Wharton’s EMBA program is known for having a global focus with its International Seminar; however the addition of global modular courses has taken this to a whole new level. Launched in 2010, the week-long  mini-courses offer students opportunities to learn about topics such as financial institutions in Abu  Dhabi, supply chain management in Shanghai, innovation in India, and leadership and conflict resolution in Rwanda.

Having recently returned from the course in Rwanda, we asked EMBA students Marla Bleavins and Bill Williams to tell us about their experience. Here’s what Marla, a second-year student at Wharton | San Francisco who is a special projects manager for Los Angeles World Airports, had to say:

“Most Americans know about Rwanda because of the tragedy of genocide that happened there in 1994, but we aren’t as familiar with the progress the country has made since then. It’s the fastest growing economy in Africa and one of the safest and least corrupt countries on that continent so I was intrigued to learn more about it through this course, which was taught by Prof. Katherine Klein and called, ‘Leadership, Conflict, and Change.’

Having recently overseen the move of Wharton’s West Coast facility into the Hills Brother Building on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, we asked COO of Wharton | San Francisco Bernadette Birt to tell us about the move and the new campus.

Q. Students experienced the new facility for the first time in early January. How have they reacted?

There have been a lot of ‘Wows!’ which are exactly what we want to hear.  They are thrilled with the quality of the classroom experience, the number of group study rooms, and having places to connect with each other during the day. For example, we have an incredible dining space with stunning views of the San Francisco Bay where our students love to gather with their laptops and iPads to collaborate and relax as the sun sets.

Get insights on the future of jobs from a top Wharton professor, learn more about our EMBA program from Philadelphia and San Francisco alumni, and see what our new campus looks like in San Francisco, then make sure to join us for a virtual reception on Mon., January 23 from 9:00pm-10:00pm EST / 6:00pm-7:00pm PST.

Hosted by Vice Dean Anjani Jain, the event will feature a presentation by renowned labor expert Prof. Peter Cappelli on how the global economy is impacting careers and what this means for the future of employee development. Prof. Cappelli, who teaches negotiations, also will share tips that may help you secure support for your MBA studies and career development.

Afterward, a panel of alumni from our Philadelphia and San Francisco EMBA programs will discuss how the Wharton MBA and network have shaped their careers.  You’ll have an opportunity to ask questions of both Prof. Cappelli and the panelists via your computer or mobile device.

In addition, West Coast COO Bernadette Birt will take participants on a virtual tour of our beautiful new San Francisco campus.  A 21st century learning environment, you’ll see how our technologically advanced facility was designed to provide the most cutting-edge and connected classrooms possible.

To register for this live webcast on Jan. 23, click here.

We’re all excited about Wharton | San Francisco’s move in January to the Hills Plaza Building on the San Francisco Embarcadero. Not only will it provide us more space, but the facility will also feature “a 21st century learning environment.” To learn more about the technology going into the new space as well as other technology initiatives in Wharton’s MBA Exec program, check out Wharton CIO Deirdre Wood’s latest blog on the Wharton Magazine site:

“Kicking off a new academic year is always an exciting time, but that is particularly the case this year as we’re immersed in designing and building classrooms of the future. Wharton’s upcoming move to a new San Francisco facility has provided us an opportunity not only to design the most cutting-edge and connected classrooms possible, but also to bring that technology back to our campus in Philadelphia. As a top business school, our constituents expect a 21st-century learning environment, and we are providing that on both coasts.” more...

Welcome to our newest students in Wharton’s EMBA Program! Both the East and West Coast classes are comprised of exceptional students from near and far.

At Wharton | San Francisco, most of the first-year class is based in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco area, however students are also commuting from Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington. The class of 96 students brings an average of 11 years of work experience to the program with nearly 50% holding advanced degrees.

We proudly congratulate our newest Wharton MBA alumni!

They’ve accomplished so much in the last two years, balancing work, family, and the rigors of school. They commuted from near and far, many have gotten married, even more have expanded their families, and everyone has made life-long connections.

