Local
3339 and successfully led the union’s
negotiating team to settle a 5-year contract
ensuring improved wages and benefits
through 2010. Rooney has been
28
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

employed with the City of West
Hollywood, Calif. for more than 15
years, responsible for transportation
services and programs. As a representative
of the City, she has represented the
Local Cities as chair of the LACMTA’s
local transit systems subcommittee and
member of the MTA’s technical advisory
committee for over 6 years. She participates
on various Los Angeles County
regional transportation committees
advocating and planning for improved
funding sources for local cities and
county programs. Rooney recently contributed
to the ASCE 2005 Los Angeles
County Infrastructure Report Card,
regarding the transportation aspects of
the county.
1985
Karen Maynes (Corn), BS, and her
father, Walter Maynes, have started
a business, Atlas Data Inc. It offers
secure, off-site data storage options for
home and business needs. For more
information visit the website at:
http://www.atlasdatacenters.com.
1989
Sharon S. Lassar, Ph.D., currently an
associate professor of accounting at
Florida Atlantic University has recently
won two national awards. She was
named “Educator of the Year” at the
American Society of Woman
Accountants and the American Woman’s
Society of Certified Public Accountants
Joint National Conference on September
30, 2005. The joint conference of the
ASWA and AWSCPA honors one educator
each year. She was also awarded the
2005 American Taxation Association/
Deloitte Teaching Innovation Award at
the National Conference of the
American Accounting Association in
August for “Second Chance for
Depreciation: A Case Study Analyzing
Tax Planning Opportunities After Asset
Disposition”, a self-guided web-based tax
research case study that was developed
for an advanced Master of Taxation class.
1990
Rodolfo (Rudy) Michelon, BS
Accounting, has been promoted to director
and controller of Sempra Energy’s
Global Accounting unit based in Mexico.
“Given the scope of responsibilities,
number of separate business units and
the company’s increasing investment in
Mexico, this is a critical position,” said
Mark Fisher, vice president and controller
for Sempra Global. Adding,“Rudy
will provide financial corporate governance
over all Sempra Global Mexican
operations as required by the Global
business units, Sempra Global and external
interested parties.” Based in San
Diego, Sempra Energy is a Fortune 500
energy-services company with 2004 revenues
of $9.4 billion. Sempra Energy
serves the largest customer base of any
energy utility in the United States. Prior
to joining Sempra Global in 2003,
Michelon was director of financial
reporting and systems for Dolby
Laboratories, Inc. and was manager of
financial reporting for PG&E
Corporation. He also worked in public
accounting at KPMG where he was a
senior manager and was assigned to the
Buenos Aires office from 1994 to 1997.
1991
Eric Lee, BS, announces the birth of his
second daughter, Kayla, April 25, 2003.
1992
Melanie McShane, BS, has changed
careers and has joined Re/Max Olson in
Porter Ranch, Calif., as a realtor after
working 14 years with the Capital Group
Companies. For more information
please visit her website: www.melaniemcshane.com.
1993
Anthony Rubino, BS, and wife,
Katherine, announce the birth of their
son, Nicholas, May 12, 2005.
1995
Louis Ashamallah, MBA, was recently
selected by the San Fernando Valley
Business Journal as one of the “40 under
40” individuals making outstanding
contributions to business. He is currently
staff vice president of eDistribution at
WellPoint Inc., one of the nation’s leading
health care company and parent
companies of Blue Cross of California.
He is responsible for $100 million in policy
sales through the internet and various
strategic partnerships. Ashamallah
also moonlights as a stand-up comedian
to raise money for healthcare-related
charities, and recently opened for Jay
Leno in Las Vegas at a large corporate
event. He and his wife, Ann, welcomed
the arrival of twin sons Kyle and Logan
in February 2004.
William Puentes, MBA, recently joined
Farnam Companies as vice president of
marketing for Pet Products. He and his
wife, Penny, and have two daughters,
Bella, 8, and Amanda, 2.
1996
Paul Burnstein, BS, MA ‘04 Naropa
University, founded Peak Business
Group, LLC in Boulder, Colo. to assist
companies in improving business performance.
He is also an accredited executive
associate of the Institute for
Independent Business, an international
non-profit organization that has assisted
thousands of small and mid-sized
businesses throughout the world.
There are over 3,000 accredited executives
worldwide.
After 14 years with AT&T in various sales
positions, Eric Stark, MBA, moved from
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 29

Class Notes
California to Washington, DC. He was
appointed to the U.S. Department of
Commerce in the summer, 2005. In his
new position he leads the domestic policy
team in the office that advises the
President on telecom policy. He and his
wife, Sabrina, are expecting their third
child in early 2006.
Megan Clarke has been appointed to the
newly-created position of chief information
officer at the National Academy of
Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc., also
known as The Recording Academy®. In
announcing her appointment, The
Recording Academy cited Clarke’s background
in strategic technology planning
and management as having been instrumental
in the evolution and enhancement
of The Recording Academy’s infrastructure.
