This is Vanderbilt Business

The second episode of Vanderbilt Ventures Insights features Joe Maxwell (MBA'94), Managing Partner of venture capital firm FINTOP Capital.

Transparency is a major tenant of the Trump Administration’s approach to health care reform. This summer, President Trump issued an executive order on health care price and quality transparency that was informed, in part, by analysis and insights from Larry Van Horn, an Associate Professor of Management (Economics) and Executive Director of Health Affairs at Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management. In this episode of Vital Signs, Professor Van Horn talks about the need for price transparency in health care, his role in the Executive Order, and how its effects will be felt in the market and by consumers.

Presented by the Owen Venture and Entrepreneurship Club (OVEC), the Vanderbilt Ventures Insights Podcast features interviews with entrepreneurs, educators, innovators, and investors from the greater Vanderbilt and Nashville communities. In their first episode, Dr. Michael Burcham, a serial entrepreneur and Professor of Entrepreneurship and Healthcare Innovation at Vanderbilt Business, tells the story of his first business, Theraphysics.

It's hard to tell what's more impressive about Blake Gore's art: that's it's so diminutive (1" x 1") or that he's only been drawing with any regularity for just a year. To kick off "The Short Sell" – a series of 5-minute podcasts – we spoke with Vanderbilt Business' Director of Learning Experience & Design about his craft, why everyone should draw, and what professionals can learn from his experience.

Cindy Kent (MBA'99)is a healthcare executive, corporate director, and philanthropist widely recognized for her transformational leadership. She is known as a visionary who serves as a role model across industries and among many communities. Kent has held leadership roles with 3M, Eli Lilly, and Medtronic and most recently served as President and General Manager for 3M’s Infection Prevention Division. In October 2018, Kent was named to the Best Buy Co.’s Board of Directors. In a wide-ranging and inspiring discussion, Cindy talks about her sabbatical, the areas of healthcare innovation that excite her, her drive to make a greater dent in the universe, and much more.

The Vanderbilt Business Executive MBA program offers two tracks, Executive Edge and Global Immersion. Students in the Global Immersion track spend their second year learning alongside an international cohort of approximately 60 working professionals from four prestigious business schools, including Vanderbilt Business. Global Immersion students participate in four international residencies that last for nine days each. The final residency is held in the U.S. at the Owen graduate school of management, and it wrapped up just a few weeks ago. Marketing Director Amy Katz sat down with student Alan Myers to get his thoughts on the final residency. They also also discuss the Global Immersion track as a whole, and Alan reflects on the year of traveling and learning.

Colonel Sherry Hemby has decades of experience in both nursing and the Air Force — in fact, she was recently promoted to Air Force Reserve Command Nurse. Hemby is also a 2015 graduate of the Master of Management in Health Care program at Vanderbilt Business. Amy Murphy sat down with Sherry to hear more about her career trajectory and what role the MMHC program has played in it. They also discuss Sherry's experience in the Air Force, treating victims of the 9/11 attacks, and her deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Josh Umbehr, MD is the cofounder of Atlas MD, an insurance-free primary care medical practice headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Umbehr came to campus late last month as part of the "Talking Health" speaker series, which is hosted by the Vanderbilt Business Healthcare Association. The talk was moderated by Larry Van Horn, Executive Director of Health Affairs and Associate Professor of Management (Economics) at Owen. In this podcast episode Dr. Umbehr and Professor Van Horn recap their talk, explaining Atlas MD's business model and discussing the future of primary care in America.

The Master of Management in Health Care is designed to transform working healthcare professionals into business leaders. Physicians, clinicians, and non-clinical administrators learn and work together in interdisciplinary teams in the MMHC program. Before a recent MMHC info session, we sat down with a few alumni to get their perspectives on the program and how it's helped their careers so far. Some current students also joined us partway through the podcast to share their stories.

The Vanderbilt Business Executive MBA program offers two tracks, Executive Edge and Global Immersion. Students in the Global Immersion track spend their second year learning alongside an international cohort of approximately 60 working professionals from four prestigious business schools, including Vanderbilt Business. Global Immersion students participate in four international residencies that last for nine days each; the third one takes places at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City, Mexico. Amy Murphy sat down with Executive MBA student Jenna Watson after the Mexico residency to get her thoughts on how the Global Immersion track is progressing. They discuss learning from professors at different schools, working in cross-cultural teams, and sightseeing in Mexico City.

