Tepper Digest

News From The Tepper School of Business

Tepper School Announced Two International Partnerships

The Tepper School of Business launched an international dual degree program with ESSEC Business School, an elite institution located in the Paris suburb of Cergy, France, with campuses in Singapore and Rabat, Morocco. Students enrolled in the two-year program will spend one academic year at each school, receiving both a Master of Science in Business Analytics from the Tepper School and a Master in Management from ESSEC upon completion. ESSEC’s MiM program is designed to provide a substantial foundation in business management, while the Tepper School’s STEM-designated MSBA program challenges students to build creative problem-solving skills by analyzing data.

The Tepper School also signed an agreement with Nagoya University of Commerce and Business (NUCB) in Japan. Beginning in fall 2024, master’s students from NUCB can spend a year in Pittsburgh earning an MSBA from the Tepper School before returning to Japan to complete their master’s degree. The origins of this partnership date back to the 1980s, when an NUCB chancellor visited Carnegie Mellon University and was so inspired by the school’s innovative curriculum that he launched an initiative to provide a computer for every student at NUCB, a first in Japan.

Tepper School Launched New Master of Science in Management Program 

The Tepper School of Business introduced a Master of Science in Management program for recent college graduates who aspire to enter the field of business. This full-time, 10-month program offers a flexible curriculum that allows students to specialize in finance, operations, or marketing while taking core courses in business fundamentals, analytics, and behavioral skills. 

The new MSM program is open to high-potential individuals with a variety of undergraduate degrees, a quantitative skill set, and minimal work experience. These students may be looking to pivot or upskill, desire a career change, or need additional skills to complement their undergraduate studies. 

The Tepper School wants to provide the best education to students at different stages in their career,” said Willem-Jan van Hoeve, Carnegie Bosch Professor of Operations Research and Senior Associate Dean of Education at the Tepper School. “Our MSM program focuses on students with little or no work experience and gives them a competitive edge in the job market. It also primes them for an MBA program if they choose to pursue one in the future.” 

The inaugural cohort will start in August 2024. 

MS in Product Management Recognized With AACSB Innovations That Inspire Award 

AACSB International, the world’s largest business education alliance, named the Master of Science in Product Management at the Tepper School of Business to its 2023 Innovations That Inspire list. Each year, AACSB, in support of its mission to create the next generation of leaders, honors 25 institutions for creating new value for students, businesses, and society in a continuously evolving business world. The MSPM received the honor for being the first program of its kind to focus on meeting the industry’s growing demand for qualified product managers. 

The Tepper School partnered with the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University to create the MSPM to emphasize the four core skills necessary for excellence in the position: business principles, technology, user-centered design, and team leadership. The one-year program combines coursework and hands-on, experiential learning to prepare students to take on the product management role at leading companies across the globe.

Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou Formally Installed as Tepper School’s 10th Dean

On April 13, 2023, the Tepper School of Business held a long-anticipated ceremony to formally install Isabelle Bajeux-Besnainou as the school’s 10th dean. Dean Bajeux began her role as the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Finance and dean, the second woman to hold the position in the college’s seventy-four-year history, in October 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic prevented a formal ceremony from being held until this year.

“As dean, she provides the strategic vision for the school, guiding its students, faculty, and staff as they contribute to the mission of one of the leading business schools in the world,” said Provost James H. Garrett Jr.

Carnegie Mellon Elected Three New Trustees From the Tepper School 

Carnegie Mellon University’s Board of Trustees unanimously elected alumni as voting trustees, three of whom came from the Tepper School of Business.

The new trustees include chairman and president of The Home Depot, Ted Decker (MSIA 1993); retired president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago,

Charles Evans (MSIA 1985, Ph.D. 1989); and John Watts (MSIA 1985, Ph.D. 1988), a business advisor and president of Carnegie Mellon’s Andrew Carnegie Society. Additionally, Laurie Weingart, the Richard M. and Margaret S. Cyert Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at the Tepper School and the incoming chair of the Faculty Senate, was appointed as an ex-officio trustee.

