SHAPING THE FUTURE

Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration I University of Missouri-Kansas City

BLOCH 2007

From students with dreams to community leaders, Bloch students are

Shaping the Future

The University of Missouri-Kansas City Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration 2007

In this Issue Message from the Dean Shaping the Future Cover Story 2 Amazing Alumni: From students with hopes and goals to role models in their communities 6 8 9 9

Entrepreneurship Business + Technology + Education = Enterprise Development Laboratory Minding Business: PhD program launch From K.C. to U.S.: SourceLink model spreads It’s in the Bag: Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2007

Executive MBA 10 A Class Act: Executive MBA students rally to aid TAKE Foundation 12 UMB Financial Corporation: Executive MBA sponsor/student spotlight 13 Talking Shop: Q&A with Karyl Leggio, PhD Undergraduate Education 14 Savvier Sooner: Bloch’s new undergraduate curriculum 16 The BlochCast Podcast Connection 17 Students by Day: Undergraduate life outside the classroom 18 20 20 21

Leadership The Boardroom Awaits: Profiting from nonprofit involvement Funkhouser Wins: UMKC alumnus takes office Peace Corps Volunteers MPA Program Public Affairs Student Association connects students, community

Financial Services 22 Thought Leaders, Business Builders: Chamber Economic Advisory Board 22 Global Perspectives: Bloch students bank on China experience 23 Information in Context: State Street News Center 24 24 25 25 26 28

Alumni and Constituent Relations Letter from Your Alumni Association President Bloch Alumni Association Board Members Bloch Launches Bloch Leadership Associates Regina Reynolds Memorial Scholarship Class Notes and Alumni Spotlight Donor Honor Roll

Around the Bloch 32 New Bloch Staff 32 Faculty Contributions

BPA6121547

from the dean

BLOCH

Produced by UMKC Creative Services Managing Editor: Victoria Prater Writer: Sarah Mote Photography: Mark McDonald, Kristen Hellstrom Bloch magazine is published annually by the University of Missouri-Kansas City Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration’s Office of External Relations to encourage interest and support among our alumni, partners and friends. www.bloch.umkc.edu Dean: O. Homer Erekson 816-235-2204 | [email protected] Associate Dean: Lanny Solomon 816-235-2304 | [email protected] Associate Dean: Karyl Leggio 816-235-2896 | [email protected] Associate Dean: Kami Thomas 816-235-2214 | [email protected] Student Services 816-235-2215 | [email protected] Department of Accountancy, Chair: David Donnelly 816-235-2218 | [email protected] Department of Finance, Information Management and Strategy, Chair: Marilyn Taylor 816-235-6506 | [email protected] Department of Organizational Leadership and Marketing, Chair: TBD Department of Public Affairs, Chair: Robyne Turner 816-235-2894 | [email protected] Director of Development: Danny Baker 816-235-2316 | [email protected] Director of Communications: Victoria Prater 816-235-5295 | [email protected] Director of Alumni and Constituent Relations: Kathryn Houston 816-235-6211 | [email protected]

shape the future At the Bloch School, we live by the creed that innovation is essential. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our programs, link to the Kansas City region in creative ways and recruit high-caliber faculty, staff and students. The dynamic global market for which we are preparing our students demands that we embrace innovation. In an oft-cited remark, Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric, said “When the rate of change inside an institution becomes slower than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight. The only question is when.” At the Bloch School, we are never still. We are always looking for new ways to shape the future. Each story in this issue highlights examples of the current impact of the Bloch School and some of our plans for the future: former Bloch students who are now successful alumni making their mark; current Bloch students who are finding inspiration as they prepare to make their mark; students yet to come and how Bloch is preparing today to educate tomorrow’s business and community leaders; and community connection – building and developing symbiotic relationships with the community. All are pieces of a big picture, and that is the success of our school, our students and our city.

UMKC Mission, Values and Goals Mission Lead in the Life and Health Sciences Deepen and Expand Strength in the Visual and Performing Arts Develop a Professional Workforce; Collaborate in Urban Issues and Education Create a Vibrant Learning and Campus Life Experience Values Education First Discovery and Innovation Integrity and Accountability Diversity, Inclusiveness and Respect Energized Collaborative Communities

I hope you enjoy learning more about the Bloch School and discover innovative ways that we can work together. I hope to hear from you personally and welcome your ideas. Warmest regards,

O. Homer Erekson

Goals We attract, nurture and develop responsible community leaders. We are a leader in scholarship and creative activity. We are an essential community partner and resource. We are a workplace of choice. We have the resources to achieve our strategic goals. Bloch Magazine 2007

Amazing

ALUMNI Steve Bernstein

They were once Bloch students with hopes, goals and plans to improve themselves, the organizations and the communities they serve. Today, they are movers, shakers and role models. The alumni featured in this story are just a few examples of the great leaders Bloch is proud to call our own and prime examples of individuals who have shaped the future of Kansas City and beyond.

University of Missouri-Kansas City

The bloch family

Steve Bernstein: Heading for Home

Steve Bernstein, senior vice president and chief operating officer of BernsteinRein Advertising, has been awarded the Alumni Spotlight Award for bringing creativity and opportunity to UMKC and Kansas City’s communities. “We aren’t the guys who were born on second base and believe they hit a double,” Bernstein is fond of saying about growing up in the shadow of the largest ad agency in Kansas City and the 36th-largest full-service ad agency in the country. Bernstein-Rein Advertising was co-founded by his father, Bob Bernstein, in 1964. “We know we were born on second base, and we’re thankful for the opportunities we have, but we realize there are still two more bases to clear before we score.” Bernstein literally grew up in advertising, playing with the copy machine in his dad’s office, studying commercials during Super Bowls, and serving, at the age of 10, as the inspiration behind one of Bernstein-Rein’s marketing coups, the McDonald’s Happy Meal. In some ways, the family business

Melanie tucker

was Bernstein’s destiny. “We were never told, ‘You’ll be in the family business,’” he says of himself, brother David and sister Susan. “But we’re such a close family that it became natural for each one of us.” Bernstein’s interests in law and business led him to choose the Law and Bloch schools at UMKC, where he earned his JD and MBA in 1991. He joined the family business in 1992. However, Bernstein sees more in his choice than fulfilling a prophecy. He sees advertising as his legacy. “We’re fortunate to be in a business that produces the exact things not-for-profits need—marketing advice and direction,” he says. “As a company, we try to give feedback to the community that has been so great to us. We want to do our parts as an agency and a family to help Kansas City be the best it can possibly be.” Bernstein has offered his talents, free of charge, to UMKC and the community countless times, including helping the University roll out a new brand identity and marketing campaign in 2005. Today, Bernstein is busy as senior vice president and chief operating officer of the 300-plus-employee agency, but he is as committed as ever

Dick Gibson

to the future of Kansas City. “Everything is spurred by ideas,” he adds. “It’s important that Kansas City is a place that can foster, nourish and actually feed great ideas, culture and business.” Bernstein may still have things to do before he slides into home, but it’s a safe bet he’ll take Kansas City with him as he rounds the bases.

The Bloch Family: Kansas City’s Legacy

The Bloch family was recently honored with the UMKC Alumni Legacy award for the lasting impact they have left on Kansas City and the world. From the new H&R Block headquarters downtown to the new Bloch building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Bloch family has left a lasting legacy in Kansas City. “My family has always cared a great deal about Kansas City,” says Tom Bloch, UMKC Trustee. “It’s always been a priority to for us to give back, to help make this a great city.” The family has supported cancer research, health services, the arts, community development and education, lending their time and

Charlene meeker

support to the Leon E. Bloch Law Library, the Bloch School, the Institute of Urban Education at the School of Education and the UMKC Trustees. “Kansas City cannot be a great city without a great urban university,” adds Bloch. All told, the Bloch family has put in more than 100 years of service and millions of dollars to help Kansas City thrive. And for that reason, they were awarded the 2006 Legacy Award from UMKC. The award recognizes families who have a record of outstanding service to the University and the community. The legacy started with Leon Bloch Sr., who was a 1902 graduate of the University of Kansas City Law School. He and his wife Hortense instilled in their three sons, Leon Jr., Henry and Richard, a commitment to community. Henry and his wife Marion have carried that sentiment to their own family, encouraging their four children, Robert, Tom, Mary Jo Browne and Liz Uhlmann, to leave legacies of their own. “Our parents instilled in us the importance of giving back,” says Tom. “We all had great opportunities in our life, and we owe a great debt

of gratitude to our parents and to our community.” Tom is forging his legacy through education. In 1995, he resigned his position as president and CEO of H&R Block to teach, first at St. Francis Xavier School and currently at University Academy, a charter school sponsored by UMKC that he co-founded in 2000. He serves with his sister Liz’s husband, Paul Uhlmann, on the UMKC Board of Trustees. “There’s that saying,” says Tom, “that you should leave your campsite better than you found it. That’s the kind of philosophy my parents reinforced.” In honor of their mother, the Bloch children recently dedicated the Marion Helzberg Bloch Park and Terrace, a landscaped garden and meeting place for students, faculty and staff on the south lawn of the Bloch School. “Giving back is such an important part of life,” says Tom. “True happiness comes from not just looking at yourself, but in looking at how you can help others.”

Bloch Magazine 2007

Amazing AlUMNI Melanie Tucker: Beyond the Balance Sheet

Melanie Tucker, vice president of finance for JE Dunn Construction, has taken a knack for numbers and passion for people and turned them into an inspiring story. “There’s always a footprint left when you build something,” says Melanie Tucker, speaking of the physical legacy she’ll help Kansas City’s JE Dunn, the sixth-largest general contractor in the United States, leave behind. With 10 years experience as a manager and partner with CBIZ/ Mayer Hoffman McCann, Tucker joined JE Dunn in January as vice president of finance. Tucker is not your stereotypical finance professional. Consider her success as a female executive in the construction industry where women make up just 2 percent of the industry’s workforce, compared to 50 percent of the workforce as a whole. “Women are historically underrepresented in executive management positions,” Tucker says. “I hope I can serve as a role model for other women in finance positions, as well as in the construction industry.” Tucker sees more than numbers on a balance sheet, though. “Numbers tell a story,” she says. “Accounting and finance are really about the ability to get information out of numbers and data, to use that information to make decisions and to educate people about what the numbers say.” Tucker doesn’t leave the story strictly to the numbers, or the footprints to JE Dunn. Pushing past balance sheets and taxes, she’s building a legacy of her own. Her commitment to her community proves it. Tucker earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Bloch School at UMKC. She graduated in 1990, but she never


continued

really left. She taught accounting classes as an adjunct instructor. She currently serves on the Division of Accountancy Advisory Board and the Bloch School Alumni Board. Those connections to the Bloch School have led to other civic opportunities. Through the Bloch Alumni Board, Tucker met Tom Holcom, a founding member of Angel Flight, a nonprofit organization that arranges free transportation for people who need medical treatment. Tucker also serves on the board of Youth Volunteer Corps of America, a national nonprofit that helps youth volunteers find and conduct community service projects. “I know I want to stay involved with what’s going on in this community,” Tucker says. “I’m fortunate to work for a company that has recommitted to being downtown by building its new headquarters here. “I’m in the right place to be a part of Kansas City’s future, and I look forward to it.”