Cannabis is poised to become one of the hottest new industries in the U.S. — even though it's currently illegal at the federal level. However, so far 33 states have legalized the medical use of marijuana, and 10 have legalized recreational use. More are sure to follow in the future, and Smoke Wallin (MBA'93) will be ready when they do. The MBA alum is the President of Vertical, one of the first and largest vertically integrated companies in the legal medical cannabis industry. In this episode, Smoke chats with us about all things cannabis, from challenges and opportunities in the U.S. to Canada's recent legalization of recreational marijuana.

Aaron Dorn (MBA'17) helped get Avenue Bank off the ground before enlisting in the Marines for four years. While he didn't intend to start another bank, during his time at Owen he realized that Nashville was ready for a new concept, Studio Bank, which recently opened for business. In our first podcast episode of 2019, Aaron explains how banks are different from other startups, how his MBA helped him start Studio Bank, and why the banking scene in Nashville was ready for a disruption.

After graduating from Owen with her MBA in 2007, Kimberly Lexow helped other entrepreneurs start their own businesses. Eventually, she decided to make the leap herself, cofounding Sifted, a catering company that offers daily or weekly lunches to high-growth, tech-centric companies. In this episode, Kimberly chats with us about bootstrapping her startup, choosing potential clients, working at the intersection of food and tech, and more.

Derek Young is an Owen alum and incoming President of Fidelity Japan. Prior to that, he spent 22 years in other roles at Fidelity Investments, working his way up to become the Vice Chairman of Fidelity Institutional Asset Management. Nate Luce, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, sat down with Derek during his recent trip to Nashville. They discuss the importance of networking, the best way to sell yourself, trends in asset management, preparing to work internationally, and more.

Dave Airaudi (MBA'04) hasn't had your typical MBA career. He entered the music business right after graduating, and eventually launched his own music startup called 3qtr. He caught the entrepreneurship bug, and a few years after that he launched a second business, this time a wine label, Sapere Aude Sparkling. We sat down with Dave to talk about his unusual career and find out more about both of his companies. Among many other topics, he discusses working with major artists such as Pharrell and Kanye, as well as making his own rosé before it became such a trend.

Paul Jacobson is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Delta Airlines, as well as a Class of 1997 MBA alum. He started at Delta as a financial analyst right after graduation, and worked his way up to become CFO by age 40. Nate Luce, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, sat down with Paul during his recent trip to Nashville to get his thoughts on the airline industry. They discuss what it takes to be successful in the industry, technological advances, personalized customer experiences, and more.

The Vanderbilt Business Healthcare Association recently launched a new three-part speaker series called “Talking Health.” For their first event, the student organization welcomed former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to campus to discuss healthcare investing. The talk was moderated by Larry Van Horn, Executive Director of Health Affairs and Associate Professor of Management (Economics) at the Owen. In this bonus mini episode, Frist and Van Horn briefly recap their talk.

The Vanderbilt Business Executive MBA program offers two tracks, Executive Edge and Global Immersion. Students in the Global Immersion track spend their second year learning alongside an international cohort of approximately 60 working professionals from four prestigious business schools, including Vanderbilt Business. Global Immersion students participate in four international residencies that last for nine days each; the second one takes places at the Fundação Instituto de Administração (FIA) in São Paulo, Brazil. Marketing Director Amy Katz sat down with Executive MBA student Matt Pearsall after the São Paulo residency to get his thoughts on how the Global Immersion track is progressing. They discuss working on international teams, his capstone strategy project, a surprise helicopter ride,  and more.

Most entrepreneurs dream of overseeing just one successful company, but Becky Sharpe (MBA'91) runs two businesses simultaneously: Collegiate Sports Data, an NCAA-approved scouting service that evaluates and endorses high school athletes for college-level football recruitment; and International Scholarship and Tuition Services, which manages the administration of scholarships, tuition assistances, tuition reimbursements, or grant programs for other organizations. In this episode of This is Vanderbilt Business, Sharpe shares more about her two companies as well as her tips for work-life balance, lessons she’s learned along the way, and advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

The Vanderbilt Business Executive MBA program offers two tracks, Executive Edge and Global Immersion. Students in the Global Immersion track spend their second year learning alongside an international cohort of approximately 60 working professionals from four prestigious business schools, including Vanderbilt Business. Global Immersion students participate in four international residencies that last for nine days each, starting in Canada at the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. Marketing Director Amy Katz sat down with Executive MBA student Megan Flynn after the Vancouver residency to get her initial thoughts. They discussed working on international teams, the importance of immersive experiences during business school, and more.

Last month, Bart Édes, the Representative of the North American Office for the Asian Development Bank, paid a visit to campus. We sat down with him to discuss the growth of Asia Pacific economies, challenges that the region is facing, how an MBA can prepare business leaders to work in a global economy, and more.