MSCF Named New Executive Director 

The Master of Science in Computational Finance named Robert S. Simon (BS/DC 1993) its new executive director. Simon’s career included experiences at multiple firms on Wall Street and abroad, including seven years in Hong Kong. He served as managing director of Barclays Capital Markets before starting his new role. 

Simon succeeds Rick Bryant (MSIA 1980), who retired in June. You can read more about Bryant in the Alumni Highlights section. 

Forum Asked How Businesses and Entrepreneurs Can Build an Ethical Future 

Last February, the Tepper School of Business and the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University partnered with the nonprofit Ethics in Entrepreneurship to host the Meaningful Work and Building an Ethical Future Forum. The one-day forum gathered speakers from industry, academia, and the public sector for a series of panels and networking opportunities to discuss how companies and employees can commit to ethical responsibility in business, innovation, and technology.

The event was organized by Tepper School faculty Taya Cohen, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Business Ethics, and Derek Leben, Associate Teaching Professor of Ethics, along with Erika Cheung, Executive Director of Ethics in Entrepreneurship and Theranos whistleblower.

Faculty Members Received Research Grants

Tepper School Senior Led Team to Victory in Case Competition 

During the spring semester, two undergraduate business clubs at the Tepper School of Business, 180 Degrees Consulting and Women in Business, sponsored a case competition focused on social impact. Nisha Fernandes, a senior in Statistics and Business Administration with a concentration in Business Analytics and Technology and a minor in Decision Science, led her team to victory after partnering with Churn Homemade Ice Cream and Coffee for the competition. 

Fernandes intentionally reached out to women-owned businesses and ultimately opted to work with Churn on a consultancy project to help the western Pennsylvania chain launch an alcohol-infused ice cream. Spanning the semester, the case competition involved meaningful collaboration between the student team (Fernandes, Raka Mazumder, Koko Sagae, Tanisha Kota, Sriya Putta, and Yashita Nakka) and Churn to create a successful market strategy for the new product. In total, 13 teams participated in the competition, with the top five making final presentations. 

“I’ve worked on client projects before, but this was the most client-involved project we’ve had. We’re a team, and it wasn’t just us presenting to [Churn]: She was implementing our ideas as we presented them to her,” said Fernandes. 

Tepper School Undergraduates Launched Student-Run Restaurant 

In collaboration with Chartwells and Carnegie Mellon Dining Services, a group of students from the Undergraduate Business Administration program at the Tepper School of Business launched an entirely student-run restaurant in Rohr Commons in the Tepper Quad. Capital Grains features customizable bowls made with nutritious ingredients chosen based on customer surveys and feedback from students. 

The student-run restaurant is the first of its kind for Chartwells, which oversees the dining experiences at more than 300 college campuses. 

The inaugural team behind the venture included students Sahil Ahuja, Shivam Mishra, Prashu Kukkapalli, Moon Tan, David You (CEO), Kira Monji, Michael Maddalon (COO), Rafael Isea Rodriguez (CFO), and Prisha Goyal (CMO). 

MSPM Program Partnered With WomenTech Network for AMA Event 

On June 28, 2023, the WomenTech Network hosted a virtual Ask Me Anything conversation with alumnae from the Master of Science in Product Management program at the Tepper School of Business. The conversation invited 410 event registrants from across 38 countries to ask questions about the professional journey offered by the MSPM. The turnout was especially impressive given that previous events garnered roughly 10–20% this audience size. Participating alumnae included Hiloni Sheth (MSPM 2022), Laura Howard (MSPM 2020), Mankirat Kaur Bajwa (MK) (MSPM 2021), and Neha Singh Rajpurohit (MSPM 2022). 

