Spring 11 MASTER.indd - Thunderbird Magazine

spring 2011 

magazine 

India catches 

its stride 

Meet the T-birds 

driving innovation from 

Hyderabad to New Delhi 

11 reasons 

to attend 

11.11.11 

Thunderbird: 

There’s an 

app for that 

Brazil’s 

biofuel 

revolution

Thunderbird is your source for global 

business knowledge. Even after graduation. 

The global marketplace is in constant flux. Refresh, 

retool and broaden your global mindset by enrolling in 

an on-site or online executive education certificate program. 

Reap the benefits with Thunderbird’s relevant and 

timely curriculum applicable to today’s global challenges. 

Thunderbird 

alumni receive 

a 50% 

discount! 

ONLINE CERTIFICATE 

PROGRAMS 

CLASSROOM CERTIFICATE 

PROGRAMS 

 

 

 

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COMING SOON! 

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Financial Management of 

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Global Communications Essentials 

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Advanced Management 

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Advanced Negotiation Strategies 

for Global Effectiveness 

Communicating and 

Negotiating with a 

Global Mindset 

Creating Value Through 

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Leading Global Projects for 

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Marketing for Global Entry 

 

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Register for Online Certificates 

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thunderbirdonline@thunderbird.edu 

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executive@thunderbird.edu 

(602) 978-7353 or (800) 457-6954

magazine : spring : 2011 

SAMANTHA NOVICK 

On the cover: A rural fisherman heads to work 

Jan. 16, 2011, on the Kerala backwaters near the 

southwestern tip of India. From Hyderabad to New Delhi, 

young innovators with big ideas are driving growth. 

feature stories 

Innovation will drive growth at Thunderbird and around 

the world in the coming years. Articles in this issue focus 

on new technology and ideas in India and Brazil, two 

emerging markets reshaping the global economy. Closer 

to home, a new Global Business Dialogue and other 

initiatives linked to Thunderbird’s Vision 2020 will help 

the school innovate for scale and impact. 

20 

24 

28 

36 

There’s an app for that 

Put the power of Thunderbird’s global 

network in the palm of your hand. 

Countdown to 11.11.11 

11 reasons to attend Thunderbird’s 

three-in-one gala this November. 

India catches its stride 

New wave of entrepreneurs drive innovation. 

Biofuel revolution 

Thunderbird Professor John Zerio, Ph.D., 

takes students to Brazil’s ethanol heartland. 

42 

T-bird tradition delivers global adventures. 

Winterim wonderlands 

departments 

4 News & 48 Faculty 56 Chapter 58 Class 72 

Notes 

Campus 

projects, 

partnerships & 

recognitions. 

Focus 

Thought 

leadership from 


professors. 

News 

Fundraisers, 

forums & 

socials around 

the world. 

Notes 

Your promotions, 

career 

moves & major 

life events. 

Forum 

Sanjyot P. 

Dunung ’87 

discusses the 

democratization 

of knowledge. 

on the web 

Find blogs, columns, 

videos, podcasts and 

interactive forums 

on the Thunderbird 

Knowledge Network, 

www.thunderbird.edu/ 

knowledgenetwork 

Middle East 

unrest Q&A 

Thunderbird Professor Paul 

Kinsinger responds to alumni 

questions during an hourlong 

webinar March 2, 2011, 

following uprisings in Egypt, 

Bahrain, Libya and other Middle 

East countries. 

Building the 

case for CSR 

Thunderbird Professor 

Gregory Unruh, Ph.D., shares 

the “three C’s” of corporate 

social responsibility — clarify, 

commit and capture — during 

a Thunderbird Executive MBA 

lecture March 3, 2011. 

Global sourcing 

success in China 

Manufacturing professional 

Michael Diliberto ’09 fell in 

over his head the fi rst time he 

visited China to explore Asian 

sourcing options. Since then, 

he has learned many real-world 

lessons.

comments 

Readers have plenty to say about the columns, blogs and videos 

on the Thunderbird Knowledge Network and social media sites 

such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Visit 

www.thunderbird.edu/social to join these conversations and more. 

Cultural mishaps 

Anetta Hunek ’09 

asked Thunderbird alumni 

on LinkedIn to share their 

cultural misadventures for 

a book she is writing. She 

received more than 45 

responses, including these: 

When I was first learning 

Japanese in 1990, I told a 

group of English learners 

visiting from Japan that I 

wanted to sit with them. 

But I made a mistake with 

my preposition and instead 

said I wanted to sit on them. 

They laughed about that for 

quite a while. 

— Stuart Schulte ’96, Raleigh- 

Durham, North Carolina 

Arriving in Utah on a 

scholarship from Denmark, 

I noticed the signs for 

“Garage Sale” that 

frequently appeared during 

the spring and summer. 

Having not experienced 

these kinds of sales in 

Europe, I eventually asked 

my host family why people 

were selling their garages 

when I was still seeing cars 

in their driveways. I am still 

puzzled about “yard sales.” 

— Ole Dam ’75, 

Boise, Idaho 

I was traveling through 

Texas with my boss from 

headquarters in Spain. 

We kept seeing large 

billboards with the face 

of an evangelist that read 

“Jesus Cares.” Finally on 

the third day of the trip, my 

boss turned to me and said, 

“This Jesus Cares is a really 

popular guy.” Jesus is a very 

common name in Spain, and 

he interpreted the Cares as 

his last name. 

—Dan Ramsey ’93, Phoenix, 

Arizona 

No. 1 ranking 

Thunderbird kept its 

No. 1 ranking in international 

business from the Financial 

Times. Feedback on 

Facebook: 

Fantastic! Thanks for 

keeping up the tradition. 

— Nouvriet Boutros ’99, Abu 

Dhabi, United Arab Emirates 

Tower tour 

Save the Tower project 

leader Will Counts ’09 

opened the World War II 

landmark for a video tour in 

November 2010. Feedback 

on YouTube: 

It is exciting to see the old 

Tower rising again! I hope to 

be there in fall 2011 to see 

the finished product. 

— Cesareo Goyanes-Duran 

’95, Caracas, Venezuela 

Language learning 

Thunderbird Emeritus 

Professor Bob Moran, 

Ph.D., shared a column 

and video on Dec. 10, 

2010, about language 

acquisition. Feedback on 

the Thunderbird Knowledge 

Network: 

This is a great primer for 

anyone who wants to better 

understand the difference 

between low- and highcontext 

communication. 

— Christopher Boily ’96, 

San Francisco, California 

Foreign students 

Thunderbird President 

Ángel Cabrera blogged 

about business school 

enrollment trends on Feb. 

9, 2011. Feedback on the 

Knowledge Network: 

I have to wonder if 

part of the issue with the 

decrease in applications 

to U.S. schools by foreign 

students has something to 

do with the perception of 

the U.S. as a whole. Not 

only has the discourse in 

Congress been negative 

toward immigrants, but 

maybe there is also a 

perception that the U.S. 

is a country in decline. … 

If that is the case, it will 

become harder for the U.S. 

to compete. 

—René Gutiérrez ’97, 

Wichita, Kansas 

Magazine kudos 

Alumni also send letters 

by traditional mail: 

I just received the fall 

2010 issue of Thunderbird 

Magazine, which is 

interesting and presented in 

a first-class manner. 

— Bob Dilworth ’60, 

Naples, Florida 

The fall 2010 issue of 

Thunderbird Magazine was 

outstanding in all respects 

— writing, photography and 

layout. An Oriental proverb 

goes, “What you will be, you 

are now becoming.” What 

Thunderbird has become is 

truly amazing. 

— Tom Osborne ’59, 

Murrieta, California 

TRULY GLOBAL 


Magazine 

VOLUME 63, NO. 2, SPRING 2011 

Editor 

Daryl James 

Graphic Designer 

Tim Clarke 

Staff Writers 

John Brimley 

Katie Mayer 

Samantha Novick 

Kylee Hatch 

Editorial Proofreaders 

Kat Bryant 

Suzy Howell 

Senior Director, 

Corporate Communications 

Carol Sunnucks 

V.P. & Chief 

Development Officer 

Joan M. Neice 

Senior Director 

Alumni Central 

Terri Nissen 

Associate V.P. 

Planned Giving & Development 

John McDonald-O’Lear 

Director of Marketing 

Kim Steinmetz 

All editorial, sales and 

production correspondence 

should be addressed to: 

Thunderbird Magazine, 

1 Global Place, Glendale, AZ, 

85306-6000. Advertising 

inquiries should be addressed 

to: alumni@thunderbird.edu. 

Changes of address and other 

subscription inquiries can be 

e-mailed to: 

alumni@thunderbird.edu. 

Thunderbird Magazine is a 

publication of the Marketing 

and Communications 

Department of Thunderbird 

School of Global Management. 

©2011 

Editorial submissions and 

letters to the editor can be 

e-mailed to: magazineeditor@ 

thunderbird.edu. 

2 spring 2011

from the president 

Halls of innovation 

Time to embrace technology in higher education 

Higher education 

has not changed 

much in the 

past thousand 

years. Professors gather with 

small groups of students 

and dispense knowledge in 

classrooms built around old 

technology such as whiteboards 

and textbooks. 

The model works well in 

many ways but has limits 

that keep many prospective 

students on the outside looking 

in. Ugly incentives built 

into the system discourage 

inclusion and innovation. 

University rankings, for example, 

favor institutions that 

turn away as many willing 

customers as possible. The 

more applicants rejected, the 

better. The system also favors 

inefficient use of resources. 

The more money and energy 

required to educate one individual, 

the better. Prestige 

comes with big endowments 

and high tuition, not the 

reverse. 

The limitations of the traditional 

classroom model are 

most apparent in developing 

countries, where huge numbers 

of young workers lack 

access to higher education. 

The world population sits 

today at around 7 billion 

people. The United Nations 

estimates we will add 2.2 billion 

people in the next four 

decades, which amounts 

to about 56 million more 

people every year. 

The vast majority of this 

growth will happen in the 

developing world. Yet, as 

overwhelming as these numbers 

are, the education challenge 

we face is not just one 

of volume, but one of quality. 

Competitiveness is no 

longer defined by the availability 

of cheap, low-skilled 

labor, but by the availability 

of well-educated human capital. 

Global companies need 

talented managers, engineers 

and researchers prepared for 

knowledge-based jobs. 

They need scalable education 

solutions that deliver 

knowledge in more places 

with more flexibility — 

without sacrificing quality. 

This will not happen merely 

by replicating the traditional 

classroom model. 

Thunderbird already has 

found success with innovative 

business models 

and technology-assisted 

programs serving highly 

qualified learners all over the 

world. 

Thousands of Russian 

managers have earned 

Thunderbird certificates at 

the Center for Business Skills 

Development, a for-profit 

Thunderbird entity with 

more than 12 years of success 

in Moscow. 

Thunderbird soon will 

replicate this model in more 

developing economies 

through an initiative called 

Thunderbird Worldwide. 

Thunderbird’s Global MBA 

for Latin American managers 

offers another innovative 

option, with live satellite 

feeds to remote classrooms 

in Mexico and seven other 

countries. 

Thunderbird and its partners 

also have reached more 

than 18,000 women entrepreneurs 

in Afghanistan, 

Peru and Jordan through 

pioneering nondegree programs. 

Drawing on Thunderbird’s 

innate entrepreneurialism, 

we must expand 

these efforts and capitalize 

on dramatic improvements 

in technology reshaping the 

business school market. 

Thunderbird’s Vision 2020 

recognizes the urgency to innovate 

for scale and impact. 

Working together, we must 

turn the halls of learning 

into the halls of innovation. 

Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D. 

President 

Thunderbird School of 

Global Management 

More online 

Visit Thunderbird President 

Ángel Cabrera’s blog at 

knowledgenetwork 

.thunderbird.edu/cabrera 

TIM CLARKE 

thunderbird magazine 3

news & 

Leadership 

amid crisis 

Condoleezza Rice shares 

Secretary of State lessons 

Leaders who serve in turbulent times must not lose 

sight of their organization’s long-term goals, former 

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said 

March 3, 2011, at Thunderbird. 

“The hardest thing to do is to stay focused on what is 

important,” she said, “not just on what is urgent.” 

Rice spoke at Thunderbird to about 600 faculty, staff and 

students at the invitation of former Thunderbird Trustee 

Barbara Barrett, who served under Rice as U.S. ambassador 

to Finland. 

Rice said actions that seem like folly in the short term 

often prove valuable when the dust of a crisis settles. She 

learned this lesson from one of her predecessors, William 

H. Seward, who persevered with the purchase of Alaska 

despite criticism. 

Editorial writers scoffed at “Seward’s folly” in 1867, but 

history has vindicated the move. “Today’s headlines and 

history’s judgment are rarely the same,” Rice said. 

Leading in turbulent times also requires effective communication. 

“Find a narrative that resonates,” Rice said. 

“Be optimistic.” 

During her term as secretary of state when the war in 

Iraq seemed lost, she reminded her staff of the dark days 

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks March 3, 

2011, in the Thunderbird Activity Center. 

leading to the Korean War — when the Berlin Wall went 

up and the Iron Curtain spread. Few people then would 

have believed how quickly events would change. 

“Things that seem impossible seem inevitable after the 

fact,” Rice said. 

TIM CLARKE 

Thunderbird welcomes new members to Board of Trustees 

Thunderbird’s Board of 

Trustees welcomed two 

new members and granted 

emeritus status to two 

others during its spring 

meeting Feb. 2-4, 2011, in 

Glendale, Arizona. 

The board voted to include 

new trustees Donna 

Ecton, founder, president 

and CEO of management 

consulting firm EEI, and 

Michael Ahearn, executive 

chairman and former CEO 

of First Solar. The board 

gave emeritus status to 

retiring trustees Chip Weil, 

who served on the board 

for more than 12 years, 

and Richard Lehmann, 

who served on the board 

for 21 years. 

“The school is in good 

shape moving forward,” 

said Chairman of the 

Board G. Kelly O’Dea ’72. 

“We have the right trajectory 

in place, a clear vision 

and, most importantly, we 

have committed people 

working to make Thunderbird 

a success.” 


notes 

Critics who view 

emerging markets 

as a threat to the 

United States and 

other developed countries 

underestimate the power of 

free trade to create sustainable 

prosperity worldwide, 

Freeport-McMoRan Copper 

& Gold President and 

CEO Richard C. Adkerson 

told Thunderbird graduates 

Dec. 17, 2010, in Glendale, 

Arizona. 

“Many, if not most, 

people in the United States 

view free trade negatively,” 

Adkerson said. “You see it 

all the time in the media 

that free trade causes jobs 

to leave the United States 

and go overseas. In truth, if 

KRISTEN JARCHOW 

Freeport-McMoRan 

CEO rallies graduates 

we can create relationships 

among the countries of the 

world that allow capital 

and resources to flow to the 

point where people can do 

things more efficiently, it 

creates value for everybody.” 

He delivered his keynote 

address to 159 graduates 

representing 24 countries 

and 12 Thunderbird programs. 

Adkerson said economic 

development causes dislocations 

in some parts of the 

world as a natural function 

of markets, but the process 

spurs innovation and drives 

growth for everybody. “It 

forces developed countries 

to become more competitive,” 

he said. 

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold President and CEO Richard C. 

Adkerson delivers the commencement keynote address Dec. 17, 

2010, at the Renaissance Glendale Resort & Spa near campus in 


Calendar 

Thunderbird worldwide 

Spring 

commencement, 

April 29, 2011 

Suresh Kumar from 

the U.S. Department 

of Commerce will 

be the keynote 

speaker 10 a.m. at 

the Renaissance 

Glendale Hotel 

& Spa, 9495 W. 

Coyotes Blvd., 


Lemonade Day, 

May 1, 2011 

U.S. schoolchildren 

start lemonade 

stands as a way 

to learn about 

entrepreneurship. 

Contact Lemonade 

Day City Director 

Naomi Gunnels 

’11, naomigunnels@ 

global.t-bird.edu. 

Pakistan 

outreach, 

May 2-15, 2011 

Women 

entrepreneurs 

from Pakistan will 

study on campus in 


To volunteer as a 

mentor, contact 

wynona.heim@ 

thunderbird.edu, 

602-978-7607. 

Summerim, 


Students and 

professors will visit 

China, Hungary, 

Kenya, Panama, 

Singapore, Slovenia, 

South Korea and the 

United Kingdom. 

Contact alumni@ 

thunderbird.edu or 

your local chapter 

leader for information. 

Leadership certificate, 


Leading and Managing 

in Turbulent Times, led 

by T-bird Professor 

Caren Siehl, Ph.D., 

in Glendale, Arizona. 

Contact: charlotte 

.cole@thunderbird 

.edu, 602-978-7353 or 

800-457-6954. 

Negotiation certificate, 

June 27-29, 2011 

Advanced Negotiation 

Strategies for Global 

Effectiveness, led 

by T-bird Professors 

Karen Walch, Ph.D., 

and Denis Leclerc, 

Ph.D., in Geneva, 

Switzerland. Contact: 

marie-laure.clisson@ 

thunderbird.edu 

or charlotte.cole@ 

thunderbird.edu. 


news & notes 

TEM Lab teams work in Cambodia, Guatemala, Uganda 

S 

emerging market.” 

Economics, or Ministerio 

Five students in Guatemala 

provided assistance (MINECO), to help build 

de Economía de Guatemala 

to the national Ministry of export capacity for micro, 

tudent teams from 

the Thunderbird 

Emerging Markets 

Laboratory (TEM 

Lab) completed five-week 

consulting projects in 

Cambodia and Guatemala 

and launched additional 

projects in Uganda during 

the spring 2011 trimester. 

Five students in Cambodia 

helped Digital Divide 

Data develop a strategy for 

expansion into local markets. 

Digital Divide Data 

provides outsourced digitization 

and information 

technology services, while 

simultaneously empowering 

disadvantaged youth 

through education and 

training. Up to this point, 

the Cambodia-based company 

primarily has served 

U.S. and European clients. 

Student consultant Jessica 

Bellama ’11 said the 

project required her TEM 

Lab team to use its full 

range of Global MBA skills. 

“We used every course we’ve 

had so far,” she said. “And 

we got a chance to apply the 

learning in a challenging 

SUBMITTED 

TEM Lab students visit a temple in Tikal, Guatemala. Students, from 

left, are Porter Searcy ’11, Stewart Swayze ’11, Franciska Segercz- 

Karsay ’11, Heather Kipnis ’11 and Marcela Cubas ’11. 

small and midsize enterprises. 

“One of our goals was to 

help bring the public and 

private sectors together to 

provide assistance to local 

enterprises though an Inter- 

American Development 

Bank loan,” team member 

Stewart Swayze ’11 said. 

“We focused on building 

relationships on both sides, 

bridging the gap, and ultimately 

providing training to 

trainers of the targeted businesses 

and entrepreneurs.” 

Two additional teams 

started projects March 19, 

2011, for women’s empowerment 

organizations in 

Uganda through a partnership 

with ExxonMobil, the 

International Council for 

Research on Women and 

Ashoka’s Changemakers. 

TEM Lab is a capstone 

honors course led by Thunderbird 

Professor Michael 

Finney, Ph.D., and project 

manager Charles Reeves 

’09. Previous TEM Lab 

teams have completed consulting 

projects in Rwanda, 

Albania, Peru and Vietnam. 

Private equity center expands to India with investing event 

The Thunderbird Private 

Equity Center expanded its 

influence to Mumbai, India, 

on March 9, 2011, with an 

investing conference organized 

as part of the center’s 

expansion into Asia. 

“India and China are the 

booming economies for 

private equity, so we can’t 

claim to be the platform for 

global private equity without 

having a presence in 

India,” said Jim La Marche, 

managing director of the 

center. 

Assisting with the TPEC 

India conference were 

Thunderbird alumni Sanjiv 

Kapur ’81, Asia managing 

director at Wolfensohn and 

Co.; John Cook ’79, chairman 

of Rock Lake Associates; 

and Monica Mehta ’00 

of Kaizen Private Equity. 

The event primarily 

focused on joint venture 

and financing opportunities 

in the Indian education 

sector. This often entails 

foreign universities partnering 

with Indian schools. The 

conference also showcased 

several Thunderbird alumni 

working in India’s education 

sector. 

“One of the biggest reasons 

we’ve made the push 

to India is that Thunderbird 

has a large contingent of 

alumni in India, and it 

makes strategic sense to 

go where our alumni are 

because it allows us to reengage 

and share our vast 

resources with them,” La 

Marche said. 

La Marche said the goal 

for TPEC is to have a strong 

presence in India with 

multiple seminars held each 

year. 

The center also debuted 

in Vietnam in October 2010 

with a three-day conference 

organized by several 

alumni. The regional events 

supplement the center’s 

main conference each 

spring in Glendale, Arizona. 


Latin American 

program spreads 

worldwide 

Don’t be fooled 

by the name of 

Thunderbird’s 

Global MBA for 

Latin American Managers. 

Although the majority of 

students in the dual degree 

program come from Latin 

America, an increasing number 

come from such diverse 

places such as Poland, the 

Netherlands, Norway and 

Canada. 

Program director Patricia 

A. Breceda ’11 said many 

graduates also end up working 

outside Latin America. 

“I’ve had students get relocated 

to Geneva and Zurich,” 

she said. “And they credit this 

program for much of their 

success.” 

Overall, the program’s 

current cohorts represent 

23 countries. Breceda said 

some students desire to do 

business in Latin America, 

others already do business in 

the region, and some leave 

the region and work in other 

parts of the world. 

Recently, a student living 

APRIL MORALES 

Global MBA students visit Annecy, France, on May 7, 2010, during 

the Geneva Interim. Students, from left, include Eliel Amaya ’11 from 

Campus Santa Fe in Mexico City; Rodrigo Coronado ’11 from Campus 

Guadalajara, Mexico; Ian Henderson ’11 from Campus Santa Fe; and 

Vanessa Salcedo ’11 from Campus Lima, Peru. 

in Norway was relocated to 

Mexico City to work with an 

auto company. 

With students spread 

around the world, face-to-face 

classes take place at 15 satellite 

receiving sites throughout 

seven Latin American 

countries, where students and 

professors experience a live 

teaching experience. Breceda 

said the program also will 

add an Argentina campus in 

the near future. 

Since the dual degree 

offering launched in 1998 

with Tecnológico de Monterrey 

in Mexico, nearly 1,500 

students have graduated from 

the program. 

news & notes 

Students 

win case 

competition 

Thunderbird students 

Arun Rengathan ’11, Franz 

Seywerd ’11, Naren Balasubramaniam 

’11, Renuka 

Laddu ’11, Shyam Daraboina 

’11 and Vivek Mehta 

’11 captured first place at the 

APICS West Coast Student 

Case Competition held Feb. 

11-12, 2011, in San Diego, 

California. 

Teams had nine hours to 

analyze a fictitious manufacturing 

company facing 

severe late customer delivery 

problems and welding capacity 

constraints. They were 

told to make recommendations 

to the executives of the 

company on ways to solve 

their problems. 

Within the allotted time, 

teams had to prepare a twopage 

case study paper and 

an eight-minute PowerPoint 

presentation. They then 

presented their cases orally 

to a panel of six judges, who 

selected two finalists in each 

division. Judges for the final 

round were chapter leaders 

of the APICS Southwest 

District. 

Get involved on the ground 

Volunteers needed to work for six months in Peru as part 

of Thunderbird’s “Strengthening Women Entrepreneurship 

in Peru” (SWEP) Project. 

• Spanish fluency required 

• Thunderbird alumni preferred 

• Project expenses covered 

Qualified applicants should contact India Borba, Thunderbird for Good 

Program Manager, at india.borba@thunderbird.edu. 


news & notes 

First lady of Peru congratulates women entrepreneurs 

T 

he first lady of 

Peru, Pilar Nores 

de García, spoke 

Dec. 14, 2010, at 

the graduation ceremony 

for businesswomen in the 

Goldman Sachs 10,000 

Women program in Peru. 

The 30 graduates represented 

the first class in the 150-hour 

certificate program developed 

by Thunderbird and its 

partners. 

Goldman Sachs and the 

Multilateral Investment Fund 

(MIF) of the Inter-American 

Development Bank launched 

the program in partnership 

with Grupo ACP, Universidad 

del Pacífico and Thunderbird. 

Thunderbird Professors 

Mary Sully de Luque, Ph.D., 

Steven Stralser, Ph.D., and 

Amanda Bullough, Ph.D., 

worked with faculty at Universidad 

del Pacífico in Lima to 

design the program, which 

focuses on advanced business 

education, international 

networking, mentoring and 

access to capital. Thunderbird 

will continue to work 

with Goldman Sachs 10,000 

Women in Peru over the next 

four years, where it is expected 

that 700 women will graduate 

from the certificate program. 

Thunderbird also partners 

with the Goldman Sachs 

10,000 Women program to 

educate female entrepreneurs 

from Afghanistan. The partners 

also will work together 

to educate female business 

owners from Pakistan. 

The programs are run 

through the school’s philanthropic 

arm, Thunderbird 

for Good. Proyecto Salta, a 

related Thunderbird for Good 

program in Peru, will deliver 

a three-hour business course 

to more than 100,000 women 

micro-entrepreneurs by 2013. 

First Lady Pilar Nores de García, second from left, applauds Dec. 14, 2010, during the 10,000 Women 

graduation ceremony in Lima. Sitting to her left are Carmen Mosquera from the Inter-American Development 

Bank offi ce in Peru, program supporter Carlos Neuhaus ’74, Thunderbird for Good Director Kellie Kreiser ’04, 

and Svante Persson from the IDB offi ce in Washington, D.C. 

CAMALEÓN COMUNICACIÓN 

Thunderbird and partners launch Pakistan outreach 

Thunderbird will host 

businesswomen from Pakistan 

for entrepreneurship 

training May 2-15, 2011, 

as part of a new partnership 

between the U.S. State 

Department and the Goldman 

Sachs 10,000 Women 

program. 