The scale and impact of the opioid crisis in America are tough to measure, because the numbers are so large, the effects so profound, and the demographics are so diverse. Professor Larry Van Horn breaks down the facts and looks at potential solutions with Marketing Director Amy Katz.

For prospective Executive MBA students, work/life balance is an important consideration, especially if there’s a partner to factor into the equation. So what happens when both partners want to head back to school? We spoke with three couples who each went through the Vanderbilt Executive MBA program — some concurrently, others staggered — to get a better understanding of how they balanced their time, got the most of their education, and support each other along the way. Marketing Director Amy Katz and I conducted the interviews.

Value-based care is a hot topic in healthcare, but without a consensus on the definition of "value", or a reliable way to achieve it, the industry is still looking for ways to take advantage of the concept. Ranga Ramanujam, the Richard M. and Betty Ruth Miller Professor of Management at Vanderbilt Business, talks with Marketing Director Amy Katz about value-based care, the challenges it presents, and what it means for MBA students looking to build a career in the healthcare industry.

Wes Murry (MBA'06) had already worked in consulting and at a hedge fund when his friend Will Arvin showed him a real estate brochure of an old distillery. The idea of restoring it immediately appealed to Murry's entrepreneurial side, and the two became the founding partners of Castle & Key distillery in Frankfort, KY, which opens to the public later in September. In our latest episode of Vanderbilt Business, Murry discusses the challenges of restoring a historic distillery, how his time at Owen prepared him to become an entrepreneur, and his advice for breaking into the spirits industry.

Amazon's partnership with Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan, along with its acquisition of PillPack, raises a lot of questions about the logistics giant's plans for operating in the healthcare industry, and what they mean for healthcare in general. Professor Larry Van Horn shares his thoughts on Amazon, innovation in US healthcare, and more.

By his early 30s, Rehan Choudhry (MBA'07) had achieved the kind of career success people in their 40s strive for. So why did he walk away from it all? We talked with Rehan about his career pivot, social enterprise, and more on the first episode of season 2.

The monthly Humans of Owen events have become a fixture of the Vanderbilt Business community, and give students, faculty, and staff a chance to share their stories. For our last episode of the academic year, we wanted to give our podcast listeners a taste of Humans of Owen. Joshua Carlile is a Master of Science in Finance student who once thought he might never get a chance to go college — and ended up getting a master’s degree at his dream university. He chronicles his untraditional journey to Vanderbilt for us this week.

The opportunities for women in the financial world are enormous, yet a gender disparity remains throughout the profession. What are companies doing about it, and why should women take a closer look at careers in the field? Cherrie Wilkerson, Director of Vanderbilt Business' MS Finance Program, and Kelly Smith (MSF'13)an Associate at Global Endowment Management, talk about the opportunities that the Vanderbilt MSF specifically, and the world of finance generally, have to offer women.

The Admissions team sat down this week with female MBA candidates to discuss the MBA experience for women at Vanderbilt, offer advice for applicants, and chat about the Forte Foundation.

The world of work is changing rapidly, and the skills and attitudes needed to succeed are as well. Dean Eric Johnson sat down with Mike Dallas, SVP of HR at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, to talk about the role of HR, leadership development, what he looks for in MBAs, and the workforce of 2025.

Cleon Rice is a second-year MBA student and the outgoing president of the Owen Student Government Association. With graduation only a few weeks away, Cleon reflects on his time at Vanderbilt, discussing his travels and the role that student organizations play in a student's life. He also offers advice to applicants making decisions on schools and talks candidly about growing personally and professionally through difficult circumstances.

We're looking at public accounting this week from the recruiter's perspective. James Powell is the Managing Partner of KPMG's Nashville office and the National Partner in Charge of Campus Recruiting and University Relations. He talked with Vanderbilt MAcc's Lindsay Donald about the opportunities that life in the industry offers, how careers in public accounting develop, and what KPMG looks for in the recruiting process.

Public Accounting doesn't have the most exciting or glamorous reputation, but there's a lot more to the field than it gets credit for. Mary Hsu (MAcc'09), VP at Goldman Sachs, and Margaret Ross (MAcc'14), National Office - Economic and Valuation Services at KPMG, talk about the opportunities, challenges, and career trajectories that come with a career in the field.

To celebrate Valentines Day, we talked with four Vanderbilt couples about finding love at Owen and how they balanced school, career searches, and relationships.

We conclude our International podcast series with a bonus episode, featuring 1st year MBA student Christian Zavatti, a former semi-professional soccer player from Venezuela. He talks about why he chose Vanderbilt, the impact of the leadership development program, and his internship search.