Dick Gibson: Leading by Example

Dick Gibson, vice president and chief administrative officer at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, is a role model in leadership and service. He recently earned the Alumni Achievement Award for his accomplishments and service to the Bloch School. Dick Gibson’s office at the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce is part scrapbook, part resume. His bookcase displays an assortment of photographs—one of Bobby Kennedy; a group shot of Presidents Nixon, Bush, Reagan, Carter and Ford; and another of Gibson shaking hands with Colin Powell, one of his former bosses. His desk holds Chinese meditation balls, a portable punching bag, a Dick Gibson bobble head and

numerous photographs of his three grandchildren. From music major to colonel to chief administrative officer at the Chamber, Gibson’s career, like his office, is rich in diverse experiences that have helped shape him into the leader he is today. Gibson graduated from UMKC’s Conservatory of Music and Dance in 1967. Just as he was preparing for his first New York audition, he received his draft notice. He put music on hold to enlist, and, in 1969, entered Vietnam as a second lieutenant. When he completed his tour a year later, Gibson was offered the rank of captain if he would stay one more year. With the support of his wife, Riue, Gibson accepted. Gibson says he enjoyed military life. “I always say that I stayed in the army because I was the only one who could count to four in time and sing cadences in harmony,” he laughs. His final military assignment was as the chief of staff for the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Colonel Gibson retired from the army in 1993 with a Purple Heart, Bronze Star with “V” (valor) device and Silver Star. Gibson launched his second career in corporate America as director of administration at the Don Bosco Community Centers in Kansas City and in 1997 became vice president and chief administrative officer at the Chamber. “I learned what I know about business from the school of hard knocks,” says Gibson of his military experience. “I wanted to validate that learning with a degree.” In 2000, Gibson enrolled in the Bloch School’s Executive MBA program on the G.I. Bill. “The Executive MBA provided an opportunity to broaden my perspective, network with other business professionals and get more involved

in the community.” Gibson took that network to heart. After he graduated from the program in 2002, he started an investment club with fellow alumni, served on the Don Bosco Social Enterprise Board and was a key player in the business plan EMBA students wrote for the TAKE Foundation defense training program for women. One of Gibson’s greatest gifts to the people and communities he works with is that of example. Throughout his service to the Chamber and the community, Gibson has brought lessons from his military career—the necessity of making contingency plans and leading by example. “If I’m not putting in my best effort, then I can hardly expect my people to,” he says. “It’s that simple.”

Charlene Meeker: Connecting People, Building Communities

Charlene Meeker, public relations consultant with MGA Communications in Denver, proves passion, drive and courage will take you places. If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point, you’ll recognize Charlene Meeker immediately. She’s a “connector,” someone with a gift for bringing different worlds together. “I strongly believe in the significance of relationships,” says Meeker. “I thrive on being a catalyst for connecting others with the people and resources that help them accomplish their goals.” Meeker earned her MPA at the Bloch School’s Cookingham Institute of Public Affairs in 2004, where she found a passion for the world of community development. “It was my second semester, and I enrolled in Dr. Robyne Turner’s introductory urban development class,” remembers Meeker. “After the first night of class,

I thought, ‘Community development is where I want to devote my life.’” Shortly after, she gathered new skills, interning with the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), where she did research, public relations and also worked on the award-winning First Suburbs Coalition Idea Book, a

Public-Private Sector Cooperation. Each year since 1984, the program has handpicked 30 community leaders—10 each from the public, private and nonprofit sectors—to discuss Denver’s big issues and what leadership should look like surrounding those issues.

“As UMKC and Kansas City strive to reach their potential, you always find Bloch School alumni making a difference.’’

remodeling guide for post–World War II homes. But Meeker is one alumna Kansas City will have to live without. She took her affinity for development west. “I became intrigued with Denver,” Meeker explains. “I liked where it was going, and how progressively they approached housing, transportation and economic development.” Eager to become part of the exciting developments in Denver, Meeker made a bold move there, without a solid job prospect. For months, Meeker searched for a way to bring the worlds she’d inhabited together. In 2005, she joined the Mile High Housing Fund, a community development financial institution. They created a position for her as director of public relations and development, which married her passions and introduced her to yet another world: nonprofit management. “I was impressed with her grasp of the nuances of finance, the political landscape, the relationships in the community among different players,” says Rodger Hara, vice president of Capmark Finance, whom Meeker met through the Fund. Hara was so impressed, he nominated Meeker for the Denver Community Leadership Forum, a yearlong program run by the University of Colorado’s Center for

– O. Homer Erekson, Bloch School dean

Meeker says that experience monumentally changed her life. And Meeker has used the opportune connecting of worlds to help others. The forum led to her current job with MGA Communications where she helps clients engage and improve the communities they serve. Her work with MARC has put her in touch with a similar community revitalization program in Denver, the Denver Regional Council of Governments. And recently, she brought her talents to the board of Hope Communities, a nonprofit community development group that provides housing and educational resources to help people improve their lives. “There’s a lot of serendipity in my life,” Meeker admits. “People are different, and we all approach life uniquely. But I’m committed to finding ways to improve the overall quality of life for everyone.” Meeker continues to work connections, taking every lesson she’s learned, and every person she’s met, with her.

Bloch Magazine 2007

Learning by Doing

Sponsored by the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UMKC, last year’s New Venture Challenge Competition was the climax to four months of business planning by the Bloch School’s Executive MBA and MBA students. At the beginning of the winter semester, students divided into 12 teams. Each team selected from 34 intellectual properties representing Midwest Research Institute, Hallmark, Kansas University Medical Center, sCOMM, Mobile Media Technologies, LLC, BOC Group, Jay Fine and Brown Medical Industries.

Business + Technology + Education =

Enterprise Development Laboratory

Jason Curry and his family took the UbiDuo from a brainstorm to a business using the many resources available through the Bloch School’s Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

The student teams assessed their choice for potential risks, conducted market opportunity analysis and sales strategies, examined financial models, designed a business concept plan and presented that plan to a panel of judges at the final competition. “The goal of the competition,” says Michael Song, executive director of the Institute, “is to provide students with experiential learning opportunities that help them apply their new knowledge about business plans, market and industry data and the commercial potential of intellectual property.” Last year, several student teams attracted interest from serious investors for their companies’ products or services.

Experimental Business

The annual New Venture Challenge Competition is just one outgrowth of the Institute’s larger efforts to bridge business, technology and education. The competition joins the Institute’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Boot Camp, Executives in Residence and student business incubator to form the Enterprise Development Laboratory (ED Lab). “The ED Lab for the Bloch School is much like a chemistry lab for a chemistry course,” explains Larry Lee, director of the Enterprise Development Lab. “For us, though, looking under a microscope isn’t enough. To understand a business, you have to

run a business.” Integrated with and an extension of the entrepreneurship curriculum, the ED Lab gives students hands-on, real-time experience with the tasks, tools and frustration that come from turning ideas into market-ready businesses. Ideas come from University of Missouri research centers, Kansas City research organizations, local corporations or the students themselves. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Boot Camp, for example, is a four-week competition that allows students to test the viability of their business ideas. After those innovations are vetted by Institute faculty and advisers, student teams begin to develop business concepts. Experts-in-residence, a pool of about 160 attorneys, bankers, angel investors, engineers—“people who fit almost every need,” says Lee—mentor students throughout the process. Students, advisers and investors evaluate the final business concepts. “When those concepts come out of the hopper, there are three options,” says Lee. “If it’s not a viable business, it may stop right there. Or the concept could turn into an actual start-up, ready to go out on the street. Or, if it needs a little nurturing and support, the concept could move to the student business incubator.” The incubator helps students jump-start their businesses by providing them with the physical (continued)

Entrepreneurship

The product is greater than the sum of its parts at the Enterprise Development Lab, which trains and launches entrepreneurial talent into Kansas City and the world. On April 22, 2006, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation conference room was filled with 55 graduate students from the Bloch School, 40 judges from Kansas City’s leading corporations, banks and nonprofit business development organizations and 12 intellectual properties. For eight hours, the conference room transformed into a working laboratory for enterprise development and hosted the second annual New Venture Challenge Competition —bursting with innovative ideas from singing greeting cards to male contraceptives.

Jason Curry | From Competition to Conveyor Belt Jason Curry is deaf. Throughout most of his life, any conversation—with employers, doctors, family—has been slow and frustrating at best. Five years ago, while Curry was having breakfast with his father, David, they both reached a breaking point. Then David had an idea. When they got home, he sketched what would become the UbiDuo. The UbiDuo is a portable device that allows the deaf to communicate with the hearing. Composed of two keyboards with imbedded screens, the UbiDuo is as easy to use as a simultaneous chat screen. But unlike instant messaging, the conversation is immediate: messages can be read as they’re typed and thoughts can be interjected. With the UbiDuo, the deaf could communicate with

anyone without an interpreter. Curry and his father formed sComm, Inc., and with the help of Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, Neb., further developed the concept behind the UbiDuo. With a solid concept, they needed funding. Enter the Small Business and Technology Development Center and Enterprise Development Laboratory at the Institute. Curry was able to apply for and win an SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health. The first phase gave him $100,000 for testing. Before he could receive the second phase, $1.3 million, however, he needed a prototype and a business plan. Larry Lee, director of the Enterprise Development Lab, guided Curry through incorporation, how to

set up bookkeeping and find an accountant, how to write a business plan and put him in touch with a partner, Pivot International in Lenexa, Kan., to build the prototype. This past January, sComm shipped out its first batch of UbiDuos. “With this product, people like me can have face-toface conversations with their doctors, their bosses—their families, without scraps of paper or interpreters. For many of them, it will be a first,” says Curry. Thanks to the Curry’s entrepreneurial spirit and the Institute’s resources, a new business has blossomed that will open the doors of communication for more than 27 million Americans.

Entrepreneurship | EMBA | Undergraduate Business | Leadership | Financial Services | Alumni Bloch Magazine 2007

space, office equipment and mentoring they need to get their businesses off the ground. The Institute is also working on creating a Seed Venture Capital Fund that will give students access to capital “when they need it the most, at the very beginning,” says Lee.

Growing Ideas, Growing Businesses

“Our goal,” says Lee, “is to give students more than a diploma. It’s one thing to start a business in your mind

continued

or on paper. It’s quite another to have real people working for you, bills that have to be paid and the menagerie of things that have to be done in a business. You learn how to prioritize or how to let go. You learn about yourself.” And the seeds those students plant ultimately feed the community with new businesses and a new understanding of entrepreneurship. To create a lasting view of enterprise development, Institute faculty are conducting longitudinal studies on the businesses that leave the lab,

helping enrich the research on entrepreneurship and high-growth ventures for Kansas City and the world business community. “That speaks to our sustainability and impact,” says Song. “Imagine, year after year, 30 teams of future entrepreneurs in a city looking for business ideas, developing business models, creating new companies. Every single year. Just imagine the possibilities.”

Minding Business

PhD in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Why do businesses fail? Better yet, how do they succeed? These questions form the foundation of entrepreneurial research. According to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, activity in the past few years has climbed to levels that surpass the late 1990’s Internet boom.

Fertile Ground

Growing Reputations

It’s a field with great demand yet scant supply. Although there has been explosive growth in the number of endowed chairs in entrepreneurship —about 71 percent from 1999 to 2003, as reported by the Kauffman 2004 U.S. Survey of Endowed Positions in Entrepreneurship and Related Fields—there are few qualified candidates to fill those university positions. In 2004, close to 20 percent of those endowed chairs went unfilled.

UMKC is one of just a few universities in the country to offer a doctorate program and training in entrepreneurship. “Our aim is to make the Institute the recruiting ground for future top quality faculty,” says Michael Song, the Institute’s executive director and Charles N. Kimball, MRI/Missouri Endowed Chair in Management of Technology and Innovation. “That reputation will then help us attract expert faculty and develop world-class research—and that will put the University as a whole on the national map.” Already, the Institute claims two top-ranking scholars in innovation management. The Journal of Product Innovation Management ranked Song as the world’s top scholar and Mark Parry, the Ewing M. Kauffman/ Missouri Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurial Leadership, as 13th. “The Institute is a leverage point for the Bloch School. And the PhD program is a great way to attract new and seasoned scholars to UMKC,” says Song. “It’s a simple equation. Anyone who’s created a company knows this: good people build strong businesses,” he add. “And building an institute is no different from building a high-growth company.”