Coming from a diversity of backgrounds, the 96 students in our Wharton | San Francisco graduating class include successful entrepreneurs as well as executives working in fields like healthcare, technology, energy, consulting, and investment management.  During the program, four got married and 15 had babies with several more due this summer.

Most of these Wharton | San Francisco grads live in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and the greater Bay area, but many commuted from southern California as well as Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, Texas, and Washington.  And just under 40% of the class was comprised of international students.

Graduating in a May 8th ceremony at Herbst Memorial Theater in San Francisco, their featured commencement speaker was Larry Baer, President and COO of the San Francisco Giants.  29 of those graduates also attended the MBA graduation ceremony in Philadelphia, held on May 15th at the University of Pennsylvania’s historic Franklin Field, with many gathering at the Inn at Penn for a special celebratory breakfast with friends and family.  The East Coast ceremony featured keynote speaker Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup.

The Philadelphia based East Coast class of 114 graduating students also represents a wide variety of industries including consulting, financial services, healthcare, aerospace, and real estate.  Similar to the West Coast class, many students expanded their families during the EMBA program, with seven students who were married and nine babies born.

Most of the Philadelphia class came from Northeast Corridor – Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., but several commuted from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and even Ontario, Canada.  International students represented more than 35% of the class.

Graduation is an exciting and important achievement and we wish everyone the best of luck!   Please stay in touch!

First-year executive MBA student Tim Goodwin, a program director at Yapstone in San Francisco, has always been involved in volunteer work. So when he heard about Wharton’s Nonprofit Board Leadership Program (NBLP), which selects and trains Wharton MBA students to serve on the boards of directors of nonprofit organizations for one year, he wanted to participate.

As social responsibility becomes a priority for both large organizations and new startups, the Wharton Program for Social Impact is likewise growing in popularity with current and prospective students. Raghavan Anand is a first-year Wharton | San Francisco Executive MBA student who has extensive experience in education- and healthcare-related non-profits.  He spoke to us about what social impact means to him.

When Bernadette Birt joined Wharton last September as COO of Wharton | San Francisco and executive director of the West Coast EMBA Program, she brought with her 20 years of experience working at Northwestern University, particularly in that school’s EMBA program. “This job at Wharton provided many exciting opportunities and I was ready to do something new,” she says. “Not only are we moving into a bigger facility, but we are growing the MBA for Executives Program and executive education offerings here as well as strengthening Wharton’s presence on the West Coast.” We asked Bernadette to talk more about her role at Wharton | San Francisco and what the new facility will be like.

Registrants from 30 states and 14 countries joined us last week for our first-ever Webcast event.  During the interactive presentation, streamed live from Philadelphia and San Francisco, participants heard from administrators, faculty, students, and alumni.  It was a great opportunity to learn more about Wharton’s MBA Program for Executives.  If you missed it, it’s not too late. You can watch the replay.

The interactive presentation began with Vice Dean Anjani Jain providing an overview of our program.  He was joined by Wharton Professors David Bell, Peggy Bishop Lane, and Witold Henisz who shared their experiences teaching in our program.  Students and alumni on both coasts then discussed the benefits of the Wharton MBA degree and how they handled the challenge of working while they earned it.

Although we covered a lot of topics during the Webcast, you still might have questions. If so, please contact us at either our San Francisco or Philadelphia Office. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

For alumni of Wharton’s MBA for Executives program who also happen to be students of history, the recent Leadership Experience in Normandy organized by Wharton’s Leadership Ventures and Academy Leadership was the perfect way to combine experiential learning about leadership and World War II. The Leadership Experience - led by retired U.S Army Lt. Colonel Todd Henshaw, director of Wharton’s Executive Leadership Program, Dennis Haley, founder and CEO of Academy Leadership, and author Ed Ruggero – took alumni on a very unique tour of Normandy, focusing on critical leadership lessons for today’s executives.

