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SIMON SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT 2009

Author:Charla Kucko

Release Date: Jun 08, 2009

Rochester, N.Y.—June 8, 2009—The Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester will hold Commencement ceremonies on Sunday, June 14, 2009, at 10 a.m. in the Eastman Theatre in Rochester, N.Y. President Joel Seligmanwill preside. Additional facts of interest are as follows:

  • Edmund A. Hajim, B.S. ’58, chairman and C.E.O. of MLH Capital L.L.C.,will receive the David T. Kearns Medal of Distinction and deliver the Commencement address. Hajim has been a generous benefactor of both the University and the Simon School. Earlier this year, he gave a transformational gift of $30 million to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. As chairman of the University Board of Trustees, he is instrumental in charting the future course of the University. His generosity has extended to the Simon School throughout the years for programmatic, scholarship and capital support. After graduating from Rochester with a degree in chemical engineering, Hajim earned an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School and embarked on his investment career. After senior leadership positions with firms including the Capital Group, E. F. Hutton, and Lehman Brothers, he became chairman and C.E.O. of Furman Selz, which he sold twice, first to Xerox in 1987 and then to ING Group in 1997. In 2002, he became chairman and C.E.O. of MLH Capital, which manages investment funds, and also became a director of Morgan Joseph. A member of the University’s Board of Trustees since 1988, he succeeded Robert Witmer ’59 as chairman of the board last spring. “Ed Hajim’s impact on the University has been broad and lasting,” says Dean Mark Zupan. “We are honored to present him with the Kearns Medal, which recognizes ‘significant achievement in business, public service, and education.’” The medal is named after David T. Kearns, the former chairman and C.E.O. of Xerox Corporation, a tireless leader not only in the corporate world, but also in the movement to restore educational excellence in the United States. Simon awards the medal to individuals who have demonstrated the same dedication to excellence that has characterized the achievements of David T. Kearns.
  • Edward J. Ackley, B.S.  ’53, M.S. ’64 will receive the Distinguished Alumnus Award. Ed Ackley and his wife, Agnes V. Ackley, B.A. ’54, have been extremely supportive of the Simon School over the years. Ed Ackley is owner and president of The Filter Store in Mendon, N.Y. Previously, he was C.E.O. of Consler Corporation, which he built into a multimillion-dollar company before selling it to Graver Technologies. In 2005, the Ackleys made a major donation to the School to endow and establish the Edward J. and Agnes V. Ackley Executive Professorship in Entrepreneurship, currently held by Simon faculty member Dennis Kessler, co-owner of Kessler Restaurants L.L.C., owner and operator of 41 Friendly’s and 21 Burger King restaurants in the region. Their commitment to the study of entrepreneurship at Simon has been unwavering and will have a long and positive impact in training and supporting global entrepreneurs of the future. The Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award recognizes a Simon School graduate who has both achieved significant career success and served the School and the community in important and lasting ways.
  • The Philip T. Meyers Scholarship Award will be presented to the graduating domestic student with the highest G.P.A in the Full-Time M.B.A. Program.
  • The Hugh H. Whitney Award will be presented to the graduating student with the highest record of academic achievement in the Executive M.B.A. Program.
  • The John M. Brophy Award will be presented to the graduating student with the highest record of academic achievement in the Part-Time M.B.A. Program.
  • The Karl Brunner Award will be presented to the graduating non-U.S. student with the highest record of academic achievement in the Full-Time M.B.A. Program.  

Among the graduating students are:

  • Lynne Amerson ’09, a native of Minneapolis, Minn., currently living in Rochester, was working as a portfolio manager in private asset management at U.S. Bank in Denver, Colo., when she had an epiphany. Amerson knew that in order to advance her career to the next level, she needed to earn an M.B.A. There were two requirements from her perspective—it had to be a strong quantitative program and located on the East Coast. After extensive research on business schools, Amerson was invited to compete for a Simon Leadership Fellowship, becoming one of nine students in her class to land a full-tuition scholarship to the Simon School. During her time at Simon, Amerson cofounded one of the School’s most popular student organizations, Simon UNcorked, a wine appreciation club. Her involvement with the club enabled her to share her Simon experience with her husband, Matthew, a trained sommelier. She also served as a coach leader for first-year M.B.A. students, a graduate assistant in the School’s Career Management Center, and created an internal network among Simon Leadership Fellows. Amerson is a recipient of a Dean’s Leadership Award for her “professionalism, intelligence, integrity, leadership and giving.” She begins work this summer as a wealth associate for Barclays in New York City. Her goal is to work for an international wealth organization and, ultimately, to complete a stint abroad, perhaps in India. 
  • Gurpreet Singh Bedi ’09, a native of Punjab, India, who currently lives in New York City, began his career in the semi-conductor industry with ST Microelectronics, one of the leading companies in VLSI chip designing in India. After spending three years in the industry, he aspired to hone his management skills, especially in finance and strategic decision making. Through Simon’s M.B.A. Program, as recommended by his friends, he planned to build on that foundation by leveraging his experience in engineering. At Simon, Bedi was president of the student-run Financial Management Association (F.M.A.) and supervised the merging of F.M.A. with the Simon Investment Club. Along with his classmate Aaron Hartley ’09, Bedi initiated a C.F.A. preparatory course at Simon that received an overwhelming response from the Simon community. He also played an instrumental role in organizing the Seventh Annual All-Finance Conference at Simon and financial market turmoil related discussion sessions with Simon faculty. A Dean’s Leadership Award recipient, Bedi was recognized for his leadership in F.M.A. and in establishing the C.F.A. course “further allowing the School to engage alumni and donors as it seeks to endow the program and expand it. As a result of his initiative, Simon C.F.A. holders will have a seal of excellence within the financial community.” Bedi is currently working as an associate with Goldman Sachs in New York City.
  • Marita Greenidge ’09, a native of Bridgetown, Barbados, currently living in Rochester, has been a leader since she arrived at the Simon School. As managing editor of the student magazine, World According to Simon (WATS), Greenidge saw an opportunity to enhance the content and design making it a tool to attract prospective students and bind the School community. Greenidge is responsible for taking WATS from an electronic file distributed via e-mail to a high quality publication that dramatically improved from issue to issue. She leveraged her writing skills and her interest in entrepreneurship to create content for the Simon Women Entrepreneurs Blog (http://www.webatsimon.com). “Learning about being an entrepreneur through the eyes of women who are doing it was of tremendous value to me,” she says. Greenidge also served as vice-president of the Simon Entrepreneurs club, planning and promoting events including the Mark Ain Business Model Competition and Workshop Series. Under her leadership, attendance at the workshops grew by over 100 percent. In addition, she worked at the Simon Writing Center, assisting her peers in improving their oral and written communication skills. Greenidge earned a partial-tuition Mark Ain Entrepreneurial Scholarship for students showing a strong interest in entrepreneurship, as well as a Dean’s Leadership Award. She will be working as an online marketing consultant for a Rochester-based start-up, Kingdom Ventures Inc., selling products made by disadvantaged artisans in other countries on the Internet. She will also be working with a public-private sector organization in the Caribbean to provide marketing consulting services to Caribbean businesses aiming to expand beyond the Caribbean region.
  • Damir Saracevic ’09, a native of Sarajevo, Bosnia, who currently resides in Rochester, was inspired to earn an Executive M.B.A. at Simon by his business partner at Auragen Communications, David Thiel ’07. As a small business owner with 12 years of experience, Saracevic realized he needed a more formal business education. Specifically, he wanted more exposure to how executives make business decisions and to enhance his finance and accounting skills. With the support of his wife, Albina, and son, Darian, 8, and the help of a partial-tuition scholarship for small- to mid-size business owners from Greater Rochester Enterprise, Saracevic embarked on the two-year journey toward his E.M.B.A. Saracevic says he was able to immediately apply the skills he learned at Simon in his work at Catalyst Direct (Catalyst Direct purchased Auragen Communications in November 2007). “I now have a really good understanding of the challenges that companies face that has helped me to better understand how to solve complex business problems,” he says. “My team experience at Simon and the faculty were exceptional. I’m a big fan.”

Simon Class of 2009 Statistics

The Simon School Class of 2009 includes a total of 224 graduates of the full-time and part-time M.B.A programs (169 full-time and 55 part-time); 36 graduates of the Executive M.B.A. program; 110 graduates who will receive M.S. degrees (98 M.S. in business administration and 12 M.S. in accountancy); and five graduates who will be awarded the Ph.D. in Business Administration. In addition, the Simon School’s Executive M.B.A. Program in Bern, Switzerland, will graduate 33 students. 

The leading areas of concentration of this year’s full-time M.B.A. class are: finance, 66 percent; marketing, 21 percent; competitive and organizational strategy, 18 percent; and corporate accounting, 17 percent. Other concentrations include entrepreneurship, public accounting, operations management-services, international management, operations management-manufacturing, health sciences management, business systems consulting, computers and information systems, electronic commerce, business environment and public policy, and accounting and information systems. (Graduates may have concentrations in as many as four disciplines).

The leading areas of concentration of this year’s part-time M.B.A. class are: finance, 60 percent; competitive and organizational strategy, 33 percent; entrepreneurship, 20 percent; and health sciences management, 11 percent. Other concentrations include marketing, computers and information systems, corporate accounting, electronic commerce, business environment and public policy, business systems consulting, international management, operations management-manufacturing, and operations management-services.

Media Note: To make special arrangements in advance for interviews, please call Charla Stevens Kucko, director of marketing and communications, at (585) 273-4806 or Dawn S. McWilliams, executive director of marketing and communications, at (585) 275-3735.

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The Simon School prides itself as the place Where Thinkers Become Leaders™ and is currently ranked among the leading graduate business schools in the world in rankings published by the popular press, including BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Forbes. For example, the Financial Times recently rated the School 2nd in the world for finance and 5th in the world for managerial economics. More information about the Simon School is available on the World Wide Web at www.simon.rochester.edu.