The program will be 

modeled on Thunderbird’s 

successful Project Artemis, 

which the school launched 

in 2005 to empower Afghan 

businesswomen. Overall, 

Thunderbird has trained 

more than 60 women entrepreneurs 

in four groups 

from Afghanistan. 

U.S. Secretary of State 

Hillary Clinton announced 

the Pakistan partnership 

Oct. 22, 2010, in Washington, 

D.C., at a meeting with 

Pakistani Foreign Minister 

Mahmood Qureshi. 

“The advancement of 

women is an integral part 

of all the projects we pursue 

together because we know 

that when we elevate the 

role of women, it benefits 

their families and, particularly, 

their children,” 

Clinton said at the meeting. 

“Those benefits expand to 

the communities as well.” 

Pakistani women who 

come to Thunderbird 

will learn business and 

leadership skills, financial 

management and strategic 

planning. Following the 

two-week program, each 

graduate will receive guidance 

from a mentor for at 

least two years. 

10,000 Women is a 

global initiative that will 

provide 10,000 underserved 

women, predominantly in 

developing and emerging 

markets, with business and 

management education. 

Thunderbird has operated a 

10,000 Women program in 

Afghanistan since 2008. 

In 2010 Thunderbird 

launched a second 10,000 

Women program in Peru. 

That outreach is part of 

Strengthening Women 

Entrepreneurship in Peru, 

a multi-tiered women’s 

empowerment program 

funded by Goldman Sachs, 

the Australian Agency for 

International Development, 

Mibanco and the Multilateral 

Investment Fund of 

Inter-American Development 

Bank. 



to host 100 

global women 

entrepreneurs 

Thunderbird School 

of Global Management 

has been 

chosen by the U.S. 

Department of State and 

the Goldman Sachs 10,000 

Women initiative to train 

100 global women entrepreneurs 

in an innovative 

business skills program. 

The announcement came 

March 8, 2011, on the 100th 

anniversary of International 

Women’s Day at the State 

Department International 

Women of Courage Awards 

Ceremony. 

This new public-private 

partnership, unveiled by 

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary 

Clinton and Goldman 

Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, 

will establish a program 

to provide business and 

management training to 

100 emerging women entrepreneurs. 

The State Department 

will identify and select the 

program participants, and 

Thunderbird will train them 

at its campus in Glendale, 

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks March 8, 2011, at the 

International Women of Courage Awards Ceremony in Washington, 

D.C. 

Arizona. The women will 

come together from all over 

the world for training. 

The new partnership is 

part of Goldman Sachs’ 

10,000 Women initiative, 

a $100 million, five-year 

worldwide campaign to 

drive economic growth by 

providing 10,000 women a 

business and management 

education as well as access to 

capital, networks and mentors. 

Launched on March 

8, 2008, the program has 

reached more than 3,500 

women in more than 20 

countries through a network 

of more than 70 academic 

and nonprofit partners. 

Thunderbird already partners 

with the 10,000 Women 

initiative for programs 

in Afghanistan, Peru and 

Pakistan. 

“Initiatives like 10,000 

Women invest in the economic 

empowerment of 

women to promote security, 

stability and prosperity 

around the globe,” Clinton 

said. 

news & notes 

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT 

Fluor 

appoints 

CEO with 

T-bird ties 

New Fluor CEO David 

T. Seaton has something 

in common with many executives 

of the Texas-based 

engineering and construction 

company. He has an 

advanced management 

certificate from the Thunderbird 

International Consortia, 

which bring together 

diverse companies to share 

ideas and develop talent in 

one classroom. 

As a charter member of 

the consortia, Fluor has 

sent high-potential leaders 

to Glendale, Arizona, since 

1993. 

“The list of participants 

reads like a who’s who of 

Fluor,” said Glenn Gilkey, 

Fluor’s senior vice president 

of human resources and 

administration. “A high 

percentage of these people 

are at the VP or senior 

leadership level within the 

organization.” 

Seaton, who took Fluor’s 

helm on Feb. 3, 2011, participated 

at Thunderbird in 

May 1998. He has a bachelor’s 

degree from the University 

of South Carolina. 

GLOBAL LEADERSHIP FOR GLOBAL IMPACT 


for Global Impact 

Under Thunderbird 2020, we commit to not 

just maintaining our leadership as the world’s 

first and best school of global management, but 

rather broadening our impact in order to make 

a deep and positive difference in the world 

around us. If there is one unifying theme to 

Thunderbird 2020, it is most certainly “impact.” 

Therefore, the Vision 2020 tagline has become 

“Global Leadership for Global Impact.” 

OUR MISSION: 

We educate global leaders 

who create sustainable 

prosperity worldwide. 

OUR VISION: 

We will dramatically grow our positive impact 

in a world economy in dire need of the global 

leadership talent we were founded to provide. 

LEARN MORE AT THUNDERBIRD.EDU/2020 


news & notes 

Thunderbird wins contract to educate New Zealand executives 

T 

hunderbird has 

won a contract to 

educate a select 

group of business 

leaders from New Zealand 

starting in mid-2011 as part 

of a customized Corporate 

Learning program. 

Organized by New Zealand 

Trade and Enterprise, 

the program is geared toward 

helping New Zealand managers 

adopt a global mindset 

and realize their organizations’ 

international growth 

potential. The partnership 

was announced in late 2010 

at the New Zealand Ministry 

of Economic Development 

“Go Global” conference in 

front of the top 300 business 

leaders in Auckland. 

Giuseppe “Joe” Carella 

’08, a strategy consultant at 

Thunderbird, led the project 

from its inception. 

The government of New 

Zealand came to Thunderbird 

after conducting research 

that showed business 

leaders in the country had 

difficulty adopting the management 

mindset needed to 

succeed internationally. They 

sought a program targeted 

for the top-level executives, 

owners and directors of large 

New Zealand-based firms 

who are already doing business 

overseas and exporting 

globally. 

“Management and leadership 

capability affects the 

productivity of businesses 

Giuseppe “Joe” Carella ’08 

operating internationally,” 

said Gerry Brownlee, New 

Zealand’s Minister for 

Economic Development. 

“If we are to improve 

productivity, and therefore 

economic growth, we need 

to improve the capability of 

New Zealand managers and 

SAMANTHA NOVICK 

executives doing business 

overseas.” 

The 12-month program, 

believed to be the first of its 

kind, combines classroomstyle 

workshops, online 

learning, in-market experiential 

research and mentoring. 

Classes will take place 

at Thunderbird’s campus in 

Glendale, Arizona, as well 

as other training programs 

at the University of Auckland 

Business School, New 

Zealand’s largest business 

education provider, and 

the ICEHOUSE, a resource 

center that includes business 

growth programs, a business 

incubator for startups, and 

New Zealand’s largest group 

of angel investors. 

Does this man have the best Thunderbird career? 

U.S. expatriate Jon Kailey 

’76 ruined his sport coat 

pocket with his previous 

passport, which swelled 

to 192 pages as he added 

stamps from all seven 

continents. But the Owens 

Corning director of international 

business development 

does not complain about the 

ripped fabric. 

“I have had a very stimulating 

career,” he said Feb. 15, 

2011, during a Global Issues 

Forum presentation at Thunderbird 

School of Global 

Management. “I have been to 

more than 65 countries in 18 

years as an expatriate, and I 

am not ready to move back to 

the United States yet.” 

Some alumni have told 

Kailey he has the best Thunderbird 

career, and he thinks 

they might be right. As the 

senior expatriate at Owens 

Corning, Kailey sees all parts 

of the world and meets new 

people everywhere he goes. 

He also takes pride in his role 

helping to create affordable 

housing options for families 

in developing countries such 

as Chile and Mexico. 

“I can look back on my 33 

years with Owens Corning 

and know I accomplished 

some very good work,” he 

said. 

If you think you or another 

T-bird classmate has an even 

better “Thunderbird career,” 

the Alumni Relations office 

would like to hear about it. 

So would Kailey. 

Explain your rationale in 

300 words or less, and send 

responses to Katie Mayer at 

katie.mayer@thunderbird 

.edu. Submissions will be 

published in the Thunderbird 

Alumni Impact 

Blog, and one entry will be 

selected for publication in 

the October 2011 issue of 

Thunderbird Magazine. 

Owens Corning Director of International Business Development Jon 

Kailey ’76 speaks Feb. 15, 2011, at Thunderbird. 

DARYL JAMES 


American Express expands 

social sector program 

T 

he American 

Express Foundation 

has announced a 

three-year extension 

and expansion of a weeklong 

leadership development 

program that brings rising 

stars in the social sector to 

Thunderbird. 

The program, which started 

in 2009 and returned to 

campus in 2010, will establish 

the American Express Social 

Sector Leadership Academy 

at Thunderbird starting May 

2-6, 2011. 

Under the expanded format, 

Thunderbird professors 

led by academic directors 

Michael Finney, Ph.D., and 

Mary Teagarden, Ph.D., will 

design the curriculum and 

teach courses with involvement 

from American Express 

executives. 

Faculty coaches will follow 

up with participants at various 

intervals following the 

program, and assessments 

such as the Thunderbird 

Global Mindset Inventory 

will measure progress. 

Thunderbird Associate Vice 

President Joy Lubeck ’86 will 

continue as program director. 

Leslie Motter, former 

general manager for American 

Express in Phoenix, said she 

first envisioned the program 

about four years ago while 

serving on a nonprofit board. 

When the organization lost its 

CEO, the board struggled to 

find a qualified replacement. 

“We did not have good 

succession planning,” Motter 

said. “When we started to 

look at other nonprofits in 

the community, it became 

clear to me that we were 

going to have to take a CEO 

from another nonprofit.” 

Motter said the goal of the 

American Express academy is 

news & notes 

Participants meet April 27, 2010, during the Social Sector Emerging 

Leader Consortium in Glendale, Arizona. 

to prepare the next generation 

of social sector leaders. 

“We recognize the significant 

impact that social sector 

leaders have in our society,” 

she said. 

Thunderbird community launches angel network 

Alumni, faculty and 

friends of Thunderbird’s 

Walker Center for Global 

Entrepreneurship launched 

a new resource for startup 

companies on Oct. 28, 2010. 

The Thunderbird Angel Network, 

a separate legal entity 

from the school, will help 

link angel investors with 

promising entrepreneurs. 

The organization will 

serve as a forum for its 

members, who will invest 

individually from their personal 

funds. It will also offer 

educational opportunities to 

its members from national 

and local experts on topics 

related to investment and 


“Angel networks provide 

financing opportunities for 

promising, early-stage entrepreneurs 

with high-growth 

market opportunities,” said 

Dee Harris, president of the 

Thunderbird Angel Network 

and a longtime fixture in the 

Phoenix venture capital and 

angel investment community. 

“This is an important niche, 

as entrepreneurial companies 

have created the majority of 

jobs in the United States in 

the last two decades and have 

been powerful wealth creators 

for the communities in which 

they are based.” 

To learn more 

E-mail the network at 

thunderbirdangelnetwork@ 

gmail.com. 

TIM CLARKE 



VISION 2020: PRIORITY 1 

Leveraging our Unique Strengths: 

Thunderbird’s unique approach to global leadership 

conveys a strong competitive advantage. To meet growing 

global demand for our expertise, we will build on this 

advantage by (i) staying true to our foundational beliefs, (ii) 

investing in our academic core, (iii) enhancing our unique 

multi-disciplinary learning environment, (iv) building our financial 

base, and (v) strengthening our thought leadership at the 

nexus of global business, global affairs and global leadership. 

LEARN MORE AT THUNDERBIRD.EDU/2020DU/2020 

thunderbird magazine 11

news & notes 

Family 

produces 

3 generations 

of T-birds 

The late Harvey 

McIntyre ’51 started 

a family tradition 

when he enrolled at 

Thunderbird in the aftermath 

of World War II. 

His son, Ralph McIntyre 

’78, followed him to the 

school more than 25 years 

later. And his grandson, 

Thomas McIntyre ’12, arrived 

in 2010. As far as anyone 

can tell at Thunderbird 

Alumni Relations, Thomas 

will be the school’s first thirdgeneration 

alumnus when he 

graduates. “It is an honor,” 

Thomas said. 

The Pennsylvania family’s 

path to Thunderbird started 

in 1941, when the U.S. Army 

Air Corps drafted Harvey 

into service and stationed 

him in India. After the war, 

he attended the University 

of Michigan and then came 

to Thunderbird under the 

GI Bill. 

The new campus, built on a 

converted U.S. Army Air Force 

training base, catered to military 

veterans returning from 

foreign tours. “My grandfather 

found a home at Thunderbird,” 

Thomas said. “It was a 

natural choice for him.” 

After graduation, Harvey 

launched a global career in 

the pharmaceutical industry 

that included assignments in 

Mexico, Venezuela, Trinidad, 

Brazil and Jamaica. Along the 

way, he learned Spanish and 

Portuguese. 

Ralph was born in Venezuela 

and later moved with 

the family to Brazil and 

Trinidad. Like his father, the 

native English speaker learned 

Spanish and Portuguese and 

PERCY HUMPHREY ’11 

Harvey 

McIntyre ’51 

developed a 

passion for 

international 

business that 

eventually 

led to Thunderbird. 

The second-genera- 

tion T-bird started his global 

career with Chrysler and 

then moved to Pennsylvaniabased 

Mine Safety Appliances 

(MSA) in 1980. He handled 

Latin American sales in the 

early 1980s and then moved 

to China, where he helped 

the company launch a joint 

venture. Other assignments 

have taken him to Singapore, 

Japan, India, Argentina, Brazil 

and South Africa. 

Ralph currently works as 

the company’s regional business 

director for operations 

in Latin America and Africa, 

Ralph 


where MSA 

runs eight 

subsidiaries. 

Despite 

the Thunderbird 

tradition, 

Thomas 

leaned 

toward a law degree during 

his undergraduate program 

at Ohio University. After 

graduation, he assisted Gulf 

Coast families devastated by 

Hurricane Katrina and then 

joined the U.S. Peace Corps in 

Honduras. 

The two-year assignment 

taught Thomas many things, 

even to appreciate simple 

luxuries such as hot showers 

and easy access to banks. “It 

was a three-hour road trip to 

get cash,” he said. “One thing 

I never will take for granted 

again is an ATM.” 

Thomas 


The 

Honduras 

experience 

also showed 

Thomas 

the power 

of business 

to improve 

lives. He 

taught business fundamentals 

at local schools and helped 

the women in one community 

launch a bakery that supplied 

bread to local stores. 

After his Peace Corps 

assignment ended, Thomas 

stayed in Honduras and pursued 

other business interests 

on Roatan Island. 

“It sparked my interest in 

an MBA and gave me a global 

perspective on business,” 

Thomas said. “While American 

markets are essential 

for growth, all business is 

international.” 

Photo contest 

spotlights 

winning 

T-bird smiles 

Kristi Judd ’11 poses with 

children in Lunga, a township 

of Cape Town, South 

Africa, during the 2011 

Winterim led by Thunderbird 

Professor Olufemi 

Babarinde, Ph.D. This is the 

winner of the 2011 student 

photo contest organized by 

the Thunderbird Recruiting 

Team. Judd, an Accelerated 

MBA student from 

Idaho Falls, Idaho, received 

$300 for submitting the 

photo, taken by Winterim 

classmate Percy Humphrey 

’11. See the other contest 

submissions on Thunderbird’s 

Flickr channel, www. 

flickr.com/photos/thunderbirdschool. 


Executive MBA students 

hold ‘G78’ summit in Geneva 

news & notes 

SUBMITTED PHOTO 

Maggie Gu ’12, an Executive 

MBA student from Nanjing, 

China, participates Nov. 15, 

2010, as U.S. diplomats discuss 

multilateral aspects of their work 

at the U.S. Mission in Geneva. 

Three Executive 

MBA cohorts 

from Europe and 

the United States 

converged Nov. 13-20, 2010, 

at the “G78,” a series of site 

visits and classes involving 

78 globally minded students 

in Geneva, Switzerland. 

Working professionals 

from Arizona’s Cohort XX 

and Europe’s Cohort VII 

participated in a joint field 

seminar that created opportunities 

for networking and 

shared learning. 

Thunderbird Adjunct Professor 

Kevin Stringer, Ph.D., 

of Credit-Suisse in Zurich 

led the field seminar, which 

included presentations 

from private, social and 

government sector leaders. 

Highlights included visits to 

meet Betty King, U.S. ambassador 

to the United Nations, 

and Claude Belge, a 

former Swiss diplomat and 

the outgoing chairman of 

SwissPost. 

Students also heard guest 

speakers from the Association 

of Foreign Banks, the 

World Trade Organization, 

Booz & Co. and Medair. 

Andreas Sigl ’95, head 

of marketing communications 

for Infiniti Europe, 

spoke about global brand 

innovation. 

Concurrently, Europe’s 

Cohort VI stayed busy with 

coursework in global strategy, 

finance and entrepreneurship 

with Thunderbird 

Professors Mary Teagarden, 

Ph.D., Lena Booth, Ph.D., 

and Steve Stralser, Ph.D. 

During the week, the 

students visited the local 

World Intellectual Property 

Organization and hosted local 

entrepreneurs. Rock Lake 

Thunderbird Professor Steve Stralser, Ph.D., left, talks with former 

Costa Rican President José Mariá Figueres during a Thunderbird 

Executive MBA reception Nov. 19, 2010, in Geneva, Switzerland. 

Associates Chairman John 

Cook ’79 also led a session 

on private equity. 

The culminating event for 

all three cohorts was a reception 

Nov. 19 with former 

Costa Rican President José 

Mariá Figueres, a member 

of Thunderbird’s Board of 

Fellows and a former CEO 

of the World Economic 

Forum. 

Figueres called on T- 

birds to combine their commitment 

to global citizenship 

with their passion for 

business innovation as the 

world searches for solutions 

to the global climate crisis. 

Alumni in attendance 

included Cook, Ricarda 

McFalls ’84 of International 

Labor Organization, Steve 

Klemme ’85 of JPMorgan 

Chase, Rachael Franco ’97 

of Merck Serono, Beatrice 

Bernescut ’90 of The 

Global Fund, and Camille 

Germanos ’98 of Everest 

Capital. 

Thunderbird’s Executive 

MBA programs, ranked 

No. 3 in the world by the 

Wall Street Journal, cater 

to working professionals 

through formats such as 

concentrated weekend classes 

and weeklong modules. 

WILL MCDONALD 




Innovate for Scale and Impact: 

Dramatic improvements in educational technologies and the 

growth of non-traditional educational models have reshaped 

the higher education market. Drawing from its innate entrepreneurialism, 

Thunderbird will capitalize on this changed environment 

through the use of new business models, cutting-edge e 

education and information technologies, expanded partnerships, ps, 

and innovative funding structures to increase scale and reach, 

generate new resources and maximize its impact in the world. 



news & notes 

Two-time 

alumni 

MA, MS grads 

come back 

for MBA, earn 

second T-bird 

degree 

South African alumna 

Nicola Taljaard 

’10 graduated 

from Thunderbird 

in December 2010 with a 

Master of Arts in Global 

Affairs and Management. 

But instead of entering the 

workforce immediately, she 

returned to campus in 2011 

for an MBA. 

Taljaard is part of a 

growing group of alumni 

from the Master of Arts and 

Master of Science programs 

who qualify twice to walk 

in Thunderbird graduation 

processions. 

The first student to 

accomplish the feat was 

Christine Patterson ’08, 

who earned an MA in 2008 

and then an MBA in 2009. 

Patterson graduated the 

second time as the summer 

2009 Barton Kyle Yount 

Award recipient. 

“The top MBA of her 

graduating class was 

formerly an MA student,” 

Glenn Fong, Ph.D. 

Nicola Taljaard ’10 pauses on her way to a Consulting Club meeting Feb. 11, 2011, on the Thunderbird 

campus in Glendale, Arizona. 

said Thunderbird Professor 

Glenn Fong, Ph.D., academic 

director of the MA 

and MS programs. “That’s 

quite a testimony to the 

quality of our students.” 

The MA and MS programs, 

which produced 

their first alumni in December 

2008, cater to younger 

graduate students who 

often come to Thunderbird 

directly from their undergraduate 

schools. 

Students in both programs 

must learn a second 

language, gain global 

experience and complete 

courses in business and 

global studies. What differs 

is the emphasis. 

MA students, who often 

seek foreign affairs or nonprofit 

careers, take more 

global studies courses such 

as cross-cultural communication 

and political economy. 

MS students, who often 

seek corporate careers, take 

more business courses such 

as finance, marketing and 

accounting. 

“Both degrees have the 

same ingredients, but in 

different amounts,” Fong 

said. 

The differences help 

attract diverse full-time students 

to campus. Fong said 

the MA program tends to 

attract more women than 

other Thunderbird options, 

while the MS program 

attracts more international 

students. 

“These students bring 

life to the campus,” he 

said. “They take leadership 

roles in campus clubs and 

bring aptitude, energy and 

passion.” 

Overall, the MA program 

has produced 33 graduates 

and the MS program 49. An 

additional 83 students are 

enrolled in the 45-credithour 

programs. Students 

such as Taljaard who stay 

for an MBA must complete 

an additional 30 credit 

hours. 

Taljaard earned an 

undergraduate degree in 

pre-medicine from Ohio 

University in 2007, but 

then reconsidered her 

career path. “I knew that 

the medical field was not 

the right place for me,” she 

said. “But it took me awhile 

to figure it out.” 

She had an interest in 

global affairs and started 

looking for a graduate 

program that combined 

international development 

with business. Nothing she 

found seemed like a good 

fit. 

Then her dad told her 

about the Thunderbird 

students he met when he 

lived across the street from 

campus. Taljaard, who 

earned dual U.S. citizenship 

in 2010, researched the 

school and discovered the 

MA program. 

“It was perfect,” she said. 

“It just clicked.” 

DARYL JAMES 


TIM CLARKE 

August 2010 Thunderbird graduates, from left, include Timothy Hubbard of Finland, Laura Xiao of China, Pablo 

Henriquez of Chile, Paul Weaver of Canada, Annie Nguimzong Sonna of Cameroon and Tavy Long of Cambodia. 

School retains No. 1 rank in global business 

Thunderbird School 

of Global Management 

has once 

again been ranked 

No. 1 in international business 

by the Financial Times 

and U.S. News & World 

Report in separate worldwide 

rankings of full-time MBA 

programs. 

This is the fifth year the 

Financial Times has included 

an International Business 

specialty in its annual look 

at the world’s best MBA 

programs, and Thunderbird 

has landed the No. 1 position 

every year. In the 2011 

rankings released Jan. 31, the 

school finished ahead of the 

University of South Carolina 

(Moore), Georgetown 

University (McDonough), 

Insead and Hult International 

Business School, which 

rounded out the top five. 

Thunderbird also landed 

in the No. 7 spot in this 

year’s Corporate Social 

Responsibility category, up 

three spots from its No. 10 

debut last year. 

“These two rankings are 

testament to the school’s 

success in carrying out its 

mission to educate global 

leaders who create sustainable 

prosperity worldwide,” 

said Thunderbird President 

Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D. 

The Financial Times ranked 

Thunderbird No. 68 on its 

general list of top providers 

of full-time MBA programs. 

In the U.S. News & World 

Report rankings, announced 

March 15, 2011, Thunderbird 

landed in the top spot 

for the 16th consecutive 

year. The International 

specialty ranking was 

determined by a survey of 

business school deans and 

program directors, who 

nominated the top 10 programs 

for excellence in 12 

specialty areas. 

news & notes 

Two T-birds 

among most 

influential 

Hispanics 

Ángel 

Cabrera 


President 

Ángel Cabrera, 

Ph.D., 

and alumnus 

Luis Alberto 

Moreno ’77 

both landed on Poder 360 

magazine’s list of the Top 

75 Most Influential Hispanics 

in 2010. 

Moreno, a member of 

Thunderbird’s Board of Fellows, 

was re-elected president 

of the Inter-American 

Development 

Bank in fall 

2010. He is a 

former Colombian 

Luis 

Alberto 

Moreno ’77 

ambassador 

to the United 

States and was 

president of Instituto de 

Fomento Industrial, the 

main financial corporation 

of Colombia. 

Cabrera has participated 

in various capacities with 

the United Nations, the 

World Economic Forum 

and the Clinton Global 

Initiative. 




Expand Our Expertise in Emerging Markets: 

Emerging markets are projected to be the main 

growth engine of the global economy over the next 

decade. To both capture this market opportunity and 

reflect the shifting global business landscape, Thunderbird 

will develop new knowledge and insights about 

business in emerging economies that will prepare managers 

to navigate the growing complexities of a dynamic 

global economy. 



news & notes 

Distance learning MBA 

program adds study abroad 

trips to Brazil, other regions 

Distance learners 

in Thunderbird’s 

On-Demand MBA 

program have an 

expanding menu of study 

abroad options that now 

includes São Paulo, Brazil. 

Under its original platform, 

the program offered 

only two locations for its 

regional business environment 

courses. Now program 

participants gather 

for weeklong courses in 

Brazil, Chile, China, the 

Czech Republic, South 

Africa and other places. 

On-Demand program 

director Josh Allen ’08 

said students can choose 

any two locations, but 

they must be in separate 

regions. “We want our 

students to experience different 

parts of the world,” 

he said. 

The students also complete 

weeklong modules on 

campus in Glendale, Arizona, 

at the start and end of 

each program. Overall, the 

students spend four weeks 

together to supplement 

their online coursework. 

In addition to the new 

study abroad options, 

the program has added 

a spring start date. On- 

Demand students now can 

start their coursework in 

January, April or August. 

Along with the addition 

of the April start date, 

On-Demand will offer 

students an opportunity to 

complete the program in 

28 months instead of just 

19 months or 36 months. 

