Mihaylo College of Business and Economics

AMA “Etiquette Networking” event is next tuesdayMarch 23rd from 5-7 at the Catina Lounge. Debbie Darling and Laura Neal will be discussing how to network with business professionals in a restaurant/bar setting, and when alcohol is involved.

Event is limited to the first 30 people so RSVP on facebook.

The American Marketing Association held a Q & A session with Ken Tudhope of Project Pro Search, Boris Bugarski of mUrgent, Gregg Champion of Champion Media & Entertainment, and Jan Mittermeier of Cofiroute. Students were able to ask questions and gain valuable insight from these successful entrepreneurs.

After working for a large specialized staffing firm Ken used his talent and extensive list of contacts to start his own staffing company. When asked about it Ken said his biggest fear was that he wouldn’t be successful. But this fear dissipates a little more year over year as he gets used to running his own company “All of the sudden it’s 2 years later and you look back and say ‘We’re going to make it’”. Ken values his time with his family, and owning his own business allows him the freedom to take vacations and spend time with them.

Boris and Gregg had a rather different approach to business. Both of them say that they sleep 2-4 hours a night, and worked without a day off for years after they started their companies. Boris runs his company with his twin brother Aleks. mUrgent is an email marketing company that mainly markets for restaurants. When asked if he markets his own company the same way that he markets for his clients he replied “If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.” What he meant by this is that it’s in his nature to do his best because he doesn’t want to fail, whether he is marketing his own product or someone else’s. “Put me in a Cold Stone and I’ll make the best ice cream in the world,”says Boris. He is also a ‘97 Mihaylo graduate and advised students to get involved in the groups and resources available to them at school. He says not participating in these activities when he was here is his big college regret.

 Gregg has started two of his own companies: Champion Media & Entertainment and OneCubicle.com. Champion Media primarily works on marketing campaigns for larger companies and Onecubicle is a job networking site for “twenty somethings” that acts as the link between Facebook and LinkedIn. When asked what kind of car he would like to drive, he said that as an entrepreneur you are the CEO and janitor of your company. You can’t come rolling into work in a Range Rover while asking your employees to cut costs. He drives a Lexus hybrid which he calls a “Soccer mom car.”

 Jan is Senior Vice President at Cofiroute USA. Her accomplishments include overseeing a $300,000,000 expansion of the John Wayne Airport and implementing her plan that allowed Orange County to emerge from its biggest bankruptcy in just 18 months. However, she says that her biggest accomplishment has been raising her two sons. When asked if it is hard to hold her position as a woman she said that it had been a tough journey, but things are better than they were when she started out. Jan is a perfectionist in her work but has, and always will put her family first.

Event was last Thrsday, March 11.

Four non-profit professionals spoke about various aspects of working for a non-profit organization.  The Speakers were Kathleen Costello for non-profit research at CSUF, Kristi Platkowski with Orangewood Children’s Foundation, Jenny Voznesensky from the Anaheim Family YMCA, and Lidia Escobar with ICAN. Kathleen began the discussion by having the audience stand up and then sit down as she listed off their majors. When everyone had sat down she told us that all of these majors are directly applicable to non-profit work. She explained that a non-profit is not defined by not making profit; it simply means that members on the board of directors cannot show a personal profit from serving on the board. Kristi said that there is a misconception that people don’t make good money in non-profit. She said that the compensation is generally very competitive. Jenny added that the higher paid managers can sometimes make as much as 250K. So why form a non-profit? A non-profit organization’s primary goal is create social benefit, as opposed to increasing shareholder wealth. Kathleen said that recent studies show that our generation demands that we derive meaning from our work, more so than other generations. This is to say that most people from our generation like to see the benefit of our work for ourselves. We aren’t satisfied by just receiving our paycheck.

So if it’s a job with meaning you want, non-profits have them in spades. It may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about going into a career, but it might just be the perfect match for you.

There are two events on campus this evening…

At 5:30pm the owners of Top Class Pizza will be speaking in the Legislative Chambers (2nd Floor) of TSU. The owners Hannah Issacs and Rebekah Butorac will be talking about being your own boss and the challenges of starting and marketing a new business.

 The Learning & Understanding the Art of Risk Management presentation with award winning Grace Crickette starts tonight at 6pm in SGMH 3230. Grace Crickette came to work as the university’s Chief Risk Officer after thirteen years of experience as a vice president and officer in audit, insurence, and human resources capacities in the construction industry. She received the Risk Innovation Reward in 2008.

Presenters from all sides of the subject talk about addiction.

Addiction is a killer. It kills people, it kills families, and it can kill businesses. Everybody knows addiction is a force to be reckoned with, but there are people on the frontlines everyday helping to combat this disease. The event, hosted by the Family Business Council, featured three of these very people talking about their work and experiences with addiction. The speakers included psychologist Carol Ann Caeser, human rights activist Kitty Dukakis, and interventionist Doug Lyons.

Carol Caeser is a psychologist with The Vance Caeser Group and also teaches the certification program at Cal State University Long Beach. She described what addiction is and how it develops. Kitty Dukakis is the wife of former Governor of Massachusetts and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. She spoke about her history with addiction to drugs and alcohol. She also spoke about the success that electroconvulsive therapy had in treating her for depression. Doug Lyons is a former addict and interventionist. He travels around the country performing interventions for families that want to get help for their loved ones.

It was inspirational to see the devotion these speakers had to helping others. The audience was moved and a couple people even got on the microphone to express their gratitude. Addiction is a painful experience for everyone involved, but it can be overcome. The people who do recover often go on to do amazing work towards helping others recover as well. My hat goes off to these three and I wish them the best of luck in their work.

To read the full article follow the link.