The MSPM launched the one-year partnership with WomenTech Network to raise awareness for the academic program and to foster diversity and inclusion within the technology industry. WomenTech Network serves more than 181 countries and 50,000 members, representing leading companies from every segment of the technology industry as well as disruptive startups, providing its members access to a network of professional women in technology. By combining their collective expertise and resources, WomenTech Network and Carnegie Mellon aim to facilitate the development of impactful initiatives, programs, and events that promote gender equality and provide students with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in the technology sector. 

Four Tepper School Students Named to Poets&Quants Best & Brightest List

MSBA Students Partnered With Industry During Successful Capstone Courses 

Students enrolled in the full-time and part-time Master of Science in Business Analytics program at the Tepper School of Business completed 19 capstone projects during the spring 2023 semester. During one project, MSBA students partnered with Emerson Electric Co. to help the company limit, and eventually eliminate, CO2 emissions across their supply chain. The student team analyzed data, conducted market research, and used machine learning to build a new model, enabling Emerson to identify suppliers, recognize current emissions, and discover potential ways to reduce emissions. 

Meanwhile, Leimberg Information Services (LISI) participated in two capstone courses with MSBA students. One LISI project involved students analyzing the digital content publisher’s existing customers’ data to recommend new data architecture and identify growth opportunities. In another capstone course, students partnered with the IT company Synecron to build a Python-based retirement calculator. By utilizing data to understand how customers engage in long-term retirement investing, the student team promoted long-term financial wellness by helping investors increase and optimize engagement with retirement plans. 

Student Won Best Student Paper at CPAIOR 2023 Conference 

Anthony Karahalios, a Ph.D. student in Operations Research at the Tepper School of Business, won Best Student Paper at the 20th International Conference on the Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research. The paper, “Column Elimination for Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problems,” was co-authored by Karahalios’s advisor, Willem-Jan van Hoeve, Carnegie Bosch Professor of Operations Research and Senior Associate Dean of Education.

The paper addresses the challenges plaguing last-mile delivery, which is considered the most expensive and inefficient part of the package-delivery process. Karahalios and van Hoeve introduce a column elimination procedure that provides potential solutions for solving this increasingly important problem.

Tepper School Instagram Highlighted MSPM Student Internships 

Students in the Master of Science in Product Management program at the Tepper School of Business took over the school’s Instagram account to share their experiences during their MSPM internships. Devesh Gombar took questions about the program and shared images of his time with Walmart as a technical product manager intern in the data enablement team. Harshitha Shivaraju, who interned at Amazon Robotics as a technical product manager in Boston, let followers shadow her during a site visit to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. From the Bay Area, Sadhana Gupta presented a day in the life as a product manager intern in the product team for Amberflo.io.

Celebrating Bob Dammon 

A dinner to recognize Robert Dammon’s contributions as the former Dean of the Tepper School of Business took place in August at the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh. Dammon, the school’s ninth dean, stepped down in 2020 but an in-person celebration was postponed due to COVID-19.

The event included remarks from Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian, Provost James Garrett, Dean of libraries Keith Webster, and Dean of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences Richard Scheines.

Under Dammon’s leadership, the Part-Time Online Hybrid MBA, the Master of Science in Business Analytics, online Master of Science in Business Analytics, and the Master of Science in Product Management programs were launched. A highlight of his deanship was the opening of the David A. Tepper Quadrangle in 2018.  

David Tepper Talked With Students 

David A. Tepper joined us last spring to talk about his business endeavors in entrepreneurship, investing, and sports. Tepper, the school’s benefactor, champions accessible education across the U.S. to ensure that both students and teachers have the tools and resources needed to thrive. He is a philanthropist, successful investor, entrepreneur, and owner of the Carolina Panthers.

During the panel session, Tepper shared his own experiences at the school and responded to as many student questions as time permitted. Tepper School students Anushikha Sharma and Varun Kalyanapuram moderated the discussion. Sharma is a full-time MBA, and Kalyanapuram is an undergraduate studying business. The visit was filled with energy, thoughtful questions, and informative responses.