Director's message:
Join us in Paris!
Do you love Paris in the springtime? Do you want to learn more about the future of U.S./European business relations? If you answered "yes" to either or both of those questions, have we got an event for you! The Johnson School-together with ESCP-EAP, Europe's oldest business school, and the Cornell Club of France-is sponsoring "Europe and U.S.: Re-Gearing for Growth," a symposium on March 25-27, 2004, in Paris. This event, which is made possible by the generosity of Henry Renard, AB '54, MBA '55, and the Ada Howe Kent Foundation, has been organized by a wonderful alumni volunteer committee headed by Michel Danon, MBA '73.

The program will feature presentations by Dean Robert J. Swieringa and Associate Dean L. Joseph Thomas and by senior European business leaders and executives, including Vincent Mercier MBA '73, head of the French Office of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants; Louis Schweitzer, chairman and CEO of Renault; Patrick Gounelle, CEO of Ernst & Young France; Jean-Paul Pierret, head of investment strategy for Natexis Bleichroeder; and Axel Poniatowski, member of the French Parliament and president of the Franco American Friendship Group at the National Assembly.

Professors Hal Bierman, Bob Frank, Jan Katz, and Barbara Mink will also be in attendance and Professor Frank will be the featured speaker at the Symposium Gala Reception and Dinner, which will take place in the beautiful and historic Hotel Potocki, headquarters of the Paris Chamber of Commerce. The program will conclude on Saturday with a special walking tour of contemporary Parisian architecture led by Professor Nasrine Seraji, chair of the architecture department at Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art & Planning, and a licensed architect with Atelier Seraji in Paris.

We welcome your attendance at this marvelous event, where you can learn from informative presentations, interact with the dean and current faculty members, meet some of our current students, and socialize and network with your fellow alumni. To learn more about the program, and to submit your registration, go to http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/alumni/events/eurosymposium/

We look forward to seeing you in Paris!

Risa M. Mish '85, JD '88 Director, Alumni Relations

Honoring the past, envisioning the future
Cornell's graduate school of business, and its reputation for excellence, extends back to 1946. In 1984, 38 years after the school's founding, this tradition of excellence was further enhanced, and the school's identity was indelibly linked to the S.C. Johnson family, with the naming of the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management.

To honor and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the naming of the Johnson School, the school and Cornell University will host on April 14-15, 2004, "Managing the Future: A Summit on the Transformation of Business," a program featuring presentations by some of the most distinguished and successful members of the business community: Sandy Weill, BA '55, chairman of Citigroup Inc.; Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric; Abby Joseph Cohen, BA '73, managing director at Goldman Sachs; Warren Staley, MBA '67, chairman and CEO of Cargill, Inc.; Jay Walker, BS '78, chairman of Walker Digital (and the innovator behind priceline.com); and Stephen Friedman, BA '57, assistant to President George W. Bush for Economic Policy and the director of the National Economic Council.

We welcome the participation of Johnson School alumni in this seminal event as we honor the Johnson family and celebrate their enormous contribution to the ongoing success of the school. For program details, registration, and contact information visit http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/anniversary. We look forward to having you celebrate with us

You're hired
Cornell grads, have you ever wanted to be the president of one of Donald Trump's companies? If so, your opportunity is here! The second season of The Apprentice is now casting and all you have to do to get your shot at the big time is go to www.nbc.com, fill out the application and send in a ten-minute VHS tape. Because of our extreme interest in graduates from Cornell, on the inside of your application packet, include a note that reads "requested by Erin." If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail them to econnolly@markburnettprod.com. See if you have what it takes to make it to the top without hearing Mr. Trump's favorite words, "you're fired."

Send us your class notes
Our deadline is fast approaching to submit copy for the spring '04 Cornell Enterprise Class Notes section. If you have news about yourself or another Johnson graduate, please contact Risa by March 12 and share your good tidings. As of today, we have NO news whatsoever from alumni in the following classes: 1948-52, 1954-1961, 1963, 1965-67, 1969, 1970, 1980, 1981, and 1988. Please help us help your classmates stay up to date with the good things that are going on in your lives and careers. Send your notes to Risa today!