Allen said students who 

enroll in April must follow 

the 19-month track. 

“We took our 19-month 

program and, like an accordion, 

we stretched it out 

Thunderbird On-Demand students visit Lenovo offi ces during a 

summer 2010 regional business environment course in Beijing, China. 

to 36 months, and people 

thought it was a little too 

long,” he said. “So we 

brought the accordion back 

and found a good middle 

ground.” 

Thunderbird partners with Peace Corps 

Thunderbird will partner 

with the Peace Corps to give 

selected students the opportunity 

to combine graduate 

studies with Peace Corps 

volunteer service. 

The new partnership, 

announced Dec. 16, 2010, 

is a part of the Peace Corps’ 

Master’s International program. 

Program participants 

combine Peace Corps service 

with a master’s degree 

program and receive credit 

for their Peace Corps service 

abroad. Participants must 

apply to Peace Corps and 

Thunderbird separately. 

More than 80 Peace 

Corps Master’s International 

programs exist. Participants 

typically finish one year 

of graduate school in the 

United States before serving 

abroad. Upon their return, 

they complete any remaining 

degree requirements. 





Strengthen Our Global Community: 

For Thunderbird to have true global impact, it must 

create meaningful linkages that connect the entire 

Thunderbird community. For this purpose, Thunderbird 

will become a platform for information, inspiration and 

interaction for practicing global managers throughout 

their professional careers. Students will not graduate out 

of Thunderbird, but into a life-long community of collabo-oration, 

learning and practice. 



news & notes 

in focus 

Thunderbird Worldwide 

New venture seeks innovation for scale and impact 

W 

orking professionals 

in 

Kazakhstan 

and other 

emerging markets will soon 

have access to world-class 

certificate programs that 

bring the Thunderbird 

brand to them in their native 

languages. 

The new commercial 

venture, called Thunderbird 

Worldwide, will 

build on the school’s 

12-year record of success 

at Thunderbird Russia, 

a Moscow-based operation 

known locally as the 

Center for Business Skills 

Development. A second 

component of the model, 

called Thunderbird Online, 

will deliver distance learning 

certificate programs to 

working professionals in 

even more locations. 

The initiatives, approved 

by the Board of Trustees 

in June 2010, support at 

least two strategic priorities 

outlined in Thunderbird’s 

Vision 2020. One priority 

calls for increased focus on 

innovation for scale and 

impact. Another calls for 

increased focus on emerging 

markets. 

“This whole thing is 

about being different and 

making a difference,” said 

Dennis Hopple, Thunderbird’s 

vice president 

of strategic initiatives and 

former director of Thunderbird 

Russia. 

Hopple returned from 

Moscow to help Thunderbird 

Corporate Learning 

interim director and former 

trustee John Berndt lay the 

foundation for Thunderbird 

Worldwide. Joe Patterson 

’08 completes the Thunderbird 

Worldwide senior leadership 

team as assistant vice 

president of Thunderbird 

Online. Patterson and his 

team have completed the 

development of seven new 

online certificate courses 

with five additional courses, 

still in development. Thunderbird 

Worldwide’s new 

online unit is also seeking 

innovative ways to increase 

Thunderbird’s global 

impact by creating a Global 

Partner Network made up 

of international partners 

and distributors. 

Thunderbird Kazakhstan 

is being established using 

existing clients and Russian 

language content developed 

at the Center for Business 

Skills Development. 

Hopple said at least one 

additional center will open 

each year during the fiveyear 

planning period that 

ends in 2015. 

He said Thunderbird 

Worldwide will finalize 

the selection of additional 

markets in the year preceding 

actual entry. Peru, 

An instructor works with clients at Thunderbird Russia in Moscow. 

The operation, known locally as the Center for Business Skills 

Development, provides a growth model for Thunderbird Worldwide. 

Poland, Vietnam and the 

Middle East are high on 

the priority list. 

Going forward, the initiative 

will expand to include 

Thunderbird’s existing 

operations in Geneva, Switzerland, 

and Beijing, China. 

“While major emerging 

markets like China, India 

and Brazil are also candidates 

for Thunderbird 

Worldwide operations, our 

current plans favor smaller, 

emerging markets,” Hopple 

said. 

The school also will 

seek funding partners for 

its overseas centers to accelerate 

growth. This is a 

primary reason Thunderbird 

Worldwide adopted a 

for-profit model. Hopple 

said Thunderbird will 

remain a shareholder in 

Thunderbird Worldwide 

no matter how quickly the 

operation grows. 

“Our main reason for 

pursuing this business 

model is to establish a 

growth business that will 

provide future cash flows to 

support Thunderbird’s core 

nonprofit programs and 

activities,” he said. 

thunderbird magazine 17 

SUBMITTED PHOTO

news & notes 

a pledge for a b 

Campaign Thunderbird 

enters its final stretch 

An open letter from Thunderbird 

Vice President Joan M. Neice 

During the past five 

years, when the 

global economy 

was hit hard and 

lives changed, Thunderbird 

embarked on an important 

$65 million campaign to 

secure its future. Attaining the 

goal has been a struggle at 

times, but you have stepped 

up to support Thunderbird in 

word and deed! 

Early and significant 

pledges from our trustees set 

the tone for success. Other 

gifts followed — large and 

small — that showed us the 

power in numbers. 

You championed Thunderbird 

in your organizations, 

providing support for internships, 

Winterims, Summerims, 

jobs and educational 

opportunities. 

You mentored scholarship 

students from emerging 

countries. You spoke at events 

and recruited students. You 

engaged as true advocates for 

each other at several regional 

gatherings. You participated 

as members of the Board of 

Trustees, Board of Fellows, 

Global Council and Alumni 

Network Board. 

And you participated in 

near-record numbers with 

your generous gifts to Campaign 


Alumni giving reached 15.1 

percent in fiscal 2009-10, a 

50 percent increase over the 

prior year. So far this year, 10.1 

percent of you have made 

gifts. With three months left 

to go, we’re confident you will 

join us again to reach a 17 

percent alumni giving participation 

rate. 

Corporations and foundations 

are responding positively 

to the increased alumni 

engagement with their own 

generosity. Donors include 

Goodyear, J.T. Tai & Co. Foundation, 

Inc., and ExxonMobil, 

to name just three. 

The message you have 

shown in word and deed is 

that alumni have full faith in 

this fine school. 

Your gifts have gone to renovate 

the Thunderbird Tower 

and our aging classrooms, 

to build the Global Mindset 

Leadership Institute, to create 

scholarships, to support classroom 

technology and timely 

academic research, to develop 

curriculum and programs, and 

to fund new projects such as 

the Thunderbird Emerging 

Markets Laboratory. 

Your gifts also support the 

annual fund, which subsidizes 

all of Thunderbird’s daily activities 

not covered by tuition. 

As Campaign Thunderbird 

KAREN SHELL 

Thunderbird students walk between classes in Glendale, Arizona. 

nears its close on June 30, 

2011, we have a shortage of 

about $1 million to reach our 

goal. Numerous grant proposals 

have been submitted to 

help us close the gap, and 

we remain optimistic. But, 

there is one thing I know for 

sure: The success of Thunderbird 

and the campaign rests 

with our legions of alumni all 

over the world. 

It takes about 300 donors 

to move the alumni participation 

rate by 1 percent. That’s 

about 21,000 more alumni 

worldwide to reach 17 percent. 

Just imagine what you 

could say to the world about 

our No. 1 alumni network if 

10,000, 20,000 or all of you 

made a gift of any size. 

What a celebration we will 

have at the Pub in the renovated 

Tower on 11.11.11! So 

make your gifts, mark your 

calendars and come celebrate 

the successful completion 

of Campaign Thunderbird. 

Cheers! 

Joan M. Neice, 

Thunderbird vice president 

& chief development officer 

To donate 

Visit www.thunderbird.edu/ 

campaignthunderbird or call 

602-978-7309. 


news & notes 

etter world 

The goal of Campaign Thunderbird 

is to raise a minimum of $65 million 

by June 2011. Here is an update. 

$ 

25 

$ 

30 

M 

$ 35 

M $ 

40 

M 

M 

$ 

20 $ 

45 

$ 

15 $ 

50 

M 

$ 

10 $ 

55 

M 

M 

CAMPAIGN 

T H U N DE R BI R D 

$ 

5 $ 

60 

M 

M 

$ 

0 $ 

65 

A pledge for a 

better world. 

M 

M 

M 

M 

KEY INITIATIVES 

Campaign Thunderbird 

includes fundraising goals in 

five focus areas. Here are the 

pledged amounts in each area, 

through March 2011: 

Scholarships 

Providing world-class education 

for students around 

the globe. 

Goal: $25 million 

Raised: $20.8 million 

Technology and facilities 

Creating world-class learning 

environments in a truly 

global setting. 


Pledged: $4.9 million 

Faculty 

Attracting and retaining 

those who advance global 

thought leadership and 

management. 



Curricular innovation and 

student services 

Developing the global 

mindset of individuals and 

organizations. 



Annual fund 

Ongoing support for sustaining 

the “Thunderbird 

mystique.” 


Pledged: $11.3 million 

TRACKING THE MONEY 

More than $64 million has 

been pledged to Campaign 

Thunderbird through March 

2011. Some cash donations 

have been received, and 

others are pending. Here is 

the breakdown: 

• Cash received: 

$29.1 million 

• Planned gifts: 

$14.8 million 

• Pledge balance: 

$18.8 million 

• In-kind gifts: 

$1.3 million 

Thunderbird trustees recognized for service 

Two Thunderbird donors 

who served on the Board of 

Trustees for a combined 33 

years now have their names 

etched on campus as a lasting 

tribute. 

Room 37 in the Barton 

Kyle Yount Centre is now 

the Weil Family Lounge. 

And the Bloomberg Newsroom 

inside the International 

Business Information 

Centre is now the 

Richard and Sally Lehmann 

Financial Newsroom. 

Chip Weil and Richard 

Lehmann, who retired 

from the board with 

emeritus status on Feb. 3, 

2011, attended naming and 

dedication ceremonies together. 

Weil was a publishing 

executive who started 

with Time magazine, and 

Lehmann was a founding 

principal of Biltmore Bank 

of Arizona. 

“These are impressive 

accomplishments,” 


Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., said 

during the presentation. 

“In addition, Chip and 

Rich brought fun, laughter 

and a balanced perspective 

of serious attention to help 

navigate Thunderbird with 

a sense of humor.” 

Both men also have 

donated to Campaign 


Board Chairman Kelly 

O’Dea ’72 thanked Weil 

and Lehmann for their service 

during a Chinese New 

Year dinner following the 

naming ceremonies. 

“These Thunderbird 

friends have been two of 

our most trusted advisers 

on the Board,” O’Dea said. 

“We are grateful for their 

leadership and guidance to 

the school.” 

Daryl and Chip Weil 

Sally and Richard Lehmann 

PHOTOS BY TIM CLARKE 



THUNDERBIRD: 

there’s 

an app 

for that 

Put the power of the world’s 

No. 1 alumni network 

in your palm 

Thunderbird alumni stuck at an international airport or touring 

a new city now have a tool to instantly locate nearby classmates 

using real-time GPS technology. 

Thunderbird Mobile, a free smartphone application the 

school released April 2011, allows members of the Thunderbird 

community to connect with the school and each other no matter 

where they are in the world. 

In addition to the opt-in GPS tracking service, the application gives users 

free access to Thunderbird news and information, global business research 

and alumni profiles stored in My Thunderbird (MTB). 

“The application makes it more important than ever for alumni to update 

their profile information in MTB,” says Thunderbird Alumni Central 

Senior Director Terri Nissen. 

The application is available for iPhone and iPad now, with Android and 

mobile Web options coming later this spring. 

Anyone can download and use Thunderbird Mobile, but only alumni, 

students, faculty and staff can tap into the Thunderbird global network — 

allowing them to update and search profiles, find one another by current 

address or GPS location, and map results. 

Learn more about the tool on the following pages. Or download the application 

from the Apple Store. 


Thunderbird M 

thunderbird: there’s an app for that 

find T-birds in 

real time near 

your current 

location 

search for 

T-birds by name, 

class year, 

address, 

or industry 

find and 

contact alumni 

chapters and 

chapter leaders 

worldwide 

locate T-bird 

businesses by 

industry, job 

function, 

geographic 

location, 

product or service 

review and update 

your thunderbird 

profile from the 

convenience nce of 

your phone 

help thunderbird 

identify 

the next 

generation 

of T-birds 

by making referrals 

from your phone 

secure access cess to 

finding T-birds is 

only available able to 

alumni, students, 

and employees 

invest in the future 

of the school by 

giving back to your 

alma mater easily 

and securely 

Next-generation MTB to connect T-bird community 

After nearly two decades 

in operation, Thunderbird’s 

home-grown intranet My 

Thunderbird (MTB) will 

be retired this year and replaced 

with a more robust 

system that will bring the 

latest in technology and 

functionality to the school’s 

global community. 

The new intranet system 

not only will replace the 

existing MTB, but it will 

become the central hub 

of business activity, collaboration 

and information 

sharing for the entire community. 

The new portal will be 

rolled out in phases starting 

later this year. The planning 

committee has assured the 

Thunderbird community 

that all information they 

currently are able to access 

will continue to be available 

throughout the implementation 

and afterward. 

Alumni and other stakeholders 

can send suggestions 

for the new system to 

alumni@thunderbird.edu. 


obile is here 

thunderbird: there’s an app for that 

Available now for 

iPhone and iPad 

download free from 

the App Store 

Android and 

mobile Web 

coming this spring 

Editor’s note: Thunderbird’s mobile technology securely draws data and information from My 

Thunderbird (MTB); the Thunderbird Web Site; the Thunderbird Knowledge Network; and the Alumni 

B2B directory. The App is available and free to anyone, but only alumni, students and employees of 

Thunderbird can access data related to profiles and searching for T-Birds. 

Find Thunderbird on iTunesU 

New video site in China 

A new file-sharing site 

on iTunesU allows anyone 

with Internet access to view 

and download Thunderbird 

School of Global Management 

videos and audio 

podcasts for free. 

Content includes more 

than 600 videos from Thunderbird’s 

YouTube channel 

and more than 60 audio files 

from Thunderbird’s podcasts 

page. Visit www.thunderbird.edu/itunes 

to tour the 

iTunesU channel, which 

went public on Feb. 11, 2011. 

More than 150 videos 

featuring Thunderbird 

professors, guest speakers, 

students and alumni are 

now available to Chinese 

viewers at www.tudou.com/ 

home/thunderbirdus. 

Thunderbird set up the 

Tudou channel as an alternative 

to YouTube, which 

is blocked in China and 

certain other countries. The 

school’s YouTube channel 

features more than 600 videos 

that have been viewed 

more than 175,000 times. 



eleven 

reasons 

to attend 

11.11.11 

Thunderbird combines 

three events into 

one historic gathering 

Two giant saguaros 

form a No. 11 at the 

Thunderbird School of 

Global Management 

entrance in Glendale, 

Arizona. The campus will 

host a series of 11.11.11 

events during the week 

of Nov. 11, 2011. 

(Photo by Daryl James) 

Knowledge will flow, friends will reconnect and history will 

unfold during the week of Nov. 11, 2011, when Thunderbird 

combines its inaugural Global Business Dialogue, homecoming 

and Tower Grand Opening into a three-in-one 11.11.11 

celebration. 

BP CEO Bob Dudley ’79 will deliver the opening keynote address at 

the Global Business Dialogue, a two-day forum (Nov. 10-11) on the role 

of business in creating sustainable prosperity worldwide. The event will 

support Thunderbird’s new concept for a global community of learning 

and practice — one of four strategic priorities outlined in the school’s 

Vision 2020. 

Sessions will include short talks grouped into four categories: economic 

empowerment, energy and natural resources, innovation and technology, 

and finance. The overarching theme will be “redefining global leadership.” 

The forum also will include networking events with influential global 

leaders. Additional sessions will highlight regional business issues. 

Homecoming events Nov. 11-13 will include mixers, Regional Night 

with the students and the traditional farewell brunch. 

The Tower Grand Opening will mark the culmination of a grassroots 

campaign that started in 2007, when a group of students started raising 

funds to save the World War II landmark where American, British and 

Chinese pilots once trained for battle. 

The celevbration will include cocktails, dinner, live entertainment, fireworks 

and more, as more than 500 alum come together. 

“The week of 11.11.11 will be historic for Thunderbird,” says Thunderbird 

President Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D. “We will celebrate the past and look 

forward to the future.” 

Register 

today 

Visit www.thunderbird 

.edu/11-11-11, email 

alumni@thunderbird 

.edu or call 

602-978-7359 


11.11.11 celebration 

Here are 11 reasons you should attend: 

1 

ACCESS TO INFLUENTIAL 

GLOBAL LEADERS. 

The Thunderbird Global Business 

Dialogue will bring together an 

elite group of about 300 global 

business executives, including 

speakers such as BP CEO Bob Dudley ’79. 

2 

EARN CONTINUING 

EDUCATION CREDIT. 

Global Business Dialogue participants will earn 

continuing education credit, the recognized 

method of quantifying participation in organized 

executive education experiences. 

3 

TOWER RESTORATION. 

Participate in the Tower Grand Opening 

Celebration. Project leader Will Counts ’09 

promises it will be the greatest single 

Thunderbird event ever. 

4 

WALL OF DONORS. 

Leave your mark on the Tower donor wall. 

Any donation will secure your legacy … and 

there’s still time. Visit www.thunderbird.edu/ 

campaignthunderbird or send inquiries to 

will.counts@thunderbird.edu. 

5 

BIRTHDAY WISHES. 

Celebrate the 70th birthday of Merle A. 

Hinrichs ’65. His wife, Miriam, donated 

$2 million to the Tower in recognition 

of his birthday — leading the way for 

more than 1,100 people to donate to 

the renovation. 

6 

WWII VETERANS. 

Experience history with Thunderbird’s first 

global citizens on Veterans Day 2011. Meet World 

War II veterans who trained at Thunderbird Airfield 

1 in the 1940s. 


11.11.11 celebration 

7 

COMMEMORATIVE BOOK. 

Receive your copy of a souvenir book 

showing the story of the Tower project and the 

continuing legacy of the T-bird tribe. 

8 

FIRST AND LAST TOAST. 

Join the last toast party at the old Pub — 

then join the first toast at the new Pub location 

in the restored Tower. 

9 

HOMECOMING TRADITIONS. 

Enjoy class reunions, parties at the renovated 

pool, breakfast with classmates and more. 

10 

REGIONAL NIGHT PARTY. 

Relive this classic event hosted by student 

clubs and student government officers showcasing 

the best of their countries. 

11 

ARIZONA WEATHER. 

Take a winter break in sunny Arizona, 

where normal highs reach 74 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Get away, sit by the pool or sun on the Tower lawn. 

Numbers game 

Calendars this year include four unusual dates: 1.1.11, 

1.11.11, 11.1.11 and 11.11.11. Alumnus Joao Jorge 

’10 points out another interesting tidbit. If you take the 

last two digits of the year you were born plus the age 

you will be this year, it will equal 111 (or 11 for children 

born in 2000 or later). 


MUMBAI 

Maximum City 

HYDERABAD 

Hi-tech City 

DELHI 

Capital City 

CHENNAI 

Gateway to South India 

BENGALURU 

28 spring 2011 

India’s Silicon Valley

india 

CATCHES 

ITS STRIDE 

New wave of entrepreneurs 

drive innovation from 

Hyderabad to New Delhi 

Story and photos by Samantha M. Novick 

Significant financial reforms in the 1990s set India on a 

course toward a freer, more open economy ripe for entrepreneurship. 

I traveled to five cities in India to meet 

Thunderbirds who had ditched the corporate world to strike 

out on their own. All across the country, Thunderbirds are 

leveraging their global mindset and corporate business acumen 

to take advantage of the booming environment. Here’s 

how they did it, and how you can too. 


india catches its stride 

“This is 

where the 

action is and 

where it is 

going to be 

for the next 

20 years.” 

Andy Khandwala ’92 

BENGALURU: 

Timing is everything 

Andy Khandwala ’92 is so comfortable with 

international travel routes that if you give him an 

airline and destination, he’ll know what countries 

you’ll have to visit to get there. As the owner 

of Syratron, India’s leading high-tech representation 

company, he works directly with businesses 

from around the world to help them bring their 

products to the Indian market. For Khandwala, 

establishing a strong relationship with global 

partners is crucial. And that translates into a lot 

of long-distance flights. 

His first long transatlantic flight isn’t hard for 

him to remember. It was in 1990, when he came 

to study at Thunderbird. He wasn’t the only 

young college student who left India that year. 

It was a difficult time for the country. The 

economy was in turmoil and the government 

was close to default. 

Lack of professional 

opportunities encouraged 

many to leave. 

“When I was growing 

up, if you were 

able to find a job you 

ended up doing one of 

three things,” Khandwala 

says. “You either 

went into the service sector, joined the government 

or started as a trainee at a large corporate 

house. A lot of people from my generation 

left India, pursued an overseas education, and 

through that process gained exposure to the outside 

world.” 

In order to right the economy, the Indian government 

instituted a number of breakthrough 

reforms in the early 1990s. These included lowering 

trade tariffs, privatizing staterun 

entities and instituting deregulation 

and inflation controls. 

Like China had done 10 years earlier, 

these liberalizing measures removed 

many obstacles that made 

it difficult to do business, and with 

it set the stage for an economic 

comeback. 

“A very interesting thing happened,” 

Khandwala says. “Over 

time, the environment in India was 

changed and it began to make a lot 

of sense to move back home. The 

opportunities were tremendous. 

People were going back to India, 

starting their own small companies and building 

them.” 

He made the move back to Bengaluru to head 

Syratron, his family’s company, in 2001. But 

the country he arrived in was completely different 

from the one he had left, energized by an 

economy driven by a domestic entrepreneurship 

growth model. 

“There is a new space evolving in India, and 

that is the entrepreneurial space,” he says. “I’m 

seeing that in the next 15 to 20 years, this space 

is going to grow in India exponentially and will 

be the key driver of the Indian economy in the 

next generation.” 

Khandwala’s advice to the next generation of 

entrepreneurs in India: Please come. 

“This is where the action is and where it is going 

to be for the next 20 years,” he says. “Those 

who come and take part in this metamorphosis 

of the country will be extremely satisfied professionally 

and personally, because they are going 

to find a unique space that doesn’t exist anywhere 

else in the world.” 

BENGALURU: 

Profi ting from your passion 

Eka is an upscale home décor and art store 

that would look more at place on the ground 

floor of a SoHo skyscraper than on a hectic 

Bangalore street. The contemporary showroom 

boasts treasures from across the Indian 

subcontinent: modern handmade furniture 

from Nagpur, Whitewood carvings from Jaipur 

and intricately linked bells than once hung in 

temples. It’s the type of collection assembled 

with such attention to detail you’d expect it to 

be done by an artist. 

Yet before Kimiko Thakur Menzies ’94 

launched Eka in 2000, she was more familiar 

with heavy machinery and mining than embroidered 

textiles and high-value antiques. 

“I was following the trajectory of the Indian 

student who wants to get an MBA from the 

United States and get a good position at a Fortune 

500 company with a great package,” says 

Menzies, who was hired after graduation by 

Caterpillar, the world’s leading manufacturer 

of construction and mining equipment. 

“But you work in that long enough, and you 

sometimes realize that it just isn’t the type of 

life that you want,” she says. “I had a need to 

do something different, and to do something 

my own.” 

So after five years in the corporate world, 


Menzies started a company more closely 

aligned with her own interests: Eka, which in 

Sanskrit means “singular” or one of a kind. 

Now she spends her time traveling to source 

inventory, attending export fairs and building 

her business, which sometimes surprises her 

male vendors. 

“If you are a woman entrepreneur in India 

who is trying to do something different, 

at first people sometimes look at you a little 

hesitantly,” she says. “But then they admire 

your guts for doing that — traveling on your 

own and not having the hesitation to do so. 

It can be difficult, but it becomes easier when 

people see what you’re doing and want you to 

succeed.” 

Menzies says India’s retail sector has been 

greatly influenced by the rise of online and 

mobile shopping, and many opportunities 

await retailers who can make it in e-commerce. 

“India has seen a huge transition, primarily 

because we have opened our eyes to so much 

of what the rest of the world is doing,” she says. 

“It’s not just your little market anymore. Now 

you can go online and see what the rest of the 

world is offering, and that has forced businesses 

to speed up — in terms of product, quality 

and prices — the overall value proposition.” 

Menzies has big plans for the company in 

2011, including the possibility of opening 

more stores across the country, building a 

stronger online shopping platform and focusing 

more on exporting internationally. 

BENGALURU: 

Pursuit of inclusive growth 

A thin wooden bookcase sits on the first floor 

of the Bengaluru building where Harsha Moily 

’97 runs his business. The bookcase is conspicuous 

in the lobby and doesn’t seem to match the 

rest of the furniture. A row of books has numbers 

taped to their spines so they stay in order. The 

titles are telling of the person who owns them: 

“Blue Ocean Strategy,” “Leading Change,” “The 

Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” “Portfolios 

of the Poor,” “Quotes of Gandhi,” “How to 

Change the World.” 

When Moily graduated from Thunderbird, he 

went straight into venture capital positions in 

New York and London. From his vantage point 

abroad, he could see how a vibrant economy in 

urban India was starting to shape progress in his 

native country. While this economic outlook 

was promising, Moily believed it didn’t tell the 

whole picture. 

“There was a lot of talk of India growing immensely,” 

he said. “But the way I saw it, you still 

had more than 75 percent of India left out of 

India’s growth story. The last thing I wanted to 

do was just be a spectator to what is happening 

with that segment.” 

So Moily left his position in London in 2005, 

took the skills he’d learned working in venture 

capital and founded Moksha-Yug Access, or MYA, 

Above: Kimiko Thakur 

Menzies ’94 stands Jan. 

