News Releases

News & Notes

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

By Toni Dixon
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KU Business student awarded Kauffman Foundation Fellowship

Shane Moser, a third-year Ph.D. student at the KU School of Business, was awarded a $20,000 Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship from The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo. The foundation received over 100 proposals for these fellowships, and Shane was one of only 16 award recipients.

Shane has undergraduate degrees in business administration and mathematics, and masters' degrees in accounting and statistics - all from KU. Shane's work experience includes time spent at Caterpillar, Deloitte and Sprint.

"The Kauffman fellowship allows me time to work on my dissertation, and could provide the money I need to present my dissertation at various conferences around the country," said Shane.

His dissertation, "Does Diversity Among Co-Investing Venture Capital Firms Add Value for Entrepreneurial Companies?" involves researching the complementarities between venture capital firms that invest in the same high-tech start-up. School of Business faculty members George Bittlingmayer and Chris Anderson oversaw Shane's proposal submission.

Shane is among elite company with this fellowship, with other recipients hailing from such prestigious institutions as Harvard, Stanford, Wisconsin-Madison, MIT, University of Chicago, Cornell and Carnegie Mellon.

MBA student gains high stakes, hands-on experience at Bayer Case Competition

MBA student Justin Lueger shares his first-hand experience at the recent Bayer Case Competition held for first-year KU MBA students at the North America Headquarters for Bayer Animal Health:

"There we were - standing in front of five of the highest paid, most intelligent and most senior executives of Bayer Animal Health, about to deliver what, in theory, should be a top-shelf business presentationÉ

"ÉThat's what made our situation so precarious. This wasn't a known group of faculty who might ask predictable questions. Oh no, these judges wouldn't hesitate for a second to slam our ideas, call us out on a lame recommendation, or ask pointed questions about our analysis. We had to be at the top of our game."

Justin received the Case Competition Award for Best Presenter. Read more about his experiences at the 2007 Bayer Case Competition.

XPlore Program sends Master of Accounting students on the road

Each fall, the KU School of Business takes a group of selected accounting students on the road to meet with firms and alumni in major cities across the nation. So far this academic year, the XPlore program has traveled to New York, Chicago, Denver and Dallas. KU students have received 12 internship offers and five full-time job offers from companies they visited, including Deloitte & Touche, KPMG and Ernst & Young.

The Xplore program provides opportunities for accounting students to explore career paths outside the Kansas City area. During the action-packed four-day weekend, students meet with four or five recruiters at public accounting firms and have time to explore their own appointments within the city.

The XPlore program has been a hit with students and firms alike. Recently, the Association to Advance College Schools of Business (AACSB) review team visited the School of Business for re-accreditation purposes. The team applauded the XPlore program, recognizing it as an AACSB best practice in the accounting and informatio...


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