Holiday Wishes From Dean Reinemund

Dear Schools of Business Students,

It is a great time for reflection as we come to the end of this calendar year and celebrate the holiday season. I am grateful that you have chosen to invest in a Wake Forest education. I hope that you are already realizing the benefits of your investment and that you use your vacation time to go back and think about your goals, especially as they relate to your career, and the actions you will take to attain them.

Take a few minutes to sit back and reflect on what you’ve learned in the classroom and what you’ve learned about yourself. Pressure-test the assumptions you have made regarding what you want to do with your life. Utilize resources from family and friends and others you may meet during your break. I hope you will come back with a renewed sense of purpose and fire about what you would like to accomplish and a road map on how you will get there.

Most of all make sure to also enjoy the time with your family and friends during this holiday. I wish all of you and your families, the very best during this Holiday Season and hope you have a restful, relaxing and safe winter break.

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Steve

Lovefeast Lures 2000+ to Wake Forest Campus

Following a tradition started by a student in 1965, more than 2,000 people gathered for the annual Christmas Lovefeast and Candlelight Service in Wait Chapel Sunday night.

Students taking a break from studying for exams joined faculty, staff, alumni and community members to hear the Handbell Choir, the Flute Choir, the Concert Choir and a Moravian band.

Chaplain Tim Auman led the service, which featured a message by Gail R. O’Day, dean of the School of Divinity.

O’Day’s sermon focused on peace and the potential for unity, “You are sitting together row upon row, the powerful and the vulnerable, the triumphant and the struggling, the ‘I can’t make ends meet’ and the ‘I got it made,’ the upbeat and the downtrodden, the timid and the brave, friend and foe. One community…”

Ninety gallons of coffee and 175 dozen yeast buns were served. As candlelight filled the chapel toward the end of the service, the crowd sang, “Joy to the World” and the traditional Moravian carol “Morning Star.”

The Christmas Lovefeast and Candlelight Service is a custom that originated in Europe in 1747. The first lovefeast in North Carolina was held on the evening of the arrival of the Moravians at Bethabara in 1753.

By Cheryl Walker ('88), Office of Communications and External Relations

Fueled By Competition

Geoff Smith is a self described sports junkie. He lives and breathes sports. If he is not on a ski slope, you will most likely find him at a NASCAR track. He is fueled by competition, and has made a career out of his personal passion.

Today, Smith is the president of Roush Fenway Racing. The Wake Forest University Schools of Business Sports Management Club welcomed him to campus to share his personal story and offer advice to students interested in pursuing sports management careers.

Smith earned his law degree from Wayne State University and worked in private practice in Detroit, eventually crossing paths with up- and-coming NASCAR race team owner, Jack Roush. In 1990, Smith accepted an offer to manage the business operations of Roush Racing and serve as general counsel to the engineering service conglomerate, Roush Industries.

By 1997, he was promoted to the position of president and transferred from Michigan to North Carolina. Smith was instrumental in expanding Roush Racing to operate multiple teams. He negotiated the sale of half of Roush Racing to New England Sports Ventures, owners of the Boston Red Sox. The business was renamed Roush Fenway Racing in 2007.

“It’s one of these businesses you need to leap into. It’s an event marketing business. You need to be at the events and travel 29 to 38 weeks a year,” he said. But Smith doesn’t mind the schedule. “I do it because I love the competition. There aren’t many places where you can plan and get graded every week on how you do.”

Smith said unlike other professional sports, NASCAR is a sanctioning body owned by a family and teams need to pay to compete and use mandated products and services. The price to compete is high, and Smith said the economy has made it more difficult to keep a team going. “We are a microcosm of what is going on in America. Our sport has been devastated by the recession. We don’t have new sponsors coming on board and the ones we have our staying, but cutting back.” He said 70% of the Roush Fenway Racing revenue comes from sponsors. Auto manufacturers and prize money make up the additional revenue sources.

Ben Ralston (MBA ’11), president of the WFUSB Sports Management Club, asked how NASCAR teams translate value of what is given to a sponsor. Smith said, “Your value is strictly what one person would pay for. They do not care what our costs are.”

Sponsorships have also been impacted by political pressure, according to Smith. He pointed to how banks are getting chastised for spending money on marketing through sports sponsorships and said that corporate hospitality events are getting scaled back or eliminated.

Despite tough times, there are a variety of sports management career opportunities. Smith pointed to financial management, business development, operations, and communications. He said activities can include everything from selecting players and deciding pay to licensing merchandise and selling sponsorship packages.

However, Smith acknowledged that getting a foot in the door is not easy. He said being a player or former player, coach, or team owner are common avenues and “nepotism is big in pro sports everywhere, much more pervasively in corporate America.” Smith recommended doing business with a sports team while working in an outside agency or firm as a good way to open doors. “You can get noticed at an account services level jus by your enthusiasm and attention to detail.”

The newly formed WFUSB Sports Management Club works closely with the University Athletics Department to expose business students to the skills needed to build a career in modern day sports management and sports marketing. For more information, contact Ben Ralston at ben.ralston@mba.wfu.edu or associate athletic director Barry Faircloth at fairclbw@wfu.edu.

CFA Review Scholarship to Honor Alum’s Memory

Becker Professional Education CFA Review is honoring the memory of Wake Forest University Schools of Business student Brent A. Rosenberg (09’, MA ’10) with a full scholarship for its Level 1 CFA Review.  The scholarship will be awarded annually on December 15 to a current Wake Forest student sitting for the June Level I CFA Exam.

The Brent A. Rosenberg Becker CFA Review Scholarship will be awarded based on student excellence and financial need.