14, 2011, in front of Eka, 

the upscale home décor 

and art store she operates 

in Bengaluru. 



Harsha Moily ’97 

an enterprise that builds an efficient 

rural supply chain in India. 

“Rural producers in India today 

are trapped in a vicious cycle of low 

investment, low yield, and lowincome 

model of dairy and agrifarming,” 

he said. “Intermediaries 

and supply chain inefficiencies 

take away anything from 30 to 70 

percent of the market value of their 

produce. Getting the poor out of 

this vicious cycle needs a paradigm 

shift in the way we address the 

problems of rural India.” 

Moily focuses his efforts on the 

dairy industry, which is plagued by poor infrastructure 

and low productivity. Milk yield per 

cow in India is about one-10th of that achieved 

in the U.S. and about 

one-fifth of the yield 

of a New Zealand 

cow. Additionally, 

only 70,000 tons of 

cold storage capacity 

exists for 90 million 

tons of milk produced 

in India. 

Today, MYA addresses these issues for more 

than 3,800 dairy farmers by increasing their 

herd size and the quality and quantity of yield 

per cow. He supplements it by building the milk 

procurement infrastructure at villages through 

milk collection centers and cold storage facilities 

to ensure traceability of the milk produced, 

quality assurance, certification and verification, 

then supplies the milk to downstream markets. 

In the next few months, MYA seeks to serve 

more than 20,000 dairy farmers in southern India, 

to increase their productivity and connect 

them to global market, then capitalize on the 

cost arbitrage. 

“The opportunity that I see in rural India is in 

terms of making transformational increases to 

the income levels of rural Indians,” Moily said. 

“I’m not looking at rural India as a consumer 

base, I’m looking at rural India more as a production 

base; What can we buy from them? That’s 

the only way we can increase the quality of life.” 

MUMBAI: 

Taking advantage of opportunity 

As a senior investment banker who has worked 

for more than 20 years in India, Vijay Anand Jangiti 

’88 has had a unique perspective on the effect 

of his country’s economic reforms. He handles 

private equity, mergers and acquisitions and strategy, 

so he knows firsthand how easy or difficult it 

has been for businesses to get their start in India. 

Jangiti is based in Mumbai, sometimes called 

India’s New York. The second-largest city in the 

world, Mumbai is the country’s commercial, entertainment 

and financial capital. It’s home to 

two premier stock exchanges, the Reserve Bank of 

India and the headquarters of several important 

financial institutions and corporations – both 

Indian and foreign-owned. The combination of 

these has sent the average rent for office space in 

the city’s Nariman Point district to levels on par 

with Paris, Tokyo and London. 

“Capital is a commodity that is scarce everywhere,” 

Jangiti says. “There are going to be avenues 

where capital is provided to enterprises so 

they can grow and build, and in India the hopes 

are very high.” 

Private equity in India is a relatively new market 

compared with the West, but Jangiti estimates 

that over the past 20 years, more than 300 private 

equity firms have set up in India and the average 

ticket sizes have moved up from U.S. $3 million 

Vijay Anand Jangiti ’88 visits the 

Oberoi Hotel, Nariman Point Mumbai, 

on Jan. 8, 2011. 



to $5 million to U.S. $10 million to $20 million. 

“We had a balance of payments crisis in 1991 

where we had to quickly make some policy decisions, 

but that threw the doors open to foreign 

investment,” he says. “Now, it’s much better doing 

business in India. It’s much easier, freer. Except for 

a few sectors, enterprise can be successful.” 

In 2003 Jangiti launched his own venture, Asterisk 

Confidantes, which focuses on mergers and 

acquisitions, strategic advice, joint ventures and 

raising private capital, with a focus on midsize 

markets. 

The window of opportunity came when his employer, 

ING, decided to acquire a local bank and 

make it the company’s main platform in India. He 

had an attractive severance and a chance to pursue 

his own interests — both work and personal — so 

he jumped at the opportunity. 

“India is a country that continues to grow, and 

over time it will definitely be crossing the growth 

rates of China,” Jangiti says. “The market is here.” 

NEW DELHI: 

Riding technology wave 

Samarth Sangal ’08 had a coveted position 

as a senior management consultant at Capgemini 

Consulting, one of the world’s largest 

consulting, outsourcing and professional services 

companies. His work spanned the globe, 

with projects throughout Europe, India and the 

Middle East. 

It was also challenging: He was in charge of 

finding solutions for telecommunications companies 

trying to deal with the recession, update 

their technology and remain competitive. 

While Sangal enjoyed his position at Capgemini, 

he longed for the freedom of starting his 

own company — something he had aspired to 

do since childhood. 

“My father started his own business after 

working in a bank for more than 20 years,” he 

says. “It’s in my blood. I was on the lookout for 

an idea or a gap to fill.” 

India’s rapidly growing demand for online 

businesses gave Sangal his start. After realizing a 

gap existed between supply and demand for economical 

Web design and development for small 

and midsized businesses, he founded Maverick 

Web Solutions, an online services and consulting 

firm. 

Maverick allows small businesses anywhere in 

the world the ability to contract highly skilled 

website developers and designers 

at competitive prices. When the 

business became profitable, he left 

Capgemini. 

“Today, young people do not shy 

away from leaving a corporate job 

at a multinational corporation and 

starting something they believe 

in,” Sangal said. “Just a few years 

ago, it was difficult for someone 

who was settled in a corporate job 

to do so because of socioeconomic 

factors — but not anymore. Society 

respects your decision and encourages 

you to go on your own.” 

Realizing another need existed in India’s 

booming textile industry, he founded www.textilestock.in, 

an online platform for buying and 

selling textile surplus goods. Its model was inspired 

by Global Sources, the business-to-business 

trading company founded by Thunderbird 

alumnus Merle Hinrichs 

’65. 

So far, the site has 

been successful in India, 

and within five 

years Sangal wants to 

make the brand recognized 

as the online 

trading platform for 

buyers and sellers of 

surplus goods from India. 

He also has several new business ideas in the 

works to capitalize on India’s rapid Internet 

growth. 

“Online business is still catching up in India, 

but the younger generation is adapting to the 

online business model very rapidly,” he says. 

“With meteoric growth in the Indian telecom 

sector, Internet access is no longer a luxury but 

a necessity, with almost all industries making an 

effort to interact with their customers online.” 

HYDERABAD: 

Bursting with optimism 

Narasimha Reddy ’11 could have gone on a 

Winterim this year in a number of exotic locations 

in Africa, South America or Europe. Instead 

he chose a course in India that went right 

through his hometown of Hyderabad, one of 

the country’s major technology hubs. 

Reddy had strong motivation for being Thun- 

Samarth Sangal ’08 

“Today, 

young 

people do 

not shy 

away from 

leaving a 

corporate 

job and 

starting 

something 

they believe 

in.” 



Narasimha Reddy ’11 

sits on the patio Jan. 12, 

2011, at Testa Rossa 

café in Jubilee Hills, 

Hyderabad. 

derbird Professor Kishore Dash’s assistant on the 

Winterim. The assignment placed him in a great 

position to network with key Indian business 

leaders — people he might need to reach out to 

when he graduates later this year. 

“Relationships matter more in India than anyplace 

else in the world,” Reddy says. 

Indian students might have been more optimistic 

in the past about pursuing job opportunities 

overseas, but Reddy says he and others are 

now opting to take advantage of India’s rapid 

growth. 

“There is no question about it, there is a great 

future for new businesses in India,” he says. “I 

know this seems a little far-fetched, but I think in 

the next 10 to 15 years, India will be a developed 

country and calling the shots.” 

Reddy oozes the cool, optimistic and international 

vibe of the new generation of Indian 

entrepreneur — those with the business acumen 

to handle any multinational corporation challenge, 

yet with the cultural awareness to navigate 

the nuances of their home country. 

They’re inspired not just by Western entrepre- 



neurs, but by those closer to home such as Ratan 

Tata, chairman of Tata Group, India’s largest private 

conglomerate, and Azim Premji, the leader 

of Wipro Technologies. 

“One needs to really understand all of the 

dynamics of India to be successful,” Reddy says. 

“You need to really cater to most segments to 

be a truly profitable company in India, whether 

your customer is a person riding a bike or someone 

driving an Audi. Having an Indian mindset 

really kicks in.” 

As president of the Thunderbird Entrepreneurship 

Network, Reddy looks forward to returning 

to India and starting his own business in 

the service sector. 

“There is huge interest from every sector, and 

it isn’t just about the bottom of the pyramid,” he 

says. “There’s a huge luxury market here as well.” 

CHENNAI: 

Recovering from setback 

Krishna Chilukuri ’10 was in Lagos, Nigeria, 

with a problem. As the founder of Roanakh, 

an energy company that built and sold custom 

solar panels, he came to Africa to capitalize on 

growing interest in the renewable energy sector. 

He had completed a few projects and had several 

promising leads with the Nigerian government 

when the recession hit. Oil prices dropped, and 

then all bets were off. 

So Chilukuri, who worked internationally for 

16 years in software sales and development with 

Dassault Systemes before starting Roanakh, hit 

the books. He enrolled at the Indian School of 

Business in Hyderabad and then Thunderbird to 

complete a certificate in advanced studies. Once 

on campus, he began to see the far-reaching 

entrepreneurial opportunity his home country 

offered for someone with his background and 

skills to bounce back. 

“Ten to 15 years ago, there were a lot of barriers 

to doing business because the government 

controlled so many aspects of the economy,” 

Chilukuri says. “But we’ve opened up. Now is 

the time. Today the whole country is growing so 

fast that I feel if you aren’t dynamic, you could 

be left behind.” 

When he finished at Thunderbird, he went 

home and started a new venture that built on 

his corporate background: Catapult Tech Inc. in 

Chennai, which outsources 3-D CAD modeling. 

“Those of us who have worked abroad bring 

knowledge back to India that gives us an edge 

and helps us to stand out,” he says. “Going to 

Thunderbird gives us that exposure and confidence 

to talk to global customers. We feel we 

have the skills and the knowledge to contribute 

to the economy, and it’s almost a responsibility 

that we have to shoulder.” 

Right now, Chilukuri is taking advantage of India’s 

highly skilled technical workforce to build 

his business. He’s also coming out with his first 

book, “India’s Place in the World,” essentially an 

International Political Economy primer specific 

to India inspired by Thunderbird Professor Roy 

Nelson, Ph.D. 

Roanakh is on hold for the moment, but Chulukuri 

is optimistic. 

“Today in every sector 

there is space for 

all kinds of private 

ventures,” he says. “To 

me, I think that is the 

monumental shift 

that gives entrepreneurs 

the confidence 

to do things.” 

Krishna Chilukuri ’10 at the 

Taj Connemara in Triplicane, Chennai, 

Jan. 18, 2011. 


azil’s 

BIOFUEL RE 


VOLUTION 

Decades before massive oil 

discovery, nation taps the 

power of sugarcane 

Story and photos by Daryl James 

An experimental 

sugarcane fi eld borders 

the Cane Technology 

Center in Piracicaba, 

about two hours north 

of São Paulo, Brazil. 

Thunderbird students 

visited the research center 

Jan. 13, 2011, to learn 

about efforts to develop 

new sugarcane varieties. 

Brazilians had a joke about their overreliance on foreign oil 

during the 1970s energy crisis. Venezuela and Argentina, their 

neighbors to the north and south, both had oil. Brazil just needed 

to find the elusive pipeline connecting the countries. 

“It was a joke for 30 years,” Thunderbird Professor John Zerio, 

Ph.D., tells his students in São Paulo on the opening day of a three-week 

Winterim course on sustainability. “But Brazil never found huge amounts 

of oil, and it was the best thing that ever happened.” 

Left with few options, the emerging market looked inward and found a 

sustainable energy source in the abundant sugarcane plantations that Portuguese 

settlers first commercialized in the 1500s. 

Decades before other countries started thinking about ethanol, Brazil 

launched a biofuel revolution using the power of sugarcane in ways the 

early colonists never imagined. The ethanol movement has taken hold since 

then like nowhere else on the planet. 

“Ethanol is embedded in the DNA of this country,” says Zerio, a Brazilian 

native from São Paulo. “People here are proud of their sugarcane and the 

sustainability it represents.” 

Nearly half of the Brazilian vehicles operating in 2011 include flexible fuel 

engines optimized to run on 100 percent ethanol or any mix of gasoline. 

Every service station in the country sells domestic ethanol side-by-side with 

other fuels, and regular gasoline includes 25 percent ethanol. 

The programs have produced dramatic results. Brazil’s National Petroleum 

Agency estimates that the country’s ethanol consumption surpassed 

that of gasoline in the second half of 2008. 

Brazil also produces electricity and other products from sugarcane without 

jeopardizing the country’s status as the world’s No. 1 exporter of granulated 

sugar. The alternate energy source means Brazilians have options when 

oil prices surge — as they have in 2011 — or when sugar prices fluctuate. 

Brazil carved out the energy niche without waiting for a pipeline discovery 

between Venezuela and Argentina. But the joke took a twist in 2007 

when Brazilian state oil company Petrobras announced a massive find off 

the coast of Rio de Janeiro that could turn the country into a major oil exporter 

within 10 years. 


iofuel revolution 

“God 

let the 

Brazilians 

suffer a 

lot until 

they got 

their act 

together, 

and then 

he let them 

find oil.” 

Zerio smiles at the timing of the discovery. “Brazil 

created an industry that is not so much oil-dependent,” 

he says. “And now they found oil.” 

He says his countrymen sometimes joke that 

God is Brazilian, and maybe they are right. “God 

let the Brazilians suffer a lot until they got their 

act together, and then he let them find oil,” Zerio 

says. “Things couldn’t be better.” 

SWEET VERSATILITY 

One Brazilian real buys a frosty treat in the 

markets of Ribeirão Preto, an agribusiness center 

about four hours north of São Paulo. Street vendors 

near the city center feed sugarcane stalks into 

the top of a stainless steel press, the motor whirs, 

and milky yellow juice pours from a spout into a 

cup at the bottom. 

Thunderbird Winterim students watch the process 

for a few moments on Jan. 12, 2011, before 

reaching for their wallets to purchase their own 

samples. 

“Not bad,” says Joshua Niederman ’11, one of 

18 students touring the plantations and research 

centers around Ribeirão Preto with Zerio and a 

guide from São Paulo University. 

Much of the sugarcane that stretches for miles 

around the city ends up in the fuel tanks of Brazilian 

cars. The PricewaterhouseCoopers Agribusiness 

Research & Knowledge Center, one of the 

Winterim stops in Ribeirão Preto, estimates that 

95 percent of new vehicles sold in Brazil include 

flex fuel technology. 

Sugarcane also feeds Brazil’s bioelectricity industry, 

the country’s second-largest energy source 

after hydropower. Other Brazilian companies, 

such as Biocyle, are developing ways to produce 

biodegradable plastic from sugarcane. And, of 

course, much of the crop goes to sugar mills for 

traditional consumption. 

Some stalks even make it to the juicing machines 

in Ribeirão Preto. 

“Sugarcane is very versatile,” says Marco Conejero, 

Ph.D., manager of the PricewaterhouseCoopers 

center. 

Sugarcane is also efficient. Corn, the main 

source of U.S. ethanol, stores sugar only in its 

kernels. But sugarcane uses the entire stalk, allowing 

growers to produce high yields of sugar in a 

limited space. 

Conejero says Brazilian sugarcane can produce 

about 900 gallons of ethanol per acre, and the 

amount will double as agribusiness innovators 

refine the process. “We are moving in this way to 

take advantage of all sources of energy inside the 

plant,” he says. 

U.S. corn growers, meanwhile, produce less 

than 400 gallons of ethanol per acre. 

The sugarcane process also relies less on fossil fuels 

than U.S. methods of producing ethanol. Conejero 

says the United States uses one unit of fossil 

fuel to produce 1.4 units of ethanol, while Brazil 

uses one unit of fossil fuel to produce 9 units of 

ethanol — more than six times the U.S. amount. 

Although the United States remains the world’s 

No. 1 ethanol producer, sugarcane allows Brazil 

to do more with less. “In terms of sustainability,” 

Conejero says, “the energy balance is completely 

different.” 

Overall, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates 

that Brazil produces 37 percent of the world’s 

sugarcane, 24 percent of its granulated sugar and 

44 percent of its ethanol using 427 mills concentrated 

in São Paulo state and coastal regions 

north of Rio de Janeiro. 

FRANKENSTEIN’S GRASS 

All the sugarcane fields surrounding the Cane 

Technology Center in Piracicaba look about the 

A rest stop outside São Paulo shows the fuel varieties 

available in Brazil. Regulators require every service 

station in Brazil to offer ethanol, and regular gasoline 

must include 25 percent ethanol. 



same as Thunderbird students arrive with Zerio 

for a site visit on Jan. 13, 2011. But chemical engineer 

Jaime Finguerut sees important differences. 

His for-profit center about two hours north of 

São Paulo develops sugarcane varieties for domestic 

growers, and each experimental field represents 

different innovation. 

“The domestication process is not new,” 

Finguerut tells the students gathered in the center’s 

main auditorium. “After more than one 

thousand years of selection and crossing, we have 

a complex hybrid grass somewhat like Frankenstein’s 

creation.” 

Even before the Portuguese arrived in the 

1500s, people realized sugarcane was tasty and 

began crossing the sweetest varieties with other 

grasses suitable for different regions. 

Finguerut says the process continues today in 

a race to maximize production and reduce costs. 

“We have to produce more sugarcane in the same 

area,” he says. “The only way to produce more or to 

decrease the cost is to produce with new varieties.” 

He says different varieties thrive in different 

regions, and finding the right type for each location 

allows growers to save on fertilizer, water and 

other costs. Different varieties also mature at different 

times, which allows growers to extend the 

harvest season. 

“Sugarcane has to be processed fresh and very 

fast,” Finguerut says. “You cannot store sugarcane 

because it contains very edible sugar that 

everyone loves — including bacteria, fungus and 

insects.” 

He says Brazil provides an ideal climate for the 

crop, which requires months of heavy rain followed 

by a dry harvest season. But even within 

Brazil, conditions vary. 

“Even in a 20-kilometer radius around the processing 

site, we have different types of soil, different 

types of water availability and different types 

of pests,” he says. “Sugarcane has to be adapted 

to these stresses.” 

MAKING TRADEOFFS 

Not everyone in Brazil agrees with the urgency 

of the need to boost sugarcane production as rapidly 

as possible. Critics point to several tradeoffs 

and unintended consequences that come with 

the proliferation of ethanol mills. 

Problems include deforestation, environmental 

contamination from pesticides and fertilizers, 

the spread of airborne pollutants from crop burning, 

and pressure on small farms as industrial 

operations move in with backing from foreign 

investors. 

Developing countries such as Brazil also must 

Brazil Winterim students 


Professor John Zerio, 

Ph.D., right, visit a 

sugarcane plantation Jan. 

11, 2011, near Ribeirão 

Preto in São Paulo state. 



“Pull a 

quote.” 


listen to an agribusiness 

presentation Jan. 

12, 2011, at the 

PricewaterhouseCoopers 

offi ce in Ribeirão Preto. 

consider the social and economic impacts that 

come with sustainability initiatives. 

“One of the biggest problems associated with 

sugarcane production is with the quality of life 

of the workers as they plant and harvest,” says 

Kemel Kalif, program manager at Friends of the 

Earth Brazil, a nongovernment organization 

based in São Paulo. 

Before heading north into Brazil’s sugarcane 

heartland, Zerio takes his Winterim students to 

the organization’s headquarters for a nonbusiness 

perspective of the biofuel industry. 

“Obviously there are problems associated with 

ethanol production,” says Kalif, an environmental 

advocate raised in Brazil’s Amazon region. 

“Without a doubt, the increase in production of 

ethanol using sugarcane augments many problems.” 

But Kalif also sees progress in Brazil. 

Deforestation is a concern, but he says most 

sugarcane production happens hundreds of 

miles from the Amazon region on land already 

cleared. One reason for the distance is that the 

rainforest does not provide an ideal dry season 

for harvesting. Kalif says newly deforested land 

also lacks the right soil conditions for sugarcane 

production. 

Crop burning is another concern. Mill operators 

use fire to clear undergrowth for manual cutters, 

and the practice fills the sky with dangerous 

particles each harvest season. 

Kalif sees progress in this area also. Most plantations 

in São Paulo state will phase out the burnings 

by 2014. Other regions will follow in the 

coming years, using large harvesting machines to 

mow fields instead of manual cutters. 

Health conditions will improve, but many lowskilled 

workers will lose their jobs. 

Other tradeoffs occur in Brazil’s campaign to 

end child labor. The International Labour Organization 

estimates that 70 percent of child laborers 

work in agriculture, often on family farms. Brazil 

has programs to protect family farms, which empowers 

local communities, but this sometimes 

means more children working in the fields. 

Kalif says sustainability and social initiatives 

often come with tradeoffs, but Brazil is moving in 

the right direction. 

“Brazil has the power to lead the world in energy 

production,” he says. “Ethanol has problems, 

but they are much smaller than the environmental 

problems associated with petroleum.” 

BETTING THE FARM 

One grower ahead of Brazil’s environmental 

and labor laws is Leotino Balbo Jr., a descendant 



of Italian immigrants who manages São Francisco 

Mill near Ribeirão Preto. 

Balbo took control of the family sugar plantation 

in the early 1990s and quickly shook things 

up. Instead of growing with pesticides and fertilizers, 

he adopted organic farming methods. 

Instead of crop burning, he invested in expensive 

machinery that could handle the thick undergrowth. 

And instead of laying off workers, he 

retrained them for new jobs. 

Family stakeholders and industry observers 

thought Balbo was crazy, but he persevered. 

“I was a kid who used to chase birds and go 

fishing in the rivers,” Balbo says. “That love of 

nature has stuck with me since the beginning.” 

When he started working on the family plantation, 

he saw the environmental damage from 

the chemicals and the burning. He searched for 

more sustainable solutions and then quietly began 

winning converts to his ideas. 

“I started changing small things and then bigger 

things,” Balbo says. “Whoever wants to conquer 

the world should start with a tennis ball.” 

Balbo acknowledges he did not know what 

would happen when he switched to organic 

farming. He literally bet the family business on 

one idea: “Whatever you give to the Earth, she 

will repay you.” 

Production dropped 10 percent in the 1990s, 

and Balbo spent many restless nights worrying 

about the consequences. Then things began to 

change. The soil healed, wildlife returned, and 

sugarcane yields started climbing to new highs. 

“Suddenly the system we implemented started 

bringing back results,” Balbo says. “Now we 

have lots of studies proving that in all respects 

— environmental and economic — this kind of 

production is much better than conventional.” 

The same people who called Balbo crazy now 

call him visionary. 

“I am most proud that my uncles and father 

were humble enough to allow the second generation 

of the company to promote this change,” 

Balbo says. 

His eyes light up as he shares the story with 

his Thunderbird guests, as they visit his plantation 

Jan. 11, 2011. His PowerPoint presentation 

includes dozens of his own photographs, and 

Balbo describes each one with the fervor of a 

preacher delivering a sermon. 

“I have more slides if you want to stay longer,” 

he tells the students after nearly two hours. 

Several days later, when Zerio gathers his students 

together one final time in their hotel lobby 

in Rio de Janeiro, the group describes the São 

Francisco Mill visit as a course highlight. Zerio 

agrees. “That was outstanding,” he says. “You 

saw the future of the industry.” 

Many questions remain as Brazil’s biofuel experiment 

reaches maturity. Barriers to international 

trade largely keep Brazilian ethanol out 

of the United States and other markets, but the 

potential for growth is immense. Competition 

from Petrobras and other oil companies will 

add pressure as Brazil taps into newfound oil reserves. 

And growth in developing countries will 

create uncertainty in global commodity markets. 

“Brazil’s ethanol program has had major ups 

and downs,” Zerio says. “But over time the program 

has been consolidated. Today it practically 

has transformed the country, and the future 

looks good.” 

“Whatever 

you give 

to the 

Earth, she 

will repay 

you.” 

A worker leaves the São Francisco Mill on 

Jan. 11, 2011, near Ribeirão Preto. The plantation, 

operated by Grupo Balbo, grows sugarcane without 

pesticides and other chemicals. 



WINTERIM 

wonderlands 

Students explore 

innovation from 

Brazil to South Africa 

By Daryl James 

Thunderbird student Brian 

Brock ’11, left, chats with 

Bate-Lata performers 

Jan. 13, 2011, at the 

Fibria community center in 

Santa Branca during the 

Brazil Winterim. 

(Photo by 

Marcela Cubas ’11) 

Children chatter with excitement as a chartered bus full of foreigners 

arrives Jan. 13, 2011, at the rural community center 

in Santa Branca, Brazil, where families of local forestry workers 

play soccer, attend after-school classes and practice their 

drums. 

Upside-down cans and buckets painted bright colors serve as percussion 

instruments for the children, who wear matching green and purple shirts 

emblazoned with the name of their group, Bate-Lata. The young musicians 

take their places for a concert in the open-air pavilion while their 

guests from Thunderbird School of Global Management gather to listen. 

The 18 graduate students from India, Japan, Peru, South Korea, Thailand 

and the United States have come to Brazil for a three-week course on 

sustainable business in the emerging market. They are led by Thunderbird 

Professor John Zerio, Ph.D., a Brazilian native from São Paulo who has 

arranged a full day of activities with pulp and paper manufacturer Fibria. 

After site visits to nearby plantations, nurseries, factories and laboratories, 

Zerio’s class makes one final stop at the Fibria community center to 

see the softer side of forestry. Fibria provides the classrooms, playground 

and other facilities at the center as part of its corporate social responsibility 

strategy. 

