In this week’s installment of Campus Chronicles, our review of MBA student newspapers, we’ll take a look at the Stern Opportunity to see what’s been going on at the MBA program at NYU.
Earlier this month Stern students had the chance to attend the 14th annual Graduate Finance Association (GFA) Conference and hear from three speakers as well as participate in seven panel discussions. The featured speakers were Stern professor Charles Murphy, Jacob Silverman, the CFO of Duff & Phelps, and Ray McGuire, the Head of Global Banking at Citi. Each of the speakers stressed the importance of self-awareness and confidence in pursuing a successful career, regardless of one’s industry or job function. Panel discussions allowed students to discuss topical developments in the financial industry, with titles such as “Managing Risk in Capital Markets,” “A Focus on Cross-Border Transactions,” and “The Role of Corporate Finance in the Financial Services Industry.” At a cocktail reception at the end of the conference, students had a chance to network with industry experts representing JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Thomson Reuters, among other financial industry headliners.
As we reported earlier, Stern has a new club, the Government Business Association (GBA), which recently organized for New York Congressman Anthony Weiner to come to campus and talk about changes in the healthcare system. Weiner openly supported the public option plan for health insurance, stating that the traditional private market model does not work for health insurance, especially in emergency or chronic situations. Students engaged in discussion with Weiner and each other regarding the continuing developments in the healthcare issue during a forum after Weiner’s speech.
November also offered Stern students the opportunity to learn about the developments in the luxury retail industry through the first-ever Innovation Forum, a half day conference hosted by Professor Scott Galloway and Stern’s LuxuryLab and the Stern Luxury & Retail Club. Galloway began the morning by giving a speech in which he noted the increasing use and importance of internet marketing by luxury brands. John Demsey, the Group President of Estee Lauder Companies and one of the 15 speakers at Innovation Forum, agreed, citing the importance of YouTube in marketing products to ordinary consumers. Peter Horan, the CEO of Goodmail, agreed, stating that brands need to market to customers on sites where the customers want to go, such as Twitter and Facebook, rather than forcing customers to visit luxury brands on the brand’s own websites. Students attending were gifted with goody bags at the end of the conference, receiving products from luxury brands including Juara Cosmetics, Lancôme, and Banana Republic.