We asked three of our alumni who went on the trip, Roger Crandall, a 2002 graduate of our East Coast program who is now president and CEO of MassMutual (he will become chairman of the board in December) in Springfield, Mass., Dr. Leslie Shaff, a 2006 graduate of our East Coast Program who is now chief surgical services officer at the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass., and Celine Wei, a 2009 graduate of Wharton | San Francisco who is vice president of business development at Florens Container Services Ltd., to share some of the highlights of what they saw and learned.

Here’s what Roger had to say: “I had just joined the School’s Leadership Advisory Board when I heard about this trip. Not only am I a history buff, but I’m a World War II history buff and had never been to Normandy so this trip was a good fit.

“Starting at Pegasus Bridge, we worked our way from one end of the region to the other, talking about war strategy and tactics and looking at each piece of a battle in bite-size chunks.  And then we turned it around and looked at the German side and compared their leadership to the American command.

“I’m a huge fan of experiential learning so I got a lot out of this trip. It not only reinforced my belief that leadership is an integral part of the business school curriculum, but that the same leadership issues have been around for thousands of years. Leaders have always had to think about whether there is good communication, whether their troops understand their intent, and whether their troops are empowered to make decisions. Those things transcend time.

“While the history lessons were amazing, what really made this a great trip were the people. Other than my mother and sisters who joined me on the trip – we left spouses and kids at home - and a director of Wharton’s EMBA program, I didn’t previously know any of the other members of our group. It turned out that there were about 15 alumni and guests from very diverse age groups and backgrounds.  Todd, Dennis and Ed did a great job of actively involving everyone in robust discussions and there were takeaways for everyone. One of my sisters even found leadership lessons for parenting her teenage girls.

“After you graduate from Wharton, you sometimes lose sight of how powerful it can be to get a group of people together to learn and discuss a common topic of interest. To be able to recapture that on this type of trip was great.”

Leslie Shaff says, “I was interested in this trip because my husband loves history and has always wanted to visit the Normandy beaches so this was a great opportunity for both of us. And based on my experience coming to Philadelphia every other weekend during school, I knew that every detail would be well organized and our time and effort would be spent learning and experiencing rather than worrying about how to get to the next place.

“The five-day trip was wonderful! Starting with dinner at our superb hotel on the first night in Paris to our talks on the beaches, the trip was everything I hoped it would be. In Normandy, one could really imagine what it was like to have landed during D-Day, what people were feeling, and what the generals were thinking. We talked about what they did right, what didn’t work, and why D-Day turned out to be such a crucial event in the war. The experience was educational as well as fun.

“In addition, we spent our evenings at a beautiful chateau in Normandy and had lovely dinners where we talked with everyone in our group. It was a great way to experience the countryside and what happened there with a diverse group of people who have a similar interest in history.

“I would absolutely recommend this type of trip to other alumni. I want to know when and where Wharton will organize the next trip for MBA Exec alumni!”

Celine adds, “When I heard about this trip, I knew I wanted to go. Not only is Wharton known for its Leadership Program, but it was an opportunity to go to France and reconnect with other alumni. And coming from China, I wanted to learn about WWII history from the U.S. and European perspectives so this trip was particularly interesting to me.

“One of the highlights of the trip was the chateau. It was in the countryside in a quiet setting so our group had dinners together more like a family and could really talk about the day’s events. Each evening, we’d have a discussion about what we learned and how that linked to our own organizational experiences.

“Once you graduate, there aren’t that many chances to get back together with a group like this to discuss common topics. Being on this trip reminded you that you belong to the Wharton community, which is a special group. Plus, not too many people have the chance to visit Normandy with experts like Todd, Dennis, and Ed telling you about the history, leading discussions, and teaching leadership lessons – you’d never get all that on another tour.”

We’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on upcoming trips! Thanks to Roger, Leslie, and Celine for sharing their experiences.

For Wharton MBA Exec alumna Maxine Gowen, staying connected with the School is very important. Most recently, the founding president and CEO of Trevena, Inc., a privately held pharmaceutical company located in King of Prussia, Pa., came back to the Philadelphia campus as a judge in the final round of Wharton’s Business Plan Competition. We asked her to talk about her interactions with the School and why she stays involved. Here’s what she said:

Graduation time has arrived and we congratulate our newest Wharton MBA alumni!

