Pitt Business

Get your coffee table ready: the spring 2013 Pitt Business alumni magazine is in the mail. The edition features alumni with high-powered positions in fashion and innovation -- and much, much more.

Jon Persky (MBA '83) is the owner of a highly successful insurance consulting firm. He's also an accomplished diver who visits the world's most exotic locations as much as he can.

Starbucks executive Jeffery Hansberry (MBA '89, A&S '86) spoke to Katz students about global consumer products strategy as the 2013 Thought Leaders in Business speaker.

The inaugural Katz Invitational Case Competition drew MBA teams from Carnegie Mellon (Tepper), Penn State (Smeal), Case Western Reserve (Weatherhead), Buffalo, and University of Pittsburgh (Katz).

Tickets are available for the April 12 Business Alumni Association Awards. Now in its 49th year, the ceremony is an outstanding opportunity to network, enjoy good food and drink, and support your alma mater.

Two Katz chaired professors, along with an alumnus, were credited as among the most influential researchers in project management in a paper published in the International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.

Ranel T. Wijesinha completes business development assignments in the geopolitically sensitive locales of Afghanistan and the post-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Kyrgyz Republic, among others.

The fingerprints of Brant Hawk are on the latest designs of Lucky Brand clothing. The CBA graduate lives in Los Angeles, where he uses his business expertise to author the fashions of today and tomorrow.

Katz has expanded its social media presence to create an official Katz LinkedIn page. The "company" page is a nice complement to the existing group pages run by the school's MBA and CBA alumni, which are outstanding. Be sure to follow Katz on LinkedIn.

A highly engaged and active alumni community is critical to the continued prosperity of the Katz Graduate School of Business. The Career Management Center has made increasing alumni involvement a priority in 2013.

The entrepreneur is a unique animal, with guts and passion and no fear of risk. For Joe Campolo (MBA '93), food business entrepreneurs are the chief focus of his own highly successful private equity firm in Chicago.

Jennifer Burroughs (MBA '12) was the victim of a violent pedestrian accident where she was hit by the driver of a stolen car. She fought hard to recover from her injuries and is among the Katz Class of 2012.

Cell phone users are getting younger every year, with elementary school kids increasingly going mobile. Julie Dobson (MBA '79) is the creator of a smartphone application that makes monitoring the phone an opportunity for good parenting.

Shopper marketing answers the holy grail of consumer goods questions: who is buying a product, where, and why? Megan Hennigan (MBA '11) explores what triggers people's paths to purchase for the global food company H.J. Heinz Co.

Inspiration comes in many forms. Antarina S.F. Amir drew upon her business background to grow a school system in her native Indonesia. Her schools don't follow rigid curriculums and favor active learning over memorization.

Mentoring is a powerful force in business. It enables the transfer of knowledge and creates valuable networking connections. Katz MBA students have access to one-on-one alumni mentoring through a new program.

On the surface, people's buying habits can seem unpredictable, irrational, and elusive. But there are patterns behind everything. Powerful data mining tools are making new discoveries into consumer behavior by analyzing digital data.

James Broadhurst (MBA '66) is the chairman of Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, a diversified food service company that handles everything from Smiley cookies to upscale catering at the Carnegie museums of Pittsburgh. Broadhurst is a 2011 University of Pittsburgh Legacy Laureate.

Jared Souder (MBA '10) draws upon his experiences as an Iraq war veteran to serve as executive director of Veterans Place of Washington Boulevard, a Pittsburgh nonprofit that provides temporary housing to homeless veterans. His job is far from easy, but Souder wouldn't have it any other way.

Toby O'Brien Jr. (MBA '91) is the owner of Hot Metal Harley-Davidson in West Mifflin, the largest dealership in the Pittsburgh market. He didn't get there just because he loves bikes - it took a solid business foundation, too.

Bioengineer John Round (MBA, MS-ENGR '11) is working in India during the next nine months under a Fulbright scholarship. He is analyzing the developing nation's biofuels industry.