November 2024 Message from the Dean

Dear Colleagues,

It was great to have the first snow of the season last week — it makes it feel like we are heading into the home stretch of the semester and the holiday season. To that end, I look forward to celebrating with you in a couple of weeks at our annual Ross Holiday Party on Dec. 5 from 3-5 p.m. in Tauber Colloquium (please RSVP if you plan to attend). We will have festive cocktails and appetizers, as well as a gift-wrapping room to wrap all of the gifts that were donated as part of our 8th Annual Ross Holiday Sharing Program. Thanks to your generosity, we are able to provide gifts for 24 students from eight families affiliated with the Ann Arbor Public Schools. A huge thank you to all who have participated in this program — be it as a volunteer or by purchasing a gift.

In addition to our Holiday Sharing Program, I want to thank all who participated in our first schoolwide volunteer opportunity. As a reminder, this academic year, we have three volunteer opportunities, each associated with a different pressing issue of the day we are collectively facing, from economic inclusion to climate/sustainability and technology disruption. The first one focused on economic inclusion with the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County was on Nov. 16. As part of that event, we assisted caseworkers by talking to the individuals staying at the Shelter Association and learning about their needs so that the staff there could better support them. The experience helped the individuals there to better access services, and it was also a very powerful way to better understand the challenges these folks have in accessing economic opportunities for themselves. Our other volunteer opportunities are on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025 (technology disruption) and on Saturday, April 12, 2025 (climate/sustainability).

In other news, I am pleased to share that for BBA applications, we saw an 18% increase year over year. This is especially exciting to see because we changed our application process this year so that prospective students apply directly to Ross rather than first applying to LSA and then going through a second admissions process at Ross. The motivation behind these changes was to make it more straightforward to apply to Ross; the prior process was seen as very confusing to some families, which discouraged some students from applying, especially if they came from high schools without sophisticated college counselors. On the graduate side, even though it is very early days for these admissions cycles, we are seeing a nice increase in FTMBA applications — up 21% compared to this time last year, which was already a very strong year. Also related to graduate programs, we walked through our new LA space about 10 days ago with the architects who had marked out the classrooms, gathering/work spaces, and event spaces. It is truly a stellar facility and will provide us a foundation to grow the LA cohort of our EMBA Program, expand our Executive Education offerings, and more generally advance our reach, reputation, and brand on the West Coast and beyond.

I also want to highlight a video our Office of Digital Education team produced to honor CK Prahalad in anticipation of a gift of his papers/works from his family and as part of our Centennial celebrations. Please check it out — it is a beautiful tribute to the deep and lasting legacy of his work on the academic as well as the executive world. It is hard to convey the profound impact he has had. Special thanks to the many Ross faculty who are featured in this tribute. (We are distributing this video through a range of communication channels.) Also, along the theme of research and impact, there is now a new weekly email for faculty that shows all of the research presentations coming up for the week across areas. This is a great way for faculty to see who is visiting that may be working on related research. We are also pleased to see the strong turnout at the weekly Hosmer lunches. Both are aimed at creating more opportunities for sharing research insights with each other to help drive your own work forward.

Also, this month, many of you came together to celebrate staff who are celebrating anniversary milestones this year. At our annual Staff Anniversary Luncheon, hosted by the Staff Recognition Committee, we honored individuals who have been with Michigan Ross and U-M for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and even 35 years — it was a pleasure to celebrate these deeply committed individuals.

As we approach the end of this month, I want to recognize three special events that I had the pleasure of attending and delivering remarks at:

• On Nov. 12, Michigan Ross hosted the second annual Native American Heritage Month Conference. The event included a meaningful smudging opening ceremony, followed by engaging panel discussions with Native American business leaders. Professor Bill Lovejoy in particular has been a critical force in building this relationship between the Native American community and Ross.
• On Nov. 15, U-M’s Black Business Student Association held the 49th Alfred L. Edwards Conference, the longest-running student-led conference at Michigan Ross. The event brought together industry and community leaders for discussions about race, policy, and business, and featured some truly amazing leaders including Cheryl McKissack Daniel, the fifth generation of leadership in her family business, which she has been instrumental in growing into a highly successful design and construction firm that has built many high profile buildings including JFK International Airport’s new Terminal 1.
• On Nov. 21, the Zell Lurie Institute hosted the Women Who Fund Forum. The event included women business owners from various sectors, including venture capital, private equity, and investment banking. A special thanks to Professor Francine Lafontaine for speaking at this event.

Before I close, I would like to share that my latest Down to Business podcast episode is live. In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Andrew Jack, the Financial Times’ global education editor, about the recent evolution of journalism and business education. You can listen here if you are interested. The next one up is BBA alumna, Jenny Just, the co-founder and managing partner of PEAK6 investments, the multi-billion dollar financial services and technology giant.

As usual, my upcoming office hours for the month of December can be found on the dean’s office webpage. In December, the in-person office hours for faculty and staff will be held in the Davidson Winter Garden on the following dates and times:

• Dec. 10 from 4:15-5 p.m.
• Dec. 17 from 4:15-5 p.m.

Thanks as always for all that you do to support our school and I hope you enjoy the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday!

Kind regards,

Sharon