Second-year students in Wharton’s West Coast executive MBA program graduated on May 2nd in a ceremony held at Herbst Memorial Theatre in San Francisco.  The featured commencement speaker for the ceremony was Paul Otellini, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intel Corporation. The ceremony was followed by a dinner reception at San Francisco’s City Hall.

When students enter Wharton’s MBA for Executives Program, their partners also are welcomed into the Wharton community. They are invited to participate in school events, join the class at meals, and even to come along on the international trip. While the program is a significant time commitment for the students, many partners find that getting involved in the school is a great way to share the experience. And it’s also a great opportunity to build professional networks and make new friends.

In early January, Wharton offered its first ever course in India: “Innovation and the Indian Health Care Industry.”  This three-day mini-course, held at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, covered the full range of health care issues in India - hospital management, medical tourism, pharmaceuticals, and more.  Nine executive MBA students attended, joining 21 full-time MBA students, and three undergraduates.  The course was directed by Wharton health care professor Lawton Burns, but lectures were given by eleven executives and leaders in Indian healthcare, many of whom have ongoing ties to Wharton.

Dr. Prasad Kilaru was one of three medical doctors in the EMBA program to take the course.  “From a physician’s standpoint, there was really great information on hospitals, non-profits, pharmaceuticals, and more,” he said. “I also really enjoyed the lectures on medical tourism, including the presentation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”  

Rajani Veeramachaneni, a first-year MBA Exec student who runs her own strategy consulting firm claims it was “one of the best academic courses she has ever taken, as it approached the issue from so many angles.”  Veeramachaneni enjoyed not only the lectures on hospital management and medical tourism but the presentations on cutting-edge technologies, including e-Help, mobile health, and wireless medical technology.   “I was impressed by the low-cost structure of India’s healthcare system,” she said, “from which the U.S. can learn a lot.”

Robert Zwolinski, a second-year EMBA student in San Francisco, took the course with the aim of applying his findings to his current job.  As the Director of Operations of a small pharmaceutical company in the Bay Area, Zwolinski wanted to explore the possibility of outsourcing development work – including formulation development, clinical development, and clinical trials.  “The course provided me an excellent opportunity to find out what I need to send work over there,” he said.  “India is not just a low cost option.  India offers many advantages – the education, talent, and intellectual capacity for specific activities - all of these advantages combine to make India a high quality option that can facilitate speed to market for products in development.”

Chris Dickey had a Doctorate in Public Health, but his job as general manager of a health services company in Manhattan wasn’t fulfilling his goal of making a real impact on a large number of people’s lives. To change that, he enrolled in Wharton’s MBA for Executives Program in 2006 where he seized the opportunity to brainstorm with classmates whenever he could about possible business plans. Soon after he graduated, he and a partner had a plan in place to create Healthpoint Services, a market-based approach to meeting the health needs of consumers at the base of the economic pyramid. In addition to providing clean water, the business also provides medical clinics in remote villages that connect patients to doctors via videoconferencing technology and remote diagnostics.

It’s been about 18 months since he graduated so we asked Chris to share some of the highlights of his unique entrepreneurial experiences with us. In addition to sending us a video video from a recent trip to India, here’s what he had to say:

“Poor people in the developing world typically don’t have access to clean water and affordable, high-quality health care. We set out to change that through a village-based unit called a Healthpoint that combines a Reverse Osmosis plant attached to a raw water source with the latest in telemedicine technology, approved drugs, and 65 diagnostic tests (and counting) that cover a range of common illnesses.

My partner, Allen Hammond, and I are convinced that we are among the pioneers of this new market-based approach to meeting the health needs of this vast group of consumers making and spending less than about $3 per day. We believe that a commercial venture focused on delivering high-quality care at an affordable price will create efficiencies, economies of scale, and a profitable, scalable company that will transform health outcomes for millions of people.

