Archive for August, 2009

Argentines consume millions of pizzas each year from mom and pop restaurants, and entrepreneur Sebastián Maril has turned this appetite for Italian cuisine into a successful business in his home country. The 2002 Thunderbird graduate quit his day job as a banker in 2006 and launched a company in Buenos Aires that puts advertising messages on pizza boxes for clients such as Pepsi, Wal-Mart, Fox Latin American Network, Hewlett Packard and Unilever, among others.
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By Katherine Hutton, Walker Center managing director

I had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with three jet lagged students who are joining the Thunderbird student body this trimester.

Two of the students – Ahmad and Rawan – are part of the of the ongoing Maharat certificate program through the Jordanian Business Development Center in Amman. They made the journey from Amman with a stopover in New York, spending most of their time absorbing Times Square. They will both be on campus taking courses in Global State and Markets, Global Enterprise and Cross Cultural Communications.  The third student, Reem, is here on the Queen Rania scholarship to pursue a full Master’s degree.

The students were full of questions about the weather — when it would get cooler – their peers, their coursework, where to shop and American culture.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett stood in the New York Public Library in June 2006 and announced plans to give away most of his wealth in a way that would maximize the social benefit. Matthew Bishop, chief business writer for The Economist, watched with interest as the richest man in the world was joined on stage by his closest rival, Bill Gates. | Video: Bishop answers the Thunderbird Question (1:12) | Podcast: Bishop on “Philanthrocapitalism” (13:45) |
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Jordan lacks the oil of other Middle Eastern countries. So the small kingdom north of Saudi Arabia focuses instead on developing human resources more than natural resources. The strategy has produced an increasing number of entrepreneurs ready to tackle the challenges of a global economic crisis, two executives from the Business Development Center in Amman said recently at Thunderbird.
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When Melbourne-based drug maker Mayne Pharma decided to expand into Austria in 2005, the multinational company put its trust in a local startup with no history of success. Helmut Kaisergruber and Sabine Möritz-Kaisergruber, the Thunderbird couple who launched Astro-Pharma with a friend after 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry, still aren’t sure what they said to win the Mayne contract. The partnership hinged on a 30-minute presentation the couple made in Munich after driving from their home in Vienna.
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By Katherine Hutton, Walker Center managing director

This week I had the pleasure of meeting Tammy Myatt. She is the new program manager for the Thunderbird women’s entrepreneurship program in Kabul, Afghanistan, funded by Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Program. Tammy spent her time at the Walker Center on the Glendale campus meeting with a wide host of faculty and staff learning about Thunderbird and our programs in Afghanistan. 

Tammy related to me when she saw the job opening she saw it as a gift, a calling, rather than a job. She is very excited about living in Kabul and working with the courageous women who participate in the program. A native of Canada, and coming from Halifax, Nova Scocia, she is prepared for the climatic extremes of Afghanistan.

With a background in organizational management and business administration, Tammy possesses a strong talent base for managing the program. Additionally, her work experience in Saudi Arabia speaks to her cultural adaptability. Tammy will be on the ground in Kabul within the month!

Many people label entrepreneurs as risk takers, but 2004 Thunderbird graduate Jim Small takes the opposite view. The president and founder of Parker Finch Management in Arizona tells his friends in the corporate world that they take a bigger risk by working for someone else who controls their destiny. “Don’t think of entrepreneurship as risky,” Small says. “Think of the corporate job as risky, especially if your passion isn’t there.” | Video: Alternative to Working Harder (1:53) | Video: Entrepreneurship: Not So Risky (1:31)
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Animal lover Monica Ullrich stumbled on an idea for a new business venture when her miniature dachshund, Chuleta, ate a box of chocolates that she’d left on her coffee table. Ullrich, a 2000 Thunderbird graduate, became concerned about the possibility of “chocolate toxicity,” a condition she’d heard of that could be potentially lethal for dogs. So she went online looking for reliable medical advice, but all she could find were amateur blogs and pet care advertisements.
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