Managers from the company have planned an evening barbecue for the 

Thunderbird students. But the Bate-Lata concert is a surprise organized by 

the drummers and their adult leader, who calls the young musicians his 

children. 

Steady summer rain falls on an adjacent soccer field, and the aroma of 

roasting meat wafts through the damp air. Despite the distractions, the two 

dozen children stand at attention and wait for a signal from their leader. 

He taps his drum with one hand raised, and the children answer with 

an eruption of rhythm that reverberates through the pavilion. After the 

concert ends, the performers crowd around their Thunderbird guests 

— climbing onto laps, posing for photographs and exchanging contact 

information. 


winterim wonderlands 

“Many of these children come from broken 

homes,” the leader explains in Portuguese. 

“Some of their parents are in jail. Meeting these 

students from the United States and playing for 

them is a thrill.” 

Nature provides an extra thrill as the children 

say goodbye to their Thunderbird friends. The 

rain breaks, and a massive rainbow arcs over the 

setting sun in the orange and blue sky. 

LEARNING COMMUNITY 

The three-credit-hour Brazil course, sandwiched 

between fall and spring trimesters, is 

part of a Thunderbird tradition called Winterim. 

While students study with Zerio in Brazil, similar 

courses unfold with other Thunderbird professors 

in China, Costa Rica, Germany, India, 

Jordan, Peru, South Africa and the United States. 

Topics range from finance to entrepreneurship, 

and every course offers multiple opportunities 

for students to step out of the classroom 

and witness business innovation in action. 

“We are a learning community,” Zerio tells 

his students Jan. 6, 2011, on the first day of the 

Brazil Winterim. “We want to create an environment 

where we are all involved in the learning 

process.” 

Traditional full-time MBA student Brody 

Hatch ’11, one of two Portuguese-speaking ambassadors 

in the group, takes the first turn as 

student-teacher. In an upstairs conference room 

at the group’s São Paulo hotel, Hatch covers the 

basics of Portuguese pronunciation and models 

key phrases. 

“Bom dia,” he says, emphasizing Brazil’s 

open-mouthed “m” that sounds closer to the 

English “ng.” The group does its best to mimic 

the phrase in unison. 

Throughout the course, every student takes a 

turn as discussion leader following site visits and 

other activities. The group’s chartered bus functions 

as a roving classroom, and many discussions 

take place on the road while Brazil’s lush 

green scenery whips past the windows. 

Site visits in five cities take the students to 

Deutsche Bank, Eqao, Brookfield Asset Management, 

Wal-Mart, Bunge, Grupo Balbo, Biocycle, 

Fibria and Haztec. Students also visit two non- 

Above: Thunderbird student Jaedong “Jay” Park ’11 

holds a eucalyptus sapling Jan. 13, 2011, at a Fibria 

nursery near Jacarei during the Brazil Winterim. 

Below: Thundebird Professor John Zerio, Ph.D., leads a 

walking tour through a São Paulo business district Jan. 

6, 2011, during the Brazil Winterim. 

(Photos by Joshua Niederman ’11) 


uilding jordan 

government organizations: Friends of the Earth 

and Amazon Foundation. And they meet agriculture 

researchers at PricewaterhouseCoopers 

and the Cane Technology Center. 

When possible, Zerio incorporates Thunderbird 

alumni into the curriculum. Guest speakers 

during the 2011 trip include Luiz Maia ’81 from 

Brookfield Asset Management and Luiz Villares 

’92 from Amazon Foundation. 

Zerio sets up the course and delivers the opening 

lectures in São Paulo. Then he watches from 

the sidelines, putting each site visit into perspective 

as opportunities arise. By the time the bus 

reaches its final destination in Rio de Janeiro, 

the professor spends more instruction time with 

his students than the norm they experience during 

traditional courses on campus. 

“We possibly do much more in this program, 

in terms of contact hours, than what should 

be required,” Zerio tells the group. “But that 

is good. We made the effort to come to Brazil, 

and we are going to use all the time possible to 

learn.” 

SOCCER, SAMBA, FEIJOADA 

The students also take time to immerse 

themselves in Brazilian culture, which revolves 

around soccer, samba and tasty feijoada. “You are 

going to experience events where we have lots of 

fun,” Zerio tells the students. “That is the culture 

here.” 

São Paulo alumni chapter leader Pedro 

Carvalho ’94 joins the group for its first cultural 

adventure on Jan. 7, 2011, at Rosas de Ouro 

samba club. Sewing machines whir in a back 

room of the warehouse, where workers stockpile 

costumes for the upcoming Carnival in Rio de 

Janeiro. 

Out on the main dance floor, hundreds of 

men, women and children move in rhythm to 

live music from drums and horns crowded onto 

a large stage. Traditional full-time MBA student 

Joshua Niederman ’11 ventures onto the dance 

floor, while other Thunderbird students watch 

safely from the sidelines. 

The next evening, Carvalho and other São 

Paulo alumni introduce the students to Brazilian 

food and drink. Glasses clink as students 

make toasts with their first caipirinhas, the national 

cocktail made with sugar and lime. Then 

come large bowls of feijoada, the national dish 

made with beans, beef and pork. 

Rio de Janeiro Alumni Chapter leader Luciana 

Araujo ’09 and other alumni help cap the 

course with a similar feast on Jan. 18, 2011. In 

between, the students round out their Brazil experience 

with visits to shops, restaurants, tourist 

sites, beaches and other venues. 

The key to understanding Brazilian culture, 

Zerio explains, is to let go of rigid schedules and 

expectations. “Go with the flow,” he tells the students. 

“Forget about time.” 


gather around guest 

speaker Luiz Villares ’92 

from Amazon Foundation 

and Thunderbird Professor 

John Zerio, Ph.D., on the 

hotel rooftop in Rio de 

Janeiro. 





make toasts with 

caipirinhas, the Brazilian 

national cocktail, during 

an alumni dinner Jan. 8, 

2011, in São Paulo. 


THANK THE GI BILL 

Thunderbird’s Winterim tradition started in 

1973 with on-campus seminars that evolved 

into the current format. A 1983 article in Thunderbird 

Magazine credits the GI Bill of Rights in 

the United States as the impetus. 

“Winterim was originally designed as a 

pragmatic solution to a very timely economic 

problem,” the article states. “The program was 

introduced in 1973 in answer to Regulation 

14138F of the GI Bill of Rights, which stated 

that ‘payment of educational benefits will not 

be authorized for … intervals between terms 

at the same school which span a full calendar 

month or more.’” 

At a time when one-third of Thunderbird students 

were U.S. military veterans, the January 

break between fall and spring trimesters created 

problems. To fill the time gap and allow veterans 

to collect educational benefits, the school 

created a short program of study. 

Initial Winterim sessions brought dozens 

of guest lecturers to Glendale, Arizona, from 

major multinational corporations. The first 

overseas Winterim was a three-week language 

course in Paris, France. 

Now most Winterims occur off campus, although 

two courses provide on-campus options. 

A twin Summerim program also has 

emerged, offering nine short courses that take 

students to Belgium, China, Hungary, Kenya, 

Panama, Paraguay, Singapore, Slovenia, South 

Korea, Sweden, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, 

the United States and Vietnam. 

“The Winterims and sister Summerims are a 

great way for Thunderbirds to get out and see 

firsthand how business runs around the globe,” 

Brazil Winterim participant Ryan Conway ’11 

says, “from visiting the financial players or discussing 

the latest branding techniques in New 

York, to learning more about international development 

in Jordan, to immersing themselves 

in the business climates of China, South Africa 

or India.” 

Meet your 

guides 

In addition to the Brazil Winterim with Thunderbird Professor John 

Zerio, Ph.D., the school offered 13 winter courses in 2011 with 

Thunderbird thought leaders in eight countries. 

The Dynamic China Business Environment 

with Professors Mary Teagarden, Ph.D., and 

Nathan Washburn, Ph.D., and Thunderbird 

Vice President of Communications and Outreach 

Frank Neville. 

Global Brand 

Management 

with Professor 

Richard 

Ettenson, 

Ph.D., in New 

York. 

Managing 

Global Financial 

Markets 


F. John 

Mathis, Ph.D., 

on New York’s 

Wall Street. 

Sustainable 

Business 

Development 


Gregory 

Unruh, Ph.D., 

in Costa Rica. 

The Big 

Emerging 

Market of 

South Africa 


Olufemi 

Babarinde, 

Ph.D. 



Winterim diary 

Dignity, community and beauty in rural India 

BY RENÉE TELKAMP ’11 

Ihave a good academic understanding of microfinance. 

So after a long plane ride and browsing 

through my travel guide, I felt more or less 

ready for the real deal in India. 

The first three days of this Winterim were spent 

in meeting rooms in Delhi. If this sounds boring 

to you, you obviously weren’t with us. 

Cellphone banking, solar lights, unions, government 

regulations, nongovernment organizations, 

nonbanking institutions, multiple lending and all 

the other concepts were discussed and put into 

place. By the end, we were as ready as foreigners in 

India could be for “the field.” 

Jodhpur is a town in Rajasthan, a state in the 

northwest part of India. While the microfinance 

industry is present here, it is not widespread. 

We had the honor to shadow a local microfinance 

institution called Bazaari. In one day, 

the group showed us all the different steps of the 

lending process — from house visits to confirm 

employment, marriage and financial situation, 

to disbursement, to financial literacy training, to 

the weekly center meetings when payments are 

collected. 

We started at 9 a.m. sharp on a beautiful sunny 

day in January 2011 on a rooftop in Jodhpur. Five 

rows of five women, all dressed in colorful saris, 

sat on the floor. The center meeting of Baazari 

Global Finance opened with a checking of names. 

Afterward, one of the women read a pledge in 

Hindi, and all the women repeated after her. Then 

each woman took out the money she owed, along 

with a card that showed her progress on a 40-week 

loan cycle. 

Our next activity involved doorstep service, a 

straightforward process that builds joint relationships 

of trust and pride. It sounds almost too good 

to be true, but that is what Bazaari delivers to its 

loan recipients. 

Our first day in the field overwhelmed my 

senses. The colors, the pride, the buzz of excitement 

that filled the air wherever our group went, 

the many activities that were going on at the same 

time … it was incredible. 

People often equate poverty to gloom and 

depression. But that is not what I saw. Being poor 

means life is hard. But there is dignity, community 

and beauty. 

Renée Telkamp ’11 

from the Netherlands 

shares her perspective 

during the 2011 

Microfi nance and 

Microenterprise Winterim 

in India with Thunderbird 

Professor Melissa Beran 

Samuelson. 

Not pictured below is Adjunct Professor Ivor Roberts, who leads a Global Institutions Winterim in 

Switzerland. Thunderbird Emeritus Professor Robert Gottlieb also leads an Export/Import Management 

Winterim in Arizona, but the course did not run in 2011. 

Microfinance 

and Microenterprise 


Melissa 

Beran 

Samuelson 

in India. 

Green Energy 

Innovation and 

Application 


Andreas 

Schotter, 

Ph.D., in 

Germany. 

Fundamentals 

of Spanish 

I and II with 

Adjunct 

Professor 

Monica 

Muñoz in 

Peru. 

The Entrepreneur/CEO 

Founders Seminar 


Steven 

Stralser, Ph.D., 

in Glendale, 

Arizona. 

The Big 

Emerging 

Market of 

India with 

Professor 

Kishore 

Dash, Ph.D. 

Global Business Development 

with Professor Lauranne 

Buchanan, Ph.D., and Adjunct 

Instructor Linda Wetzel in 

Jordan. 


faculty focus 

ExxonMobil leaders thank 

T-bird legend Ed Barrett 

ExxonMobil 

honored an old 

friend Nov. 16, 

2010, in a simple 

ceremony full of significance 

for people familiar with 

the rise of Thunderbird 

Corporate Learning and the 

school’s close ties to global 

oil and gas. 


Ed Barrett, Ph.D., came 

to campus in 1990 with a 

passion for oil and gas that he 

used to jump-start business 

when he took over the 

school’s fledgling executive 

education unit. One of his 

first clients was Exxon, which 

later became ExxonMobil. 

Barrett has taught hundreds 

of high-potential managers 

in various ExxonMobil 

programs since then, but he 

is now easing into retirement 

as an emeritus professor. 

On Nov. 18, 2010, he taught 

his last course as academic 

director of the Gas Business 

Fundamentals program with 

ExxonMobil Gas & Power 

Marketing. 

Tom Walters, president of 

ExxonMobil Gas & Power 

Marketing, flew to Arizona 

to participate in the program 

and to thank Barrett for his 

years of service. 

“He has been the mainstay 

of this program,” said Walters, 

who presented Barrett with 

a plaque thanking him for 

“Enthusiastic Teaching, 

Insightful Questions, 

Unwavering Dedication and 

Steady Direction” since the 

program started in 1996. 

“It has been a good 

run,” said Barrett, who 

will continue working 

with ExxonMobil in 

other executive education 

programs. 


Ángel Cabrera, Ph.D., 

attended the ceremony 

with Senior Vice President 

of Corporate Learning Beth 

Ed Barrett speaks during a surprise celebration in his honor Nov. 16, 

2010, in the Gas Business Fundamentals program with ExxonMobil 

Gas & Power Marketing in Glendale, Arizona. 

Stoops. 

Thunderbird Vice 

President of Global Business 

Development Jan Mueller, 

who has worked closely with 

Barrett on the ExxonMobil 

account since 1997, also 

attended the event, along 

with Thunderbird Professor 

Andrew Inkpen, Ph.D., 

who will replace Barrett 

as academic director 

of the Gas Business 

Fundamentals program. 

DARYL JAMES 

Language center director publishes three books in 2010 

Carmen Carney, Ph.D. 

McGraw-Hill published 

three books in 2010 cowritten 

by Thunderbird 

Professor Carmen Carney, 

Ph.D. 

“Nuestro Idioma, Nuestra 

Herencia” addresses 

the professional language 

needs of the Spanish heritage 

student. A grammar 

review book, “Manual de 

Actividades,” accompanies 

the textbook. The third title, 

“Entre Socios: Español para 

el Mundo Profesional,” is a 

business Spanish textbook 

for the intermediate high 

and advanced Spanish 

speaker. 

Carney, director of The 

Garvin Center for Cultures 

& Languages of International 

Management, is a 

native of Puerto Rico and 

speaks English, Spanish 

and Portuguese. Before 

joining the Thunderbird 

faculty in 1991, she provided 

executive education to 

business leaders involved 

in the Honduran banking 

industry and worked 

with companies in other 

industries in Mexico and 

Costa Rica. 


faculty focus 

Power breakfasts 

T-bird professors anchor CFO Alliance forums 

Arizona finance 

professionals 

share breakfast 


professors at bimonthly CFO 

Alliance forums that started 

in 2009 as a way to connect 

local industry leaders. 

The CFO Alliance Breakfast 

Roundtable Series allows 

members in about 10 U.S. 

markets to network, identify 

issues, analyze problems and 

explore solutions. Thunderbird 

School of Global 

Management serves as the 

academic partner for the 

Phoenix group. 


Richard Ettenson, Ph.D., facilitated 

a discussion Feb. 3, 

2011, on the need for marketing 

professionals to make the 

business case for marketing 

Richard Ettenson, Ph.D. 

and branding within their 

organizations. 

“Marketing professionals 

are the ones who must step 

up and demonstrate they 

create business value,” said 

Ettenson, the Thelma H. 

Kieckhefer research fellow 

in global brand marketing 

at Thunderbird. “All too 

often, we have not helped 

Gregory Unruh, Ph.D. 

our own cause.” 

Ettenson said marketing 

professionals must back 

their creative ideas with solid 

research, and they must learn 

to articulate the scientific 

foundation for their ideas in 

language that resonates with 

the financial officers watching 

the bottom line. 


Paul Kinsinger 

Gregory Unruh, Ph.D., led a 

discussion Dec. 3, 2010, on 

corporate social responsibility 

and sustainability. And 

Thunderbird Professor Paul 

Kinsinger led a discussion 

Oct. 7, 2010, on market intelligence 

gathering. 

For information on joining the 

group, visit achievenext.com/ 

cfoa. 

Inkpen wins international Case Award 


Andrew C. Inkpen, Ph.D., 

has won an international 

ecch Case Award for his 

study of Southwest Airlines’ 

navigation of the 2008 

energy crisis and the global 

economic downturn that 

followed. 

Judges from ecch, a 

nonprofit organization 

dedicated to promoting the 

case method of learning, 

announced winners Feb. 

21, 2011, from 10 academic 

categories. 

Winning cases are selected 

anonymously based 

Andrew C. Inkpen, Ph.D. 

on the number of institutions 

around the world that 

order and teach a case during 

each calendar year. This 

means Inkpen’s case was 

the most widely taught 

in the world in finance, 

accounting and control 

courses during 2010. 

“Vision 2020 defines 

‘global impact’ as our overarching 

goal,” Thunderbird 

President Ángel Cabrera 

said. “Andrew’s case study 

is a perfect example of what 

global impact can mean in 

practice in terms of thought 

leadership.” 

Inkpen is the J. Kenneth 

and Jeannette Seward 

chair in global strategy & 

professor of management at 


Stralser leads 

TiE AZ board 

Steven Stralser, Ph.D., a 

professor in Thunderbird’s 

Walker Center for Global 

Entrepreneurship, has been 

named president of the TiE 

Arizona Board of Directors. 

The organization, part of 

The Indus Entrepreneurs 

network, supports entrepreneurship 

in Arizona. 

Stralser also serves on the 

boards for Salt River Devco, 

the commercial real estate 

development arm of the Salt 

River Pima Maricopa Indian 

Community; and Flexx- 

Coach, an e-learning venture. 


faculty focus 

Einstein’s world 

An internationalist, and still loyal to one’s tribe? 

BY ROBERT T. MORAN 

Acclaimed physicist 

Albert Einstein 

showed a 

knack for global 

affairs in a 1919 letter to 

a friend. “One can be an 

internationalist without being 

indifferent to members 

of one’s tribe,” he wrote. 

Einstein was right, of 

course. But balancing 

national pride with global 

perspective can be tricky 

for business leaders in 

a world that has grown 

increasingly interconnected 

since Einstein’s letter more 

than 90 years ago. 

I came to Thunderbird 

from the University of 

Minnesota in 1976. The International 

Studies Department 

had received a U.S. 

Department of Education 

grant to develop a program 

in “cross-cultural communication,” 

and I was asked 

to design courses focusing 

on the people, or the “soft” 

side of doing business. 

Since fall 1976, when 

I started teaching Cross- 

Cultural Communication 

for International Managers, 

more than 7,000 T-bird 

grads have taken this class. 

The theme of the course 

was “culture counts” or 

“culture matters.” I am 

trained as a behavioral 

psychologist, so I used 

concepts from psychology, 

social psychology, anthropology 

and sociology, as 

well as examples from my 

five years of experience living 

and working in Japan 

in the 1960s. 

Most students who took 

this class also read my 

book, “Managing Cultural 

Differences,” first published 

in 1979. The book 

had 418 pages, and the first 

edition had three printings. 

The eighth edition, 

published in November 

2010, has 570 pages with 

more than 200 additional 

pages on a website and an 

instructor’s guide of more 

than 300 pages. What 

follows are excerpts from 

Chapter 1 of the eighth 

edition related to Einstein’s 

1919 quote, and reprinted 

with the publisher’s permission. 

A FRIENDLY 

ENCOUNTER 

In our neighborhood, 

trash is picked up every 

Monday and Thursday. I 

was born and spent my 

early years in Canada, 

where everyone called the 

trash “garbage.” One of my 

early chores as a young boy 

was to take out the garbage. 

I still take out the 

garbage, usually on a 

Sunday night for an early 

Monday morning pickup. 

One Sunday, as I left a 

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 

“Managing Cultural 

Differences: 

Leadership Skills 

and Strategies 

for Working in a 

Global World” 

Authors: Robert T. Moran, 

Philip R. Harris and Sarah 

V. Moran 

Publisher: Butterworth- 

Heinemann; 8th edition 

(Nov. 25, 2010) 

ISBN: 978-1856179232 

Description: Paperback, 

570 pages 

DARYL JAMES 


faculty focus 

full bucket on our street, I 

met a neighbor who was 

taking her dog for a walk. 

We exchanged pleasantries, 

and she asked about our 

adult children. She was 

genuinely interested. 

“Elizabeth is still living 

and working in France,” I 

said, “and we are about to 

have a second American/ 

French grandchild.” I told 

her that Sarah was working 

in Taiwan, Molly was 

in San Francisco working 

for the Gap, Rebecca was 

a volunteer bush pilot in 

Tanzania flying medical 

personnel to the Masai, 

and Ben, our youngest, was 

in West Africa finishing his 

first year as a Peace Corps 

volunteer. 

Our neighbor looked at 

me, and in a matter-of-fact 

way responded, “Well, at 

least you have one ‘normal’ 

one.” 

We believe our five adult 

children are all “normal,” 

at least most of the time. 

Working and living in San 

Francisco — and working 

in Taiwan — are equally 

“normal” in today’s world. 

YOU CAN’T TRUST 

THE FRENCH 

Many years before the 

above encounter, about 20 

years ago, I took a sabbatical 

from Thunderbird. With 

two stuffed duffel bags each, 

my spouse and I left for 

France with our five young 

children. I was going to 

teach at a grande école — a 

French Ivy League university 

— in the suburbs of Paris. 

We wanted our children to 

learn another language and 

have a genuine experience 

of another culture. 

For several weeks, we had 

not yet met any other foreigners 

as we tried to find an 

affordable used car, a house 

to rent, and schools for our 

children. We had only met 

French people who, without 

exception, helped us figure 

out how things worked in 

their sometimes bureaucratic 

country. 

Our youngest child, Ben, 

however, who was 7 at the 

time, had met an American 

whose name was Jack, and 

he asked if Jack could come 

over and have dinner with 

us. We immediately agreed. 

As it was my turn to cook, 

with the help of my eldest 

daughter, we decided that 

fish — four trout from the 

local marché — would be 

the entree. 

As Jack was our guest, 

I presented the fish on a 

platter to him first. As I 

did this, my daughter said, 

from across the table, “Be 

careful, everyone, there may 

be some small bones in 

the fish.” Jack, also seven 

years old, looked at me and 

responded, “Okay ... (sigh) 

... You know, you just can’t 

trust the French.” 

Surprised at his comment, 

I asked him where he had 

first heard it. “My mother 

says that all the time,” he 

responded. 

Later that night, when I 

was dropping him off at his 

home, I met Jack’s mother. 

She told me that she wanted 

to go home to the United 

States. She was lonesome, 

missed her friends, and 

did not really like living in 

France. 

Of course, there is nothing 

abnormal about being 

lonely and finding a new 

environment difficult to 

adapt to. But her feelings 

and attitudes clearly 

influenced Jack, who might 

have been less disparaging 

and closed to his new 

environment had she felt 

differently. 

THE ALL-AMERICAN 

GIRL 

Last spring, as my work at 

Thunderbird slowed down, 

my spouse and I were able 

to spend a little more time 

together, and we were ready 

for a new adventure. So we 

rented a small house in the 

French countryside, thinking 

we would spend our 

time studying French, the 

first language of two of our 

grandchildren. 

When my spouse told 

one of her friends that we 

were leaving for several 

weeks, her friend responded, 

“That’s not for me — 

I’m an all-American girl!” 

But what is a global 

person? People with global 

perspective do not believe 

their nation is the best 

at everything and that 

everyone else wants to be 

just like them. Rather, they 

understand that people 

from other cultures have 

lives and viewpoints different 

from their own. 

People with a global 

perspective might not speak 

more than one language 

or have experience in other 

countries. They might not 

even own a passport. However, 

they are aware of and 

interested in the issues of 

people around the world. 

They are empathetic and 

sensitive, and have skills 

in interacting with people 

who might not look like, 

talk like, smell like or act 

like themselves. 

About 500 years ago, 

after it was discovered the 

Earth rotates around the 

sun, humanity had to give 

up the then-held belief that 

the Earth was at the center 

of the universe. It simply 

wasn’t. Giving up old ideas 

or ideas that don’t work, or 

ideas that are inaccurate, is 

difficult. 

When students or working 

professionals come 

to Thunderbird, we try as 

faculty to influence them. 

We certainly want them to 

become sophisticated in 

understanding key aspects 

of global business today. 

But we also hope to 

convince them it is OK to 

be American, Canadian, 

Brazilian, German or Saudi. 

Like Einstein said, they can 

be internationalists and 

still be loyal to their own 

tribe. A manager from the 

United States can be an 

“all-American girl” with 

passion for diversity, quest 

for adventure and selfassurance 

in cross-cultural 

encounters. 

Helping global managers 

find this balance has been 

part of our mission for 

many years, and the success 

of our graduates in complex 

global environments 

is a good indicator we are 

succeeding. 

Robert T. Moran, Ph.D., 

is an organizational and 

management consultant with 

specialties in cross-cultural 

training, organizational development 

and international 

human resource management. 

He is an emeritus 

professor of international 

management and former 

interim chair of the International 

Studies Department 

at Thunderbird. Moran 

received his graduate degrees 

from the University of Minnesota. 

He was also a coach 

and adviser of the Japanese 

National Hockey Team and, 

as an adviser, attended the 

1968 Winter Olympics in 

Grenoble, France, and the 

1972 Games in Sapporo, 

Japan. He is the co-author of 

“Managing Global Differences” 

and “Leading Global 

Projects.” 


faculty focus 

Protecting know-how 

In China, process is both simple and complex 

BY ANDREAS SCHOTTER AND MARY TEAGARDEN 

In 2010, almost a decade 

after China’s admission to 

the World Trade Organization, 

the ability to protect 

intellectual property (IP) or 

other corporate know-how 

in China remains one of the 

most critical issues for foreign 

multinational corporations, 

especially for those doing 

business in the high-tech and 

service sectors. 