To apply for the scholarship, applicants should provide a written statement of 250 words or less describing why you should be considered for the scholarship.  Recommended information includes contributions to Wake Forest University, future career goals, your decision to pursue the CFA Charter, and why purchasing the review would be a financial burden.

Submit application to Prof. Jarrell (Kirby 109) at jarrelsl@wfu.edu by Dec. 8.

A Refuge for Exam Week

Students during exam week drink coffee — a lot of coffee. About 2,000 cups have been ordered to sustain students through finals week as part of Wake the Library.

This year, the library is asking students to bring their own reusable mug to support the university’s sustainability initiatives. Cups, for those who forgot to bring one, will be available upon request at the Circulation desk.There is no limit to refills.

In addition to the free coffee, the library provides food each night at midnight. “For the first Wake the Library event in spring of 2006, food was an afterthought managed by staff members, but since then, food has become an essential component of the week-long activities,” says Wanda Brown, associate dean of the library. “The students are very appreciative.”

Water and fruit, which are available every night of finals week, are coupled with selections of pizza, subs, chicken sandwiches and burritos. Midnight snack menus will be posted on the Z. Smith Reynolds Library Facebook page each day.

At 11:45 pm, the queue begins forming for evening snacks. This year, students can win one of five “Golden Tickets” using Gowalla — a location-based social networking application compatible with most Smartphones and the iPad — to earn the right to skip to the head of the snack line.

On a graffiti wall in the library atrium, students can use paint and brushes to draw pictures or write messages on a display board. Monday through Friday, a graffiti video station will be open for students to share their thoughts and send video messages to friends and family. “Much like the existing graffiti board, the video station aims to provide a constructive and fun outlet for students to express themselves during exam week,” says Wake Forest Fellow Gretchen Edwards.

The library is also accepting non-expired, unopened canned goods as payment for overdue book fines. Food will be donated to Campus Kitchen to provide groceries for those in need during the holiday season.

The Z. Smith Reynolds library will remain open 24 hours from Friday, Dec. 3 through Saturday, Dec. 11 — closing at 5 pm when the last exam is taken and winter break officially begins. The serving of food at midnight begins on Sunday, Dec. 5.

By Kim McGrath - Office of Communications and External Relations

Targacept to Sponsor Biotech Conference Case

The 2nd annual Wake Forest MBA Biotechnology Conference and Case Competition will be held Feb. 18-19, 2011, in Winston-Salem on the campus of Wake Forest University.

The Wake Forest MBA Biotechnology Conference will bring together some of the brightest and most creative minds from outstanding MBA and graduate programs in the region, as well as guests and judges from various companies related to the industry.

Targacept will be this year's case competition sponsor. Targacept  is a biopharmaceutical company with a therapeutic focus on central nervous system diseases and disorders and was recently named one of The Scientist magazine's "Best Places to Work in Industry". The company has established strategic alliances with AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline for the results of the company's research with neuronal nicotinic receptors (NNRs). Competing teams will have the opportunity to offer real world solutions to a current business problem Targacept is facing.       

In addition to the case competition, the conference includes panel discussions with some of the industry's leaders, a look into the future of biotechnology through a panel discussion with industry leaders and a tour of Targacept's advanced facilities.

Click here for a recap of last year's conference. If you have any questions or would like additional information on the event, please contact healthcareclub@mba.wfu.edu.

Showing the Love: 2010 Lovefeast

Ninety gallons of traditional Moravian blend coffee; 175 dozen yeast buns with nutmeg, cinnamon and orange flavoring; 2,200 beeswax candles wrapped with red ribbon; and 900 luminaries: the ingredients are in place for Wake Forest’s traditional Christmas Lovefeast and Candlelight Service.

The 46th annual lovefeast — the largest single lovefeast in North America — will be held Sunday, Dec. 5, at 8 pm in Wait Chapel. The service is free and open to the public.

Gayle Hartgrove, administrative assistant in the Chaplain’s Office, has coordinated the service since 1996, ordering the coffee and buns and recruiting about 60 faculty, staff and students to serve as “dieners” (German for servers) to pass out the coffee and buns and light the candles.

“The lighting of the candles is my favorite part,” she said. “All of the lights go out in the chapel right before our candle lighters begin row by row lighting the candles. The chapel is in complete silence. It truly is such a beautiful and moving sight.”

The candles are provided each year by the Mary Ann Fogle Service League from Home Moravian Church. The buns are made by Mrs. Pumpkin’s bakery in Winston-Salem, and Aramark provides the coffee. Members of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity place the luminaries that encircle Hearn Plaza.

The service will include a message by Gail R. O’Day, dean of the School of Divinity. O’Day, who was named dean last April, was formerly senior associate dean at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. University Chaplain Tim Auman will lead the service.

A number of student groups will perform, including the Wake Forest Concert Choir, conduced by Brian Gorelick, associate professor of music; the hand bell choir, conduced by senior Beth Ann Williams; the flute choir, conducted by Kathryn Levy, lecturer in music; and the divinity school choir, conducted by Laura Jane Kist. The Messiah Moravian Church Band, directed by Robah Ogburn, will also perform.

University organist Don Armitage and guest harpist Kerry Anne Conner-Briggs (’87) will also provide music. Carillonneur Lauren Bradley (’05) and guest carillonneurs Ray Ebert (’60) and senior Kathryn Rohrer will play the Janet Jeffrey Carlile Harris Carillon.

Those attending the service may make monetary contributions to the Chaplain’s Emergency Fund, which supports students and staff in financial need. For more information on the service, call (336) 758-5210.

~ Kerry M. King (’85), Office of Communications and External Relations