Our international series continues this week with students from China and India. The gregarious first-year MBA and Forte fellow Cecile Zhu talks about her career path, what led her to Owen and an internship in HR, and more. First-year MBA Kartik Ramakrishnan talks about how admissions ambassadors connect international prospects with Vanderbilt from thousands of miles away, and how he pursues his consulting aspirations at school. Finally, second-year Shanshan Zhang discusses her pursuit of a career in finance and operations, and why she found Vanderbilt to be the best fit for her.

We continue our international series this week with a look at students from the Americas. Rafael Pina (MBA'19), Mabel Gomes (MBA'18), and Jacqueline Lim (MBA'19)discuss why they chose Vanderbilt over other top programs, the application process, and their biggest surprises on the job search.

Akihiro Ota and Hwanchul Kang, sponsored by Daiwa and Samsung, respectively, talk about why they chose Vanderbilt, acclimating to life on campus and in the US, the benefits of Nashville, and more.

In recent years, social enterprise has assumed a greater role in the academic lives of students at Owen and across Vanderbilt’s campus, due in large part to Turner Family Center for Social Ventures, founded in 2015. We spoke with second-year MBAs Tori Samples and Kayla Armgardt, as well as MBA alum and current VU law student Nat Robinson, about their social venture startups, opportunities on and off campus, and how students can get involved. For more information on the Turner Family Center, please visit their website at www.turnerfamilycenter.com

This week, our admissions team talks about cultural fit, GMAT vs. GRE, preparing for interviews, tackling the video essay, waitlists, scholarships, and other popular topics. We also dive into international-specific aspects of the admissions process at the end of the pod, including strategies for test-taking, essay-writing, and more.

Muhammad Miqdad, a junior at the University of Rochester, got so much out of Vanderbilt’s Accelerator Summer Business Institute that he became an ambassador for the program, sharing his experiences with students at Rochester and beyond. We talked with Muhammad this week about the impact Accelerator had on him and how it can shape students’ lives.

How do you turn a company around after every top executive and the board quit? What's the best route for a finance student with lots of passion and education but little experience? We talked this week with Clint Freeland, the Chief Financial Officer of Dynegy, Inc., a Houston-based Electric Company that owns and operates a number of power stations across the U.S. The MBA’92 alum talks about opportunities and challenges in today’s energy industry, his path to the C-suite, and overlooked skills that finance-focused professionals should develop.

The Career Insider series takes a very focused look at Consulting this week, with a view into Deloitte. Hear from Human Capital Consulting and Supply Chain/Manufacturing/Operations interns as they discuss the recruiting process, work streams, the importance of network building, and more.

We're offering a bonus Career Insider episode this week, featuring Robb Scott (MBA'18), a former Division I baseball player and Wyoming outfitter who's beginning a career in Private Wealth Management. CMC Director Brook Meissner talks with Robb before and after his summer internship at Brown Brothers Harriman.

Continuing our Career Insider series, we return this week to Finance, specifically Investment Banking. Brook Meissner of the Career Management Center talked with Tripp Salem, who interned at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, about what it takes to succeed in a banking internship and how to make the most of your time, a skill of particular importance in the field.

In honor of Veterans Day, our admissions team hosted a panel of 2nd-year MBA student veterans to talk about the application process, life in b-school, and the advantages of military experience in the business world. Bailey McChesney of the Admissions team moderates.

Tori Wycoff(Vanderbilt BS'11) is an alum of Vanderbilt Business' Accelerator program, as a student and operations manager. She’s spent the last 6 years working for Google, first as a recruiting coordinator, now as an HR business partner. We spoke with her about the value of the Accelerator program, career planning, and life at Google and the recruiting process there.

Earlier this year, Caroline Guenther(MBA'15)was named one of Forbes 30 under 30 for the year 2017. At an orientation event last month, she talked with Megan Nichols of the Career Management Center about her career path to Cisco, the future of technology, and the recognition from Forbes.

We take a second look at ops and general management career tracks. Ben Rasmus (Land O' Lakes, operations intern) and Yashar Pirasteh (Leaders-to-Executives Intern at T-Mobile) talk about their summer experiences and what they learned about their roles, companies, and aspirations.

Rich Postler, VP of HR for Global Business Services & Global Information Technology from Procter & Gamble, recently visited Vanderbilt as part of Owen's Leadership in Residence program, an opportunity for leaders from all industries to visit, inspire, and advise students. During his visit, Rich talked with Dean M. Eric Johnson about the workforce of the future and the skills and traits that leaders and employees will need to thrive in it.