Please help with this summer's Camp $tart-up
Johnson alums are asked to volunteer their time and expertise to help make this year's Camp $tart-Up (July 3 - 10, 2004) as valuable an experience as possible for the campers. We are particularly interested in having alums serve as business plan coaches, entrepreneur panelists, and leadership or subject matter experts. We strongly believe that having Johnson alums return to Ithaca to participate in this camp will not only provide the campers with real-life examples of successful people in business, but also begin to market Cornell and the Johnson School to these potential future students.

The capstone project of Camp $tart-Up is a business plan written by teams of campers. One afternoon during the camp (tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, July 7), we will be hosting a "power lunch" and business plan coaching sessions. Johnson alums are invited to be a Business Plan coach and provide feedback and encouragement for one team of 5-6 young women.

Global news: New connections through MBA-Direct
The Johnson School is now participating in MBA-Direct, an online registry for alumni and students from all AMBA and Equis accredited business schools plus the top 30 U.S. business schools (Business Week rankings). In fact, the MBA-Direct database mainly comprises alumni from over 90 business schools worldwide. The service enables alumni to gain access to relevant job opportunities from companies and headhunters worldwide; control how you present yourself to recruiters in order to avoid mismatched approaches and breaches of confidentiality; and monitor trends and developments in the executive job market. Participating status means that Johnson School students and alumni can also join Network-Direct, our new peer-to-peer networking facility, which links 8,000 plus candidates from over 90 business schools worldwide. In addition, members (and individual members of Network-Direct) are entitled to post "open" events on the new global events listing. For more information, go to www.mba-direct.com.

Student focus: Winning venture
A team from the Johnson School tied for first place with MIT's team at the eastern regional Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) at Babson College's F.W. Olin School of Business on February 5-7. Sven Grasshof '04, Carrie Hubbell '04, Jeff McMahon '04, Michael Perlman '04, and Andrew Scirri '04 competed with their venture-capital-focused peers from Dartmouth, MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Emory, and Vanderbilt to develop compelling, cohesive investment strategies for actual business plans from real companies. They will go on to compete with other regional winners at the national level in April.

The companies providing the students with business plans were: Emission Systems, Ice Engineering, Ednets, View Writer Technologies, and Presto. The teams' strategies were judged by a panel of venture-capital professionals from Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, Megunticook, Prism Venture Partners, New England Partners, Battery, VIMAC, Polaris Ventures, Navigator Tech Ventures, Longworth Venture Partners, and Great Hill Partners.

Congratulations to the Johnson School team, and best of luck as they prepare for the national-title round, which will be hosted by UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Marketing prowess
Kudos to the marketing team from the Johnson School that took third place in the annual marketing case competition hosted by Wake Forest's Babcock Graduate School of Management on January 29-31: Marsha Anderson '05, Ty Bretthorst '05, Jake Fahsbender '05, Suzie Ghosh '05, Mark Mitchell '05, Christian Stroucken '04, and Christian Vansant '04. More than 40 business-school teams applied for the event, including UCLA, UC/Berkeley, Washington University, and Wake Forest.

The teams were given 36 hours to work on a marketing plan and a long-term strategy analysis for the corporate sponsor, EchoStar Communications.

Congratulations to the team for placing third in the prestigious competition (said by Wake Forest to be the oldest competition of its kind), after teams from Wake Forest and UCLA. More details can be found at http://www.mba.wfu.edu.

Social success
A Johnson School team will compete in the western regional finals for the 2004 Global Social Venture Competition. The business plan, developed by Jonathan Greene '04, Charles Hamilton '04, and Shane Sugino '04, was among those chosen from more than 120 submissions from around the world. The three winners of the western regional round will be announced on March 10, and will advance to the global finals in London on April 15-16.

The prestigious Global Social Venture Competition, which was designed to actively support and promote the creation and growth of successful social ventures around the world (a "social venture" is defined as an enterprise that has both financial and social goals integral to its purpose), provides a global forum for entrepreneurs to showcase their plans and for investors to support innovative social ventures. It began in 1999 at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and has grown into collaboration among Haas and Columbia Business School, London Business School, and The Goldman Sachs Foundation.

Congratulations to the team, and best wishes for continuing on to the next round!