When Jeremy Hegle (MBA ’03) interviewed for the position of network integrator at KCSourceLink in July 2003, the organization claimed just three employees, a three-year business plan and a classroom on the second floor of the 4747 Troost building in Kansas City, Mo. “We didn’t even have a phone,” Hegle recalls. “We started out as a way to help small businesses find the resources they needed to grow,” Hegle says, “But we had very little. We had to develop the infrastructure, do the marketing, branding, all of it.” Today, KCSourceLink still works with a tight crew, but it has increased its footprint well beyond its modest schoolroom beginnings. Since 2003, KCSourceLink has connected a network of 140 plus resource partners to more than 2,400 aspiring and

existing small business owners in the 18-county Kansas City region via telephone hotline or e-mail. More than 5,600 searches have been made within the 25 service categories with SourceLink’s online database, the Resource Navigator. In fact, KCSourceLink has been entrepreneurial about being entrepreneurial. “We’ve traveled the same road that we’ve guided other businesses through,” says Maria Meyers, KCSourceLink director. “We’ve basically created an intellectual property that is owned by the University and we license out.” In 2005, KCSourceLink expanded under the brand of U.S.SourceLink, where it has zigzagged its Web tools from north to south, linking entrepreneurs with small business services in Wisconsin, Ohio, Kansas, North

Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Some cities are using the model specifically to help grow minority-owned businesses. “The unique thing about SourceLink is that it networks together the resource partners that support small business development,” says Meyers. “The original plan was to work through people—to educate network partners about each other so they could make better referrals. “And that’s how a true network is built,” adds Meyers. “It’s all about the people.”

To learn more about KCSourceLink, visit kcsourcelink.com.

It’s in the Bag

Handbag and Fashion Icons Andy and Kate Spade Named International Entrepreneurs of the Year The UMKC Bloch School and the Council for Entrepreneurship and Innovation are proud to sponsor the 22nd Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Dinner, celebrating the essence of entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. This event is a benefit for the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Bloch School.

Monday, Oct. 8, 2007, 6 p.m. Reception, 7 p.m. Dinner The Westin Crown Center Kansas City, Mo. HONOREES: Andy and Kate Spade kate spade International Entrepreneurs of the Year L. William Zahner A. Zahner Company Regional Entrepreneur of the Year

Kate Spade

Andy Spade

The Byron G. Thompson Family Marion and John Kreamer Award for Entrepreneurship in Volunteer Community Service To purchase tickets or for more information, go to www.bloch.umkc.edu/eoy or call 816-235-2370.

Save the Date

This fall, the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Bloch School is launching the PhD program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The four-year, interdisciplinary program will create the next generation of leading-edge researchers and teachers of entrepreneurship. For doctoral students from other disciplines, the Institute provides a co-discipline and a minor so that students can add an entrepreneurial focus to their studies. Set within the urban laboratory of Kansas City, the program draws on a wealth of strategic resources, including the Midwest Research Institute, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the most influential entrepreneurship foundation in the world.

The program will grow in fertile entrepreneurial ground, especially rich for assessing the value, risks and market opportunities of emerging technologies and businesses. The PhD program, along with the Institute’s Enterprise Development Laboratory and New Venture Challenge Competition, will nourish and inform local business. Throughout their studies, and as part of the degree requirements, doctoral students will submit their research to national conferences and top-referred academic journals. The program grooms students to become participants in their field, ready to shape the study of entrepreneurship.

From K.C. to U.S.: SourceLink Model Continues to Spread

photos by Noe Dewitt

Enterprise Development Laboratory

Entrepreneurship | EMBA | Undergraduate Business | Leadership | Financial Services | Alumni


Bloch Magazine 2007

From Passion to Plan

From August 2006 to January 2007, Ianelli and 16 other Executive MBA alumni met monthly to review TAKE Foundation’s existing business plan, map strategies and venues to expand the foundation’s scope, and propose a plan to strengthen the program regionally and nationally. “Our task was to figure out where they could raise funds, how much they needed, next priorities, and what their future path should look like,” says Dev Malik (EMBA ’06), COO for Kansas City’s BNIM Architects. Unlike Ianelli, Malik has two sons, but was still impressed with the necessity of the foundation’s mission and the Kemps’ ability to “find a way to give hope to the world” in the face of personal tragedy. The Executive MBA team met with Roger Kemp and the TAKE board. After listening to the board’s issues and concerns, the team split

“This was an opportunity to work with an organization that is obviously doing good work.” – Mike Ianelli, EMBA ’O6

A Class Act

Executive MBA students use their skills and education to aid an inspirational community foundation

A woman, one of hundreds participating in TAKE Defense Training, practices the self protection moves she has just learned in class.

people in Kansas City know about,” says Ianelli. “Since I finished my Executive MBA, I’ve wanted to be more involved.” Roger and Kathy Kemp started TAKE Foundation in 2002 in memory of their daughter, Ali, who was murdered in June of that year. To date, the nonprofit foundation has trained more than 8,000 girls and women with its two-hour self-defense classes. But Roger Kemp and TAKE lead trainer Jill Leikhart, a sixth-degree black belt who was twice named Karate Woman of the Year, wanted to broaden the program’s reach to “change behaviors” on a larger scale. “We want to make people understand that what happened to Ali can happen to them or to someone they love,” says Leikhart. “But we also want to prove to young girls and women that they can do something about it.”

into four groups that covered TAKE’s markets: schools, corporations, community organizations and video. They ran competitive analysis. They researched market impact. And they looked for ways to grow the program without losing its passion or sense of community. The team then built a business plan, which recommended TAKE Foundation focus their personalized training on high school girls, with college women and elementary school girls serving as expansion markets. “We’re appreciative that these alumni took time to help us with the business plan,” says Roger Kemp. “We value what they’ve done.”

Emba

Last August, an e-mail request was sent to Executive MBA alumni: The Ali Kemp Educational Foundation (TAKE) was looking for ways to get its safety awareness and self-defense training program to a national level, and they needed a business plan. “Within 90 minutes we had 17 alumni signed up to help,” says Karyl Leggio, associate dean for academic programs. Mike Ianelli (EMBA ’06), west region sales manager with the Linde Group out of San Francisco, was one of them. “This was an opportunity to work with an organization that is obviously doing good work,” says Ianelli, who holds a second-degree black belt and is father to two young girls. For him, getting involved was about being a part of the community, empowering his daughters and spreading a positive message. “Ali’s story is something most

nonprofit leadership. “I’ve always worked in for-profits,” says Lolli. “The Executive MBA really opened my mind up to the fact that there’s more than going to work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. A lot happens in the nonprofit sector that can change how we live today, and I want to be part of that.” Lolli and her colleagues cite the Public Sector of Business class as the source of their revelation. The class, taught by Gary Baker, PhD, public administration lecturer at Bloch, helps students understand how important the interface between for profit, nonprofit and government is to their careers by putting them in the dialogue. “The Bloch School is one of only seven business schools that houses business, public administration, accountancy and a PhD program under one roof,” says Baker. “We are in a unique position to teach these lessons with the faculty talent and perspectives of this school.” Students finish Baker’s course with a Washington residency that Baker says “exposes them to new ways of thinking” about how they can contribute to that dialogue and how critical that conversation is to their business success. “My hope is that, like the students who took time and effort outside the classroom to work with TAKE Foundation, all of our Executive MBA students leave the program to become better civic leaders,” says Baker. “The Executive MBA program and my experience with TAKE gave me the sense I could do anything I put my mind to,” says Malik. “Because the program is so demanding, it requires you to reach a little deeper, push a little harder—and then you realize what really is possible.”

Leading with Balance

For Ianelli, Malik and Kelly Lolli, senior strategist with Cerner’s government relations team, working with TAKE Foundation was a significant foray into the world of


11

Bloch Executive MBA Builds Leaders in Business and Community

Talking Shop

Spotlight: UMB Financial Corporation and Michele Brinker

Jerry Hannah and Michele Brinker

Today’s businesses can’t afford not to take a proactive role in developing leaders who will shape the future of the organization. UMB Financial Corporation, one of the largest independent banks in the United States, is one of those businesses. “At UMB, we identify a talent pool of employees we think have strong leadership potential and we do ongoing development to prepare them for a place on our management committee,” says Jerry Hannah, senior vice president of management effectiveness. Michele Brinker, UMB’s chief risk officer, was an ideal candidate. Brinker earned her master’s degree in accounting from the Bloch School in 1997 and, making use of Bloch’s close proximity and connection to Kansas City, Brinker got a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers as a financial statement auditor. In 2003, having gained solid work experience, Brinker took a job at UMB as the director of internal auditing. A year later, Brinker was

promoted to chief risk officer, managing the departments of compliance, internal audit, enterprise risk management and fraud investigations. “It was a big change,” Brinker says. “I found myself with much broader responsibility and more people to manage.” But UMB leaders like Hannah thought Brinker was up to the task. She was selected from among several candidates by the UMB executive team for sponsorship in the Bloch Executive MBA program. Hannah says UMB was impressed with everything they had learned about the Bloch Executive MBA and offered Brinker the opportunity to enroll in the program. “It was quite a surprise because I hadn’t even thought about getting my MBA, and I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Brinker says. “But I was very flattered they were willing to make such an investment in me.” It was the right move. “At UMB, my role is different than past jobs. Every day something new comes along for me to think

about. I have to influence and lead people to a solution. The Bloch Executive MBA gave me an education in leadership – it taught me how to think more strategically.” Hannah says he can see the benefits of Brinker’s education as well. “Michele has a broader perspective on the business world, from marketing to financial analysis. She has new insight into her role as a senior manager, greater understanding about how to manage a workforce and the ability to develop vision and goals.” A strong advocate of leadership in the community as well, Brinker has been a volunteer with the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA) for several years. She says the Bloch Executive MBA was just as valuable to her civic work. “The residency we did in Washington, D.C., was especially influential,” she recalls. “It made me think a lot more about the relationship between business and community, and how much the two need each other. It’s something I think leaders in general need to think about.” In the office or out, Brinker says the most important thing to her is the impact she has on those around her. “I want to make difference, both at work and in the community,” she says. “UMB is one of many corporate sponsors in the Kansas City area to take advantage of the Bloch Executive MBA program,” says Beverly Stewart, program director. “The program gives employers seeking to build leadership within their companies a training ground for future leaders. It also provides ambitious executive-level professionals with the opportunity to broaden their understanding and take their career to the next level.” To learn more about the Bloch Executive MBA, visit bloch.umkc.edu/emba.

Karyl Leggio, associate dean for academic programs

What has shaped the changes Bloch is making?

KL We’re paying attention to what the market is saying. With the Executive MBA and the undergraduate changes, we asked all the constituents what they were looking for in our students and then we developed programs around those market demands. And we have to stay fluid, continuing to respond to the market.

Karyl Leggio

Karyl Leggio talks fast. Every word about her work at the Bloch School—her research, teaching and leadership—is flush with an undeniable vigor. Recently appointed associate dean for academic programs, Leggio leads the efforts to keep the Bloch School’s programs responsive and relevant. Below, she talks about what those changes mean and what the world can expect from Bloch students in the years to come. There have been a lot of changes at the Bloch School in the past six years—a new Executive MBA program, a new undergraduate program. Why now?

Karyl Leggio The business world has changed. We’ve moved from a manufacturing economy to a service economy to a network economy. As we’ve made that shift, the way we conduct business has changed and the expectations for employees has changed, too. We try to teach students to adapt to a constantly shifting business world. Our students learn there is no one way anymore. At the Bloch School we’re pushing decision making and understanding of complex business environments through our programs, even at the undergraduate level.

What kind of response have you gotten on the revamped Bloch Executive MBA program, which has been in place for two years now?

KL The statistics from the graduates of the Executive MBA program tell the story: their salaries are higher and two-thirds of them are promoted within a year of graduation. We also have more than 150 companies and organizations in Kansas City sponsoring employees in the program – that tells us the community feels like this program is worth the investment. In fact, I talked with a magazine asking us to sit on a panel with Penn State, potentially Harvard, and the Ross School at Michigan about what we’re doing with the Executive MBA program. People are noticing we’re doing cool things with this program. Why is it important for a business school to be connected to the community?