Surprisingly little research 

has investigated IP protection 

outside the traditional 

litigation and mitigation approach. 

Previous studies fall 

short in providing a comprehensive 

understanding about 

successful IP protection activities 

that work. Our research 

intends to correct this. 

We conducted more than 

97 in-depth interviews with 

executives from 50 multinational 

corporations, IP protection 

specialists, business 

consultants and government 

agencies. Many executives 

were Thunderbird alumni or 

friends. We sought answers to 

three overarching questions: 

• What are the key environmental 

issues for “IP Protection” 

in China? 

• How are foreign and local 

companies protecting their IP 

in China? 

• Are there “best practices” 

or common themes among 

companies? 

NEW CHINA 

REALITIES 

China is no longer simply 

the low-cost “workshop of 

Mary Teagarden, Ph.D. 

Andreas Schotter, Ph.D. 

the world.” While China still 

manufactures most of the 

world’s toys, footwear and 

consumer electronics, exports 

from China’s high-tech industries 

grew from 6 percent to 

more than 30 percent during 

the past two decades. 

In China, multinational 

companies can no longer 

compete with offerings based 

on previous-generation or 

“old” technology. They have 

to offer their most advanced 

know-how, despite the fact 

that, for many, China is 

synonymous with intellectual 

property theft. Consider the 

following incidents reported 

to us: 

• Several years ago, an Intel 

employee in China took 

intellectual property to 

AMD, the company’s main 

competitor. The value of 

the lost IP was estimated 

close to $1 billion. 

• Recently, a Ford employee 

took more than 4,000 confidential 

business documents 

and used them to 

secure a job with a Chinese 

auto manufacturer. Currently, 

Renault executives 

are being scrutinized for 

similar behavior. 

• Pfizer has taken several 

trademark cases to Chinese 

and international courts 

and received a ruling that 

Viagra is a valid trademark. 

The courts ordered two 

Chinese companies to 

stop producing counterfeit 

pills. Pfizer still struggles 

with the enforcement of 

the ruling through local 

authorities. 

WHAT DRIVES IP 

LEAKAGE? 

China’s unique sociocultural 

history contributes 

to IP theft in China. For 

example, students learn by 

copying their master. The 

perfect copy is considered a 

compliment for the original. 

Further, there are very low 

marginal costs for IP theft 

(including very limited prosecution) 

compared with the 

costs associated with R&D. 

One general manager stated: 

“Widespread IP leakage 

will persist until it is more 

expensive to copy than it is 

to innovate.” Finally, a high 

turnover rate of knowledge 

workers, well-educated middle 

managers and engineers 

causes a constant “bleeding” 

of corporate know-how. 

The unfortunate reality 

is that in China, eventually 

all intellectual property 

leaks. Some leakage is faster 

and some slower. Success 

in China requires diligent 

control paired with proactive, 

dynamic management of IP 

leakage. Passive overreliance 

on an immature legal system 

is ineffective. 

IP PROTECTION THAT 

WORKS 

Despite challenges, many 

multinational corporations 

have high-tech investments 

in China, and a fair number 

do a good job protecting 

IP using a variety of 

mechanisms. We found three 

specific levels of IP protection 

mechanisms that are 

required in combination for 

success: 

• Explicit strategic clarity 

about a firm’s China 

activities. 

• Establishment of a set of 

activities that follow core 

IP protection procedures, 

including context-relevant 

legal diligence and business 

intelligence — we 

refer to this as keep it 

simple (KISS). 

• An intertwined arrange- 

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 


faculty focus 

ment of six dynamic organizational 

and managerial 

actions including stakeholder 

alignment with the 

aim of increasing complexity 

to such a point that not 

one single breach could 

create a threatening IP leakage 

situation — we call this 

keep it complex (KICX). 

Our IP protection framework 

(see illustration) is 

characterized by a dynamic 

combination of simple and 

complex, static and flexible 

activities and practices. It 

should be read from the bottom 

up. 

For effective IP protection 

in China, companies 

must have context-relevant 

corporate and business 

strategies; they must have 

identified the critical IP that 

is required to execute these 

strategies; they must identify 

the right people (internally 

and externally); they must 

explicitly formulate effective 

operational, management 

and contingency processes; 

and they must develop an 

explicit awareness of timing 

and its impact on the other 

factors mentioned. 

While these practices seem 

simple, more often than not, 

companies rush into China 

without considering these 

measures. We collected overwhelmingly 

rich evidence 

that this negligence usually 

leads to significant IP leakage. 

Incorporating IP protection 

tools and practices during 

the development of the 

business strategy provides 

the critical foundation upon 

which companies can build a 

robust IP protection strategy 

(KISS — keep it simple). 

Once companies have 

established this foundation, 

the focus shifts to a variety 

of managerial activities 

(KICX — keep it complex) 

A DYNAMIC MITIGATION AND ADAPTION FRAMEWORK FOR IP 

KICX 

KISS 

INTEREST 

ALIGNMENT 

that introduce on one side 

complexity and ambiguity — 

they can’t understand how 

you do what you do — and 

on the other internal and external 

stakeholder alignment 

as dynamic elements of IP 

protection. We identified six 

effective activities: 

1. Proactive interest alignment 

with regulatory institutions 

and individual 

government officials in 

the localities where the 

company operates. 

2. Disaggregation of IP components 

and core processes 

through organizational 

and physical separation 

of activities, vendors and 

know-how. 

3. Dynamism through 

continuously improving 

products and processes, in 

order to stay at the leading 

edge. 

4. Controls discipline that rests 

on a strong organizational 

culture. 

5. Strategic human resources 

management/talent management 

that makes the 

company a “great place to 

work.” 

6. Focused corporate social 

responsibility activity that 

makes the company a 

valuable, integral part of 

the local community. 

DISAGGREGATION 

PROTECTION 

DYNAMISM 

CONTROLS 

DISCIPLINE 

LEGAL FUNDEMENTAL 

KNOW YOUR CONTEXT: BUSINESS INTELLEGENCE 

CHINA STRATEGY CLARITY 

The key driver here is the 

complexity that results from 

combining these multilayered 

activities. The effect is a 

significant slowing down of 

both opportunistic would-be 

IP thieves (including departing 

employees, suppliers and 

customers) and organized IP 

theft through espionage. 

The use of socially complex 

processes, like talent 

management, extends the 

reduction of knowledge theft 

to the employee level, which 

is the most common conduit 

for IP leakage. Protection activities 

embedded in socially 

complex processes create 

ambiguity that provides 

a temporarily sustainable 

advantage. 

Finally, the more onerous 

challenge for multinational 

corporations operating in 

China is to remain dynamic 

by configuring and reconfiguring 

the elements of the 

framework as the context 

evolves, devolves or shifts. 

BEST IP PRACTICES 

In China, IP protection 

that goes beyond patenting 

and legal litigation is potentially 

the most important 

organizational capability 

for ensuring long-term performance 

in high-tech and 

SHRM-TALENT 

MANAGEMENT 

FOCUSED CSR 

service firms. This requires 

that companies employ 

three sets of best practices: 

• Get the fundamentals 

right, including strategy, 

deep contextual understanding 

and the use of 

appropriate legal fundamentals. 

• Develop and reinforce 

the six activities that are 

catalysts for dynamic IP 

protection. 

• Build a control-based culture, 

processes anchored 

in social complexity, and 

do this with speed. 

Andreas Schotter, Ph.D., is 

a Thunderbird professor of 

strategic management. Before 

embarking on an academic 

career, he was a senior executive 

with several multinational 

corporations. He has lived and 

worked in Europe, Asia and 

Canada. 

Mary Teagarden, Ph.D., 

is a Thunderbird professor 

of global strategy and editor 

of Thunderbird International 

Business Review. She 

has lived and worked in 11 

Latin American countries, five 

European countries and eight 

Asian countries — in addition 

to the United States and 

Canada. 


faculty focus 

Teagarden receives faculty ambassador award from alumni 


Mary Teagarden, Ph.D., has 

received the 2010 Faculty 

Ambassador Award, which 

includes a check for $1,500. 

Thunderbird’s Alumni 

Relations Office established 

the award in 2009 to 

recognize Thunderbird 

faculty members who 

exceed expectations to 

engage alumni around the 

globe. The first recipient was 

Professor Roy Nelson, Ph.D. 

Teagarden uses 

Thunderbird’s alumni 

network as the backbone 

of her Winterim and 

Summerim courses overseas. 

She also has co-written at 

least half a dozen cases and 

articles with T-bird graduates 

over the years. 

Teagarden also shares 

her expertise with alumni 

through webinars and guest 

lectures. She was a featured 

presenter at the Macau and 

Shanghai alumni reunions, 

and she was a panelist at the 

seventh annual Thunderbird 

Global Private Equity 

Investing Conference. 

In addition, she serves 

on several advisory boards 

for alumni business 

ventures. These include 

4Stones with Donny 

Huang ’94, GlobalVantage 

with Marianne Gouveia 

’02 and China Strategic 

Development Partners with 

Rich Brubaker ’01. 

“I do my best to 

support our alumni in 

their various efforts, and 

they are wonderful in the 

support they provide me 

and the school,” Teagarden 

said. “Our alumni are 

Thunderbird’s most valuable 

asset.” 

‘Wall Street Journal’ honors Thunderbird professor 

The Wall Street Journal 

has selected Thunderbird 

Professor Andreas Schotter, 

Ph.D., as one of 10 Distinguished 

Professors of the 

Year for 2010. 

The award recognizes 

Schotter for his use of articles 

and discussion questions 

from The Wall Street 

Journal and WSJ.com to 

keep his lessons fresh and 

relevant for his students. 

Wall Street Journal Regional 

Education Representative 

Thomas Cook 

said Schotter skillfully uses 

Internet resources to help 

students understand global 

strategy, emerging markets 

and multinational corporations. 

“He has a talent to maximize 

the power of digital 

media platforms directly 

into the classroom,” Cook 

said. “And he helps his 

students prepare for their 

careers by conducting highlevel 

media research.” 

Schotter said managers 

in today’s fast-paced global 

economy must be able to 

access the most reliable Internet 

information quickly 

and comprehensively. “Too 

often Google, Facebook, 

Twitter and other social 

media platforms are being 

falsely regarded as sufficient 

for researching current 

events, trends or other 

data,” he said. “Successful 

leaders need to resist 

an overreliance on these 

sources.” 

He said The Wall Street 

Journal and WSJ.com represent 

a comprehensive and 

trustworthy information 

platform essential for highimpact 

decision-making. 

“No other similar media 

outlet has the editorial 

and journalist horsepower 

that The Wall Street Journal 

represents,” Schotter said. 

“After only a few sessions, 

one can actually see the 

positive results in the classroom.” 

Schotter, an assistant 

professor of strategic management 

from Germany, 

has lived and worked in 

Asia, Australia, Canada and 

Europe. He came to Thunderbird 

in 2009. 

Tap into Thunderbird’s Thought Leadership 

Visit the Thunderbird Knowledge Network to read 

more from our faculty including the following blogs: 

• “Global Leaders Can Be Made” by Ángel Cabrera 

• “Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship Blog” by Robert Hisrich, Ph.D. 

• “Managing Projects – A Team-Based Approach” by Karen Brown, Ph.D. 

• “Thunderbird Student Projects” by Nathan Washburn, Ph.D. 

• “Prosper in a Project-driven World” by Bill Youngdahl, Ph.D. 

• “Gregory Unruh In The Huffington Post” by Gregory Unruh, Ph.D. 

• “World Cafe” by Karen Walch, Ph.D., and Denis Leclerc, Ph.D. 

www.thunderbird.edu/knowledgenetwork 


faculty focus 

Dilbert Effect 

Disconnected leadership derails strategy implementation 

BY BILL YOUNGDAHL AND KANNAN RAMASWAMY 

Many bold new 

strategies hatched 

in executive conference 

rooms 

around the world never have 

a chance to gain traction. 

Something happens between 

inception and implementation 

loosely described 

as the “Dilbert Effect,” a 

nod to the farcical world of 

cartoonist Scott Adams. 

In our consulting and 

teaching experience with 

Fortune Global 500 organizations, 

we frequently feel the 

pain of Dilbert empathizers 

trapped in their metaphorical 

cubicles. Lack of clarity, 

poor communication and 

insufficient resources sink 

some strategic initiatives. 

But a more fundamental 

problem is disconnected 

leadership. 

Like the pointy-haired 

boss who torments Dilbert, 

many real-world leaders 

remain disconnected from 

the realities of strategy 

implementation. Despite 

their good intentions, these 

leaders often get in the 

way of progress — somehow 

limiting rather than 

enabling the full potential 

of their employees and 

partners. 

Checking for the Dilbert 

Effect is not part of the official 

briefings we conduct 

with our corporate clients, 

but issues of strategy derailment 

come up in classroom 

discussions and interviews 

with people from various organizations. 

Many working 

professionals report cultures 

of fear and lack of support 

from leaders who seem 

to believe another layer of 

management can solve any 

problem. 

We recently met one manager 

who sees the pointyhaired 

boss on cubicle walls 

as evidence of disconnected 

leadership. When she visits 

parts of the company 

adorned with numerous 

Dilbert cartoons, she knows 

the jokes are hitting close to 

home. She laughed when 

she told us her company 

could save a fortune in 

consultant fees if its leaders 

grasped the meaning of this 

simple visual signal. 

The irony of some situations 

is hard to overlook. We 

heard of one organization 

that fired an employee for 

criticizing its new “speak 

your mind” campaign. 

Another company scrapped 

its simplification initiative 

after the process became 

too complex. In a third case, 

an organization chose the 

name “Brighter Tomorrow” 

for an offshoring initiative 

that displaced 25 percent of 

the workforce. 

Other examples of disconnected 

leadership are more 

Bill Youngdahl, Ph.D. 

subtle. Cross-functional and 

cross-divisional initiatives 

typically start with committed 

sponsors driven by longterm 

vision. But overlapping 

initiatives often emerge, 

resulting in confusion. 

When everything is a 

priority, schedules slip 

and budgets swing out of 

control. The combined effect 

can be organizational 

paralysis and employee 

burnout. Go a few levels 

down and most employees 

are unaware of the strategy, 

let alone the supporting 

pillars that originated in the 

corporate suite. 

In an effort to understand 

the factors of strategy derailment, 

we have launched 

a formal study that will 

build on our background as 

global strategy consultants 

and educators. Our aim is 

simply to define the Dilbert 

Effect in greater detail so 

Take Dilbert Effect survey 

Spend 10 minutes to share your insights by participating in an 

anonymous online survey at www.initiativeleader.com. The link 

also contains a blog section that will host a discussion of the 

results. 

Kannan Ramaswamy, Ph.D. 

we can begin to understand 

the root causes and costs of 

disconnected leadership and 

provide insights into how 

leaders can overcome such 

dysfunction. 

We do not believe any 

leader wakes up in the 

morning and asks, “How 

can I become disconnected 

from the realities of my 

organization?” Something 

else is afoot, and we intend 

to define it and explore it so 

we can help leaders reconnect 

with their true missions 

— for the sake of Dilberts 

everywhere. 

Bill Youngdahl, Ph.D., is an 

associate professor of project 

and operations management at 

Thunderbird School of Global 

Management in Glendale, Arizona. 

Follow his blog, Prosper 

in a Project-Driven World. 

Kannan Ramaswamy, Ph.D., 

is the William D. Hacker chair 

professor of management at 

Thunderbird. Both professors 

teach extensively in Thunderbird 

Corporate Learning, the 

school’s executive education 

division. 


chapter news 

DARYL JAMES 

Phoenix Alumni Chapter members Leah Kumayama ’10 and Marcelo 

Nieto ’10 mingle with prospective students, faculty, staff and other 

alumni on March 1, 2011, during a Super First Tuesday event at Monti’s 

La Casa Vieja in Tempe, Arizona. 

Super First Tuesday 

events aid recruiting 

O 

nce a year, regular monthly T-bird gatherings grow 

into larger events with the goal of uniting prospective 

students with the one group that can best 

discuss the Thunderbird experience — the school’s 

valued alumni. 

“Alumni are our best recruiters for the school,” said Jay 

Bryant ’04, Thunderbird assistant vice president of admissions 

and recruitment. “Through their own success stories, they 

help to promote Thunderbird to the next generation of global 

leaders.” 

More than 70 chapters in 29 countries participated in the 

sixth annual Super First Tuesday, which started March 1, 2011. 

Thunderbird recruiters attended 10 events, and Alumni Relations 

staff provided additional support. 

Phoenix Alumni Chapter President Mike Cottrell ’07 has 

been steadily increasing his chapter’s attendance at Super First 

Tuesday. He said the Phoenix Chapter is in a unique position to 

promote the Thunderbird brand because members live in the 

home base of the school. 

“I cannot think of a better endorsement of a Thunderbird 

education for a potential T-bird than an evening spent with 

alumni from all different backgrounds and industries,” he said. 

About 60 guests attended the Phoenix event, which featured 

a presentation from local entrepreneur Andrew Allen ’10, 

founder and president of More Marbles. 

The concept for Super First Tuesday was created by Director of 

Recruitment Tom Brennan ’05 with input from Bryant. 

FRANCE 

Bernadette Martin ’84, 

author of “Storytelling 

about Your Brand Online 

and Offline,” spoke Dec. 

7, 2010, during a First 

Tuesday alumni event at 

the American Library in 

Paris. Afterward, teams from 

Toastmasters, Thunderbird 

and the American University 

Clubs of France competed in 

an impromptu storytelling 

competition. 

JAPAN 

The Tokyo Chapter, which 

normally meets on First 

Fridays, started 2011 with 

a special event on Jan. 15 

to coincide with Japanese 

New Year festivities. Alumni 

selected a new venue for the 

gathering called Mille Wine 

Bar. 

SINGAPORE 

About 50 alumni and 

guests attended the Singapore 

Chapter holiday party 

Dec. 9, 2010. The event included 

Thunderbird recruiter 

Bell Benjapatanamongkol 

’08 and several prospective 

students. Alan Giebel ’92, 

a sales and business development 

professional in 

Singapore, helped organize 

the event and delivered the 

welcome speech. 

TAIWAN 

About 20 alumni and their 

guests celebrated New Year’s 

Day together in Taipei. 

VIETNAM 

Ho Chi Minh City 

alumni bid farewell to 

longtime chapter leader 

Jim Echle ’72 during First 

Tuesday in September 2010. 

Echle, an Indiana native 

who has lived in Asia since 

1973, now represents the 

American Soybean Association 

in Japan. The Vietnam 

Chapter has continued 

strong with regular First 

Tuesday events under the 

leadership of Hao Diep ’10, 

Jessica Tartell ’10 and Kurtis 

“King” Kovach ’91. 

UNITED STATES 

Idaho and Wyoming: 

Eric Laird ’09 has helped 

launch the Greater Teton 


chapter news 

Alumni rugby team heads to Iceland 

T 

hunderbird alumni will 

compete July 1-8, 2011, in 

the Mjöður Old Boys Rugby 

Tour in Iceland. 

“We will play the one club in the 

country, which makes it the national 

team,” said Thunderbird Alumni 

Rugby Association leader Chuck 

Hamilton ’91. 

The week will consist of one or 

two matches against the Iceland 

club and another visiting club from 

Europe. On off days the group will 

hike, visit museums, and enjoy 

Iceland’s volcanic hot springs and 20 

hours of daylight. 

The alumni team warmed up for 

the Iceland trip March 3-6, 2011, 

during the Rugby Alumni Weekend 

in Glendale, Arizona. In the annual 

match against Thunderbird’s student 

team, the “Old Boys” fell short, 29-8. 

Tim Riesen ’98 scored all the 

alumni points with a penalty kick to 

draw first blood, and an unconverted 

try to end the match. Morgan Siegal 

’11 led the student team with his 

aggressive play. “He is just a beast,” 

Hamilton said. 

Participants gathered at the Pub 

afterward to remember Lynn Abernathy 

’77, a former Rugby Association 

member who died in a climbing 

Students from the Thunderbird Rugby Club challenge the alumni team March 5, 2011, in 

Glendale, Arizona. The alumni team will play next in Iceland. 

accident Sept. 15, 2010. Alumni presented 

game jerseys to Abernathy’s 

widow and sons. “There was hardly 

a dry eye in the place as three cheers 

went up for Lynn,” Hamilton said. 

To learn more about the Iceland trip, 

contact Hamilton at chuck.notlimah@ 

gmail.com. 

JARED MAYER 

Area Chapter for alumni in 

eastern Idaho and Wyoming. 

New Orleans, Louisiana: 

Alumni in New Orleans 

gathered for a holiday edition 

of First Tuesday on Dec. 

7, 2010. The day marked the 

first anniversary of the yearold 

chapter. 

San Francisco, California: 

Bay Area alumni had a 

special Latin First Tuesday 

on Feb. 1, 2011, where the 

owner of Cantina SF made 

a special cocktail using the 

South American spirit Pisco. 

Seattle, Washington: 

A group of 47 T-birds and 

guests gathered Jan. 23, 2011, 

at the Hyatt hotel in Seattle, 

for an international potluck 

to kick off the new year. 

Washington, D.C.: 

Capital alumni met Feb. 

19, 2011, for the annual 

Winter Gala with food, an 

open bar with draft beer, 

Argentine wines, Chatham 

Artillery Punch and Latin 

jazz music. 

Alumni and guests attend the Singapore Chapter holiday party Dec. 9, 

2010. Overall, about 50 guests attended the event, including 

Thunderbird recruiter Bell Benjapatanamongkol ’08. 

ALAN GIEBEL ’92 


class 

Comings & goings 

All your personal news that’s fi t to print… 

You can be sure we’ll catch the big news about you: Nobel 

Prize nominations, when you take your company public or if 

you’re the first MBA into space. But we can only know about 

those happenings in your life that are less publicized if you tell us 

about them. We’re not too particular; we want to hear it all — the 

good, the bad and the ugly. 

Send your information to alumni@thunderbird.edu. 

Where are you? 

Stay connected to 

Thunderbird by providing 

valid mailing and e-mail 

addresses. To ensure we 

have your current contact 

information, e-mail alumni@ 

thunderbird.edu or call 

602-978-7358. Also, let us 

know if you’d like to receive 

future issues of Thunderbird 

Magazine via e-mail rather 

than print. 

1940s 

Alfred Eriksson ’47 is still 

enjoying the old map and print 

business. He shows his items 

at an antique market. … John 

Backer ’47 recently moved to 

Phoenix from Tucson, Arizona, 

and turned 85. He says he plans 

to live to 100. 

1950s 

Sheridan Risley ’50 has been 

retired for 26 years and lives 

in Springfi eld, Virginia. He is a 

member of his community’s 

Resident Council Finance Committee 

and serves as precinct 

captain of the Republican Party. 

… Toby Madison ’51 is retired 

and living in Gainesville, Florida. 

He became a U.S. citizen in 1950 

but hopes to move back to New 

Zealand, where he was born. … 

Ed Campeau ’53 is retired and 

living in Granville, Ohio, a college 

town near Columbus. He and 

former T-bird roommate Bob 

Udell ’53 still keep in touch. … 

Charles White ’53 is 83. He 

fl ies his own airplane, travels the 

world and attends aviation trade 

shows. He also operates his own 

business selling vortex generator 

kits for general aviation aircraft. 

… Van Crichfield ’53 has 

retired to Colorado and Arizona 

after years of mission work in 

Poland, Austria, Slovenia and 

Croatia. … John Eikenberry 

’53 was hired by a typewriter 

corporation just before the 

completion of his Thunderbird 

degree. He lived and worked in 

Buffalo, New York; Mexico City, 

Mexico; and Havana, Cuba. Since 

returning to the United States, 

he has taught high school music 

and Spanish, and has been an 

elementary school principal 

and a superintendent in various 

Arizona communities. He retired 

in 1989 and lives with his wife, 

Betty, in the adult community of 

SaddleBrooke north of Tucson, 

Arizona. … Robert Morehouse 

’53 is retired after a long banking 

career in Asia. He continues research 

affi liations with Harvard’s 

Reischauer Institute of Japanese 

Studies and the Fairbank Center 

for Chinese Studies. … Ken 

Nelson ’54 and his wife, Nina, 

along with their daughter and her 

husband, enjoyed a monthlong 

cruise around South America 

in 2010. … Phil Sidel ’54 is 

in his eighth year of retirement 

from the University of Pittsburgh, 

where he spent 34 years helping 

social scientists and others use 

computers. He and his wife, 

Irene, still live in Pennsylvania. 

Learn more at members.verizon. 

net/philip.sidel. … Jim Jackson 

’56 earned another Thunderbird 

degree in 1976 and has retired to 

Tucson, Arizona, after many years 

in South America. … Fritz Friederich 

’56 and his wife, Nancy, 

are enjoying retirement and 

looking forward to seeing many 

T-bird friends at the 11/11/11 

Tower event. Friederich is also 

proud that he has preserved 


notes 

his German accent. … Carroll 

Rickard ’56 is happily retired in 

Scottsdale, Arizona, and is enjoying 

his time desert gardening and 

volunteering. His wife, Patricia, 

is heavily involved in composing 

music for the Native American 

fl ute and playing her own compositions. 

… Narce Caliva ’56, 

an American Red Cross worker 

and volunteer with 52 years of 

experience, lives in Winchester, 

Virginia. He is helping record the 

legacy of the American Red Cross 

serving with the U.S. Armed 

Forces overseas. As an Army 

lieutenant, he spent 21 months 

in Korea during that confl ict and 

later with the Red Cross. He was 

deployed overseas four times, including 

Vietnam. … Virgil Carlson 

’57 is a retired CPA. He still 

keeps in contact with some of his 

fellow T-birds. … Dan Roberts 

’57 is having fun using the Spanish 

he learned at Thunderbird to 

communicate with his Hispanic 

neighbors in New Jersey, where 

he is retired. … Wilbur Hoover 

Davidson ’57 worked for 

Goodyear International after 

graduating from Thunderbird. He 

also worked for Monsanto, Esso 

Chemical and Bridgestone before 

establishing his own company, 

Florida Bandag, from which he 

is now retired. He is still active in 

his warehouse rental business. 