Big Red resources: Bob Frank comments via Cybertower
For those of you who missed Professor Bob Frank's comments to the New York Times on December 27, 2003, here's your chance to sit back and listen to his commentary on CyberTower, Cornell's virtual lecture environment. Asked to nominate the "most overrated idea of 2003," Frank chose the Bush Administration's proposal to repeal the estate (or "death") tax. While eliminating taxes in general might sound like a good idea to many, Frank points out dryly that the proposal, which would remove the tax fully in 2009, would result in an annual shortfall of $60 billion. To compensate for the drop in revenues, other taxes would have to be raised, or government-provided services would have to be curtailed. In addition, Frank points out, the estate tax is already the most-efficient and least-painful tax we have: Besides keeping income and other taxes lower, the estate tax is only paid by the top 1 percent of wealth holders after they are dead. "If you pay a tax after you're dead, that's much less painful than paying it when you're alive," quips Frank. He also points out that the broad-based support (some 70 percent of polled individuals) of the repeal is most likely based on a misconception about who will pay the estate tax --for example, many individuals of modest income may be afraid that the tax will erode the inheritance they leave to their children. But these folks are extremely unlikely to enter the ranks of the super-wealthy, Frank points out. Catch Frank's insightful and entertaining commentary at: http://cybertower.cornell.edu/Requester/v/reviewMain/estatetax?topictype=4

	Donald M. Smith, MBA /M.Eng. '94, vice president of Carsonite International, has been named South Carolina's Ambassador for Economic Development for 2003. The Ambassadors program recognizes industry leaders from South Carolina businesses who have made exceptional contributions to the state's economic development effort. Nominated as Ambassador because of his business and civic partnership within Hampton County, SC, Smith was recognized by South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford. "It is my distinct pleasure to honor private sector individuals, such as Don Smith, who give selflessly of their time and energy to promote economic development," Sanford said. "The Ambassador program recognizes these leaders for their exemplary service to the state of South Carolina." Honorees are executives from manufacturing and other areas of the private sector who have made exceptional contributions to their community and state development efforts during 2003. The Hampton County Economic Development Commission nominated Smith for the honor. Executive Director Jim Daniel said, "I have been impressed with Don's leadership and enthusiasm to help Carsonite International and Hampton County grow and prosper. Don is a prime example of the kind of business leader we need to bring economic prosperity to our community." Smith joined Carsonite International in 2001 as vice president of operations and has since led a company improvement initiative that has yielded increased capital investment, job creation, and greater profitability for one of Hampton County's largest companies. Carsonite International continues its leadership in employing advanced composite technology by developing innovative, safety-oriented products for highway, utility, and recreational uses. "Strong communities invite economic development. All parties benefit when businesses and their community align their objectives," Smith said. Don resides in Beaufort, SC, with his wife, Sibylle, and two sons, Tanner and Quinlan.
	Victor Pacor, MBA '02, was named president, chief operating officer, and representative executive officer of D&M Holdings, the parent company to Denon Ltd., Marantz Japan, Inc., McIntosh Library, Inc., and the ReplayTV, Rio and Escient branded products. Pacor previously served as senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Sony Electronics, and as president of Sony's Home Network Product Company. Pacor says that what attracted him to this position was that D&M's brands "have a unique position with the custom home installers and specialty A/V distribution channels who are acting as the catalysts at the leading edge of the transition to a networked entertainment home. Through the private equity firm that has a controlling interest in D&M, we have access to capital sufficient to fill out our portfolio of brands and take full advantage of the rapidly changing environment in the digital electronics world in which we live. My time at the Johnson School gave me the piece of the puzzle that would finally prepare me for an opportunity such as this."
	Addys Gonzalez Sasserath, MBA '86, was named a Finalist for the Tampa Bay Business Journal 2004 Minority Businessperson of the Year Award. Nominees were judged in the areas of leadership, professional achievement, strategic vision, innovation, impact on workplace culture, and community involvement. Sasserath is a principal with Market Quest Consulting (www.marketquestconsulting.com), a consulting firm "specializing in marketing-led innovation and problem solving." She developed the solution-finding model, "AhaQuest!, Opportunity Exploration," which is an eight-step process that leads clients to the "Big Idea" that will help move a business forward.
	Dimitrios Papaioannou, MBA '00, is general manager of Civitas, the largest strategy communications, public relations, and public affairs company in Greece, and an official affiliate of Fleishman-Hillard and GPC International. As General Manager, he is responsible for finance, operations, and information technology at the firm. Dr. Papaioannou holds a PhD in laser physics from the University of Virginia and has 18 patents in the fields of medical optical imaging and wireless technology.