KL One of our most important jobs is to be a resource to area businesses. Our new undergraduate curriculum will move miles in terms of what we’re doing for area employers to strengthen their work force. Our executive education classes provide their employees with opportunities to share their experiences in class. And we are developing new ways to connect our faculty expertise and research with professionals who can benefit from it.

How does the Bloch School balance that need to serve the community and to lead it?

KL We lead with our research, and academic research leads practice by a number of years. Entrepreneurship, for example, is a new field and there’s a shortage in faculty and a demand for research. Not only are we saying we’re going to help your business be successful in Kansas City, but we’re going to help other businesses in other parts of the world be successful by training their faculty. What are Bloch’s immediate objectives?

KL We are focused on increasing the rankings for our undergraduate program and getting the Executive MBA program ranked among the top in the nation. The vision is to continue to provide quality education and a caliber of graduate that the business community needs. We want to improve what we’re doing. We want to get better, be more creative, be more innovative and develop programs that foster the skills that are in demand in this part of the world. What are Bloch’s hurdles – what still needs to be done?

KL One of the areas I’m most excited about is our executive education. We have a lot of people who earned their MBAs 10 or 15 years ago and need a refresher. We can customize classes for companies or we can develop a series around a topic of their choice such as organizational influence. I think that’s going be a real growth vehicle for us in the next five years. It’s also time to revise the MBA program. “And when that’s finished, it will be time to re-examine the Executive MBA again. This is not a static environment. Things are going to continue to evolve. It’s a continuous process.

Entrepreneurship | EMBA | Undergraduate Business | Leadership | Financial Services | Alumni 12


Bloch Magazine 2007

13

Savvier Sooner:

The Changing Needs of Undergraduate Education

A Head for Business

“We’re thinking differently about undergraduate education,” says Leggio. “We have to. Business has changed, and universities have to be responsive to that.” The Bloch School started by surveying its ripples of impact and influence—from current students to alumni to Kansas City business leaders to the global business community—to find out what skills business leaders will need in the next

five years. Those answers led to big changes and a new perspective on undergraduate education. Students can now choose from five emphasis areas. In addition to the traditional offerings in accounting and finance, students can specialize in marketing, enterprise management or entrepreneurship. The fresh perspective is carried into the classroom, where professors look beyond the walls of their own courses to complement, apply and augment what students have learned in previous classes. That integrated core curriculum makes sure each course fits with and flows into the others. Courses now also integrate understanding in areas such as ethics, global business and leadership. The results are crucial, says Leggio. “Students won’t just be memorizing facts for a test; they’ll learn to apply. For example, they may be called to apply skills learned in finance to make smart decisions in a strategic management course.”

A Change of Course

That applied learning follows them through all their business courses and into the world. In fact, Bloch undergraduate students begin building their resume before they even walk into their first information systems course. Each student completes Microsoft® certification to ensure they have the software expertise in Excel and PowerPoint to be successful in their business courses and more attractive to employers. In the classroom, undergraduate courses follow what has traditionally been an MBA model, employing case studies to help them think through and solve practical business challenges. Executive guest speakers, teamwork and global perspectives are woven into every course. Outside the classroom, students are encouraged to intern and study abroad. Finally, in their senior-level capstone experience, students work in the Enterprise Development Laboratory, pulling everything they’ve learned into an actual business plan for a Kansas City technology or company. Live cases, guest speakers,

teamwork, global applications, internships and enterprise development— together, these add up to real-world opportunities to learn from and take part in complex, everyday decision making. And that means students will carry practical experience, a tested business vocabulary and knowledge of current trends and issues out of the classroom and into their jobs. It’s a handy set of tools that will help them be effective contributors in the business world with their very first steps.

undergraduate business

Members of Team Quick Bar, the first-place winning team in the 2007 Entrepreneurship Boot Camp, enjoy reading the judges’ comments on their product idea to use a wireless network for dispensing restaurant beverages.

It wears a suit. Or jeans. Or even pajamas. It’s equipped with a mini multiplex—PDAs, cell phones, laptops, iPods—and an impressive assortment of nouns-made-verbs. It blogs, maybe even vlogs, podcasts, networks, phishes. It’s not penned in by walls or tied down by wires. It’s fluid and often virtual. It is the new business world. And despite the fact that they share a common vocabulary—and maybe the same closet—many of today’s undergraduate business students aren’t ready for it. As the face of the MBA student changes (it’s a lot younger these days), so do the success skills needed by the undergraduate business student. The Bloch School’s new undergraduate program is anything but business as usual, giving students a higher level of skills than ever before. “It used to be that a 22-year-old right out of school would be told what to do by their employers,” says Karyl Leggio, the Bloch School’s associate dean for academic programs. “That’s just not the case anymore. Instead, they’re told to solve a problem or work on an issue. They have to know how to get started, and they have to have initiative to follow through.” The Bloch School’s newly revamped undergraduate curriculum helps today’s business students better meet tomorrow’s business challenges. Grounded in leading-edge research and driven by the needs of the local, national and global business community, the program develops business acumen and strategic thinking, sharpens communication skills and gives students hearty, resume-building experience.

Talking the Talk

But business skills alone don’t make successful employees. In a recent survey of area business leaders, the Bloch School discovered that business leaders were looking for breadth of professionalism as much as, if not more than, depth of business acumen. “They kept telling us, ‘I can teach them net present value, but I can’t teach them how to effectively make their point, how to be persuasive, eloquent and appropriate in their discussions with business colleagues,’” recalls Leggio. That call for professionalism has led to the Bloch School’s new Communications Center. The center will house two classes focusing on building business-specific communication skills students will practice and polish throughout their undergraduate program. Students will learn to write effective e-mails and business memos, discover how to craft compelling presentations, find out how to present themselves properly at a business lunch, how to analyze the Wall Street Journal and how to dress appropriately for the competitive business environment they will join upon graduation. “In today’s society, we have a different way of socializing,” Leggio says. “We don’t interact physically as much as we used to. Most of our students will engage in virtual communications and many will work for virtual companies. We want to make sure our students are prepared to succeed in any business environment.”


15

BLOCH

Students By Day…

They are Bloch students studying finance and management, entrepreneurship and public affairs. But when the books are closed, many of them prove Bloch students are more than they seem to be.

The BlochCast Connection

New Bloch podcasts connect students with news they can use

Griffen Alexander

Hometown: Plattsmouth, Neb. By day: Sophomore, studying business administration (BBA) On the outside: This guy rocks. Griffen Alexander spends most of his

time outside the classroom working on his music. From the time he was 11 years old, Alexander knew he was born to hold a guitar. He’s rocked in bands and found influence in other musicians like John Mayer. He began writing his own songs and last May, he signed a record contract with Red Night Records and released his first CD in November. Defining moment: “I was 17 and I’d been playing shows in Omaha for

about five months. At one show at a small coffee shop, I sat in the corner with my guitar and people just started packing in until they couldn’t even sit and no more could get in. When I started playing, everyone knew the words to my songs. People I had never seen before were drinking in everything I did. And right then I knew this was going to happen.”

Jeff McCaffrey

Undergraduate business students David Derendinger and Daniel Allegri hang out in the Podcast Studio at the Bloch School where new episodes of BlochCast are recorded.

Podcast: Sci-fi alien life form or innovative communication vehicle? If you guessed the latter, you’ve been keeping up with technology. Podcasts are an easy way to provide recorded information to almost anyone, anywhere, at any time. Thanks to undergraduate business students David Derendinger and Daniel Allegri, the Bloch School is taking advantage of podcast technology in what has been christened “BlochCast,” podcasting by Bloch students, for Bloch students. BlochCast, mp3-format audio files anyone with mp3 playing ability can listen to, are published weekly. Listeners can subscribe to the program so they receive all published episodes automatically, or they can just visit the Web site and listen to select episodes. “We started the BlochCast as

part of a class project in Dr. Sidne Ward’s Introduction to Management Information Systems class,” Allegri explains. “It’s a great way to make information accessible to people at their convenience. It’s like having a radio or news station at your command.” Currently, BlochCast recordings include things like news, information and internship opportunities, but Derendinger and Allegri say they hope to broaden the scope to include interviews with business and civic professionals in Kansas City, as well as student testimonials. “We’d like to get interviews with local professionals who can offer tips about what employers are looking for and other real-world information Bloch students can use,” Derendinger says. “We’d also like to eventually let students offer their insights about their Bloch School experience – likes,

dislikes and tips for success.” “There aren’t a lot of business schools podcasting yet,” says Sidne Ward, PhD, associate professor of management information systems. Among those that are using podcasts to reach their technology-savvy students are Harvard, Wharton, Pepperdine, Tuck and Darden. “I teach students in my classes that in order to reach the most people, you need integrated communications and multiple media,” Ward says. “Many students are already comfortable using new technology such as podcasting to receive information. BlochCast is another way to reach these students – and we’re empowering the students themselves to develop and deliver the message.” BlochCast can be accessed at http://bis.bsbpa.umkc.edu/student/ blochcast.

When not studying, Griffen Alexander spends his time writing and recording.

Hometown: Kansas City, Mo. By day: Senior, studying business administration On the outside: After a paralyzing car accident in 2002 abruptly ended

his plans of being a cadet and football player at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Jeff McCaffrey found himself faced with a whole different life. So he decided to use it to potentially improve the lives of many, devoting himself heart and soul to advocating stem cell research. He has worked with groups like the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, garnering support for the stem cell initiative, preventing hostile legislation, submitting for a ballot issue and speaking to numerous groups from chambers and boards to Bible studies. At UMKC, McCaffrey started a chapter of Student Society for Stem Cell Research. “The promise of stem cell research and its potential application gives me hope,” McCaffery says. “One day there will be a treatment available to restore motor function, and I will walk again.” Dream job: “There are different ways to advance life sciences research. Jeff McCaffrey sits on a wall between the Stowers Institute and UMKC, his wheelchair momentarily forgotten. He hopes progress in the area of stem cell research will someday allow him to fold up his chair for good.

Mine is through business. I really do see Kansas City becoming a Mecca of life science, and I love the fact I am able to partake in that. I look forward to contributing to that dream and vision.”



Bloch Magazine 2007

17

In today’s downsized corporate environment, where there often aren’t enough hours (or people) to get it all done, employers are guarding their employees’ time more jealously than ever. And yet major corporations like Sprint and Hallmark are encouraging those same employees to spend time learning about and joining nonprofit boards in the community. Why? David Renz, PhD, director of the Bloch School’s Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, says nonprofit board involvement is a trend once again on the rise. “Corporations get several layers of return when employees get involved on boards,” Renz says. Those returns include positive perception in the community, leadership training and skills, networking and a point of pride for the employee. “I’ve heard employees who have been given the chance to serve on nonprofit boards say they are proud to be part of a company that values such things,” Renz says. “It enriches their job in a way that helps them feel more allegiance to the company. They’re part of something bigger that supports their noncommercial interests and aspirations.” At companies like Hallmark, in which giving back to the community is a major component of company culture, employees are encouraged and prepared to volunteer. Susie Haake, employee volunteer program manager at Hallmark, has been using the Midwest Center’s How to Become a Nonprofit Board Member class for years to help educate employees who are ready and interested in getting involved on a board, but want to learn more. The class, a two-hour lunchand-learn offered once per year, is a general overview of nonprofit board service and the basic responsibilities. “We definitely want to encourage people to become active in community boards, but we want them to understand that there are practical, ethical and moral responsibilities in assuming a board role,” Renz says. Class topics include an overview of the legal responsibilities that go with board membership as well as self-

David Renz and his team at the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership help businesses and their employees profit from nonprofit involvement.