Davidson lives in Fleming Island, 

Florida, with his wife, Joyce. … 

Belmont Haydel ’57 has a 

Ph.D. in international business 

and is semi-retired as professor 

emeritus. He is active in writing 

articles and books, traveling 

around the world, consulting 

and visiting relatives and friends. 

ThunderCouples share love 

stories for Valentine’s Day 

T 

hunderbird 

students Annabelle 

Abba and 

Peter Brownell 

’97 met on the first day 

of classes in fall 1995 and 

quickly bonded as running 

partners. Susannah Scaife 

’98 and Chris Thompson 

’97 crossed paths for nearly 

two years before they made 

a connection in the campus 

Pub. 

The stories vary, but the 

results are often the same: 

Love and marriage followed 

by future T-birds in 

diapers. In celebration of 

Valentine’s Day 2011, dozens 

of ThunderCouples shared 

their stories for the Alumni 

Impact Blog on the Thunderbird 

Knowledge Network. 

Lawrence Brown ’93 

acknowledges that he used a 

different type of global strategy 

to meet his bride in the 

international marketing class 

of Thunderbird Professor 

Kannan Ramaswamy, Ph.D. 

“I saw a young woman 

walk in late and sit down in 

the back row on the first day 

of class,” Brown said. “I was 

smitten at first sight.” 

Brown started the course 

sitting in the front row, but 

each day he moved back a 

row or two until he ended 

up sitting behind Kelly 

Annabelle Abba and Peter Brownell 

’97 have three children: Cassidy, 4; 

Kindell, 2; and Scout, 1. 

Tseng ’94. “Finally one day I 

pretended she had poked me 

in the eye to actually meet 

her,” Brown said. 

The unorthodox approach 

worked, and the couple 

eventually married. 

“That summer she was 

charming, intelligent and 

stunning,” Brown said. 

“Eighteen years and four kids 

later, she’s still all that — and 

my rock and best friend.” 

Read more about the 

Brownells, Thompsons, 

Browns and other ThunderCouples 

in the Alumni 

Impact Blog, knowledgenetwork.thunderbird.edu/ 

alumni. 

thunderbird magazine 59 

SUBMITTED PHOTO

class notes 

… William W. Morgan ’58 is 

celebrating 10 years of marriage 

with his wife, whom he met in 

Vietnam. He is enjoying spending 

time with his two children, ages 

9 and 6, as well as working on 

more books to follow up the 

six he has published. … Jerry 

Mahoney ’58 is hunkered down 

in northern New England with 

wife and cat, promoting his novel 

“Jake’s Run,” tending a small 

fl ock of Shetland sheep as well 

as a few chickens, and wondering 

(as he does every winter) 

why he ever left the Caribbean. 

… Bennett Cole ’58 retired in 

1997 as associate professor of 

Spanish at Florida Southern College. 

He now lives in New Castle, 

Delaware, near his children, 

grandchildren and one greatgrandchild. 

During his retirement, 

Cole has proudly published two 

novels with a third one awaiting 

publisher’s judgment. Learn more 

at bennettcole.wcpauthor.com. 

… Pieter Vos ’58 lives in Sun 

City West, Arizona. He is active in 

Rotary International, which takes 

him to Guatemala for two weeks 

every year for a Mayan literacy 

project. He and his family also 

drive to Mexico twice a year to 

enjoy their time-share in Puerto 

Vallarta. … Philip Hoffman ’58 

and his wife, Eileen, started a 66- 

day cruise around South America 

on Jan. 5, 2011. On the trip, 

they planned to visit the Amazon 

forest and Antarctica. Hoffman 

retired as director of public affairs 

for the Region 5 offi ce of the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency 

in Chicago in October 2008. … 

Bob Laport ’58 is long retired in 

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, after 

a career in international banking. 

Laport and his wife, Geri, enjoy 

reading, golf and cheering on the 

Tarheels. … Dean Huelat ’58 

T-bird leads new Nordic 

climate change center 

Alove of travel grew 

into a quest to 

learn the language 

of nature for environmental 

scientist Michael 

Goodsite ’08, Ph.D., director 

of a newly funded center that 

helps Nordic businesses and 

other organizations adapt to 

climate change. 

“The evidence is talking to 

us,” said Goodsite, who grew 

up in Tucson, Arizona, in 

a family of medical professionals. 

“Nature is talking to 

us. Scientists like myself are 

trying to interpret the language 

so we can objectively 

present to everybody what it 

is saying.” 

The quest for knowledge 

has taken Goodsite from Arizona 

to the Arctic and many 

places in between. He earned 

an Executive MBA in Thunderbird’s 

European program 

in 2008 and then put his 

business skills to work with 

the formation of the Nordic 

Centre of Excellence-Nordic 

Strategic Adaption Research 

(NORD-STAR). 

The center links natural 

scientists, political scientists, 

economists, management 

educators and business 

professionals in a virtual network 

that covers Denmark, 

Finland, Iceland, Norway 

and Sweden. 

NordForsk, a public organization 

that supports Nordic 

initiatives, announced a 

five-year, $5.2 million grant 

on Oct. 18, 2010, to fund the 

center. Goodsite will lead the 

center at the National Environmental 

Research Institute 

at Aarhus University in Denmark, 

where he is a professor 

of atmospheric chemistry, 

climate change and global 

processes. 

Thunderbird Professors 

Mary Teagarden, Ph.D., and 

Andreas Schotter, Ph.D., will 

collaborate with Goodsite 

at the center, providing their 

expertise in global business 

strategy. Through the research 

partnership, Goodsite will 

function as a Thunderbird 

Michael Goodsite ’08 visits Thunderbird Professor Mary Teagarden, 

Ph.D., during a campus visit Oct. 22, 2010. 

visiting professor. 

“Climate change is a 

global science,” Goodsite 

said. “Where there is global 

science, there is global business. 

This interaction is one 

of the reasons I have been 

so interested and pleased to 

come back to Thunderbird.” 

While many climate 

change scientists see business 

as part of the global warming 

problem, Goodsite takes the 

opposite view. He said business 

leaders and entrepreneurs 

looking for competitive 

advantages are driving 

sustainable innovation. 

“MBAs will figure out how 

to operationalize and finance 

the changes needed to 

build global prosperity in a 

world threatened by climate 

change,” he said. “If it makes 

sense and they can do it, they 

will. And if that helps the 

environment, it is a great day 

for all of us.” 

DARYL JAMES 


class notes 

recently traveled 6,000 miles in 

a 1985 Chevette with his wife, 

Magda, before returning home 

to Costa Rica. Huelat also enjoys 

painting. … J.H. (Ham) Dethero 

’58 and his wife, Charlotte, 

live in Lafayette, California. They 

have been married 51 years 

and met in Phoenix, Arizona, 

during Dethero’s fi rst year at 

Thunderbird. Dethero is largely 

retired, but still fi nds time for a 

state program called Operation 

Welcome Home, which focuses 

on assisting veterans returning 

to California from service in Iraq, 

Afghanistan and other locations. 

… Frederick Andresen ’58 

is writing a weekly column for 

the top Russian news bureau. 

Andresen also was invited to El 

Paso, Texas, for a book signing 

on his latest book, “Dos Gringos,” 

inspired by Andresen’s immigrant 

Norwegian father’s escapades in 

the Mexican Revolution. … Bill 

Maratos ’58 is still involved with 

the export of honey to Japan and 

the export of microwave popcorn 

to Greece. He remains active with 

the Military Offi cers Association 

of Green Valley, Arizona. … 

Richard Gore ’59 is a semiretired 

equity investor. He retired 

from Saati Americas as chairman 

in 2006 and now lives in White 

Plains, New York. He spends 

summers at Bayport, New York, 

on Long Island’s Great South Bay 

and enjoys playing golf, jogging, 

reading and cooking with his 

wife, Donna. … Patrick Mattison 

’59 is president of Belrock 

Printing. He focuses on selling 

and development of any printed 

product from concept to delivery. 

… Wally Johnson ’59 lives in 

Centennial, Colorado, with Gloria, 

his wife of 51 years. He is retired 

from turf sales. … Bart Hartzell 

’59 worked three years for Continental 

Can in Ohio and New York, 

and as technical manager at their 

subsidiary in Medellin, Colombia. 

He later returned to Boeing, 

where he was employed for more 

than 28 years and assigned to 

Jerry Kuo ’02, right, and his brother, Andy, joined the Groupon family in December 2010. 

Taiwanese startup attracts U.S. buyer 

T-bird entrepreneur 

Suchi “Jerry” 

Kuo ’02 made 

headlines around 

the world when his Taiwanbased 

social media and 

online shopping company, 

Atlaspost, merged with 

U.S.-based Groupon in a 

deal announced Dec. 1, 

2010. 

Groupon.com features 

daily deals on a variety of 

things to do, eat, see and 

buy in more than 300 

markets using the power of 

group buying. The social 

networking strategy helps 

online consumers make 

purchases together to 

qualify for group discounts. 

Many industry insiders 

view Groupon as the next 

Web 2.0 star. “We sold 

this company to Groupon 

because it will help us 

provide better service to our 

merchants and customers,” 

Kuo said. 

Atlaspost, which started 

as a family enterprise in 

2007, quickly developed 

into Taiwan’s leading group 

buying site, with more than 

1.5 million users. Although 

the site was the first of its 

kind in Taiwan, Kuo said 

companies such as Groupon 

already had found 

success with the model in 

other markets. 

“When I founded this 

company, Web 2.0 was 

pretty popular all over 

the world,” he said. “So I 

thought it might be a good 

opportunity for me to create 

my own business.” 

Kuo’s brother, Andy, quit 

his California job at Yahoo 

and returned to Taiwan to 

collaborate on the project. 

“When we started, blog 

service providers were 

popular in Taiwan, and 

location-based services were 

getting hotter and hotter,” 

Kuo said. “Our idea was to 

combine these two services 

to have people writing 

blogs on the map.” 

Kuo has a background in 

business, and his brother 

has a background in 

computer science. So they 

merged their strengths and 

developed Atlaspost. 

Kuo credits Thunderbird 

with teaching him the critical 

skills he needed to build 

a powerful team of employees. 

“Thunderbird was the 

most valuable period of my 

life,” he said. “I met a lot of 

good friends there, which 

helped me develop a better 

understanding of cultural 

differences.” 



class notes 

work in Bolivia, Colombia, Italy, 

Spain and Australia. He retired in 

1989. … Don Pierson ’59 has 

retired after 30 years as a school 

administrator. 

1960s 

Carlos Cortes ’62 is a retired 

Latin American history professor 

from the University of California 

at Riverside. For the past 

10 years he has worked with 

Nickelodeon, a children’s cable 

network, as the creative and 

cultural adviser for “Dora the 

Explorer” and “Go, Diego, Go!” 

… Merle Hinrichs ’65 was 

recently interviewed in The Wall 

Street Transcript about his Hong 

Kong-based company, Global 

Sources. In 2010, Thunderbird 

conferred upon him the honorary 

degree of Doctor of International 

Law. … Fred Frese ’67 recently 

was the keynote speaker in Nebraska 

for the annual fundraiser 

of the National Alliance on Mental 

Illness Tri-County. Frese has a 

doctorate in psychology from 

Ohio University and has worked 

for 40 years as a practitioner and 

advocate for people who have 

mental health problems. 

1970s 

Shiraz Peera ’71 was recently 

interviewed in India West newspaper 

about his friendship with 

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who 

was shot Jan. 8, 2011, in Tucson, 

Arizona. The assassination 

attempt made global headlines. 

Peera told the publication that 

Giffords is a “good soul” and 

the type of person who would 

forgive the man who shot her. 

… Constantine Theodorou 

’73 is still serving in Prague, 

Czech Republic, as the tourism 

counselor of the Greek Embassy 

responsible for promoting Greece 

in the Czech Republic, Slovakia 

and Poland. … Kent Hiland ’76 

has been appointed president of 

Emerson Climate Technologies- 

Latin America. He has been with 

Emerson Climate Technologies 

for 27 years. He is fl uent in English, 

Spanish and Portuguese. … 

Mark Emkes ’76 has been appointed 

commissioner of fi nance 

and administration for Tennessee 

Gov. Bill Haslam. Emkes is the 

former head of Nashville-based 

Bridgestone Americas. He was 

the president and CEO of the 

Japanese tire maker’s North, 

Central and South American 

subsidiary until he retired in 2010 

after 33 years with the company. 

… Siegfried Kiegerl ’77 was 

re-elected to his fourth term in 

Alumnus guides $7.6 billion Caterpillar deal 

Multinational 

companies 

with more than 

a century of 

experience often slow down 

in their old age, but mining 

machinery company 

Bucyrus International has 

been moving quickly under 

the leadership of Timothy 

Sullivan ’76. 

The Wisconsin-based 

company moved up 18 

spots to No. 9 on Fortune 

magazine’s 2010 list of the 

100 fastest-growing U.S. 

companies. “That’s a pretty 

unusual situation for a company 

that is 130 years old,” 

said Sullivan, president 

and CEO of the worldwide 

industry leader in mining 

machinery manufacturing 

and service. 

The rapid growth caught 

the attention of Illinoisbased 

Caterpillar Inc., 

which announced a 

$7.6 billion Bucyrus 

takeover on Nov. 15, 2010. 

Sullivan, who spoke at 

Thunderbird two weeks 

before the announcement, 

will leave Bucyrus after the 

deal closes. 

REINVENTING THE 

MODEL 

Sullivan credits the recent 

growth at Bucyrus to a decision 

made 10 years ago to 

overhaul the Bucyrus business 

model — a difficult 

process that required significant 

turnover in senior 

leadership. 

“We decided to become 

more of a service-oriented 

company rather than just be 

a pure manufacturer of large 

mining machinery,” he said. 

Since then, Bucyrus 

International has grown 

organically and through 

acquisitions. Sullivan said 

the service focus creates a 

reliable and sustainable 

revenue source because 

mining machinery requires 

scheduled maintenance. 

The new model also 

has helped the company 

pull through the global 

recession unscathed. “A 

service-oriented model is 

the largest insurance policy 

any company could have,” 

he said. 

GLOBAL OUTREACH 

Even before the adoption 

of the service-oriented business 

model, Bucyrus International 

started a different 

type of transformation — 

from a domestic company 

to a global powerhouse. 


class notes 

the Kansas House of Representatives. 

He represents the state’s 

43rd district in suburban Kansas 

City. … Connie Dillon ’78 has 

joined CHS Healthcare Foundation 

as executive director. She 

brings more than 12 years of 

fundraising experience. Most 

recently, she served with the NCH 

Foundation. … Craig Weeks 

’78 was named in Global Finance 

as a leading fi gure in the supplychain 

fi nance fi eld. He participated 

at a London roundtable to 

discuss key developments in his 

industry. … John Beale ’78 

is living in Washington, D.C., as 

the Barbados ambassador to the 

U.S. and also as the permanent 

representative to the Organization 

of American States. Prior to this, 

he was the CEO of RBTT Bank in 

Barbados. Beale also worked for 

the World Bank Group at the IFC 

and for Chase and Banco Internacional 

— a joint venture between 

Bank of America and Royal Bank 

of Canada — in Brazil. 

1980s 

Mark Unglaub ’80 started a 

new position as global architectural 

consultant for Stanley 

Security Solutions, part of worldwide 

Stanley Black & Decker. The 

position allows Unglaub to travel 

all over the world. … Michael 

Monahan ’80 has been appointed 

president of BCA Study 

Abroad, effective July 1, 2011. He 

is currently director of the International 

Center in the Institute for 

Global Citizenship at Macalester 

College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. 

… Jorge Moix ’82 serves as a 

board member for the Barcelona 

soccer club in Spain. … 

Gregory Duncan ’82 returned 

to Susquehanna Bancshares 

as executive vice president and 

chief operating offi cer effective 

Jan. 28, 2011. He had been at 

Susquehanna from 1987 to 2008, 

rising to executive vice president 

and chief operating offi cer. … 

Michael Yonker ’82 has been 

appointed chief human resources 

offi cer for Marriott Vacation Club 

International. In his new role, 

Yonker is responsible for the division’s 

human resources strategies, 

programs and performance 

for more than 9,000 associates 

worldwide and will also serve on 

the division’s Executive Committee 

and Marriott’s Global Senior 

Human Resources Leadership 

Team. … Byron Smith ’83 was 

promoted to director of international 

sales for Maxi-Lift in Dallas, 

Texas. … Jim Ward ’83 now 

serves as the interim president 

Sullivan said Bucyrus 

International hired him 

when he graduated from 

Thunderbird to help guide 

the global expansion. 

DARYL JAMES 

Bucyrus International President 

and CEO Timothy Sullivan 

’76 talks Nov. 2, 2010, at 

Thunderbird School of Global 

Management. 

“When the recruitment was 

being done here, they were 

hiring students who could 

help with the international 

introduction of the products 

around the world,” 

Sullivan said. 

When he arrived at 

Bucyrus International, 80 

percent of the company’s 

revenue came from the 

United States. Today about 

75 percent comes from outside 

the United States. 

“In 35 years there has 

been a complete change 

in how we do business,” 

Sullivan said. “A company 

that was primarily domestic 

is now primarily international.” 

COMMODITY BOOM 

A third factor that has 

helped Bucyrus International 

sustain its growth in 

recent years has come from 

the rapid industrialization 

of emerging markets such as 

China and India. 

“We know historically 

that when any country goes 

through an industrial 

revolution, there is also 

an urbanization of the 

population,” he said. “We 

are seeing that now in the 

emerging economies, which 

is creating new demand for 

basic commodities. 

“The United States had its 

industrial revolution in the 

first part of the last century, 

and Europe was the century 

before that,” Sullivan said. 

“We have three or four 

countries now at that same 

level of industrialization 

and urbanization, which 

has created effectively a 

commodity boom that 

we have never seen in the 

world before.” 


class notes 

DARYL JAMES 

Thunder Radio host Richard Kim ’12 interviews Jim McNamara ’77, on Nov. 4, 2010, during a campus visit. 

Pantelion fills Hollywood gap 

with movie studio for Latinos 

A 

classic Jane Austen 

story received a 

modern Latino 

makeover with the 

first release from Pantelion 

Films, a new Hollywood 

studio launched by Jim 

McNamara ’77 and two bigname 

partners. 

Pantelion Films premiered 

“From Prada to Nada” at 

theaters across the United 

States on Jan. 28, 2011. 

Additional movies will 

follow each month, creating 

momentum for a brand 

that McNamara envisions 

as the new face of Hispanic 

entertainment in the United 

States. 

“The objective is to create 

the first Hollywood studio 

focused specifically on the 

U.S. Hispanic audience,” 

McNamara said during 

a campus interview with 

Thunder Radio on Nov. 4, 

2010. “The idea is to create a 

flow of product so that the 

audience knows there is a 

new movie every month.” 

Pantelion Films is a joint 

venture that draws its name 

from its three partners: 

Panamax Films, Televisa and 

Lionsgate Entertainment. As 

founder and chairman of 

Panamax Films, McNamara 

has worked since 2005 to 

tap into the growing U.S. 

Hispanic movie audience. 

Prior to that venture, 

he worked in executive 

positions with Telemundo 

Communications, Universal 

Television Enterprises 

and New World Entertainment. 

McNamara started his 

career as a sports agent with 

International Management 

Group after graduating from 


He was born and raised 

as a U.S. citizen in Panama, 

where he learned Spanish 

and flirted with a career as a 

professional golfer. 

“From Prada to Nada” 

updates Jane Austen’s “Sense 

and Sensibility,” a tale of two 

wealthy women who suddenly 

find themselves poor. 

The movie was filmed in 

English with Spanish terms 

sprinkled in. 

“All the movie companies 

know that the largest 

segment of the moviegoing 

population is the Hispanic 

audience from ages 15 to 

30,” McNamara said. “These 

people go to the movies 

almost every weekend.” 

He said people in this audience 

are trained to watch 

movies in English, so they 

are not looking for Spanishlanguage 

films. “But what we 

discovered in our research,” 

McNamara said, “is they 

would like to see themselves 

reflected more on screen — 

not with a sledgehammer, 

but with a subtle nod to 

their culture. We think this 

film accomplishes all those 

objectives.” 

and chief executive offi cer of 

the Phoenix Symphony. He is a 

classically trained musician and 

a seasoned corporate executive 

with years of leadership and 

management experience. Ward 

also is a venture partner in 

venture capital fi rm Alsop Louie 

Partners, focused on early stage 

evernet/cloud computing startups. 

… Deborah Weymouth 

’84 has been chosen as senior 

vice president of operations and 

executive director of New Milford 

Hospital in Connecticut. … Melinda 

Guravich’84 was named 

2010 Communicator of the Year 

by the Dallas, Texas, chapter 

of the International Association 

of Business Communicators. 

… Randi Yoder ’85 has been 

named senior vice president for 

development at Minnesota Public 

Radio. … Randel Waites ’85 

has joined Cushman & Wakefi eld 

as managing director of client 

solutions for the Midwest region. 

Previously, Waites was chief 

operating offi cer of John Buck 

International, where he helped 

establish a property management 

division in Abu Dhabi, 

United Arab Emirates. … Susan 

Dean Hammock ’86 has a 

consulting business called the 

College Application Coach. She 

lives in Orlando, Florida, with her 

husband, Kevin, and their three 

children. … Nancy King ’86 

was featured in the Chillicothe 

Gazette for being the fi rst woman 

and youngest person on the Chillicothe 

(Ohio) City Council in 1972. 

… Marc Gallin ’86 has joined 

Chevalier Machinery in Santa Fe 

Springs, California, as director of 

marketing. … John Bauer ’87 

was appointed chief architect 

at the Library of Congress the 

same week his son, Jack, was 

born. … Stephen Hargreaves 

’87 recently joined Conservation 

International as senior manager, 

fi nancial reporting systems. … 

Curt Howell ’87 recently joined 

Stant Corp. as CEO. Stant Corp. is 

a manufacturer of engineered va- 


class notes 

por and fl uid control components. 

… Rick McCarthy ’88 has been 

appointed vice president of sales 

and marketing for the Americas 

at DST Global Solutions. 

1990s 

Philip Korn ’90 has joined First 

Republic Bank in Palo Alto, California, 

as relationship manager and 

managing director. … Steven 

Soehlig ’90 spent the austral 

summer (September 2010 to 

February 2011) living and working 

in Antarctica doing logistics 

and air services support for the 

National Science Foundation and 

the U.S. Antarctic Program. He 

was employed by Raytheon Polar 

Services. … Rikia Saddy ’90 

was recently profi led in “Understanding 

Human Communications,” 

a widely used undergraduate 

textbook in the fi eld. 

Saddy has more than 15 years 

of experience advising Canadian, 

U.S. and European companies on 

strategic communications issues. 

… Cynthia Curtis ’90 has been 

promoted to vice president and 

chief sustainability offi cer at CA 

Technologies. … Mario Zaldivar 

’91 has been named president of 

Accountants Alumni Associations 

for the Universidad Iberoamericana 

in Mexico City. … Stewart 

Sarkozy-Banoczy ’91 has been 

appointed director of philanthropic 

research and initiatives for the 

U.S. Department of Housing and 

Urban Development in Washington, 

D.C., within the Offi ce for 

International and Philanthropic 

Innovation. … Sven Henrich 

’92 was recently featured in The 

Arizona Republic for his dance 

studio, Music Box Dance Center, 

in Glendale, Arizona. … Samir 

Kumar ’93 was invited to speak 

at the conference “Leveraging the 

China Market,” organized by Hong 

Kong University of Science and 

Technology on Oct. 16, 2010. … 

Rake Jiang ’93 has joined Sixnet 

as vice president of international 

sales. … Fernando Farré ’94 

is now based in Buenos Aires, 

Argentina, with his wife and three 

children. He was recently recruited 

by Coty Beauty as general manager 

for Argentina and Chile. … 

Arkady Gerasenko ’94 has been 

named corporate banking head 

of ING Bank’s Sofi a branch, the 

aving an itch to 

travel the globe is 

a common trait 

of T-birds. But 

Lisa Dahl ’93 isn’t packing 

her suitcases for the usual 

business trips or vacations. 

When she tours a city, she 

does it on foot. 

Dahl has pounded the 

pavement — or dirt — 

in marathons on three 

continents and in 49 U.S. 

states. She hopes someday 

to be part of an elite few 

hundred runners who have 

participated in marathons 

on every continent. Earlier 

this year, the senior director 

of business development 

for Lexmark International 

reached 50 states when 

she ran in the Maui Ocean 

Front Marathon in Hawaii. 

“You can’t always see a 

city when you’re there on 

business. But when you go 

running, it’s a really neat 

way to be able to see the 

city, be with locals and experience 

a place,” Dahl said. 

On a recent trip, Dahl 

traveled to Cambodia for 

a marathon. After the race, 

she met an impoverished 

child who was barefoot and 

trying to sell postcards to 

tourists. 

Dahl was so consumed 

with the need to help the 

child that she ended up 

taking the shoes off her feet 

and giving them to the little 

Bulgarian banking arm of Dutch 

fi nancial and insurance group ING. 

The appointment took effect Jan. 

1, 2011. … Stefan Pepe ’94 

has been appointed chief product 

offi cer of Gilt Groupe. … Mark 

Field ’95 recently launched the 

Marathon runner aims for every continent 

H 

boy. 

“Anyone who can afford 

to go out there and run, can 

afford to give a child their 

shoes,” she said. 