We officially launched the first three Healthpoints in India last October to some fanfare – both the Punjab Governor and Finance Minister were there as well as the national media. The politicians were so impressed with the operation that they asked us to build 600 more units in the next three years!

I recently returned from a visit to the Healthpoints, which are in Mallan, Doda, and Kotbhai, and also to our new call center based in Bathinda. I’m delighted to say that the units are all thriving, even after such a short time. The waiting rooms are full, people are lining up with 20 liter jugs to purchase clean water, and the staff is thrilled to be part of a revolutionary effort to provide access to health care for rural villagers.

During that trip, I watched a follow-up visit to the Healthpoint in Mallan by a woman who had been treated by us for joint pain a week before. She came to review her progress on the prescribed medicines and to get further instructions. She appeared to be very content with her treatment, which cost her 30 rupees (about $0.65) plus the cost of the medicines. Her doctor, too, was happy with the outcome. The fact that the doctor and patient were looking at one another through video screens seemed not to register to either of them.

The next morning, we drove to Doda, a village of about 1,500 families, nearly all of whom make a living from the vast farmland that surrounds it. When we arrived at the Healthpoint, several men were packing their 20 liter jugs full of water (which cost them 2 rupees) on the backs of their bicycles. One of the amazing aspects of this company is that getting the water has become a man’s job in these towns, replacing a traditional woman’s chore. We think it’s because the Healthpoints are also high tech gathering places and getting the water is now a cool thing to do for the men!

Inside the Healthpoint, I joined a consultation in progress. A farm worker was suffering from pains in his shoulder and side. He had been to the local government clinic where he was given vitamins and a pain killer without any real discussion. Our clinical assistant took the man’s blood pressure, temperature, pulse, and weight, carefully entering it into his electronic medical record. During the examination, our doctor was present via a large screen monitor and was asking lots of questions. It turns out that the patient had experienced several episodes during his life that appeared to be epileptic seizures. The doctor ruled out an immediate threat to the man’s health and then asked whether the patient could afford 500 rupees to get an EEG in Bathinda to check for epilepsy. The patient said yes, he had saved enough over the past year to cover the expense.

Absent a referral by our doctor, who is known in Bathinda, that EEG might have cost the worker several thousand rupees, a sum that he would have to borrow from a local loan shark, thereby ensuring that neither he nor his young family would ever escape the economic and health consequences of his illness.

I saw several other patient visits that day, not only in Doda, but also in Mallan and Kotbhai, and I was impressed by the warmth and care provided by our staff and also by patients’ ease in being seen by a doctor on TV. It’s incredible that most of these individuals have never seen a real doctor before and now they interact with one as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. The video and sound quality is so high, the lighting is so good, and the care with which the employees treat these poor patients is so genuine that the exchange of information is excellent. I’d gladly trade some of my experiences with the medical system in New York for ones like this.

When I think back on all those hours spent at Wharton discussing business ideas that would  make a difference, we owe a significant debt of gratitude to my Wharton EMBA colleagues, including Sarabjit Singh, Vikas Khurana, Mike Parker, and Rittik Chakrabarti.  I really believe that there is a tremendous demand for services like ours, not just in Punjab but in many other Indian states and other developing countries.”

Thanks to Chris for sharing those highlights and good luck to Healthpoint Services in its future growth!

To learn more about Healthpoint Services, contact Chris Dickey at: chris.dickey@e-healthpoint.net

Hands-on learning is nothing new for Wharton EMBA students. After all, they go right back to their offices after weekends in the classroom to apply what they have learned. And they have ample opportunities for hands-on learning outside of work through International Seminars, the Global Consulting Practicum and Wharton’s Leadership Ventures to name a few.

Wharton l San Francisco students now have another option via the School’s Nonprofit Board Leadership Program (NPBLP) , which selects and trains Wharton MBA students to serve on the boards of directors of nonprofit organizations for one year using their high-level knowledge of areas such as accounting, finance, and marketing. Launched in 2005 to match Wharton MBA students in the Philadelphia area with nonprofit organizations, the NPBLP expanded this year to San Francisco.