David Renz, PhD, Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership

assessment tools to help individuals find out if board membership is right for them, and if so, what kind of board they can bring the most to. Renz uses real life examples of boards that have excelled, as well as those that have failed, and examines why. “When a board fails to serve effectively and an organization dies because of it, a critical resource for people in the community disappears, and this can be devastating for those groups in need.” Haake says there is big value in employee involvement on nonprofit boards. “Not only can employees take the skills learned on the job to their respective boards, they typically bring skills learned on a board back to their jobs,” she says. “On any given board, you might have someone in heating and cooling sitting next to someone in marketing. We encourage that kind of networking.”

workshop, Renz says, is for those serving in leadership roles on boards (like chairs), and it focuses on how to effectively lead the board to work better as a team. Renz has also been talking recently with two other major Kansas City companies about developing similar programs for their employees. For the nonprofit organizations themselves, Renz gives this advice: “What’s different now about nonprofit involvement with for-profit companies is the way people and companies get involved,” he emphasizes. “Time is limited – people don’t want an in-depth, permanent assignment that doesn’t have clear value. It’s incumbent upon nonprofits to make the case for why people should get involved. That means being able to clearly answer questions such as ‘how will my involvement make things better?’ and ‘how can I measure if I’m

leadership

The Boardroom Awaits

“I’ve heard employees who have been given the chance to serve on nonprofit boards say they are proud to be part of a company that values such things.” – David Renz, director, Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership

But Hallmark isn’t the only Kansas City company jumping on board with nonprofits. Renz and the Midwest Center team have also worked extensively with Sprint. “When Gary Forsee took over the leadership at Sprint,” Renz says, “he made a commitment that Sprint would be a sensitive and active player in the community, looking more closely at how up-and-coming Sprint leaders and top execs should be contributing to the community through volunteer service, including boards.” Unlike the overview class at Hallmark, the classes at Sprint have been for people who are already committed to be members of the board. “We created a two-layer program at Sprint,” Renz says. “There’s a basic board performance workshop covering board effectiveness, the job of the board and understanding legal fiduciary accountability.” The second board leadership

making a difference?’” If nonprofits want strong volunteers, Renz concludes, they must be effective in creating opportunities employees can afford. The Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership takes research and theory at Bloch and applies them so practitioners can put this knowledge to work. The mission of the Center is to build effectiveness of the nonprofit community through strong nonprofit board leadership. The Center does this through credit and noncredit programs designed to build leadership and management in the nonprofit sector. For information about upcoming workshops and programs, visit www.mcnl.org.


19

Pizza, Panels and Public Affairs

Funkhouser Wins!

Mark Funkhouser

Public Affairs student Mark Funkhouser (IPhD ’00) was named mayor of Kansas City in April 2007. “As mayor, Mark will continue his social worker tradition by working to provide for the basic needs of his new bosses: the 450,000 citizens of Kansas City.”

This quote, found on Mark Funkhouser’s campaign Web site, well represents the style of Kansas City’s new mayor. Formerly city auditor, Funkhouser has always been a strong advocate for the basic needs of Kansas City’s citizens. And while it hasn’t always endeared him to the powers that be, Funkhouser’s courage to speak truth to power has become one of his hallmarks to the average citizen. Funkhouser says his intricate knowledge of the city from his auditor days was a catalyst in his decision to run. “I know how the system works and I know how to make it work better,” he says. “My job was to study City Hall, to identify what works and what doesn’t, and to come up with solutions to problems that affect us all. It was also my passion, because I’m a Kansas Citian. I want my city

to be a clean, safe and prosperous place to live.” Funkhouser strongly believes in starting with the basics. “We first handle the most basic tasks at hand,” he emphasizes. “In other words, forget Paris – let’s compete more effectively with Prairie Village.”

Bloch Alumni in Politics Funkhouser is a graduate of the UMKC Interdisciplinary PhD program within the School of Graduate Studies with an emphasis on public administration from the Bloch Department of Public Affairs. Outgoing mayor Kay Barnes earned her master of public administration at Bloch in 1978. In addition, the following Bloch alumni were elected to Kansas City’s new City Council: Beth Gottstein (MPA ’99), 4th District at Large; Jan Marcason (EMBA ’99), 4th District; John A. Sharp (MPA ’79 BPA), 6th District.

Public Affairs Student Association helps students connect with each other, community and current events. Every second Tuesday, 10-15 students from the Bloch School’s Department of Public Affairs descend on Pizza 51 across the street for a little shoptalk and a lot of camaraderie. Some day soon, these graduate students will lead public service in Kansas City and beyond, but for now, they’re trying to learn more about their field. They are the Public Administration Student Association, or PASA. Launched in spring 2006, PASA was created to enrich the social, academic and professional environment of public administration students. Before PASA, “we didn’t have a chance to formally talk about the issues brought up in class, or in the sector in general,” says Erin Nelson, PhD student and chair of PASA. “We didn’t have a formal venue to talk

about the research we’re doing. PASA gives us a place to share ideas.” In addition to monthly happy hours, PASA hosts a panel and review each semester. The PASA panel brings in professionals from the community who represent each prong of public administration: health administration, nonprofit managementand urban affairs. “It’s interesting to see how all three sectors share similar concerns,” says Nelson. “It helps us realize the commonality between the three areas.” At a recent panel, board members and executives of the American Society of Public Administration, Council on Philanthropy, American Fundraising Professionals, Urban Land Institute and the American Public Works Association spoke about the benefits of student membership and

how their organizations were helping students and professionals better handle the sector’s emerging trends. The PASA review, also held once each semester, gives students the opportunity to present their research to other students and faculty, allowing all Bloch students to see what public administration is all about. PASA cosponsored a mayoral forum with the African-American Student Association in February, and hopes to create collaborations with other UMKC schools. “We enjoy the opportunity to work with other departments and disciplines,” adds Nelson. “It helps us realize just how deep the roots of public service are.”

Peace Corps Volunteers Bring World Experience Back Home Cookingham Program allows returning volunteers an opportunity to turn skills into education. This winter, the L.P. Cookingham Institute for Urban Affairs in the Bloch School’s Department of Public Affairs introduced a new Peace Corps Fellows/USA Program specifically for returning Peace Corps volunteers. One of only six Peace Corps Fellows public administration programs in the country, the new program not only gives returning volunteers an opportunity to earn a master of public administration degree, it lets them bring their world experience back to communities in Kansas City and the United States. The program applies specifically to Peace Corps volunteers who have worked in a community-building field and want to translate their skills to work with communities in the United States, particularly those in the urban core.

“Peace Corps volunteers are adept at working in arduous conditions with limited resources, much like the underserved communities of the urban core of Kansas City where they will be interning while a full-time student,”says Liana Riesinger, program coordinator. “What makes our program unique is the synergy in Kansas City between public, nonprofit and private sectors.” Participants in the program receive six credit hours tuition remission per semester; a $10,000 work stipend through paid internships in community -building organizations such as nonprofits, community development corporations, state and local government agencies and health service organizations; opportunities for networking events, workshops and conferences within their area

of study; and membership in the American Society for Public Administration. “Pursuing my MPA was a natural extension of volunteering for the Peace Corps,” says Tim Swenney (MPA ’06) who helped develop the program at UMKC. “My experiences as a volunteer deepened my commitment to a career in community development. My studies as a graduate student enhanced my capacity to manage organizations dedicated to community development.” To learn more about the Peace Corps Fellows Program at the Cookingham Institute, call 816-235-2894.

PASA Chair Erin Nelson (standing) introduces public administration community professionals and panelists to an audience of PASA students and Bloch faculty.



Bloch Magazine 2007

21

The Bloch School works hard to make its borders permeable. Whether it’s the Bloch Advisory Council and Bloch Executive Speakers Series, the Executive MBA program, the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership or the Public Administration Student Association, Bloch faculty, students and alumni consistently reach beyond the brick and mortar of the school to lead thought, build careers and support business in Kansas City. Dean O. Homer Erekson’s leadership in the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Advisory Board is one more example of how the Bloch School has opened its doors to a steady in-and-out stream of ideas.

The Economic Advisory Board (EAB) is the Chamber’s “economic policy apparatus,” says David Albrecht, manager, Business Research, Business Growth. EAB selects the overarching themes that form the discussions at the Chamber’s three economic events: the Economic Forecast Breakfast, Inside Kansas City and the Economic Forum. Erekson co-chairs the board with William Downey, president and CEO of Kansas City Power and Light. Representing academics, finance, manufacturing, engineering and transport, the EAB team bridges business and economics—and creates conversations about those economic issues that affect Kansas City. “It’s not just about equations that rotate in the clouds, and it’s not just

financial services

Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Economic Advisory Board: Thought Leaders, Business Builders

State Street News Center Putting Information in Context

about people doing business,” says Albrecht. “The EAB helps find a common point of interest where we can bring the two worlds together: the nuts and bolts of business and the theories of economics.” Erekson brings a serious economic background, says Albrecht, “but he is also a hands-on administrator when it comes to encouraging entrepreneurship and small business creativity.” “The Bloch School must continue to be a leader,” says Erekson. “This is one way we do that, by speaking the language of business, helping the community focus on important economic issues and creating a dialogue about how those issues affect Kansas City.”

The Bloch School has two State Street News Centers on either side of the first floor where students can sit, talk, study or catch up on world news and industrial averages.

Global Financial Perspectives Bloch students bank on experience in China Last October, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson noted that “China’s economic development is very, very important to China and the rest of the world,” and that he believed “the most important long-term economic relationship we’re going to have is going to be our relationship with China and vice versa.” In April 2007, a group of 29 Bloch School Executive MBA students spent a week in China as part of an international residency. Their trip included meetings with Terence Cuddyre, a managing director of Citigroup, Sarah Kemp, commercial officer for the U.S. Embassy and a forum with Graham Brown and Wei Xin, two attorneys for JunZeJun Law Offices, a prominent law firm in Beijing specializing in international business finance.

EMBA student Donna Ward, assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, was intrigued by the challenges facing regulatory authorities in China and noted that “it was apparent that banking was at the center of economic activity in China.” Financial planning in China faces special challenges with the average Chinese citizen saving 40 percent of their income, in comparison to 1 percent for U.S. citizens. It occurred to EMBA student Tammy Breitenbach, director of sales development for H&R Block, that “the growing middle class holds interests for firms in the tax preparation business or for firms able to provide financial planning advice.” Qing Cao, Bloch School assistant professor of management information systems, accompanied students on

the trip and made the following observation: “For all of our students, it became clear that doing business in China involved sometimes complex relationships, but ones that were imperative to confront with the growing importance of China in the world economy.” The Bloch school strives to incorporate global perspectives into curriculum, from undergraduate through Executive MBA levels, to prepare students for the ever-changing global economy in which they will live and work.

Najmeh Mahmoudjafari, junior, has an 8 a.m. class that meets every morning in the Bloch School. She likes to get to school a little early to prep for quizzes, review her notes— and catch up on Bloch news, world events and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Mahmoudjafari starts her day in the Bloch School’s Student Lounge, gathering her information at the State Street News Center, four wall-mounted LCD screens that offer a mix of school announcements, alumni profiles, business facts, financial data, local weather, headline news and live CNN feeds. “This really lets you see how classroom information applies in the real world,” says Mahmoudjafari. The Bloch School Student Association originally proposed, and partially funded, the idea for electronic displays that would provide news to the Bloch community. They went to Lanny Solomon, the Bloch School’s

associate dean for academic affairs, who, with the help of Dean O. Homer Erekson and Director of Development Danny Baker, found partners to help realize the group’s dream. Rise Vision has nearly 15 years experience with information-rich news venues. They have installed and managed content for universities, banks and businesses nationwide, including business schools at Notre Dame and the University of Virginia. Rise Vision installed the four screens in the Student Lounge, a place chosen because of its visual prominence, and continues to provide Web-based content. “We saw this as a way to market the school in a variety of ways to students, faculty, alumni, anyone who visits our building,” says Solomon. “The displays show that we value information, technology and communication.” With the solution in place, Bloch needed a financial partner to support

the news center. State Street, which provides financial services to institutional asset managers, stepped up. Allen Strain, managing director for State Street’s Kansas City office, had taught introductory accounting classes at the Bloch School as an adjunct and currently serves on the Bloch School Advisory Council. He saw this as a good opportunity to support the Bloch School and UMKC. “State Street, like other downtown employers, wants Kansas City to have a vibrant urban core,” says Strain. “The tremendous generosity of the Bloch family and the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation with Dr. (Michael) Song are examples of things that are beneficial to Kansas City. “Any opportunity to help UMKC succeed is an opportunity to help Kansas City succeed.”



