The Pitt Business Center for Executive Education Welcomes the Disney Keys to Excellence

The Pitt Business Center for Executive Education is proud to welcome the world-renowned Disney Institute to the Greater Pittsburgh area on June 3, 2009, for a day of learning, insight, and inspiration. Learn more and register. >

Student Entrepreneurs Fuel Big Ideas

Many students have felt the effects of a troubled economy, and the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence (IEE) is working alongside local businesses to provide students with hope during a time of hardship. More than 90 enterprising students from across the University's Oakland campus participated in the fourth annual Big Idea Competition entering new product or service ideas that could be turned into functioning businesses or strategies for improving their own existing businesses. Read more about the competition and this year's winners. >

Same Name, New Corporate Structure

In 2006, full-time MBA student Nick Fischer started an investment advisory firm called Fischer Capital Partners, LLC. His first clients were primarily family and friends. While attending graduate school full-time, Fischer's goal was to create a history of excellent performance. More than two years later, having achieved what he set out to—a record of outstanding performance—Fischer and his management team, including Katz alumnus Cole Wolfson (MBA '08), have launched a new company under the same name but with a new corporate structure, Fischer Capital Partners, Inc. Read more about Fisher and the new company. >

Living a Dream

Karen Rafferty (MBA '01) is living a dream: Driving sports cars. By day, she drives product marketing for some of General Motor Corporation's most dynamic brands, including the Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette. In her spare time, Rafferty races sports cars—she is a four time U.S. national title winner in the Sports Car Club of America Solo II competition. Rafferty was recently honored as one of The Network Journal's 2009 Twenty Five Influential Black Women in Business. Read more about Rafferty. >

Think Globally (Even on the Weekends)

Students with an interest in international business from across the Oakland campus spent a recent Sunday afternoon engaged in dialogue with a panel of executives representing a number of industries. Members of the panel discussed the international dimensions of their companies' operations and, more generally, aspects of doing business in an ever-changing global economy. Read more about the discussion. >

Crafting a Vision for a Global Future

Globally contestable markets, radical technological and business process innovation, and shifting consumer preferences combine to stress-test corporations' strategic planning and implementation capabilities. As globalization gathers pace across the business landscape, a general manager must cope with increasing levels of uncertainty and ambiguity and there is a particular need to develop visions to navigate this uncharted territory. That is why Katz Executive MBA students from across the world gathered this month in São Paulo, Brazil to develop their vision-crafting abilities. Learn more about the Strategic Visioning for a Global Future course taught by John E. Prescott, the Thomas O'Brien Chair of Strategy and director of the Katz Doctoral Program. >

A Summer of Discovery

Not many undergraduate students would delight in saying they spent their summer vacation under a pile of books in the law library. But Patrick Moroney is not an average undergraduate. With the distinction of being the recipient of both a Chancellor's Scholarship and the Brackenridge Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship from the University Honors College, his undergraduate program of study has been marked by an unparalleled intensity of scholarship. Read more about Moroney and the interests and undergraduate experiences that helped him decide to pursue a career in law, a journey that will take him to Harvard Law School next fall. >

IEE bucks economic trend, reports one of its best years yet

While corporations look for handouts and major firms around the globe teeter on the edge of collapse, entrepreneurial firms in Western Pennsylvania are proving that businesses can thrive in a difficult economy with the help of innovative strategies, flexible strategic plans, and organizations like the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence (IEE). In 2008, the Institute helped the region's entrepreneurial business community raise more than $44 million in loans and investments. Read more about IEE's 2008 results. >