“It was important to bring the program to Wharton|San Francisco to provide more leadership opportunities for students, to reach out to the local community, and to support local nonprofits by providing them with world-class business management knowledge,” says second-year EMBA student Caspar Horne, president of Provisi Experts in Santa Clara, CA, who helped establish the West Coast NPBLP program.

Horne says he was stunned by the enthusiastic responses from nonprofits in the San Francisco and Bay Area. In fact, there were more nonprofits interested in the program than available students so he hopes to expand the program next year.

While serving on a nonprofit board may sound like a lot to balance on top of work, family, and class commitments, Horne says it’s not as bad as it sounds. “It’s about  eight to 10 hours a month including the monthly board meetings and gives students a much richer experience during the Wharton MBA for Executives program because it’s not just reading a case and making decisions on paper. These are real organizations with real challenges,” he says.

Horne adds that since EMBA students tend to be farther along in their careers, many are interested in giving back through community leadership. “This program helps students prepare to take on those roles by working on causes they are passionate about. And it’s a great way to network beyond the student body!” he says.

Wharton|San Francisco second-year Executive MBA student Anand Hariharan, a manager at Cisco Systems in San Jose, was recently matched through the program to serve on the board of One Million Lights, a nonprofit seeking to distribute one million environmentally friendly, rechargeable solar lights to people around the world. “A deeper understanding of social entrepreneurship coupled with a goal of better education and quality of life for children and the under-privileged is the ultimate opportunity,” he says.
Other nonprofits participating in the Wharton|San Francisco NPBLP include the YMCA, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Junior Achievement, Education through Music, and Breath California.

Get more information on Wharton’s NPBLP.

When Wharton EMBA alumna Susan Sotiropoulos, AP marketing manager for DuPont Chemicals in Shanghai, had a business trip to the U.S. last month, she made sure to arrange her schedule so she could attend Wharton’s annual Leadership Conference as well. Having already attended the event twice before, she knew the speakers would discuss topics very relevant to her own career.

This time, Wharton Prof. Harbir Singh's presentation about how India’s top business leaders are revolutionizing management was of particular interest. “I work very closely with our team in India, and am hopeful that the additional insight from his talk will allow me to create further value in our work together,” she says.

Sotiropoulos, who graduated from Wharton in 2005, also was very interested in Global Vice Chair of Public Policy, Sustainability, and Stakeholder Engagement at Ernst & Young Beth Brook’s talk about the need for inclusive leadership in turbulent times. “While this is something we as leaders understand, very few of us employ systematic means to ensure we utilize this form of inclusive leadership to its potential,” she says. “However, this type of engagement will be necessary for my company’s future success in China.”

The annual Wharton event, says Sotiropoulos, is well worth attending not only because it exposes her to leadership talent that only top schools can attract, but also because it provides a chance to reconnect with colleagues both within and outside of the Wharton community. “I have asked colleagues to join me for this conference so I can reconnect with individuals I work with in a different manner than our regular interactions allow,” she explains.

Mark Turner, who graduated from Wharton’s EMBA program in 2001 and is the president and CEO of WSFS Financial Corp. in Wilmington, Del., agrees that events like the Leadership Conference are great opportunities for networking. “Since I’ve graduated, I’ve come back four times for this conference. In some cases, my classmates and I use it as an opportunity to get together and have dinner afterward, but it’s also a chance to get to know other alumni and business leaders because it is so well attended,” he says.

And it’s a “booster shot” in terms of leadership ideas and inspiration, which are critical these days to be an effective leader, he says. “You need to keep current with what others are doing and I come away from these events energized.”

Of particular interest to Turner at this year’s conference was Peter Guber’s talk about story telling. Turner says that the chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group did a great job speaking about how to motivate other people to support your ideas and reinforcing the concept of authentic leadership.

“Programs at Wharton like the Leadership Conference add significantly to the value of my degree in terms of reconnecting with people, making new connections, and providing continuing education – I’ve always been a proponent of lifelong learning,” he adds.