Marion Anderson, philanthropist and UCLA Anderson School of Management’s namesake, died on May 14 in Los Angeles. “She passed peacefully, adored by her family and the many friends who love and admire her,” said Dean Judy D. Olian. “She and her late husband, John, are our school’s pillars and namesakes, leaving us a legacy that includes our name, the physical campus that bears it and a defining set of values that they both lived and inspired.”

John earned a business administration degree from UCLA in 1940 and later founded Topa Equities Ltd. The school was named in honor of John Anderson when the couple made their first gift to the school in 1987. Following John’s death in 2011, Marion became Chairman of Topa Equities and a member of UCLA Anderson’s Board of Advisors and executive committee. In 2015, Marion Anderson made a gift of $100 million to the school. The monumental gift will support a new building named the Marion Anderson Hall, which will one day be part of the UCLA Anderson complex, in addition to providing long-term funding for students and faculty research.

Marion said, “Philanthropy doesn’t have to be just about money. No matter how much or how little, get involved. When you do, you really begin to understand the meaning of what philanthropy is, of what caring is. You get so much back.” Read more.

Alumni Weekend 2017 brought back a record breaking number of alumni and their families for valuable insights, anticipated reunions and new memories at Alumni Conference, Reunion celebrations and the Alumni Golf Tournament. Relive Alumni Weekend through our media galleries!

Alumni Conference

View photos and watch selected videos in the Alumni Conference media gallery.

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The Economics of Technology and Globalization

Learn how technology and globalization are shaping global trends and domestic policies. Watch UCLA Anderson Professors Uday Karmarkar, Edward Leamer, Jerry Nickelsburg and PwC’s Mike Quindazzi discuss this important topic and share their perspectives.

Innovation: The Art & Science of Making Impact in Tech 

Alexandra Rosen ’11, Global Marketing and Sponsorship Lead at Cisco, shares how she fosters connections to make meaningful impact on communities—from Brazilian favelas to Cisco’s employees at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Story of Omaze: From Star Wars to Starlight

Ryan Cummins’ 11, Co-Founder of Omaze, inspires us with his entrepreneurial journey and endeavor to revolutionize the philanthropy industry through storytelling, technology, fun and gratitude.  

Reunion Celebrations

Relive the special moments though photo galleries, including gifs from the photo booth!
 
Are you part of the reunion classes of 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, or 2012?

• Class Giving - See how your class is progressing. You have until June 30, 2017 to make a gift that will count towards your reunion class gift!
• Reunion Survey - Attended Reunion Evening on May 6? Take a brief survey to shape the planning of your future celebrations.

Alumni Golf Tournament

Congratulations to the Class of 2017 foursome of Patricio Abalos, Paul Britton, Daniel Cagney, and Jorge Chona for winning the 2017 Anderson Cup and Affiliates Cup! In its 11th year, the 2017 Alumni Golf Tournament raised over $23,000 for UCLA Anderson student fellowships. Relive the action on The Anderson Cup Facebook page. 

Reflecting on what he liked and what he was good at, Jim Freedman ’78 made a decision during his second year in business school, to pursue a career in finance that would enable him to take risk. That revelation led him to take a position at a smaller firm upon graduation—and to ultimately start two companies of his own, Barrington Associates and Intrepid. “Inspired by the enthusiasm, perseverance and success of entrepreneurs,” Freedman made a donation to create the new James B. Freedman Pitch Deck, a part of the Anderson Venture Accelerator that will support programmatic and strategic operating efforts. On May 4, UCLA Anderson celebrated the gift with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by Freedman, his family, and an esteemed group of friends.

As Chairman and Managing Director of Intrepid, Freedman helps entrepreneurs with their biggest sale or financing transactions. “Innovation and entrepreneurship separate the U.S. from the rest of the world. I hinge a lot of hope on the Anderson Venture Accelerator as the birthplace of the best new ideas,” says Freedman. A longtime supporter of UCLA Anderson, Jim received the 2014 Outstanding Alumni Service award and serves as a board member of the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation and UCLA Anderson’s Board of Advisors. Read more.

UCLA Anderson is powered by a dynamic community of thought leaders focused on the future of business. With this in mind, the UCLA Anderson Alumni Network Board of Directors wondered: 1. How can we tap into valuable insights from our own community of remarkable business practitioners—UCLA Anderson alumni? 2. How can we make these insights accessible to our network of 38,000 alumni who are busy and spread out all over the globe?

Introducing Anderson A.I. (a.k.a. Alumni Insights)—a series of interactive webinars that will leverage the power of technology to explore topics relevant to your function, industry, or future aspirations. Join us on Wednesday, June 14 at 11 a.m. (PST) for our inaugural webinar featuring Mike Hopkins ’01, CEO of Hulu, on the impact of “Peak TV,” the role of personalization, the implications for advertisers, and the emerging digital, live TV services. Register now.

Research indicates that U.S. companies are facing more pressure to meet analyst forecasts than meeting prior year’s earnings or avoiding losses. In a study recently published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics, Judson Caskey (Associate Professor of Accounting at UCLA Anderson) and N. Bugra Ozel (Assistant Professor of Accounting at the Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas) tested whether there is a connection or correlation between workplace safety and managers’ attempts to meet earnings expectations.

The study found that “controlling for other factors, injury/illness rates are 5%–15% higher in periods where a firm meets or just beats analyst forecasts. The injury/illness rates for such firms are also significantly higher than those for firms that miss or comfortably beat analyst forecasts.” In exploring what factors characterize companies that beat earnings benchmarks, Caskey and Ozel found that industries with high unionization report lower injury rates than those with low unionization by about 6.4%. Learn about the two other factors in the Harvard Business Review article.