Before joining The Academy,
Clarke was the technology chief for a
marketing research and software development
company where she oversaw all
aspects of the organization’s strategic
and day-to-day technical operations.
Established in 1957, the Recording
Academy is an organization of musicians,
producers, engineers and recording
professionals that is dedicated to
improving the cultural condition and
quality of life for music and its makers.
Internationally known for the GRAM-
MY Awards, The Recording Academy is
responsible for groundbreaking professional
development, cultural enrichment,
advocacy, education and human
services programs.
1998
Najdi Bessar,MBA accepted an analyst position
in the Corporate Finance Department
of Riyadh Bank in Saudi Arabia.
After traveling with consulting-firm issue,
black “tanks” for computer bags, Raffaella
Camera, MBA, and Elaine Sanders,
MBA, decided enough was enough. They
formed Kolobags in 2004 with the mission
of providing women with fashionable
yet functional totes and bags for
business and entertainment technology.
Kolobags (www.kolobags.com), based in
Los Angeles, sells designer laptop and
specialty bags. The partners hope the
online boutique will fill a void in the
market by providing laptop bags, iPod
Raffaella Camera (left) and Elaine Sanders (right)
sporting one of their Kolobags.
cases, business card holders, and other
specialty bags, such as yoga mat bags,
that are fashionable as well as practical.
Kolobags features a choice of styles and
colors from U.S. and international name
brand designers.
2001
Craig Kadonaga, MBA, and his wife,
Jennie, announced the birth of their first
child, a son, Troy Kenji Kadonaga, on May
4, 2005. They live in Northridge, Calif.
Jeff Marks, MBA, has been named a
managing director by the Sports
Business Group, a sports marketing firm
based in Los Angeles, to oversee business
development and strategic operations.
2002
Jay Yonemoto, MBA, and his wife,
Dominique, proudly announce the birth
of Andrew David on August 7, 2005, joining
his sibling, Christopher. The
Yonemotos live in Arcadia, Calif.
Yonemoto is applications development
manager for the Alfred Mann Foundation
in Santa Clarita, a nonprofit research
organization devoted to advanced medical
products and founded by USC alumnus
and trustee Alfred E. Mann.
Bill Stephenson, MBA, and his wife,
Amy, started a business,
KnowledgePoint® Learning Center in
Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. They
offer affordable tutoring programs in
reading, math and study skills for grades
K-12. The Stephensons have franchise
rights to develop other branches
throughout South Orange County and
plan to open their second location in
early 2006. “We’re excited about being
business owners in our community and
it is very rewarding to see the positive
impact the KnowledgePoint® program
has on our students. Hats off to the
Marshall School for providing many of
the tools we needed to succeed.” For
more information visit the website:
www.KnowledgePoints.com.
Harout Bakchajian, BS, started a business,
Alexander, a jewelry shopping TV
show which started broadcasting nightly
in October 2005 on DirectTV channel
341.
For the record: The Class Notes section of
the fall issue of Marshall Inc. misidentified
Edward Maunsell “Ned” Van Rensselaer.
He was a graduate of USC and not USC
Marshall School of Business.
30
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

1973 and 2003
On their first date, Susan Schaaf Clayton and her future
husband, Fred, attended a home football game between USC and
Stanford. The year was 1969. Game tickets costs $6 and they paid
fifty cents for parking. Fred was a college student, the best friend
of her best friend’s older brother, and Susan was just out of high
school, working full-time. No one in her family had been to college,
or expected her to go.
“I loved coming to the USC campus,” she recalls. “It was so
beautiful and so serene, and it gave me a glimpse into the college
experience that I could only dream about—it literally gave me
goose bumps just to be here.” After Fred Clayton graduated with
a bachelor’s degree from USC Marshall in 1973, he and Susan
were married and eventually had two daughters (one of whom,
Valerie, graduated with a bachelor’s degree from USC in 2001)
and a son. From time to time, Fred would remark to his wife that
if she ever wanted to get a college degree, he would support her
in every way.
Years later, on a trip to visit colleges with her high school
daughter, Susan felt a wave of regret wash over her for having
missed going to college herself. Two years passed before she could
summon the courage to enroll in night classes at Pasadena City
College. A year later, she quit working to attend California
Polytechnic-Pomona full-time and a few credits later, transferred
to USC.
“I really wanted to go to USC all along, but I thought that at my point in life, I wouldn’t get a return on my investment,” she says.
Like her husband, Susan enrolled in the business school, splitting her concentration between business communications and
Susan Schaaf Clayton and her husband, Fred, stand on the steps of the
Los Angeles Central Library. Both earned their degrees from USC Marshall
School of Business, but 30 years apart.
marketing. On Sunday afternoons, she would leave her family in San Gabriel to travel to Fraternity Row and meet with her much
younger classmates for a study group and pizza. Just before graduation in May 2003, Susan was one of a handful of students to
audition to speak on behalf of her graduating class.