Bloch Magazine 2007

23

alumni

My fellow alumni, What is the cornerstone of a great university? A UMKC publication stated that it “is found in the diversity, character and accomplishments of its graduates.” For me, this means a school’s graduates continue to build upon their academic and social learning experiences in their career successes and societal contributions. The cornerstone becomes stronger when the university benefits from the expertise and contributions of its graduates. The Bloch Alumni Association exists to provide an avenue to keep you connected with the Bloch School, your fellow alumni and students, our future alumni. The Alumni Association Board is committed to providing opportunities for your participation and involvement. In addition to

alumni-only activities such as happy hours, we provide opportunities for student and alumni interaction through mentoring and other forums to bring real world expertise to students. A significant goal for fall 2008 is creating a legacy fundraising event for the Bloch School, specifically hosting the Bloch School Golf Tournament at one of Kansas City’s premier golf clubs. We ask for your help to make these initiatives succeed, and no involvement is too small. Calvin Coolidge once said, “No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.” As an alumna of the Bloch School at UMKC, my hope is that you will stay connected and support our activities. Contact me or

any member of the Board to discuss these opportunities. From all of us on the Board, we welcome and look forward to your involvement. Loyally, Patricia “Candy” Yakimo Executive MBA ’98 Bloch Alumni Board President

Candy Yakimo

The following Bloch School alumni actively serve as your volunteer Alumni Board. As of June 30, 2007, there will be five open positions. Consider joining the board. Visit us on the Web at www.bloch.umkc.edu/alumni-friends.

Scott Busch Professional Direct Marketing Certificate ’93 Business Development, Lexinet Corporation Board volunteer 2004–07 Michael Campo Sub Committee Chair, Golf Tournament Executive MBA ’01 Senior Vice President and Team Leader – Enterprise Business, Lockton Board volunteer since 2006

Renee Donoho Vice President, Communications BBA ’98, MBA ’00 Associate, Donoho Appraisals Board volunteer since 2004

Pamela Linwood Direct Marketing Certificate ’93 Owner, Linwood Direct Communications Board volunteer 2001–07

Pasha Hosseini Sub Committee Chair, Student Outreach BBA ’05 Marketing Consultant, H&R Block, Inc. Board volunteer since 2006

Judy Mullin Executive MBA ’04 President, TRIOMEDIA Board volunteer since 2006

Eleanor “Leigh” Klein MPA ’87 Former Development Director, Sunflower House Semi-retired Board volunteer since 2004 Russell Koca Vice President, Leadership MBA ’88 Partner, Koch & Koch Board volunteer 2001–07

A Life, A Legacy

Bloch Leadership Associates:

A Symbiotic Relationship between School and Community

Bloch Alumni Association Board

Patricia “Candy” Yakimo President Executive MBA ’98 Senior Vice President, Human Resources/Strategic Planning, Argus Health Systems Board volunteer since 2002

Regina Reynolds:

Angie Salmon BBA ’00, MBA ’01 Vice President, EFL Associates Board volunteer since 2006 Melanie Tucker Immediate Past President BSA ’89, MSA ’90 Vice President, Finance – JE Dunn Construction Board volunteer 2001–07

In March 2007, the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Bloch School launched Bloch Leadership Associates, a new program designed to serve business and civic organizations and individuals who want to be partners in helping shape the School’s future. Inaugural members develop a close connection with faculty and students and are also able to take advantage of special charter membership privileges. Individual-level members receive an array of benefits to match that individual’s interests. In addition to continual recognition in the Bloch magazine, the Bloch School Web site and other publications, individual members are invited to an annual Bloch breakfast briefing to learn about leading-edge research and scholarship undertaken by distinguished faculty. These members also earn reserved seats for all Bloch School Leadership Speaker Series events as well as tickets to the prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Dinner. Business and civic organization members have the privilege of attending special presentations by the Bloch School faculty thought leaders and other distinguished scholars who shed new light on the leading business and civic topics of the day. They will also receive special assistance in identifying extraordinary

candidates for their company’s internships and opportunities to serve as judges for the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation’s New Venture Challenge Competition, providing insider access to new business innovations. Those who choose to join at the Dean’s Innovation Circle (the highest level of membership) also have the opportunity for consultations with Bloch School faculty experts to address problems facing their business or organization as well as exclusive semi-annual luncheons hosted by Dean O. Homer Erekson. “The combination of camaraderie and an insider’s perspective on business topics and leaders makes the Bloch Leadership Associates an excellent opportunity for the School and the business community to connect and share a mutually beneficial relationship,” says Danny Baker, Bloch School director of development. For more information about charter membership, contact Baker at [email protected] or 816-235-2316.

Those who knew Regina Reynolds were impressed by her intelligence, imagination and the grace with which she handled everything that came her way. She was known as a leader’s leader: the person others want to emulate and the person everyone wants as a teammate. Members of the 2006 Executive MBA class knew her well. She was a stand-out classmate and devoted friend to many. Her professional colleague and friend, Scott Arvidson, vice president and chief information officer at Kansas City Southern, remembers Reynolds as a person everyone wants as an associate because she had the unique talent to inspire every person she met to be a success. In February 2006, Reynolds passed away, leaving many to miss the joy and energy she injected into their lives and work. Reynolds’ classmates, family (Warren and Nancy Reynolds, Heather Livers and Sarah Buckley), and Kansas City Southern Industries joined together to keep Reynolds’ spirit and legacy alive at the Bloch School by creating the Regina Reynolds Scholarship – an endowed scholarship established to support women students who exemplify the qualities that Reynolds embodied: dedication to work, scholarly pursuit, family, and to the care, growth and development of her colleagues. Reynolds left too soon, but her name and legacy will be with the Bloch School in perpetuity. For alumni and friends interested in extending Reynolds’ legacy with a contribution to the scholarship that bears her name, contact Danny Baker at [email protected] or 816-235-2316.



Bloch Magazine 2007

25

CLASS NOTES Scott Ast (MPA ’91) founded and is now chairman of the American Society for Industrial Security International (ASIS) Agriculture Ad Hoc Council, fostering professional security standards in agriculture. Greg M. Baker (MBA ’88) was named president of Arvest Bank in Branson, Mo. Todd Becker (EMBA ’04) has joined K2B (Knowledge to Business), an Overland Park-based company that deals in advanced retail planning. Karen Bell-Dancy (EMBA ’01) is working on a doctorate degree in leadership, education and communication while serving as an assistant director in the Office of Admissions at the University of Nebraska.

Alumni Spotlight: Tom Holcom Investing in America’s Future Jacob Dobsch (MPA ’05) is now a city planner with the Kansas City, Mo. City Hall. Teri Ann Drake (MBA ’99) was named a corporate officer and will lead Hallmark’s 1,400-member creative community. Kenneth R. Farmer (MBA ’99) is vice president for academic affairs at God’s Bible School and College in Cincinnati. He recently led the institution to receiving candidacy status with the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Marilyn Fowler (MPA ’75) is president and CEO of the Women’s Intercultural Network in San Francisco.

Deanne Bronaugh (EMBA ’06) has joined the Cerner Corporation as a client benefit consultant.

Dr. George Whitfield “Whit” Holcomb (EMBA ’02) was recently named one of Kansas City’s “Top Docs” by Ingram’s magazine.

Hamad Mubarak Buamim (MBA ’02) has been appointed deputy director general of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce.

Alice Kitchen (MPA ’89) was appointed by former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes to serve as vice chair for the Housing Authority.

Steven Byers (MPA ’84) is the new director of development and communications for WaterPartners International in Kansas City.

Zhihua Li (MPA ’99) is a financial analyst with Hewlett-Packard.

Gerald Cohen (MPA ’85), currently the Oregon State Director at AARP, is heading a ballot initiative in Oregon to extend a discounted prescription drug program to all uninsured Oregon residents. Chuck Connely (MBA ’73) has been promoted to general manager-vice president of Butler Real Estate, Inc., a subsidiary of Butler Manufacturing Company, a BlueScope Steel Company. Brian Corn (EMBA ’04) has established FourView Software, LLC. Marshall Dean III (MBA ’03) has been promoted to customer service manager at Top Master, Inc., a custom countertop fabricator.

Elaine K. Mann (BBA ’97) has been named president of KidCARE Medical Television Network, Inc. Michael Mayberry (EMBA ’05) is now CEO of the Community Health Council of Wyandotte County, Kan. Michael McAfee (MPA ’96) has launched an e-philanthropy company named SimplePath, Inc. at www.simplepath.org. LaChondra Nevins (EMBA ’04) has been named president of the Kansas City chapter of the National Black MBA Association.

Jerry C. Ney, (Professional Direct Marketing Certificate ’95) has been named chief executive officer at Aldersgate Village. Bill Roush (MBA ’91) recently joined Black & Veatch’s Renewable Energy Group involved in biomass, wind, ethanol and solar power projects. Scott Sovereign (EMBA ’02) is national account manager for Check Point Software Technologies. Roderick Sturgeon (MBA ’77) was named the first CFO of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. Mark Talley (MBA ’06) was hired as a sales agent for Fishman and Co., an Olathe, Kan.-based real estate firm. David P. Thomas (EMBA ’97) has joined LaSalle Bank as group senior vice president and head of diversity and inclusion for LaSalle Bank Corporation and all other North American ABN AMRO Bank N.V. entities. Radhilca Tripuraneni (BBA ’03) has been appointed chief medical officer at Summer Street Research Partners, a boutique health care equity research firm in Boston. Jana Utter (EMBA ’01) is now director of enterprise risk management for Midwest ISO in Carmel, Ind. Margaret J. Watts (MBA ’01) is starting a new position as facilities service coordinator at the Avery Dennison Corporation. Mike Wilson (MBA ’06) and 2005 Bloch Student Entrepreneur of the Year, was hired as an account executive at Ingram’s magazine/Show-Me Publishing, Inc. Michael B. Wood (MPA ’75) received the 2006 World Citizen Award from then Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes at the annual Mayors’ U.N. Day dinner.

At the Bloch School’s 2005 Commencement, Tom Holcom (BBA ’72) played Cheshire cat to an audience of graduating seniors— most, like the wandering girl in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, wanting to know which way they ought to go from here. His challenge: decide where you want to end up. Holcom then distributed business cards and asked the graduates to flip them over and write their epitaph. It wasn’t an exercise in morbidity, it was an exercise in values. This kind of long-term vision statement, deciding where it is you want to go, says Holcom, is what drives businesses, nonprofits and the people behind them to success. He should know. As the president of Pioneer Financial Services, Holcom has led his team of 300 associates to enhance the quality of life and financial independence of military members and their families. Every day, they make a difference in the lives of those who serve their country, and their work has earned accolades for their team and for Holcom. In 2006, Pioneer earned the American Business “Stevie” Award for Best Corporate Responsibility Program and was recognized for the second time in three years as the 18th Best Medium-Sized Company to Work for in America by the Great Places to Work Institute.

U.S. Army Reservist Lt. Col. Richard McNorton (left) and Army Reservist Col. Bryan Wampler (right) present Tom Holcom, president of Pioneer Financial Services, Inc., with the Freedom Team Salute award in Kansas City, Mo. Holcom accepted the honor on behalf of more than 300 Pioneer Services associates around the country who “make a difference, one military family at a time.”

Always crediting the focus and passion of Pioneer’s associates, Holcom earned the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Social Responsibility in the Central Midwest region from Ernst & Young and the Freedom Team Salute for supporting Pioneer associates who serve in the National Guard and Reserve, both in 2006. Outside of the office, Holcom works with several nonprofit organizations, including Angel Flight, which provides access to charitable air transportation; Big Brothers and Big Sisters; Truman Medical Center

Foundation; Command and General Staff College Foundation; and Athena PowerLink, which helps women-owned companies grow. All of his work—with Pioneer, with nonprofits, even when he coached his three sons through 17 years of soccer—follows his own personal vision, written as an epitaph on the back of a business card when he graduated from the Bloch School in 1972. It reads, “He has no regrets. He made a difference.”