Two articles in the Financial Times included the research findings of Professors Yaniv Grinstein and Paul Hribar that looked at the recent increasing number of mergers and acquisitions.

CMC Director Karin Ash's comments on the hiring outlook for 2004 are highlighted at BusinessWeek online. Director Ash is one of eight influential employment professionals asked to weigh in on the topic.

Robert Jarrow, professor of investment management, finance, and economics, is interviewed and prominently featured in the January 26 issue of Financial Engineering Today.

Professor of Marketing Doug Stayman is quoted in a CBS.Marketwatch.com online story that focused on Super Bowl ads and their impact on the marketplace.

The New York Times included comments from Robert Frank, professor of economics, in a story that looked at how long Democratic presidential candidates stay in the primary race. Professor Frank says that candidates tend to stay in the race as long as the money lasts. "So they end up like Bruce Willis in 'The Sixth Sense.' They're dead, but they don't know it yet." Professor Frank's new book, "What Price the Moral High Ground? Ethical Dilemmas in Competitive Environments," was recently reviewed by London's Financial Times.

February's release of "The Intrinsic Value of the Dow," which found that the Dow is appropriately valued at this time and featured comments from Parker Center Director Lakshmi Bhojraj, received a great deal of attention from the international news service Reuters and at media web sites including Yahoo! Finance; AmericanBanker.com; CBS.Marketwatch.com; DallasNews.com; Finance.Canada.com; Lycos Finance; NBC6.com; the National Hispanic Corporate Council; and theEagle.com. New in this month's release is the identification of three stocks that were determined to be overpriced-International Paper, DuPont, and Wal-Mart.

Professor Robert Frank's new book, "What Price the Moral High Ground? Ethical Dilemmas in Competitive Environments," was reviewed and discussed in a Boston Globe column entitled "Measuring Morals." The column focused on three recently released books, all addressing issues related to morals.

Marketing Professor Doug Stayman's comments were included in a USA Today story that focuses attention on two new drugs that are entering the erectile dysfunction market. Stayman comments that, "…the Super Bowl is great place to introduce new products." Professor Stayman also appeared on a CNBC segment that focused on Super Bowl ads and how they impact advertisers, consumers, and television revenue.

Alice Isen, professor of marketing, is quoted in The Times Herald Record in relation to the current mad cow situation in the United States and the importance of brand identity with food products.

Lakshmi Bhojraj, director of operations for the Cayuga Fund and the Parker Center, and Alison Reichert, one of the Cayuga Fund student managers, were quoted in a HedgeWorld.com story that highlights the 20 percent growth of the student-managed Cayuga Fund in 2003.

For more Johnson School media hits, see Johnson School in the News.

March 23
Silicon Valley (CA)
The Johnson Club of the Bay Area and the Cornell Entrepreneurial Network (CEN) present "Business Builders: A Panel of Successful Cornellians in the Start-Up Technology Industry." Panelists include: John Balen '82, MBA '86, partner, Canaan Partners; Steve Kane '72, MBA '73, managing director of the Life Sciences search practice in Boyden's San Francisco office; Harold Robinson '84, MENG '87, MBA '89, founder and managing partner of Rigel Associates, LLC; John McGraw '69, MENG '73, venture partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners; Seth Kenvin '91, MENG '92, VP of corporate development, BigBand Networks. Location: TBA. Time: 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. Cost: $30 (includes buffet, reception, dessert, coffee). For more information or to RSVP, please visit www.cen.cornell.edu.

April 1
Dallas, TX
Johnson School Club of Dallas Business Breakfast Series with guest speaker, John Massey, MBA '63, senior managing director, The Crossroads, on "Business in Texas." Location: Park Cities Club (on Sherry Lane between Douglas and the Tollway). Time: 7:00 to 8:30 a.m. Cost: $10. Register securely online at www.johnson.cornell.edu/alumni/events. For more information, please contact Jeff Peterson, MBA '01, at jpeterson@capitalsouthwest.com.

April 13
Boston, MA
The Johnson School Club of Boston presents a breakfast presentation with Raj Alur, MBA '96, managing director of St. Paul Venture Capital. Location: Langham Hotel (formerly, the Meridien), 215 Franklin Street. Time: 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. RSVPs required by April 7 at alumni@johnson.cornell.edu. For more information, contact us at alumni@johnson.cornell.edu.

Johnson School specific events appear in red.