She wasn’t chosen, but in her practice speech, she spoke about being attracted to her husband by his sophistication and his
“anything is possible” attitude, qualities she said were absent in her own family. From their earliest days together, she credited the
difference to his having gone to college.
Armed with a degree in business that she earned 30 years after her husband, Susan Clayton, BS, ’03, accepted an account
management trainee position with the Los Angeles office of Lockton Insurance Brokers, a commercial brokerage firm based in
Kansas City, and where she is now an account manager.
“People often say to me that they couldn’t possibly do what I did,” says Susan. She disagrees. “I think we argue for our limitations
far too often.”
Marshall
Shop MarshallMall and the USC bookstore,
your sources for Marshall-branded merchandise.
Select from coffee mugs, apparel, travel gear, folios,
gifts and more.
www.marshall.usc.edu/marshallmall
WINTER 2006 USC MARSHALL INC 31

DOINGBUSINESS
…IN TEHRAN
Squares. One idea would be to begin at
Tajrish Square and walk up to Darband, a
village on the side of the mountain with
many teahouses and trails where you can
stop for a tea and ghalyan (water pipe).
Architectural Marvel:
The palaces of kingdom dynasties, such
as the Golestan (Ark Square) and
Niavaran (15 Khordad Square). Tehran
University and Azadi Tower.
Azadi Tower - This 148-foot high masterpiece of cut marble sits at the entrance of Tehran. The tower includes
a museum and a grand hall. It has a movie theatre, a library, some art galleries and halls which feature
temporary fairs and exhibitions. It was one of the central locations for demonstrations during the Islamic
Revolution in 1979.
Marshall, Inc. asked Sadrollah Alborzi, BS
’70, USC Marshall Alumni Regional
Representative for the Middle East and an
advisor at National Petrochemical
Company of Tehran, Iran, for his recommendations.
Sadrollah has also served as a
part-time teacher for 30 years in Iranian
universities, teaching business administration
and management.
Favorite Restaurant for Two for under
$100, not including wine:
The Azadi (on Shahid Chamran
Expressway), Esteghlal (Shahid
Chamran Expressway), Homa (51
Khodami Street, Vanak Square), Laleh
(Dr. Hossein Fatemi Avenue), and
Enghelab (50 Taleghani Avenue) hotels
all have nice and enjoyable
restaurants/cafés. They serve both
Western and Iranian food. Also, try the
Armenian Club at 68 Khark Street,
where Tehran’s Armenian Christian
community and non-Muslim visitors are
not only permitted to drink but also
where women are not required to wear
scarves. You can also enjoy live music.
Favorite People-Watching Café:
Milad-e-Noor and the Golestan
Shopping (Iran Zamin Street in
Shahrake Ghods, NW of Tehran) centers
are fun places to be.
Best Shopping District in the City:
Vanak and Tajrish districts, north of
Tehran.
Favorite Park in the City:
Mellat (Vali Asr Avenue), Gheytarieh
(Gheytarieh Avenue), Saei (Vali Asr
Avenue), and Shariati (Shariati Avenue)
parks. Also try the Jamshidieh Park at the
foot of Kolak Chal mountain and Bam-e
Tehran on Velenjak Street in North of
Tehran, where you can overlook Tehran.
Best Walking Tour/Hike in the City:
Darband, Mirdamad, Vanak, Valiasr,
Shariati, Pasdaran, Tajrish, and Mohseni
Be sure to Take the Children/
Teenagers to:
National Museum of Iran (Emam
Khomeini Avenue) where remarkable
exhibits from the ancient Persian capital
of Persepolis are on view. National Jewels
Museum (Ferdosi Street). Shahre Bazi
(city of games, on the Chamran Highway
in North of Tehran is the largest amusement
park).
A Good Place to Catch English
Language Movies:
The Cinema Farhang (Shariati Avenue),
Crystal (Lalezare-no Street), Palastine
and Markzazi (Enghelab Square) movie
theatres show foreign films and the Asre-
Jadid (Taleghani Avenue) movie theatre
occasionally shows movies in English.
Check the schedules in Iran News and
Tehran Times newspapers and be prepared
for censorship.
Survival Tips:
Don’t attempt to drive. The traffic is
very heavy and hardly anyone obeys the
rules. The easiest way for a tourist to get
around is by taxi. Allow plenty of time
to get to the airport or bus station. Call
118, the telephone information, or your
hotel information desk to find the
phone numbers for all the above mentioned
places.