Dahl said that her experiences 

running in so many 

marathons have allowed 

her to meet diverse people 

and strong women around 

the world. She likens it to 

her time as a student at 


“One of my fondest 

memories of Thunderbird 

was just being with this 

infusion of people from 

different backgrounds and 

experiences,” Dahl said. 

“My Thunderbird experience 

was a great jumpingoff 

point for being very 

open to visiting other parts 

of the world.” 

A boy near Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia, wears shoes donated 

by Lisa Dahl ’93 following a December 2010 marathon. 



class notes 

Veterans Job Creation Program to 

help former homeless, disabled 

and unemployed veterans in 

Phoenix, Arizona. Field, who served 

eight years in the U.S. Navy prior 

to attending Thunderbird, is a 

Phoenix-based mortgage banker. 

… Andre Doumitt ’95 was 

recently featured in a report by the 

Defense Advanced Projects Agency 

for his business, Geosemble 

Technologies. … Alison Keller 

’95 has joined AMR Management 

Services as programs coordinator. 

… Gita Patel ’96, a New Jerseybased 

consultant, recently traveled 

to El Salvador as a researcher for 

the Business Council for Peace, 

a nonprofi t organization that promotes 

women’s empowerment. … 

Peter Mulroy ’96 was recently 

elected chairman of Factors Chain 

International, a global association 

of factoring companies located in 

65 countries. … Philip Graham 

’96 was recently profi led in the 

San Diego Business Journal online 

edition. He is vice president of 

institutional advancement for Sanford-Burnham 

Medical Research 

Institute in California. … Kurt 

Gusinde ’96 was featured in the 

News-Register for his mountain 

climbing record and his attempt at 

climbing Mount Everest. … Peter 

Zapf ’96 has been appointed chief 

operating offi cer of Global Sources, 

a leading business-to-business 

media company and primary 

facilitator of trade in greater China. 

The company’s chairman and CEO, 

Merle Hinrichs ’65, is also a 

T-bird. … Michael Cardone III 

’97 has been appointed president 

of Cardone Industries. He is the 

third generation of the family to 

serve as president of the company. 

His appointment became effective 

Jan. 3, 2011. … Jay Neuhaus 

’98 recently accepted a role as 

head of marketing for the 2014 

FIFA World Cup offi ce in Rio de 

Janeiro, Brazil. … Michael 

Kaplan ’98 teaches a course at 

the University of Utah’s Parks, Recreation 

and Tourism Department 

called “Introduction to Ski Resort 

Management.” Kaplan has worked 

at resorts in Utah, Colorado, New 

Hampshire, Sweden, Austria and 

Switzerland. … Chakrit Benedetti 

’99 was recently featured in 

the Bangkok Post in an article detailing 

how a family tragedy thrust 

the T-bird into taking over his 

family businesses, Italasia Electro 

and Italasia Trading, at age 23. … 

Gonzalo de la Melena ’99 was 

recently promoted from interim 

president and CEO of the Arizona 

Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to 

the permanent president and CEO. 

2000s 

Melanie Markwell ’00, an 

assurance senior manager in 

the Los Angeles offi ce of BDO 

Seidman LLP, was named the 

Ranked #1* among business schools as 

having the best “potential to network.” 

*The Economist 

The strength of the network refl ects the strength of the School. 

Gifts to the Thunderbird Annual Fund make your network and Thunderbird’s impact even greater. 

GIVE TODAY! 

Phone: 602.978.7309 | Mail: 1 Global Place, Glendale AZ 85306 | Online: www.thunderbird.edu/giving 


class notes 

2010 recipient of the Ben 

Neuhausen Professional Integrity 

Award. … Josh Dorfman ’00 

is vice president of marketing 

for GoodGuide, a fast-growing 

company that scientifi cally ranks 

thousands of products based on 

their health, environment and 

socially responsible attributes. 

… Susan Cordts ’01 beat out 

three other fi nalists on Oct. 28, 

2010, to win an Athena Award 

from the Phoenix Chamber of 

Commerce. The award honors 

women who excel in their fi elds 

and have given time to their communities. 

Cordts is president and 

CEO of Adaptive Technologies. … 

DeVere A.M. Kutscher ’03 and 

Duane Charles Pozza Jr. were 

recently married in Washington, 

D.C. Kutscher is chief marketing 

offi cer for the U.S. Hispanic 

Chamber of Commerce. … 

Alexander Aginsky ’03 was 

recently featured as a guest columnist 

in the Portland Business 

Journal in Oregon. Aginsky, who 

owns Aginsky Consulting, wrote 

about opportunities in exporting 

products. … Andy Unanue ’04 

was profi led in The Record for 

his newest enterprise, Trufoods. 

Unanue is CEO of AU & Associates 

and, through the 13th Street 

Entertainment group, is an owner 

of the popular Bagatelle restaurant, 

Kiss & Fly nightclub and RdV 

lounge. … Larry Segerstrom 

’05 has been appointed chief 

operating offi cer of Andover Ventures. 

… Jack Beldon III ’05 is 

T-bird helps 

shelter 

homeless 

children 

Blend solid T-bird 

business skills 

with a fierce desire 

to improve the 

quality of life in developing 

nations, and what do you 

get? The Washington, D.C.- 

based Hovde Foundation, 

which provides shelters for 

vulnerable youth in countries 

such as Mexico, Peru 

and Kenya, while empowering 

budding entrepreneurs 

in the same communities. 

Under the leadership of 

Executive Director Jeffrey 

Boyd ’03, the Hovde Foundation 

granted $2 million 

in 2010 for the development 

of shelters for homeless, 

trafficked and formerly 

enslaved children. 

Eric Hovde and his brother, 

Steven, who share duties 

as president and CEO of 

investment banking, asset 

management and private 

equity firm Hovde Financial, 

created and fund the 

foundation, which partners 

with local organizations 

Jeffrey Boyd ’03 works with schoolchildren in Ghana. 

in each country to operate 

Hovde Houses. 

“The Hovde House concept 

was modeled to be the 

Ronald McDonald House 

for street kids, where Hovde 

buys the land and funds 

the construction of a large 

group home and the first 

few years of operations,” 

Boyd said. “We then challenge 

the local partner to 

raise money outside Hovde, 

giving them the land and 

home free and clear when 

that goal is accomplished.” 

Boyd’s involvement 

doesn’t stop there. The organization 

also takes a seat 

on the shelters’ boards of 

directors and guides them 

through operational improvements, 

cutting costs, 

raising money and establishing 

on-site businesses to 

generate long-term revenue 

toward true sustainability. 

For example, one Hovde 

partner in Kenya launched 

a fish farm on a shelter’s 

property, while a partner 

in Rwanda is about to 

build a greenhouse to grow 

tomatoes. 

This year, Boyd will focus 

on developing business and 

marketing plans to help 

these partners solidify their 

profit potential. 

“I never had the desire to 

go to Wall Street, make a lot 

of money and conquer the 

world, but instead wanted 

to use my business skills 

to serve others,” Boyd said. 

“Thunderbird offered me a 

well-known degree, and the 

experience helped me land 

this job as well as other 

jobs that have prepared me 

for this.” 



class notes 

a senior vice president in global 

credit derivatives operations 

at Barclays Capital. … David 

Dodge ’06 was recently featured 

in The Arizona Republic for his 

business, SurePrep Learning, 

which provides tutoring services 

in Arizona and three other Southwestern 

states. Dodge founded 

the company in 2005 and prepared 

his business plan as part 

of an entrepreneurship class at 

Thunderbird. … Chris Campbell 

’06 was recently profi led 

in whorunsgov.com from The 

Washington Post. Campbell is the 

legislative director for U.S. Sen. 

Orrin Hatch of Utah. … Daniel 

Nucuta ’07 has been promoted 

to director of electronic airworthiness 

in product integrity and 

product assurance for Honeywell 

Aerospace. … Govind Arora 

’08 has been promoted to vice 

president-fi nance for Honeywell 

Aerospace. After nearly two years 

in Asia, Arora is moving back to 

Phoenix and is looking forward 

to catching up with his T-bird 

friends. … Arjan Shahani ’09 

was published as a contributing 

blogger in AmericasQuarterly. 

org. Shahani is a member of the 

international advisory board of 

Global Majority, an international 

nonprofi t organization dedicated 

to the promotion of nonviolent 

confl ict resolution. … Tarush 

Nihalani ’09 is the materials 

manager for LSG Sky Chefs in the 

company’s North America region 

headquarters. 

2010s 

Courtney Williams ’10 was 

recently featured in the Arizona 

Daily Star for her Tucson-based 

company, Sharma Joyas. The 

business distributes ethnic 

jewelry via independent sales 

representatives to customers in 

the Argentine market. 

Talk to us 

You can let us know about 

changes in your life 

by e-mailing us at alumni@ 

thunderbird.edu. We’ll publish 

your news in the next issue of 

the magazine. Don’t forget to 

update your personal profi le on 

My Thunderbird (MTB). Log on 

at my.t-bird.edu, click on the 

“personalize” button, then click 

on the “edit” buttons for each 

category you want to change. 

Show the world you’re a T-bird! 

Andy Chen ’05; Bell Benjapatanamongkol ’08; Alicia Sutton ’09; Joy Lubeck ’86; Jaro Horvath ’06 

Get your Thundergear at www.thundershop.com today! 


in memoriam 

class notes 

Robert Ernest Anderson ’47 

died Sept. 5, 2010, at his home 

in Fountain Hills, Arizona. He 

served in the U.S. Navy from 

1943 to 1945 and was a 

member of the fi rst graduating 

class of Thunderbird. … 

James N. Leaken ’49, a retired 

Foreign Service Offi cer with the 

U.S. Department of State, died 

Aug. 4, 2010, in Santa Fe, New 

Mexico. During his Foreign Service 

career, he was assigned to 

U.S. embassies in Costa Rica, El 

Salvador and Spain. … Charles 

Myers ’50, a retired U.S. Army 

captain, died July 28, 2010, in 

Dallas, Texas. He was 93. Myers 

and his late wife, Mary, were 

among the founding members 

of St. Pius X Catholic Church. … 

Lyle Bricker ’51 of Oakland, 

Nebraska, died July 16, 2010. 

Bricker was born in Corvallis, 

Oregon, and joined the U.S. Army 

Air Corps in 1942. He worked for 

CitiBank around the world, then 

for Goodyear until he retired in 

1986. … George Wheelwright 

IV ’58 died in early 2011. He 

was a political scientist who 

started his career in South 

America. He later lectured at 

the University of South Carolina, 

studied at Tufts University in 

Massachusetts, and opened 

Name Brand Store of Stowe, 

Vermont. … Carl Ludvick ’60, 

a retired fi nancial manager at the 

World Bank, died Nov. 30, 2010, 

at Washington Hospital Center. 

Ludvik moved to Washington, 

D.C., in 1975 after participating 

in a yearlong executive 

exchange program with the U.S. 

Treasury Department. He served 

four years as a U.S. Navy pilot. 

… Dennis Davies ’66 died in 

October 2010 at his Southern 

California home. … Thomas 

“Tom” Arthur Dreis ’72, a 

retired banker and mail carrier, 

died Nov. 20, 2010. Following 

his military service at Fort Hood, 

Texas, Dreis attended Thunderbird 

and then launched a 25-year 

career in banking. He later delivered 

mail in rural North Carolina. 

… John Dale Martens ’72 of 

Tulsa, Oklahoma, died Jan. 13, 

2011. Martens served in the U.S. 

Air Force Strategic Air Command. 

He worked at Ford Motor Co. 

and was later CEO and president 

of Sterling Oil in Tulsa. Most recently, 

Martens was principal of 

the Corporate Development Co. 

in Tulsa. … Lawrence Driskell 

’72 has died. Thunderbird Alumni 

Relations has been unable to 

locate an obituary. Anyone with 

information should e-mail alumni@thunderbird.edu. 

… John 

“Jack” Wolff ’74 died Sept. 

1, 2010. During his career he 

lived in Mexico, the Philippines, 

India, Guatemala, the Dominican 

Republic, Panama, Peru, Kenya 

and the United States. … Terri 

Neufeldt Race ’75 died Dec. 

12, 2010. Her career began in 

1976 as a bank examiner for the 

U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, 

and she frequently received 

overseas assignments examining 

foreign exchange operations of 

U.S. bank branches. As her family 

began to grow, Race retired in 

1986 to become a homemaker. 

… Sanford “Sandy” Roth ’77 

died Dec. 11, 2010, in Lexington, 

Kentucky. He was born in Brooklyn, 

New York, and worked in 

automotive plastics. … Gregson 

Taylor Sliff ’78 of San Diego, 

California, died Oct. 5, 2010. He 

had a 29-year career in fi nance 

at Northrop Grumman. … Keith 

Joseph Kuhn ’84 died Nov. 15, 

2010, in Seattle, Washington. … 

Patrick Clarke Avis ’85 died 

Jan. 10, 2011, in Berwyn, Illinois. 

He was born in Cloquet, Minnesota, 

and was previously married 

to Diane K. Julian. … Ardith 

Dentzer ’87 died Nov. 30, 2010, 

after battling lung cancer. She 

was 52. Dentzer worked in retail 

and fi nance before becoming a 

community activist. … Derek 

Belter ’09 of Madison, Wisconsin, 

died Dec. 7, 2010. He was 

37. Belter was born in Edmonton, 

Alberta, Canada, and studied 

biology, chemistry and German 

aureen Jones, 

an information 

technology 

professional who 

worked at Thunderbird for 

more than 20 years, died 

Feb. 4, 2011. She was 61. 

Jones was born in 

Doncaster, England, and 

started at Thunderbird as a 

programmer in the administrative 

systems group of 

the Information Technology 

Department. Several years 

later, and after a brief hiatus, 

she returned as the group’s 

manager. In recent years, 

she led the IT applications 

team as director of administrative 

systems support. 

“In her many roles within 

Thunderbird, Maureen 

at the University of Wisconsin- 

LaCrosse. He later worked as a 

software engineer in Germany 

and an English teacher in Japan. 

After graduation from Thunderbird, 

Belter found work with a 

subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson 

as a research and development 

chemist in Madison. 

Friends and family participated with Maureen Jones, top left, at the 

Cancer Connections Walk on Dec. 5, 2010, in Phoenix, Arizona. 

T-bird IT manager dies at 61 

M 

worked with and touched 

the lives of nearly all 

members of our community,” 

Thunderbird Human 

Resources Director and 

General Counsel Kathy 

Krecke wrote in a message 

to faculty and staff. 

Jones shared a bit of her 

passion in her My Thunderbird 

(MTB) profile: “I 

am a working manager and 

still greatly enjoy the fact 

that I can dig into code and 

troubleshoot problems,” 

she wrote. “My job has an 

ideal mix of interacting with 

the user community and 

solving technical problems.” 

A memorial service in 

her honor was held Feb. 12, 

2011, in Peoria, Arizona. 



thunderbird 

class notes 

bo 

Behind the barbwire 

Adventures in Thai-Burma 

refugee camp inspire book 

BY T.F. RHODEN ’09 

Iheard the good news only days before our class graduation: 

There was an opportunity for me to return to Southeast 

Asia and work with refugee populations along the Thai- 

Burma border. This was in spring 2009; when the financial 

recession was at its nastiest and consequently not the best time 

to be a newly minted MBA looking for work. 

I recall there being more than a few lackadaisical Thunderbirds 

at the graduation reception party that evening. That night 

I had felt myself lucky to have had found a gig that synced 

perfectly with my experiences before Thunderbird. 

Living in a remote refugee camp does not normally register 

on an MBA’s list of optimal places to work after graduation. 

If not for a slightly bizarre desire on my own part to keep 

chasing one adventure after the next, I too might have found 

myself filed away into a more traditional post-MBA existence. 

Surprisingly, I found our MBA tool chest of skills to be 

extremely useful when I arrived in the refugee camp. After 

learning about the sordid processes whereby people flee their 

homeland to subsist on the handouts of the international 

community in a barren, barbwire-enclosed refugee camp, I 

saw an opportunity to assist in a few areas. 

Many of the Burmese who have to escape their country 

apply for resettlement in the West. In order to avoid having to 

live off the dole indefinitely when they come to a country like 

the United States, I set up workshops to help them become 

more employable. 

This included everything from how to put together an American-style 

resume, to how to prepare for an interview, to how 


Rhoden works at a refugee camp near the Thai-Burma border. 

The Village 

Author: T.F. Rhoden ’09 

Publisher: Digital Lycanthrope (Nov. 10, 2010) 

Description: Paperback, 324 pages 

ISBN: 978-0615415345 

to shake hands. These courses proved popular in the main 

camp where I worked. Later I heard success stories of newly 

resettled refugees in the United States who had won interviews 

and employment after completing my classes. I felt this to be 

an awesomely rewarding experience. 

Drawing on these and other experiences of being a Peace 

Corps volunteer and a graduate of Webster University Thailand, 

I have been able to publish my first piece of literary fiction, 

“The Village.” This has fit nicely with my previous books 

on the Thai and Burmese languages. 

Most recently, I have accepted an offer to pursue a Ph.D. 

at Northern Illinois University starting in the fall. Working 

closely with their federally funded Center for Southeast Asian 

Studies, I plan to do research that utilizes my past work in this 

region. 

I am looking forward to seeing how my degree from Thunderbird 

will enrich my studies there as well! 


okshelf 

class notes 

Books on 

the Web 

Thunderbird Bookshelf, a blog on the Thunderbird Knowledge Network, catalogues books by Thunderbird authors at 

knowledgenetwork.thunderbird.edu/bookshelf. Here is a sampling of recent titles. If you know of other books from any 

year that we missed, please send a note to knowledgenetwork@thunderbird.edu. 

Amazing Arizona! 

Author: 

Boyé Layfayette 

De Mente ’53 

Publisher: 

Phoenix Books 

(Jan. 2, 2010) 

Darkling Plain 

Author: 

Gary Tillery ’73 

Publisher: 

iUniverse 

(Feb. 3, 2010) 

Forcing Amaryllis 

Author: 

Louise Ure ’76 

Publisher: Grand 

Central Publishing 

(May 1, 2006) 

International 

Business 

Co-author: 


Professor Michael 

Moffett, Ph.D. 

Publisher: Wiley; 

8th edition (Aug. 

23, 2010) 

The Lazy 

Environmentalist 

on a Budget 

Author: 

Josh Dorfman ’00 

Publisher: Stewart, 

Tabori & Chang 

(April 1, 2009) 

Making Out in 

Burmese 

Author: 

T.F. Rhoden ’09 

Publisher: 

Tuttle Publishing 

(March 10, 2011) 

Murder on Everest 

Co-author: 

Charles G. Irion ’75 

Publisher: Irion 

Books LLC (2010) 

Murder on 

Mt. McKinley 

Co-author: 

Charles G. Irion ’75 

Publisher: Irion 

Books LLC 

(Dec. 8, 2010) 

My Bad Tequila 

Author: 

Rico Austin ’98 

Publisher: 

PowWow 

Publishing 

(Sept. 30, 2010) 

Resurrection 

Garden 

Author: 

Frank Scully ’77 

Publisher: 

MuseItUp 

Publishing 

(Jan. 1, 2011) 

Somerset: A Novel 

Author: James P. 

Cunningham ’82 

Publisher: 

CreateSpace 

(Dec. 8, 2010) 

Ten Ways to Your 

Cat’s Happiness 

Author: 

Stanley Ely ’57 

Publisher: 

iUniverse.com 

(July 26, 2010) 

Book features Project Artemis graduate 

Anew book by foreign policy analyst Gayle 

Tzemach Lemmon tells the story of 2005 Project 

Artemis graduate Kamela Sediqi, an Afghan 

businesswoman who struggled to support her 

six brothers and sisters during the rise of the Taliban. “The 

Dressmaker of Khair Khana” grew out of the author’s trip 

to Kabul in December 2005, shortly after Sediqi returned 

from Thunderbird’s inaugural two-week course for Afghan 

women entrepreneurs. The book describes Sediqi’s launch 

of a home-based dressmaking business that eventually offered 

work to about 100 neighborhood women. 

The Dressmaker 

of Khair Khana 

Author: Gayle Tzemach 

Lemmon 

Publisher: Harper Collins, 

March 15, 2011 

Description: Hardcover, 

288 pages 

ISBN: 978-0061732370 


forum 

Democratization of knowledge 

Technology enables innovation and entrepreneurship in education 

BY SANJYOT DUNUNG ’87 

Education is a hot 

topic no matter 

which country you 

visit or live in. Regardless 

of any other issues 

debated about education, 

one clear global commonality 

is the acceptance 

that technology must be 

a key component of any 

educational system. A welleducated 

population is perceived 

by all governments 

as essential for economic 

competitiveness. 

Recent international 

events have left us all 

very aware of the impact 

of technology and social 

media on the rapid changes 

in the global political and 

social arenas. Less visible, 

but equally impactful, is 

the influence of technology 

on global education. 

Technology holds the key to 

enable students of all ages 

— whether in the K-12 age 

group, university and higher 

education, or corporate 

learning — to access critical 

learning regardless of where 

they are located around the 

world. 

Technology has expanded 

the access to high-quality 

education through any 

combination of e-learning 

and distance learning. In 

the past decade, the learning 

environment has seen many 

innovative startups grow 

into substantial companies. 

For example, Blackboard 

has leapfrogged ahead of its 

peers to provide innovative 

ways for teachers to use its 

technology to collaborate 

and organize learning material 

and connect more effectively 

with their students in 

and outside the classroom. 

Along with providing online 

options for the learning 

environment — referring to 

the classroom and teacherstudent 

experience — technology 

has also led to new 

and innovative approaches 

in both the development of 

and access to learning content, 

typically the textbooks 

and supplemental resources. 

Traditionally, printed 

books and other audiovisual 

materials in video 

were the only resources 

available to teachers and 

students. Technology is 

helping to revolutionize 

the traditional industries 

of publishing and media, 

leading to new business 

models, innovative product 

and delivery offerings, and 

more affordable options for 

students and educators. 

Innovative, young companies 

such as my own, Atma 

Global, have harnessed 

advances in technology to 

give birth to leading-edge 

learning solutions, enabling 

educators and students 

around the world to access 

high-quality, globally 

consistent and affordable 

learning content. 

At Atma Global, we’ve 

focused on creating highquality, 

supplemental learning 

content that utilizes rich 

multimedia and delivers 

the content to the student 

user, wherever they are — 

in the classroom, online, 

at work, in-flight and on 

the go — on the device of 

their choice. That’s clearly 

the next wave of innovation 

in education: providing 

high-quality learning 

content, whether a textbook 

or supplemental resources, 

that is globally consistent, 

easily accessible and 

responsive to the needs and 

expectations of increasingly 

tech-savvy students, regardless 

of where they are and 

what device they use. 

Technology is enabling 

the democratization of 

knowledge — allowing anyone, 

anywhere to have access 

to high-quality teaching 

and learning content, the 

impact of which remains 

to be seen in the political, 

economic and social arenas. 

Sanjyot Dunung ’87 is president 

of Atma Global. She is the 

author of several books on 

entrepreneurship, doing business 

in Asia, and international 

business. She has appeared on 

television and radio programs 

and is often a guest speaker 

at conferences addressing 

international business and 


Editor’s Note 

Thunderbird Forum is open to 

members of the Thunderbird 

community who have a vision or 

an idea to share. Write to 

the editor with your ideas, 

and we will explore with you 

its potential as a column. 

magazineeditor@thunderbird.edu 


Share your experiences 

with future T-birds 

You’ve been there. You’ve done that. 

Share your T-bird experience. 

If you know someone with a global 

curiosity – someone who is ready to take 

the next step toward a global business 

career – refer him or her to Thunderbird. 

Our varied program options are designed 

to meet a wide range of needs. 

Help expand Thunderbird’s ranks by 

becoming an honorary member of our 

worldwide recruiting team. 

Visit www.my.t-bird.edu and click “Refer 

a Future T-bird.” A Thunderbird recruiter 

will contact you soon. 

Get involved! 

Thunderbird is looking for Alumni 

Ambassadors. Work hand-in-hand with 

Thunderbird’s recruitment team to help 

spread the word to prospective students. 

Serve as a representative at local events 

Inform Thunderbird’s recruitment team 

about local alumni events open to 

prospective students 

Coordinate conversations between 

prospective students and alumni in the 

same global region or career. 

For more information contact: ambassadors@thunderbird.edu

Thunderbird Campus 

Alumni Relations 

1 Global Place 

Glendale, Arizona USA 85306-6000 USA 

NONPROFIT ORG. 

US POSTAGE 

PAID 

MENDOTA, IL 

PERMIT #135 

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED 

63 . 2 . 2011 

Thunderbird Global Celebration 

It's about knowledge shared. Connections established. History made. 

THUNDERBIRD CAMPUS | GLENDALE, AZ | NOVEMBER 10-13, 2011 

GLOBAL BUSINESS DIALOGUE 

NOVEMBER 10-11, 2011 

Don’t miss this world-class event at which 

thought leaders from around the world 

convene for two days of thought-provoking 

discussion on the world’s most important 

global business topics. Learn from top 

global leaders, network with senior 

executives from around the world. 

And, be there for the “Last Pub Night” 

at the old Thunderbird Pub. 

TOWER CELEBRATION & HOMECOMING 

NOVEMBER 10-13, 2011 

Celebrate the grand re-opening of the 

Thunderbird Tower, restored to remember 

our past, present and future as the heart of 

campus. Reconnect with former classmates, 

visit with faculty and meet the newest 

T-bird student body. Be sure to visit and 

experience the splendor of the new 

Thunderbird Pub at this once-in-a-lifetime 

Homecoming weekend. 

Register today at www.thunderbird.edu/11-11-11 

Lodging, registration and dining costs are outlined at www.thunderbird.edu/homecoming 

For additional information, email alumni@thunderbird.edu or call 602-978-7359.

Spring 11 MASTER.indd - Thunderbird Magazine

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