Thomas H. Holcom Make a Difference Scholarship Make a difference—the mantra has followed Holcom throughout his professional and civic contributions and has even seeped into the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of his colleagues. In 2005, the executives from Pioneer Services elected to fund a scholarship at the Bloch School in Holcom’s name.

“They wanted a legacy for the concepts that we embrace so well here at Pioneer, namely that we want to make a difference,” says Holcom. “They, in turn, wanted to make a difference for business students at the Bloch School.” Holcom was so moved, he matched the gift.

The Thomas H. Holcom Make a Difference Scholarship is available to full-time undergraduate or graduate students in the Bloch School. Selection is based on academic achievement, community involvement, professional excellence and financial need.



Bloch Magazine 2007

27

Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration Donor Honor Roll The following Donor Honor Roll is in appreciation and gratitude to our contributing partners and reflects gifts of $100 and above received between July 1, 2005 and Jan. 31, 2007. The names that follow are those of alumni, friends, faculty and staff, businesses, foundations, and organizations. All have made a public commitment to the unique education offered by the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration and through their action have enriched the lives of countless individuals. Charter members of the Bloch Leadership Associates are noted with an asterisk (*) and have made a special commitment to support the dean’s strategic initiatives. The Donor Honor Roll is based on cumulative gifts for the period.

100,000+ Anonymous Henry W. & Marion H. Bloch and Affiliated Funds/ Endowments The Children of Henry W. & Marion H. Bloch:

Robert L. & Barbara Bloch Thomas M. & Mary S. Bloch Mary Jo & Robert G. Brown Elizabeth & Paul Uhlmann III

Arvin Gottlieb Charitable Foundation H&R Block Foundation Missouri Department of Economic Development The Roetheli Lil’ Red Foundation* 50,000+ William T. Kemper Foundation State Street*

20,000+ George K. Baum Foundation The Farmer Family Foundation H&R Block, Inc.* William T. Kemper Trust The John Sublett Logan Foundation The Sosland Foundation 10,000+ American Century Foundation Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City Mr. Philip J. Brummel Entertainment Properties Trust Mr. James E. Ferrell Louis & Elizabeth Flarsheim Foundation Hall Family Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Barnett C. Helzberg Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Holcom Jr.* Hunt Midwest Enterprises, Inc. Kansas City Southern Industries, Inc. Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation Pioneer Financial Services, Inc. George P. Reintjes Company, Inc. Victor & Caroline Schutte Foundation The Ten Ten Foundation 5,000+ Aquila, Inc. BNP Paribas North America, Inc. Thomas Cairns Jr. Trust Mr. and Mrs. Newton A. Campbell Commerce Bank Ernest & Young LLP Shirley and Barnett Helzberg Foundation JMW & Associates, LLC* KPMG LLP* Kansas City Power & Light Company Enid & Crosby Kemper Foundation Massman Construction Company Midwest Mechanic Contractors Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus PC Lockton Companies, Inc. Mr. Steven B. Rafferty RSM McGladrey, Inc. Vincent V. Smith Charitable Lead Trust Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP Norman and Elaine Polsky Family Supporting Foundation U.S. Bancorp Foundation Whitbread Management, Inc.

2,500+

Mr. Alan D. Barnes Thomas and Janet Bash Berkel & Company Contractors, Inc. Robert & Phyliss Bernstein Family Foundation Bernstein-Rein Advertising, Inc. Black and Veatch* Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin, LLP Cereal Food Processors, Inc. Cerner Corporation Columbian Bank* Deloitte & Touche DST Systems, Inc. Advised Fund Kansas City Business Journal Kingston Environmental Services, Inc. Laser Cycle/Ink Cycle, Inc. Ms. Catherine A. Lewis Mrs. Jeanette Nichols Right Management Consultants Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal Sprint Nextel Corporation

1,000+

Adams-Gabbert & Associates, Inc. Andrews McMeel Universal Foundation Armstong Teasdale LLP Baker University Bank of America Bank Midwest Benedictine College Mr. Peter W. Brown Bryan Cave LLP Centene Management Company LLC Century Business Services, Inc. Mr. Kenneth S. Cherry Citizens Bank and Trust Mr. & Mrs. Thornton Cooke II Creative Blow Mold Tooling Barry & Pat Daneman Dr. and Mrs. Richard E. Davis Sr. DCM Construction, Inc. Renee L. Donoho* Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City Enterprise Bank & Trust Dr. O. Homer Erekson

Randall Ferguson Jr.* Francis Family Foundation Golden Star, Inc. Hallmark Cards, Incorporated Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Mr. Dave Hinck Human Resource Forum Integra Realty Resources J T & A, Inc. J.E. Dunn Construction Group, Inc. J.P. Morgan Chase Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, Inc. Kansas City Area Development Council Kansas City Life Insurance Company KC Small Business Monthly K. C. Southern Industries Charitable Fund Kearney Commercial Bank Mr. Lee R. Lyon M & I Bank Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw Mr. and Mrs. Harry C. McCray Jr. Mr. Robert McMullan Mrs. Mary A. Mullis William and Barbara Nelson Mr. Edward Newberry Mr. & Mrs. Fred H. Pryor Mr. & Mrs. Warren L. Reynolds Mrs. Elaine B. Ryder Schifman, Remley & Associates Mr. Michael A. & Mrs. Cathy P. Schultz Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, P.C. Frederick & Elizabeth Solberg Mr. Arthur L. and Mrs. Barbara S. Stern Mr. William D. Sullivan Truman Medical Center Charitable Foundation Turner Construction Company UMKC Alumni Association University of Kansas Hospital Authority Valentine Radford Communications, Inc. Venture West Development, LLC Douglas and Julie Welch

Frank & Helen Wewers Family Fund Mr. Gene Wilson Mrs. Sally Kemper Wood Ms. Nicole Wright Mr. Michael & Mrs. Patricia Yakimo* Mr. Edgar & Mrs. Carol C. Yee* Mr. Hugh J. Zimmer The Zimmer Companies

500+

Baird, Kurtz & Dobson Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Dr. David P. Donnelly Mr. Anthony Downs Mr. James R. and Mrs. Judith Y. Gold Grant Thornton Dr. Frederick H. Hays Highwoods Properties-JC Nichols Mr. William K. Hoskins Ms. Michelle M. Martin Mr. Robert L. McKim Jr. Mr. Michael F. Morrissey Newcastle Partners, LLC NMR Mr. and Mrs. Roderick M. Olson Price Waterhouse Coopers Mr. Robert J. Reintjes Jr. Mr. Bill L. Richards Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Slegman Dr. Lanny M. Solomon Southfield Capital Advisors, LLC Mr. Donald Stanley Harry S. Truman Library Institute UMKC Trustees Mr. and Mrs. Charles Vittetoe Mr. and Mrs. Peter L. Woodsmall

250+

Mr. Jim Alsup Mr. Don R. and Mrs. Wendy S. Armacost Jr. Mr. Daniel Baker Blue Chip Group, Inc. Mr. Roger W. Borgelt Mrs. Mary Shaw Branton Dr. Bibie M. Chronwall Copaken Family Foundation



Bloch Magazine 2007

29

Mr. Chris D. and Mrs. Cheryl L. Davis Mr. Frederick Anthonious Findley Fleishman-Hillard, Inc. Mr. Joe B. Freeman Mr. Michael G. Gerken Mr. and Mrs. Gary Gradinger Grant Thornton Foundation Donald and Adele Hall Heartland Bank Ms. Laura R. Hockaday Dr. and Mrs. John D. Hunkeler Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Jezak Kansas City Chiefs Mr. William Henry Laws Thomas J. Lee Dr. Karyl B. and Mr. Salvatore J. Leggio Mr. Richard M. and Carol H. Levin Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Harold S. Melcher Mr. C. Stephen Metzler Dr. Stephen J. Morris Mr. Earl T. Newton Jr. Mr. Mark J. Otterstrom Ms. Michelle M. Piranio Mr. Todd Pleimann Ms. Janice Y. Preston Mr. Billy Prim Dr. Stephen W. Pruitt Dr. Mark and Dr. Jen Reintjes Ms. Caroline Reintjes Dr. Steve and Mrs. Mary P. Reintjes Mr. Irving C. and Mrs. Anna Lee Rubin Dr. Walter Joseph Rychlewski III Ms. Julie Schaller Mr. Michael K. Schnitker Mr. David Seay Mr. Richard D. Sewell Mr. Stephen W. and Mrs. Linda Skrainka Mr. Eric Slusser Mr. Steven W. Spillman Ms. Patricia E. Taylor Bryan and Jennifer Wampler Mr. Patrick J. Whalen

100+

Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Adkins Mr. Robert G. Aikin Mrs. Barbara J. Anderson Association for Corporate Growth – KC Chapter Mr. Bret Douglas Aulgur Ms. Andrea Babbit Mr. and Mrs. John R. Baker Dr. Gary D. Baker Ms. Shirley Baker Dr. F. Barry Barnes Mr. Edward J. Bartak Bayer Healthcare, Animal Health Division Mr. Paul J. Beggs Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Bell Mr. David and Ms. Josephine M. Belpedio Mr. and Mrs. Irvin V. Belzer Mrs. Shelli Benner-Rigolosi Berkebile Nelson Immenschuh McDowell Ms. Kristine S. Birney Mr. and Mrs. Murray Max Blackwelder Mrs. Rhayma Ann Blake Ms. Deborah J. Blakely Mr. and Mrs. Howard T. Boasberg Mrs. Catherine C. Bortnick Mr. Aaron Boyd Ms. Deanne Bronaugh Mr. and Mrs. Eugene D. Brown Dr. Kenneth Buchwach Mr. Wilbur Craig Buckheit Mr. and Mrs Troy R. Butler Mr. Mark K. Byler Mr. and Mrs. Dale L. Cantrell Mr. Ronald C. Chamberlain Mrs. May Hongmei Chen Mrs. Courtney W. Christensen Ms. Barbara J. Clark Mr. Richard L. Clark Ms. Lynne Clawson-Day Coffman Group Dr. Mary Davidson Cohen Mr. James A. and Mrs. Connie K. Cole Community America Credit Union Mr. William Conroy Ms. Gertrude F. Coogan Mr. David E. Crandall

Mr. Patrick D. and Mrs. Janice L. Cubbage Curtis Management, Inc. Mr. Kristopher Dabner Mr. James H. Dailey Mr. Gerald F. Deneen Mr. Michael Devine Mr. and Mrs. Richard E. Downey Mr. John P. Dreves Mr. D. John Dr. Linda L. and Edwards Mr. Gregory Eugene Emery Dr. Susan T. and Mr. David E. Everson Jr. Mr. Steven Fehr Mr. Robert L. Ferguson Ms. Sandra Ferguson FLM Industries, Inc. Mr. Kenneth James Fulk Mr. and Mrs. David Raymond Gaebler Mr. Robert V. Gahagan Ms. Beverly A. Godwin Mr. Gerald W. and Mrs. Anita B. Gorman Mrs. Nancy A Grasse Mr. David C. Graves Mr. Thomas D. Green Mr. Jim B. and Mrs. Sharon Greenwood Mr. Terrence M. and Mrs. Lois S. Greenwood Mr. David Drew Griscom Mrs. Marian N. Grossman Growth Opportunity Connection, Inc. Mrs. Paula Bush Halsey Mr. Donald Charles Harms Mr. and Mrs. Carter Harrison Jr. Mr. Jeffrey S. Hartmann Ms. Joan L. Hartung Mr. J. Randall and Mrs. Cathy L. Hedlund Mr. and Mrs. Paul Joe Heide Mrs. Betty L. Henson Ms. Anita Jean Herbers Dr. Robert D. and Mrs. Charlotte Herman Mr. Greg and Ms. Libby Hinrichs Mr. Dan H. and Mrs. Louise A. Hoxworth Prof. Christopher R. Hoyt

