Prior to studying finance and marketing at UCLA Anderson (then known as the UCLA Graduate School of Management) Stephen West ’83 was a journalist. When his aspiration to become a securities analyst post-MBA was dashed due to the early 1980s recession, his career as a business and entertainment journalist took off when he joined the LA Times as the assistant business editor. “I was a copy editor with an MBA,” he says. “Many business journalists were numbers-averse…I knew how to read a company earnings statement.” He edited features in the mergers and acquisitions field, including Time Inc.’s purchase of Warner Communications which garnered a Gerald Loeb Award. He continues to serve as a judge for The Gerald Loeb Awards after retiring from a career highlighted by leadership roles at Daily Variety and Bloomberg News. Established in 1957, the Gerald Loeb Awards, which are stewarded by UCLA Anderson, encourage and support reporting on business and finance that inform and protect the private investor and the general public. Read more.

Sara Tucker ‘88 has served in multiple capacities for various programs at UCLA Anderson. In her current role as director of coaching and team skills, Tucker coaches MBA student teams on developing their leadership competencies, including how to mediate disputes. One of her coaching techniques utilizes mindful meditation, which she says strengthen our ability to center in the midst of chaos and pause before making decisions to then make even better decisions. “You have to feel safe in a team in order to contribute to a team. So how do you build a climate like that? You have to slow yourself down in order to be able to learn who these other people are that you’re working with.” Learn about her suggested G.R.I.P.S. model to navigate common issues that individuals face in team work. Read more.

Before we celebrate the U.S. Department of Commerce’s first quarter announcement of a GDP rate of 3.1% as a signal of no imminent recession, Professor Emeritus Edward Leamer suggests looking at what was unusual in the four quarters preceding past recessions. In a paper prepared for the June Forecast, Leamer said “The effect of the first quarter of 2019 data is to increase the recession probabilities from near zero to 15% for the next year and to between 24% and 83% for the year after that.” Indicators he factored into his analysis include weak residential investment, intellectual property, residential construction and consumer durables. Read more to learn about the national outlook, CA outlook, and U.S. China economic report.