32
USC MARSHALL INC WINTER 2006

MAJOR CONFERENCES 2006
February 28-March 1, 2006
Building Leaders Seminar and
March 2-3, 2006
Leadership Development Seminar
Each year, the Center for Effective Organizations hosts two consecutive
seminars on the topic of leadership development.
These leadership seminars focus on how corporations can develop
leaders and a leadership capability on a corporate-wide basis.
They are designed for professionals charged with designing and
implementing leadership development activities. Participants are
provided with state-of-the-art best practices and programs from
leading global corporations, practical tools and frameworks to
create programs, and the latest research on leadership and leadership
development. Please note: specific topics and presenters
change yearly. For more information, please visit
www.marshall.usc.edu/ceo/seminars
April 3-4, 2006
19th Annual Asia/Pacific Business Outlook
(APBO) 2006
USC Marshall School of Business hosts the 19th Annual APBO
conferences in partnership with the U.S. Department of
Commerce. APBO is the premier event for American businesses
seeking to expand their investment and trade opportunities in
the Asia-Pacific region. Fifty experts, including senior U.S.
Department of Commerce officers and American executives
working in 14 Pacific Rim countries, including India and Mexico,
will address the conference.
Organized by the Center for Global Business Excellence (C-Globe)
For more information, please contact Suzette Furbeyre,
213.740.7130, or furbeyre@marshall.usc.edu
April 4, 2006
“Possibilities for Biotech and Biomedical
Entrepreneurship in Southern California”
Creative thinkers from industry, academia and government
meet to consider the opportunities for biotech and biomedical
entrepreneurship in Southern California. The conference will
focus on developing incubators for technology innovation and
its transfer to the marketplace.
Organized by the Center for Technology Commercialization,
USC Marshall School of Business
For more information, please visit www.usc.edu/techalliance
April 19-20, 2006
“Microfinance: Bridging the Poverty Gap
Locally and Globally”
This conference will focus attention on microfinance as a key
component of economic development for small-scale entrepreneurs.
The conference will include seminars, workshops and student
presentations on international case studies. Presented in
cooperation with the United Nations.
Organized by the Center for Global Business Excellence (C-Globe)
For more information, please contact Suzette Furbeyre, 213.740-
7130, or furbeyre@marshall.usc.edu
April 22-28 2006 and September 23-29, 2006
“Executive Education”
Advanced Management Program in Telecom
(AMPT)
Hilton Long Beach Hotel and Executive Meeting Center, Long
Beach, CA
This program is intended for high-performing middle to senior
middle managers and focuses on two basic themes: “Industry
Consolidation” and “Moving Up the Value Chain.” Wrapped
around two comprehensive case studies, one business and one
consumer, it is designed to be highly interactive and
project/presentation oriented.
For more information, please visit www.marshall.usc.edu/execed
June 8, 2006
25th Annual SEC and Financial Reporting
Institute Conference
This is the leading conference in the western United States for
the accounting profession. Experts from government and business
discuss key industry issues. Organized in cooperation with
the Leventhal School of Accounting at the University of
Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Pasadena, CA
For more information, please contact Ingrid McClendon at
213.740.4845, or ingrid@marshall.usc.edu
June 12 – June 23, 2006
A Two-Week Summer Program for Media
Professionals:
Converging Entertainment and Interactive
Media Industries
USC Marshall School of Business’s Entertainment Marketing and
Management Institute (EMMI) hosts a program exploring global
strategies in the converging entertainment and interactive media
industries. For more information, please visit
www.marshall.usc.edu/entertainmentbusiness or email
e.media@marshall.usc.edu or tshim@marshall.usc.edu
September 26-28, 2006
HR Metrics and Analytics: Driving Strategic
Organization Change Seminar
This three-day seminar offers human resources professionals a
chance to learn how to implement and enhance HR measurement
in their organizations. The seminar will highlight “best
practices” from companies. Sessions will be highly interactive,
with applications, diagnostic tools, and specific logic frameworks
applied to actual cases. Please note: Specific topics and speakers
change yearly.
For more information, please visit the website
www.marshall.usc.edu/ceo/seminars

19th Annual Asia/Pacific Business
Outlook (APBO)2006
April 3–4, 2006
The USC Marshall School of Business hosts the 19th Annual
APBO conference in partnership with the U.S. Department of
Commerce. APBO is the premier event for American businesses
seeking to expand their investment and trade opportunities
in the Asia/Pacific region. Fifty experts, including senior U.S.
Department of Commerce officers and American executives
working in 14 Pacific Rim countries, including India and
Mexico, will address the conference.
Organized by
the Center for Global Business Excellence (C-Globe)
www.APBO2006.com
For more information contact
Suzette Furbeyre,
213.740.7130, or
furbeyre@marshall.usc.edu
University of Southern California
Marshall School of Business
Citigroup Center
Los Angeles, CA 90089-8201
Non-Profit Org
U.S. Postage
PAID
University of
Southern
California
USC
Marshall