Mr. Gregory A. and Mrs. Jeanne Hultgren Ingels, Inc. Mr. Ben B. Inzerillo Mr. Eric J. Jantzen Rev. Carl and Ms. Helen Marie Johnson Mr. Richard W. Johnson Dr. Michael and Mrs. Jerilyn Jones Kansas City Visitors and Convention Association Keeping the People, Inc. Dr. Kathryn Kelm Mr. Larry R. Kemm Mr. Ian G. Kennedy Key Consulting Associates Ms. Karen Lynn Krumme Mr. Timothy J. Kruse Mr. Andrew Lai Mr. and Mrs. William J. Lavery Ms. Bobbi Abram Layton Mr. Wayne Lebsack Mr. Bradley A. and Ms. Julie Mercer Lee Mr. Harry J. Lemley III Mr. Mark Dawson Leslie Mr. Harlan L. Limpus Mr. Albert Y. Lin Mr. Hsu-Yang Sunny Lu Mr. and Mrs. Larry C. Maddox Mr. Henry I. Marder Col. Ronald W. Marley Mr. and Mrs. Alan R. Marsh Mr. C. Frank and Ms. Deborah McCalmon Mr. D. Scott McCoy Ms. Virginia B. McCoy Mr. William R. McCullough Ms. Kelly Anne McLean Meara, King & Company Ms. Kathryn L. Mendicki Ms. Linda Eileen Miller Mr. Wesley C. Miller Missouri Council on Economic Education Mrs. Lillian Moore Mr. Thomas Morefield Mrs. Marsha L. Morgan Mr. Kerry Morris Mr. and Mrs. William H. Moulder Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Mr. Edward W. Nicholson Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Carl Nigro II Mr. Masami and Mrs. Joyce H. Nishimoto Mr. Steven D. Ornduff Mr. John Owen Mr. Steven and Mrs. Karen Pack Mr. Paul Eugene Palmer Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Gene Patterson Ms. Karen L. Patton Mr. Kevin Paul Pavicic Mr. Harold Raymond Patterson Mr. and Mrs. Gary Allen Pettus Mr. and Mrs. John R. Phillips Ms Heidi Pitts Mrs. Barbara J. Plattner Mr. Barry and Mrs. Peggy Jean Pollara Dr. Edward J. and Mrs. Merry Prostic Mr. Michael Pruitt Mr. Steven R. Purvis R&L Holdings, LLC Mr. B. John Readey III and Mrs. Ann P. Readey Mr. William Blinn Rector Dr. and Mrs. Sarvotham K. Reddy Red Ram Trading Companies Mr. Jerry Reece Ms. Sharra Lynn Reed Mr. Robert J. Reintjes Sr. Mr. and Mrs. William Reisler Mr. Carl R. Renfro Mr. Randall Laverne Rhoads Mr. Steven Rinne Mr. Phillip J. Risalvato Mr. and Mrs. Charles Robb Mr. Donald Lee Robbins Mr. Don L. Roberts Mr. Warren A. Roberts III Mr. Charles E. Roller Mr. Dewayne Rothfuss Rubin Brown, LLC Mr. and Mrs. Richard Frederic Saeger Ms. Karen Ann Sanders Mr. and Mrs. Carroll Delmar Satterfield Mr. and Mrs. Robert Noel Sawyer Mr. Andrew Schmidt Mrs. Judith A. Schmidt Mr. David Schoenherr Mr. Dennis W. Scott Siegel Enterprises, Inc. Mr. Lester and Mrs. Myra Siegel Dr. Joseph F. Singer

Ms. Susan Mitchell Smith Mr. Eric L. and Mrs. Diane E. Smith Mrs. Laura L. Snow Mr. David Wayne Spellerberg Mr. Marc R. Sportsman Mr. and Mrs. George W. Steincross Mr. Peter Steitz Mr. Charles J. and Mrs. Sandra J. Stimetz Mr. Robert A. Stoy Dr. Pamela S. Stuerke Mr. Jon E. Stufflebean Mr. Gary L. Sweany Mr. and Mrs. Larry Taft Mr. Glenn Talboy Mr. M. Gary Talley Mr. and Mrs. Paul Teater Mr. Junior K. Thiry Mr. Marlin Robert Thyer Mr. Edward Tompkins Dr. Robyne S. Turner Mr. Dennis W. Valet Mr. John Van Leuven Ms. Karen Von Der Bruegge Mr. Paul R. Voris Mr. John Allan Wagner Dr. Sidne G. Ward Mr. and Mrs. Scott David Wedel Ms. Julie D. Weltmer Ms. Cynthia Sue Wendt Mr. John James Wickstrom William Jewell College Mr. Henry Willis Jr. Mr. Robert K. and Mrs. Amy Wolf Mr. Dale J. Wolf Mr. Guoqiang Xie Mr. Stephen Ray Young



Bloch Magazine 2007

31

Bloch School Faculty & Administration new faces

The Bloch School continues to attract talented staff. Below are the newest additions.

Sandra Bretz Executive Assistant to the Dean

Jennifer Burke

Program Services Coordinator Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Florella Fisher

Administrative Assistant UMKC Small Business and Technology Development Center

Dewayne Long

Director, Northern Kansas Region Heartland Procurement Technical Assistance Center Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Eugene Pegler

Student Services Coordinator Bloch Student Services Office

Victoria Prater

Director of Communications

Jill Stempleman Administrative Assistant External Relations Office

“We are blessed with having dedicated and very productive staff in the Bloch School. Often our staff members are the first contact for visitors to the Bloch School. The day-to-day support of our staff makes effective learning, research and important initiatives possible.” – O. Homer Erekson, dean

Faculty contributions Bloch School faculty regularly publish in leading academic and professional journals. Below is a sample of prestigious journals to which the faculty contributed articles in 2006: Academy of Management Learning and Education Case Research Journal Communications of ACM Economics Letters European Journal of Operational Research Industrial Marketing Management Information and Management International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science Journal of Applied Finance Journal of Business Journal of Consumer Marketing Journal of Financial Planning Journal of Information Technology Management Journal of the Patent and Copyright Society Journal of Product and Brand Management Journal of Small Business Strategy Management Science Oil, Gas, and Energy Quarterly R&D Management SCMS Journal of Indian Management Services Marketing Quarterly The Nonprofit Quarterly

34


This is a small sampling of awards and recognition Bloch faculty received in the past year. Lee Bolman, Marion Bloch/Missouri Endowed Chair in Leadership, and his co-author Terrence Deal, published their most recent book, The Wizard and the Warrior (Jossey-Bass). David Cornell, associate professor of accounting, received the Elmer Pierson Award for Effective Teaching. Nancy Day, associate professor of human resource management, and Doranne Hudson, Executivein-Residence, received a UMKC Faculty Research Grant to conduct a study on the religious values of entrepreneurs. David Donnelly, chair, Department of Accountancy, received the 2006-07 Bloch Graduating Student Distinguished Faculty Award. Randall Gardner, professor of accounting, published the 8th edition of his book, 101 Tax Saving Ideas (Wealth Builders Press).

Karyl Leggio, associate dean for academic programs, and Marilyn Taylor, Gottlieb/Missouri Chair of Strategic Management, along with their co-author, David Bodde, published Managing Enterprise Risk: What the Electric Industry Experience Implies for Contemporary Business (Elsevier). Michael Song, Charles N. Kimball, MRI/Missouri Endowed Chair in Management of Technology and Innovation, ranked No. 1, and Mark Parry, Ewing Marion Kauffman/Missouri Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurial Leadership, ranked No. 13, as “World’s Top Innovation Management Scholars,” in May 2007 article in the Journal of Product Innovation Management. The Bloch School received 2006 CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) Silver Award for Excellence in Advertising for the BizEd Series “The Bloch School Knows: Innovation is Essential.”

O. Homer Erekson Dean and Harzfeld Professor of Economics and Business Policy PhD, University of North Carolina Lanny M. Solomon Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Professor of Accounting PhD, Case Western Reserve University Karyl Leggio Associate Dean for Academic Programs Associate Professor of Finance PhD, University of Kansas Kami Thomas Assistant Dean, Student Services PhD, University of Kansas Gregory W. Arling Associate Professor of Health Services Administration PhD, University of Illinois Rajinder Arora Schutte Professor of Direct Marketing PhD, Claremont Graduate School Lee G. Bolman Marion H. Bloch/Missouri Endowed Chair in Leadership PhD, Yale University Gene Brown Valentine Radford/Missouri Endowed Professor of Marketing PhD, University of Alabama Rita M. Cain Professor of Business Law JD, University of Kansas Qing Cao Associate Professor of Management Information Systems PhD, University of Nebraska David W. Cornell Associate Professor of Accounting PhD, Louisiana Sate University Philip Crossland Associate Professor of Business PhD, University of Nebraska Nancy Day Associate Professor of Human Resources PhD, University of Kansas

Stephen A. DeLurgio Professor of Operations Management PhD, St. Louis University David Donnelly Professor and Chair, Department of Accountancy PhD, University of Illinois Shad Dowlatshahi Professor of Operations Management PhD, University of Iowa Joan V. Gallos Professor of Leadership EdD, Harvard University J. Randall Gardner Professor of Accounting JD, University of Kansas Larry R. Garrison Professor of Accounting PhD, University of Nebraska Richard A. Hamilton Associate Professor of Direct Marketing DBA, Kent State University Fred H. Hays Carl W. Allendoerfer Professor of Banking and Finance PhD, Louisiana State University Robert D. Herman Professor of Organizational Behavior PhD, Cornell University Jin-Mo Kim Assistant Professor of Finance PhD, Korea University LaVern E. Krueger (Howie) Associate Professor of Accounting DBA, University of Colorado David Kuipers Assistant Professor of Finance PhD, University of Missouri Mark Parry Ewing Marion Kauffman/Missouri Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurial Leadership and Professor of Marketing PhD, University of Texas-Dallas Nicholas C. Peroff Professor of Public Administration PhD, University of WisconsinMadison

Roger A. Pick Professor of Management Information Systems PhD, Purdue University Stephen W. Pruitt Arvin Gottlieb/Missouri Endowed Chair in Business Economics and Finance PhD, Florida State University David O. Renz Beth K. Smith/Missouri Endowed Chair in Nonprofit Leadership PhD, University of Minnesota Leon Robertson Professor of Strategic and International Business PhD, Georgia State University Joseph F. Singer Professor of Business Operations and Analysis PhD, University of Arkansas Michael Song Charles N. Kimball, MRI/Missouri Endowed Chair in Management of Technology and Innovation and Professor of Marketing PhD, University of Virginia Marilyn L. Taylor Arvin Gottlieb/Missouri Endowed Chair in Strategic Management Chair, Department of Finance, Information Management and Strategy DBA, Harvard University Robyne S. Turner Victor E. and Caroline E. Schutte/ Missouri Endowed Professor in Urban Affairs Chair, Department of Public Affairs PhD, University of Florida Sidne G. Ward Associate Professor of Management Information Systems PhD, University of California-Los Angeles Nancy Weatherholt Associate Professor of Accounting PhD, University of Kansas

Create Opportunities and Shape the Future we hope your education at Bloch played

a positive role in shaping your future. Please help us continue the momentum we are building through all of the exciting new programs and initiatives you’ve read about in this issue of the Bloch magazine. There are many ways to reconnect and make a valuable gift to the Bloch School. Time or money, large or small, no gift is without impact. To learn more about your role in shaping the future for Bloch students, contact Daniel Baker, director of development, at 816-235-2316 or e-mail [email protected].

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-KANSAS CITY

Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration 5100 Rockhill Road, Bloch 217 Kansas City, MO 64110-2499 UMKC is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution. Relay Missouri: 1-800-735-2966 (TT) or 1-800-735-2466 (voice)